Birthday Books

Last month was my birthday and my husband, as usual, had no idea what to buy. I mentioned that I had a wish list on Amazon and lo and behold my wishes came true.

I am only half way through looking at all the pictures.

Weekend Recap...and a sneak peek

Did you all have a good weekend? Lots of diverse things going on here...

Charlotte and I went to a "snowman party" at our local children's bookstore, Petunia's Place. We listened to books about snowmen (my favorite--highly recommended), played games, sang songs, decorated marshmallow crispy treat shaped like a snowman...Such a fabulous bookstore. Not such a good picture...

Speaking of books, somehow I landed on this set of flickr photos, Book of Art. Isn't this fabulous? I definitely want one of these:

Mark did a lot of cooking yesterday--getting ready for Super Bowl. Yum.

And I'm not sure quite how this happened. I made a seemingly innocent comment to Aaron about reading his running magazine, and the next thing I knew, an app for this program was on my iPhone and I had a new set of running shoes.

Here's a sneak peek. Isn't this pretty?

A pile of orange selvages turned into this. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on how to make selvage spool blocks. Any interest?

Scrambled States of...

....mind? Yeah, sometimes. But this time the title is about a book. More about it later.

Every year, in honor of our first grandchild Caleb's brief life, we (along with many other family and friends) buy a book to add to his library, shared by Charlotte and Levi.

This year, we purchased a book that came highly recommended by my friend, Maggie, who has a 4 1/2-year-old grandson, Tyler, an avid booklover. The book was "Do Unto Otters," a book about manners.

Laurie Keller is my new favorite children's author. This book is really clever and teaches a good lesson on the Golden Rule with the cutest illustrations. On the cover of the book it says "From the author of 'The Scrambled States of America.'" Doesn't that sound intriguing? I thought so too.

So at Barnes and Noble today, I checked it out.

This book will stay at Grandpa and Grandma's house. It is the most amusing book about the state of Kansas waking up one morning feeling quite unhappy. Nebraska (a very kind state) wonders what is wrong. "I don't know," moaned Kansas. I just feel bored. All day long we just sit here in the middle of the country. We never GO anywhere. We never DO anything, and we NEVER meet any NEW states." So they organize a party where all the states can meet each other, and then switch places. I highly recommend it. It made me laugh out loud.

So if you are feeling scrambled, or just bored, or know a child who might enjoy learning about the states in a really fun way, I highly recommend this book.

And on a side note, Mark and I lived in western Kansas for the first five years we were married. So really, we understand the whole concept of wanting to get out and meet some new states...

Just a little light reading

These have made their way to my doorstep in the last couple of days. Thank you, Amazon. I've glanced through a couple of them, anxious to peruse the rest.

One thing I'm a little concerned about is the Flickr book. It was copyrighted in 2006. Doesn't that make it like 28 in dog computer years?

I've Been Bitten--The Party Edition

First let me make it perfectly clear. I am not a party planner. While I admire those people who can come up with an idea and then carry out the whole creative invitation/decorating/menu planning scheme, I am not one of those people. But here's a secret I learned this week--sometimes all you need to do is offer your place as party headquarters to one of those people and you can get in on all the excitement yourself, with just a fraction of the work. Party on!

Jessica decided to have a "Twilight" party and invite people who had read at least two of the four books in the series. She did all the planning and we had it at my house because there was a bit more room.

I can tell you right now, this girl needs to seriously think about party planning as a career option. For all you Twilight lovers, she made amazing invitations and then sent them to Forks, Washington, to have the stamp canceled there so that it actually said "Forks, Washington" on the envelope. Talk about attention to detail.

The book covers themselves are just beautiful. Jessie had gotten some great ideas from different places and put them all together with her own special touch.

All party-goers were instructed to wear black and red, and we took individual pictures of each of them, with an apple, of course! Here are just a couple of them (Jessie has them all posted on her blog):

Jessica, the party planner:

My beautiful daughter-in-law, Christa (who also knows how to give an L of a party):

My friend, Sue (and mother of the party planner):

All the food in the carefully planned menu was red and black. Jessica found black squid ink pasta and red chianti pasta. And while the whole squid ink thing really doesn't sound that appetizing, at least to me, once you saute the pasta in olive oil and add some sundried tomatoes, it's really yummy.

Cherry tomatoes with kalamata olive spread, black and red corn chips with salsa, and black bean spread, red licorice "bites," red velvet cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, strawberry ice cream with chocolate chunks...mmmmmm.

And the drink selection--all you had to do was pick a "type"...

...and pour it into one of these glasses dripping with "blood."

You gotta love Jessie's red stilettos:

And our finale: a group photo.

I'll be happy to co-host a party at my house with you any time, Jessica!

I've been bitten...

Sorry, that was hard to resist.

First of all, I hardly ever read fantasy fiction. With apologies to all you C.S. Lewis fans out there, Chronicles of Narnia--didn't read it. Lord of the Rings--not interested. I did read the first four Harry Potter novels and will probably finish the series...someday. So why the Twilight series? Well, everyone around me seemed to be reading them. I mean, devouring them. (Ha, I didn't even see that one coming...). Like reading all four books in four days. I couldn't imagine reading about vampires. Vampires! But the writer just sucked me in.

I don't like Stephenie Meyer's writing style quite as much as J.K. Rowling (although I definitely don't think she deserved Stephen King's ridicule). Sometimes I just want to say, "I get it...move on." But the story is pretty fascinating. And I just have to know: Bella, will you...or won't you?

Oh, and by the way:

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