With the latest novel, Deadlocked, The Sookie Stackhouse Novels (aka Southern Vampire Mysteries) are now twelve books into the series and the cracks are showing. The plot, such as it is, was mildly interesting – a dead girl shows up on Eric’s front lawn and it becomes obvious that someone is trying to set him up for the murder.

However, the murder mystery takes up very little of the book. What the reader is treated to for most of the book is a rehash of Sookie’s daily life. There are multiple paragraphs describing Sookie as she cleans the kitchen, or gets mail, or runs errands around town.

Wow.

Sookie is just like me! But who wants to read the minutiae of a regular life lived? Not me.

Looking for hot vampires? Look elsewhere. The same goes for werewolves or any other type of interesting supernatural being. In between following Sookie as she completes her “To Do List” we are treated to her dwelling over her relationship with Eric which was fallen apart even more than the strain of the last book.

Nothing concrete happens in their relationship in this book, [semi-spoiler alert] but allow me to soften the blow for all of my fellow Eric fans out there. I think it’s quite obvious that the last and final book in the Sookie series, Dead Ever After (to be published in May 2013), is going to put the nail in the coffin of their relationship. I have long had my suspicions of how this series is going to end (I won’t ruin it for you if you prefer to live in the dark a little longer), but Deadlocked confirmed what I feared was going to happen all along.  And I’m not happy.

Charlaine Harris is NOT a good writer. At all. But she did have good story-telling on her side which is why I allowed myself to get sucked into the World of Sookie. However, I think it’s obvious that even Charlaine Harris has her limits on how long she can spin a yarn. Deadlocked is a dull edition to the series and sets up what will be an even more unsatisfactory ending to the entire series come next May.

Final Verdict: C

Life has really been stepping up a lot lately. Play-dates, gymnastics, dancing, work, work and work have combined into a huge Swirling Force that has swooped down and is pushing us along.

Surprisingly, I’m feeling pretty calm within the Storm of Life. Happy even.

I think, it may be that I truly realize that this moment in time is so short. We are running through life more than walking.

Sometimes, it’s all we can do to just hold on.

And go along for the ride.

But if we’re lucky, patient and cool, when we reach the top, we will be rewarded with blue skies and a great view.

I have a skill that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. I am a kook-caller. A whisperer to the crazy folk. A wack-a-do magnet. I can walk into any building, in any city, in any country, the world over, and I can guarantee that someone who is slightly…off…will wander up to me. Sometimes these meetings are minor and involve nothing more than a rambling story and sometimes the meetings are of the distinctly undesirable and slightly scary variety.

The stories I have of confrontations with people of this ilk are long, and likely boring, but I was reminded of my quirky “skill” as I watched my daughter in the park this week. It seems as though, my daughter has unknowingly begun calling people to her in the same way that I call the strange ones to me. Only, in my daughter’s case, the people that she’s attracting are almost all little boys.

In one case, the boy was someone we had never met before. I learned that he is seven, which makes him quite the senior citizen compared to my three-year-old.

After watching my daughter and the boy chat for a few moments, I saw him jump onto his bike and dash off around the park, suddenly turning his front wheel to be on a direct course with her. He stood on his pedals and pushed with all his might and I started to become concerned that he was going to crash into her. I started to move towards her when he dramatically skidded to a stop at the last possible moment.

Em stood there staring at the boy, unphased by her close brush with the bottom of his bicycle tire.

She said nothing.

The boy, not satisfied with this reaction proceeded to perform various Acts of Amazing Skill, all the while calling for her to watch him.

My daughter, being three, watched him for a bit and then ran off to look at a rock, while he continually called “Did you see that? Did you watch me?” and, in the end, when she didn’t respond, he zoomed up to her, popped a wheelie on his bike and announced, “I did that just for you.”.

She looked up and him, then at me, then at him again, and beamed her brightest smile. Then she turned her back to him and ran off to select a Really Awesome Stick to Carry and Poke Things With, while I was left to contemplate the new Call of the Siren skill that my daughter has acquired. I’m not sure I like it.

I don’t think there is much else that I love more than reading…excepting my family of course. I adore books and reading and I have an overflowing bookshelf to prove it. One of the most important things that I can do for my kids, is to pass on my love of reading (I even got a little teary-eyed just writing that, I believe in it so passionately), which is why I read with them every single day.

We often read storybooks, of course, but not always. I am just as happy to read a story about the LEGO Star Wars Phantom Menace as I am to read the LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia. (My reviews are below.) As long as we’re reading, and the kids love it, I’m happy.

DK is just as passionate about books as I am (probably a little more so since they create the very books I love), and so they created May the Fourth Be With You Day. For every DK Star Wars book sold at Chapters / Indigo stores from May 4-6, DK will be making a donation to the Indigo For the Love of Reading Foundation.

The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation puts books into the hands of Canadian children, and to do date Love of Reading has committed over $12 million to more than 650 high-needs elementary schools across the country so children can develop a love of reading, unleash their dreams and fulfil their potential. For more information about the Foundation visit, loveofreading.org

May the 4th Be With You Parties!

This weekend is a great time to head to your local Chapters and Indigo stores. Several stores across Canada will be having special May the 4th parties this weekend with costumed members of the 501st Legion!. Click here, for a list of stores and times.

Tweet or Facebook the Love

If you attend one of the May the 4th Be With You parties, post a picture of the event to DK Canada’s Facebook page, or tweet it out using the hashtag #DKmay4th and DK Canada will make a donation for each photo to the Love of Reading Foundation.

Win a DK Stars Wars Library

This month, send DK Canada a photo of yourself (or someone you love) reading a DK Star Wars books. For each picture received, DK Canada will make a donation to the Love of Reading Foundation. The winner will receive a DK Star Wars library worth $200 and an entire set of DK Star Wars Readers will be donated to the library of school of the winner’s choice. For full contest details, click the “Photo Contest” button on the DK Canada site.

DK Star Wars Books

I’m a huge Star Wars fan, so it was hard to pick just one DK Canada Star Wars book to review. Luckily, the lovely DK Canada folks sent us three books for review.

LEGO Star Wars Episode I Phantom Menace: My own opinion of the movie aside, my five-year-old son thinks that this particular Star Wars story is the best – after all, Darth Maul is a pretty cool looking bad guy. This Level 2 book is a complex enough to suit as a bedtime story, but simple enough that I think my son will be able to start reading some of this on his own soon.

LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Where do you turn to solve the question of what colour light-saber Obi-Wan Kenobi uses? Well, if you’re a five-year-old boy who doesn’t believe that your mother knows the answer (I did), you turn to this book. This book has proven hugely useful in solving all of the many, many, many questions my son has come up with on the subject of Star Wars and LEGO. It’s fully illustrated and perfect for capturing the attention of any Star Wars or LEGO fan.

Star Wars Phantom Menace Sticker Collection: We own a few DK sticker collection books, so the Star Wars one we received was a sure-fire hit right away. I love these sticker books as they are great to keep the kids busy for long stretches of time and they travel easily as well (think on the plane or in the hotel!). The stickers are also easy to peel off from the backing, which means even my three-year-old can play with the stickers without needing me to peel each one off for her.

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Disclosure: I received the above DK Canada books for review. The opinions in this post are my own. Reading rocks.

Never say never, or so they say. Up until now, there hasn’t been a point in my blogging “career” where I thought that I would be part of a panel at a blog conference. At yet, come mid-June, I will indeed be sitting up front alongside a group of amazing women at the Northern Voice conference here in Vancouver.

Our session is called Owning Our Beauty and will be about:

Many women buy into what is considered “ideal” beauty and put themselves below it.  As bloggers, can we start to change the conversation and help take back ownership of our beauty?  Can we start to change what is considered beautiful by how we speak (and feel) about ourselves?  Wouldn’t it be great if we looked at ourselves in the mirror and saw our true beauty? And did not compare ourselves to our past, who we might be tomorrow or to some unknown “ideal” in a magazine?  The panel will discuss how they approach their own beauty and how they feel we might affect change as bloggers.  The panel compromises of a range of women, at different life stages, that blog about style, parenting and lifestyle, as well as an added PR perspective.

My good bloggie friend, Tracey Rossignol (Fashion Forward 40 will be the moderator, and we’ll be joined by Frances Sprout (Mater Familias Knits, Lisa Wong (Solo Lisa), and Sarah Murray (Fashion Capsule).

At this point I am wavering between excitement and stoic concern, however I’ve attended a bazillion conferences and every other speaker has managed to make it out of their session without fainting or throwing up so I figure I should be okay.

If you’re in the area, you can still snag tickets to Northern Voice and say “hey”!

One of the things I often hear from people when I mention that I am a Life Made Delicious Connector is that they assume all of the recipes on LifeMadeDelicious.ca are using pre-packaged mixes. While it’s true that there are a number of recipes on the site that do use a mix as one of the ingredients (which makes for great quick cooking when you’re in a rush or cooking with kids), there are also quite a lot of recipes that don’t use any mixes for ingredients, like the recipe I used for these truly homemade cookies.

Last night as I was browsing Life Made Delicious for a cookie recipe to make with my daughter today, I realized that I’m in a bit of a rut when it comes to the type of cookies that I make – for instance, they almost always have some form of chocolate in them. Looking for something completely new, I spied these Coconut Cashew Crunchers in the Top 10 Homemade Goodies List (close runner up for me were these Molasses Ginger Cookies).

These cookies are really good. I had trouble keeping my daughter from eating all the raw dough before we put them in the oven (Note: the batter has raw egg so it’s not a great idea for your kids to eat the batter, tempting though it may be). Though everyone (including our cat) loves these cookies, the next time I make them, I think I’ll flatten them out a bit more. The cookies don’t spread out much while cookie, so when the recipe says “flatten slightly”, go ahead and squash them down.

Coconut Cashew Crunchers Recipe

*Makes 18-22 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 2 cups (500 mL) flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) chopped cashews

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. In large bowl, beat sugars, butter, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon, until creamy. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in coconut and cashews.
2. Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart onto ungreased large cookie sheet; flatten slightly.
3. Bake 12 to 16 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

One of my favourite cookbook series has been the books from Janet and Greta Podleski. In fact, their first cookbook, Looneyspoons, was the first cookbook I ever bought. As time continued, they published Crazy Plates and Eat, Shrink & Be Merry, which also reside in my cookbook cupboard.

Their latest book, The Looneyspoons Collection is a greatest hits collection of their best ever recipes as well as some new ones.

As I’ve owned the books for so many years, I have some definite favourites – recipes that I have brought to potluck lunches and made for friends time and again because I know they’re a sure fire hit every time. Some of those favourites (and many new recipes) are in The Looneyspoons Collection. I love their Caesar Salad, which uses a hard-boiled egg instead of a raw one for the dressing, it’s excellent. I also recommend the Penne Pasta with Bacon, Mushrooms, Spinach and Sun-dried Tomatoes, and everyone who has tried the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Tangy Apple Jelly and Dijon Mustard Sauce has left my house with a copy of the recipe. It’s that good.

Though I love their recipes, the one problem I had with the previous cookbooks was that photos of the recipes were pretty much non-existent. Thankfully, The Looneyspoons Collection corrects that with photographs for almost every second recipe. Yay! The book is still jam-packed with information on nutrition and healthy food tips as well as funny little bits of trivia. For example, “in the West African country of Senegal, women weave belts of ginger-root to restore their mates’ sexual potency”. Huh.

The best part of The Looneyspoons Collection is that the recipes always work. Always. In the decade and a half that I’ve been cooking with Janet and Greta Podleski’s recipes, I’ve never had an oops moment. That’s not something I can say very often.

Visit Janet and Greta’s website to learn more about their TV appearances and take a peak at some of their delicious recipes.

Buy it:

The Looneyspoons Collection is a fantastic buy for anyone looking for a new cookbook, and it’s cover price is $34.95.

Giveaway:

I am uber thrilled that one of my readers will be able to win their own copy of The Looneyspoons Collection! Because I have used so many of these recipes over the years as my fallback for potluck lunches, to enter, please leave a comment on this blog post telling me the name of a favrouite recipe that you like to bring to potlucks. Once you have left your comment, make sure you tick that option as complete in the Rafflecopter widget for the entry to be registered! (This giveaway is open to Canadian shipping addresses.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Disclosure: I received a copy of The Looneyspoons Collection for review. All opinions in this post are my own.

This is a post inspired by my involvement as a Fisher-Price Mom.

Green Living Tips

Earth Day was last week, but to me Earth Day shouldn’t just be a single day, but something that we all live and breathe every day of every week the whole year through. Although, I don’t often blog about green living on A Lot of Loves, but I have written a couple of eco-love posts that hopefully provided a little inspiration, such as my post on starting composting and how to make peanut butter pine cone bird feeders with your kids.

The thing about eco-living is that it’s often easier than you think. Before we started our compost bin, I thought that it would be such a pain separating out the compost from the garbage, but really it’s not. We got used to it right away and even the kids are learning to use it. Plus, my garden is happy with all of the nice new compost spread around the plants.

Fisher-Price also cares about the Earth and living green. The Fisher-Price Parenting blog this month features a good article by Dr. Laura Stachel with some tips about how to reuse and recycle.

Little People Comes to Treehouse

Kids love playing with Fisher-Price’s Little People, and now they’re coming to Treehouse TV! The Little People television series is all about five preschoolers who make big discoveries and share the wonder of their world with your kids. The Little People TV series will show weekend mornings at 9am ET on Treehouse TV.

Fisher-Price at Babytime Show

If you’re in Toronto, head over to the Babytime show this weekend (April 28 & 29) at the International Centre and say “Hi!” to the friendly faces at the Fisher-Price booth. They’ll be giving out Fisher-Price catalogues with coupons enclosed and there will be an adult size baby bouncer for you to try out (I tried this at the Blissdom Canada conference – it’s pretty fun).

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Disclosure: I am a Fisher-Price Mom and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I’ve been reliving old memories of foods I used to make back in the day lately. It started with my recent Eggs Santiago revival, and has continued on for the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I’ve been having a bit of a stressful time lately, and I seem to be finding some comfort in reliving my past on a plate.

One of the recipes that I’ve made recently was something that I started cooking after I attended a Pampered Chef party many eons ago. A Pampered Chef party, in case you have managed to avoid one of these, is a party at someone’s house where everyone is treated to their own private infomercial on the products she is trying to sell you.

Years ago, I attended on of these parties, and in addition to coming home with a new juice jug and an over-proof spatula, I also was introduced to a recipe very similar to what I soon came to call my Stuffed Chicken Broccoli Cheese Bread…or that Yummy Chicken Thing. Call it what you will, it’s good eats.

It also happens to use Pillsbury Crescent Rolls as a main ingredient, and since I’m a Life Made Delicious Connector, and since this recipe is always a crowd pleaser, I started wondering if they had a similar recipe on their LifeMadeDelicious.ca site. Because this recipe’s ingredients can be easily changed up to please almost anyone, I think it would be a good option for Mother’s Day brunch. I wasn’t able to find a recipe exactly like my Yummy Chicken Thing on Life Made Delicious, but I did find the Crescent Wreath Recipe, Crecent Tuna Braid, or the Crafty Crescent Lasagna which you can use as inspiration.

Stuffed Chicken Broccoli Cheese Bread

* Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 brick Cream Cheese (or Cream Cheese Substitute), softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped
• 1 cup cheddar, shredded
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and bake in 350°F oven until cooked through – approximately 25-30 min. Cool and chop into small bite-size pieces.
2. In bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic, salt and pepper until smooth.
3. Add chicken, broccoli and shredded cheddar to cream cheese mix and combine.
4. Open can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Do NOT pull the rolls apart. Unroll the dough and lay out flat on cookie sheet. Spread mix onto dough. It will seem like a lot but it will flatten out as it cooks. Pull up the sides of the dough and pinch along the top to keep it closed. Put in oven and bake in 350°F oven until heated through and bread is nicely brown – approximately 25-30 minutes.

Oasis Juice Promotion

My kids drink a lot of juice. Even with me trying to limit their consumption (they would drink an entire carton a day otherwise) I still need to buy a few juice cartons each week. I’m sure most families are the same, which is why this month’s General Mills’ promotion is so fantastic. General Mills has partnered with Oasis, makers of 100% juice blends (including some fruit and veggie combos).

To receive your free Oasis juice voucher redeemable on a variety of Oasis Juice products including Oasis Smothie, Oasis Premium, Oasis Health Break, or Oasis Nature’s Collection, look for specially marked boxes of General Mills’ cereals (including Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Multi-Grain Cheerios, Oatmeal Crisp, Lucky Charms, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Nesquik, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Reese Puffs, French Toast Crunch, Banana Nut Cheerios, or Chocolate Cheerios).

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Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I’ve had a couple of people point out that I’ve disappeared a little from this blog and Twitter lately. And it’s true. I haven’t been here, but I have been around, moving around in the shadows quietly and silently like the ninja that I am.

Actually, much of my time has been spent on a few different projects for my company, Cursive Web. It’s been amazing to finally get some traction for the work that really has my heart. I’ve been blogging for other people’s company sites, designing and developing bits and bobs around the net for various sites, AND my big project has been on the complete move and site redesign for Stephanie Knaak’s site, Motherhood Cafe.

This was an enormous project that has consumed most of my time for the past six weeks or so. Stephanie’s original site was locked into an archaic platform called Site Build It! (or SBI!) which I’m not going to link to because no one should ever use this platform. Avoid it at all costs. I’m serious.

Sadly (for me) there was no way to automate the move of her site, and so it was all done by hand, piece-by-piece, link-by-link, image-by-image. The site is now sitting on its new home on WordPress, and it’s just waiting for a few final tweaks from me.

If you take a peek, I also did the header design, as well as the background move. For the header design, I tried to create a graphic that is nicely symbolic of Stephanie’s content which covers everything from pregnancy to new motherhood to beyond.

Although, there’s a little more editing that I have to do, and possibly some colour changes, I thought I’d give it a little soft opening unveil and let you all know why it’s been so quiet over here lately.