Need a Good Book? September

First of all, I made a Facebook page for the blog.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly how it works, but in the meantime I'd love if you'd "like" me. (If you think my editing skills stink on the blog, wait until you see them in their full glory w/out the benefit of spell check.)

(Source) I think I need this room.

Now on to the books:

1. City of Fallen Angels-Vampires, demons, teenage angst-everything a guilty pleasure should be.  (don't judge me too harshly, I read more literary books too)This is the 4th in the Mortal Instrument series and it ends in a cliff hanger, so I now I need to sit around and wait for the next one.
 4 1/2 Stars

2.   Clockwork Angel is based in the same demon slaying world as the Mortal Instrument series, but instead of modern times, it is set in Victorian England. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the original series.  Maybe it's because I was listening to the audio version and I couldn't skim through the fighting scenes. 4 stars





3.Empire of the Summer Moon Like all Texas schoolkids, I've the PG version of this part of American history, but I had no idea the extent of the violence on both sides of this war. This book is a testament to how cruelly barbaric human beings can be to one another.  This was my book club's selection, and we all agreed that it contained a lot of information, but it is not a biography, it is poorly organized and it could use some pictures, maps and charts to make it easier to read.  It gets great reviews on Amazon, but I'm only giving it 2 1/2 stars.


4. Room tells the story of woman who is kidnapped and kept captive in a back yard shed for 7 years.  It is told from the innocent perspective of her 5 year old son, Jack. The mother is amazing and creates an entire universe for her son in a tiny 11X11 foot space.  It made me reflect on my parenting skills. Sometimes, my kids drive me a little nuts and we share an entire house.  4 1/2 stars












5.  The Pathfinder-If you enjoy Orson Scott Card, then you'll probably enjoy this one-I really did.  I don't want to give to much away, but the story mostly focuses on a teenage boy named Rigg who has the ability to manipulate time and space in order that he may somehow save the planet.  It is a trilogy and the other 2 aren't even written yet.


6.  Discovery of Witches-Romeo and Juliette- (If Romeo was a vampire  genetics professor at Oxford and Juliette was a witch history professor from Yale).  It was a bit slow at times and I think I'd enjoy it more if was edited down a bit.  There was an overabundance of wine descriptions, that I thought was weird until I learned the author writes a wine blog.  This will be the first in a trilogy and ends in a cliff hanger so don't expect any sort of satisfying ending. My favorite character in the book was the Bishop's house-it has a mind of it's own.  Overall I liked it and will read the next one. 4 stars.



7. Clara and Mr Tiffany-Love, Love, Loved it! This is the easily the best book of the bunch. Who do you think designed all those gorgeous Tiffany lamps?  For over a hundred years, we thought it was Mr. Tiffany, but it is more likely that is was a girl named Clara.  This is a fascinating work of historical fiction that explores the rights of women as well as the inspiration and creative processes involved in creating those beautiful lamps.  Girl Power! This would be great for book club.
4 3/4 stars.
Mockingbird tells the story of a girl with Asperger Syndrome who is trying to gain closure after the shooting death of her brother.  (Doesn't that just sound like a barrel of laughs?)  Despite the premise, it is not overly heavy and is a great way to understand and empathize with those who's brains my function a little differently than our own.  I'm going to make my kids read it.

Gregor the Overlander-By the same author as Hunger Games, but written for a younger audience (ages 9-12).  It is the story of Gregor who falls through a hole in his laundry room to discover an underground society that is at war with giant rats.  Just like in Hunger Games, the message of these books is that there are no true winners in war.  I liked the first book a lot, and each of the following books a little less.  The story lines are little repetitive, but I had to keep reading to see how everything turns out.  I give the first book 4 stars and the entire series 3/1/2 stars.

Hands of My Father-A touching memoir of growing up with 2 deaf parents during the Great Depression.  It makes me a little sad that I don't know sign language and get to merely use words to express myself. This would be great for bookclub.
4 1/2 stars.

So that's what I've been reading-what have you been reading?

I link up with these fabulous parties, here and here.

How to Raise Strong Boys

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Boy Scouts of America for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.


Boy Scouts of America has long been a part of my life.  Growing up, I attended various scouting activities with my brother.  Now, as a mother of two boys, I've been very active in Cub Scouts both as a leader and as a parent. Our family especially enjoys spending time together during the monthly pack meetings. My son's favorite part of scouting would  be attending annual day camp, where he spends a week, shooting, swimming, wood working, learning, and having fun.

In a few short weeks, my son will be turning 11 and will be crossing over from Cub Scouts to join the ranks of Boy Scouts. He has been working hard to finish up his last few requirements to earn his "Arrow of Light" award.  Even though, he earns this award during Cub Scouts, he will wear it on his uniform for the rest of his life as a symbol of his hard work and the values that Scouting promotes.

My boys love activities like camping and hiking, that most people associate with Scouting. I am also excited that Scouting is adding a new curriculum with an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math.  There are 31 STEM-related merit badges that will help our boys develop those skills needed to compete in our technologically advanced world.

As a family, we are involved in scouting because we want our boys to be  "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, king, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." (taken from the Scout Law).  Scouting is a great way to help my boys make friends and develop leadership skills. Overall, I feel like by involving my boys in scouting, it will help them develop into great men. As a mother, I couldn't want anything more.

Be A Scout
Boy Scouts of America

STAR WARS INVITES

Our big party will be on Saturday.  Here's my invites.  I'm sure I'm breaking all sorts of copyright laws, but if you'd like to make your own, I found the picture here and then I added the b-day hats from Picnik. I found the Star Wars font here. I printed them out on photo paper and mounted them on cardstock. My young padawan loves them.

Here's a blank one, to make your own.  I used "ameretto" as the font.

 Loads more LEGO ideas here.

I link up with these fabulous parties, here and here.

Please link up your fabulous projects here at my linky party.

Thanks for  stopping by.  May the force be with you.

5 Minute Lego Cupcake Toppers

My baby turned 7 on Monday.  That afternoon, I had 2 startling realizations:
1. I really should work on losing the baby weight.
2.  Even though his b-day party isn't for a few more weeks, I still needed some sort of cake

Realization #1, I'm ignoring.  I made up some quick cupcakes to solve #2.  They weren't very festive.  I thought it would be fun to make some Lego head toppers. 

I cut-out 2 inch squares and rounded the corners. Initially, I thought that everyone would draw their own, but since he was having so much fun, I let him do them all. I taped toothpicks on the backs and declared them awesome and patted myself on the back.

Loads more LEGO ideas here.

I link up with these fabulous parties, here and here.

Please link up your fabulous projects here.

Will Craft for...Fun!

So many amazing ideas last week.  Thanks so much for taking the time to link up your fabulous projects.
The most viewed project were these homemade firepots by Sweetwater Style.


This Winnie the Pooh vignette by Blue Babes Creates has got to be the most charming thing I've ever seen. Did you know that Winne the Pooh was Canadian?

Did you know you could make watermelon jelly?  Simsamsue in a house of Blue will teach you how.

So what have you been working on?

dollar store decor

BEFORE

We own a few books.  They occupy one entire wall of the the craft room/ office that I have been working hard to make presentable.  I decided to organize the shelves by category: religious, nature, fiction, and scrapbooks.  Eventually, I'll put a little themed vignette on top of each bookshelf.  I found 2 ideas @ the Dollar store. 

I found this shadow box thing and painted it white and put a brown glaze on top. I've seen lots of alpahbet art in the blogosphere,  So I looked for letters of the Internet to spell E-X-P-L-O-R-E.

Here it is hanging out on top of the bookshelf containing my husband's 100 bird books.

I also found this frame that was falling apart. This made it easier to take off the tacky brass part and spray paint it white.  Then I cut out some letters with my Cricut.

Much Better.

Not bad for $2. Stay tuned for the big craft room reveal.

I link up with these fabulous parties, here and here.

Please link up your fabulous projects here.

Rise and Shout the Cougars Are Out!

Since it's still reaching almost 100 degrees everyday, I wasn't quite ready to put up my fall wreath, and I thought doing a BYU football themed wreath would be fun.  Despite the fact that they lost against UT on Saturday.

Step one: Cut 2 different size squares.

 Step 2: Fold each square into fourths

 Step 3: With scissors, round the corner so that when you unfold it, it forms a flower shape.

Step 4- Layer a small flower on top of a large flower, pierce w/ an upholstery tack and hot glue to wreath.

I punched out a bunch of gift tags and used my Cricut to cut out letters.  Then I covered them in a few coats of mod podge and tied them w/ twine to the wreath. 

I can easily remove the tags and change it up for other occasions.

I may go back and  add a "BYU" or "Go Cougars" since none of my Texas neighbors have any clue that "Rise and Shout" is the first line of BYU's fight song.  Or I may just leave it the way it is, and it can be our family's inside joke.

Update:  I added some BYU stickers to a wood football that I got at Hobby Lobby.  I'd really like to find a cool navy and white ribbon to hang it from, but it's turned out to be harder than I thought it would be.

 I link up with these fabulous parties, here and here.