Sunday, November 17, 2013

Kathleen & Matt

So, I asked Kathleen what book she and Matt had in common, so that I could make something for their wedding... 3 months later, this is what I ended up making for them:





I watched A LOT of Doctor Who and Sons of Anarchy...














Final Product:
The tree is a song that the couple sang/played during the ceremony (All the Way - Jimmy VanHeusen)
The birds are a collection of quotes that are the favorites of those read by wedding guests during the ceremony.
The "roots" are the signatures of the wedding guests. 


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Frost and Fog and Caitlin

Nick, Caitlin and I planned to go to Crested Butte to take pictures of the aspens changing. But we were too early and they were still green. We were planning to camp. But it was freezing. So the end result is a whopping total of two pictures with aspens and a ton with frost and fog. All in all it was a great weekend and I'm happy with how the images turned out!
























































It was a beautiful day on Saturday and we mostly just walked around Crested Butte with Wheeler and Echo (Widget is a pain in the ass so he got left in Leadville).
Caitlin and I found a great shop The Gypsy Wagon. I wanted to buy everything, and almost did... Check them out! Also, how awesome are my socks?!



Thursday, April 18, 2013

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

So, these are a thing. I made them for a co-worker's last day tomorrow. I don't want this to become a cooking blog too so let's just say that I'm posting photography that happens to be of food that I made... The cupcake recipe is here, and the frosting is here.



Sunday, April 14, 2013

To Kill A Mockingbird - Boo's Knot

Started this for Lacie last year, and finally finished it! Wanted to share it before I sent it on to Montana!


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Some Recent Audiobooks and (Finally) Book Two

So at the beginning of all this, I said that even though I wouldn't count them, but I would talk about the audiobooks I've listened to. One of my favorite parts of my job is that I can listen to books all day and I am more than a little addicted to Audible. It's a pretty cheap way of listening to audiobooks and is probably my most used app on my phone. As far as the book reviewing goes, I decided that I would try and comment on all of these within one post. Woo! Here we go!

The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

Kids with cancer. I think that there are so many ways that this topic can go wrong. A lot of the time it's done in a preachy, or melodramatic way, but John Green handles the story with grace and intelligence. He reminds you that even though these kids have cancer, they are still kids. He does not put them on a pedestal because of their illnesses, but rather shows them the respect of making them into complete human beings, both the good and the bad. I read the book first and then listened to the audio after reading Looking for Alaska, because I wanted to compare them. I recommend both the book and audio.

Favorite Quote:
""Augustus Waters, " I said, looking up at him, thinking that you cannot kiss anyone in the Anne Frank House, and then thinking that Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the Anne Frank House, and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to have become a place where the young anf irreparably broken sink into love"


Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras - Scott Westerfeld

I had read all this series but Extras as they came out starting with Uglies in 2005. It was one of those series that I wasn't incredibly attached to, but I kept wanting to know how it ended. I stopped with Specials in book form, because it had a definable end to the series. I was looking for audio to listen to at work and teen usually fits the bill. One of the YouTubers I watch was reading this series and it got me thinking that I should give it another try. I enjoyed it, and listened to all four books. I recommend it if you're looking for some interesting post-apocalyptic teen fiction. I was particularly interested in Westerfeld's description of how we basically killed ourselves off and how this society replaces us.



Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan

So I have linked the title to the paperback version of this book, but seriously, it doesn't do this story justice. You NEED to listen to the audiobook. This is the story of two high school guys named Will Grayson. Each author handles the story of one Will Grayson and the two do not meet until around the middle of the book. Will Grayson #1 has a best friend named Tiny, who eventually becomes very important to Will Grayson #2. Tiny is by far my favorite fictional character in a long time. The audio version of this book is so amazing simply because Tiny has written a musical of his life, entitled "Tiny Dancer" and the narrators sing the songs. "Summer of Gay" is amazing, and hilarious and it just doesn't come across as amazing in the print version of the book. Listen to it!!!


Trojan Odyssey - Clive Cussler

Ever since I saw the movie Sahara, I have pretty shamelessly enjoyed Cussler's Dirk Pitt series. This is the last of them and like the others, has some pretty amazingly unrealistic parts. If you're a fan of Cussler, there's a little bit at the very end that will make you roll your eyes, but also grin a little at the closure of the series. I'd recommend it as some pretty great adventure escapism!






Divergent & Insurgent - Veronica Roth

Usually I have the sense to make sure a series is done being written before I ever start it, because man do I hate a cliff-hanger. I remember losing it a little bit (okay, a lot) at a season finale of Dawson's Creek because I was so traumatized that I wouldn't find out what was going to happen for a WHOLE THREE MONTHS. So, with these books, I could not tell you why I read these two, knowing that the third isn't supposed to come out til this fall. Point being, I really liked them. Another perspective in the dystopic teen genre, I listened to these right after the Uglies series and I have to say, that I think that Veronica Roth did a better job with character development and suspense. I recommend them and I can't wait for the next one!


And FINALLY, book two!

I read Looking for Alaska after reading The Fault in Our Stars and I was disappointed. I wanted to reread (listen) to TFiOS again just to be sure that I wasn't building it up in my mind. Since reading LfA, I also listened to Will Grayson, Will Grayson and as you have already read above, I really enjoyed it. I have this addiction to the VlogBrothers YouTube channel and really wanted to like all of John Green's books but I really just thought that unlike his characters in TFiOS, the LfA characters were never really likeable. He does do a really good job dealing with grief and guilt, especially from a teen perspective, and he is really good at changing up the teen romance melodrama that is so unbelievably prevalent anymore, but I just really didn't like the characters say that I liked the book. I think it is worth a read simply because looking around online, my opinion is definitely in the minority but I probably won't be rereading this.







Procrastination and Book Six

I don't even know what to say about this book. Go read it. Blankets by Craig Thompson is simply, amazing.

There is something daunting about a 582 page book, even if it is a graphic novel. That being said, this was a quick read, even though I was trying to pay extra close attention in order to write about it.

There is something even more daunting about posting about a book that you love but cannot explain why.

So, really. Just go read it. 


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Orchids

I thought a break from the book reviewing was in order. Here's an orchid my mom has managed to keep alive and well. (I killed mine pretty quick...)


The Joys of Chick Lit and Book Five

There is a special place in my heart for chick lit! I decided that since this book was going to be the first book I'd read on my vacation, I wanted absolute brain candy: The Love of Her Life by Harriet Evans.

THIS was an impulse purchase if there ever was one. I'm not kidding when I say that I unpacked this book on Friday about a half hour before I was supposed to leave. It has the cheesiest cover (GLITTER everyone!!!) and I bought it without even reading the back.

I lucked out on this one. I do have to say that within the chick lit genre, anything British is like crack for me. This was no exception. All this being said. I already don't remember much about this book (I finished it less than an hour ago), and will probably never read it again.

I can't say that I'd recommend it really. There was nothing wrong with it and if you're a fan of the Shopaholic series or anything by Emily Griffin, you'll probably love it. What I mean to say that there are others I'd recommend much sooner than this. Jemima J comes to mind, and I may just make it one of my 50...

Counting My Blessings and Book Four

Still don't know what to say about book two so on to book four! Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I loved the vast majority of this book and I fully recommend it...

In the middle of their sophomore year, Eleanor is the new girl at school and her introduction to her classmates is less than ideal. She is thrown to the wolves on a public school bus. Park wants nothing to do with her, she is too bright, too obvious, and too big. Some small part of him takes pity though and he shares his seat with her.

From this point on they develop an unlikely friendship that becomes an even more unlikely romance.

So after my last post, I was especially determined to back away from the teen books for a bit and bury the post. If it sounded insecure and whiny, well, that's because it was. Anyway, I intended to finish a couple of the books I started before I read another teen book. Then we got this in as an advanced reader. Advanced readers are one of my favorite parts of working in a bookstore. Publishers want us to read their books so they send us copies for free, usually a few months before publication. I pretty much immediately wanted to read this book, the blurb on the back describes it as "a cross between the iconic 80's movie Sixteen Candles and the classic coming-of-age novel Looking for Alaska" (aka the as yet unreviewed book two).

I read Eleanor & Park in a couple days and am incredibly impressed with the quality of the writing. The basic story to me was pretty unoriginal. The super uncool girl gets the super cool guy (Sixteen Candles)... This book had the normal teenage shit, for example Eleanor's way of making friends: "because being assaulted by maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people." What impressed me though is that there is more to both of these kids than what is going on at school. They have more going on than angsty teenage crap. Eleanor is dealing with real issues. I enjoyed the way the author balanced the normal high school issues with the completely not-normal life Eleanor was living.

The biggest take-away for me from this book is that I am grateful for the things I have. Eleanor is dirt poor. She shares a bedroom with her FOUR younger siblings. She can't listen to the cassettes that Park gives her because she can't afford batteries. She brushes her teeth with salt and her finger because she doesn't have a toothbrush. And this doesn't even begin to cover the shit she goes through with her family. It made me reflect on the things that I take for granted. I tend to wish I had more a lot of the time, and this book made me reflect instead on the fortune of the things that I do have.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Shame of Teen Books and Book Three

So, let’s be honest. It seems like I gave up on my one and only resolution in the first month. But really, what has happened is, rather than helping me get back into reading, this project of mine has hindered this. When I read for myself, I have no shame in what I am reading. What I have discovered about reading with the intention to write about it is that I become very self-conscious about the content of whatever book I have picked up. This last month, I have started but not finished six books. As you know, I loved Judging a Book by It’s Lover, and you would think that I learned the lesson I partially professed to have taken from it, which is not to be ashamed of my reading choices. The book I have read most recently is actually the third I have finished, but I still don’t know what I want to say about the second, so onward we go. 

The third of the proposed fifty - ever more daunting - was Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, and I can honestly say that I loved it. 


I have read all of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and waited until now to read the final one simply because I thought that I had outgrown them. The first one was published my senior year of high school and I bought it while working at my first bookstore job. I loved it and had no shame about it. Over the last 11 years I have developed a bit of a complex about teen books. At some point I decided that despite my love of many teen books, there was something shameful about admitting that I loved them. This has been compounded in recent years by the creation of the “teen paranormal romance” genre. To admit that you have read the Twilight books, and even (gasp) enjoyed them is tantamount to admitting that your IQ is about half what people may have previously thought. (I’ll admit, I read all of them in 5 days.) I took a class at MSU where Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief was required reading. We spent a day’s discussion on what it means to be a young adult or teen book, what makes them different from either children’s books or adult books. I don’t remember a lot of what was concluded in that discussion, but I do remember walking away thinking that just because a book is intended for a certain audience, does not mean that it cannot be enjoyed by anyone else. I have had to remind myself of this in order to stop feeling like I should be reading within certain confines.

Back to Sisterhood Everlasting, this is a book that is not actually meant to be a teen book. It is intended to be general fiction, and simply a continuation of the series. For those of you who have not read the books, they are about four friends, who have been friends since they were born (within a month of each other) who find a pair of jeans that tie them together over four summers. The books show their struggles with becoming adults, independent of each other while still maintaining their friendship. The pants are mainly a symbol of what ties them together (love, family, friendship). So… on to the newest book.It shows where they are 10 years later. The tone of this book is much more mature and shows where the girls would realistically be on the verge of thirty. They are all spread across the world and are still struggling to come to terms with who they are and what they want out of life. At this point they are the individuals that you would expect and have grown out of the inseparability of childhood friendship. At the outset of a reunion between the four, everything changes. 

As a whole, this book (as well as its four teen counterparts) is completely sentimental. It’s pretty formulaic, it is bittersweet and at times I did feel like I could be spending my time reading something a little more intelligent. But really when it comes down to it, this book reminded me why I love reading. Because I could relate to a lot of it, and because for the day that I spent reading it, I was lost in it. I never felt like it was going to be a chore to get back to it. I wasn’t dreading writing about it, or even thinking about writing about it. And really this post hasn’t really even been about the book. I do recommend it, as with the rest of the series, if you’re willing to read it. But really what I recommend is reading what you like, not what you think you should be reading.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Resolutions and Book One

I generally believe new years resolutions are bull. My mom and I were talking about it the other day and in my cold addled logic I claimed that every day is the beginning of a new year, it's just what you use as a reference point. I know the inherent arguments for this, but when it really comes down to it, if you really want to resolve to change something about yourself, why do you have to wait to make new years resolutions. Just work towards your goals daily and if you fail, start again.

All of this being said, I am taking the opportunity of a new year and a fresh start to make a commitment, and I'm going to go ahead and call it a new years resolution. I resolve to read (this means complete) at least 50 books in 2013. Additionally I intend to write something about each of them. I haven't decided how much or little I want to write, I just know that writing is probably the thing that I miss most since graduating. I have some pretty heavy internal debate going on inside my head about whether I should include the audiobooks I listen to in this goal. I have decided that they do not count towards my 50 books but I will write about them. This challenge is to force me back into the actual act of reading.

The first book I have read is Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto.


This was quite possibly the perfect book with which to start. I think that Lauren Leto is the perfect example of what I believe about reading: She dropped out of law school to start "Texts from Last Night", she acknowledges in the first chapter that she has read all of the Twilight books and is known to read anything Evanovich on an airplane. I feel that when someone has read what I like to call "brain candy," the content in our society that is scorn-worthy,  they have earned the right to judge it. I mean really, how many of you who scorn any of the Twilight books have actually picked them up? Does the fact that others hold this book in contempt really allow you to judge it? How can you sit in judgement of something you don't know? Because of this, I can tolerate --> though disagree with --> Leto's contempt for my two favorite authors. In return I am comfortable in my own bit of contempt for all things Russian literature.

I enjoyed so much about this book, it is snarky, personal, and relatable.  In between personal essays on what it is for her to be a reader, she has inserted chapters such as "Rules for Public Reading," "Your Moveable Feast" (a collection of hypothetical dinners with great literary couples), "Stereotyping People by Favorite Author"  -->(I am a kid who doesn't fit in - Salinger, and a woman whose favorite color is hunter green - Atwood), "How to Fake It" (a great real life Cliffs Notes- what Cliffs Notes ever told you to not to talk about Catcher in the Rye with a true Salinger fan?), and "Twitter-Sized Reviews of Memoirs" ("Never mind." - A Million Little Pieces).

 My three favorite quotes from the book --> there were many --> are these:

"My solution for all the young writers being discouraged to the point of giving up is simple. 
Murder the others. 
Poison their overpriced vodka and soda while they're in the bathroom. Shoot them in the face when they're asleep.
I'm talking about the people who read only to criticize and who talk only to condescend."

"A book read without deliberate consideration is a waste for both the author and the reader. Talking with others about our experience with the book is our way of celebrating the art. That we were pulled into the same existence and we emerged emotionally charged but each struck in a unique way is the beauty of reading."

"Great covers are not a graphical summary of the story; they're the artist's comment on the message, their interpretation of the images inside."

And if nothing else she has gotten me to Google Chuck Palahnuik's family history