I love my Silhouette!

This summer I bought an expensive die-cutter, a Silhouette Cameo, for all my various craft projects. I hadn't had a whole lot of time to use it very much until recently, but ever since I figured out all the amazing things it can do (and so easily!) I can hardly tear myself away. Look at the ridiculously cute (and unbelievably easy) home-made gift tags I just made:

Seriously, these took all of five minutes to make, and you can use any color or pattern paper to make them even more interesting!

I've already made several Christmas gifts that have features made by the Silhouette, of course I'll wait until after Christmas to post pictures of those. I just want to say I am ridiculously proud of making my own gift tags and other really cute things the Silhouette lets me do! Woohoooooo!

A Birthday Letter to My Brother

Dear Shad,

You don't do email and you're not on Facebook, and I'm not good at talking on the phone, but I have a lot to say to you so here goes. First I want you to know how very much I missed you during the years we didn't speak. I'm not really even sure why we lost touch--it was never intentional on my part, I held no ill feelings towards you despite the turbulence we grew up with. When I talked to you on the phone for the first time after having not heard your voice for so many years, it brought a rush of emotions in me that brought me to tears afterwards. I can't even hardly explain how I feel about you.  You're my Big Brother. When my stepdad adopted me I gained 3 other brothers, but it's nowhere near the same as what I have with you.

I know the age difference between us made a close relationship difficult--growing up I was the tagalong, the burden on your fun, the annoying little kid you had to babysit when you would rather have been doing a lot of other things. I won't even get into the violence in our home that made it, at times, a place none of us wanted to be. I have a lot of wonderful memories of you and some others that are not so wonderful (did you really have to lurch on me all the way to Albuquerque? :) ).  I guess back then I didn't realize how important, how deeply life-sustaining, my sibling relationships were. Now as an adult I have a whole new perspective. For one thing, now that I have stepkids, I realize that YOU were a stepkid. I wonder how you experienced that, if it was painful for you. I can see how hard it is on my own stepkids at times. Was it hard on you too?

And as much as I love my three adopted brothers, and enjoy my relationships with them, now I realize how totally different it is with you. There's just something about you and Laura that feels REAL to me. Talking to you felt like coming home. I can't even articulate it well, but every time I see you in person I feel, well, just right with the world. Like a piece of me has been missing for a long time but it's back and all is well now. No one else in the world knows what it was like growing up in our family, except you two. Despite any troubles or silence between the three of us over the years that is a bond that will never break.

I never want to be estranged from you again. 

Now that we are all grown up I just want to say that I am SO proud of what you have done with your life. Your daughters are stunning in every way--not just in physical beauty, although they are that, but also in their hearts and personalities. Your wife is a treasure, and the work you do with kids is so important. You have done well, and I am proud to know and be sister to such a man.

I've missed you, I love you SO so much, and I hope we never go so long without talking again. Happy birthday, Big Brother. You deserve all the happiest wishes in the world.

Excellent Reads: The Rose Garden

Susanna Kearsley stole my heart with A Winter Sea and ever since I have been eagerly reading every work of hers I can get my hands on. Her writing is magical, I simply adore the way she has with words. This one did not disappoint! What a fantastic story. I am fascinated by the way she seamlessly melds past and present in her stories and The Rose Garden is no exception.

One thing I love about the romantic aspect of Ms. Kearsley's novels is that the romance is simultaneously subtle and yet stunning. I really appreciate how she can make the hair on my neck stand on end and my heart swoon, while at the same time never revealing "intimate" details or turning it into a trashy smut-fest. The romance is in the dialogue, not in the ripping of bodices, and that makes it all the more headily romantic, to me.

I highly recommend this book, as I do every other one of hers. She does not disappoint!

From Amazon:

"Whatever time we have," he said, "it will be time enough."

Eva Ward returns to the only place she truly belongs, the old house on the Cornish coast, seeking happiness in memories of childhood summers. There she finds mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time.

But Eva must confront her own ghosts, as well as those of long ago. As she begins to question her place in the present, she comes to realize that she too must decide where she really belongs.

So-So Reads: Through the Door

Recently I stumbled across Through the Door by Jodi McIsaac. It was only a couple of dollars on Amazon and the sample was pretty good so I bought it. Here is a synopsis from Amazon:

Celtic mythology and the modern world collide in the first book in THE THIN VEIL series. Cedar McLeod lives an ordinary but lonely life, raising her six-year-old daughter Eden on her own, while trying to balance the demands of her career and the expectations of her mother. Everything seems normal until the day Eden opens her bedroom door and finds herself half a world away – and then goes missing. Suddenly, Cedar realizes her daughter is anything but normal. In a desperate search for answers, Cedar tries to track down Eden’s father, who mysteriously disappeared from her life before Eden was born. What she discovers is far beyond anything she could have imagined. As she joins unlikely allies in the hunt for her daughter, Cedar becomes torn between two worlds: the one she thought she knew, and one where ancient myths are real, the stakes are impossibly high, and only the deepest love will survive.

This book was okay, but not wonderful. At times I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it. I think there was one scene in particular that kind of spoiled it for me: just a few hours after her 6 year old daughter disappears from the face of the earth, presumably kidnapped by an evil fairy, the main character Cedar lays down and snuggles with a cat and GOES TO SLEEP. Really?? I'm sorry but if my child were missing there's no way I would be able to SLEEP. I would be tearing down walls and raging and doing everything I could possibly think of to Find My Child. It just kind of made this story unbelievable--yes, I realize that's kind of a stupid thing to say about a fairy story, but still. I can suspend disbelief about the paranormal, but the achingly normal? Not so much. And it is NOT normal to fall asleep snuggling with a cat when your child is missing.

If you're interested in Celtic lore, fairies, that sort of thing, you will likely enjoy this story. I'm glad I didn't spend more than a few dollars on it, but I don't really regret it. I doubt I will be reading the follow-up novels, though.

A Hunger Games Rant

I told you before that I wouldn't bother reviewing The Hunger Games here, but I would like to take a moment to get some things off my chest. First, I'd like to say that even I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this series--I avoided it forever and wasn't sure I would be able to finish it due to the violence, in particular violence against children. I know many people who aren't reading it (or finishing the series) because of how barbaric just the premise sounds. And it is indeed quite barbaric and violent, and yet it is one of those stories that just Sticks With You. I read it months ago and still find myself thinking about the characters and the story line.

By the way, if you haven't read it yet, please be advised: Here Be SPOILERS. 

And I want to say it really, really ticked me off that the author killed off Finnick. I felt like that was just totally a gratuitous and unnecessary yank on the heartstrings. I would have been happier if she had killed off Gale instead. And that leads me to Prim: her death was tragic but I didn't feel it was as gratuitous as Finnick's. In fact, Prim's death was completely relevant in that it prompted Katniss to do what she did in the end. But Finnick did not have to die.

Speaking of Prim, I know there is a lot of controversy over whether or not Gale had anything to do with her death. I think it very likely that he did indeed put into motion the events that caused it--it was totally within his character development to do exactly that. I don't think he meant for Prim to die in the bombing, but I do believe he made it happen.

Lastly I'm really, really tired of the love triangle trope. Can we be done with that already? Veronica Roth has showed us it is possible to write an excellent YA dystopian trilogy without a heroine who is constantly dithering between two love interests. I feel like Suzanne Collins and other authors of her genre have so much to say and such interesting stories to tell, it is a huge shame they go and dumb it down with stupid love triangles.

One more thing: I can't stand who they picked to play Finnick in the second movie:

I'm sure Sam Claflin is a very good actor and all, but he is not even CLOSE to how I pictured Finnick. To me, Finnick is IRISH. And he was supposed to be this drop-dead gorgeous playboy. Sam is cute and all but he's no Finnick.

Harrumph. Anyone with me?

Birdy Nativity

So I've mentioned my mom's birthday before....this year's gift was soooo easy, not only to come up with, but also to make, because she loves birds (cardinals in particular) and she collects nativity scenes. I put my creativity hat on and came up with this:

My favorite part is one you can't even really see in the picture--I filled tiny glass jars with beads for the gifts from the wise men: one gold, one green, and one multi-colored. In fact that was the hardest part of this project, picking through the beads to find the green and gold ones.

You may notice the one big problem with this scene....both the cardinals are boys. I couldn't find any girl cardinals, I guess they're just not pretty enough :) This is probably totally sacrilegious, but we've been joking that these birds are Joseph and Gary :) Teehee.

I don't know how in the world I'm going to top this next year.

Grandchildren Christmas Tree

My mom's birthday always falls around Thanksgiving, which is nice not only because we are so thankful for her but also because it makes birthday gift-giving very easy! She often gets Christmas-themed birthday presents, which seems to be fine by her. Last year I made her (and also my mother in law) a cute little Christmas tree with an ornament to represent each grandchild in our family. I used small clear ornaments with faces painted on, wiggly eyes in the right color for each person, and yarn for hair. I also painted each person's name on the back. Check out the Grandchildren Christmas Tree!

 If you look closely you can even see Nellie and Millie!

Giving Thanks

It is an absolute understatement to say that I have so very much to be thankful for, every year, but especially this one. I have a lot of wonderful things in my life and have always enjoyed Thanksgiving, but this year it has special meaning, for the presence of my son.

Last year I was thankful for a healthy pregnancy that was nearing its end, and this year I am grateful beyond words for the miracle that is my little boy. I really can't even articulate it, my feelings are so powerful. I thought instead of even trying I would post something I should have posted last year. I was hugely pregnant and starting to be really uncomfortable, more than anything just ready to meet my son and see his sweet face. I was so happily surprised when my stepkids made the following posters for him--completely unprompted by anyone, this was ALL their idea, and it gave me an even deeper level of gratefulness, that they already loved their brother so much and he wasn't even born yet.

We are SO fortunate that we haven't had an ounce of jealousy or negativity about the addition of another child to our family. They genuinely love him. I can't even articulate how lucky I feel and how thankful I am for the blessing of all three of these children in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!