2013 Reading Challenge

Ok, I did promise a book post a few weeks ago so no time like the present! I love reading. It's my second favourite hobby (obviously crochet comes first). As a child I used to read a book a day but at some stage I just stopped. I think it coincided with us moving around so much. Anyway, a few years ago my wonderful dad bought me a Kindle & I've been book mad ever since!

So, shortly after I was converted back into a bookworm I found an awesome website called Goodreads. It's like ravelry for book lovers! It's addictive & has lead to me buying so many books but also meeting some amazing people. These same people are the ones I have to thank for some of the most amazing books I have ever read!

These are my top reads of 2013 so far! Four of them have lead to a significant amount of tears! I am not usually a crier but some of these really tore me apart. I'll do a quick list for you with some links and a few details. These were all 5 star reads for me.

So Tiffanie DeBartolo recently became one of my favourite authors and here's why....

God-Shaped Hole/The Shape of my Heart by Tiffanie DeBartolo - This was an incredible read & a definite tearjerker! I can't talk or even think about this book without feeling a little teary eyed. The writing, the characters, the story, the heartbreak....everything was just perfect! Here's a quote from the book that I love.....

"If your intentions are pure, I'm seeking a friend for the end of the world."

How to Kill a Rock Star by Tiffanie DeBartolo - The musical aspects of this book spoke to me in a massive way. I love music and the emotions behind it. I'm a sucker for lyrics...music tells a story in the same way a book does. Anyway, this book made me laugh, cry, kick myself and often left me frustrated and sitting on the edge of my seat! I loved it, all of it! And if none of that makes you want to read it then read it for Paul Hudson - A musical genius! A musical god! He was this book! And here's a quote from HtKaRS.....

"Personally, I don’t like inherently happy people. I don’t trust them. I think there’s something seriously wrong with anyone who isn’t at least a little let down by the world."

Divergent by Veronica Roth - First thing I loved about Divergent was that there was no insta-love! I'm not a big fan of insta-love. I like things to build up slowly. The ride this book took me on was awesome! Tris was awesome! And Four...oh yes, Four! Isn't he out of this world, totally swoon worthily, awesome? He's definitely made my list! This book even sucked a few (very few) tears out of me (only towards the end of course). It had its fair share of twists & turns, a good few shockers! The world itself was rather interesting. I can't wait for the movie! And here's another quote....

"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma - I honestly don't know how to describe or put into words how I feel about this book. I was pretty wary of reading it but it's nothing like what I thought it would be. I cried, especially at the end. It was one hell of an insight into the psychological effects of a dysfunctional family. Heartbreaking & well worth a read. Try to be open minded though, the subject matter can be a bit hard to swallow for some. Here's a little quote....

"You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel."

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi - Taherah Mafia is a genius! Her writing is so poetic, it's beautiful! I highly recommend reading this series. Unravel me is the second book in the series so obviously it's best to start from the beginning....Shatter Me and then follow that with Destroy Me before you start on Unravel Me. Here's a bit of a favourite quote of mine from the book. I couldn't include the whole quote because it's really long but it's so beautiful....

"I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. "

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons - This is a tough one. I am still reading it! It's nearly 900 pages long and thanks to this heatwave, I've done hardly any reading lately. I never thought I'd enjoy a book this long but I am loving it! At one stage it did put me in such a somber mood. Can you imagine being so past starving the you don't even feel hunger anymore? My heart was breaking just imagining how people suffered in those times & the loss they experienced! It made me feel so many emotions and I just couldn't seem to put it down! I'm still loving every heartbreaking minute of it but thankfully we are in happier times at the moment. The book is based in Russia during World War 2 and tells the love story of Tatiana & Alexander...the greatest love story of all time. I'll have more to say once I finish it but for now, here is a quote from this incredible book......

"We walk alone through this world, but if we’re lucky, we have a moment of belonging to something, to someone, that sustains us through a lifetime of loneliness"

Will I achieve my goal again this year? I was hoping to reach 70/80 but I hadn't realised just how busy my year would be! We'll just have to see!

So there you have it! That's as good as my book sharing & recommendations get!

*If the weather cools down a bit, I will do my regular weekly post in the next few days but otherwise it'll be the weekend. Thanks for reading. Hope you are all well! Take care!

♥

In the midst of a heatwave.....

I'm currently sitting in our lounge, listening to a favourite band of mine called Ours (the lead singer has the most incredible voice) and sipping a refreshing cup of tea. 

It's been so hot lately! Too hot to eat, too hot to clean, too hot to sleep, too hot to move and too hot to be anywhere near the laptop! Our fans have been going nearly all day, everyday for over a week. I'm used to much hotter temperatures (being from Africa) but this is a different type of heat. I think the high humidity is the problem. I've been up everyday at 4am and have absolutely loved it because it's the only time it's cool!

So, my blog has been a bit neglected lately & this little boy is one reason why. Two weeks ago we noticed that his behavior had gotten worse. He already has issues (we think his previous owners abused him) but it suddenly got to the point where it was unbearable. Something wasn't right and we knew that a trip to the vets was needed. 

Poor little boy had an infection in his mouth due to some very bad teeth. He was given 2 injections and some antibiotics. The vet told us to come back near the end of the week to see what the next step would be. Have you ever tried to give a cat medicine? It's almost impossible! 

By the Friday of that week the infection had cleared up and so the vet took him in to have some teeth removed. You can see the two spots where they shaved him to attach all the special equipment needed to monitor different things.

That Friday was dreadful! I hate sitting around, waiting for the vets to ring. I just wanted him home.

Over a week later and he is a very happy boy! Tabby no longer has bad breathe and no yucky teeth!

His behavior has improved (he still has his issues) and he is starting to relax. We're a bit broke but he's better & that's all that's important!

My special boy ♥

I've been doing a fair bit of crochet & finally finished sewing in the ends for the second lot of solid squares, bringing the total to 231 (only 544 to go!). The ends are taking me a bit longer than normal as I'm dividing each end into 2 and then weaving them in opposite directions. (I don't trust squares!)

I've messed up a bit but I don't know if it's going to affect the blanket yet. I changed from an aluminium hook to my clover soft touch which has resulted in slightly different sized squares! Grrr! Not happy but fingers crossed!

I started working on a little scrap stash project on my volunteering day. I got the idea from the lovely Sarah London and it can be found here. It might become a sort of curtain at some stage. It's easy & so fun! The best part is that it doesn't use up much yarn so all those tiny scraps are perfect for it!

Curtains! Yes, we finally have some decent curtains in our lounge! When we moved in we had a week to sort our selves out so we had to buy the cheapest curtains we could find. These windows are so large that it's not always easy to get the right size (and I know nothing about these things) so we were stuck with horrible brown ones. The kittens pretty much destroyed them (as you can see from the above photo of Vinnie clawing and hanging from the curtain).

So, last weekend (after nearly 6 years) I went hunting on Argos and found some lovely (and cheap) curtains. 

They are thin but perfect for summer! They brighten up the room and make me smile every time I see them! So far the cats have left them alone! I'm still on the hunt for winter curtains!

And look! The main hot spot in our house has finally been sorted! I had some spare time so spent a day sorting everything out. The top photo is the before and the bottom is the after. I'm feeling very happy with myself right now!

And we finally have some blinds up in the kitchen! The heat in the kitchen has been unbearable lately. The sun shines right in your face from about 4pm onwards which is lovely in winter but not right now.My lovey dad decided it was enough so he put them up today and boy does it make a difference! The kitchen began to cool down immediately.

Some cat photos to share with you! They've been so hot this week but there are water bowls everywhere for them and plenty of coolish spots. Boxes are a favourite! It's not even safe for the older cats to go out right now as cats can get sunstroke (Socks has had it once before). Friday was slightly cooler and so Tabby & Socks had a brief run around. The kittens weren't happy about being shut off from the kitchen as you can tell by the paw! It appeared under the door ☺

My last thing to share with you is the crows that have decided we are their main food source! Everyday, starting at 5am you can hear them making a racket & see them waiting for food. We don't mind feeding them as they are keeping the garden fairly clean by eating everything in sight! They also have plenty of young and it's been so enjoyable to watch them feed the babies. I've learnt a fair bit about crows in the past month.

Well that was a long update but it's been a while! I've got plenty on this week (including a very important meeting tomorrow that is all part of me "finding the positive in the negative") but I really want to share some of the books I've read recently with you. I know this is more about crochet but I love reading so it obviously has to have a place on my blog. So I'll leave you with one last thing.......

My current read "The Bronze Horseman" by Paullina Simons is probably the best book I've ever read & I doubt there will ever be another one like it so it's great that it's a trilogy! I don't even know how to describe this book or how it makes me feel & how amazing it is! It's the greatest love story ever written & I want to recommend the hell out of it! If you see it, buy it! It's long but every one of those pages is worth it! Oh but have a bar of chocolate handy because you are going to need it!

Ok, that's it from me! I'm off to relax & read! Hope you are all well. Take care and I wish you all the best for the week ahead!

♥

PS: Seriously, if you are looking for a great read, buy that book! You won't regret it! ☺

Happy Easter/Overindulging on Chocolate Day!!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Easter! I received some lovely goodies and my dad had an Easter Egg hunt at work (isn't he lucky) which meant even more goodies. I've definitely overindulged on chocolate! Sadly, my body is not as big a fan of junk food as I am. I think I'm going to have massive fruit & vegetable cravings next week.  

I've had such a super lazy week! Ok, I did go into Spring cleaning mode briefly...all bedding was washed and the house even got cleaned twice, bathroom and kitchen included but after that nothing happened! The crochet was abandoned, Zumba wasn't even thought of and the walk was put off nearly everyday. My fiance recently mentioned how I haven't even baked anything for nearly 3 weeks! Shocking! I'm not entirely to blame of course, it's all the weathers fault really...I feel like I should be hibernating. It's meant to be Spring, we are at the end of March and the sky looks lovely and blue, the sun is even shining but the minute you step outside you feel this blast of icy air and back indoors you go! The sofa looks so inviting and a day of reading under a warm blanket sounds so good!

I did end up doing a bit of crochet of course because when you are a crochet addict your week isn't complete without a bit of crochet time. I continued to work on the cat bed until I ran out of yarn and had to order more. It's turning out to be a rather expensive cat bed and a bit of a nightmare really. I finished it yesterday and realised something had gone wrong somewhere because it was all bunched up and not at all dome shaped like it should be! So today it's going to be taken apart! :( I'm starting to wish I just made them a big basket! Crocheting with super chunky yarn is not fun...it hurts! Spoilt cats!

I also spent a bit of time with my scrappy ripple. It makes me smile everytime I see it and it's so warm. We get along better so it's great for when I need to relax. It's nearing the finish line and then I get to sew in all those ends and give it a border! Once it is finished, I'll be starting two big projects. I bought the yarn for them back in January and I've been putting them off for far too long now. I also plan to finish my secret project eventually.

Last Sunday, I finally sat down and sorted out some of my photos that I'd like to get prints of. My only reasons for wanting these prints is because I'm trying to change people's opinion of crochet as it's often still thought of as old fashioned and boring to many. It's not always easy to just go on Ravelry, Flickr or Facebook and show people so I thought it'd be great to make a photo album of some of my projects. It was so exciting waiting for them to arrive & then getting to look at them but I still prefer looking at them on the laptop. I don't why, I just do!

So, that was my week! Not as busy as it usually is but I did get that much needed rest. I also finally finished reading The Host (it was better than I expected) so I can finally move onto the book I've been waiting to read for far too long...Flat Out Matt by the amazing Jessica Park. It's a follow up/companion novella to Flat Out Love which is pretty much my favourite book of all time! I highly recommend it! Her writing and the characters she creates are just totally awesome! 

Next week is going to be a super busy one. Hope to see you back here at the end of it! Have an awesome week! x