Change of Venue...

The other day I had a random suspension of my original blog. No warning, no explanation, no way to contact other than a generic email. So I freaked out, then emailed them. No answer. No nothing. I looked in the forums and found tons of people with the same issue. And the results were almost unanimous. The blog was suspended, then deleted without explanation. I have yet to hear anything back from the support team, so I'm assuming the blog will be deleted any day now. I still can't access anything. I freaked out, called J, and he quickly bought me a domain and set up a new blog. And I kind of hate it. No, I don't hate it. It's just a bit wonky. I have to relearn how to do everything. I have to add all my features back in. I have to understand the formatting. I'm not in love with theme, but it was the best available to me at the time. I'm still getting used to this new place. But I'm determined to make the best of it. I've loved blogging this past 2+ years. I want continue. I want to add to my circles. Speaking of, I have no way to let others know of my switch since I can't put anything on the original blog. Oh well, hopefully people find me. Or at least I get some new followers.

So here I am blogging in a new place with a new name, hoping to continue enjoying this hobby of mine...

Year End Break

It's that time of year, when I leave the blogosphere for a few weeks. I love taking this time to decompress, organize, reflect, and plan ahead. I will also be updating my columns to reflect upcoming events and 2013 reading challenges. If you happen to log on during this process, it might look a bit messy, but rest assured it will be fixed by the first week in January. Plus I'm in freezing Indiana with the family. I want to spend time curling up with a mug of tea, a few cookies, and the boys while watching a movie. I'll be back after the first of the year (tenatively Jan. 6th...) To everyone out there reading my blog, if I don't see you in person...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Black Friday Shopping

Remember the time years ago when you would faithfully make a Christmas list. For me, I loved going through the Sears catalog circling the items I wanted. My boys love doing that to the Toys R Us catalog. At some point, all of us stop making Christmas lists. At least we stop writing them down. Well I am reviving the tradition. I'm making a Christmas wish list and it can be found on Amazon. Just search for my name. *Hint hint*

It's Turkey Day!

For all you Thanksgiving families out there, Enjoy your day! Eat some great food! Give thanks for all you have. I know I will...

Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange

Care to join me? Click the picture above!

This year, the Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is organised by me at Leeswammes’ Blog and by Courtney of Stiletto Storytime. Anastasia of Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog has passed the baton on to us. Anastasia is the originator and ran this very popular event for two years. Courtney and I were sorry to hear Anastasia wasn’t running it this year, so we’re very pleased she allowed us to take over. As we’re a little late announcing this event we’re more or less taking Anastasia’s text from last year, with her permission (thank you so much, Anastasia!).

The Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is an event in which book bloggers send each other a holiday card around the Christmas period (the end of December). This isn’t just for people that celebrate Christmas, though! Everyone is can join in the fun.

Info

1. Sign up for the exchange by November 30, 2012.

2. Emails with partner info go out December 3, 2012 (please check your spam folder if you didn’t get the email, then contact us).

3. You have until December 13, 2012 to send your card(s).

4. Since it’s a book-lovers card exchange you have to include something book-related in your card. Some ideas:

Write about a book you’ve read recently.
Give a few book recommendations to your partner.
Tell a book-related story.
Something else book-related that you think up yourself.

5. Since this is a book blogger holiday card exchange, you need to be a blogger who blogs at least sometimes about books to participate.

6. The swap is open internationally. It’s too cumbersome trying to pair up people who do/do not want to send internationally, so everyone must be willing to send internationally.

7. You can exchange up to five cards. You won’t always get a card from the same people you send your cards to. It will nevertheless be an awesome thing.

Some Things to Remember

1. You HAVE to send a card. A card is something like this. You can make it yourself or buy it at the store. Everything you write must be contained in the card itself. Letters are not cards. The card doesn’t have to be book-themed OR holiday themed (but it might be nice if it was). We suggest you refrain from sending specifically religious-themed cards, because that sort of thing tends to offend people, even if you didn’t mean to offend them.

2. You HAVE to write something book-related in your card (see above). You can’t just say “happy holidays.” You COULD just write a list of books and that’s all, but I don’t think that’d be a lot of fun, do you?

3. You DON’T have to send anything else but the card, but if you want to stick in something else that’d be fine. A bookmark, for instance, would be really nice. Whatever you send: it has to be flat enough to fit in the envelope– no upgrading into package territory, here.

4. The most you should spend is $5. The point of the exchange is that it’s cheap enough for us money-less people to participate in, so everything should cost $5 and under. I don’t know if you can even buy a card that costs more than $5. Can you?

Oh, and the Twitter hashtag is #bkcardex.

I'm heading east to the cold...

I'm off to Indiana to see the family for the holiday season. I'm sure there will be lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of flowers (in the shop). I'm excited to see everyone, especially the boys, but hesitant about the cold. I think I'm acclimating to North California weather and this will be a shock to the system. I'm packing tons of layers, basically whatever's left of my winter wardrobe and hoping for moderate temps. If you are traveling, be safe!

Ready to Throw It All Out (Part 2)

Check out Part 1 here. Part 2: The Office aka the most dreaded room in the house.

Does anyone else have this problem? The Office becomes the catch all room. Things go in and never again see the light of day. Things start out as very organized and then just magically become a crazy mess. We have this problem. At one point after moving in, this room was beautifully organized. And then it seems that life created chaos.

My main goals:

Restack/organize boxes in the closet
Reorganize the crafting supplies
Reduce the crafting supplies (make stuff/give away stuff)
Reduce my curriculum boxes/crap
Pick up/put away the random crap lying around
Encourage J to take care of his random crap (left side of the room)

I tackled the curriculum boxes first. In reality, I was trying to find my flash drive that held all my school files. I thought it was in the curriculum/teaching supply boxes. But after digging through all five boxes, it didn't appear. I'm a little concerned that it has completely disappeared. But I am happy that I made a mess. It gave me an opportunity to reduce the crap and reorganize the leftover. I managed to get rid of an entire box! I also repacked the leftover curriculum so that it makes sense (US History together, government together, etc). In the process I pulled resources for my tutoring student. Overall I feel a lot better about the leftovers. I tried to condense things into the must haves.

I restacked the boxes (books and curriculum) in the closet. They need to be reduced, but that requires reading and then getting rid of the books. I am determined to reduce the boxes by half by June 2013 (without adding to the boxes, of course). I need to focus on reading from my own books instead of going to the library or book store. I have a plan. Now I need to follow through. Until then, the boxes were restacked, but as you can see they are leaning a bit. I also would love to get J to go through his four book boxes and reduce. That is a task for when he's not busy, which will probably be 50 years from now...

On to the crafting supplies. I had a couple of interesting projects this week. After finishing those, I took the opportunity to reorganize my supplies into an easier to grab order. I got everyone separated into easier to grab sections. I also organized my 8.5 x 11" paper into color spectrum. Hopefully this makes it easier to find. Finally I crafted a ton this week so I was able to reduce my overall supply piles.

J is so busy that he doesn't have time to do any housekeeping. Since he won't really be dealing with the crap any time soon, I think I will just shove his crap to the area around the desk.

Total reduction: One box. Two trash bags. Stack of completed craft projects for Christmas/birthday/holiday gifts. Easily found supplies/books/curriculum.

Coming soon: Part 3 (kitchen/living room/closets)

Thankful Thursday

I found this wonderful meme idea on Ruby Bastille. I thought it would be a great way to share my life with my readers. So here we go with my first Thankful Thursday.

1) Chili -- I was missing the Midwest fall. I was missing the apple cider, bonfires, and chili. I wanted to feel a bit of home (California doesn't quite feel like home yet). So I made chili and it was glorious. Sunnyvale even graced me with cooler temps (low 60s) to enjoy my spicy chili and cornbread.

2) My grandma -- Every time I send her a card, she sends a thank you note back. Even with her bad arthritis, she takes the time to write me a note back. Don't tell her, but for Christmas I made her a huge stack of homemade cards to use.

3) J for accepting my crazy random thoughts -- Lately every time we watch a show, I must nitpick about something. Usually that something has something to do with the law. Last week we were watching the episode of The West Wing (S3) where Donna finds out she isn't American anymore. This led to me asking a ton of questions about citizenship jus soli (by soil). I had to go on to Wikipedia to find some detailed answers. The entire time J encouraged my crazy behavior until I had answers. The result: we both think the writers failed to fully explain the circumstances and that even if her town isn't in America anymore, those residents before the transfer would retain citizenship. Yeah I know, crazy.

4) Thanksgiving -- I'm almost a week away from flying back to Indiana and spending time with family and friends. Thanksgiving gives me the opportunity to spend some time there, but more importantly to be with my boys. I miss them terribly.

5) The recent elections -- Whether or not I voted for the current people in office, I am thankful to be able to vote and voice my opinion.

Ready to Throw It All Out

Do you ever stop one day and want to throw out almost everything you own? I do. I felt that urge this week. I recently started contract tutoring part time. I have a AP U.S. History student and told him I would pull my personal notes for our session this week. I put everything on a flash drive when I left my school. It should be in an accesible place. After dumping tons of boxes and containers, I can't find it. So I resorted to plan B: the physical notes in the curriculum boxes buried under book boxes in the closet. I opened the first of three boxes, no Chapter 4 folder. Hmm... I found Chapter 5 and forward, but not 4. I opened the second box, no luck. I opened the third box, still no luck. Then I remembered that in the move to Omaha a few of the folders were dumped. I just shoved all those papers into box three and forgot about them. I pulled probably close to 500 pieces of paper out and started to sort them. After almost 30 minutes, I found my chapter 4 notes.

This adventure has me disgusted over how much crap is just lying around this house. I want to clean house. I want to simplify. I want to purge. I am making my new project purging the house... My first attack point is my closet and jewelry boxes (yes boxes). Tomorrow my plan is to try on every piece of clothing I own. Anything that has no hope of ever fitting (trying to lose some weight) gets thrown in the donation pile. Same goes for my jewelry. Out of the boxes I have, I routinely wear 5-6 necklaces and about 3 rings. I think I can get down to one small box. No more shoe boxes full of jewelry. I also plan on tackling my shoe issue. As an added task, I will be pulling some of the clothes that will be traveling with me back to Indiana for Thanksgiving. (I need to reassess my winter wardrobe, since we really don't have winter here in Sunnyvale) All of this sounds like quite a project, but I really want to decrease the crap lying around. We may not get down to the 100 item households I read about, but at least we will be able to find things quickly and without lots of sweat and swearing.

...

I spent almost two hours throwing every piece of clothing onto the bed and then sorting them. It's piled up and and ugly. I tried on every pair of pants. Over half don't fit, but just barely. If I lose about 5 pounds, I get those pants back. So I reorganized the closet to divide the can-wears from the can't-wears. And I ended up with an entire garbage bag full of clothes that will be heading to the Goodwill. It's not much, but I feel tons better with the purging and reorganization.

Next, I sorted through my shoes and found that there were only two pairs that I could give away. To be fair, I did do a huge shoe purge before our move from Omaha.

Finally, I dumped the jewelry boxes. Who knew they held so much? I didn't at all.

After an absolutely ridiculous amount time, I finally got all the necklaces untangled and everything sorted into piles. Then I systematically went through and decided whether or not to keep each piece. I think I routinely wear about 5 different necklaces. However, many of the others I love and wear on occasion. So I kept many of the necklaces. The same goes for the rings. I was a lot more choosey when it came to bracelets. I only really like a few. Most are too heavy and bulky for my tastes. Many bracelets went into the get rid of pile. I also sorted my pin box, the keepsake jewelry box (class ring, etc), and the random chainless pendants. I finally got everything sorted and the keepers put back into the box. I want to rehang all my necklaces so they don't tangle, but I need a better idea and the cork board I had in Omaha.

Part 2... the office, the most dreaded place in the house. (attack plan coming soon)

Bloggiesta Day #3 Update -- It's Over!

What I did today:

Cleaned out my Google Reader -- I had over 700 posts to get through. I skimmed through many posts and cleaned out some of the subscriptions. I feel so much cleaner.
Prepped quote wednesday/top ten tuesday posts for next six months -- Well, it's half down. I have the templates ready and scheduled through March. Now I just need to add the content.

Unfortunately I didn't get everything on my list completed. But I think I made some great headway on my goals. 10/14 done! I plan on continuing with my goals throughout this next week. Overall I didn't really engage in mini challenges or connect with other bloggers, but I did like the opportunity to focus on my blog.

My goal list (even if it's a bit ambitious):

Clean up various pages (About; Quotes; Blogs; Review Policy; Thankfuls; RCs) √
Clean up right hand column √
Prep templates/posts through December
Recheck reading challenge spreadsheet/update posts and right column √
Update Day Zero Project (page and actual website) √
Clean out GoogleReader √
Connect with other bloggers
Make review templates for books in TBR piles
Get books prepped for giveaway (October 5th...)
Prep quote wednesday/top ten tuesday posts for next six months √
Update Music Monday spreadsheet √
Add series to book reviews with links to my reviews √
Transfer over paper TBR list to spreadsheet √
Add TBR spreadsheets to GR shelves √

Bloggiesta Day #2 Update

What I did today: After the crazy progress that was yesterday, I figured today would include a slump. But I did finish writing my HP reviews last night and started reading Persuasion.

Updated Blogs I Love page -- This was a chore. First I had to go through my Google Reader subscriptions to get rid of the nonactive blogs and non interesting to me anymore blogs. My total went from 399 to 325! Then I had to organize those blog subscriptions into categories. Finally I added them into my Blogs I Love page. This is a task that I have really been putting off for months. It feels great to get it checked off the list.

Bloggiesta Day #1 Update

What I did today:

Updated my Music Monday spreadsheet -- So I don't repeat songs, I'm trying to keep track. Once I finish my 101 favorites list, I want to highlight some artists/songs that I haven't featured yet.
Transferred paper TBR to spreadsheet -- Now I have my entire crazy ass long TBR list in a spreadsheet that's easily organizable. That was quite a project, but I'm glad it's all done.
Added TBR spreadsheets to GR shelves -- Well, this is mostly done. I got most of the likely TBR books in GR and ready to be added to the currently reading shelf.
Cleaned up the right hand column -- Updated a few of the percentages and challenges (especially the perpetual challenges).
Recheck the reading challenge spreadsheet/update posts and right column -- Everything should be updated and ready.
Updated most of the pages: About, Inspirational quotes, review policy, thankfuls, reading challenges. I also deleted the projects I love page as it was hopelessly outdated. I still need to update the Blogs I Love.
Updated DZP -- Finished updating the page on my blog and the projects site.
Added series to book reviews with links to my reviews -- This took awhile, but I finally finished. Now I just have to remember doing this for future reviews.

I am amazed that I got through this many points today. Granted they were probably the easiest and quickest points on the master list. Now on to the harder/more involved points. I decided to add some of my mini challenges to my update posts to make them easier.

Organization and Scheduling Posts from On a Book Bender

After some tinkering and tryouts, I think I've finally landed on a weekly blog schedule:

Monday -- Music Monday
Tuesday -- Top Ten Tuesday
Wednesday -- Quote Wednesday
Thursday -- Thankful Thursday (sometimes)
Friday -- *open*
Saturday -- *open*
Sunday -- Sunday Salon

Reviews get posted whenever I finish them. Life posts and random nonsense get posted whenever, but I love to use some of those to fill in the open Friday and Saturday slots. This has helped me keep myself on track. I don't ever have a week where nothing is posted. I like the stability of a weekly routine.

I learned a while back that I needed to keep a running calendar for all my posts. While I do like using digital calendars for appointments, classes, etc, I can't use them for blog posts. For those, I actually write out the days of the month in a notebook. Then I add all drafts/routine posts. When a draft is in WP, it gets one half of an X. When I finish a post, it gets the full X. At a glane I can see what I've done and what I need to finish. It also helps me space out nonroutine posts instead of accidentally bunching three posts on one day. I've also added templates for my routine posts. I have templates for:

Book reviews
Monthly wrap-up posts
Top Ten Tuesday posts
Music Mondays
Sunday Salon

These have helped me so much stay consistent. I love organization, when I can keep on top of everything...

Bloggiesta's Here! Run for cover!

This is my first time joining Bloggiesta. Before now, I just didn't have much to my blog. Now my blog has grown and grown. I think I have some projects lined up just for this event. My goal list (even if it's a bit ambitious):

Clean up various pages (About; Quotes; Blogs; Review Policy; Thankfuls; RCs)
Clean up right hand column
Prep templates/posts through December
Recheck reading challenge spreadsheet/update posts and right column
Update Day Zero Project (page and actual website)
Clean out GoogleReader
Connect with other bloggers
Make review templates for books in TBR piles
Get books prepped for giveaway (October 5th...)
Prep quote wednesday/top ten tuesday posts for next six months
Update Music Monday spreadsheet
Add series to book reviews with links to my reviews
Transfer over paper TBR list to spreadsheet
Add TBR spreadsheets to GR shelves

Many of my goals are background and my own organization issues. They probably won't be many visible changes to the blog, but hopefully these goals will get me organized and ahead in my routine blogging.

Lovely Morning at the Market

For the first time in a few weeks, I woke up, showered, and dressed early enough to head down to the farmer's market. Have I told you how amazing my local market is? It is gorgeous! It's only two blocks down the street on historic Murphy Street.

My first stop is always the front stalls off of Evelyn. I never remember to pay attention to the names of the farms but one sells a ton of yummy cheap vegetables and the other one has yummy cheap fruits. Unfortunately peaches and nectarines are going out of season and bit too mushy and sweet for my tastes. The veggie stand had some great looking zucchini for a great price. I snapped some up!

That was all I was going for, zucchini. But like usual, I always find something else enticing at the market. This time it was apples! Throughout the summer, a stall or two have had apples, but they've been puny and I imagine extremely tart. I have been waiting for apple season and it has finally arrived. I was strolling towards the coffeehouse when a man thrust a sample apple slice in my face. I tried it and oh my! The perfect blend of sweet and tart and crisp. I had to stop and grabbed me some apples.

Armed with zucchinis and apples, I sauntered down the block suddenly craving a croissant or a quiche. My favorite bakery has a stall just at the end of the block. Along the way I always pass some bountiful flower stalls. I am sometimes tempted to buy some, but my black thumb halts me. Oh well...

Along the way, I passed the Taverna Bistro. J and I ate dinner there for the first time last night. A wonderful little Mediterranean restaurant. Their hummus was to die for and the lamb kebabs were scrumptious. I made it to the end of the block. Thankfully my bakery had a ham and cheese quiche, chocolate croissant, and apple turnover left. I snapped those up. Finally I grabbed a mango strawberry smoothie from the coffeehouse and returned home with my bounty. Until next week!

Bookmark Love

For whatever reason, this week I have been a crafting maniac... This maybe because I am getting excited for the holidays. I got this crazy idea in my head to make handmade cards for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Plus I wanted to make some homemade gifts for some of my family and friends. To be fair, last year I made over 100 homemade cards for family, friends, and coworkers. This year I have only aimed for ~40 cards for Christmas. That's less, but I feel like the other projects will make up for the time saved. I found myself at Michael's the other day loading up on some supplies. They had a great deal on albums and paper stacks. I just can't help myself when I enter that (or any) craft store. I get all these great ideas and inspirations. I want to try everything. Thankfully I limit myself to a few projects at a time. Currently I have al but finished my Christmas cards. On to the next projects...

Bookmarks! I made a batch of bookmarks last year to include in my book giveaways. I wanted to do that again (October giveaway is coming...) and I wanted to make some bookmarks for friends and family. What reader doesn't love a good bookmark. The best part is that making bookmarks allows me to use a ton of scraps laying around my crafting area. All those small paper pieces that would look silly on a 12x12 scrapbook page can add just the right amount of flourish to a bookmark. Check out my new creations!

I think my personal favorite is the the middle one in the third picture. I love the blues and greens (even if my favorite color is purple) and the silver letters "read daily" and blue ribbon just tie the entire design together. See any you like?

Under the Weather

Saturday, I woke up to a sore throat and some sinus pressure. Sunday, I couldn't breath. I am officially sick with the worst cold that I have had in at least a few years. The headache and sinus pressure is so bad that I am having trouble reading. Ugh! The one thing I would love to lay in bed and do, I can't really. This sucks!

Bloggiesta's Just Around the Corner

From It's All About Books and There's a Book:

Fall is a busy time of year with school starting and with a number of other blogging events going on, including Book Blogger Appreciation Week (don’t miss this!), but we wanted to give everyone some time to focus on those small tasks that fall by the wayside during busy times. Bloggiesta is the perfect event to check off those to-do lists and also get inspiration going into the wintry months! It’s also a great opportunity to connect with other bloggers you may have not met before or haven’t talked to in awhile. We’d love to have anyone interested to join in the fun!

Remember, the level of commitment during Bloggiesta is up to you. We’d love for you to find lots of time to devote to blogging with us during those three days, but if you have just one day that you can join us, or even just a few hours of one day, please do not hesitate to sign up.

If you decide to participate in the Fall 2012 edition you can expect:

to spend time that weekend (as much or as little as your schedule allows) working on your blog

to create a to do list to share on your blog and link up with other participants

to hopefully participant in several mini challenges and learn something new

to connect with other participants through blog hopping or twitter

to make new blogging friends!

to come away at the end of the three days with a spiffed up blog!

A few of the topics we’ve already had interest in through our mini-challenge sign-ups (now closed):

Scheduling Posts and Organization

Increasing Blog Traffic

Using a Variety of Applications in Conjunction with your Blogging. (ie. Evernote, Microsoft Access, etc.)

WordPress vs. Blogger

Discussion Posts…How-to

And many many more!

This is my first time joining Bloggiesta. Before now, I just didn't have much to my blog. Now my blog has grown and grown. I think I have some projects lined up just for this event. Tentative goal list:

Clean up various pages (About; Quotes; Blogs; Review Policy; Thankfuls; RCs)
Clean up right hand column
Prep templates/posts through December
Recheck reading challenge spreadsheet
Update Day Zero Project (page and actual website)
Clean out GoogleReader
Connect with other bloggers

These are a few of my favorite things... Redux

Taking an account of my life centered posts lately, I've been in a bit of a funk. So I thought I would lighten it up just a bit. I originally wrote this report way back in November 2010. I think it's time to revisit my favorite things...

Pie

The smell from the Thai place down the street

Caramel lattes

Complex pool

Books

Scrap/Stamp supplies

Sunny days

Awesome tv shows

My bed

Comfy reading chairs

School supplies

Music (any music really)

Blogging

Reading others' blogs

Stuffed animals

Wine (lots of it)

What are your favorite things?

Off to La La Land...

My Facebook status today: While in the bathroom, I glanced into the dirty laundry basket. 3 out of the 5 items are striped shirts... I may have a problem. I think this sums up my life lately. I am ridiculously scattered brained. I can't focus on anything for more than 5 minutes. I keep staring off into space instead of, say, doing the dishes. I think that miscarriage seriously messed with my brain. So I'm off to La La Land to live with the wifferbots and the snuglets. Wish me luck!

New Project

So my mom bought a flower shop... Yeah! Craziness. Or maybe not that crazy. She was a florist for years before getting into the medical field. Now all they need to do is incorporate, redecorate, set up a website, set up a blog, hire some people, get networked... Did I miss anything? I've been charged with helping do some research on flower shop networks and and websites. Did you know that almost all the flower shops I'm finding are linked directly to teleflora.com or FTD.com? And that they pay those companies to do business? And that all their websites look the same? Boring!!! There has to be a better way. So how do we keep the business we already have and court new business? I was thinking of adding social media and a blog to the business. But the website still baffles me. Can we do it on our own? Suggestions?