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





Friday, April 26, 2024

Barn Quilts...but I don't have a barn! ;)

 I've been so busy lately that I haven't even thought about updating my blog, and for that I apologize to anyone who follows me, and to myself for not keeping my own promise to keep the blog updated.  But that's neither here or there right now.  It's 6:34 AM on Friday (WOOT), April 26, 2024 and I've been playing around updating the look and feel of my blog this morning when I should have been doing other more important things, like pulling fabric for my table runner I want to make, and downloading the most recent QAL patterns that I've joined but haven't even started, nothing new there lol.  So since I have to get my work laptop booted up in about 10 minutes to get ready to work and make the $$ to support my quilting habit, I figured I'd type up a quick post.  

For those who have ever been in the country side, just crusing around looking, being the famous "Sunday drivers" I'm sure no matter where you live you've seen barns, and on many of those barns there are huge colorful quilt blocks called "Barn Quilts" and I've always been enamored by them and wondered where the idea started and, of course, how I could make one and hang it on our home.  Well here is a bit of history of the Barn Quilt and a link to a YouTube video that I found to help me make my own.

Barn quilts tell a story


YouTube: DIY Barn Quilt - How to Make a Pattern, Paint, and Supplies by DoodleDog Primitives

One minute to go so I'm off to make that $$.  Have a wonderfully productive day today!

Kerensa

Friday, February 2, 2024

NetGalley and BookSirens ARCs

Happy Friday morning!  I'm so glad the weekend is upon us because I know I will get to do some reading and sewing, and maybe even get into my closet and get it organized.  It's been a hectic week, my father had a PET scan and then a biopsy of a spot the doctors found on his lung and it came back as squamous cell carcinoma cancer so now we are waiting for the Thoracic Surgeon he was referred to, to schedule him for a consult to find out if the cancer can be surgically removed. This has reminded me more of when momma was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer adenocarcinoma stage 4 back in the summer of 2014 and while she opted for treatment, the cancer was too far along and had metastasized into her bones. Momma passed away on 11/3/2014 and I miss her dearly every day. Hopefully, daddy's cancer was caught early enough and they can remove it. Unfortunately, he is a heavy smoker and probably won't quit any time soon, if at all. 

My husband had his lithotripsy and stent placement on Wednesday.  Six hours at the hospital, most of it spent waiting to be called back to the pre-op room, then 2 hours waiting to be taken back to surgery, and the rest of the time was me sitting back in the waiting room, but he is doing well, just hurting, as expected.  Now hubby has to strain the urine to capture the stones so the doctor can find out what they are made of and hopefully stop them from happening. We went through this over 20 years ago but he had to have surgery back then and it was absolute hell for almost a year with his recovery.  This is so much easier and has a faster recovery time.  We go back on 2/8 to hopefully have the stent removed if all pieces of the stones have passed.

While waiting for the lithotripsy to be done I had plenty of time to finish my NetGalley ARC (advanced reader copy) of the book The Sunlit Ruins by Andrea Septien and you can see my review here on GoodReads. The story was good, although not one that I would normally gravitate toward and the narrators, Luzma Ortiz and Martin Martinez did an amazing job. I also picked back up on my BookSirens ARC, The Architect, by  Melanie Bokstad Horev. I'm only 30% into it and have 8 days to finish it so I must focus tonight and this weekend to make sure I get my review in on time.

I love posting reviews of books I've read and products I've purchased because reviews help people make decisions on what to buy, well at least I use reviews to make the final decision.  Too many negative reviews and I'm out, plenty of positive reviews and I am about 90% inclined to purchase if it was something I wanted. You can see products I've reviewed on my Amazon Profile

I've also continued listening to the House of Flame and Shadow, by Sarah J. Maas and I am so loving being back in Bryce and Hunt's world, and the narrator, Elizabeth Evans brings their world to life. if you love Romantacy (the new Fantasy Romance genre) you should really read the Crescent City series, and I read that SJM is going to have a fourth book so yayyyyy!

Since I was up early this morning I played around with some of my 2.5" precuts.  I want to do a triple Irish chain quilt but can't decide on colors.  I don't know if I want to go completely scrappy, controlled scrappy, or stick with one color value, etc.  Here's what I did this morning.  I was thinking red and maybe teal for the chains.  


These are just a few of the pre-cuts that I have accumulated so I have a nice little stash of assorted colors and patterns all sorted by color in these sweet little containers.


These are a few patterns I've found that I am trying to duplicate.  If I have the links to the creators then the photos are linked, otherwise, I apologize I don't remember where I found the images, but I liked them enough to use them as inspiration. Credit for these patterns does not go to me at all.  If you know who created those without links, please let me know so that I can give credit where it's due.

Anyway, I need to get myself ready to log into work.  Have an amazing day and weekend!

Kerensa

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Busy or Lazy, that is the question...

It feels like I've been busy without a moment to spare, but when I look back over the last few weeks since I last posted here, I feel like I haven't done anything other than laze around.  So now I have to think back on what I did to trick my mind into thinking I've been productive. 😂  Don't get me wrong, at work I'm probably the most productive person on my team and potentially in our department, but at home, I have so much going on that my brain jumps from thing to thing to thing and it seems like nothing gets done.  For example, I get up at 4 AM every morning intending to get through all of my personal, "quilty", and coding emails (yes, I have 3 different email addresses just to stay organized lol) but by 6:30 AM, when I need to switch my personal brain off and turn on my work brain, I realize that all I've done is surf through quilt blog after quilt blog, or I've scrolled through Audible and Chirp looking for audiobooks, or I've updated the checkbook register but not cleaned out the emails associated with the bills I paid.  

The 2-year-old grand has since greeted the daylight and bugged nanny for the last bit of her "free time" and now it's time to get ready for work.  So for now, I wanted to share that I'm so giddy because as of midnight last night, the audiobook I've been patiently waiting for has dropped into my Audible player. I finally got to continue the story of Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar, from the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas.  I made it through almost an hour of House of Flame and Shadow, only 28 hours and 44 minutes to go!


Be Productive and have a fantastic day!

Kerensa