Okay, So I Am Still Reading And Not Doing Much Crafting

What can I say, I can't read enough lately! I have found that being a new mom doesn't leave a lot of time for crafting. Now I thoroughly understand why I always read about moms who can't wait for midnight to come, because that's when they finally can have some time to craft. Well, having to be to work by 7 a.m. kind of makes that difficult for me.

But I have found that I can read and take care of my daughter at the same time. (By the way, she gets cuter and cuter every day!!!) So my latest reads have been the Sookie Stackhouse (a.k.a The Southern Vampire) Series. These books are fast and funny! Each book is about 300 pages, so me being the slow reader that I am, it takes me about 4-7 days to finish a book. I am on the last book right now that just came out in May.

As I have mentioned before, I am just a little obsessed with the Twilight vampire series from Stephenie Meyer. (Check out stepheniemeyer.com to get the scoop on the series and her other works.) I am counting down the days until Breaking Dawn, book # 4, the final installment, comes out. 17 more days! I am so anxious, that I am actually going to the midnight release on August 1 to get the book. I will read it until I finish it or fall asleep. (Not too likely with my daughter though.)

Now that I have rambled on...

My point was, I have been trying to find some books to fill my time to help make the strain of waiting for Breaking Dawn come out, just a little more bearable. These books are definitely helping. Here is a little sampling from the first book and why I just had to bring it home from the store once I read it:

Dead Until Dark
















I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.

Ever since vampires came out of the coffin (as they so laughingly put it) four years ago, I'd hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town - why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?

I read those first few lines of the first chapter, and I was hooked. Charlaine Harris is the author. She is hilarious. The books are full of great writing. The main character, Sookie, is a cocktail waitress and she has a "disability", at least she thinks it is. She can read minds. But when she meets Bill, the vampire, she realizes that she can't hear a single thought of his. And she loves it.

After visiting charlaineharris.com, I learned that HBO is making a series based off the books. It's called Tru Blood and comes out this fall. (Tru Blood is the name of a synthetic blood that is sold in the stores. The vampires come out to the world because the Japanese have developed synthetic blood. The vampires announce that since they are no longer a threat to humans, they can live in society with them in peace now.) I can't wait! It looks pretty good! Seriously, if you love Twilight, you will love these books. There are some similarities, although these vampires are the traditional can't go out in the sun, sleep during the day, hate garlic, have fangs vampires.

The books are a little on the dark side. And unlike the Twilight series, the characters actually do have sex. So if that isn't for you, you would want to sit this series out. But I highly, highly recommend it, if you think you are up to it. I started book #1 the middle of June, and like I said, I am on the last one that was released in May this year, book #8. So even a slow reader like me got through them pretty fast.

After this series I have a couple of books to read that are not in a series (Crazy, I know!) - House of Sand And Fog, Three Bags Full - A Sheep Murder Mystery, and The Memory Keepers
Daughter. These will probably come after Breaking Dawn though. Then I am going to start on the Stephanie Plum books. They are a series as well and are about a woman who is a bounty hunter but is terrible at it. They come recommended from more than one person and are too be really funny and fast as well. Book #14 of the series just came out last month.

But I am really working on getting my craft room clean so I can start crafting again. When we had to clean out the extra room to get ready for Peyton, the extra stuff had to go into my craft room. It was a mess though even before that. I am sure you can imagine what it must look like now. (Think worse!) I plan to get rid of a bunch of stuff and have a garage sale. So if any of you out there are close, you should keep posted and I will let you know when that is. I am also going to have an open house of Stampin' Up, Scentsy, Cookie Lee, and maybe some other things. My good friend Tina sells Scentsy. My husband's cousin, Thea, sells Cookie Lee. So we figured we would kill a few birds with one stone and get an open house together. I will let you know about the date and info on this as well.

Hope you all are well! And remember...
Happy Stamping!