10 things I'm good at

1. Being a mum

Well I like to think so but others comment on how nice and polite the girls are so I think I'm doing a good job! My parenting technique is to let the girls be on their own a lot (it does wonders for boredom!) but to be there on hand if they need me. I'm definitely not a helicopter parent! P.S. Matt is a fab dad too but this post is about me :D

2. Reading

Well duh! If you read this blog often then you will now that I love books and often have at least one on the go all the time. If I'm not reading a book then I'm reading things online - blogs, news, opinion pieces etc. I'm fairly indiscriminate about the things I read too although if it's terrible then I have no qualms about getting rid of it once read. I think I've only ever given up on a book once and that was Little Women many years ago.

3. Remembering faces

This comes in handy when watching TV and you spot a face you recognise but can't remember where from. I'm normally the one saying 'Oh yes, he was in a crime thing and was chasing the policeman down an ally when a colleague shot the policeman in the back' From that, Matt normally has a good chance of remembering what it was and then remembering where we have seen him before.

I'm equally good with people in real life :)

4. Listening

Many times over the years I've been told I'm a good listener - I also like to think that I am good at giving advice too but only when asked for. I don't like those people who come along and say 'Well, what you need to do is......' when you haven't asked for their opinion!

5. Bargain hunting

Again regular readers of this blog won't be shocked by this admission! An example of this is my wedding dress costing me the grand total of 50p in a charity shop!

It did cost another £50 to have a hideous bow taken off the front and all of the roses sewn onto the bodice but still, it's a bargain!

6. Sleeping

I'm ace at sleeping :) I will fall asleep anywhere at any time. I also have cracking dreams too - very vivid and detailed and I tend to remember them for a good hour after I wake up.

7. Helping others

I've been told off in the past for taking too much care of others at the detriment to myself but I can't help it. I feel like I'm destined to help others in various ways - by listening, volunteering, suggesting ideas or just plain giving money/cups of tea/food.

8. Procrastinating

I'm very, very good at this :) If there is something to be done you'll find me doing something else! Although that doesn't extend to cleaning or ironing - I'm usually not that desperate to get out of doing something else!

9. Not caring what others think

Me with my 'new to me' geography teacher patches jacket! After years of being bullied/picked on/talked about for being different I have developed quite a thick skin when it comes to people talking about me/commenting about my clothes/hair etc. As I've got older this has developed into a 'don't give a damn what you are thinking about me' attitude :D

10. Gardening

I like experimenting in the garden to see what does and doesn't grow! We are having great fun with seeing what veggies and fruit take and which things like growing where. This photo was taken last year when I changed the garden from something that wasn't working to this. Hopefully there will be more photo's soon of the veggies that are growing - the raspberries plants have really taken over that front bed so fingers crossed they will all fruit!

Later in the week/month/year (!) there will be a 10 things I'm bad at post ;)

52 books completed for 2014

I have reached my 52 books target for 2014 with a few weeks still to go. You can see all the books I have read so far on my Pinterest board.

I crossed the line with this fabulous book I got out of the library - if you love medieval settings, folklore, witchcraft and some religion all wrapped together then you will love this book!

I'm hopefully not ending my quest here - I'm up to 55 books already and I'm hoping to get to 60 by then end of the year. We'll see :)

What are you reading at the moment? Love it/hate it? Do tell me in the comments!

Book targets so far this year

I'm currently keeping a record of all the books I've read this year over on Pinterest (I also did it last year) It's interesting to me to see what I've read and it helps me keep a target in mind for how many books I would like to read in a year. The current aim is 52 books for the year (once each week) and I achieved that last year - whooo hooo! I'm on track for this year too as it is the 33rd week of 2014 and I've read 33 books!

During last year I also blogged each month about which books I'd read and a brief yay or nay quote about them but I couldn't be bothered to do that this year. Instead you will have to look at my Pinterest board :)

I will say though that if you ever spot Perfume by Patrick Suskind in a charity shop then grab it and read it. The writing is superb and the images it evokes are wonderful - well worth a read. Oh and I'm also going to watch the film version at some stage. It helps that Ben Whishaw is in it!

A book, a pretty little book

A very pretty book don't you agree? Lets have a look through the pages.

Ooooooh this page looks very interesting. Upcyced bubble mailers? Hang on a minute - lets have a closer look at the name at the top.....

Oh yes, that's me!! As you might have guessed from this long winded post, one of my tutorials has been featured in this book :)

See, a pretty picture too of my nursery rhyme bubble mailer.

The book was published in October last year and I forgot about it until I found the letter about it when I was tidying up the craft room recently - doh!!

So, how are you all?? I feel like I have been away from here for ages but it's been lass than a month!

52 books, 52 weeks - the last ones

Well I managed it - yippee!! 52 books in 52 weeks was the target and I actually managed  56 books so not too bad! Here are the last 6 books I managed to squeeze in :)

We have the complete Sherlock Holmes book but this is the only story I have read so far - I loved the connections between the original book and the BBC version. I'm going to wait until this series finishes on Sunday before reading any more.

This is a Kickstarter book that Matt bought (you can follow the author on Twitter here) and I'm not going to tell you anything about it other than to say it is brilliantly funny and you must go and buy it! Now. I had to stop reading it in bed as Matt was trying to get to sleep and I kept laughing out loud.

I didn't think I had read this book before but it turns out I had. It's not a particularly pleasant read but I would like to go and see it performed at some stage.

My love of Philip Pullmans writing is well documented (and surely it's time for my annual read of His Dark Materials Trilogy) and this young adults book is good. Not brilliant but good and I'm going to keep it for Anya to read one day.

Another Kickstarter book (this one was bought as it helped LGBT causes) and it was nice to see a book where lesbians and bisexuals in particular are treated as normal people and not as the usual stereotypes. The ending is set up nicely for a second book and I would buy more books with these characters.

Dystopian drama. Tick. Something ominous lurking. Tick. Hideous things happening. Tick. Nasty bully type person vs trying to do the right thing person. Tick. Needless to say I've already ordered the next four books in this series!

So I met and exceed my goal which I'm quite happy with :) I'm going to carry on this challenge but I'm not sure I'll be posting here* as a) I'm crap at writing reviews of books without major spoilers and b) you can see the books as I read them on my Pinterest Boards. This is the new board for this year although there aren't any books on there yet (I've started two but have yet to finish them!)

*I may do a couple of roundups every now

52 weeks, 52 books - part 10 and 11

Well my September reading was atrocious but the past two months have been better :) Apologies for no update last month but CL prep got in the way!

This was a very good book and if I see any others by George Mann then I will pick them up. It's set in Victorian England and features a tortured detective and his kickass (for the time anyway) female assistant. A good story that was well paced throughout.

Itch Rocks is the sequel to Itch which I read in January and re-read before reading this (I'm not counting the re-read) Again it's another good story but I do wonder how much more action/trouble Itch can get into as a regular teenage boy! I'd still re the next one if/when it comes out.

This is a book that Anya read as part of her school book club so I pinched it too as she gave very good updates/cliff hangers as she was reading it! I enjoyed it and although it was a childrens book I didn't see the end coming.

This book has been on my book shelf for many years but I only got round to reading it in October. I loved it and will be getting my hands on the film version soon. I gave it to Anya to read but she has such a vivid imagination and tends to read before bed that she put it down and is saving it for the holidays when she can read through the day!

I read this book last year and then in a fit of madness gave it to the charity shop in one of my clean ups. When I saw it again in a different charity shop I knew I had to buy another copy. I love this book and will save it to give to Anya when she hits her teens (it's really that good and funny!) I will also lend it out to friends as everyone should read it even if you don't consider yourself a feminist. Keep an eye out in charity shops for this one :)

48/52 :) I'm currently on track for completing 52 books this year so fingers crossed I get there!

52 books, 52 weeks - part nine

So I was a big slacker in September and only managed to read one proper book! Shocking I know :)

This is the book I read - I grabbed it in the supermarket in their 2 for whatever deals and I enjoyed it. However I think I have read too many thrillers/horror books for the horror within this one to be truly horrid. It's more hinted at that described too so that didn't help but well worth a read.

I did read about 300,000 words of fanfiction last month but this challenge is for books and while fanfiction is brilliant, it's not in book format so I'm not counting it!

Good news though as I've finished my first book for October and I'm onto the second chapter of my second. Hopefully I'll get back on track this month :)

43/52

Some thrifty finds

On the way to the dentist (which is where I was this morning) I pass a fabulous charity shop called Emmaus and I always pop in! It's a huge building (it was a former school) and it's packed full of all sorts of good things.

The tea towel and the squirrel bowl are from there and were 50p each. The two books are from the smaller hospice charity shop across the road and were also 50p each. And thank goodness for changing rooms in charity shops. I spied a nice looking gold coloured skirt (nice gold not nasty gold) and when held up against me it looked like it would come to just above my knees. It was a grown up version of a ra-ra skirt and was much nicer than it sounds! However when I tried it on, my bum, hips and stomach made it stop at mid thigh level and while I'm a big believer in wearing what the hell you like and not pandering to 'dressing for your body shape' (I hate that phrase!), it didn't suit me and I would have felt self concious wearing it. Phew, long sentence there!

To sum up my hatred of that phrase here are two of my pins from Pinterest - one a bit rude (pixelation not mine) and one not so rude.

Are you on Pinterest? Do you pin brilliant stuff? Let me know so I can take a look :)

52 books in 52 weeks - part eight

My reads for the last month :) 

I have read Animal Farm once before and although I enjoyed it again I much prefer 1984 by the same author.

This book is brilliant and is well worth reading if you get the chance. It's about a bookbinder called Dora Damage and basically what happens in her life.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and it was a huge disappointment! The blurb promised great things and I struggled to finish it. It's gone to the charity shop already!

Anya took this on holiday and I borrowed it when she had finished it. Don't read it in a public space if you are at all emotional - you look daft crying over a kids book let me tell you!

Someone I know online was reading this (Hi Laura!) and I knew it was on my shelf somewhere so I dug it out to take on holiday. Again it is well worth reading if you get the chance - it follows the lives of a family of missionaries who go to Africa and what happens to them through the decades.

42/52 - only 10 to go to reach my target by the end of December :)

52 books - part seven

My readings for the last month :)

This book was recommended to me by Laura at Dropstitch and I'm so glad I listened. This book follows the story of Patroclus who is exiled to the court of Achilles and his father. It's a brilliant book and I highly advise that you buy it!

This is a book I've had on my shelf for a while and it's set in a high school in America. It's a young adults book that deals with some serious issues - I'm keeping this one for Anya to read when she gets older.

Matt bought this for me from Kickstarter so I don't think it's officially out for release yet. There is a Facebook group dedicated to the Academy Of Magick with updates about when the book is out - well worth a look! I loved it and I have friends who will love it too so they are next on the list to share it with.

I loved this play! It's very amusing and made me laugh out loud which isn't bad for a play written in the 1890's. It's also fairly short (I read it over lunch one day) so you won't waste too much time if you don't like it!

I must admit that I only read Brokeback Mountain in this series of short stories. I really did try to read some others but I just couldn't get into them. I really quite fancy seeing the movie now.

And I'm not counting them in this round up but I've been reading lots of fan fiction online too so that kind of makes up for the shortness of Brokeback Mountain :)

37/52 - any recommendations for further books to read?

Oh and the 150 books we sorted last month to go to the charity shop turned into 400 over the weekend. However our shelves are still full - how did that happen?

52 books, 52 weeks - part 6

Hey, look at this - it's the first of the month and I'm already up to date with my book list :) Go Lynsey!

This is the second time I have read The Scarlet Letter and I must admit it dragged a bit on second reading. I'm assuming it's because I knew what happened and I was just waiting for it to get to that point. I first came across this book when a customer in the pub I worked in in my home town (I was 18/19) was reading it at the bar one day and he encouraged me to have a read!

I got about 6 chapters into this book and realised I'd read it recently (maybe late last year) but I carried on reading anyway. I love one of the main characters in this book and the other I dislike immensely and she doesn't come across much better second time round! Good book though and very readable.

Another thriller and this one was a bit meh. There were likeable characters but it seemed to drag on quite a bit without revealing anything of interest and then suddenly bam, all the information came at once. I have a couple of other books by Tami Hoag so I will see how I go with those.

I got this out of the library (and it's actually a bit late back as I forgot to take it back with the others!) and it's a very good read. I was drawn to it because of my recent obsession with vegetable gardening and for a factual book it was very easy to read. There are quite a few numbers in there but it shows how  well war time efforts to grow your own food worked.

32/52

I hoard books but something snapped this weekend and we sorted out 120 books to go to the charity shop without really thinking about it/sorting properly. Oh and that's only off a few shelves in the study. Imagine what would happen if I went through each book, one by one! Maybe I should stop going to the library as much and read the books I've got!

52 books 52 weeks - part five

Wow, I did well this month :) Six books read and I nearly finished a seventh but not quite! Here are last months books.

I wasn't sure whether to include this book or not because it is non fiction but I did and yes, I did read it all! I'm not normally a fan of Kirstie's books but I was sufficiently intrigued by this to borrow it from the library. It was ok but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than buying it!

A fabulous book where most of the action takes place over the period of one day and you know that something dreadful happens (due to flash forwards) but you have no idea what it might be right until the moment it happens. It is a very slow paced book and I can see why some readers have given up on it but if you read it in large enough chunks it shouldn't be too tiresome. I enjoyed it :)

As I live within view of Pendle Hill I have a desire to read lots about the Pendle witches as I know nothing about them apart from the small snippets on the local 'witch buses' that go from Colne, through Burnley and on to Manchester! This is a childs book and focuses on Jennet Device who gave evidence at the witch trials against her own family. Again I borrowed this from the library and will be searching out more books on this subject!

This is another library book (yay for libraries!) I loved the female character but didn't like the storyline of this book.

This is yet another library book and the first book I have read by this author. Needless to say I grabbed two more books from the charity shops while we away on holiday!

I've been meaning to read this book for years but I just didn't get round to it. It was genuinely scary in places and now I want to watch the film version.

28/52

Only my girls....

..... could combine swinging on the swings with book reading :)

We truly love books that much! Of course, I was sat reading mine as they were swinging/reading/playing :)

Libraries :)

I haven't visited my local library for such a long time which seems silly when you consider it's only a 10 minute walk through the park to get there! I picked up my 20 World Book Night books from there and the girls came with me and got some books out. I returned today to take their books back, get them replacement cards and I had just enough time to pick out some books for me! We don't go to the library as our local Post Office sells books for charity and at 25p for kids paperbacks, 50p for kids hardbacks/adults paperbacks and £1 for adult hardbacks so can't really go wrong! However, we do have a lot of books in our house (into the thousands) so we could do with reigning in the number of books that come into the house (and no, I can't believe I've just typed that!) Here are the books I've borrowed.

Kirsties Handmade Home - I'm not a fan of Kirstie Allsop at all and haven't watched the TV programme but while the books are free to borrow I thought I may as well to see what all the fuss was about!

All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens - just a pretty looking book which deals mainly with applique.

Creative Walls by Geraldine James - it's a book about displaying your treasures and we have a lot of treasures to display so it might be a worthwhile read!

Seedbombs by Josie Jeffery - a book all about seedbombing which intrigues me to be honest! I might also take it to show my sister when we see her soon as I think it is something she would like!

Malkin Child by Livi Michael - a book about the Pendle Witches which I shamefully (living very near to Pendle Hill) know little about. Hopefully this book will help.

And the top two aren't for me but for the girls. To tide them over until we get a free timeslot to go back so they can choose their own books with their new cards!

Do you use your local library? Is it far from where you live?

52 books in 52 weeks - part four

I only managed 3 books in April but I was busy with BCTF :) Here they are!

I picked this up from a charity shop and while I liked it I found the plot a little annoying. Basically Laura wants to start a creative company and it all works out in the end with spectacular results and not much effort from Laura! It's already gone to the charity shop :)

Matt and I found this in Sainsbury's while shopping for food for me for BCTF (I was in the campervan for the duration) If you get chance to read it then you should - it's a brilliant book! It weaves back and forth through recent history but this only adds to the tension rather than being annoying. I didn't see the ending coming at all and it stayed with me for a good few days afterwards - a sign of a good book! Go read it.

This was the book I gave out for World Book Night but I cheated and hadn't read it first - shhhhh don't tell! It was very twisty turny and I didn't expect the ending although I had some suspicions along the way. 

22/52 - not bad :)

52 books in 52 weeks - part three

I'm very late in sharing my books from March but here they are at last! I read a fair few books in March but most I'd read before and some were the Harry Potter books so easy to read :)

I reread all of the Harry Potter books as I've read them many times before and as I was preparing for BCTF I needed something that I didn't need to concentrate on too much!

I am a big Philip Pullman fan and have had this book for a while so I thought I would give it a try. All I can say is 'meh' It took a while to get into it but it was ok. Not something I would read again though and it's already gone to the charity shop!

Anya read most of this book in school and I decided we needed a copy so she could finish it and also so I could read it! I loved it! Brilliant and well written :)

I can't say I read this as it's all cartoons and it took me about 10 minutes to go through it but as it's a book I will count it! If you know any frugal people then this would be worth buying for them as it's funny. It is an American book and has some Americanisms but not too many that it will put you off. And of course it came to us via the charity shop :)

19/52 books read :)