Stocking Update: Fail

I think I have learned a lesson.  When your Dad is gone for a month on a business trip, it's all you can do to make sure your Mom doesn't go insane and help her keep the house together.  That's my excuse for not posting in like, three weeks.

But yeah, I haven't worked on the stocking at all since the last post.  So you're not missing anything.  When I do start working on it again I will post stuff.  Hopefully I will be posting stuff again next week.

Oh, and I finished one of the books on my reading list, and will be posting a review soon :)
I also got the Divergent series for my birthday :D and I will review that too.  I probably won't do separate book reviews (for several reasons), but I'll review the series as a whole.

Look out for some posts soon, but in the meantime, have some ice cream!

Stocking Update: Week 1

First week of Stocking updates!  Yay!

So I started the stocking like, two weeks ago, and normally the only chance I get to work on it is on the weekends, and at The Needle Club (a girl's crafty group where I live).  So I don't normally get a lot done.  If it was my younger sister who is crazy about crafts and will sew and crochet all day long, she'd have it done by now.  But I don't have the luxury of that much time :P

Oh yes, and please excuse the low quality of some of the pictures.

Before I started taking photos of this project I finished the stocking front, which was mostly a lot of sequins and embroidery.

Pretty snowflakes!

Then the fun stuff started!!  The snowman has, well, a snowman butt bottom, so I sequined it and appliqued (fancy for sewing it onto the main body of the stocking) it, and it actually turned out pretty nice.  I had some problems with sequins that wanted to keep falling off, but it looks pretty nice now.

Then I did the snowman arms and mittens.  The arms were pretty easy, just sequin, stuff, and applique.

I never actually got a picture of the arm by itself.  Woops

Then came the mittens.  There's not one, not two, but THREE pieces to the mittens.  And how they were supposed to go on was kind of confusing.  And never mind all that, I also had to have my first experiment and embroidery!!!  O.o  And, yeah, that didn't turn out too well.  I think one of the lines turned out pretty well, but the rest were a mess.

They don't look terrible in this picture, but trust me, they are worse in real life.

I've been told that practice makes perfect, but, uh, I'm not sure I'll ever get anywhere near perfect.

I finally figured out how to put the finger ends of the mittens on, and it turns out I'm not supposed to sew all the way around the edge of the fingers when you applique the mitten fingers on, so that way the snowman can hold his lights.  Yeah........

But all turned out well, and I'm working on sequinning the snowman middle, so that should be on by next week!  But for now, there are two floating snowman arms.........  Hey, if I could I would put the head on next and then we could have a floating snoman snowman head too!

For some reason this reminds me of the Cheshire Cat.....

Experiment Post: Intro

Okay, so I've decided to start a, uh, what should I call this?  An Update Series?  How about I just give background information and maybe it will explain itself.
I'm making a Christmas stocking for my youngest brother, who isn't born yet, but will be in January.  We'll call him Peanut :) It's a tradition in our family (has been for like, almost three generations) to make each other's Christmas stockings, so I have the privilege of making Peanut's stocking!  I'll post updates here every Saturday.  I'll include some pictures and an explanation of my adventures while making the stocking.  Trust me, it gets pretty crazy sometimes, and all I'm doing is making a stocking!!
This is the stocking I'm making:

Pretty cute right?  And simple, which I like because it means less work!  Well, actually I wish there was more detail, because then there would be more fun.
I already started the stocking before I decided to do this, but I haven't gotten too far, so nobody's missed much :)
I'll start posting updates every Saturday, so look out for my first post tomorrow!

Chocolate Book Tag

Yay!!  Two of my favorite things combined!  Thanks to Monica at Spilled Ink for the tagging of me :)

Dark Chocolate (a book that covers a dark topic)

I think I'm gonna have to go with Island of the World by Michael O'Brien.  I could put almost any of his Children of the Last Days series under here, but I feel like this one is the one that best fits the description.  Or maybe I'm just putting it here because the book is so deep and that makes me think of Dark Chocolate?

White Chocolate (a light and humorous read)

While not exactly humorous, this book (or any in the series) is a very light read, and pretty fun too.

Milk Chocolate (a book with lots of hype that you're dying to read)

I've been wanting to read this one ever since I watched the movie.  That was shortly after I saw the Hunger Games, and I wanted to compare the two stories.  Now I really want to read the book, which, as a little birdie told me, my sister is getting me for my birthday :)  Don't tell her I know, I dragged the secret out of Mom.

Caramel Filled Chocolate (a book that makes you feel gooey inside)

 

This is one of the many romance novels I have read that makes me feel gooey inside :) But this one does it the most!

Wafer-less Kit-Kat (a book that surprised you)

 

I was going to mention one of my first sci-fi books here, but instead I'm putting Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale instead.  This book, unlike the sci-fi books which surprised me in a good way, surprised me in a not so good way.  It was just really dry, which surprised and disappointed me, since the prequel was soooooo good.  I was really surprised at how cookie-cutter it seemed, especially after the originality of the first book, Princess Academy.

*Snickers (a book you're going nuts about)

 This is kind of hard, because there are books that I have gone nuts about before that I now am not so entranced with, and there are books that I would like to go nuts over, but haven't read them yet (e.g., The City, Divergent, etc.).  That being said, I... don't really have an answer.

Hot Chocolate with Mini-Marshmallows (a book you turn to for comfort)

 

The Lord of the Rings :)  Need I say more?

A Box of Chocolates (a series you feel has something for everyone)

 

I think I would have to say the Fairy Tales Retold series.  It has a little bit of romance, a little bit of adventure, and a little bit of religion.  The religion part might annoy some people, but it's one of the highlights of the series to me.

Well there you have it!!  My Chocolate Book list :)  Look out for more posts in the near future.

*I king of feel like this should be called Nutty Bar, since you're going nuts over it?

Open Letter to Cry Room Invaders

Dear Cry Room Invaders,

I would say you know who you are, but you obviously don't because of your behavior to all parents who correctly use the cry room.  So allow me to let you know who you are.

You are the crazy people who come in with your 20-something year old children (who by the way, are NOT children) who are perfectly well-behaved.  You are also the parents who come in with your children who are legitimately children but are perfect angels who obviously do NOT need to be in the cry room (there's a method to the madness of its name, people).  You are also the random people who come just to sit because, I don't know, you think it's quieter?  But why on earth would you think that, it's a CRY room!!  You are also the people who are only in the cry room in order to hide until communion time.  WHY?!

Never mind the fact that you are taking up seats and room for the people who actually use the cry room for its specific purpose, but you insist on rebuking those who come in to the cry room to use it for its full intent!!!!!  'Rebuking' is a nice name for your behavior towards those parents, but I'll just leave it at that.

But seriously, the cry room is made for parents when their children just will not stop banging the pews, or yelling about the fact that their older sibling is serving on the altar, why can't they? or just won't stop yelling and screaming in general.  The parents of these children should be able to scoop the adorable but mischievous child up and go into the cry room, where they can participate in the Mass but be sure of not disrupting it.

You, my dear Cry Room Invaders obviously do not realize this.  The parent of a loud child is usually already flustered that their kid was being super loud, and does not need to be flustered even more by you, insisting that their child is being loud, so they "really need to leave."  NO!  They DO NOT need to leave!!  You do, if such behavior is distracting to you!  If the child is being loud, they belong, and you do not.  It is NOT your space, and if anything, these parents should be able to ask YOU to leave.  But of course, they are wrestling a screaming child, so who can expect them to think of that?

And you parents who decide to bring your children here even when they are well-behaved, would you be kind enough to leave if you and your children are distracted by the little kid who keeps banging on all the chairs, or screaming, instead of telling the parent who is correctly using the cry room to leave?  I know some churches have 'family rooms' (which are actually supposed to be used in the same way a cry room is) but this is a cry room, so please use it like one.

I'm sure that no church wants to have a volunteer position of 'cry room monitor' whose duty it is to kick the ineligible out of said cry room, so Cry Room Invaders, please do everyone (including yourselves) a favor and stay in the main room of the church?  It's much nicer out there anyway (and quieter).

Thank you,
Ice Cream

Reading List

Yikes, my last post was almost three months ago :P
I suppose one reason that I haven't posted is because I haven't had anything to post about.  My reading for school has been too much to leave room for some fun books, but lately I've had more time for fun reading, so I've decided to come up with a list and post it!  Some of these books aren't actually what some people would consider 'fun' books.  They are part of my unofficial Tolkien Study Reading List.  And since I like reading books about Tolkien and his works, these make the list of my 'fun' books :)
So here's the list!

1. Following Gandalf by Matthew Dickerson

I've actually already started this one, I like it so far.  The title sounds cool, doesn't it?

2. Island of the World by Michael O'Brien

I actually started this one a while ago, but it is such a hefty book that I'm still not done :P I am a pretty big O'Brien fan, and I was super excited when Mom got this one.

3. The City by Dean Koontz

Recommended by my friend Monica, of Spilled Ink :)  My Grandmother has also read several Dean Koontz books and loves them, so I thought I'd give them a go.

4. Tolkien Man and Myth by Joseph Pearce

Another of my Tolkien study books.  'A literary life' makes it sound like a biography, and normally biographies are not my thing, so we'll see how that goes.

5. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter

And another Tolkien study book.  This is the last one for this list, don't worry :)  This book is thicker than I thought it would be O.o  But after reading it quoted in so many other books on Tolkien, I'm pretty eager to read the whole book.

 

6. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is a re-read.  After reading so many books about Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings, I missed reading the actual books and decided to start the trilogy again!  But I'm just putting the first book on this list for now.  I would've started with the Silmarillion, but our copy is falling apart :P Too many younger brothers left it out in weird places (isn't it amazing that by too many, I actually mean one?).  But isn't the cover just so cool?!  I know that in this picture if you look closely at the bottom, it says 'THE ART OF THE FELLOWHIP OF THE RING GART RUSSELL' in all its caps glory, but trust me, this is the cover for my copy of FotR.

So there you have it!  My reading list.  I might or might not be posting reviews, and I might or might not be reading the list in order.  So no commitment over here, except for the commitment to finish this list.

Breed to Come

Okay, so my step-grandfather got me hooked on sci-fi books.  It was an attempt to get me away from some of the more serious books that aren't actually stories (like 'Myth, Morality, and Religion' or 'The Philosophy of Tolkien') but it didn't work, because in one of books the author was talking about the relation between The Lord of the Rings and sci-fi books, so they were good examples :)


I am so glad I found the cool cover
not the creepy one.

'Breed to Come' by Andre Norton (that's a nom-de-plume, her real name is Mary Norton) is a post-apocalyptic story, which is basically what you would get if you took evolution, Humans leaving earth, very advanced technology, cats, and rolled them all into one.  Humans have been gone from our good planet Earth for quite some time.  In those long, long years Cats, Dogs, Wild Boars, and Rats have evolved and become the four dominant species, all capable of reasoning and at the very least, using simple tools.  The first three species are living very primitively near the ruins of a Human university.  Cats have developed the ability to walk constantly on two legs, and they are able to use primitive tools and weapons.  The Rats live in the ruins of the city, and not much is learned about them until the end of the book.  They are very similar to Cats, though. 

The hero of the story is a Cat named Furtig, whose ancestor Gammage left the Clans to live in the ruins of the Human university and discover their secrets.  Furtig, after losing his chance at the Trials (a contest between the males so the females have a chance to choose their mate), decides to follow Gammage and the many Cats who followed him.  When he finally arrives, Furtig discovers that Gammage and the Cats under him have made tremendous progress discovering how to use the Human's technology, and why the Humans left in the first place.  Even so, Gammage is very concerned that the Humans will return, and soon, to reclaim their home planet.

The story is very complex, and there is so much about the technology of the Humans that is never explained.  There is an extremely interesting plot twist, which I never really expected, but probably should have.  I wish I could rant about it, but I'm going to restrain myself.  There is not much conversation throughout the book, which is usually what it takes to keep me occupied with a  book, otherwise I will read through three full pages without actually registering what was happening, then I have to go back and re-read.  But the book kept my attention the whole way through!  I absolutely could not put it down.  If it was possible to read all the time (literally) I would have read this book while I slept!


I give this book an: A-
The book was really good, and I love, love, love the plot, however, nothing really relevant to the plot happens until you're almost half way through the book.  Okay, stuff happens, it's just very slow.  After reading more Andre Norton books I find this rather typical of her.  There is also not a whole lot of character development, which in NOT typical of Andre Norton.

I would TOTALLY recommend this book!

Oh, and one thing I LOVE about Andre Norton's books is that she proves that romance is not required to make a good book :D