15 in '15 May Update

Hello Friends! Sorry for the absence over  the past week, I've been feeling a bit of a brain drain lately and decided to take a quick break from writing. This normally means the kiss of death for blogs, I promise you that is not the case, I'd just rather not write than write crap. 

I did want to share with you that I did finish a book on the 15 in '15 list! 

The Serpent of Venice

Christopher Moore is one of my favorite writers, however his last few books have fell flat for me, this one included. It's not because it's a bad book it's because I liked Moore's previous books. His recent ones have been inspired by the French art movement in the 1800's, which doesn't interest me, or Shakespeare, which I feel has been lampooned enough. The Serpent of Venice is Moore's retelling of a mishmash of The Cask of Amontillado, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice. I had a tough time getting through this book and even thought I was going to have to give up another book on this list. I ended up finishing it but I wasn't super enthralled with it. 

I would definitely recommend a Christopher Moore book to someone to read, but I definitely would not recommend this one. 

I'm in the middle of The Glass Castle now, it's a bit of a slow read for me. The contents of the book are insane but the short chapters make it hard for me to be hooked. We'll see how it turns out when I finish it for next month's post! 

Here's the complete list (links will go to the post that I wrote about the book):

1. Sharp Objects
2. TV Gods
3. A Discovery of Witches
4. The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
5. The Serpent of Venice
6. I Don't Know What You Know Me From
7. Big Fish
8. Orange is the New Black
9. American Gods
10. Dead Until Dark
11. The Great Gatsby
12. The Glass Castle
13. Pride and Prejudice
14. Insurgent
15. The Clan of the Cave Bear
16. Paddle Your Own Canoe

I would love to hear about what you read this month!

I'm on Goodreads, if you'd like to add me.

End of the Week Roundup

Another Friday is upon us! This will be the first weekend in a while where I don't have a ton of plans. I can't wait to sit on the couch the whole weekend and not move. Sorry for the quality of most of the pics in this post, they were all taken with cell phones!

1. Saturday, Dave and I went on a double date with some friends and watched Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. It was a good movie but I preferred the first Avengers to the second. 

2. Sunday was all about the mamas. Dave and I started out at breakfast with his parents and then had a late lunch/early dinner with my mom. It was an enjoyable day!

3. Monday night I went out to dinner with my friend and we stopped at an amazing Italian restaurant. The food was soooo good and it was fun to hang out with her. 

4. Wednesday I had dinner with another friend who is planning a move to Chicago so the dinner was bittersweet. We decided to head back to the place where our first "date" took place, which I mentioned here. I said it then and I'll say it again, if that first dinner out had been a real first date, it would have been the perfect one. I'm going to miss her so much but I'm so happy she's spreading her wings. As my mom and aunt always say, it's not goodbye, it's I'll see you later. While at dinner, we got to see some cute little ducklings!

5. Another kitty sleeping in the sun picture. Lucky duck, when I used to lay like that my mom would yell at me to close my legs because it wasn't ladylike. While Squish isn't a lady, it does still make me envious. 

How was your week?

5 Shows that Should Have Ended Already

One of my favorite things about this time of year is reading the "cancelled TV shows" articles. I'm not sure why, it's just a guilty pleasure of mine. There's a few shows I think belong on this year's list and I thought I'd share them with you!

1. 2 Broke Girls

I used to really like this show when it came out a few years ago. Now the show seems to go for crude jokes versus funny jokes. Plus, the girls' shtick is getting kind of old. It'd be nice if they could catch a break, and then go away. Plus, the pearl necklace that Caroline still insists on wearing every once in a while (she used to wear it nonstop) needs to be lost for good. 

2. Bones

I've always really enjoyed Bones but it's been on for over 10 years (or at least it feels like it) and it's just getting old. I don't look forward to the shows anymore, because it's the same thing over and over again. Plus I think I read somewhere that you can always tell who the killer is, but I can't remember where. 

Runner Up: Pretty much any of those CSI:NCIS:ACRONYM shows. Except Castle, that's still a pretty good show. 

3. Supernatural

This was a tough one to put on this list because I love Supernatural and still do, however my big problem is that the show has lost its focus. I'm so sick of the series long story arcs that don't make any sense. I miss the days where the shows focused on making you laugh while going after different creatures. How many more times can Dean or Sam be dragged to hell or marked with something before the writers realized they already wrote it? 

Runner Up: Vampire Diaries. I don't watch this show but I'm pretty sure we're all past the vampires at this point. 

4. Once Upon a Time

I loved this show when it originally aired but now they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for story lines. I'm pretty sure the writers had no idea what they were going to write about past season 1 and they've been pulling everything else out of their ass. 

This is their logo right?

5. Keeping up with the Kardashians

I never watched this show, however I strongly feel that the Kardashians 15 minutes of fame was up....ten years ago. Can they go away already?

Runner Up: Any "reality" show. They're all fake anymore. 

What are some shows you would like to see go away?

End of the Week Roundup

Hello friends! Happy Friday! This week has been quite busy, I'm kinda glad for the weekend, so I can relax!

1.  Saturday I spent the day working on quilts and this bear. The auction for the bear ends tonight at 8 pm, so you still have a shot at it! 

2. Sunday Dave and I met up with his brother and sister in law to hang out with our nephews. We spent the day at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. It was such a cute, quaint zoo, it was the perfect way to spend a Sunday.

3. Wednesday Teen Book Club met up and we discussed Moon Over Manifest. This summer we're going to read the Divergent series together and I gave them an extra "assignment" of figuring out what factions their parents would be in and what they think they'd end up in. I'm so excited to hear their responses! 

4. Is there anything more peaceful than a sleeping kitty?

How was your week? Have a great weekend and have a happy Mother's Day!

"Luck Fupus" Bear

Sorry for no posts this week friends. I usually write up my posts Sunday but this past weekend I spent some time with my nephews at the zoo instead so I decided to take a small blog vacation. What I do want to share with you is a bear that I'm currently auctioning off on my quilts page for a good cause.

Many of you know MJ from Luck Fupus. She's an incredible person who has been dealt a really crappy hand when it comes to health. The thing I love most about her is her resilience. With each new heath issue that arises she approaches it ready to fight. I've never met anyone as strong as her.

Anyway, inspired by her fight with lupus, I decided to create a bear to auction off. All proceeds for this bear will be donated by the winning bidder to the lupus foundation of their choice. Please head over to my Quilts by Nicole Facebook page to check it out. Even if you don't want to bid, just sharing the status is helping a greater cause. MJ has aptly named it the Luck Fupus bear, which I love!

As promised, here is the newest bear that I am auctioning off to a great cause. I'm hoping we can beat October's auction...

Posted by Quilts by Nicole on Monday, May 4, 2015

Thanks for checking this out, and I'll see you Friday with an end of the week roundup!

End of the Week Roundup

Another Friday is upon us! Whoo hoo for the weekend! Here's the roundup for the week (which is only four things, because it's been a bit of a slow week, thankfully):

1.  Friday I stopped at my nearby fabric store and picked up a ton of fabric for a few quilts that I'm making. One of my favorite things about being done school is having more time to sew. 

2. Sunday I met up with my friend Melissa and we decorated some wine glasses. This was literally one of the easiest crafting projects I've ever done. All you do is dot some nail polish on a cup! 

3. Monday night I met up with my other friend Rebecca and made wreaths. I thought it was going to be harder than it actually was, so another easy crafting project all done! No picture though, whomp whomp.

4. Dave is my quilting helper. He helps me with patterns to make sure it's all mixed up and holds up my quilts for all my pictures. Squishee is Dave's "helper", nothing more needs to be said, haha.