I absolutely loved Snowflower and the Secret Fan so I was thrilled when I heard about Peony In Love
I couldn’t wait to read more of Lisa See. Yet, it turns out the book is terrible. I mean it was so bad that I put it down 5 times. I told myself that I had to get to page 100 before I made a final decision and then at page 101, I gave up. It was bad and
it got exponentially worse. What a shame it is to see an author, who can obviously do ten times better, write such a mediocre (actually it isn’t even mediocre) book.
I’ve been a fan of Ian McEwan for a few years now and I absolutely loved his previous book, _Saturday_, so when I saw he had a new one, I couldn’t
wait to pick it up. On Chesil Beach is a tiny book
and I read the whole thing in an hour. While the last 5 pages were fantastic, I can’t say that for the rest of the book. It was bleh. It went on and on and about
something I didn’t care too much to read about. I didn’t care about the characters enough to care. It was sweet, elegant and a fast read but it was definitely not up to his potential.
 I had never read a novel by Jane Green before I
picked up Bookends
I picked it up because one of the staff members at Kepler’s recommended it and I dream of starting a book store and so reading a book about that seemed a lot of fun. While
she is a really quick read, I wouldn’t qualify her as pure chicklit. She’s a bit better than that. Her writing is relatively good. Her characters are 2.5 dimensional. I can
definitely see myself reading more of her, especially when I need a mental downtime.
 I have been a huge Murakami fan since I found out about him.
Last year, I went through a phase where I read a bunch of his books back to back. So it should come as no surprise that I wanted to read
After Hours
as soon as it came out. While the book was good and a little weird, it didn’t measure up to typical Murakami at all. He is normally so incredibly fantastical and his
stories are so involved, so amazing, so mind-blowing that you cannot put the book down. This was an easy read but it wasn’t nearly as amazing as most of the other books by him. Yet, I cannot wait for the next one.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Dot Dead.
I brought it with me along a plane ride and finished that same night. I couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t the best-written book I read but it was certainly enjoyable and sort of surprising at parts. A great book to read on the plane.
It’s a shame I missed him when he visited Google.
I have read Mitchard before but I must say, Twelve
Times Blessed was one of the worst written books I’ve ever read. The
character is not believable. She is annoying and the whole story is
flawed in so many ways that I don’t even know where to begin. To be
fair, I did get strongly affected by the story
and felt deep love for my husband who I swore to appreciate more. I
spose one cannot ask for much more from a book.
Having said all of that, I also read A
Theory of Relativity and I absolutely loved it. Much more realistic,
more interesting. The characters were easier to relate to. The story was
still a bit more melodramatic than I would have liked it to be, which is
annoying cause it didn’t need that extra drama. It was a beautiful
enough story as is.
 I absolutely adore, adore, adore Anne Lamott. So it’s no surprise that when she came out with a new book, I grabbed Grace Eventually: Thoughts on Faith immediately.
I have to admit that this wasn’t one of my very favorites of her, but I still loved it. I swallowed it up and felt an inner peace that only she manages to instill in me. I am definitely not a religious person but I still loved her book. Maybe cause I do have faith. Or maybe cause Anne’s a fantastic writer.
This is for Last Scrapper Standing – Round one. The challenge is to use
8 transparent items on your page.
8 transparencies:
I cut three circles of 5,4, and 2.5 inches.
I stitched the first one, and put a rubon across the seam of the other
two, connected all three with 3 clear buttons and wrote i love you, a
word on each layer. I tried to show the detail on the bottom so you
could see it upclose.
So my 8 items are:
3 circles
3 buttons
1 more circle where the date is written
1 on top of the photo by My Mind’s Eye
Journaling Reads:
Today I came home early from work, so I was able to take you to MyGym’s
open playtime. Normally, you’re in a funky mood and play for a short
while and then get bored. But today, we had a blast. We played, we
laughed, and then we laughed some more. At one point, you kept running
over to me and knocking me over. And then you ran over and gave me a big
hug and said,
“I love you.”
I had a hard pregnancy. I threw up eight times a day for six months. I
was so nauseous that I worked in bed the whole time. When you were born,
you refused to sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time, even when you
were six months old. I still haven’t lost the weight I gained during the
pregnancy. You regularly make messes all over the house and sometimes I
find a half-eaten apple weeks later, hidden behind some furniture or
appliance. There are many moments in the day when you try my patience.
But all of these hard times are for this one moment. For the tight hug.
For the tiny kiss. And for those three little words, uttered unprompted.
They make everything worthwhile.
I love you, too, my son. I love you with all my heart.
Sketch 8 for 1-in-48. This one got noteworthy on the Creating Keepsakes
website. Yey! Journaling Reads:
Still catching up on the two I missed while I was in San Diego. Here’s
the journaling:
Little David, you’re such a two-year-old. You cause a tremendous amount
of mischief all day long. You break our CDs, take the tape out of out
cassettes so that they are irreparable. You break all the crayons and
then write all over the walls with them. You draw on the car window. You
put your stickers on Mommy’s computer. You hide your food all over the
house and dump your apple on the floor when you’re done with it. You
refuse to sit in your chair and spill your drink all over the table.
When I ask you to do something, you look at me like you’re in deep
suffering. You beg, you yell, you rebel in every way you can. But if I
keep refusing, that’s when you pull out the big guns: you look at me
with those big, blue eyes and give me one of those special smiles that
you know melts my heart. That’s when I can no longer fight with you. I
just give up and hug you really tight.
Well, Mr. Charming, I don’t know how much longer you’re going to be able
to get away with those cute faces, so enjoy it while you can.
Sketch 7 for 1-in-48. Had a hard time with this one.
And now for something really plain. Sketch 6 for 1-in-48. Journaling
Reads:
We have a lot of planes flying over our backyard. Not as many as we used
to when we lived right by Miramar in San Diego, but still, it seems each
time we play in the backyard, there’s a plane flying by.
In the beginning, you completely ignored them, and then you started
noticing and pointing each time we saw one. Now, you’ve totally gotten
into them. You hear them first and bring your hand to your ear and say
“Sound! Airplane!” Then, you know to look up and find the plane. Once
you see it, you start pursing your lips and try to imitate the sound the
planes make. Spit flies out of your mouth as you say, “Pffffffttttt.,”
and it makes me laugh each time.
Every little boy loves airplanes and you, my son, are no exception. I
can’t wait until you’re old enough to build a little model airplane with
your Daddy. He has always loved airplanes and is already planning all
the events he will tale you to. I can only imagine all the fun you two
will have.
Bonus Sketch for 1-in-48. Journaling Reads:
Since Daddy takes care of you during the week, I try to spend most of my
weekend moments with you. A few weeks ago, I had to do a photo shoot for
a client and when I came home from the shoot, Daddy went out running.
Normally I’d sit and play with you, but I wanted to get the photos
processed before our trip to New York, so I wanted to try something new.
I pulled your high chair next to my desk and got the box of crayons with
paper for you, so you could draw while I worked.
We sat that way for hours, you doing your creative work, and me doing
mine. We must have been too engrossed in what we were doing because
neither one of us heard daddy come back from his run. When he saw how
much fun we were having, he grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots
of our special moment.
David, I have this dream that as you grow older, we’ll be able to create
together much more often. I am so thrilled that you like crayons and
drawing as much as you do. I can’t wait to introduce you to my
scrapbooking stuff and see all the wonderful art you’ll make. Only a few
more years and we’ll be sitting side by side, working on our layouts,
sharing ideas, and enjoying every little moment of it.
I can’t wait.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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