• About Muttix
  • Book Challenges
  • Books/Reading/Libraries
  • Tutorials
  • Blog Roll

Over the Moon and Sun

~ Following whichever path I like, beaten or not.

Over the Moon and Sun

Monthly Archives: May 2011

Create…

24 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Crafting/Crocheting/Sewing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

felt food, links, tutorials

I was perusing Etsy today and came across some cool finds. Some of these I’ve seen and lusted after for awhile, some are new. This is not a complete or final Christmas list, but I see the beginnings of one stirring. Also included are some free tutorials. I’m lazy today so you’ll have to check out the links to see which is which.

Lobster Crab Seafood Felt Food Pattern

Medieval Castle

Miss Ginger Greeneyes

Felt Food Patterns & Tutorials Links

Field Notes’ offerings

American Felt and Craft has a ton of free patterns for felt food

Felt Taco

I made a sandwich for the chits using Skip to My Lou’s Felt Brown Bag Lunch Tutorial

How to make lovely fabric flowers

10 Beautiful Fabric Flower Tutorials

Felt Campfire

Handmade Paper Tutorial

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Felt Orange Slices

Fairy Tale Quiet Book

In an effort to get more organized, I’m adding crafty projects to my Outlook. I have to say, it satisfies the list maker in me to see the neatly organized crafts entered by day to start.

Advertisements

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Currently Reading

22 Sunday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Books/Reading/Libraries

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

48 hour book challenge, books, Hush: A Princess Tale, Julie and Julia, reading, the know-it-all

I finished “The Know-It-All” and throughout the last half of the book, was repeatedly reminded why I was so gun shy about reading this book to begin with. I’ve definitely decided that I won’t be reading any more A. J. Jacobs books in the foreseeable future. Now, normally I am able to separate an author from his writing. I care little about the opinionated views or politics of a person, so long as they tell me a good story. But as this is a work that depicts Jacobs’ life, I found it to be tedious and annoying. I tried to push past that view, remembering that I somewhat enjoyed “A Year Living Biblically” after I got through my mental blocks about the whole thing. But every chapter, sometimes every page, Jacobs’ struck this chord in me. You know the one, when you want to just shake your head, put down the book, and start on something worth your time. If I still worked full-time, that probably would have been the outcome of that situation. Instead, I have abundant free time on my hands (a fact which the Husband points out quite frequently) so I chose to stumble through the book, focusing instead on the sometimes wonderful tidbits of information found within the boring storyline.

But then Jacobs’ would do or say something supremely similar to the noise that emanates from a donkey’s nether regions. He got into Mensa due to his SAT scores. I thought that his admittance was cool, that is, until he started whining about various geniuses who told him that he couldn’t improve his actual, physical intelligence level by reading the entire encyclopedia. He seemed to take great offense to the suggestion that he just might not be a genius himself though he admits that he failed the IQ test, only skating by on SAT scores from years prior. He mentions numerous brilliant people from the past though he skates over the fact that, were they alive today for him to contact via email or answering service, they’d likely say the same thing. Einstein didn’t know many seemingly common facts (meaning ones that American public schooling places the utmost importance upon), preferring to not waste brain space on facts that he could easily find (a fact that I didn’t get from “Know-It-All”).

All in all, I just don’t seem to like Jacobs. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like he’s a nice enough guy and I obviously enjoy some of his writing. It is just that if I had to describe him in one word, I’d likely pick “jerk”. And I have enough of those in my life.

After “Know-It-All”, I had to lighten my fare a bit so I jumped straight into “Hush: An Irish Princess Tale” by Donna Jo Napoli. I enjoyed the overall storyline enough to put a few of Napoli’s other books on my to-read list. Basically Mel’s brother gets his hand cut off on a visit to Dublin that was attended by the family due to Mel’s want to visit. Her father decides to take revenge on the people responsible and it all goes downhill from there (the events, not the story). The storyline itself left me wanting more information, and thus adding a few more books to my never-ending to-read list, but overall it didn’t offend my sensibilities by offering the view of slavery as something light and happy. I wouldn’t recommend this for a young preteen (I know I was aching to read YA at the age of around 10, my mom held me off for a little while but when you have a child who reads as much as I did, there wasn’t really much she could do about the situation) due to some difficult scenes. Though, not having a preteen nor having been one for quite some time, I say take it as you want it. As a parent I might recommend reading the book through first (it is a quick, and enjoyable read) to see if it is something your child will be able to stomach. But I’m all for reading, with not much emphasis on censorship, so I say, check out the link and decide for yourself.

Once I finished “Hush” (a decidedly quick read, especially as I was so refreshed with the material after struggling through the last hundred pages of “Know-It-All) I picked up “Julie and Julia”. I really liked the movie, which led me to do a search on the author. Apparently her next book wasn’t taken with as much love from the general public as the first but that didn’t sway me. A lover of science fiction and fantasy, I don’t tend to hold much value in the opinions of the general public. At less than 100 pages in, I think the book is alright.

I’m trying with all my might to stay away from the books I have put aside for the 48 Hour Book Challenge. In an attempt to stay awake for the entire 48 this year, I’m picking a lot of books that I really want to read. So they sit (the ones that have arrived so far, that is) on my bookshelf, calling to me, begging me to read them. I will resist!

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Quote of a Lifetime

15 Sunday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Life + Learning

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

complete and utter randomness

Only 194 pages into “The Know-It-All”, I have found THE quote. You know the one. The one that makes you put down the coffee, sit back in your chair, and go, ‘hmm…’ The quote that you read when suddenly the skies part and you are standing on a hill, being told the meaning of life from a booming voice. The one that you would totally buy if it were slapped on a bumper sticker.

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Horace Mann

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Woodland Baby Shower

15 Sunday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Life + Learning

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

baby shower

I have changed my mind about the baby shower theme. Something just wasn’t striking me as right about the Cirque du Bebe theme. It is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, it just didn’t fit quite properly.

I’ve now decided on a woodland/forest theme. Basically your basic fairy forest theme, minus the fairy (as this shower is for a BOY!!). I’m thinking deep green and brown tablecloths, fairy lights (a.k.a. twinkle lights or Christmas lights, whatever you may call them), flowers, woodland creatures (owls, etc.), and trees. And maybe a gnome or two will sneak their way in.

Right now I’m in the process of picking out some flower patterns (that’s right folks, I have another excuse to crochet!) and browsing around on various crafty websites, looking for ideas. Of course there will be need for leaves and climbing vines. I’m not sure how I’ll attach these items (I have yet to check out the room in question) but I’ll figure something out. I hear you can do fabulous things with Command hooks, though I have yet to try them myself.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Lay ‘Em Out and Measure

09 Monday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Books/Reading/Libraries

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2011 reading goals, books, hotel iris, librarything, reading, soulless, the know-it-all, the wolves of andover

I’ve been pondering book count as of late. For 2011, I have a self-imposed books read goal of 50. I didn’t pull that number out of thin air, I got it from seeing numerous book groups online (LibraryThing, etc.) regarding reading 50 books in a year. There were also higher number book clubs. 52 books a year (with some groups classifying further as one book a week), 75 books a year, 100 books a year. I’ve yet to see a book group with a higher number than 100 as a goal. But, as I seem to struggle to get to 50 as life intervenes, I picked 50 as it seemed a nice number. A challenge but within reach.

Which brings me to my question. Does page or word count come into question with the members of these groups? Do they purposefully choose shorter books to help them reach the challenge? I ask because I found myself pondering whether I should hold off reading “The Land of the Painted Caves” due to its length. I was already behind pace for the year (according to Shelfari) to meet my goal of reading 50 books when I decided to read it. I knew that reading such a tome would put me even further behind pace. Of course, I had highly anticipated the release of the last book in the series, for years, and finally decided that I would not sacrifice reading the book as soon as possible just to meet an arbitrary goal I’d set for myself. Had I known that the reading would be even further drawn out due to my near constant state of drowsiness when reading yet another detailed explanation of yet another cave, perhaps I would have decided differently… No. I still would have needed to know what happened to Ayla.

But back to my point, page count does count for a lot. Playing around with the stats section of Goodreads (which I like for how it keeps track of my page count and the ability to easily update to Facebook), I found that though I have yet to read “as many” (until this year I wasn’t very tidy in my book tracking) books as 2009 (see?), I have far surpassed it in pages read. Interesting.

So, if I choose to spend my year reading young adult fiction barely passing 100 pages in length while my contemporary chooses to read thick classics, who reads “more”? Sure, I’ll have read more books, but won’t my contemporary have read “more”, in the literal sense.

Sigh. What I won’t do to be rid of a deadline.

My goal for this year is 50 books. At this time, I’ve read 12 and need to read at a pace of five books per month to meet my goal for the year. I’m currently reading quite a few books which are (in no particular order other than what comes to mind first): “The Know-It-All”, “Hotel Iris”, “The Wolves of Andover”, and “Soulless”. I’ll need to finish all of those in addition to another book by the end of the month so as to stay on track this month. I wonder if I’ll be able to fit “War and Peace” into my reading schedule this year?

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Summer Learning

09 Monday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in homeschooling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

homeschool, summer, unit study

With summer just around the corner, the question must be broached, what will we do all day? I thought long and hard on this one. Obviously there will be a need for lots of “field trips” to keep the chits entertained. Physical activity is also a must. When looking through the numerous offerings in our state, I decided that the first outing on the plate would be a day at the lake. Boating, fishing, all that good stuff. Memories for a lifetime, squished into the small expanse of summer.

Beyond that, there will be a need for learning. I’m all for unintentional learning, I am a firm believer in the fact that we are all lifetime learners and some of the best educational aspects of life are happened upon accidentally, through the course of our normal days. However, I also believe that there should be, in my personal life, intentional learning in place. Teaching something that might not have normally been on the plate, something that may not be in one’s personal sphere of interests. That, my friends, is how one expands one’s horizons.

Wordy though I am, that was my way of announcing that I am building a unit study. This time, I will actually post said unit study upon completion. Unit study broad topic: Lakes

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Reading List: 48 Hour Book Challenge

07 Saturday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Books/Reading/Libraries

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

48 hour book challenge

After doing a preliminary sweep of my to-read list on Shelfari, here are some of the titles I’ve picked for the 48 hour book challenge.

  1. Sold by Patricia McCormick (on the back end of my 3,000+ to-read list)
  2. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
  3. Huey: Spirit of the Panther by David Hilliard
  4. A Xanth book or two
  5. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
  6. Excuse Me, But I Was Next by Peggy Post

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Another Weekend of Reading!!!

07 Saturday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Books/Reading/Libraries

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

48 hour book challenge, reading

I love this weekend. This is the weekend I look forward to all year. A weekend just for me, to indulge in the activity I love best: reading!

MotherReader has announced the sign-up for the 48 hour book challenge weekend and I am completely over the moon about it!! You may remember my first year of doing the challenge, I had to work. That wasn’t so great as it was therefore necessary for me to do such time-suckers as sleep and talk to coworkers. Last year, I notably took the entire time off of work and my sister came over to do the challenge with me. This year, I plan to do the same as last. I don’t currently work outside of the home (though, this being a point of contention between the Husband and myself, I may be working at that time) but whatever the case, I plan to not be working for the time of the challenge. You can check up on my older challenge tries by following the link: 48 hour book challenge entries.

I read through my old postings and realized I need to get a few things in preparation for the event. So my list is as follows:

  1. A lamp (or possibly two). My apartment is more set for comfortable living than intense, don’t fall asleep no matter what, deep reading.
  2. Comfortable, portable seating. Whether this is a few floor cushions or a couple beanbags, something must be procured.
  3. Snacks. Got to have the fuel to feed the deprived body.
  4. Books!! Lots and lots of books!

I’ve already begun to order books from my local library in preparation. I’m going for a wide variety of genres this year but I suppose my main focus will be historical fiction, science fiction, fiction, and young adult. I’m scouring book blogs for recommendations and obviously, would welcome any recommendations in the comments.

Both the Husband’s sister and my brother have been wanting to have the kids for a day for awhile now so I’m going to attempt to get the Husband to get his sister on the bandwagon for a day. For the other day I’ll be enlisting the help of my brother. Of course, the kids are relatively low-maintenance (compared to years prior) so if it comes down to it, I plan to outfit the apartment with books/games/dvds/snacks/etc. to keep the chits busy.

Last year I completed 41.5 hours of complete time. This year my goal is a full 48 hours. I want to WIN darn it! Along with coffee, this year I’ll be bringing energy drinks to the table. Plus, I’m going to supersleep the day before to ensure proper rest. I also want to read a minimum of ten books for the challenge. I’m not going to name specific titles at this point, but I want at least one title to be a classic and I’ll pull at least one title from the back of my to-read Shelfari list.

I’m so excited!

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Reading This Month: May 2011

05 Thursday May 2011

Posted by Muttix in Books/Reading/Libraries

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

books, fat vampire, hotel iris, read in 2011, reading, the land of the painted caves, The Witch's Daughter, the wolves of andover

April’s reading got entirely too far behind for my liking. But, that was due to working insane hours at my old place of work and the fact that “The Land of the Painted Caves” was extremely long and fairly dry.

Yes, I said it. I agree with the overall consensus on the last book in the Earth Children series. I’ll write about that more in a subsequent post.

I finished “The Witch’s Daughter” sometime in April as I needed something (anything) to get a break from “The Land of the Painted Caves”. While at work (now my ex-work, so delicious a feeling that I have while typing that out) I dropped my iPod on the concrete floor. It was horrible. It happened so quickly and yet so slowly. I was stuck in the moment for awhile, just staring at my poor, defenseless iPod face down on the ground. When I finally gathered the courage to pick it up and see the damage, what I saw shocked me to my core. You see, I am not the most careful with accessories. I have dropped my iPod previous to this. However, my beauty always had a protective cover on it that held it just a hair above the damaging ground. But I’d… (this is hard for me, bear with me) taken the cover off. Yes, my grief was indeed caused by my own hand. I’d taken off the cover so as to fix it (it had these interchangeable design buttons on the back) and hadn’t gotten around to putting it back on. It still works (thank all that is holy) but the screen is shattered. Shattered. Much like the state of my soul when I picked up my pride and joy from the ground and turned it over to see the amazing crack in it’s surface that dented and split into a thousand tiny pieces. I’m sure I can have it fixed. And I’m sure that it will cost as much as the device itself to do so. After all, the warranty only covers “acts of G-d” and my pure stupidity is not covered as one of those acts.

But back to the matter at hand. So after I smashed the screen I could barely stand to look at the thing anymore. So I did something that I haven’t done in awhile and I picked up one of my hardback library books. First I read “Fat Vampire” which was a bit young for my tastes. I enjoy reading young adult fiction however there is a limit to how young I prefer the writing style. I liked the book enough to recommend it to a young (13 or so) teenager, but not enough to consider buying it or even renewing the title on my library card.

I then moved quickly on (and I do mean quickly, as I shut the cover to “Fat Vampire” I went in search of my next read just moments later) to “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” by Gregory Maguire . I have to admit, I seem to be one of few that couldn’t make it through “Wicked” written by the same author. However I enjoyed “Confessions” so much that I do believe I’m going to give “Wicked” another go, at some point. It was written well and I enjoyed the pieces of daily life slipped into the book. I am a great lover of historical fiction which most likely plays into my liking of the book but I believe that even if you are one that doesn’t particularly like the genre, you’ll still find this title engaging.

Once I finished “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” I picked up two other reads, “Hotel Iris” and “The Wolves of Andover” which I am reading in turns as the mood inspires me. I admit that I have sunk more quickly into “The Wolves of Andover” as I am not much in the mood for hearing the sexual exploits of men, whatever they may be.

I hesitate to post my reading goals for the month as they have yet to work out for me in the past. However, I am becoming dreadfully behind my goal pace and would like to change that to taking a large step ahead this month. So I hope to read a minimum of six books this month to catch up. I’m not sure what I’ll read beyond that, I tend to pick titles as the mood moves me. But with my new expanse of time, I’m going to spend a little time catching up on various book blogs to see what I should add to my library list.

Talk about it:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Over the Moon and Sun

Over the Moon and Sun

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 552 other followers

2014 Reading Challenge

2014 Reading Challenge
Muttix has read 13 books toward her goal of 150 books.
hide
13 of 150 (8%)
view books

I’ve read

I’m reading

Tweets

  • Here's the info on the Desoto lockdown. Thank goodness it seems like it was just a prank. Unfortunate lesson coming… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 3 days ago
  • Just got a 2nd call (mistakenly on this call list) that kids are expected to be back in class by 2:30. It said all… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 3 days ago
  • @MSNBC I turned on the news trying to find out what this auto call I got meant. You're playing info about an arrest… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 3 days ago
  • RT @KRLD: JUST IN: Desoto ISD saying DHS and district middle schools are on lockdown as a safety precaution. twitter.com/desotoisdengag… 3 days ago
  • RT @randomhouse: Congratulations to @wellreadblkgirl on receiving the Innovator's Award from the @latimes! We're so excited to publish Edim… 5 days ago
Made these dishcloths for someone while thinking of summers spent by the water. #crochet #homegoods #handmade
Someone has made a fake account pretending to be me. Muttix01 isn't me. If you have a second, hit that report button on it. Thanks!
Crochet mini rainbow backpack. #crochet #fashion #diy #ravelry #craftsy #designer

Muttix’s quotes


Goodreads Quotes
May 2011
M T W T F S S
« Apr   Jun »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Categories

  • Baby Showers (2)
  • Books/Reading/Libraries (124)
  • Christmas (29)
  • Crafting/Crocheting/Sewing (108)
  • crochet (4)
  • food (6)
  • Halloween (7)
  • Healthy Living (2)
  • Holidays (8)
  • homeschooling (15)
  • language (1)
  • Life + Learning (55)
  • Music (1)
  • Running (2)
  • Site Improvements (3)
  • Thanksgiving (4)
  • Uncategorized (201)
  • working at home (1)
  • writing (7)

Top Clicks

  • furlscrochet.com/pages/fr…
  • crochetzone.com/2015/05/0…
  • hopefulhoney.com/2015/03/…
  • hopefulhoney.com/2015/02/…
  • ravelry.com/patterns/libr…

48 hour book challenge 2010 afterbirth Audiobook baby shower Belle Belle's purse birthday blog blog roll blogs book review books bookstores Bout of Books challenge christmas Christmas 2009 christmas tutorials classical education cleaning conversation cooking crafts crochet crochet graph Disney Doctor Who dul easter felt food felt food tutorial fin food freebies free crochet graph german gifts Halloween hat Holidays homeschool homeschooling Jane Eyre languages librarything library thing link links music ornaments patterns projects purse read in 2011 reading reading challenge reading list sale sewing shelfari shop shopping spanish Story of the World Thanksgiving the book of witches the time traveler's wife the year of living biblically tutorials Twilight weight loss what the dormouse said wip wednesday writing

Archives

Advertisements

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: