This has a different subtitle than the one I saw at the library

I really like how this book is organized, starting off with a section all about leftover yarns, how to combine them to get different weights, almost four pages on color theory and how to create different color combinations. She also included some great tips on different ways to join the yarn in your project.

The next four sections are divided by yarn weight. It really makes it easy to look at projects that will work for the leftovers you are going to use. The photos of the projects are great. Each project is shown in one colorway with options for alternative colorways.I didn’t make any of the projects from this book since I had some other things I was working on, therefore I can’t speak to the knitting instructions.

The one drawback I can see is that I would be more likely to want to purchase yarn to get the same effect as the project shown. For example, there are a couple of sweater projects that involve some colorwork. When I look at the leftover yarns that I have they don’t always make sense to combine them. I also don’t think I have enough leftovers of some of the yarns.

I like this book but I don’t think I would use it enough to justify purchasing it for my bookshelf. I’m glad to know I can find it at the library should I decide to take the plunge. I really like the Sausalito bag – it’s made from Cascade 220 Superwash.

Isn't it pretty?

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Have you seen this book? What do you think of it? Can you recommend any other knitting/other craft books for me to check out?

During the month of April I didn’t read very many books. It seems like I had more days that got away from me with taking care of all the household stuff, the kids’ stuff, chauffeuring everyone around… you know what I mean, right?

I read:

• Build A Man by Talli Roland
• Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
• Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
• Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

These were all books that were picked during our March Reading and Winen Book Club meeting. I must say it was a very interesting reading month.

Build a Man was a cute book. There were some characters I just wanted to shake a little as I was reading. There were definitely some plot twists and the end of the story leaves you wanting to know what happens next. I’m definitely glad there will be a sequel to this book coming out soon.

The Fifty Shades Trilogy: what can I say? I was hooked from the very beginning, the characters wrapped me up from the start of the story and I read furiously for days until I was able to read all three books. I know there is a lot being said on the Internet, on television, and other media outlets about this series. I happened to enjoy these books. Yes, the graphic scenes made me blush at times but I don’t think any of the material was inappropriate in the sense that when you pick up these books you’ve likely already heard what they’re all about. I was most interested in getting to know Christian Grey more and seeing how his past so deeply affected him well into his adulthood.

Honestly, after reading the entire Fifty Shades Trilogy I must say I felt a little bit of a let down. How would any other book compare? There’s just no way that any character could ever pull me in like Christian Grey did! We talked about it at our April book club meeting, now we are on the search for books that will engage us as much as these.

I recommend all four books I read in April. I’m sure most people have already heard all about the type of content in Fifty Shades of Grey but in case you haven’t, there is explicit sexual material, be forewarned.

Total books read as of April 30th: 31

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What have you read lately? Our book club is always looking for recommendations, please feel free to leave some in the comments.

DEAR = Drop Everything and Read. It’s what they called our silent reading time when I was in grammar school

Today’s (Optional) Writing Prompt: How do you feel about change? Do you like routine and predictability? Does it bring you comfort or discontent? Talk about it general or tell us a specific story about a big change in your life and how you feel about it.

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Hmmm… how do I feel about change? I think like a lot of people, I’m a creature of habit. I get used to things being done a certain way and have had a hard time when things change.

It’s definitely much easier when I’ve taken some part in creating that change. Something like the past 3 times we’ve moved, we’ve moved voluntarily, I took part in the decision for us to move, picking the new house, signing the lease with the new landlord, organizing the move, and so on. While it was difficult to move, in many ways it was exciting. I had some ownership over the change.

When change just happens, like it can sometimes, it’s much more difficult for me to deal with. It takes me longer to make the transition, longer to get used to the idea or the practical aspects of the new situation. There have been times when change has elicited a response very much like grief. Grief over the loss of the familiar situation and resistance to the new one.

We once considered moving 300 miles away, I guess it’s not that far, it’s not moving 3000 miles away. It didn’t happen. When we realized it wasn’t going to be possible, we sighed with relief. In retrospect, we realized we weren’t ready and we weren’t truly looking forward to the change.

All in all, I think it truly depends on how the change happens. It matters if it’s sudden or gradual, if it’s planned or unexpected, how much time there is to prepare for the change. It’s definitely important to have all of the information, support, and encouragement to make it happen.

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What about you? Do you like change? Do you take change well or do you struggle with it?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s a five minute brain dump. Link up at all.things.fadra

I got lost in all the things to do… I lost myself in the tasks and duties of the day and didn’t get to do some of the things I wanted to do… you know, like write a blog post. I actually spent part of the day texting my husband the things I was doing because I wanted a record of it all, just for myself. Curiosity got the best of me and I really wanted to know. Are you ready for my Wednesday, April 25th, 2012?

• Got up, semi-straightened the blankets
• Showered, brushed teeth
• Got dressed
• Fixed bed
• Got kids breakfast
• Made little one’s lunch
• Emptied dishwasher and put dishes away
• Drove older son to high school
• Drove younger son to school, he had a “bad stomachache” and came home with me
• Drove mom to work
• Stopped to fill gas tank ($77 later)
• Put some items away in craft room
• Confirmed book to mail for Paperbackswap
• Finished putting together a package for a Ravelry friend, a Random Act of Kindness (RAK)
• Cleaned the stove since I made a mess when I cooked a pot of beans on Tuesday
• Took out a roast to defrost for dinner
• Fed the dogs
• Ate a bowl of cereal (Lucky Charms, for the win)
• Folded and put away laundry
• Heated younger son’s lunch (his stomach was not hurting too bad, was it?)
• Finalized flyer for Margarita Night at husband’s school
• Coordinated morning drop-off coverage for 8 days in May
• Translated a letter English-Spanish for husband to include in school documentation
• Translated husband’s school’s weekly bulletin English-Spanish
• Put white clothes in the washer
• Sent email to parents in younger son’s class re: field trip on Friday
• Picked up older son from school
• Took both boys to the barber shop to get hair cuts
• Picked up mom from work
• Put white clothes in dryer
• Folded and put away color clothes that had been hung up to dry
• Prepared roast and set to cook (husband made sides and checked doneness of roast)
• Filled out a reimbursement form to turn in to younger son’s school
• Helped sister-in-law with her defense for her portfolio for high school graduation
• Ate dinner
• Helped clean up after dinner
• Worked on a knitting project
• Printed some forms I need for household stuff
• Prepared a lot of this blog post
• Answered lots of emails
• Pinned some things on Pinterest
• Tweeted
• Collapsed into bed

Maybe this was all in preparation for Thursday, it was the Thursday of this month that I receive my IV infusion of Orencia, treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Most times I receive this infusion it really drains me and leaves me out of commission for the rest of the day. My Thursday got a bit more complex though. My younger son woke up with sharp stomach pains. I scheduled an appointment to see his primary care provider after my infusion appointment. It’s nothing serious, we have a game plan. He absolutely has to eat more fruits and vegetables. We’re going to try dairy free to see if he’s sensitive to lactose.

In essence, I’ve been just as busy the rest of the week. As I write, it’s 7:22 pm on Saturday evening and with me in bed I have my laptop to finish this post, my iPad to follow a knitting pattern, my iPhone to keep track of rows so that I can finish a very large knitting project that I’ve got in progress. I admit I’ve kept knitting while re-reading the post to make sure it makes sense.

Sometimes there are days or weeks where I get to take care of everything else on my plate and this blog gets pushed aside a little. I am definitely the CFO, Chief Family Officer, here. Ok, I’m going back to my knitting project and next week I will finish up my posts for the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.

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Today’s post is to get creative with our craft photography.

I’d like to invite you over for a nice meal at The Frog Pond Cafe. Your entrée:

Isn’t it delicious? Mmmm… Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM) spaghetti while sitting and listening to the frog’s song “Ripiiiiit, ripiiiiiit”

Once you’ve finished your wonderful spaghetti, can I interest you in some wonderful cakes? They come in a variety of flavors and sizes!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your meal. Although, I must say I hope you don’t visit often…

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Today we are writing about color. What can I say? I love color! I really do. Playing with color was one of my favorite parts of getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design. It’s also one of my favorite parts of sewing, I love going to a fabric store and picking out fabrics, matching them up to other fabrics, seeing how the colors complement each other, or maybe how they contrast with each other. It’s also one of my favorite parts of working with fiber for knit projects.

I think my favorites are bold, bright colors. Rich jewel tones. I don’t really like pastels, I prefer colors that are much more saturated. I find myself constantly drawn to colors like burgundy, teal, orange, purple, lime green, fuchsia, charcoal grey… coincidentally these are similar to the nail polish colors I tend to get too.

In the past few years I have been participating in the Color Swap on Ravelry. It’s a fun swap where you specify which color(s) you’d like to receive and then you get a wonderful package of all sorts of goodies, including handmades in that color. You, of course, get to put together a package for someone in their chosen color. I often struggle to pick what color I would like, I try not to repeat the color I pick. I know there are a couple of people in the group who request the same color each round but I like the excitement of picking something new and seeing how someone will interpret my color choice.

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What is your relationship with color?

To read more posts like this one around the Internet, you can do a search using 3KCBWDAY1 and lots of posts will come up, I promise. Come visit me again tomorrow and see what we’re up to then.

Today’s (optional) Writing Prompt: What is success to you and how will you know when you achieve it?

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I’ve mentioned more than once recently that I’ll be 35 this year, in less than two months actually. When I was younger I used to have milestones. I had decided that by the time I was 30 I wanted to have my Master’s Degree. At that time, having a Master’s degree was a measure of success in my opinion.

Yes, I have a Master’s degree in Social Work with an emphasis in Health and Mental Health with additional certificates in Substance Use Counseling and in providing services in Spanish. I’ve also got a certificate in Birth Doula and Post-partum Doula services. I’m also a Certified Hypnotherapist.

I have all these certificates that are framed to be able to be hung up on the wall. However, the frames are in a canvas tote bag in our storage shed. Those certificates don’t mean to me what they did when I was working towards them.

Today, I measure success by what surrounds me and on a day-to-day basis. I measure success by the way my body feels, on a successful day there is less pain, less stiffness, less discomfort. I measure success by my relationships with my husband and kids, some days are better than others but that’s a part of being human and in communication with other humans. I measure success by what I’m able to do on a daily basis – including the mundane stuff like laundry, dishes, etc.

My definition of success is no longer tied to “the right job” with a paycheck that’s a certain amount, or by having certain things. It used to be but with the changes in my health and in our family life, that’s all changed. There’s still a part of me that wants all that but I don’t know how realistic it will be for me to pursue a full-time job and to be able to maintain it.

In some ways it’s very refreshing to be heading to a “milestone” birthday – the big 3-5 without any additional pressure of “I have to meet this goal by June”. I’m not completely convinced that this is the best way for me to operate. I tend to be a goal driven person, I like to have something that I’m working towards to, I make plans. We’ll see what happens next…

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How do you define success?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s a five minute brain dump. Link up at all.things.fadra

Today’s (Optional) Writing Prompt: Have you ever gotten so engrossed in a book that is seemed to spill over into your real life? Tell me about it.

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I’ve been reading a lot this year, picking up the Stephanie Plum series in January and then having our book club start up has really kept me in the frame of mind to keep reading.

Our book club, Reading & Winen,  has been meeting once a month and each month we make a selection of books to read and discuss. We’ve read several series now including The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Never Too Late Series, and most recently the Fifty Shades Trilogy.

I read the Fifty Shades Trilogy in the span of 3 and a half days. I know there is controversy out there about some of the content of the book, there are definitely some descriptive and graphic scenes in the book. Regardless of that content, this was a well done series. Book 3, Fifty Shades Freed, really wrapped up the whole story into a nice little package with a bow on top.

I am definitely one of those people who becomes engrossed in books and stories. I’ve been this way about books since I was a young child. My mom would take me to the library and I would check out the 8 book maximum. Often times I would read all 8 books within the day. Early on I developed the ability to read quickly with high rates of retention and comprehension.

I often get engrossed in a book, my husband tells me when I’m reading he often has to ask me the same question several times because I don’t quite hear what he’s said. If I’m home alone I will “forget” to eat if I’m reading. This week worked out well for me in terms of reading since hubby was on Spring Break, he did all the driving while I was reading.

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Do you get engrossed in the books or stories that you read?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s a five minute brain dump. Link up at all.things.fadra

Gizmo - white/tan & Jack - tan

Gizmo, our older dog – the white/tan dog in the picture, had a rough week.  Gizmo has had periodontal disease for some time now. We’ve gotten them the treats that are supposed to help remove plaque and prevent gum disease. Every time they go to the groomer we have them do a thorough tooth brushing. These have not been enough for poor Gizmo.

On Tuesday, Gizmo, Jack, and Lady (my cousin’s Yorkie) all had rawhide bones. Apparently, having this treat dislodged one of Gizmo’s teeth and dislocated his jaw. We took him for an emergency consult with the vet. They did a full blood panel to ensure he could have the surgery and they gave him some pain medication.

On Wednesday, I dropped Gizmo off bright and early. They anesthetized him, took some x-rays, removed the tooth that was basically dangling out and tried to reposition his jaw. His raw repositioned while he was in recovery, he was finally able to close his mouth completely again.

Unfortunately, it seems like Gizmo is going to need further dental work. His periodontal disease is pretty advanced and he’s probably going to have some more teeth extracted. We have to wait 3 weeks to make sure Gizmo’s jaw stays stable and he has no further problems before they’ll do more extensive work.

I’m so glad Gizmo is back home and recuperating comfortably. I know Jack was missing him very much the day Gizmo was at the vet. We’ll definitely be adding more thorough dental care at home for both of them. We’ll also be sure not to give Gizmo any more hard treats like rawhide bones until we get the “all clear” from the vet.

Making the quilt for my son’s school took up a lot of my time, especially because I was doing that along with planning/preparing the decorations for the big event and coordinating the donations for the silent auction basket.

I really haven’t had a lot of time for reading. I definitely haven’t read as much as I did in January. I did, however, read right past my goal of reading 25 books in 2012.

In February I read 8 books:

1 – Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich (Feb 2)
2 – Knit in Comfort by Isabel Sharpe (Feb 4)
3 – Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich (Feb 7)
4 – Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (Feb 7)
5 – Dating a Cougar (Never too Late #1) by Donna McDonald (Feb 17)
6 – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Feb 22)
7 – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Feb 23)
8 – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Feb 24)

I finished the Stephanie Plum series, I enjoyed the series although some of the books started to get very predictable and I just want a resolution to the Morelli/Ranger dilemma. The rest of the books I read for our Reading & Winen book club. I wrote a post reviewing Hunger Games in February.

I didn’t read much in March, 3 books total:

1 – Dating Dr. Notorious (Never too Late #2) by Donna McDonald (Mar 21)
2 – Dating A Saint (Never too Late #3) by Donna McDonald (Mar 24)
3 – Dating a Metro Man (Never too Late #4) by Donna McDonald (Mar 26)

These were books we decided on during our March Reading & Winen meeting. This was a cute series, I became invested in the characters during the first book. I was really glad we decided to finish reading this series. We have several more books to read for this month. I’m glad it’s all light reading and nothing too heavy or hard to get through, hopefully I can get more reading done in April.

As of March 21st, I met my goal of 25 books in 2012. Any more books will be icing on the cake. I’m working on book #28 right now…

If you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading, connect with me on Goodreads: find me there as SimplyGabriela

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What have you been reading? Any recommendations for our book club? Do you keep track of how many books you read?

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