Favorite books of 2016 and Life in General

We've been having another winter storm here on the Oregon coast.  Four and a half inches of rain in 2 days! Today is one of those BIG OCEAN days!  In between downpours that we can't see anything through .. the waves are crazy huge - slamming over the sea stacks we see out our window.  The waves have even gone over the top of Rainbow Rock Island several times.  DH and I are glued to the windows, calling out where to look quick!!  I won't be getting much done today, just saying!!

You know those women that only enjoy a certain type of book?  A mystery lover, only romance or only historic fiction.  Me neither!!  And I am certainly not one of them!!f Although I notice I enjoyed a lot of Science Fiction this year.

I have an old fashioned Ledger book that I write down and rate the books I read. The current Ledger was started in 2003.  It's full and falling apart!!  I also have an Access spreadsheet that goes back to 1985!

I rate them because - when you're in the doldrums, can't find anything good to read, you can go back and find the ones you really liked (4 stars) and then see if that author has written anything new!

In 2016 the **** books were:

Flying Changes by Sara Gruen
About a Jr Equestrian Star now that she is grown up.  Sara Gruen always tackles the issues that we think about how to handle.

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
Fascinating story of a SciFi spy who helps people.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
Imagine you have a pen pal from another country.  You've been invited to come for a visit, but once you get there, your penpal has passed on.  But she's made arrangements for you to stay ...

Dies The Fire by S M Stirling
SciFi, but near future end of the world story that takes place in the Great Northwest!  I enjoyed this book which is the first of a series by the author.

Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein
I love John Sandford - all 3 series he's written.  This is different!  SciFi - 2066 and an alien  space ship has entered our solar system.  The race is on to capture the new technology.

This Is Not A Game by Walter J Williams
When online games and real life interact.

The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth (5*!)
A 38 year old woman is slipping into early dementia. What is left when your mind is gone?

Extreme Prey by John Sandford
In this, his 26th Lucas Davenport series, well the legend lives on.  I love his series (plural) I've read every one and most of them several times!!  If you haven't discovered John Sandford yet - start now!! Rules of Prey is the beginning.

I'm finally feeling like myself after my l*o*n*g bout of the Respiratory Flu I got before Christmas.  I still am fighting a little cough - but at least I have my energy back most days.  And all that laying around, when I wasn't just vegging, I was planning quilts!!  So I have been on a mission to work on some ongoing projects that have been in "time-out" too long!


Our guild quilt show is over Memorial Day weekend.  We've had less and less hand quilted quilts to show.  We eliminated the size restriction so I finished a 'bunk bed' size UFO with the aim of hand quilting it.  DH is gone for a week in two weeks and I plan to frame it and quilt on the frame as far as I can get.  If I'm not done before he gets back, I'll baste it and continue quilting in a hoop.  I'm hoping my hands hold up!

I sent out the "Christmas Leftovers" fabric post cards.  I think they went by Pony Express - but they have finally arrived.  I always collect the debris left Christmas morning - and fashion a thank you note out of it for each of my children's families.  Dumpster diving at it's best!?!

Here's a great picture my daughter took during all those snow days in Portland this month.  The new game in Portland was "Where's Meg the Dalmatian??"

The cul de sac we usually play ball and ride bikes in!

That's it for now.  Go read some good books, get going on quilt projects you have figured out something for.  Or sit in front of the window and watch nature where ever you are!!

Happy New Year - welcome 2015!!

Well, there's nothing like starting the year out with the best of intentions!! We'll just see how long that lasts!!  LOL!

It's time for a 2014 wrap-up!  I love doing these - my year doesn't seem "finished" until after the wrap-up - so here we go!

Not a big year for reading!  Around 50 books and a lot of those were re-reading favorites.  Do you ever do that??  I did forget to add Kindle books to my list, so had to go looking for which ones I read that way ... not an exact count this year.  :(

Best books this year:

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow.  Kate Shugak series is a real favorite of mine.  Gotta love spunky women!

Notorious 19 and Takedown 20 by Janet Evanovich.  Both of these Stephanie Plum books got 4 stars from me! And if you look up "spunky women" in the dictionary, surely Stephanie Plum is pictured!

The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer - great fun

Pure by Julianna Baggott - science fiction -  an unusual story line. First in series of three

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon  I can't believe I kept away from this series so long!  And I thought I wasn't interested in "Historical" books!!  We had Outlander Series on Starz parties too!

Pope Joan - Donna Woolfolk Cross  A book club selection that surprised me with how well I liked it!  Historic!  Who knows - maybe I'm NOT set in  my ways!!

Deadline - John Sandford  Featuring Virgil Flowers as a friend put it, "I love me a good cowboy!"  Made me reread all the other Flowers books.  This one was awesome!

The Arsonist - Sue Miller Small town under siege, loved the main characters

One Hundred Names - Cecelia Ahern  I loved this book, also out of my 'box' - contemporary Irish tale.  In the author's notes at the end she tells how she got the idea for the book! She was at a literary awards dinner; heard "one hundred names" and went off in her mind on the tangent of what that could be about.  She 'came back' to the present just as the award winner was saying, "and look for our movie out in March "The Hunger Games"!!!  I'd say that idea was pretty pushy about who was writing it!!

Year of Pleasures by Alice Berg I love her.  I get so much insight into me by reading her books! How does she do that??

Now to the fun part of my year - quilting!  I'm happ-happ-happy to say that "Birds of a Feather" a BOM offered at Gretna's Quilted Moose is finally done-done!!!  YEA!  Poor baby languished for years, but finally made it to the big times! You can read all about it here!

The other big finish I had was J's recovery quilt - My beloved SIL celebrated a year free of cancer around his birthday.  So this quilt was his present.  You know how those 'quiet' steady relatives usually don't get quilts - because they don't nag you about them???  I pieced the top the same time I made my Nephew's college graduation quilt - ummm, 2 years ago!  Thankfully, he felt it was well worth the wait!!

There were 4 QOV; baby charity quilts; Christmas stockings; fabric post cards and too many doll clothes to count! (apparently!)  But it all equaled a great deal of fun!

One more thing before I close today - you may know I have a Pinterest account :)  There are approximately 13,800 posts(!) and 1,400 followers(!)  A fact that amazes me and my daughter!!  But makes it a great deal of fun! If you want, there is a icon on the left side of the blog that will take you right there!

I'm not exactly sure why Pinterest is so-o much fun.  But for me, a list-maker; an idea keeper; a creative woman who thinks she can recreate anything that strikes her fancy!!  It's really nirvana!  And so easy to update when you're watching something on TV that doesn't need your undivided attention!

My idea is to go back into my boards and look at what I've pinned and figure out why? what attracted me to that pin and what it says about me??? Just a thought!

Today's board  I evaluated was "My Quilts Thru the Years"  I usually make a "word" copy of each year's blog entries; and check to see if the quilt pictures are on this page.  I like having them there - for quick access.  I don't know about you, but digital pix are hard to keep track of!  There's 1000s of them, in different places and mine really need a spruce up!!  Meanwhile, I need to look back on them to remember details or sizes ... well, here's where they are!

My first go at saving the quilts was early in my Pinterest 'career'.  I looked to see if they actually saved and each one had a 'pin' already.  Oh, gee - what did I do wrong?  But no - someone had actually created a board on their Pinterest featuring all my quilts!!  Was that admiration or stalkery???  It did make me think!!

Do you have favorite quilts that you've made?  They could be "standards" that you make for many people.  They could be a quilt that resonates within you; because of who it is for, because what was happening at the time; or just because.

That's all for now - this has been so much fun!  More of it in 2015, please!!

One year down!

A year ago today we moved to Newport Oregon - boy did that year go fast!!!

Miss P is now 2 1/2 years old - has been here to stay with us many times - and we love watching her develop! You can almost see the wheels spinning as she thinks something out!

Mr M only arrived in November - 6 months old now - we've been able to be with him so much more than we were with Miss P at the baby stage.

I love lists - so you will have to put up with me.

I joined the Quilt guild at the June meeting - one week after moving! and a small group in August of last year ... I also joined water aerobics and a small stitchery group here at the complex within two weeks of living here. These 4 activities have kept me too busy to be too homesick for Nebraska.

I've finished 17 quilt projects! That number surprises me - I thought I wasn't doing so much! Of course, most of them are small wall quilts but there were 3 lap size, 2 single size, 2 almost double, and a Christmas stocking! Plus 29 fabric postcards! Not bad - glad I looked back at that!

I've read 69 books! You gotta love a town with a good library! Although it's not as big as the libraries in Lincoln, it's connected with every library on the coast and you can request books from anywhere. As you can tell - I jump from genre to genre!!!Favorite books last year included:

Run by Ann Patchett
Third Degree by Greg Iles
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Riven by Jerry Jenkins
The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Winter Study by Nevada Barr
Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon
On Agate Hill by Lee Smith

Okay - enough living in the past! I've got 2 projects that I would like to finish by the end of the month. And repairing a denim quilt for my son- they are coming to visit in 2 weeks - it needs to be done by then.

I've gained 5 lbs here - thought that was going to be a bigger number - but time to reverse that trend. I'm trying to convince myself I live in a 'dry' state or rather a 'warm' state - because liquor is not the problem - ice cream is the downfall!!!

We signed another year's lease - so time to get to work!!! I'll let you know how it goes!