It's Friday...what are you reading?

I am so overwhelmed with all that I have to do and the time is rushing by me!  That is why I haven't blogged much but I need to slow down and remember the reason for the season.  Remind me next year to not wait until November to make Christmas presents! LOL!
I have also been disheartened by all that has been going on in the world during this season of supposed "JOY" which has certainly not helped the Christmas spirit to embed itself in my soul.
But on the good side, I have been reading some really good books!  And here they are.........

This is my favorite author of the moment and I will be reading all of her books for sure!  I rate it 5 Stars!  This was her first book and although the stories she writes are each individual novels I still like to read them in order to see how an author develops.  I highly recommend her!  A synopsis of the story can be found here

Next was my audio book..........with audio books the story is important but so is the person who reads it and Richard Thomas does an excellent job!  Another 5 star read!  Synopsis here
This is really for children but not young children...maybe older children....it is very sad and gruesome in parts.  I would like my grandsons to read it someday but they're a bit young for it now.

I finished this one last night and it gets a 4 star.  It's a great story but there's more sex and bad language than I usually like so that's why I marked it 4 stars.  It's probably for a younger crowd but the story was good and kept you interested and she's a good writer.  The synopsis is here

I'm slowly reading this one and trying to incorporate some of their methods on cutting the grocery bills and their budgeting system so it's going to take awhile but it's good so far.

For my audio, I am listening to a "dear old friend", Garrison Keillor.  I used to listen to Prairie Home Companion on NPR on Saturday nights on my farm in Iowa.  What fond memories I have of those wonderful evenings on my little farm shared with the Prairie Home Companion radio gang. Synopsis is here

My new book of fiction that I will be starting tonight is this one......another highly recommended author and her first book although she has many more.  I'm looking forward to it!  I'll be sending in another book order soon as I am loving these recommendations!  I used to be such a non-fiction girl and I still do love true stories and history and nature books but there is some great non-fiction out there too!

That's all folks!  Please let me know what you're reading and especially those good ones!
Happy Trails!

YOP Week #20

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrated it and if not I hope you had a great weekend!  I know I did but it has been very busy....more about that later and my Thanksgiving but for now I think it is Week #20 but it could be Week #21 of YOP...someone please let me know as I don't want to go back and count it out.  LOL! 
Anyway, I've been hustling around here and for as slow as I am that is probably medium speed for you normal people.  I finished the plant markers but they don't look that much different than before.  I'll probably show you next week when I get them wrapped a little cuter.
I'm panicking about now as everything is supposed to be in the mail by the 12th to guarantee delivery by Christmas and my "list" is still in my head....not good!
Here's what I have to show you.........Grayson's hat...I will finish this by today for sure!  Just the ear flaps and the i-cord ties left to do.

I started and finished a cowl for my daughter.  I just need to weave in the ends.  If I could just hire someone to weave in ends I'd be a lot farther along!  

Sorry for the lousy photos but little Miss Peeps was in attack mode and I was afraid she was going to snag things.   See that look in her eyes?  Watch out!

I have the corner-to-corner blanket as wide as I want it now and have used up 3 or 4 skeins of yarn (there are so many skeins of this stuff.....I might be able to make them a pillow to match).

 Now I have to go revisit Mickey's instructions (Crochet Crowd on You Tube) on how to make it a rectangle instead of a square.

OMG!  Is that yarn hanging from her mouth?  Someone is getting a "timeout" and it's not me!

 I crocheted 6 coasters for my son but again there are ends to weave in and they will be getting colored "stripes" in between each row.Hopefully that will fix the "blahness" that emanates from them at the moment. 

 These are the beginning of "reindeer" mittens (2 pair need to be crocheted) and then I have to find a pattern for shark mittens for Uriah as he is a shark fanatic!  I already know what I'm making for his birthday in July.  Lion Brand has a free pattern for a shark rug....oh yeah!  

 I have some sewing to do too but will I get to it?  Stay tuned!  Tomorrow I'll blog about books as I've finished some good ones.

I got this card from some friends in Illinois and that is exactly how I feel!  In case you're wondering how a person celebrates a holiday alone....here's how I did.  I got a Butterball turkey breast bone in  (I highly recommend it!  Delish!), I made scalloped corn, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and a pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  While I cooked I watched a marathon of Anne of Green Gables that was on PBS starting at 8:30 in the morning.  I got several calls from family and crocheted and knitted and had a wonderful dinner with a glass of my favorite wine...Mad Housewife (name of the wine not me)! LOL!  It was a wonderful relaxing day filled with gratitude!  Later during the weekend, I got to actually SEE on television here in the South... the Bears beat the Packers at Green Bay and Iowa win too!  What more could a gal ask for?  It rained for the whole holiday weekend but we were cozy and full all weekend! LOL!

Happy Trails!     

P.S.  Yes, the girls got some turkey too!