Musing Mondays (11)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Each Monday, a book-related question will be posted and we blog our answers, then link back to the original post. (You can find this week’s original post by clicking on the above image).

This week’s musing asks…

Do you have a reading goal for the year? Such as __ books? Why or why not?

Before this year, I’ve never set a reading goal.  I started my blog at the end of last year, so when the end of December came around, I decided I wanted to participate in reading challenges and then set a book goal for myself for 2012.  This year my goal is 75.  I think that’s a pretty good goal.  Last year I read about 30 books in the second half of the year, so I kind of based it on that. Plus I saw the reading goals thing on Goodreads, and thought it would be fun to track.

Next year, I don’t know if I’m going to set a goal. We’ll see how I feel at the end of this year.

(this is going to be my only normal weekly meme this week as I am participating in ArmchairBEA and posting daily posts with them.  You should join!)

ArmchairBEA: Introductions

I’ve learned about so many different things in the few months I’ve been blogging and the BEA is no exception. After hearing about I was jealous of the people who would be attending. But when I saw Sarah’s post about the ArmchairBEA, I was intrigued. So I signed up and I’m excited to see what it’s all about.

Today kicks off the week-long event with an Introduction. We choose 5 of the 10 questions to introduce ourselves.  So here are the five I selected with my answers:

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
My name is Danielle and I’m from Massachusetts.  I’m an avid book reader (though I suppose that’s a given if I’m participating in this, right?) I’ve only been blogging since October, so for about 8 months now…wow, time flies!  I started blogging because I wanted to try something new.  I had a livejournal for a long time throughout high school and college.  But I decided I wanted to do more than livejournal and reach a larger audience.  I found WordPress and it just went off from there.  You can see in my About page that I really love to read and love being able to share the experience with others.  I love the idea of teaching children how to read and exposing them to what a wonderful world books can bring to them.

2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?
I’m currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  It was a slow start for me, but now I’m really getting into it, and I’m about halfway through it.  As for my favorite book so far in 2012, I think it would have to be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I love the picture that was painted.  If that circus existed in real life, I would absolutely go.  

8. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?
This is a good question. I think first I would like to visit Hogwarts. I mean, really, who wouldn’t?  All that magic, and moving staircases and pictures. There’s lots of fun stuff there.  Ohh, or maybe Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. Those would be fun places to visit.  All those fun stores and the magic.  For a non-magical place, I would like to visit Thornfield  Hall from Jane Eyre, but before the fire.  I watched the Zeffirelli version from the 90s yesterday and the estate was definitely much larger than I imagined, though I fully admit that I don’t always picture things as they’re described, so to see it how Charlotte Bronte envisioned it would be cool.

9. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?
I think my favorite part about the blogging community is the camaraderie. Everyone I’ve encountered has been so friendly and welcoming into the community.  They’re helpful. I never thought I’d have people commenting or regular readers; I didn’t know if anyone was going to be interested in what I had to say.
I think the biggest thing that bothers me is all the spam.  Luckily, it does get filtered, but it would be nice if it just didn’t exist. Of course, that’s just wishful thinking
Although sometimes when I try to post comments on people who have Blogger blogs, it doesn’t work; that’s annoying!

10. Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?
I haven’t noticed my reading tastes changing, I still like a variety of stories. I have started taking notes to prepare for reviews I post here,  so that’s what I’ve noticed the most: being more aware of how I want to talk about the books I’ve been reading.

I can’t wait to see how everyone else answered these questions.  And I look forward to see what else the week holds!

Reader Appreciation Award

A big thank you to theotherwatson over at wantoncreation for giving me the Reader Appreciation Award!  It’s great to know that my comments (however brief) are appreciated.

In turn, based on the rules he has posted, I am to link back to his site (check), include the image (check), write what’s new with me, and pass the award along to 6 other people.

I think this is a great award because it’s a great way to express our gratitude to the people who read and comment on what we write.  For me, it gives me a sense of accomplishment to know that I’ve reached someone in some way that they want to comment on my posts, and I appreciate it.  I started this blog as a way to get reading and books out to people, certainly not the most original idea by far, but I’m glad there are people out there who read what I write.  Over the past few months, I have noticed that my blog has evolved into more than just about books and I’m happy for that.  (And I’m happy people are still following me, with new ones coming every week!).

So what’s new with me? hmmmm  Well, I’ve completed 5 sewing classes and they’re really fun.  I’m super busy at work and can’t believe it’s already been 2 months since I started the job.  I really like all of the people that I work with and for and they’re all great.  One of my cousins is having a baby boy and I knitted a little hat for him and I’m hoping to actually start a blanket I cast on a couple weeks ago…  I’ve been reading The Count of Monte Cristo…  I guess that’s really it right now.

Okay, without further ado, without the people listed below, I don’t think I’d be as involved with my blogging and so what better way to thank you than to pass the Reader Appreciation Award on to you?

SJ at Snobbery
Jessica at Shhh…Mommy’s Blogging…
Mandy at Adventures in Borkdom
Geoff at The Oddness of Moving Things
Mrs. Pea at Mrs. Pea’s Perspectives
Tanya at Green Paw Paw
Valentina at Peek-a-Book

(and of course, I’m sending it back to theotherwatson!)

While I may have only listed a few, this does not mean I do not appreciate all of my readers.  I do!! I honestly appreciate every single one of you that has stopped by and even skimmed something I wrote.  I love interacting with all of you.  And you can be sure that every time I get a comment from someone new, I hop on over to his/her blog to meet a new fellow blogger as soon as I’ve responded to the comment.

So THANK YOU so much to all of you!

Sewing Funtime (5)

We started our pants yesterday!  Hooray.

First, let me tell you: following a pattern is much more involved than I ever thought!

Having said that, it was very interesting to learn more about sewing and I can’t wait to learn the next steps.  In the first four classes, the instructor would tell us what the step was while drawing it out on the dry erase board, show it to us 2 or 3 times, and then send us to our stations to do the steps.  After telling us what to  do, most of us were ready to get right to our stations (or at least after the first demonstration).  But with this new stuff, I was ready and willing to wait for her demonstrations.  We didn’t  even touch our machines yesterday.  In fact, I had to remove one of the patterns at home because we ran out of time in class.  (So I did it as soon as I got home )

I was nervous when choosing my size as my hips measurement fell in between 2 sizes.  I chose to go up a size because obviously I want to make sure I can wear it if I’m putting the effort into it, no?  I’d rather the pants be too big than too small (if they can’t be just right).  But I’m thinking it will work out just fine.

So we got our pattern packets, and the patterns are printed on tissue paper.  And the particular “kit” we had included patterns for two different kinds of tops and the bottoms.  They were printed on HUGE pieces of tissue paper and we had to cut them up.  There was so much rustling going on in the room it sounded like rain (or one of those gift wrapping stations at stores during Christmastime).

Anyway, once we all cut out the correct pieces, we had to place them on the fabric and make sure they were lined up correctly.  I won’t bore you with the details on that.  Once it was pinned down, THEN we cut the correct size in the pattern and fabric at the same time.

This was the result (after removing the pattern from the fabric):

 

Not the best image, but the best I could get.  The fabric may look slightly faded, but it is inside out right now.  Also, you may notice the fabric cutout on the left is larger than the one on right (there are two pieces of fabric on each side, but you can only see 2 right now–they are pinned together).  At first I thought I accidentally cut two different sizes, but then I learned that each of those is not a leg, it is the front and back of the pants.  And the back needs to be bigger for the bum area.  (Duh!)  I still think they’re going to be kind of big (and the leg is probably going to be a bit longer than normal since I’m short), but I’m okay with it.  I’ll just be excited to have completed my very first pair of pants!

(I know, I know: 3 posts in one day?  I had to play catch up!)

Armchair BEA

Hi Everyone!

I just heard about the BEA that is being held in NYC next week.  I don’t know much about it (in fact, I’m going to the website once I post this), but I wanted to share it with all of you because it sounds fun!  I heard about it from Sarah over at Sarah Reads Too Much, so here is the link to her blog post about it!

The link above will take you to Sarah’s post about the Armchair BEA and the image below will take you to armchairbea.com.

Have fun

 

Book Beginnings on Fridays (10)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a weekly meme hosted by Gilion over at Rose City Reader.  She recently took over this weekly meme.  Basically, we post the opening sentence for whatever book we are reading and what we think about it.  Clicking the image above will take you to Gilion’s Book Beginning for today.

Well, I’ve been focusing all my efforts on The Count of Monte Cristo, whose first line I shared weeks ago.  I’m really enjoying it and hope to (finally) put a new first sentence up next week!

Happy Friday everyone!

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2012

So I’m a day late in posting this… whoops!  I realized last night as I was getting into bed that it was May 31. (you would think I would have a better memory for dates since I work with calendars all day long, but I guess not!)

Back to the Classics Challenge: 3/9 (33.3%)
The number hasn’t changed, but I AM working my way through The Count of Monte Cristo and hope to have it finished to add to next (this) month’s wrap up!

What’s in a Name? Challenge: 1/6 (16.7%)
Still only at 1/6.  I’ve neglected this challenge, but my hope is to increase this by 1 for next month.  

50 States Challenge: 5/50 (10%)
No change since last month. 

Historical Fiction Challenge: 5/20 (25%)
Well, I added 2 more to this challenge!  Hooray.  One I still haven’t reviewed… I’ll get to it, I swear!

Mount TBR Challenge: 3/25 (12%)
Stayed the same, but The Count of Monte Cristo will satisfy this challenge as well, so I know at least one more will be added for next (this) month’s wrap-up.

Overall Reading Challenge: 20/75 (26.7%)
This has increased by three, but based on that progress (3/month) I definitely won’t reach my goal of 75!

I think for next year I may hold back on the challenges, or not take part in as many.  Not that I don’t enjoy them, it’s fun to post reviews and get people’s feedback, especially when they are people you would never have reached otherwise.   But I think I feel restricted in my books, especially because I selected some of them at the beginning of the year when I began the challenge.  Since I’ve charged myself with the task of reading specific titles, I almost feel bound to them and that I HAVE to read them, rather than want to read them.  So if I do choose to participate next year, I think I’ll definitely be more relaxed about it.  But I will continue to keep 75 my yearly goal until I meet or surpass it; then I’ll bump it up.