It's Monday! What Are You Reading? June 6, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.


I feel like I should just copy and paste from last week, because although progress has been made, I still have not finished the two books that I have in progress. Goodreads is taunting me with "7 books behind schedule" and I am berating myself too. 

I am nearly done with Chesapeake Song and about 1/3 the way through Ghostly Paws. Both are good, just can't stay with them. Sigh!

This morning I will go with Mr Busy to the dentist. He will be on a relaxing drug so he can't drive.  The appointment is scheduled for four hours, so I should get a book finished, I hope. 

Next up is: 

A Zen for Murder by Leighann Dobbs :

And I am looking forward to receiving a book I won in a drawing at Kittling Books. I think it too is a cozy. 

I have not read this author, so I am looking forward to it. If the cover reveals the setting, it will be tropical!

Until then, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy 

Saturday Snapshots 6-4-16

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on Melinda's blog, West Metro Mommy Reads .  Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online


This week has been a bit busy as well. Some of you who visit here occasionally know that last Saturday we had family here, for a baby shower. I shared some photos here. I decided to share some more and a couple from the rest of the week.

 I asked Mr Busy to take pics with my phone, while I tried to write down who the gifts were from.

The content show lots of foreground of messy tables etc. ugh!  And bits of others getting photographs. She opened tons of clothes and a few other things like, diapers, wipes and an extra car seat base for the infant carrier. This being their second baby, most of the other "necessary" items they already have.

I need to try to crop and edit some of the shots. Mr Busy put my phone on video, so I have a great many. 

It is finally summer here in NE Wyoming. 70 and even 80 degrees on one day. 

Brats and beer were enjoyed one evening. Paper plates are our norm in the summer. 

I finished the binding on a small lap quilt that had been in my pile of UFO's ( unfinished objects) for far too long. 

And I got a quilt back from a friend who has a longarm machine so that will get binding in the next week or so. 

Before you get too excited, the center of the quilt is a panel, not appliqued. I bought this kit at a quilt shop in downtown Chandler AZ.  Wish I could remember the name of the shop. 

Here is a closeup of the quilting that Linnie did on her longarm machine. 

And I bought a few potted things, so I can get my outside pots ready to set out, now that it is finally warm enough that I don't have to worry about frost. 

Thursday was our wedding anniversary and Mr. Busy bought me a pot already planted with red,  white, and purple petunias. I love it. 

Thanks for sticking with me on this photo heavy post. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/30/16

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.


No books were finished this week either!  I am not sure what is happening!  So I am in the middle of Chesapeake Song by Brenda Lane Richardson and still have only touched Ghostly Paws by Leighann Dobbs. 

My only excuse is Saturday was the baby shower for my granddaughter. Company was in town from Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. I was cleaning, wrapping presents, making cupcakes, watching her son while she got her nails done, etc, etc, etc.  Reading was only in bed and by bedtime I was "wiped out" and fell asleep. We had a marvelous time at the shower. I will have pictures to share soon. 

Here are the cupcakes I baked and "built". 

It is a bit hard to see, but I saw the idea on either Facebook or Pinterest.  Dollar store wine glasses, with M&M in the bottom and cupcakes set in the top. I found "it a girl" printed, pink and white M&Ms on Amazon and then saw the cupcake wraps too. They look like crowns and really added to the look. Since my ordinary cupcake liners were only white, it worked out well. The holders to transport them were built by Mr Busy out of $$ store poster board and some bamboo BBQ skewers.  We just taped curly ribbon bows from Walmart to the corners.
If you attempt this idea, know that for 24 cupcakes you will need at least 2 lbs of M&M's. I was surprised!  Could have mixed with nuts I guess, but the grandma to be is allergic to nuts, the momma to be is Gluten Free and Dairy Free, so I just let the glasses be a little less that brimming with candy!

Oh, and two baby blankets were completed. 

 This one is roses, and polka dots, and checked fabric.
I love how it turned out.

This is just a self binding receiving blanket. Two coordinating pieces of flannel.

Reading took second place last week. Hopefully this week will be better. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. A chance to highlight words you find while reading or occasionally by listening. Share your words then link up with Kathy's blog so we can all learn a new wondrous word.

Nubian   noun  ( as an adjective: pertaining to the peoples of Nubia)

                                 This sentence is from page 31 of Chesapeake Song by Brenda Lane Richardson. 

' Just behind her, a nut-brown teenage girl with a Nubian face, lids heavily lined, stares toward the dark windows of the limo."

1. a native or inhabitant of Nubia

2. a member of one of the group of dark-skinned peoples that formed a powerful empire between Egypt and Ethiopia from the 6th to the 14th centuries.  (Modern day Egypt and Sudan)

I haven't found many wondrous and unknown words this week. I haven't been doing a lot of reading. So here is another from my Word-of-the-Day emails. 

stolid    adjective

 :  having or expressing little or no sensibility     

 :   unemotional

which let me to another word that I do not use regularly: 

phlegmatic    adjective

 :  not easily upset, excited or angered. 

What wondrous words did you find this week? 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Hurricane Sisters Dorothea Benton Frank Book Club May 2016 selection

The Hurricane Sisters 

 Dorothea Benton Frank

I am a fan of Dorothea Benton Frank. I have never visited South Carolina but for some reason the Lowcountry interests me. It could be because it seems so different from where I am from, dry high plains desert, Wyoming. Ya think?

In this story, we are introduced to three headstrong women each with a secret and each with a contentious relationship to the others. Maisie Pringle is 80 and a bit eccentric. She still lives alone. Well ,not exactly, her daughter and son-in-law, Liz and Clayton have hired a younger man (he is 65) to be her driver. Skipper has a llama farm. What could be more eccentric than that?  They seem to get along well.

Liz and Clayton’s marriage has stale-mated in a classic way. She is involved in an emotionally demanding career, and her stock broker husband is basically absent and self absorbed. They have two children who refer to them as The Impossibles.  Ashley is an aspiring artist, living in the family beach house and Ivy, their son, is a kind, caring successful young man living in California with his partner, James.

Ashley’s personal life this summer includes a budding relationship with an aspiring local politician. She can see herself as the next Jackie Kennedy.  Porter sees her as his next conquest. Trouble!! Even though her mother is an expert in the field of domestic abuse, Ashley misses all the signs in her effort to fulfill her dream of a future in Camelot.

As the summer storms keep brewing, the stormy relationship of these three women and their partners and friends comes to a dramatic conclusion. 

I liked this book for the most part. At times I felt it was a bit stilted as each Mother/daughter relationship played out. I have a bit of familiarity about the secrets revealed and felt a little of it did not ring true. I will reveal no spoilers here, but I found Liz and Clayton hard to grasp. That being said, I liked the book a lot and will wait to post this review until my book club has their discussion Tuesday. 5-17. Just to keep you informed, my book club did not much care for this story. Several  said they "couldn't relate to the characters" because they were wealthy??  Don't we sometimes read books to live the lives others live, to see how the other half gets by?  Oh, well!  Like I always say, "It is good we all don't have the same taste in books, food, or men!" I recommend this book. 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Chesapeake Song

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this Tuesday meme. It is a place to share the first paragraph in the first chapter of a book you are reading or hope to get to soon. It is a great place to see what others are reading and add to your ever growing list of title to explore. So let's share. Write a post and then go link up at Diane's blog.

Chesapeake Song
Brenda Lane Richardson  1993
Kensington Publishing Corp. 2001

1

Tamra

October 1990

On her bed a suitcase gapes eagerly on its spine.The interior, pink silk, like a petticoat, soft intimate space inside a box for travel. It has been used once only on her wedding night, then yielding gowns for sleep and loving, grunts and sighs. Today she strips a dress from a hanger, pulls cotton undies from a bureau, and rushing toward the suitcase, tries to remember the fullness of that night. Instead she recalls the harshness of a life lived together: thoughtless acts, missed cures, words of discord from the jaws of an angry marriage. 


Would you read on?


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/23/16

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.

It has been a slow reading week. And a slow stitching week. We traveled to a nearby bigger city for an appointment with a neurologist. Mr. Busy has tingling in his feet. The diagnosis was peripheral neuropathy and likely progressive. There are some drugs but he is reluctant to start them. He hates taking pills and at age 71 takes no prescriptions for blood pressure, cholesterol, arthritis or anything. Pretty amazing. 

We spent the night with my sister and her husband. We always enjoy visiting with them. So we ate good food, and drank good wine and had good conversation. 

That being said, Still on my bedside table:

There are such good reviews out there for this title. And the writing is very good for the most part. It is a story about a black family in the 50's and 60's and more currently in 1990's. The one thing that has made it difficult is that the story of Seth, Virginia and their daughter Tamra in '51 and '64 is written in the past tense and the story of Tamra and Charles is written in the present tense. I find it cumbersome to read in the present tense. Why?  I am only in the middle of chapter 13 and the characters are certainly well established. So I will continue and report back later. 

Still on my Kindle: 

Have not started Ghostly Paws or any of the four selections. Spending some time in my sewing room, and I watched several episodes of season 8 of Grey's Anatomy. I am really behind and so want to reacquaint myself with all the various threads of the story. Some of season 8 I have seen and some I missed, so it is good to watch them back to back. 

I will have a review of The Hurricane Sisters soon. 

Hope you all are having better reading success than I am having lately. Summer reading on the porch or beach or at the cabin is just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere and I would imagine those of you "down under" will have some time indoors on cooler days. Does your winter get really dreary?  

Stay Busy and Stay Happy