lit*chick

Friday Finished

    (from our stairs)

• Keeper and Kid - getting ready to share the love fest on the feed
• the mouse I discovered sprinting across the family room at 3am on Thursday

I think that's enough don't you?

The End.

two oh oh

It's been a while since i exercised my gift of enabling, so to celebrate my 200th post I thought I'd point out some things I currently enjoy:

ever since i saw a link to fishs eddy i've been obsessing over these - quite frankly i'd wallpaper my house in graph & notebook paper if i could...and then let people write on it.

and good grief, i don't need yet another address book, unless it's this one by Lotta Jansdotter

i love me some labels: every jot and tittle, hhayden, elles studio (great gift -they have pink too)

come to my neighborhood pillow by Olive - I'm on my way.

someday, i will carry a clutch again (from oktak)    

i have a thing for coral, and here is some lovely glass coral that will never live in my house, but it's not as pricey as I expected...vignette is extra

i never thought i'd see the day that i get excited over lotions and potions. but lush changed it all...and i smell like cinnamon & cloves even though it's just on my feet, crazy right?

since we're on the subject of feet these shoosies from old navy are fun and cheap enough for me to throw them out after i ruin them with my cinnamon feet.

i've had my eye on this necklace for a while, and now it's easter, so it's time to get one from tilly bloom:

happify has a new t shirt design that is the closest i'm every going to get to an affordable library card catalog. this is a medium, which i may have worn in 5th grade, but i'm sure she'd make whatever size you like, she's cool like that.

Finally, what post would be complete with out some books?

This is one in a series from the New York Review Children's Collection - classics repackaged and of course i want them all.   

And if you've made it this far, you can let me know my leaving me a comment. The reward - a giveaway. The April online book club selection The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle could be yours.

The End.

watch out for the flood

Updated the feed with comments from the last four books.

Started Keeper and Kid, should be finished tonight.

Friendly bookclub reminder - you are free to comment on any of the titles at any time. Don't forget to check back to see if there are additional comments or questions. AND if you haven't started The Book Thief, get going. :)

I'm lining up May-July online bookclub picks. And I'll let you know as soon as I finalize the titles so you can get a headstart. I met some readers yesterday, good times. I look forward to another dc metro lit chick gathering soon.

The End.

unbudgeable nerd

That would be me this weekend. I finished four books. Yes I know, I was only reading one. And when I finished The Kept Man, I picked up Absolution, then Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and finally They Did It With Love - my new favorite. More on that later.

A big THANKS to Vera for sending me happy mail - one of her handmade journals. I love it and am eager to use it, but I'm going to stare at it a little longer first.

And I'm eagerly awaiting my first review copy. Edward Hardy is sending me his new book Keeper and Kid -totally looks like my kind of book - boy characters and all that. Just take a gander at the cover and tell me it doesn't look good.

I am of two distinct feelings on the whole thing.

1. I want to like it, really I do. I want to like everything I read. Who wants to waste time reading junk? But I'm a bit nervous, but not too nervous that I won't tell the truth. Oh the pressure.

2. I'm giddy. Getting a free book is like being 14 and The Edge hands me a guitar pick. Oh wait, that would still be exciting. For me authors are like rockstars. And I am a shameless groupie. Hence free books are good.

What are your thoughts?

The End.

dwindling

My library pile is finally a bit more manageable. Unfortunately, I had to return the last 2 books without writing down my favorite passages. And there was a lot of good writing.

I'm currently only reading one book - The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg.

Supposed to get snow here so I'm off to get provisions. This time, no more books!

Comments for Someone Knows My Name are on the feed.

The End.

more book art

I know I've posted about 20x200 before, but this week's selection is:

  Darkness Moves by Wendy Heldman

I can't explain why I like this print, because I don't see disaster, I just see a mess. Like froufrou sings -there's beauty in the breakdown. Okay, analyze that. Anyhow, I like it. And I can't believe it's a painting because it looks like a photo, which I also like. 

So, if you are interested, you can subscribe to the 20x200 mailing list. It gives you an opportunity to purchase affordable art, and preview selections before they are posted. Weekly art in the inbox.

The End.

what do you do?

Our good blogging friend Miss Joni just finished The Zookeeper's Wife. And she was so inspired by it she created this:

Please visit her blog to see more pictures of this piece and more about the book. Definitely adding this book to my list.

What do you do when you are inspired by a book?

The End.

more good stuff

If any of the Scrapbowl ladies are reading, please email me any pics you took of our weekend. Mine didn't turn out so well. Either because I dropped my camera (twice) or I was laughing too hard, or both.

Here is what my irl bookclub is reading:

• March - Great Gatsby
• April - The Double Bind
• May - These Is My Words
• June - Interred with Their Bones
• July - The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime
• August - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• September - The Good Earth
• October -  The Attack
• November - my pick and I haven't decided yet...do you know how many books I'll read before August? So I'm giving myself a little breathing room.

Very exciting. Lots of new members and lively discussions ahead.

Later today, updating the feed with my purchased booklist and comments on The Senator's Wife.

The End.

it's all good stuff

The last 72 hours have been so full of goodness, I almost wish I could spread the loveliness out over the next few days. I'm going to need some lovely on Thursday I think.

So here's the recap:

SCRAPBOWL:

Got to hang out with Vee, Morgan, Katie, Nicole, Mary Kate, Natalie, ShellyB, and Kristina. I also met Colleen, Aimee, and Amber. All wonderfully different women, brought together by this paper thing we do. And I loved getting to know them and watch them make stuff. Be on the lookout for ShellyB's mad photo skills. For real.

I also loved that we could watch theater movies in our hotel room, so on Friday night 12 girls crammed in our room to watch Juno. And Vee took me to Lush, and I saw what the fuss was about. I'm not a bath products girl, but Lush looks like a girly farmers' market and smells like a one too. And I can wear me some green veggies. :) Seriously, it was cool and now, for just a moment, I'm hip.

Okay, I'm back. Back to my Kiehls and witch hazel.

Margie's class - My Fab Life - was, well FAB. All kinds of good Making Memories stuff, and if you love MM then you love Margie. It doesn't hurt that she is hil-arious. In the midst of it, I caught up with an old high school friend I haven't seen in about 20 years, a marvelous surprise. And we made a mini out of manilla folders which was simple and brilliant.

Kristina's Inspire Me class was laid back and fun. It was cool to see how everyone creates and all the different things we're inspired by. I'm pretty sure mine will be filled with pictures of books and coffee, and I'm excited to add my various bits & pieces collected from catalogs and magazines and etsy.

I didn't finish either project in class (of course), because I was looking at other people's stuff and I didn't bring the right pictures. But I will still post what I have in the interest of full disclosure.

INTERMISSION:

Something that I found in my email when I got home made me happy -  from keep calm. That's gonna look good in my breakfast area.

AT HOME:

Yesterday we visited our new nephew, Conlan. He is just the sweetest. And Caleb was so into holding him, I could have wept. Miji and I are always talking about what a good husband and dad he'll be, and that's no joke. He kept asking to hold the baby and would use the hand sanitizer each time. So basically just C & me holding the babe for hours. Pure heaven. So if you have a baby you'd like to have held, we're here for you.

Today he drew small pictures of everyone holding baby Conlan. And KWB has taken to making a little family recipe scrapbook, which is really going to help me out. But if I get food on it, I'm going to be in big trouble. He got Uncle Bill's specialties last night, mine this morning and he's after Karl tonight for the tacos. The Owen is still exercising control of his bladder not for good, but for evil. As in, he lies about going on the potty, and produces a load of laundry a day from all the wardrobe changes. But, he stays dry all night, go figure.

The kids are home today,and joy of joys are outside. They are only allowed indoors to use the bathroom or get some food & drink. I'm alternating dishes & laundry with finishing my SCRAPBOWL projects.

AND I have my first bookclub meeting of the 2008 at B&N. Whew.

I finished The Senator's Wife before I left (but not much else from the to-do list). Please read it so we can email back and forth. It may be an online book club pick later this year....but I'm anxious to talk about it now.

And I've started Someone Knows My Name,. It is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. About the journey of an African girl in the late 1700s from her village to a slave ship, to South Carolina and more. I'll be putting those up on the feed this week so stick around.

And if you haven't answered The Time Traveler's Wife questions, no worries. They are still there. I'm going to check in over there now.

The End.

Epilogue:

If you are wondering how it is possible to go away for the weekend, read books, and have 3 kid with zero impact. I certainly don't know what to tell you.

For observe, my kitchen:
 

Preparations

are underway for me to go to Scrapbowl this weekend. Looking forward to hanging with Vee and the other roomies, meeting Natalie, taking classes with Kristina and Margie, and just getting away.

What I need to get done before I leave:

• pack my scrappy stuff (easier said than done, i'm not organized at all and can't stand that I'll overpack, but I can't help it)
• pack my clothes
• put away 3 baskets of laundry
• return overdue book to the library (The Senator's Wife)
• finish The Senator's Wife (50 pages to go - I must finish!!!!)
• shower
• stop by Trader Joe's so I can make sure the dudes have food
• pick up the boys at school
• go to the bank
• pick up my Rx
• put together the 5 transformers in my lap so I can shower in peace
• charge my phone
• make taco soup to freeze so the meat doesn't spoil while I'm away

I'm not complaining, just sayin'...it's a list, i have 4 hours left, and it's not pretty. Wish me luck.

The End.