Book Review: The girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This was a LONG book to say the least,  If I love what I am reading I can't put it down and am usually done reading the book in a couple of hours... I started reading this book about 2 weeks ago.  The basic story line of the book was a good one: Reporter gets into trouble which almost ends his career, he gets offered a job to write a book on a rich family and to look into a 40 year old murder that happened during a family gathering.  I just think the book had A LOT of information that could have been left out.  I would sometimes skip through multiple pages at a time without reading them because they were talking about finances and businesses and other stuff I found really boring.  That being said I am excited to see the movie because all that boring stuff will (hopefully) be left out. 

Maybe it was just me though because I know a lot of people gave this book great reviews.  But I am only going to give it

October recap

OK, I know it is the last day in November, but at least I managed to post Octobers crafts before December right?  Here are a couple things we worked on:

A picture frame:

Here are the supplies we used:

The frame was a basic wooden frame that cost $1 at Michaels,  and I got the eyes for $1 at our local Dollar Tree.  The rest of the supplies I had on hand. 
 Crafts are such much more fun when B can get involved and do parts of it himself.

He painted the whole thing all on his own.  Then he handed me the eyes because I used a hot glue gun to stick them on.  The letters are chipboard that I covered with scrapbook paper and then I added a ribbon that says "Happy Halloween".  This was a really simple and cheap craft that we got to do together. 

The next craft I made after Halloween so that I could get all the supplies for really cheap. 

Here are the supplies I used:  Popsicle sticks: $1 at the dollar store, 2 packs of mini pumpkins and one large pumpkin to hold everything (which were all 75% off at Walmart so between .25 to .50 each). 

Then on the back of the mini pumpkins I wrote a number 1-15 on each of them.

Then I on the sticks I did all possible math equations that could add up to that number. 

The end result is a addition game where B has to add up the 2 numbers on the sticks and stick them in the right pumpkin. 

We also painted pumpkins together like we do every year

We did the Brutus and the witch (minus her hat which was added later because it was still in storage with the Halloween supplies because I buy them on clearance for around .50 after Halloween) Something new we did this year was make a mummy pumpkin using a roll of gauze ($1 at the dollar store).  and used red puffy paint for the eyes. 
I also decided it would be fun to carve a pumpkin but B thought it was disgusting and wanted no part of it so I ended up doing it all by myself. 

He did enjoy putting a new candle and lighting it up every night though. 

Well that pretty much sums up my October crafting, I have so many crafts/scrapbooks to get done in December and they are Christmas presents so they have to get done... wish me luck. 

Teacher's gift

With Thanksgiving coming up I wanted to make Brayden's teacher a little something to show how thankful we are she is helping him become such a good learner.  I got the idea from Pinterest and here is what I made:

First I bought a plant pot from Michael's (around $3) and used chalkboard paint to paint it green and painted the rims black.  Then Brayden picked out a zebra plant from Lowes (around $5) and we planted it.

I already had the ribbon in my scrapbooking stash, but it can be purchased for $1 at hobby lobby or any craft store.  Then I got apples and pencils (also from Michaels .25 cents each) and wrote each students name one them.

I also bought a big apple and wrote his teachers name on it (less than $1)

Lastly I had a small chalkboard and wrote "Thanks for helping us grow" on it and stuck it in the dirt using a pencil.

One thing I learned from this project is not to use hot glue... it does not stick at all to the pot. Use a form of super glue instead.   When I was having Chris take it to school he said they all popped off when he picked it up and my mom had to come super glue them before she picked Brayden up from school.

Book Review: Summer Rental

Summer Rental

This book is about 3 childhood friends who decide to come together and spend a month during the summer together.  I find it so unrealistic that women in their 30s could take a whole months vacation away from their jobs and families, I can hardly get away for a girls weekend.  But besides that, the premise was good and these best friends come together and are able to reconnect and help each other with difficult situations they are each facing.  Has some love story and adventure involved and it kept me interested while my kid plated at the mall play area.  I rate it: 

12 Fridays event

This past weekend I went to a scrapbooking event called Twelve Fridays.  It was a weekend retreat/scrapbooking classes.  I had a blast! This is the first time that I have ever taken a scrapbooking class and I learned a lot of new techniques.  It got me to do some layouts that were totally out of my element, which is good because I loved to be introduced to new things in the scrapbooking world. 

Here are some the layouts we created:

Mine all look slightly different than this but they are the same idea.

Like I said before, I loved the classes and learning new things, but they lasted a majority of the day and even though I stayed up really late with some awesome girls (one night til almost 5 AM), I did not finish nearly as many layouts as I wanted to get done.    I did put a dent in my wedding pictures but didn't finish them like I wanted to, I got most of the ceremony done but still have the posed pictures, the trash the dress, and the reception pictures left to do. 

But overall I learned that I love scrapbooking retreats and I can't wait until March for my next one

Book Review: Now You See Her

I just finished reading James Patterson's book Now You See Her. 

Here is my review:  I got the book at 7 PM and was able to finish it by lunch time the next day, it has been a while since I have been able to say that about a James Patterson book.  They seemed to be getting mundane and repetitive.  This one however has some twists and turns and kept me interested up until the very end.  It starts out with a college girl on spring break who makes a huge mistake which later comes back to haunt her.  She ends up marrying a man who isn't who she thought he was and when she finds out that she is pregnant she decides to escape and start a new life to protect her her unborn baby.  She later learns that a man is on death row and only she has the information to prove that he is innocent, but that would mean she has to reveal her past and accept responsibility for her actions many years ago.

I give it :