2010 reading list

i haven't read nearly as much as i'd like to this year, especially this summer. my summers have always been spent book in hand, but this summer i've had some sort of project in hand! i also haven't done the best job of recording the books i've completed...but here's my best attempt! 
Read in 2010
The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan: i am most certainly my (food engineer) father's daughter. this book captivated me and had me telling everyone around me all about what i had learned for weeks. then i watched documentaries on food and wished we could afford grass fed beef. read it. you'll learn something. In the Woods, Tara French: given to me by my sister. read while in california. quick read, interesting mystery, however i wasn't satisfied with the way the story wrapped up. Love is a Four Legged Word, Kandy Shepherd: my mother in law was at costco, saw this book and thought of me. i think she only looked at the cover & saw a girl cooking with a dog at her feet. if she had turned the book over she would have realized it was a somewhat trashy romance novel but it was entertainment for my flight home. the same day she bought a book for my sister in law because it involved a mom with three girls (which is my s-i-l). she didn't notice that the mom died, leaving behind the three girls and chronicling their terrible lives. she meant well, she really did!Breaking Free, Beth Moore:winter Bible study. challenging and difficult, but necessary and good.Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent, Beth Moore:spring Bible study. very good. going to try to walk through it again this month. A Rainbow of Stitches, Agnes Delage-Calvet: can i count this book as reading? beautiful pictures. much inspiration. inspired this little experiment 

In ProgressMy Life in France, Julia Child: LOVE. i want to move to france. and cook. and eat butter. lots of butter.Game Change, John Heilemann & Mark Halperin: audio book on my phone. i listen to it when i walk to work. very interesting behind the scenes look at the '08 election.The Irregulars, Jennet Conant: another audio book on my phone. did you know roald dahl was in america as a spy for the british during wwii? me neither.Wired for Intimacy, William Struthers: 

fascinating. important. written by one of my favorite college profs. 

The Places in Between, Rory Stewart: borrowed from lynn. started this sometime last year. story of a very interesting, i just keep getting distracted. Sacred Marriage, Gary Thomas:what if marriage wasn't meant to make you happy but to make you holy? reading it again. it's good. and hard. 
Before the Year is OverHarry Potter, Books 1-6, J.K. Rowling i will read the first 6 before deathly hallows comes out, then i will read the first half of deathly hallows immediately after seeing the movie. if i read the book first i'll inevitably hate the movie.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. RowlingHandmade Nation, Nikki McClure et alThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg LarssonFast Food Nation, Eric SchlosserCraft, Inc, Meg Mateo 
i'll try to update as i keep reading! how about you? what have you been reading this summer? anything i should add to my list? let me know!

where is summer going?

i looked at the calendar and suddenly it was the middle of july! it's just starting to feel like summer around here (not the temperature....it's been hot for a long time) & i'm realizing it's halfway over! i had a mental list going of what i would like to accomplish this summer and it's time things got kicked into high gear. so without further ado, the summer to-do list!

summer 2010:
plant a vegetable/herb garden (there it is behind the monster!)

get the craft room organized once & for all
visit the french market (lots!)
have fresh flowers in the house at all times
go to baseball games (check! mlb. minor league. high school. summer ball.)
spend time in door county
make pesto with basil from our garden (5 times already!!)
visit the woods
do at least one craft show (whole post on this coming...i promise! i survived the rain...but just barely)

make the laundry area happier (in hopes of doing laundry more often)
catch up on the Bible study i wasn't able to finish earlier this year
go to california 
have people over for a barbeque
spend time with family
pick berries or cherries
visit the ocean 

visit the morton arboretum
eat lots of ice cream
spend extra time with my Nana
walk the dog more (goal: every night) (this helps us eat more ice cream!)
eat fresh sweet corn (soon!)
read through the Bible
take steps towards making craftee mcgee's a legit business(tax info arrived in the mail a few days ago!)
ride my bike
see the hawks WIN THE STANLEY CUP! (i know the picture is terrible- it was madness- but there's the cup!!)

visit cantigny
get tan (ha!)
go camping
read at least 5 books (5 wasn't enough. there's a list coming in another post)

looks like i've done better on my list than i thought! a bunch more of those will be crossed off this next week. and there's a post coming on the laundry room. and another on the craft room. hooray summer! i must admit i liked summer a lot better when it meant no responsibility!

oh martha

martha stewart and i have a love hate relationship. okay. really we have no relationship at all, BUT half the time i love her and half the time i just can't stand her. i am a subscriber and loyal reader of martha stewart living but i can't stand watching her show. i find her ideas brilliant, but her demeanor offputting (to say the least). i think she is a creative genius, but incredibly rude to guests on her show. all that to say she is coming out with a new book on March 30th and i want it!!

 

how fabulous will that be? 400 pages of fabric and sewing inspiration! 150+ projects! listen to me...i'm a regular martha advertiser!

i'm still coveting the book that came out last year  

 

and now i want them both!

my craft library would be since i've just gotten back into sewing (or attempted to- update on that soon) i have been gathering up every sewing resource i could find. my newest book is amy butler's in stitches 

and as soon as the sewing machine is back in working order i'll be making some fabulous wide leg lounge pants. for now though i'll have to be content with longing for the new martha books and hoping my sewing machine gets fixed very soon!

altering a (giant) book

this past weekend i attended the wedding of a friend from honeyrock. to say that she and her husband love books would be an understatement. their wedding invitation was a wonderfully unique "book" complete with a library book pocket and due date card. the program at the ceremony was also a book; complete with copyright information for their love story.

so as stephanie and i were thinking of something creative to give them we had the idea to make them a book. originally it was going to be a scrapbook filled with marriage advice from all of our honeyrock friends from around the country (and world!). we sent out an email asking for people to send 8x8 pages or email advice. at some point (i think the day before the wedding) i saw a link to this tutorial to create a binder from an old book. PERFECT! what better to give this couple than a book of their own? one they could put on the shelf with all their other books. but that left me with less than 24 hours (and less than 12 hours until stephanie's flight got in) to find an awesome book and figure out how to make it into a binder then insert all the pages. 

so i took an extended lunch break and headed to goodwill & the local thrift store to try to find a book that would accommodate a binder spine. the tutorial told me to use a 3x5 card binder spine, but i knew that wouldn't hold the pages people sent. at goodwill i found a book about birds that i thought might work so i coughed up the $1.79 for it (plus a few old reader's digest volumes to turn into purses). then i decided to check out twice as nice and there i hit the jackpot. 

seriously. JACKPOT. this dictionary is from 1966. normally $1.50. had a blue dot. thus 50% off. total price for greatest book ever : 75 cents!!!

this baby is going to be helping me make projects for years to come! but back to this project. i removed all the pages from the book (and saved them for future fun) and followed the directions from the tutorial to cover the spine with the endpapers. the columns of fantastic useful information about indo-european languages and metric conversions fit perfectly in the spine. 

 

next i found a binder spine from an old winnie the pooh photo album that contained photos from junior high and my wonderful husband drilled some holes & attached the binder piece to the spine. the tutorial suggests attaching it to the back page, but i wanted it in the middle so to the spine it went. then i went to fetch stephanie from the airport. we returned, poured ourselves some wine and happy creative chaos ensued.

paper and dictionary pages were everywhere for hours! sorry for the terrible photo- it was very late and very dark. some of the pages were just simple, others were exactly what people sent and others were a decoupaged mass of words and photos. we found specific words in the dictionary: melissa, david, wedding, marriage, love, etc. we tore up pages randomly. we stayed up cutting and gluing and crafting until we couldn't sit up anymore. saturday morning we packed ourselves up for the drive to milwaukee. after some last minute additions to the book it was finished!

a wonderful wedding present full of pictures, memories and words of love and advice from people all over the world. this was one of the most exciting and crazy projects i've ever completed. i loved it and as soon as i find myself another giant dictionary i'll be altering another book!