November Titles

Laura recommended Uglies for this month.  Of course when I re-read it I'll have to re-read Pretties, Specials, and Extras too.

This was my personal pick for the month.  With Thanksgiving coming I need some new recipes, ha ha!  Now I need to get the rest of the series:  English Trifle, Devil's Food Cake, Key Lime Pie, Blackberry Crumble, Pumpkin Roll, Banana Split, and Tres Leches Cupcakes.  These should be yummy reads with recipes included!

October Titles

Annick recommended this for Book Club.  My honey needs to renew his library card OR I finally need to get my own before I can read it though, ha ha!

My honey got his card renewed and I got this book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was nervous because I did NOT like The Memory Keeper's Daughter, but I did really like this one and would recommend it.

This was my personal pick.  With Halloween being this month I thought a good witch story was appropriate, and that's just what this was!

 

I read this Magic Tree House book to the kids too.

September Titles

Rhonda recommended this for Book Club and it was a fun little medical mystery.

This was my personal pick.  A fun little fairy tale.

July/August Titles

Our Book Club doesn't meet during the summer, but we always choose a series to read together.  This year we chose "Anne of Green Gables" and I'm so excited to finally read them.

For my personal selection, I'm going to try to read the "Little House" series too.  Since we're a Canadian & American family, it's only fitting to read about heroines from both of our countries.

June Titles

It was my turn to choose for Book Club, and boy did I fret over it!  In the end I chose "Edenbroke" a regency romance novel.  It's a cute little story that made me want to twirl.

I was at the book store getting a birthday gift for my husband, when the clerk told me they were having a sale "buy 3, get 1 free."  I got 3 books for my honey and the free one for me, ha ha!  I've wanted to read this book for years, but with the narrator being Death, I don't think I'm going to get a "happily ever after."

May Titles

Annick recommended the book this month.  I LOVED this retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses.

This was my extra title this month, that my sister-in-law lent to me.  I loved this book because it was beautifully written and you could feel for each of the characters.  But it is a tragic tale and I have seen enough tragedy in my day, so I much prefer "happily ever after" endings.

Satin Flowers

My brother is getting married next month.  His fiance chose beautiful wedding colors- Tiffany Blue, Hot Pink, and Citrus Orange.  My boys are all wearing ties from the different colors, my girl is wearing a sash with a huge bow, and with the leftover satin I decided to make flowers.  54 flowers to be exact.  A set of all 3 colors for each girl in our family, the bride's family, and for all the bridesmaids.

This project has taken 3 days so far.  The first day was spent cutting out 216 "petals".  My kids' stacking cups came in handy for getting the sizes just right.

The second day I singed (or melted, burned, dripped wax on- whoops) the edges of the circles to give them the flower look.  I used a candle instead of a lighter since I had so many to do.

The third day I sewed the layers together with a pearl bead in the center.  I think they turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  I still have another day to wrap them all in little baggies and tie them up with cute ribbons and tags!

April Titles

Jenna recommended this for book club this month.  It's the first in a series of five books.

Continuing with the fantasy genre, this is my personal pick for the month.

Rhonda lent me this- the 6th book in the No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency series. I hadn't read the first 5, but I could just jump right in. I enjoyed it and would like to visit Botswana now. (The whole series has 13 books, so far.)

Another of my favorite talks from President Uchtdorf. Rhonda also lent met this book. It is such a pretty book to go with such a wonderful message.

4 cake mixes, 6 cans of frosting, 2 bags of colored chocolate, 5 days

My twins turned 10, so I made some cake balls for the first time to serve at their party.


For my friend, Annick's 40-something birthday luncheon I made up 4 dozen mini cupcakes.

For my friend, Katie's 17th birthday dinner I experimented with decorating and made her this little gem.

For my friend, Jenn's 19th birthday I tried a variation on a theme and made her this.

One day I want to take all the cake decorating courses from Michael's and learn how to really make cakes look pretty. I keep holding off though, because then I would want to eat cake everyday- ha ha!

Yo-yo's

I learned how to make yo-yo flowers, so I made up a little headband.


It was originally intended for my daughter, but her dress was too red. However, it matched my maroon sweater just fine =).

March Titles

Rhonda recommended to us "The Witness" for book club this month.


I'm choosing "The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making" for my personal selection.

Happy reading this month!

An Airplane and a Farm

I finished my virtual travel around the world blog today. Check it out (http://airplanefarm.blogspot.com/) and let me know what you think!

February Titles

I've already read The Hunger Games trilogy, but I'm excited that Mary recommended them for book club this month so I can read them again! We'll go as a group to see the movie too.


Romeo and Juliet is my personal title for the month. After I finish it, I'm spending an evening with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey watching the 1968 movie.

Be his Pin-up Girl

I'm a little embarrassed to post this, but it was such a success I decided to share.
This year for Christmas I gave my husband a pin-up calendar of me.
Not only does he love the calendar, he loved playing photographer while I played model.
I bought 12 pretty little nighties with a theme for each month:
January- New Year's with a bottle of sparkling cider
February- Valentine's with a heart-shaped box of chocolates
March- St. Patrick's with "Kiss Me I'm Irish" accessories
April- Eater with bunny ears
May- Anniversary with my bridal veil & flowers
June- Graduation with mortar board cap & glasses
July- Patriotic with American & Canadian flags
August- Birthday with a bunch of balloons
September- Back to school cheerleader with pom poms
October- Witch with a crystal ball
November- Fall leaves
December- Mrs. Santa Claus
My hubby will be the only one to see the real thing (besides the photo center employees who printed it, but it's not too risque that I won't show my face there again).
If you're looking for a special gift for your honey, you should be his pin-up girl!

What Big Eyes You Have!

This was the cake for my 5 year old's birthday, he loved it!


This was the inspiration with cake pop eyes.

I decided to use these oreo eyes instead.

Cute treats just taste better, ha ha!

January Titles

A new year and new titles to read, how exciting! I can't wait to open up "Daughters in My Kingdom, The History and Work of the Relief Society."


This semester at Institute we'll be studying "The Gospel and the Productive Life." We had our first luncheon and lesson today. Our temporal work improves our spiritual work and vice versa, they just go hand in hand.

"The Persion Pickle Club" was what Marsha recommended as our Book Club title for November. It was a cute little read that made me grateful for my "quilting" friends. And guess what? "I did it!"

"The Cricket on the Hearth" was our Book Club selection for December, which I recommended. I really enjoyed the little story of hearth and home and those we love, but I don't understand why it's considered a "Christmas" story, it takes place at "New Year's."

I read "Animal Farm" in high school and I'll be reading it again as Sheila recommended it for Book Club this month. I enjoyed it when I read it before, but I'm afraid it might just make me frustrated with our modern politics now.

I did not read "1984" in high school and since it's by the same author as "Animal Farm" I decided I will read this as my "extra" novel this month. I did read "Brave New World" before and enjoyed it, but see so much of it in today's society. People have their different types of "soma" that they take all the time. Again, I'm afraid this will make me frustrated with corrupt government.

I watched Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" on TV before he died. I really liked his message. I received this book from our Christmas book exchange and look forward to reading it.

As the mother of 4 boys and 1 girl, I would love to have another girl join our family. I ordered this book for Christmas, "Guarantee the Sex of your Baby" in the hopes that it would have all the little old-wives' tales in one spot for me to refer to as we try to conceive our next baby. Unfortunately, this is about designer babies and how to finance them to pre-select the exact embryo you want. As a pro-lifer I could not choose one of my little embryos over another and then just throw away the ones that didn't make the cut. I don't know exactly when life begins, but I do know when life ends and I could NEVER have any part in ending the potential life of my child. If we end up with another boy we will love him forever!

This was another Christmas gift and I just love it. I've been a fan of Bakerella's blog for years. So excited to finally make some "Cake Pops" for our next birthday bash.

Our children all got fun books for Christmas too. I just wanted to mention this one that our little Maple Sugar got, "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree- A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas." How appropriate for him.

I read "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" to my fourth graders and now we will read the whole "Fudge" series: "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great," "Superfudge," "Fudge-a-Mania," and "Double Fudge."

Last year I read "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" to my third graders for their book club. We'll read the rest of the "Ramona" series after we finish with "Fudge." The first is "Beezus and Ramona" followed by: "Ramona the Pest," "Ramona the Brave," "Ramona and her Father," "Ramona and her Mother," "Ramona Quimby, Age 8," "Ramona Forever," and "Ramona's World." The first book "Beezus and Ramona" is the same age as my mom and the last one "Ramon's World" is only three years younger than my daughter!