Monday, May 31, 2010

The official start of summer!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  I know we did!  We had 6 different cookouts to attend and went to all but one of them. I love cookout food...hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans...Mmmm Mmmm!  Doesn't get much better than that...and boy am I stuffed!!

Didn't get as much reading/kniting in as I would have liked, but that is to be expected on a busy holiday weekend.  We had a wonderful time, though, and am not looking forward to getting back to reality!

Gone With the Wind Read-A-Long

Photobucket

Tomorrow I will announce the schedule and all the details for the Gone With the Wind Read-A-Long! I am really looking forward to this. I think it will be a lot of fun reading this particular book as a group and discussing different points of interest together. 

As far as my knitting goes, I am getting ready to start a mystery Knit-A-Long through Ravelry. This will be my first ever KAL and I am very excited about getting started.  It kicks off at the end of the month.
All I need to do is figure out which yarn combos...order them...and I am all set to go!

Happy Reading and Peaceful Knitting!

Amy

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Classic Summer Reading

I have had this desire to read the great American classics by their famous authors.  I, sadly, only owned a few of the classics and have decided to slowly add the rest.  Thanks to swaptree.com, I have been able to somewhat do this.
Here is what I had:

Photobucket

and this is what has been added just this week, thanks to swaptree!

Photobucket


I have a few more on my "want list" that I am hoping to obtain soon: Northanger Abbey,  Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Ulysses.

What am I missing that I must have?
I would love to hear your recommendations.
Also, I am throwing around the idea of putting together some type of summer Read A Long of a few of these books.  Any suggestions on which ones to start with? I would love to read them all this summer, but I am sure that is going to be impossible!  Maybe I will extend my goal to by the end of the year!
Oh and just a heads up...I am will be hostin a Gone With the Wind Read A Long starting June 1st for all who may be interested.  Details to follow...

Happy Reading and Peacefull Knitting!

Amy

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Photobucket


To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

* What are you currently reading?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

* What did you recently finish reading?
Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff

* What do you think you’ll read next?
Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Wishful Wednesday hosted by The Bluestocking Guide

My pick is:

Photobucket

Synopsis from Goodreads
Filled with stunning parallels to today's world, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women-and of two countries torn apart by war.


On the eve of the United States's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter. In London, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, reporting on the Blitz. One night in a bomb shelter, she meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver when she returns from Germany and France, where she is to record the stories of war refugees desperately trying to escape.

The residents of Franklin think the war can't touch them- but as Frankie's radio broadcasts air, some know that the war is indeed coming. And when Frankie arrives at their doorstep, the two stories collide in a way no one could have foreseen. The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Where Should I Start...?

I have so much to say, but I don't want to be overwhelming, so I will start with some basics.  I just started Knitting 3 months ago and it has been an obsession from the start.  I want to learn it all and knit it all right now. I need to learn patience...and the skills...to knit truly beautiful pieces. 

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember.  Books like Ameilia Bedelia and The Babysitter's Club remain in my memory! I look forward to sharing these, as well as many more childhood favorites, with my children as they get older and learn to read!  There is nothing like seeing a child's face light up with the mention of books!

I will share some of my knitting with you!

This is one of the two projects I am currrently working on. It is going to be a project bag. The needles are US Sz. 8 and are Bamboo...my favorite so far to work with.  The yarn is cotton and I actually bought it at a Fabric Sale that the local Salvation Army held at the beginning of April.  I bought 2 skeins of this yarn for $.50! Mind you, it is not of the best quality, but for a beginner, just learning to knit, it rocks!

Photobucket

Now, mind you, it is not perfect and I am still learning.  But, I have to say, it's not too bad for my first attempt!

I am also working on a blanket for my son.  This is going to be a work in progress and I really hope to have it done before he starts kindergarten...he is only 1! I am using US Sz. 6 circular wooden needles and Cotton/Acrylic yarn.  Both were bought at my LYS, Knit One!  Love that little store and look forward to frequent returns!

Photobucket

Now for the Book News!  I just got word today that I won my first ever Goodreads First Reads!  I will be recieving this:

Photobucket

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting

Synopsis from Goodreads

Last seen sleeping off his wedding night in the back of a 1951 International Harvester pickup, Michael Perry is now living in a rickety Wisconsin farmhouse. Faced with thirty-seven acres of fallen fences and overgrown fields, and informed by his pregnant wife that she intends to deliver their baby at home, Perry plumbs his unorthodox childhood—his city-bred parents took in more than a hundred foster children while running a ramshackle dairy farm—for clues to how to proceed as a farmer, a husband, and a father.


And when his daughter Amy starts asking about God, Perry is called upon to answer questions for which he's not quite prepared. He muses on his upbringing in an obscure fundamentalist Christian sect and weighs the long-lost faith of his childhood against the skeptical alternative ("You cannot toss your seven-year-old a copy of Being and Nothingness").

Whether Perry is recalling his childhood ("I first perceived my father as a farmer the night he drove home with a giant lactating Holstein tethered to the bumper of his Ford Falcon") or what it's like to be bitten in the butt while wrestling a pig ("two firsts in one day"), Coop is filled with the humor his readers have come to expect. But Perry also writes from the quieter corners of his heart, chronicling experiences as joyful as the birth of his child and as devastating as the death of a dear friend.

Alternately hilarious, tender, and as real as pigs in mud, Coop is suffused with a contemporary desire to reconnect with the earth, with neighbors, with meaning . . . and with chickens.

Very excited to recieve my copy and get to reading!

It is a beautiful day so the kids and I are headed to the park!

Happy Reading and peaceful Knitting!

Amy

Monday, May 24, 2010

Finally...a Blog!

I have been contemplating starting a blog for sometime and today seemed like the right day to start!  This Blog is going to consist of books, reviews of those books, knitting adventures as I learn to knit, and life with my wonderful kids! Welcome to all and I hope you enjoy my rambles!

Monday, May 31, 2010

The official start of summer!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  I know we did!  We had 6 different cookouts to attend and went to all but one of them. I love cookout food...hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans...Mmmm Mmmm!  Doesn't get much better than that...and boy am I stuffed!!

Didn't get as much reading/kniting in as I would have liked, but that is to be expected on a busy holiday weekend.  We had a wonderful time, though, and am not looking forward to getting back to reality!

Gone With the Wind Read-A-Long

Photobucket

Tomorrow I will announce the schedule and all the details for the Gone With the Wind Read-A-Long! I am really looking forward to this. I think it will be a lot of fun reading this particular book as a group and discussing different points of interest together. 

As far as my knitting goes, I am getting ready to start a mystery Knit-A-Long through Ravelry. This will be my first ever KAL and I am very excited about getting started.  It kicks off at the end of the month.
All I need to do is figure out which yarn combos...order them...and I am all set to go!

Happy Reading and Peaceful Knitting!

Amy

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Classic Summer Reading

I have had this desire to read the great American classics by their famous authors.  I, sadly, only owned a few of the classics and have decided to slowly add the rest.  Thanks to swaptree.com, I have been able to somewhat do this.
Here is what I had:

Photobucket

and this is what has been added just this week, thanks to swaptree!

Photobucket


I have a few more on my "want list" that I am hoping to obtain soon: Northanger Abbey,  Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Ulysses.

What am I missing that I must have?
I would love to hear your recommendations.
Also, I am throwing around the idea of putting together some type of summer Read A Long of a few of these books.  Any suggestions on which ones to start with? I would love to read them all this summer, but I am sure that is going to be impossible!  Maybe I will extend my goal to by the end of the year!
Oh and just a heads up...I am will be hostin a Gone With the Wind Read A Long starting June 1st for all who may be interested.  Details to follow...

Happy Reading and Peacefull Knitting!

Amy

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Photobucket


To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

* What are you currently reading?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

* What did you recently finish reading?
Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff

* What do you think you’ll read next?
Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Wishful Wednesday hosted by The Bluestocking Guide

My pick is:

Photobucket

Synopsis from Goodreads
Filled with stunning parallels to today's world, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women-and of two countries torn apart by war.


On the eve of the United States's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter. In London, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, reporting on the Blitz. One night in a bomb shelter, she meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver when she returns from Germany and France, where she is to record the stories of war refugees desperately trying to escape.

The residents of Franklin think the war can't touch them- but as Frankie's radio broadcasts air, some know that the war is indeed coming. And when Frankie arrives at their doorstep, the two stories collide in a way no one could have foreseen. The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Where Should I Start...?

I have so much to say, but I don't want to be overwhelming, so I will start with some basics.  I just started Knitting 3 months ago and it has been an obsession from the start.  I want to learn it all and knit it all right now. I need to learn patience...and the skills...to knit truly beautiful pieces. 

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember.  Books like Ameilia Bedelia and The Babysitter's Club remain in my memory! I look forward to sharing these, as well as many more childhood favorites, with my children as they get older and learn to read!  There is nothing like seeing a child's face light up with the mention of books!

I will share some of my knitting with you!

This is one of the two projects I am currrently working on. It is going to be a project bag. The needles are US Sz. 8 and are Bamboo...my favorite so far to work with.  The yarn is cotton and I actually bought it at a Fabric Sale that the local Salvation Army held at the beginning of April.  I bought 2 skeins of this yarn for $.50! Mind you, it is not of the best quality, but for a beginner, just learning to knit, it rocks!

Photobucket

Now, mind you, it is not perfect and I am still learning.  But, I have to say, it's not too bad for my first attempt!

I am also working on a blanket for my son.  This is going to be a work in progress and I really hope to have it done before he starts kindergarten...he is only 1! I am using US Sz. 6 circular wooden needles and Cotton/Acrylic yarn.  Both were bought at my LYS, Knit One!  Love that little store and look forward to frequent returns!

Photobucket

Now for the Book News!  I just got word today that I won my first ever Goodreads First Reads!  I will be recieving this:

Photobucket

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting

Synopsis from Goodreads

Last seen sleeping off his wedding night in the back of a 1951 International Harvester pickup, Michael Perry is now living in a rickety Wisconsin farmhouse. Faced with thirty-seven acres of fallen fences and overgrown fields, and informed by his pregnant wife that she intends to deliver their baby at home, Perry plumbs his unorthodox childhood—his city-bred parents took in more than a hundred foster children while running a ramshackle dairy farm—for clues to how to proceed as a farmer, a husband, and a father.


And when his daughter Amy starts asking about God, Perry is called upon to answer questions for which he's not quite prepared. He muses on his upbringing in an obscure fundamentalist Christian sect and weighs the long-lost faith of his childhood against the skeptical alternative ("You cannot toss your seven-year-old a copy of Being and Nothingness").

Whether Perry is recalling his childhood ("I first perceived my father as a farmer the night he drove home with a giant lactating Holstein tethered to the bumper of his Ford Falcon") or what it's like to be bitten in the butt while wrestling a pig ("two firsts in one day"), Coop is filled with the humor his readers have come to expect. But Perry also writes from the quieter corners of his heart, chronicling experiences as joyful as the birth of his child and as devastating as the death of a dear friend.

Alternately hilarious, tender, and as real as pigs in mud, Coop is suffused with a contemporary desire to reconnect with the earth, with neighbors, with meaning . . . and with chickens.

Very excited to recieve my copy and get to reading!

It is a beautiful day so the kids and I are headed to the park!

Happy Reading and peaceful Knitting!

Amy

Monday, May 24, 2010

Finally...a Blog!

I have been contemplating starting a blog for sometime and today seemed like the right day to start!  This Blog is going to consist of books, reviews of those books, knitting adventures as I learn to knit, and life with my wonderful kids! Welcome to all and I hope you enjoy my rambles!
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