End of the year wrap up - Reading

I've been thinking about this past year as it winds down and as I look toward the beginning of 2007. I usually keep better track of what I've read during the year. I have no clue how many books I've gone through. In past years I've averaged between one and two books per week. Still, I'd like to see how well I can do at listing some of the more memorable reads from the year. Obviously the less memorable ones will be... less memorable and not listed here. *G*

I've been reading quite a number of series, many of which had new releases. I'll list the authors, in no particular order:

Sharon Shinn
Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor
Kelley Armstrong
Kim Harrison
Jacqueline Carey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Anne McCaffrey/Todd McCaffrey
George R. R. Martin
David Weber
Jasper Fforde
Lindsey Davis
Donna Leon
Dana Stabenow
JD Robb
Janet Evanovich
Liz Curtis Higgs

Most of what I read were new offerings, though for a couple I was catching up on releases from late last year.

I've been drawn in by a few new series as well:

Warprize series by Elizabeth Vaughan
Charmed series by Candace Havens
Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
Pink Carnation books by Lauren Willig

The Willig books I 'read' via unabridged recordings. I've listened to books this year more than ever before. I find that works rather nicely with my propensity to craft whenever I get some free time. I'd put a recording in the CD player and craft away. The library is my favorite source for these. The price is definitely right! I've also re-read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon in this fashion. It's interesting. I've read these books a number of times already, but hearing them seems to tap into a different part of my brain and I'll pick up on things that I've missed despite numerous reads. It's fun! I've also put one of those books, Outlander, on my new pink iPod nano (Woo hoo! Christmas present!), so that I can listen on my walks. Now I just need to make sure that I take those walks. LOL!

There are a few more books that don't fit in any of the 'categories' that I've mentioned already. One is The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist. That one pulled me in and pulled me right along. It had so much tension it was tiring though. Another is a first release by Jeanne Treatt called Dark Birthright. The last one that comes to mind is non-fiction and I've been reading this a bit at a time since I heard about it on NPR and had to check it out--it's called Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.

I think that covers the more memorable books for 2006. Let me just mention again that Paperback Swap is a great place for trading books. I love being able to fill my to-be-read pile with books that I've only perhaps paid media mail postage for in order to get them into my hands, plus it's a great way to unload some of the books that I know I won't be reading again.

My crafting wrap up will be next.

Experimenting

I have two reasons for posting. Well, there are three actually. The first is because I haven't posted in quite a while. The second is because I have some stamping-related stuff to share. The third is that I want to try something--linking my Picasa/Google web album and this blog.

Again, I created this for my online reading group. It's fun. The Ladies of Lallybroch™ have a neat relationship with Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series. Each December the group pitches in and sends her some goodies, and for the last three years now, I've had the privilege of creating the card that accompanies her box of presents. As we were brainstorming, my good friend came up with a verse inspired by The Night Before Christmas. It was rather long for a regular card and I thought that even a longer card wouldn't do it justice. I decided to try my hand at a star book. Mind you, I've seen them, but I've never tried to make one. Isn't it always the way? That I'll be trying something for the first time when I'm working on something important?! Anyway, I found a great set of directions on Split Coast Stampers and I was off to make a go of this.

I used chipboard as the base for the front and back and covered them with the plaid fabric that I'd had left over from my altered nutcracker's kilt. The pages inside were Bazzill cardstock. Naturally, after I had all of the pages cut out, I realized that I didn't have a great way of adding the text, unless I wanted to write them or use layers of computer-generated text. ACK! Neither of those were great options. I decided to print the words on transparency and go from there. It ended up working out nicely. I'll post the link to my album below. I took a lot of pics because this was my first time and it actually went very smoothly!

Okay. Here's where I'm trying something new. I'm going to try using the code that is supposed to embed my album here....

dgcard2006

Hopefully that worked. It looks like it did. Anyway, that was a fun project and I enjoyed that creative stretch.

This takes me to the last reason that I'd wanted to post. I've enjoyed blogging, but it can take time to resize pics and get them ready to blog. I realized that Picasa will upload pics to a free web album, to the tune of 250 MB, and then you can upgrade from there. It was super easy. You can enter the file or photo size, make new albums, make them public or private, edit captions, names, locations--it's slick. Then I noticed in the sidebar that I could embed my album in my blog. Nifty! That's why I'm testing this. I'm curious. This could be a lot of fun, not to mention easy! Hopefully it will work. *crossing fingers*

Altered nutcracker

I've mentioned my online reading group before. We're devotees of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and we congregate at our cyberspace home, the Ladies of Lallybroch message boards. One of the main characters in the series is a red-headed, oft-kilted, sword-wielding Scot. There's much more to the story than just that, but for this project, that's all that you really need to know.

I've mentioned the card exchanges and the ornament exchanges that go on there with the season. There's also a Secret Santa game, and it's fun because the membership comes from all over the world. I asked my giftee about any possible likes or dislikes. I already had a few things in mind, but could add to them. She said that she wouldn't mind if I included a 6 ft 4 in, red-headed, kilted Scot with a sword in her package. That was a tall order indeed! I pondered. I brainstormed. I have rubber stamps that could work, but that didn't have the right feel. Stumped, I headed out to run errands.

One of my stops was the dollar store. Just inside the door was a shelf filled with nutcrackers about 12" high. Okay, so not quite 6' 4", but I had to be realistic. None were kilted. UGH! All had white hair. Hm, that could be changed. One had a sword! Okay! This had potential. Into the basket it went. At another stop, I found a plaid fabric remnant. The color wasn't perfect, but it was festive!

At home I broke out my Ranger Adirondack markers. I needed reds, cinnamon, roan. One color was not enough. A mix of them actually looked okay. On to the kilt. Okay. Long strip of fabric, pleated and wrapped. Easier said than done, I soon found. I pulled out a needle and thread. Yes, again. I even pulled out the iron. Just the craft iron though, so that was okay. A bit of starch and a few stitches later, and I thought he looked close enough to the description to get a chuckle from my giftee. I put the sword back on him. He was set.

kilted nutcracker

What I found to be fun about this was that a few years ago, I wouldn't have thought of tackling something this way. If I couldn't find just what I wanted, I'd have given up. Crafting opens up whole new worlds! I'm not expecting altered nutcrackers to become the latest craze, but this was fun!

And on a completely different note, though this does have to do with new worlds, I suppose, I'd like to send out kudos to a friend that I've made at the Lallybroch site. In addition to being a wonderful person, she's a talented artist and creates fabulous works of art, from paintings to sketches, Pysanky egg decorating to wood carving. I've had the pleasure of watching the progression as she's worked on some of her portraits and it's amazing. So neat to see those lines and brush strokes come to life. She works on commission and is embarking on a new venture, creating an internet presence for herself and her art. So, congratulations, Sue, and best of luck with the Art of Surprise. :-)