Creative

  • Creative,  Crochet,  Thoughts

    Sunday Things

    For the first time in two years I’m crocheting again. The last time I crocheted I was attempting to make a cardigan type thing but it ended up going south about halfway through. Someday I’ll frog all of that yarn. After that I lost interest in crochet. But with the change in seasons I’m becoming interested in one of my favorite hobbies once again. This time I dug into my grandmother’s yarn stash and dug out some crochet thread to make the Amma Granny Square Top. I’ve since finished one granny square and almost halfway through the second. After that it should be fairly easy in joining and finishing with…

  • Creative,  Reading

    February & March 2019 Book Report

    It feels as if I’d read more than I have over the last two months because I’m in the middle of so many books or started and put some on hold. Here’s what I actually finished: Royally Screwed & Royally Matched by Emma Chase: Both of these are absolute fluff romance novels that came by way of recommendation of Abby on the Friendlier Podcast. I listened to them as audiobooks and they were very easy listens and I finished in about two days each. I’m not a huge romance novel fan but these were perfect. Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home by Heather ‘Anish’ Anderson: One of the best hiking books…

  • Creative,  Reading

    January 2019 Book Report

    It’s been a bit since I’ve done one of these but the reading groove has returned and so my book reports are back! Trespassing Across America: One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland by Ken Ilgunas: I’ve had this flagged to read on Hoopla Digital for a long time now and had been in the mood for an audio book one day and it sounded enticing at only around 7 or so hours. I sped it up to 1.5x and after a few minutes my brain caught up and I was able to handle the pacing change. The author has several books out that are…

  • Creative,  Reading

    August & September 2018 Book Report

    If you include the books I’ve read to Forest this year, I am well over my goal of 50 books. I have not logged all of his books into Goodreads so the total is even higher than what is listed there. Plus you have to take into account how many books I read over and over and over. We average 2-3 books a night. Without all of his books I’m definitely on the lower end of where I would want to be to have read 50 books. I’m at about 32 books. I expect I can get to 40 books, maybe 42-43 books, by the end of the year. If…

  • Reading

    April, May, June, July 2018 Book Report

    Eek! I didn’t mean to go four months without a Book Report here! Soooo, obviously that means I have a lot to catch up on…here we go! I’ve decided to start adding some books from the library (or our own library) that Forest and I enjoy. I’m starting to try to go at least once a month with him. The trick I’m employing is to renew the books online immediately after we get them so that we have them for that full month instead of two weeks. So far it is working! Forest Books: Box Turtle by John Himmelman: This was an ARC from Net Galley and Forest loved(s) reading…

  • Creative,  Reading

    March 2018 Book Report

    I finished a book over the weekend so I thought it worthwhile to get a March book report in. Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason: Finally, a wildflower book for Texas that is a bit more comprehensive than what is currently out there. Texas is such a big state with many eco regions and each side of the opposite ends, north-south and east-west are such drastic differences in habitat. I read this one via Net Galley and loved it and knew it had to go on my purchase list—so I bought it this morning and it will arrive from Amazon on Wednesday! Not only will it be valuable for us…

  • Creative,  Reading

    February 2018 Book Report

    As I mentioned in my recent Life Lately post, I signed up with NetGalley to read some pre-published books at the beginning of the month. Two of those books are on this list and I’ll note them in the summary. I’m in the middle of two others with a third on the back burner because it doesn’t expire until May. +The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin: *NetGalley* If you are familiar with Tasha Tudor you may already know who Tovah Martin is as she wrote a couple of books about Tudor, the more known book being Tasha Tudor’s Garden. The Garden in Every Sense and Season…

  • Creative,  Reading

    January 2018 Book Report

    It’s been a fairly productive month of reading around here—much to my surprise. Ok, so one of of them is actually from the tail-end of last year but I had already written my book write-up for the year. Eh, no big deal, right? Completed +Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon: I subscribe to Kleon’s weekly newsletter and occasionally read his blog, and have heard about his work for quite awhile now but never actually read a book. Annnnnnd….can’t say it was worth the experience. It feels like a repackaged set of blog posts to sell as a kitsch book item. This…

  • Creative,  Reading

    2017 In Books

    Compared to last year I almost doubled the amount of books I read. And if I count the five or six books that I started but didn’t finish (they are good, I have just been reading them in spurts) my number would be closer to 50. The year started off good with reading and I dipped into audio books more this year, however I find that I can only really focus on those when I have a big project at work that lets me focus for hours on end. When I’m bouncing between projects or am doing other things that require more brain power like report writing, I can’t really…

  • Creative,  Crochet

    Things I’ve Crocheted Recently

    I’ve been doing some crocheting over the last few months as it is my go-to dark season activity. Plus, right now it seems to be the easiest way to express some creativity instead of spending hours over in my studio. I guess I’ll take what I can get! My most recent completed piece is this wall hanging! It only became a wall hanging in my head about two days ago but before that it was going to be a cowl and then before that, a scarf. I was making it too wide to be a scarf so I switched to a cowl but then thought that I really didn’t need…