Wonderful Weekend

Happy 4th! It's been a great weekend - and it's not over yet. I finished reading two great books, made some cards, took a hike and enjoyed the outdoors, watched the Tour d'France, and there is still food, friends and fireworks yet to come.

The first book I finished was Irene Nemirovsky's All Our Worldly Goods: A Novel of Love Between the Wars. I was very glad to receive and ARC of this. I didn't like her Suite Francaise which was so popular several years ago, so I probably wouldn't have picked up this book on my own. Set in France, it is the story of Pierre and Agnes and their families starting before WWI and ending during WWII. All of the characters were so compelling that I had to keep reading to find out what would happen to them. This is a book that I will recommend to everyone.

The second book I finished yesterday. We drove up to Dark Mountain so Tim and some of his friends could ride. I took my lawn chair and sat in the shade of a tree at the ranger station and read. They finished their ride just as I finished my book. I was supposed to have finished Melissa Senate's The Love Goddess' Cooking School last week for the Manic Mommies Book Club, but I couldn't get it done in time. At first it was slow reading and very predictable. Holly's life has fallen apart so she visits her grandmother on Blue Crab Island, Maine. Her grandmother dies and leaves Holly her cooking school. Holly's first class all bring their problems with them. But then the book got much better as Holly and her students help each other learn how to deal with their problems. None of it seemed contrived like several other books I've read with similar plots. Senate did a fabulous job.

So today, I don't know what book to pick up next. So I made a few cards for my stash. Butterflies and bling, what can be better to send birthday wishes? I had the Riding Hood Red card bases laying around unused from last year's Christmas cards, so I started with them. I copied the design from the new SU catalog, but used what I had. The newsprint designer paper is SU, and the butterflies are punch from old SU designer paper that I had that needed to be used up. The birthday greeting is from Birthday Whimsy, and punched out. I did add a couple of dots of bling to the greeting. It was a quick card to whip up.

The Pig Did It

How can you pass up a book with a title like that? And the best part, it's the first in a trilogy. I received my copy as an EPub from Netgalley, and I read it on my Nook. I was supposed to read and review it for St. Patrick's Day, but life got in the way. The book is so Irish, you don't need St. Patrick's Day to get the mood. The characters are so wonderful that you'll want to go down to the pub with them. Aaron has come to Ireland to contemplate is lost love, Aunt Kitty rewrites classic novels for a living, and the pig provides humour throughout. The Irish magical realism of old tales sort of reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen's NC mountain stories. Now I must go find copies of the next two books so I can find out what happens to the pig.

National Pancake Day

March 1st was National Pancake Day and we celebrated by having pancakes for dinner. Tim makes the best pancakes and he always uses vanilla and cinnamon as his secret ingredients. I didn't take pictures this year, but here is a scrapbook page from National Pancake Day 2009. What's more fun than having pancakes for breakfast?



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Bookseller's Best Award

This past spring I had the opportunity to be a judge for the 2010 Booksellers Best Award, sponsored by Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America. I read four books from the Long Historical category; If He's Sinful by Hannah Howell, All He Desires by Anthea Lawson, Darcy's Passion and Darcy's Temptation by Regina Jeffers. The winner of the Best Long Historical category was Hannah Howell's If He's Wicked. The winning book is from the same series as the one I had read. I'm happy to have found a new author, and have now read all three from this series, including If He's Wild. I did enjoy all four books that I read, so if you are looking for a good romance novel I can recommend any of them.

I'm Back!

I've been gone for awhile, but I'm back now. I've got lots to share with you - some scrapbooking, some reading, and some new cats.

I'll start today with a card that I made recently. I love how elegant it turned out. Tim's Mom, Sue, died in August and I made these thank you cards for all the wonderful support we received from our friends, family and co-workers. It's been hard for Tim, but he has been awed by all of the thoughts and prayers - so thank you.

The card base is a Kraft, layered with Pumpkin Pie, and Naturals Ivory cut with the Top Note die. Sue loved hummingbirds, so the Elements of Style SU stamp sent was perfect stamped in Soft Suede. I added a Bashful Blue scallop and satin ribbon for contrast and accent.

A Day at the Races

On Saturday Tim raced the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek up in Wilksboro, and I went along as pit crew. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I lounged around under the pop up tent - no sunburn Mom. He had a decent race for his first one of the season.

As I was waiting for Tim to finish his laps, I read. I was able to start and finish The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey. It was a fabulous book. I just had to keep turning the pages. I'm going to discuss it with the Manic Mommies Book Club and the author on April 21.

Pit crews don't just get to read during the race. My responsibility was to feed Tim as he came in for his laps. I made cookies (not from scratch), egg salad and a wonderful Waldorf Salad that you must try. I found the recipe on Never Enough Time. A chopped apple, chopped celery, walnuts and cranberries with a little mayo to hold it all together. YUM.

Just a perfect day spent outside together - each of us doing what we enjoy. We both came home dirty and tired.

The Saga of the Aprons

On Saturday I got to spend the day scrapping. I had a wonderful day with my friends, but I didn't get much in the way of scrapping done. I did spend most of the day on this layout - The Saga of the Aprons. One of the challenges on SCS recently was to use fabric on a layout, so you'll see some fabric ruffles on each page that use the same fabric as the aprons.

The base of the layout is SU Very Vanilla. The center piece is Bermuda Bay, the photos are mounted on Real Red and the journaling box and title are on Soft Sky. I used the new SU flower punch for the accent flowers and also used Regal Rose paper, and I added a Basic Black center to some of the flowers to pull the black from the fabric. Tucked in behind the first page are the adorable thank you letters my niece and nephew sent me. They are accessible with Soft Sky tabs that I punched with the SU tab punch. The two pieces of pattern paper are from My Mind's Eye Sun Kissed "Only Smiles" Flower Girl Paper. Around the edges of each page I stamped a zigzag stitch in black with a stamp from the Hero Arts Ribbons set. The title is a combination of handwriting and stamping on a couple of K & Company Wild Saffron die cut tags, and a chipboard letter A.

The journaling reads: In 2008 I found this pretty fabric and apron pattern and had plans to make aprons for the girls and their American Girls dolls, and some fun John Deere fabric for Matthew. But I forgot that I really don't sew. So the aprons never got made. So for 2009 I sent everything to my friend Diana M. in New Hampshire and she made beautiful aprons and a sweet little bear for Matthew. Matthew and Hannah wrote sweet thank you notes.