Book Review - Paranormal Fantasy: Vampires

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume 2 by Laurell K. Hamilton

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars


Excellent artwork and storyboard scripting!!! I managed to buy the book the day it hit the shelves and read it the minute I got home.

I now plan to put the paperback "Guilty Pleasures" in my TO-READ list. I’ve gotten the feel for Hamilton’s writing and I hope the book has a wee bit more romance in it than the graphic novel did.

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Another Project Done off the WiP Pile

YEA!!! I can finally scratch off Christmas Mystery Sampler off the side panel of my WiPs category. And it only took me 4-1/2 years!!! {groan} I promised I’d get it finished by the end of June, I got close and only over shot it by 2 weeks. I don’t have the money to frame it, so more than likely it’s going to get turned into a bell pull. Don’t know when that will be though, as for the moment I’m sick-to-death of looking at it. I only made one major change in it, and that was not stitching the last part. I just didn’t like the Kreinik metallic gold fringe effect of part six so I ended the project with part five for a more uniform look.

And now for all the other info just in case you want to know…..

Name: Christmas Mystery Sampler
Type: Counted Cross Stitch
Finished size: Approx. 6.57" x 19.7" (16.68cm x 50cm) on 28ct. Lugana {Black}
Leaflet/Kit #: E-mail PDF Chart
Designer/Publisher: Pamela Kellogg, Kitty and Me Country Crafts / CraftSoft Inc. © 2003
Finshed: July 10, 2008
Misc. Info. : A free Stitch-Along Project in 6 parts (Oct. 29 - Dec. 14, 2003) created just for Pam's bulletin board group at http://pamkellogg.yuku.com/



I'll be working on part 6 of Il était une fois (Once Upon a Time...) next.
Well that's it for now.....

SBQ Meme: Stitching Time Management

This week's SBQ from Renée is:

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/07/sbq-finding-balance/

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When I was working full time my evenings were filled with getting on-line and checking my e-mail, a couple of message forums and a very long list of RSS feeds. Those feeds included book authors & publishers, my SBQ & needlecraft friends, and Brick n’ Mortar needlecraft shops. I only had roughly 3 hours in the evenings for this and then it was time for bed. Household chores, book reading, and stitching was given over to the weekends.

Now that I am temporarily unemployed I can read, stitch, or cruise the internet as much as I like during the day. Finding work is a bit more of a problem. No one wants to hire you if you don’t have a reliable source of transportation – i.e. a car.

Book Review - Paranormal Romance: Vampires

Lady & the Vamp (Immortality Bites, Book 3) by Michelle Rowen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really sweet story if you like romance with little to no sex. This book should have been labeled as "young adult/teen".

Which is odd because the characters were written as much older; Michael Quinn (age 30) and Janie Parker ( age 25 ). What was most in abundance was verbal loquaciousness. Both characters (well Michael more then Janie) went on and on about their self loathing and doubt.

Overlooking that little annoyance I rather enjoyed reading it. The book was sharp, witty, and had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. A very good vampire book.


View all my reviews.

Book Review - Paranormal Fantasy: Vampires

Since not everyone maybe interested in signing on with GoodReads I thought I’d start posting my comments/reviews here on my blog as well.


Heroes (Laws of the Blood, Book 5) by Susan Sizemore

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t believe this but I actually liked this novel, even with the 4 previous strike outs. In this 5th book the writing was tight, the scenes and dialog flowed smoothly, and even the plot made sense. It’s just a shame that Sizemore’s last book in the series finally got me interested and caring about the characters. Even when she left me with a small cliff hanger/dangling plot thread at the end with the characters of Char McCairn and Jebel Haven.



I’ll have to email her and ask if she ever resolved the cliff hanger in a later novella. Cuz I sure would like to find out how the situation between Valentine, Geoff, Char and Jebel gets resolved.




View all my reviews.

SBQ Meme: Stitching Magazines

This week's SBQ is:

Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?

The permalink to this post is: http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/06/sbq-stitching-pubs/

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No not now, but yes in the past.

I‘ve two magazines that I subscribed to in the past – Just Cross Stitch (1997) and Piecework/Needleworkers (2000 ?) magazine.

When JCS parted company with Teresa Wentzler I dropped my subscription. By that time the charts they offered were too cutesy. (FYI: To date I have yet to stitch any of those designs!) I mainly read JCS for the articles and looked for TW’s designs.

I really loved Needleworkers magazine unfortunately I only discovered it after it had been absorbed by Piecework. And when they dropped the Needleworkers half of the magazine I dropped my subscription.

Now days the only time I buy a magazine is if it has an interesting series of articles. The last one was in 2007, it was a 6 part series from JCS on how to make different types of knots and novel uses for them.

This Week's Finish and Update...

All rightie, I’ve got a finish and an update to share for this week. Sunday the 1st I finished the birthday present for my friend (towel and potholder) and managed to get it into the mail on Monday. They said it would take from 5-10 days to get to England, and since her birthday is this Saturday I’m hoping that the package is only a couple of days late. I was really pleased with the kitchen towel, not so with the potholder and that’s my fault I’m afraid. I took the thing apart so it would be easier to stitch, unfortunately I couldn’t seem to get it back together so it looked right. I ended up taking it completely apart and re-sewing the trim back on and somehow I didn’t have enough trim to make the loop at the top. I’m not very happy but there’s not much I can do about it.

The update is just a little mention. A couple of posts back I said I was going to catch up with replacing the french knots with glass seed beads for Il était une fois (once upon a time). Well I did that last night with part 4. So now all the sections that needed beads are up to date. I’ve posted a update picture of the 5 sections I’ve done so far.

Now I’m turning my attention back to the dreaded Christmas Sampler 2003 with the determined goal to get it finished this month. There’s only parts 5 & 6 to sew along with finishing it as a bell pull. Then I’ll have to figure out what to use for the hardware to hang it with.

Be sure to click on the pictures to get a better look.

Name: BlueBerries Kitchen Towel & Potholder
Type: Counted Cross Stitch
Finished Chart Size: Towel: 3.75" x 5.25" (9.6cm x 13.4cm) Potholder: 3.64" x 3.64" (9.25cm x 9.25cm)
Leaflet/Kit #: Fruit Tarts & Towels Book 244
Designer/Publisher: Stoney Creek Collection, Inc. © 1999
Finished: Towel: May 04, '08 Potholder: May 31, '08
Misc. Info. : The gold diamond backstitching is Glissen Gloss Spectrim




And here's Il était une fois (Once Upon a Time):



Well that's it for this Blog Blurb.....