2012 Reading list

It's time for my annual "What I Read last year" list.  In 2011, I read over 100 titles.  In 2012, I only read 94 titles (excluding magazines and some re-reads that I just didn't document.)

The little "e's" in front of titles shows those I read as e-books.  I was curious to see how having an iPad with the Kindle and Nook apps changed my reading habits.  Some e-books, I read for free from the Kansas State Library's e-collection.  Free is always good!

Since I imported my list from excel, it doesn't really lend itself to comments about each title.  But I can say that my two most favorite reads of 2012 were:  Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness and Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham.  My favorite non-fiction title of the year was A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachael  Held Evans.  So, browse the list, pick out a title or two to read.  Let me know what you think of it!  And, if anyone has any questions about any title I read, feel free to ask.  I love discussing books.

e	Clash of Kings	George R R Martin
	Sybil exposed	Debbie Nathan
e	Doomsday Book	Connie Willis
e	Sweet Revenge	Nora Roberts
e	Fated	Carolyn Mccray
	A feast for Crows	George R R Martin
	Storm of Swords	George R R Martin
e	Spying in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
e	Killer in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
e	Undercover in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
e	Alibi in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
e	Mayhem in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
e	Footsteps in Time	Sarah Woodbury
e	Prince of Time	Sarah Woodbury
e	Daughters of Time	Sarah Woodbury
e	Fearless in High Heels	Gemma Halliday
	Third Grave Dead Ahead	Darynda Jones
	Celebrety in Death	J D Robb
	Colonial Women	Carole Chandler Waldrup
e	The Winter King	Bernard Cornwell
	Tomorrow is Today	Julie Cross
	Prized	Caragh M. O'Brien
	Tortured	Caragh M. O'Brien
e	The Witch's Daughter	Paula Brackston
e	This is me Surviving	Kathie in FL
e	Mom's Journal of the Zombie Years	Kathie in FL
e	Over the mountain and through the Fire	Kathie in FL
	Maze Runner	James Dashner
	The Witness	Nora Roberts
	Sugar Nation	Jeff O'Connell
e	Discovery of Witches	Deborah Harkness
	The Serpent's Shadow	Rick Riordan
	The Last Boyfriend	Nora Roberts
e	Lights out	David Crawford
e	Deadlocked	Charlaine Harris
	Vengeance Born	Kylie Griffin
e	The Bride Price	Tracey Jane Jackson
e	Daughter of Joy	Kathleen Morgan
e	Sagebrush	William Wayne Dicksion
e	Why I left the Amish	Saloma Miller Furlong
	50 shades of grey	E L James
e	Confessions of a prairie bitch	Allison Arngrim
	If walls could talk	Lucy Worsley
e	Wicked Business	Janet Evanovich
	Ruby Red	Kristen Gier
e	Shadow of Night	Deborah Harkness
e	The Stolen Crown	Susan Higginbotham
e	Tumbleweeds	Leila Meacham
	Once Burned	Jeaniene Frost
	Goddess Test	Aimee Carter
	Goddess Interrupted	Aimee Carter
	Grave Mercy	Robin LaFevers
e	The Last Romanov	Dora Levy Mossanen
e	Through a Glass Darkley	Karleen Koen
	Sky Dragons	Todd & Anne McCaffrey
e	Mountain Woman: Snake River Blizzard	Johnny Fowler
e	Wonder Woman: Odyssey	Michael Straczynski
	Nightshade	Andrea Cremer
	Wolfsbane	Andrea Cremer
	Delusion in Death	J D Robb
	Bloodrose	Andrea Cremer
	Sister Wives	The Browns
	Love times three	The Dargers
	The unthinkable: who survives when disaster strikes	Amanda Ripley
	Bitterblue	Kristin Cashore
	Rift	Andrea Cremer
	Why is the Penis Shaped like that?	Jesse Bering
e	The Covenant	Beverly Lewis
	The Uninvited	Heather Graham
	The Betrayal	Beverly Lewis
	The Sacrifice	Beverly Lewis
	The Prodigal	Beverly Lewis
	The Revelation	Beverly Lewis
	Holy Misogyny	April D DeConick
e	Return of Rafe MacKade	Nora Roberts
e	Pride of Jared MacKade	Nora Roberts
e	Heart of Devin MacKade	Nora Roberts
e	Fall of Shane MacKade	Nora Roberts
	Promised	Caragh O'Brien
	The Mark of Athena	Rick Riordan
e	A Year of Biblical Womanhood	Rachael Held Evans
	The Perfect Hope	Nora Roberts
	Fourth Grave beneath my feet	Darynda Jones
	Consider the fork:  a history of how we cook and eat	Bee Wilson
	Sapphire Blue	Kerstin Gier
	The Physick book of Deliverance Dane	Katherine Howe
	Lord of Mountains	S. M. Stirling
	Witch of Hebron	James Howard Kunstler
	Son	Lois Lowry
	Kiss of Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Kiss of Crimson	Lara Adrian
	Mary Boleyn: the mistress of Kings	Alison Weir
	Nightshade	Nora Roberts
	Night Smoke Wrong Hill to Die On	Nora Roberts Donis Casey

The finished Fireplace

Well, once again Kevin proved me wrong.  He actually finished the fireplace on December 20.  Since we were celebrating Christmas with family on the 23rd, I was relieved.  He modified the design a great deal since our floor plan is unique.  The fireplace sits in a corner and is angled.  That required us to modify the web image that sparked Kev's imagination.

We used pine to tie the fireplace with the stairs. Kev had the perfect piece left to use for the mantle.  It's three inches thick, just like the steps and the banister rail.  Since  it is the outside edge of the tree, it curves and isn't square, but it's awfully pretty.  Kev then built the lower shelves to hold our DVD player and Satellite receiver, moving them from the east wall, as seen below.

  

With the addition of the upper shelves, he created more space for me to showcase items.  Those shelves are "disappearing" shelves simply because we didn't want to put a side up against that angled wall.  It would have looked...odd.  

I like the firewood storage.  I thought about asking him to make one shelf on this side, but he veto'd that, and I think he was right.  We rocked the fireplace together.  It took about 5 hours.  I struggled with the layout of the rocks because I kept wanting them to fit perfectly.  They don't.  Kev did a lot of trimming to make them fill the space and they've grown on me...or I've let go of my idea of perfection. All in all, I'm happy with the end product.  I'm also eager to put away my Christmas decorations to see how I'm going to arrange "pretties" on the shelves.  

What's the next project?  Who knows!  It's now been a week since Kev has had anything to work on.  He's getting stir-crazy already!  We need to replace the Purple bathroom's tub and the skylight...we need to replace Kev's shower, and we need better cabinets in the kitchen.  But, I'd be happy if we didn't do anything for a few months.  I'm not sure Kevin can sit still that long!

Once again...before and after.  Quite a difference!

The NEW project

Remember when I said, "stay tuned" at the conclusion of the last post?  Well, it's time to change the channel.

My basement is complete.  Kevin won the bet.  Last Sunday, my living room looked like the above picture.  By the end the evening, it looked like this:

Notice the mantel is missing.  The fireplace trim is missing.  The wood that you see we discovered was simply a vinyl veneer adhered to sheet-rock.  What you can't really see is the wire mesh that now covers the sheet-rock.  If you look closely, you can see some stone laying in front of the fireplace.

That pointy piece of wood to the right side?  That will be a shelf.  Kevin found this photo below online:

And this is his goal for our fireplace. It's beautiful, and I like it.  However, I'm hosting Christmas on the 23rd.  I want this project FINISHED by the 23rd. I want my house "normal" by Christmas!

Our project will be amended, because our fireplace sits on a slanted wall in the corner and we'll use pine instead of oak.  But Kev insists that he'll be finished by the 23rd.  He's the only one in our house who thinks he can have it finished by the 23rd, and he's rather indignant that  none of us think he can get it done in 14 days.  

I'm annoyed by the whole project.  Why?  Because before we had the carpet laid, I asked him if he wanted to take down the fireplace mantle so the carpet would be all nice and flush and even.  "Nope" was his response, because he wasn't going to do anything else to the house.

That lasted 4 days.

And now my living room is tore up.  Again...

A very special quilt

Many many years ago, like sometime during the 1970's, my Grandma Woodruff bought a set of quilt blocks and floss.  She stitched four blocks and either tired of the project or got busy with another one.  One day, she showed it to me and asked if I would like to finish embroidering the squares.  I, of course, said yes.

 I manged to embroider 4 more blocks and then I put it away myself.  I think I got bored because I just didn't (and still don't) like embroidering cross stitches.  And, my knots weren't as nice as Grandma's.  She could tie a knot using one hand and that knot would be nice and big, tight and at the very end of the floss.

Then one day during the 1980's, my other grandma, Grandma Berends, needed a project.  So, I brought the remaining four blocks over to her and she finished embroidering them.  At which time, Grandma W. told me that if I'd piece the quilt, she'd hand quilt it for me.  So, Mom and I went shopping for fabric.  I wanted to match the green, but both Mom and Grandma B. thought we should go with pink.  And we did.

By this time, it was 1987.  I took the blocks and the pink fabric home and I pieced the dang thing.  I hated piecing it.  Hating having to stitch perfect straight lines, hated sewing all those pieces together.  I just hated it and vowed that I would never again piece a quilt. (I haven't, either!)

But, I got it done, and Grandma W. quilted it. She drew her own design on the pink borders.  She almost always designed her own quilting pattern, and she quilted a lot of quilts (like 40 some baby quilts for her great-grandchildren.)  I used the quilt for a time on my full-sized bed, but then some of the stitches (the embroidered ones) started pulling out (probably mine since I was the worst at making knots.)  I quit using it and put it away in an acid-free box, wrapped in tissue paper.  I got it out not long ago just to admire the work and to remember both of my Grandmas.

When Grandma W was quilting it, I knew it was special simply because it was something we three worked on together.  Now that they both are gone, it's even more special.

Almost finished

The first thing I noticed as I started to load these photos was that my camera lens is dirty!  So please ignore the little floating orbs.  They aren't ghosts, but are dust on the lens.

I took the week of Thanksgiving off from work and, as usual for me, spent the week working at home.  Kev is almost finished with the basement project.  I think I will lose our bet...but not by much.  His "complete" date was December 4, 2012 and we're close to that, but he has a wee bit of trim left and he'll be done.  

Which means that sometime, I will have to book a Guided Elk hunting trip for him.  Which means I have to save the money for that trip.  But it also means that I get to go along to watch!  It's a win-win situation!

So, one of my chores last week was to paint the basement, touch up areas, getting the main floor and the basement cleaned up.  I finished painting in the basement, and decided the original brown was just not working for me.  So, at 3 in the afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, Miss Kat and I ran to town and bought a gallon of red paint.  Dragon's blood red.  I painted only this one wall red.

 I was still painting the first coat when Kev got home from work.  His first words?  "Wow!"

But, as it dried, he told me he really liked it, and we all agree that it warms up the basement.

We then went out to the shop and Kev brought in his Great-Grandad Chapman's saws and we hung them on the wall along with our Bear picture.  (Please forgive the blankets and such on the couch and the coffee table...Miss Kat decided to sleep on the couch where she could watch TV.)

Upstairs, we got our new carpet laid on Black Friday!  It photographs nicely, but it does have a dark nap to it that didn't show up well in the photos.

Kevin and I are famous for picking out carpet, and then discovering that the carpet we picked out was much lighter than we wanted.  (That's what happens when you pick out carpet looking at a 3 x 3 inch sample.)  When we picked out carpet this time, we purposely picked out something dark enough to hide dirt, cow poop and whatever else might get tracked in.  I think we succeeded.  It's a Stain-master carpet and we splurged on the Stain-master pad to boot.  It's nice and soft to walk and lay on.  It also makes the rest of the carpet in the house look awful, but we couldn't afford to re-carpet the entire house at this time...maybe next year...

 I had some paint touch up to do upstairs, but as I was painting, I discovered the paint, which should be the exact same color as what was already on the walls, was a wee bit darker, so I had to paint the entire room again.  (If I ever get my hands on the guy who mixed my paint in the first place, I think I might strangle him.)
  As we've traveled this saga, you might remember that I had brown furniture in my living room and this blue stuff was in the basement.  The brown couches did not go with the new carpet, so Kev hauled them downstairs and brought up the blue, which does look nicer.  He's all happy because he thought the brown couches were too soft.  He even brought up the recliner...which fits, but I don't think it balances the room, but I will let him keep it upstairs because it makes him happy.

Behind Miss Kat is where there used to be a door.  I need to find a new place to hang the sampler that's floating way above her head.  I'm thinking about moving it above the window and finding a new picture to hang where she's standing.  (See the recliner? Yeah...not balanced. Maybe a new, narrower end table would  help.)

So, our stair saga is almost complete. Kevin told me he wasn't doing another thing to this house for at least a year.  And then he looked at the fireplace, and said, "Except maybe for that fireplace."

Stay tuned...