Yarn Crawl

It's Wednesday! What are you reading? What are you knitting?

Join in at Yarn Along and let us all know!

 

I started a yarn crawl yesterday even though the absolute last thing I need is --you guessed it -- yarn! I received the complimentary tote at the first store and now have the convenient list of stores to tempt, tease, and---ok, it doesn't take much---encourage me to visit yet another yarn shop!

 

The passport is stamped at each store in the crawl. I am consciously trying NOT to be an over-achiever here!

 

The cutie-cute "puppy snips" are a freebie treat from one of the stores along with Eucalan samples, a very appreciated treat.

See my cakes? Doncha love 'em? This is the closest cakes have been to my oven in years!! Really. The cakes are made of Rowan Colorscape by Kaffe Fasset. As for reading, here is a book that I just finished:
Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Fluffy yet engaging story based on the friendship of three women. I know--never been done before. This is an easy summer read, though I must admit I skipped the graphic sections. If necessary, I prefer a few well-chosen words to suggest a scene. It's not that difficult to get the idea! I did enjoy the story which has a predictable, but satisfying conclusion.
View all my reviews

What are you reading and knitting?

The Opinionated Knitter

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly book meme, hosted at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page along with the title & author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

"I deplore Mother's Day. Mother has it good and if anyone loves her and wants to show it, one measly day in the year is a pretty squinchy space of time in which to do it."
   ---from The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman

What are YOU reading?

Ruby Tuesday

 

Lailah guards her new toy. She doesn't share her toys at all!

Celebrate Ruby Tuesday! Post a photo of your choice and taken by you that contains the color red and link to this blog.

Succinctly Yours ~ Week 21

Using the photo as inspiration, write a story of 140 characters or 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.The added optional challenge is to use the word of the week in the story. Then post it here.

 

 

Although Al Gore has not been visible in Presidential politics for several years, he continues to wonder why people think he's wooden.

Steamboat...Comin' Down the Mountain

 

 The return drive from Steamboat on Sunday was a nightmare! I hadn't even considered all the people heading down the mountain as the weekend came to a close. Backed-up driving is common on Sunday nights during ski season, but I didn't think about everyone heading down the mountain in the summer! It took 2.5 hours longer to get home than it did to drive to Steamboat!

 An ironic sign in Kremmling

 

 I was off the road for about 20 minutes when I stopped at The Alpine Earth Center.

 

 Wildflowers grow on the roofs of the buildings. This one features a deer contently  munching. It is an entirely captivating and beautiful place.

 

 Luscious blooms greet customers at the door. I purchased four pots of annuals and a kit with a water pump and bamboo "pipes" to make a small water feature for indoors or out.

 

 Miss Rumphius is a dear friend from my teaching career because I used the book with my students every year. A local artist  used the beautiful book as wall decor in the ladies' room.

 

 Miss Rumphius advises us to make the world beautiful. Such clever use of this book and its message! Hmm...wonder how the men's room is decorated?

 

Can you see the small waterfall gushing from the mountain? Nature inspires me, blesses me with happiness and love from the hand of God.

Steamboat Springs Daze

 

Five days at Steamboat Springs was the perfect break from our terrible heat. I particularly enjoyed the view from our third floor balcony which wrapped around the end of the building.

 My two sons and their families made this little escape all the more special since I don't see them as often as I'd like. This includes the four grands too!

 

 Beautiful flowers abound in Steamboat. From these lovelies painted on a restaurant wall

 

 to the glorious hollyhocks and mountain wild flowers

 along the sidewalks.

 

 We spent time downtown at restaurants and

 

 the Farmers' Market. What a lovely time we shared in gorgeous Steamboat Springs.

Death of the Party

 

It’s National Book Week.

The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence as your status. Then post your link here. This is a good way to peek into many books!

"Annie had a sense of inexorability."  p.56, Death of the Party by Carolyn Hart

This is a brief sentence, but a fun exercise. Why don't you join in?

Death of the Party and Knit

It's Wednesday! What are you reading? What are you knitting?

Join in at Yarn Along and let us all know!

This is my along-along project--my Yarn Along and my carry along! The blanket for DGD is too unwieldy for a carry along project in the summer heat, so I started this little garter stitch scarf in alternating rows of moss green and burgundy using two strands of yarn of each color. One of the burgundy strands is slightly redder than the other, so it makes a very pretty blend when knitted. Yes, you guessed it! A stash-buster!

I've just started reading Death of the Party by Carolyn Hart. So we have the requisite death and the gathering of related characters in the manse. I like the way she is introducing the characters.

What are you reading and knitting?

Teaser Tuesdays ~Death of the Party

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly book meme, hosted at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page along with the title & author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!  

Ready for a tease? Here it is:

"She'd worked fast in the early morning stillness,pulling out the nail from the wall, unfastening the thin but formidable strand from the baluster, checking to see if the telltale hole was obvious, grateful when the speck in the wall was easily covered by the fleck of lint from the carpet. She'd mashed the wire into a lump, put the coil and the nail in the pocket of her robe, and fled down the hall to her room."

                                         ---Death of the Party by Carolyn Hart

What are you reading?

Ruby Tuesday

 Celebrate Ruby Tuesday! Post a photo of your choice and taken by you that contains the color red and link to this blog.
 

 

A day at Spring Training in Scottsdale, AZ, in March is a sweet preview of summer.

 

 



Succinctly Yours ~ Week 20

Using the photo as inspiration, write a story of 140 characters or 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.The added optional challenge is to use the word of the week in the story. Then post it here.

 

Alice was oblivious to Bobo studying her more subtle make-up.

"I should dial my style back a bit," he decided.

Teaser Tuesday ~~ Consider This, Senora

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly book meme, hosted at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page along with the title & author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

Ready for a tease? Here it is:

"When Padre Miguel had called on Sue in June, he examined the map, asked for a pencil, and in the middle of the blank boot of Italy, drew in the dome, facade, and court yard of St. Peter's....added on the right the Pope's balcony and His Holiness upon it. Then, with a wave, he walked past France, Spain, Portugal, the Atlantic Ocean, and out the door."      

---from Consider This, Senora by Harriet Doerr

                                            

What are you reading?



Ruby Tuesday

 

 Giant butterfly terrorizes the Phoenix Botanical Garden

I'm joining

 

Celebrate Ruby Tuesday! Post a photo of your choice and taken by you that contains the color red and link to this blog.

Succinctly Yours – Week 19

Using the photo as inspiration, write a story of 140 characters or 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.The added optional challenge is to use the word of the week in the story. Then post it here.

A tongue flicks to bug
Lizzie's lunch is on the way
One delicious meal.

My FATHER AT 100 by Ron Reagan

My Father at 100 by Ron Reagan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After listening to the audio version of this book, I think I could enjoy listening to Ron Reagan read the phone book. Reading the printed book would have been a far different experience than hearing the son, author, and reader render the events in a voice reminiscent of his father. His voice makes the events even more personal and touching. Interweaving events from different time periods is smoothly executed and quite effective in that the author is calling upon the reader's memories of his father's public life while imparting more obscure and personal events in the life of the President.

The book discloses the strong similarity between Father and son: brio,arrogance, a certain sense of entitlement. Ron doesn't come off well in his gleeful recounting of an immature rejoinder to then Vice-President George H. W. Bush. The immaturity he describes in his father's early adulthood echoes in the immaturity of the son. Thinking that he is staring down Gorbachev at a meeting with his father is just silly. His self-revelation is a surprising secondary story line.

I recommend this highly informative book of a son's reflections about his outstanding father. If possible, get it on audio.

View all my reviews

Yarn Along Wednesday -- Rich Boy - And On To Friday Fibers

It's Wednesday! What are you reading? What are you knitting?

Join in at Yarn Along and let us all know!

I finished Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz today with a sigh. What a story! The elegant writing flows so easily that I just had to keep reading long past bed time. The story is not particularly unique and the main character resembles Don Draper on TV's "Mad Men", yet the writing makes this book eminently enjoyable and readable.

I've shifted gears on my DGD's blanket request to a mindless, though boring pattern. I had set it aside in favor of a patchwork pattern, which I like but am not in the mood to knit at the moment. So, I picked up the crochet hook and the banished blanket to continue and to finish, I hope!
Are you, like me, a moody knitter?

Teaser Tuesdays -- Rich Boy

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly book meme, hosted at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page 
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page along with the title & author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

• Ready for a tease? Here it is:

"The air conditioner trilled loudly in the shop on Sixth Avenue just off Twelfth Street, as the elderly man with a twirled mustache, in a shirt and bow tie, cut Robert's facial hair with scissors getting it short enough to shave....Robert enjoyed being shaved and washed and taken care of more than he'd expected---for the last three years, he had wanted just the opposite, but now he remembered how people lived, could live."
---Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz

What are you reading?

Succinctly Yours: Microfiction -- Week 18

Using the photo as inspiration, write a story of 140 characters or 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.The added optional challenge is to use the word of the week in the story. Then post it here.

 

 

Gepetto made an arbitrary choice to carve a boy.
Would he be able to complete this novel project?
 Why did he keep thinking of strings?

:::::

Yarn Along - The Sea House

It's Wednesday! What are you reading? What are you knitting?

Join in at Yarn Along and let us all know!

 The Sea House by Esther Freud is set on an English coastline with desirable beaches and a sleepy village. The main character, Lily, is translating a set of letters circa 1930 from German to English. The author is slowly revealing Lily's life and introducing an interesting set of supporting characters.

So far, I have to say it's an OK read. Perhaps it will become more gripping as I continue along.

This little cottage is coming off the crochet hook in sc based on a half-remembered pattern I used to make a "house tote" for my daughter and her friends in the late 70's. Using a G hook and WW I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby, I've made pieces for the window and door to be sewn on to the yellow part.

The scalloped trim is pinned in place and a few stitches created flowers and grass. The door knob is a white bead and three tiny green and blue beads are the center of each flower. This will continue to be a WIP for a while as I add little touches, windows on the back, vines and flowers, and a butterfly. This is for seven-year-old DGD's November birthday, so I have plenty of time to play with it! Fun!

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly book meme, hosted at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page along with the title & author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
  Ready for a tease? Here it is:

• p.125  "From now on the letters were all typed, and Lily found she missed the grandeur of the writing, the swirls and loops of the black ink. She was used to straining for meaning of a too hurriedly drawn words, missed the satisfaction that came to her when she'd deciphered something she'd first thought impossibly unclear."         ---from The Sea House by Esther Freud

 

                                                                                             

What are you reading?





The Greater Journey

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900 by David McCullough

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


David McCullough presents a luscious book of words and images to tell the interwoven stories of the life and times of creative Americans between 1830 and 1900 as they were drawn to arduous journeys to inspirational Paris. The historical perspective is enormous and magnificently rendered as the humanity of great American artists and little known details of their lives unfold. French history flows through the story in a most engaging way leaving the reader full and satisfied at the end of this delicious book.


View all my reviews

Succinctly Yours: Microfiction--Week 17

Using the photo as inspiration, write a story of 140 characters or 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.The added optional challenge is to use the word of the week in the story. Then post it at here.

 

After Devon made an obscure reference to her inability to swim, Ann stood slowly. Are the rumors about him true, she wondered. Fear reigned.

BOOKS!

I'm so excited that I just have to share this with people who "get it"!!
My order from Book Close-outs just arrived and WOW!! I am not affiliated with them and don't order often, but when I do, I DO!!

The nice tall stack of books on my desk includes

DIVAS DON'T KNIT -- Gil McNeil
THE SPINSTER SISTERS -- Stacy Ballis
THE HOUSE ON OYSTER CREEK -- Heidi Jon Schmidt
THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS -- Erica Bauermeister
RICH BOY -- Sharon Pomerantz
THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS -- Meg Waite Clayton
DAUGHTERS OF FORTUNE--Tara Hyland
THE ISLAND -- Elin Hiderbrand (Loved BAREFOOT.)
JULIET -- Anne Fortier

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts on these titles/authors?

I don't know if I can calm down enough read right now!!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!