The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This is a Young Adult book that is getting rave reviews and I can see why.   At first I was a little "eh" about the book as it read like a young adult novel, very young, but progressively got more "adult".   If you read the cover of the book you might think "kids with cancer? who wants to read that?! how depressing".  I'm not going to lie to you, you will cry, most likely.  It will be very touching and moving.   This is one of those books I would love to read again because I feel that I missed a lot of the deeper meaning that is in this book.   I was so caught up in the relationship that I think I missed out on the message that is being portrayed.  These kids are old souls and I loved each and every one of them.   And I definitely want to go to Amsterdam now!  

Favorite line from the book "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you."

A beautiful book that I will recommend to everyone.  5 out of 5 stars. 

Quilts in progress

I have two quilts that are works in progress.  One is a quilt for my stepdaughter and is the hot priority since I want to give it to her for her birthday, which is in a couple weeks.  Yikes!  It will be a Kaleidoscope pattern with these fabrics:

The other WIP is a wedding Guest Book quilt for a dear friend of mine that recently got married.  Some of her guests forgot to sign the quilt so we are sending blocks to them so this will be a WIP until I get those blocks.  They got married in Texas with a rustic them so I chose Texas themed fabric. 

The Force Quilt

This past Sunday I gave "The Force" to Cayden for his birthday and he loved it!  The message on the label read:

"The Force" - May the force always be with you as will my love.

He was already using it within an hour of receiving it in his post birthday party nap.  

A tuckered out 10 year old.  :)

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

This is the second book I have read by Gillian Flynn and I still am unsure if she is a brilliant writer or just plain crazy.   Gone Girl was the first book I read by her and man what a story!  Those people are completely nuts!  Same thing with Sharp Objects.   It's like this weird Wes Craven-Stephen King-Twilight Zone thing meets Janet Evanovich-Mary Higgins Clark-Sue Crafton type of psychological murder mystery story, if that helps sum it up for you at all.  Had a definite Children of the Corn feel to it.

Flynn has a real knack for writing about people with various psychosis and there are usually several characters in her book that have a psychological disorder in some form or other.  Is this a comment on society?  Do we all have psychotic tendencies and some people just are more outgoing about them than others?  It's likely.  It's hard to know who is truly "normal" in this day and age. 

This book was a bit predictable to me.  Perhaps I have read enough mysteries to know who the bad guy is in these books but if you read Gone Girl first then this one would keep you guessing and wondering what will happen to Camille in the end.  I kept wondering if she was going to stay with her mom and not turn her in.  ;)  It was still an entertaining read and definitely not as crazy as Gone Girl. I did feel a bit more normal after reading it so thank you Gillian Flynn for making me feel less crazy.   :)

Goodreads Reading Challenge

At the beginning of each year, members of Goodreads can participate in a Reading Challenge for the year.  Last year I said I would read 12 books and I read 18.  This year I said I would read 20 books and I have only read 15.  That means I am 5 books behind.  Yikes!

I am a member of a book club where we read a book a month and then meet and talk about the book.  So each year I know I will at least read 12 books in a year.  Since I exceeded my goal last year I thought "what's two more books this year?"  Now I have to figure out what my five remaining books will be....

The December book for my book club is Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl).  So that leaves 4 more that are not Book club books.  I could get a jump start on book club books for next year and read my January book which is Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.  So that leaves 3 more books to read to meet my goal.  So what should I read?  They would need to be easy or quick reads since I have a month and a half to reach my goal.  How about the Twilight Series?  Or maybe a Janet Evanovich book my mom gave me years ago that I have yet to read.  So many choices and so little time.  AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!  I welcome any suggestions you might have.  :)

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1888370-lesley-smith

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Everyone knows the saying "Actions speak louder than words" and for the most part that is very true.  However, as this book (I feel) illustrates, words can have more meaning and more power than the action.  Without the words, there is no action.  What Hitler did was obviously deplorable.  The calculated killing of millions of people will forever be a stain on human existence.  But would it have had the same impact if Hitler had said nothing but nice things about the Jews and all the others he had killed?  Would people have listened to him if he said "The Jews are such nice, kind and loving people.  Let's kill them"?  Or would they have all laughed in his face and there would never have been a Holocaust?  Without his words, his conviction, I highly doubt he would have had as many followers.  

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  The ending of course is very powerful and moving.  I feel that the approach the author took to this book was different and fascinating. I thought at first I would hate that he would "give away" the ending throughout the story but never felt cheated of what I knew was inevitably going to happen because when the end finally came it was explained further and had much more poignancy.  A great book and one that should be read by all.  I hope the movie does this book justice and isn't another book-to-movie disappointment.  Not holding my breath for that though.

May the Force Be With You

I have finished my second quilt!  With a lot of stuff going on in my life the past six months it took me a really really long time to finish but it is finally done and I am happy with it.  It is a Star Wars themed quilt for Cayden.  I used the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern from Atkinson designs.  I think I will title this "The Force".  So everywhere he goes "The Force" will be with him.  :)  

Here is the progression of the quilt:

Piecing blocks into rows.

 

The layout of each row.

 

 

My Borders.

 

 

I tried Machine quilting for the first time ever.  I made a few "mistakes" with the stippling, broke some of the rules but overall I am quite impressed with myself.  :)

 

 

The final product.  Stitch in the ditch throughout the top so as not to take away from the decorative fabric with Stippling free motion quilting on the borders.  I used my machine for the binding, not brave enough to try binding by hand yet.  The cool thing about using my machine is I can add a decorative stitch to the binding.

 

Side note: I need a real camera instead of using my phone all the time.  Sorry for the poor photo quality. 

 

Wine

My family is from the heart of Wine Country, Napa Valley, CA.   I grew up with a general understanding and appreciation for wine but didn't like it until I was in my mid to late twenties.  It was an acquired taste and it has taken me awhile to find the type of wines I like. 

I started out with white wine and loved Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio.  Then I started to develop headaches anytime I had white wine so now I have to drink it in moderation.  I then moved on to Cabernet Sauvignon and found a few that I liked.  I still have a heard time with Merlot.  There are a few that I like but those are few.   When I worked at a restaurant bar in LA I tried a Pinot Noir, Cloudline, and fell in love with it.  It is to this day my favorite Pinot  Noir but extremely hard to find. 

During the Temecula wine tasting trip with my mom as mentioned in my first post, I joined a wine club.  South Coast Winery.  They have a beautiful resort there too.

http://wineresort.com/

It was the last winery on our tasting tour since it was where we were staying and I really liked their wine.  It's very smooth.  So I joined the wine club where every 3-4 months I will get a new shipment of wine.  My next delivery is available for pickup, need to find some time to go get it!

I am not the type of wine drinker who comments on the bouquets or the tastes or the lines that form on the glass after you stir it up, etc..  It either tastes good to me or it doesn't.  It's that simple for me.  :)

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”
― W.C. Fields

Quilts

I didn't start to appreciate quilts until about 4 or 5 years ago when I was working for an aerospace company in Moorpark, CA when I met my dear friend Catherine.  Catherine mentioned she was a quilted and brought in some of her quilts to work one day.  And they were gorgeous!!!!!  To think that someone made them with their own two hands was astonishing to me.  I guess prior to this I just figured all the quilts I saw in stores were mass produced so who cared.  But to think a person could make such beautiful pieces of art intrigued me. 

So, I asked Catherine how I can learn to quilt.  She said first, buy a sewing machine.  I went on to Overstock.com and bought a cheap $120 Brother sewing machine.  Done.  Next, I needed to learn how to sew and use my machine.  I searched around my town for sewing classes and finally found one at the local Sew and Vac store and signed up.  Done.  Then Catherine came over to my house and showed me some basic quilting techniques and showed what type of tools I need to buy.  Sadly, Catherine left the company and we lost touch here and there.  But I still wanted to quilt. 

I went to one of the local quilt stores and signed up for a beginning quilting class and the obsession began.  That was this past January.  It hasn't even been a whole year yet!  and I'm completely addicted.  :)  If I go a few days without quilting I start to get that itch and then I have to go home and do nothing but sew and iron and cut.  I love it! 

Here is a picture of my first ever quilt:

I have finished one quilt and I have basted two more.  I started to quilt one of them and hope to have it done and binded by this weekend, wish me luck!  I will post pictures of it soon.

Quilting is therapeutic and I love it!  It brings me joy to make things for people I love and care about and for myself too.  :)

"Blankets wrap you in warmth, quilts wrap you in love."

Books

Books have always been my love for as long as I can remember. I remember participating in a March of Dimes Reading contest in elementary school and won just about every medal I could. 

During the summer times my sister and I would go to our dads and spent a good portion of our time at the library and reading.  He lived in Lake Berryessa, CA across from a lake which was pretty cool except for the fact that the next neighbor was miles away and there weren't any kids around to play with other than my sister.  So reading became a way of entertaining ourselves.  We would leave the library with literally STACKS of books. 

In fourth or fifth grade I got into the Babysitters Club books and read pretty much every single one.  Then I got into mysteries like The Dollhouse in the Attic and RL Stine books.  I loved them so much I started writing my own ghost/mysteries.  

In high school I got braver and read a few Stephen King books and Dean Koontz too.  In fact, I did my senior research paper on Stephen King, it was pretty fascinating. 

I'm currently in a book club where we read one book a month and then meet to discuss it.  I love my book club and I am so glad I found it.  I highly recommend book clubs for anyone who loves to read, you just have to find the right one.  If I finish my monthly book on time before the meeting I will usually start reading another book on my own personal "to read" shelf.  That way I'm not just reading books I'm "supposed" to read, I'm reading books I want to read too. 

I love using Goodreads to keep track of my books.  If you would like to follow my books on Goodreads you can find me here: https://www.goodreads.com/LesleyKS

On this blog I will post reviews of books I have read as well as on Goodreads.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
― Charles William Eliot

Do one thing a day that makes you happy

In August of 2013, my mom and I went Wine Tasting in Temecula for her birthday.  In one of the gift shops she bought me a framed art piece of sorts that says "Do one thing a day that makes you happy".  I was going through a tough time at that point and loved the gesture and the simplicity of the saying in that frame.  So it has become my mantra and has helped me get through each and every day since August.

There are three things that bring me joy each and every day.  Books, Quilting and Wine.  And I truly do try to do each one at least once a day.  On a very good day I do all three.  So how did I find my love of all three of these?  Well...I will address each one in a separate blog.

Why am I writing a blog?  Well, it's more for me than anyone else.  It's one thing to love doing something and keeping it to myself and it's another thing to share my joy and love for something with others who may see it as inspiration to find their own daily happiness.  If you are like me at all you probably forget about your own happiness and focus a lot on everyone else around you.  There is nothing wrong with that, we just have to remember to treat ourselves too or we will eventually crumble.  We have to be responsible for our own happiness sometimes instead of relying on others to bring it to us. 

I hope you enjoy what you see and read here.  What is one thing you do everyday that makes you happy?