Wednesday, June 26, 2024

New book review

I've finished another book review, well I finished the book back in May but couldn't post my review live until yesterday (today because I was lazy yesterday 😂) since that was the official publish date.  So since I've been all over the place this morning since waking up at 4:30, cleaning, and budgeting, I only have 3 minutes to post before I need to boot up the work laptop.  Here is the link to my Goodreads review if you are so inclined to check it out....


May your day be productive!

Kerensa

Currently:
Listening to: 
Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible - 49%, Chapter 28)
Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Chrip Audiobook - 38%, Chapter 5)  
Reading: 
Island of the Dead, by Brian Keene (NetGalley Kindle ARC - 25%)
House of Marionne, by J. Elle (NetGalley Kindle ARC - 1%)
Sewing/Crafting: 
Diamond painting 

Finished:
Listening to: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible 5/13/24 - 6/17/24)
Reading: Incidents Around the House, by Josh Malerman (NetGalley Kindle ARC - read 3/3/24 - 5/8/24)

Monday, June 17, 2024

A Court of Mist and Fury Review

There isn't much time to post today since I've spent most of it updating my TBR shelves.  I did finish ACOTAR book 2, A Court of Mist and Fury.  Here is my review on Goodreads.  I'll eventually post it to Amazon for those who don't have Goodreads or Audible. (you can click on the book image to go to my review)


May your day be productive!

Kerensa

Currently:
Listening to: 
Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible - 1%, Chapter 3)
Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Chrip Audiobook - 29%)  
Reading: 
Island of the Dead, by Brian Keene (NetGalley Kindle ARC - 23%)
House of Marionne, by J. Elle (NetGalley Kindle ARC - 1%)

Finished:
Listening to: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible 5/13/24 - 6/17/24)
Reading: Incidents Around the House, by Josh Malerman (NetGalley Kindle ARC - read 3/3/24 - 5/8/24)

Thursday, June 6, 2024

Just Another Day

It's been not quite a month since I last posted. I seriously need to self-discipline and keep my promise to post more often and to get my boo-tay back into the quilt room, but I've been, in all honesty, depressed and stressed out, which has resulted in my not wanting to do much of anything. I am a "fixer" and a type A personality and those two seem to clash, causing me much more stress than is necessary.  I have been taking on the worries of not only myself, but of my husband, my dad, my adult kids, and worries about my grandkids and the world they are growing up in, not to mention the everyday stresses everyone has of making enough $$ to pay bills, buy groceries and necessities, and still try to maintain some savings to actually enjoy life, because we can't take anything with us when we move on, right? So, when I'm stressed, I often kick back in my recliner, heating pad on my back, soft blanket on my lap, watch my favorite shows, read/listen to a book, or find myself mindlessly scrolling and surfing the web on my phone, not really paying much attention to anything.  I very much need to get myself out of this slump and get back to being me

Anyway, this morning I was going through my hundreds of quilt-related emails and saving the tons of free patterns that I had flagged, or am part of QAL's, and found myself, once again clicking and following links that inspired me, and as usual, I ended up at Bonnie Hunters Quiltville InstagramBonnie K. Hunters Quiltville Instagram page.  I love her quotes on quilts images, not to mention the ahhhhmazing quilt patterns she creates with her scraps, and often save them as inspiration to my OneNote.  Here are two that I recently saved that I needed at this time and wanted to share:

 

How fitting they are at this exact moment in my life!  It's like Bonnie has a direct line of sight into my subconscious and posts these at the right time. 😉 Thank you Bonnie!

 I will say that to help me get out of my slump I have decided that when I am mindlessly sitting in my recliner that I must be doing something productive so I pulled out an old cross-stitch pattern and the threads to work on.  I'll share that in another post along with a photo of whatever I decide to sew this weekend, because this is my weekend to do as I please.  I went fishing with the hubby again and quite enjoyed myself (photos to come) but my real passion is reading and crafts.

 On the book front, I'm now almost finished with A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas and I have to say, while I love listening to the audible version because the narrator is so good she makes me forget where I am for a while, I think I will have to read the entire series the old-fashioned way. This is because oh my gosh I have gotten angry at this book, and SJM for dashing my hopes and dreams from ACOTAR and I'm trying really hard to figure out this trio of Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhysand.  I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't read the books and want to, but my heart was torn into millions of pieces and I'm trying to heal it. 💔💕

Not much else to report at this time and it's almost time to boot up the work laptop to start my day. I wish everyone a bright, sunshiny day today!

May your day be productive!

Kerensa

Currently:
Listening to: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible - 75%) 
Reading: Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Kindle - 8% page 20/322)
Learning: My son says to start learning C# 😬

Finished:
Listened: A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible 4/2/24 - 5/2/24) ⭐
Read: Incidents Around the House, by Josh Malerman (NetGalley Kindle ARC - read 3/3/24 - 5/8/24) 
Learned: Three new Excel formulas!

Thursday, May 16, 2024

ACOTAR review


So, I finally finished the audiobook of ACOTAR book 1 and I have to be honest that at first, even listening to an amazing narrator (Audibles Jennifer Ikeda), I almost stopped because... You can read the rest of my review on Goodreads or Audible. Oh! I found this awesome site to purchase all kinds of bookish goodies that make me giggle and want to load up my shopping cart ASAP, not to mention they have an SJM collection, so go check it out if you dare! 😏

I also finished the NetGalley ARC of Josh Malerman's Incidents Around the House but cannot share my review until after the publication date in June so look for that next month, it was interesting, to say the least.

There's not much going on around here right now other than working and helping take care of my grandson while my daughter works.  He keeps me busy but he’s my heart. Here he is the other evening while we were calming down after dinner.  Only 2.5 years old and he's already kicked back, chilling and watching Blaze on his tablet. 😂



May your day be productive!

Kerensa

Currently:
Listening to: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible - 22%) 
Reading: Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Kindle - page 9/322)
Learning: Python Programming Made Simple, by Christina Daniel, Ph.D. (Kindle)

Finished:
Listening to: A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible 4/2/24 - 5/2/24)
Reading: Incidents Around the House, by Josh Malerman (NetGalley Kindle ARC - read 3/3/24 - 5/8/24)

Monday, May 13, 2024

Just a quote day

I have been cleaning up my files since I made an oopsie and downloaded all of my files from my OneDrive and instead of them downloading into their respective folders they downloaded into individual files and separate folders so now I have years and years of files to Spring Clean, which will probably take me just as many years to go through as it did to accumulate them!  While going through them this morning I ran across this quote that I found who knows where, all I know is I saved an image of it on 12/23/2023 from Facebook.  I do not take credit for, and leave the credit to, the name associated with it, but I live by this quote, so thank you, Brooke Hampton, whoever you are, for putting my life into two short and sweet sentences that set my soul afire!

"I am pieces of all the places I have been, and the people I have loved.  I've been stitched together by song lyrics, book quotes, adventure, late-night conversations, moonlight, and the smell of coffee." ~Brooke Hampton

May your day be productive!

Kerensa

Currently:
Listening to: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (Audible) 
Reading: Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Kindle)
Learning: Python Programming Made Simple, by Christina Daniel, Ph.D. (Kindle)


Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Knicky Knackies

Today I finally posted my ARC (advance reader copy) review of Josh Malerman's Incidents Around the House to my NetGalley account for the publisher.  I'll be able to officially post my review in June when the book is published and live for everyone to purchase.  I will say I did enjoy it, not as much as I enjoyed some of his other stories, but it was very interesting.

Other than that and working all day and taking care of my fathers' budget and paying his bills, I finally get to share the cute little knick knack that I purchased from Temu, which I am ordering from waaaay too much. lol  I want the entire collection, but for now, this one gets me started to put on my bookcase:


Isn't it adorbs????  There are 5 more in different poses that I plan on getting, but for now, she's on the bookshelf reading her own book. 😁

That's all for today folks, it's getting late and I have some chores to do before dinner. Take care.  

Until next time!


Kerensa


Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Empty Nesters....again

Good morning!  Today is Wednesday so I've made it halfway through the workweek and still have my sanity. 😂 Just kidding, I love my job and was surprised to be offered to lead our next project even though it is only a 2-week project vs. 2 months, I'm excited to be able to show what I can do, how I can lead, and especially to find out the trends of our analysis. I didn't get to propose or create this project but that is okay because #Teamwork makes the #DreamWork right?

My daughter and grandson finally moved out almost two months ago so we are empty nesters once again and I do love it because we are finally getting our house back in order.  A 2-year-old sure can keep a house destroyed lol.  But while I'm loving the quiet again, and being able to do what I want when I want, I do miss talking with my daughter and the early morning "knock knock Nannie" on my office door when he wakes up.  And I really, really , realllllly miss his sleepy morning hugs and kisses.  Now, when they come to visit, he is all about his pawpaw who takes him on the "vroom vroom" (riding mower), and Nannie is all but invisible. 🙈 This morning I woke before my alarm went off and found myself listening to the quiet house and realized I was listening for my grandson or my daughters' footsteps.  Now I have to just look forward to their visits.  And hopefully, my son will be visiting soon with the other 4 grandkiddos because I miss them so much.  The last time we visited them I was shocked at just how much they have grown in the month or so since we last visited.  I'm missing out on so much of their lives.  At least our kids were able to grow up next door to my parents and only a 25-minute drive from my husband's family, so I don't think my mom missed out on anything before she passed away.  I wish she were still here to see them growing up.  It's so hard to believe Scarlet will turn 10 years old this year! 

Anyway, I have some emails to get through in my quilting folder, and when I say some I mean more like 310 "new" emails, plus those I've looked at before. hahaha 

I did take some time this morning to create my email signatures, take a looksee below, although I have redacted my personal information since I'm sharing them here:

My Coding signature:


My personal signature:

My quilting signature:

And finally, my Analyst signature:

Time for me to skedaddle off to slam through some emails and get myself ready for work.  May you have the most wonderful day!


Kerensa