Books I'm Reading- Adrian Tchaikovsky

                                           
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Book 2 of Shadows of The Apt is action packed, with so many things happening. Stenwold Maker has returned to his beloved city, Collegium, to try and again warn them of the danger of The Empire. He is now deemed to dangerous to live by the Empire and they have sent a team to destroy him.

Meanwhile Totho and Salma have arrived at Tark just in for the Empire to attack it. Tisamon and Tynisa have travelled to Felyal, to Tisamons home, so that Tynisa can become a weapons master. At the same time Che Maker and Archaeos have gone to Sarn to try to get help.

Will they be able to unit the Lowlands against the Empire or are they going to be conquered?

I had trouble putting this book down!

My Writing

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With a sigh, Ella pulled her car over to the side of the road. The map the lawyers had given her was next to useless. The road she was on ran on into the distance, lined by trees, it was basically featureless. She was definitely on the right main road but where on earth was what she was looking for.
Somewhere along this road was a side road that was her destination. Most likely a dirt road since they were so far out of town. In fact the closest main town was a good two hours away.
With a grimace Ella got out of her car to stretch her legs, she had been on the road since early morning and had been hoping to reach her destination by now. Stretching she turned, and stopped in disbelief. A tree lined dirt road ran at an angle to the main road.
Frowning she walked up to it, looking at it from both directions. It was like an optical illusion, due to the angle it only appeared when faced in a easterly direction. No wonder she had driven past it several times.
The lawyers had said that her great aunt had liked her privacy. She had liked it so much that Ella hadn't even known that she existed until she had passed away. Leaving all of her belongings, including this property, to Ella.
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UFO's

As part of my new time management/ get organised plans I went through my craft cupboard on the weekend. It was a very interesting procedure. I have projects in there that are about 15 years old.



I started this cross stitch in my second year of nursing as an attempt to relax. I got as far as needing to use a metallic thread, this snapped every stitch, and so I promptly gave up.




During this time I started this cute little needlepoint purse for my mother. It just needs to have its clasp attached. Even though I followed the pattern exactly, when put together, the two sides do not align properly. I need to add some extra stitches but have never found the time. I'm going to finish this one in time for mums birthday, in October. A deadline always gets me more organised.




I am also still working on a hexagonal crochet blanket. It's a mix of green, blue, purple and red, plain and mixed squares. However I got stuck with this as I can not decide how I want the pattern to go.




A ripple blanket in blues for my son. I started this earlier this year and have finally almost finished it. I just need to do three more rows and the border.

And also a knitted jumper for my husband. I finished the back and a sleeve and then discovered there is a problem with the pattern. The sleeve is way to long and now I have to work out how to alter it.

On top of all this I have a huge amount of beading that I have started and never finished.

These should keep me entertained for a while.


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Books I'm Reading- Laurell K Hamilton

                                       
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Affliction by Laurell K Hamilton is number 22 in the Anita Blake Series. I first discovered these books several years ago and read the first 9 in two weeks. Then eagerly awaiting each following book. After a while they had less plot and more sex scenes, and I stopped reading them.

Book 21 I haven't read at all. It was just by chance that my local library had Affliction on display and I had nothing to read.

I am so glad that I picked it up. Hamilton has gone back to a plot line. Yay! This is what I loved about her books to begin with.

Micah's father has been attacked and is in hospital-dying. Anita and Nathaniel go with Micah to visit his father. While there Anita is drawn into a flesh eating zombie case, zombies unlike anyone has seen before. The race is on to destroy their creator before they destroy the whole town.

If you love a good zombie book then this is for you.

FSF- Flowers

                                   
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What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week Lillie McFerrin will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.

This weeks prompt is Flowers.

She smelt them first, a sweet scent that permeated through the house, before she even reached the front door.Dropping her keys onto the nearest table she followed the trail.

Flowers filled every room and overflowed on every available surface. At last she came to her bedroom, here the only surface not filled with flowers was her bed.

Too late did she listen to her instincts which were screaming flee, over and over at her. 

FSF- Beauty

                           
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What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week Lillie McFerrin will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.

This weeks prompt is Beauty. (I know I am a little late).

"Oh my God!!!!". Leslie screamed, the sound punctuated by the crash of falling timbers. Eric winced.

"You are completely out of your mind," Leslie yelled at him. "This place is falling down around our ears".

And she was right. The cottage was over a hundred years old, and had been neglected for most of them by the look of it. The timbers were rotting or just gone, with only the framework in places. With a huge grin Eric turned to her,

"Well they do say Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Books I'm Reading- Lara Solomon

                                     
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I know I said that I normally read science fiction and fantasy, and then the last book I talked about was a craft book. Well today I'm talking about a partial biography I guess you would say.

Brand New Day- the highs and lows of starting a small business, covers 4 years of Lara Solomons life and focuses on her business. Lara Solomon is the creator of Mocks which are, for those who don't know, decorative sock covers for mobile phones.

It's in a diary format and at the end of every month Lara gives you a run down of where the business is at. At first I found it a bit hard to follow as the days do skip. Once you get past that its a really interesting look at how hard it can be to start up your own business. But at the end of the day, very rewarding.

I am not really sure what made me pick this book up to read but I am glad that I did.

Time Management

                     
                 
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I use to have the best time management skills.

Then I had my son! Now everyone tells you when you are pregnant, that you get ‘pregnancy brain’, and that it eventually gets better. But it’s been almost 5 years now and it is simply not improving.

My biggest issue is the tendency that I now have to be easily side tracked. Some days I suddenly discover that I am in the middle of the washing up, and making the beds and hanging out washing. With numerous other tasks partially completed as well, bathrooms are commonly like this. Then it all gets a little overwhelming as I try to reorganise myself and get things finished.

So I am trying out some simple techniques in order to try and get more done. Nicole Avery from Planning With Kids has some really helpful tips on her site. One of the easiest I have found is the 15min rule.

Basically what this means is that you allocate 15 mins to each job. Sure some jobs need more than that but it’s a useful starting point. And you would be seriously surprised at what you can get done in 15 mins. I think it’s the motivation of knowing that soon, very soon, this will be over. I have also noticed that there is an added benefit from this, I am getting more done each day.

It also works really well with to do lists, have I mentioned that I am obsessed with to do lists? Actually obsessed might be a bit mild. I have a monthly planner, and I have a weekly overview list (I work shiftwork) and then I have the daily to do list. And yes, because I can that list is often broken down into type of tasks, you know, gardening or cleaning etc.

One of the lists I have is a list of the seasonal/ monthly tasks, things like repacking the linen cupboard and going through my sons out grown clothes. Tasks that need to be done regularly but, really, not that often. I have started adding these in to my weekly list and the result has been surprising. I am flying through them. At this point of time I am ahead, so to speak, leaving me with a whole lot of free time.

What things do you do to organise your time?

Books I'm Reading- I Love Crochet

                                         
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One of my (many) hobbies is crochet. When I was in primary school my grandmother taught me how to crochet and knit (I took to the crochet). My great grandmother use to crochet around hankies, tiny little intricate stitches that she never actually looked at while she did. One day I would love to be that good.
I love Crochet is a lovely collection of projects, I want to make the hat and gloves set thats in the book

Happy Fathers Day

                                          
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Well today was Fathers Day in Australia. My son was so excited because he had bought a gift at school for his daddy. So saturday we wrapped them up and J put stickers all over them, dinosaurs of course.

My husband went on my brothers bucks party on saturday and didn't come home until 1am, very very drunk. So while he had a lovely day today with us he wasn't as energetic as usual. Only 4 hours of sleep and a hangover will do that to you.

Wishing all the dads out there a very Happy Fathers Day!