The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey. Gorgeous, hopeful, heartbreaking, and imaginative, I loved this book and finished it in 3 days. I love the cabin in the woods, living off the land, and dreamy qualities of this story that parallels a (real?) Russian Fairy tale. I love that the author lives in Alaska, works in a local bookstore (hello, dream job!) and this is her first story about life in the frozen tundra during the 20’s.
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen. I still haven’t seen the movie but I’m not sure if it will top the book. This is another I couldn’t put down. The narrator is a very old Jacob who is in a nursing home and retells the story of his life working as a Veterinarian (who didn’t take his final exam) for the circus as a young man. It’s about love and friendship and loyalty as much as about adventure, family and finding yourself. I loved Rosie the elephant and her hilarious antics as much as I hated the equestrian leader (the love interests crazy husband).
The Girl who Played with Fire, Stieg Larrson. The second in the Millennium trilogy starts off well but with all the names and continuos addition of new characters to figure out, it gets confusing and at times just plain hard to read. Though, I do like the story a lot and it never seems cliche, it took me a while to finish (I read about 3 other books at the same time). I then watched the Swedish film of the same name and really enjoyed it especially since I knew what was going on.
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn. I liked the conversational style of this story and that you think you might know what’s going on but ya don’t! It’s a twisted tale of a marriage gone horribly wrong. Each of husband and wife, in their self reflections on their marriage (hers via diary entry, his via present day) piece together the mystery of the wife’s disappearance in small town Missouri. This story had me from the get-go and I didn’t put it down until I understood the psychological terrors involved with each character.
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth strout. I enjoyed this book for its honesty and humanity. No sugar coating life here. I felt depressed at times reading this but that’s how good the writing is! I also laughed and felt I got to know the community of folks in this book. I liked the slower pacing and all the details in a scene. You feel like you are there with them . totally a great read.
The poisonwood Bible by Barbara kinsolver. I actually didn’t quite finish this one before I had to either return or renew it sooo I will just have to find it someday again. The first half was mostly intriguing but i didn’t really fully appreciate the views of the bible thumping baptist preacher dad figure. He was awful! then I was kind of upset how it starts turning out for the daughters so if you know how it ends an want to share with me go ahead:)
The Last Chinese Chef, Nicole Mones. This book is what I love about reading about food! I totally appreciated the journey the narrator went on to find out the truth about her marriage and deceased husband’s “extracirriculars” while in Beijing. Cooking has never been so sensual. Loved it.
The Fault in our Stars, John Green. Charming yet sad, spiritual, real and funny. I laughed out loud and cried my eyes out. A story of teenagers with cancer falling in love and what they will do for each other with what they have. I love the honesty each character possess as they deal with life-threatening illness’ as they live each day in spite of the fear of the next. I think this is a must read for every teenager, young adult and adult. Not everyone will completely agree with the spiritual tones but you can learn and be inspired by it. I was.
I guess I have a goal to read as much as possible and if I had to put a number on it I would say I’d like to read 30 books this year. Cuz I’m turning 30 y’all!
What you’ll need to make a Couple of vases (hee hee, couple): Vases (thrifted for 50 cents), a sheet of adhesive foam (already had from the craft store), spray paint (already had from a previous project). Oh man I just love how thrifty I’ve become! I mean, crafts get expensive guys! So what I did was I simply started by drawing out facial features onto the foam with a pencil. I would draw on the back side of the foam sheet since my pencil showed through a bit and I had to use a lot of paint to cover it. Then I cut the pieces out, peeled off the sheet from the foam and stuck them on. Then I did 5 or 6 coats of spray paint, waiting about 30 minutes to an hour between each. (I got lots of laundry done in-between) It was a really easy project and pretty fun. I was going to be lazy and not make the hair but once I stuck on all those curly pieces to my lady I loved her so much more! I mean that’s not weird, to love a vase, right? And the dude vase looks way better with hair, sorry babe, nothing to do with you! (You look great with a shaved head!) So what do you think? I’d love to stick some fresh spring flowers in them soon!
I came across this gorgeous wolf print while on etsy one day and favorited it. I came across the artist’s work again via one of my fave blogs and decided to go ahead and buy a few of my favorite prints, and I love them soooo much!! One is actually a card but I framed it anyways. Why not right? So the top three prints are the ones I’ve purchased already and these below are ones I’m craving to buy when I have some extra cash!
I just love her use of colors and pattern and just how dreamy she depicts the animals. I’ve always had a fascination with southwestern type art and I find these prints to be modern depictions of that ideal. 
alittlebitjessica 