Confessions of a Readaholic

Okay, so I'll admit that I like to read and I like to read a lot. My childhood wasn't the best and I read to escape a lot of the unpleasantness of it. Enough said. So I guess that's why I love my job as a school librarian. It's hard for me to imagine that so many kids today don't like to read. Go figure. Or maybe they say that because reading isn't cool and associated with all things nerd or well I have my beliefs on what the other reasons are. Reading helped me to realize that there were others worse off than myself and that I could escape the circumstances of my childhood. I didn't need to repeat the offenses of it. So there I've admitted everything. I love to read, but my darkest secret is that I love to read children's literature. Not because my reading level is so low but because it's great stuff.
I started reading to my oldest child before he could even sit up or crawl. I would lie on the floor beside him and hold the book above us while I read. I couldn't wait to introduce my favorite world, the written word, to him. I've read to him ever since.

Even today we still read together because it's fun to share a novel together, to discuss and have someone to share it with. We still like a lot of the same kind of literature. When my youngest came along, we continued to read together while I would nurse her. So she too got a very early introduction to the written word. They both love to read. Tina, like me, would rather read to herself than be read to. I love to read aloud to others but not be read to. Go figure. Books of all kinds have found a home in our house.
So I'd like to introduce a book that I've come to really like and can't wait for the third book to come out. Hence the clock that is counting down at the top of my blog. If you get a chance this summer read this series. It's awesome, especially if you like dystopia fiction. The movie rights have been bought and I can't wait or maybe I can because I already have these characters so firmly etched in my mind as to what they look like. I haven't decided totally who I would want to play the two leading characters, but Bruce Willis gets my vote for  the alcoholic, cantankerous Haymitch. He'd be perfect at it. Hunger Games and Catching Fire are awesome. If you're having a hard time to get  your middle school children to read, suggest this series. Even my reluctant readers were hooked by this one. 
Now we did have a great time at Yosemite and the quilts went over really well, so I'll be back to posting regularly I hope now that school is out for the summer. Also I hope to have more time to visit and leave comments.
{{HUGS}} Amanda

Yosemite here we come!

School is out for the summer and we're off to this incredible place for the weekend. I haven't been to Yosemite since I was a kid and we've never taken our children, so this should be fun. Wishing everyone a great summer vacation.

Crazy, Crazy Month of May

End of year is always amazingly busy. I don't know why but it seems that we hit that month of May and things just accelerate and every weekend has something to do and before you know it's June and school/work is getting out. So just to hit the highlights this is what I've been doing and then had to put on the back burner. I hope to get started back up again next week once work is over for the summer.
I did start painting my kitchen cabinets. The top cabinet that is. I originally started by painting the new cabinet the same shade of green as the lower ones. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was new also. I never even finished it, probably because I didn't like it. Tina finally said why don't you just paint it white like the other two older cabinets? Well duh!! Why didn't I think of that?

You can just see a touch of the green left in this photo. I left the back of the one cabinet green because someday I think that would be a great display space when I don't have to store so much up there. There's only the doors left to do. I love what I've gotten done so far before graduation and quilting seven, that's right 7, quilts for our end of year kids that my BFF  and I do every year. I'll post pictures of those hopefully tomorrow. They turned out so nice. Can't wait to give them to the kids and see their faces. So have a great week and weekend. We're headed out of town for camping this weekend at Yosemite. Can't wait. 

Happy Memorial Weekend

I've been so swamped lately with Tina's graduation and end of year stuff at work, but I promise a real blog post soon. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Weekend.

Just a little lettered project

So I'm wondering, do you struggle to come up with catchy titles for your posts? I'm just curious. I suppose that's a holdover from the essay writing days when I had to have a title for my English essays. I could just go title-less. Is that rebellious?
Enough wondering. I've been busy trying to finish all those little things that just never seemed to have gotten done when we redid the kitchen. I have a hard time with all the finishing details. Hey, close enough to done, let's just use it and live with it. But I do so like it all finished, just not the tedious chore of finishing it. I would probably be labeled ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)  if I was a student now a days. ;-)
I did finish a little project that I thought I would share with you today. I've had the letters for at least a year now. Pondering which paper to use. I went back and forth between something floral or fruit or polka dots or whatever. I finally settled for Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess paper line. Just fell in love with it. Now to figure out where I want to put it. I've got some ideas brewing. I just used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the letters. Super duper easy. The letters I bought at Michaels.

I'll be out of town for the next two weekends so I won't get anything done. Drats! But I do hope you all have spectacular weekends. Wonderful Mothers' Day for those whom that applies to.

{{HUGS}} Amanda

Backyard Progress

Well I had a great weekend and I hope you did too. We celebrated our son's 20th birthday yesterday. I can't believe he's gotten that old. Time does fly. So happy birthday Seth.
Last fall Seth built me this great grape arbor. The posts that we had had simply rotted away and it had just been resting on the ground. It was time for a new home. So we pruned it back hard to retrain it and it's doing really well. By the end of the summer it will have probably filled the grape arbor or at least I'm hoping. I'm also hoping it will provide shade for the guest house as that end of it faces west.

But it seems that another little being thought it would make a good home. It's pretty amazing that this grape arbor should already provide shelter in it's first year. I think it's great. A little morning dove has made her nest here.

We've already got a few things blooming in our garden and we hope to have more. We've actually had spring here. Usually we're into the 80s and staying there by now and climbing. But just the other day I had the heater on. Couldn't believe it. Almost May and the heater on. I know some of you are still using your heaters full time, but that's a rarity for us where we live. So I thought I would share progress on our very sad backyard. Hubby has promised to rent a rototiller while he's off the next 2 weeks and finally level the backyard. Yeah! I'm so excited. I would love to have grass again. The contractor who built the guest house just left our backyard a mess. It was beautiful before that. Those little bobcats can do quite a number on your landscape.

I hope to be working on my kitchen this week. I am determined to get it finished. So hopefully I'll be posting pictures later this week of this area that will finally be completed.

Hope you all have a great week!
{{HUGS}} Amanda

Treasure and Trinkets Thursday

Melissa over at My Cottage Charm is having a linky party today. So feel free to go over there, see what others have been doing and add yourself too. 

My son is a very talented young man with wood. He began taking woodshop classes in junior high. We homeschooled through a charter school for homeschoolers for several years and that's where he took his woodworking classes even through all 4 years of high school. So over the years he has made his momma quite a few things. Which I will proudly display here today.

This is a high school project that he did and it sits on our patio. I just love this piece and wish he'd made a matching chair. I guess he really didn't like making this so I haven't gotten a twin yet. :) I keep hoping.

This poor, neglected birdhouse. I have had it for years and still have not painted it. I am not sure why. I guess because I can't commit to a certain color. Who knows?! This is probably one of the first pieces he ever made me.

This little bookcase was his first piece of furniture I think. It sits in my room with my favorite books on it. Again no paint. :(

This is a little hand lathed bowl that he did. His first time lathing.

He loves scroll saw work as you can tell by the next couple of pictures. These actually sit in his room, but I just thought I would show them.

This large beauty was not made specifically for me, but I love it anyway. This was made for the Fresh Wood Competition and took his team to nationals in 2007. Afterwards the school raffled it off to help raise money for the next competition which is held every two years. Lucky me won it, that and purchasing a whole lot of tickets. When he leaves home for a place of his own it will follow him as I think he deserves it.

This was supposed to be a plate rack but morphed into a small shelf that I needed for this spot. The dowels were not positioned right for my plates. It was a valuable learning experience for him. Measure your plates first and how to repurpose a mistake.

This is my spice cupboard that he made me for Mother's Day a couple of years ago. It's very large and holds a ton of stuff. Another piece needing paint. I don't mind painting walls but furniture just makes me pause. I did get the go ahead to paint this piece. Seth really doesn't like when I paint wood pieces.

Step stool. Very handy in the kitchen.

Magazine holder. Maybe he'll let me paint that white? We'll see.

He made the tissue box and scroll cut the hummingbird and had a friend paint the whole thing for me for Mother's Day last year. So love this piece.

My bench/coffee table in the sitting room. I really love and use this piece a lot. It also fills in as seating when we have guests over at the dining room table. So it's versatile and I like that about it.
So I'm a very lucky momma to have such a talented son. oh I almost forgot his best piece yet. He made me this grape arbor last fall. We have a guest nesting in it already. I'll post pictures of this tomorrow. Also all photos were taken by the carpenter himself.

Have a glorious week. {{HUGS}} Amanda
I'm joining in