Top Droppers for October

Thank you so much to my top droppers for October.

Jean sQuared
Ramblings of a Haemophiliac
Cornymans Money-Blog, everything about financial independence
Wirez and Circuitz
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles
Best travel pictures in the world
The One Minute Guide
Pure Natural Diva
BeadedTail
All About My Life
Lohman Trading
Jodi's Journey
Laane Loves
Laane on the World
All about Babies and Kids
Greetje greets You
Secret Affiliate
Life With Roxxymetal
Where to go in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysi
Animal Kingdom
Life, In My Own Backyard
Mara's Personal Bubble
Super Mommy To The Rescue
Stunned By Stone
Just a Little Zizzy

Katherine Howe

I just finished "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe, and it had all my favorite elements: Salem Witchcraft trials, scholarly book hunt, supernatural or psychic events, and a love story.

I've always been fascinated by Salem. When we went to a school book fair when I was 10, I bought a book about the witchcraft trials (and I still have it). It was so amazing to finally go there last year, and the biggest surprise for me was that it was a seaport. I'd always thought Salem was a small, isolated village.

Progresso Giveaway

Progresso and MyBlogSpark recently sent out a gift pack so the sparkers could try the Progresso High Fiber Soup AND give a lucky winner the chance to win a gift set as well.

My family tried the Chicken Tuscany soup and we really enjoyed it. It had a texture in-between bean soup and chicken broth. I love bean soup but I've never tried to make it myself and why should I when I can open a can and have it taste this good?

If you'd like to win a gift pack like the one pictured here, please leave a comment on this post letting me know your favorite flavor (you can find them here). The winner will be selected on November 8th. This is only open to US residents. The gift pack will be sent by MyBlogSpark.

I will need your email address so I can notify the winner, and you can leave it in the following ways:
1) enter it in your comment, but please use "at" instead of "@"
2) make sure I can send you an email via your blogger profile
3) send it me to me using this secure message form

Outlook Express Mail

I'm so excited 'cos I found a fast, easy way to archive folders of email in Outlook Express. I tend to use my OE as a filing system, so I like to keep old emails. But I don't want to clog up my OE since it DRAGS my computer processing time if the folders get too big.

So, VOILA. The tip at Inside Outlook Express helped me so much. It's quick and easy. This may be old news for some people, but I wish I'd known it a long time ago.

No Sew Crafts

I had a brainstorm this weekend while I was searching for instructions and patterns for no sew purses and tote bags, and decided that I should start a blog with links to the fun no sew crafts that I find.

I've been printing them out and putting them in a huge binder (it's 4 inches thick) and I'm running out of room.  So I'll go back through the binder, find the links to the projects, and put them in my blog.

I'll still post pictures of my works in-progress here, though. But I'm excited about it, and think it will be fun to share.

Amanda Grange

Since I was reading P&P books, I thought I'd quickly read "Mr. Darcy's Diary" by Amanda Grange. It's P&P told from Darcy's viewpoint, and it was VERY well done.

It's in diary format, so it's not overly long, and it is quick to read. She used most of the actual dialogue from P&P, however Ms. Grange did add some invented conversations (expanded from text in the book) that were illustrative and pointed and quite in-character.

This book and Ms. Grange's other "diaries" from the Jane Austen men (Mr. Knightley, Colonel Brandon, etc) got great reviews on Amazon, so I need to see if I can find them. Our local libraries don't have them, but maybe I'll initiate a request and see what happens.

Rug Clipping (Part 2)

This is my next attempt using 2" long fabric strips with the rug canvas. I think I prefer this length.

Now I'm going to make a color plan. I want to make concentric rectangles. Most of it will be solid navy blue (the color scheme for my house), but I'll use the print in the picture that has navy, red, and white.

I need a kinda monotonous craft to do while watching basketball, since it is almost that time. Last year I made the banners for my windows during basketball season, so this year I can work on a rug.

Rug Clipping

So I got my big piece of rug canvas - it's 60" x 36" and I have to do something with it. I want to try locker hooking (see my earlier post) but I also would like to make a rug for my entrance hall.

I was interested in trying latch hooking with fabric strips but then I read about rug clipping in a book by Clare Hubbard. Clipping is similar to latch hook except you don't make a "knot" with the loops.

So this is my first attempt to try it and see how it would look. This is using 4" long strips that are 1" wide. I think they're too long and shaggy, and I'm going to cut them in 1/2 (to make 2" strips) and see how it looks.

Boo'ing

Our neighborhood has a Halloween Phantom that roams around, rings your doorbell, and leaves goodies on the doorstep.

I love this "new" Halloween fad.  I get the biggest kick out of seeing the treats left on the porch.

Plus I enjoy shopping for fun stuff to make "boo" bags for others in our subdivision.  I usually have my kids ring the bell and run, though, since I don't know if I'm fast enough, and I don't want to get caught. 

Seth Grahame-Smith

I'd read really good reviews about the book "Pride and Prejudice and  Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith, and it is pretty hilarious.  Of course, it's more funny if you know the story of P&P first (in my opinion).

I'll try out my theory on my daughter who wants to read it, but has never read the original P&P nor seen any of the movie versions. She wanted me to read "Zombies" first and make sure it wasn't gruesome (it's definitely NOT).

So I'll let you know if she gets curious about the original P&P after reading the Zombie version.

Dan Brown

I finished Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" and I was very, very impressed. Of course, it was a thrilling, page-turning story. But it was the meticulous research that's mind-blowing to me.

While I was reading, I wanted to see all the buildings, monuments, paintings, etc that played a part in solving the riddle. In the grocery store, I saw a companion guide magazine that supposedly showed them all. I might go back and skim through it now that I've read the book and am so intrigued.

Memory Wire Bracelets

In the Creative Home Arts club magazine, there were some craft projects using memory wire to make bracelets.  I thought that looked like fun and wanted to try it (granted, I think alot of things look like fun - that's why I'm a Scanner) so I got some memory wire from my local craft store.

I started this one last night and finished it tonight. The hardest part was making the closed loops on the ends since this memory wire is TOUGH stuff.

Then my daughter wanted a teal one (that's her favorite color) so I made one for her tonight as well.  Her's was easier since the beads were bigger.

The Bead Stoppers also helped alot. They're little springy fasteners that you use to keep your beads from falling off the wire.

The pictures were taken with a scanner by the way which is why they look all sparkly.