Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first Temperance Brennan book I've read, and I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be going back and reading the others in the series. I think it's probably good I have never really watched the "Bones" series as I hear it is not at all like the books, and I know if I had watched the show regularly I would be comparing the two. The only complaint I had is that at the beginning of the book- the bit of history about Evangeline and Tempe's friendship, while necessary, seemed to drag on a bit and I was anxious to get to the present day part of the story.




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What to do..?

I just joined a Sampler Girl Jane Austen SAL- I guess I should've checked my supplies first cause I don't have any fabric large enough for most of my SG patterns- I did find one that would work but I'd have to stitch it all over one, and it's a fairly large piece..the fabric is 30 count. I've done small pieces over one, but never a large one.. hmmmm...

Not much new going on here-my friends and I are going to a Premier Designs hostess appreciation brunch tomorrow- should be fun!  Mom's morning out! :)

Here is a pretty picture I took this evening- I know- I can't resist a good sunset! lol

A stitchy giveaway!

Jan at Belfonte Notes is having a blogaversary giveaway! Click here for details! Happy stitching! Will post again soon. :)

Almost forgot!

I told you I would post my little giftie for my mom when she received it.. well she got it last week, so here it is. I stitched it up last year, and Rob sewed it up for me the other day. 

I don't remember the designer on this one- I think it's from an old Leisure Arts leaflet- one of those ones that has all different sayings in it. Stitched with DMC on linen. Sorry the photo is a little blurry!

I haven't gotten any stitching done tonight, but did get a little done at lunch. I have a late zumba class on Monday nights, and tonight I hung around and talked with friends so I got home late. I'm not sure which WIP I'm going to work on now.. maybe put a couple in a rotation.  I am WAY behind on my Stitcher's Alphabet!

Hedgehogs finished!

Well, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do this weekend, pumpkin bread is not made.. did not finish the ornament I wanted to finish.. but I got the hedgehogs done! Anyone interested in this freebie can find it here. Lots of other great free patterns too!

Also saw something kind of cool on the way home from picking Hanna up from a friend's- a rainbow -or a piece of one- with no rain! No rain at all today! There was another piece of it too, presumably the other end, but we didn't get a picture of that one. Hanna took this one.

See it? :)

Second hedgehog finished!

Hoping to finish this one up this weekend. Then on to the bigger projects and maybe a rotation.

Here are some pretty clouds I saw today-

But for a really beautiful sunset head over to my 365-day blog !

To my readers that signed up for swagbucks- tomorrow is "mega swagbucks day" where most bucks you get for searching will be 11 or higher- so give it a shot! And I'm not just saying it cause I will get matching bucks. ;) Just search from the swagbucks homepage, or search.swagbucks.com.  It really does pay off, I just posted my 3rd amazon gift card this month! Gonna buy goodies for my new Keurig. :)

Not much news, it's been a slow week at work..I did go to a ladies' dinner/potluck at church on Tuesday night.  We had quite a spread! Roast, potatoes, carrots, green been casserole, cinnamon apples, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, and lots more.. we had a really nice time!

I picked up my Jan/Feb issue of Just Cross Stitch today- I was so relieved to get it because after I saw the designs by Plum Street Samplers and Praiseworthy Stitches I had to have it.  The sampler by Carol Emmer is lovely too, as well as some of the other designs! Now I just have to finish up some WIP so I can start something new. :)

Well, I guess I better head to bed.. I've been staying up too late lately and am starting to feel it!

Finally, a stitchy photo! :)

Here is the latest progress on my hedgehog freebie. I finally have one whole hedgehog! :)

This weekend was fairly uneventful.. Hanna had a friend stay over last night- yesterday did some running around, but nothing out of the norm.  We did stop by the library to drop off some movies we'd checked out, and I saw this beautiful tree in a nearby parking lot, and silly me forgot I had my camera in my purse.  So today when I took David back to the library, (unfortunately it had closed already), but I did get a picture of this beautiful tree, and some of it's berries that had fallen.  For a close up of some of the tree, click on my photo-a-day blog button on the right. :)

I did also complete a project this weekend, something I had stitched for my mom last year and forgot about. (hangs head in shame) But with the help of my husband and his sewing skills(so unfair he is so good at it and I am not), it got finished. So as soon as I know she has received it, I'll share it here! :)

A new blog and some snow pics

Can you believe it? Not only posting two days in a row, but two posts in one day!!! Thank you to those of you who signed up for swagbucks under my link. I forgot to mention if you get people to sign up under you, you get matching swagbucks for all they get for searching, up to 1000 swagbucks. It helps out alot!

But enough of that, I know some of you don't give a hoot about it! :)
My new photo-a-day blog is up - Here is the link: How Do You Measure a Year in the Life? I hope you will enjoy at least some of the photos I post throughout the coming year. :)

Speaking of photos, here are some of our Christmas/day after Christmas snow. It was beautiful, even if it did cause our power to be out for about 10 hours! :-O

Hope to have some stitchy pictures for you soon!

And now a break from our regularly scheduled programming..

LOL! I hope I don't bother too many with this post- just wanted to share about something I started doing in the last few months and thought I'd share, in case it could help you too! :)  Some of you may have noticed my Swagbucks banner in the sidebar. I don't even remember how I found out about swagbucks, possibly a couponing blog or something.. anyway. Swagbucks is completely free, easy, and fun way to get something for nothing. Really! Swagbucks gives you virtual dollars for searching the web with their search engine(no download required), taking surveys, watching videos(even cooking videos with the likes of Paula Deen!) and playing games, among other things!! Swagbucks helped me pay for several of my Christmas presents this year, as they can be redeemed for gift cards to Amazon, Sephora, Starbucks, Itunes, and more, even pay pal cash.  The most recent way is the games.  You can play for free and earn a some random swagbucks, or spend a few swagbucks to enter tournaments to win larger amounts.  There is only one swagbucks account allowed per household, so if you don't like to play games, your kids could play them for you! :) And you reap the swagbucks.  To sign up for swagbucks (you get some instant swagbucks just for signing up, and extra if you enter the code in the next line!) click here- this is the sign up without the games.  To sign up with the game link click here- Free Games. Use the code SBGames to get your additional swagbucks. :) (to enter your code, go to the swagbucks home page, enter the code in the empty box under your info in the top right hand corner, and click "Gimme.") The code is good only til 11:59 pm PST so hurry!   And again,no downloads are required, and swagbucks will not spam you!  Hope this benefits you like it has me! OH, and one more thing- swagbucks now has a coupon section- printable coupons you can use, and once redeemed will earn you swagbucks. Read more at the site, or if you have any questions feel free to email me!  And now back to your regularly scheduled program.. ;)  Happy swagging!

Will blog more later today- have some snow pictures, etc!

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I am a couple weeks late.. sorry!  You know how it goes around the holidays..we had a very nice Christmas. Rob's mom came to visit from Christmas Day to New Year's Day, it was so much fun having her here! And we got a little spoiled, as she brought many baked goodies with her! I didn't get many good Christmas pics of the kids this year- Hanna was sitting beside me so it was kind of hard to get pics of her, but I did get this great one of David opening his Criss Angel magic kit- he wanted one sooooo bad(and so did Dad!)

and a picture of our tree of course-

One of the things I don't like about our pre-lit fiber optic tree is it just doesn't "glow" like a tree with traditional lights. It was prettier than this- the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Ah, here's one of Hanna- looks like she wanted her picture taken huh? hee hee..

And here is a pic of the kids and I with my mother-in-law- Rob doesn't like getting his picture taken.

And David took a ride back to the parking lot on the luggage cart-

Mom's plane left pretty early- we saw a nice sunrise on the way home!

On the stitching side of things- I have finished something this year, but I can't show you yet! It's a gift for a friend and I haven't sent it yet.  But here is something to hold you over in the meantime.  I have had this stitched for my MIL for a while, but finally made it into a flatfold so I could give it to her for Christmas. She always likes going to the ocean when she's here.  Thank you Vonna for your great tutorials!!

And lastly, I was reading Paulette at Plum Street Samplers blog today, and she is doing something and I have been thinking about doing it too.  It's a 365 day blog.  Basically you post a picture a day, I'm assuming one you have taken that day.  Since I love taking pictures I think I may give it a go, though by looking at hers I know already my picture-taking skills lack in comparison! I will post a link here when I get it set up.

Busy busy busy!

I know, I'm not doing so well at keeping my word, about blogging more often! I'm sorry! I haven't forgotten, it's just been a crazy month.  Rob was on a business trip to WI for a week, so I was on my own with the kids. I am so thankful for a great boss, who let me go get Hanna every day so I wouldn't have to pay the day care to keep her! The kids both had things at school that week too- Hanna had a chorus concert, and David was in a pirate play.
My stitching has been slim to none- I need to get my stitching mojo back! I did however assemble some ornaments to give the kids' teachers- their last day of school before Christmas break is tomorrow. We had an 'ice' day today- not much snow, just ice and sleet, so school was called off. So I got to stay home most of the day with the kids, and it was a blessing because I would have been up late tonight doing those ornaments otherwise! I shouldn't have waited til the last minute. I will confess that none of these were stitched recently- just assembled recently. :)

I am also a bit embarrassed about the wrinkledness( that a word?) of this last one, granted the light does highlight them a bit, but I ironed and ironed this.. I thought I had gotten them out, or at least pulled it tight enough to smooth them a bit, but I guess not. :( Well at least it doesn't look this bad in real life. I was just trying to remember the designs of all of these- the first Santa was from an older magazine or leaflet I think- not sure of the second designer either. :( The third is Homespun Elegance I believe and the last one is Lizzie Kate I think. :)
I am nowhere near ready for Christmas- have almost all my shopping to do yet-but I am trying not to stress out! I will post a picture of the Christmas tree soon. Oh and I almost forgot-every year our town has a 'town lighting' night.. I don't think I have posted any pics from this yet. I want to get some better ones of downtown when it's not so crowded because it really is pretty. But here are some for now.

The snow is not real, it's a snow machine! :)

my 99 cent sale on ebay and other stuff!

Long time no blog again, I am sorry.  Seems life keeps getting in the way.. that and I need to limit my time on other computer related things(facebook!) and put aside some time to read blogs and update my own. Today I listed (and re-listed) some old leaflets and magazines on ebay- a few Christmas Cross Country Stitching mags, some old Precious Moments books, and a few other things.. all starting bids at 99 cents or less.  I am going to list some more too but right now I need to take a break.  It takes a while to list things! Plus I have to get ready for zumba class soon. Oh - my ebay ID is hannasmom1198, if you're interested. ;-)

Last weekend my parents came to visit- we had a great time as always, but kept very busy as always. Mom and Dad were here all day Monday for a change- usually they leave on Monday- so I took them to Waynesborough Village, where I took the kids a couple of weeks ago- and got a few more snaps.

This is Kitty Boo-one of the resident cats- she followed us (or sometimes led us) from house to house.

Stitching progress has been slow-I need to buckle down and get some things finished. I may put projects for myself aside and get some Christmas ornaments/cards/gifts done.

Here is the Christmas ornament I've been working on-

and here is the hedgehog freebie- don't think I will have it done for this fall. lol

Thanks for your patience with me! I will try to post more soon. If I don't post before then- have a Happy Thanksgiving!

H is finished!

and H is for Happy Birthday and Hanna too! My dd will be 12 tomorrow! We had her party this weekend so she could have a sleepover.

A good time was had by all! Here is one of the two of us- your kid is never too old to sit on your lap, right?

Not the best picture of me but oh well.. :)

And last but not least, here is H!

Took me long enough, huh?  Now on to I! I will get it kitted up soon. :)

Look what I finished on my birthday!

Sorry for the crappy pic- now I am going to start a couple of new things- I need to start working on Christmas gifts, and also am going to work on a little hedgehog fall freebie.. more to come...

Progress on H, pretty clouds, etc..

Thought I'd post a little bit this evening.. I have been working hard on "H" the past couple of days so I thought I would share my progress.  This had been on the back burner for a little while so I thought I should get back on the ball.

Sorry it's a little blurry, I took three and they all looked the same. My auto-focus was not working so well this evening!

We had a cloudy day most of the day today-rain and storms off and on-and I saw the neatest clouds this morning- they looked almost painted. I tried to get some good shots- it was hard with all the power lines though.

You  may have to enlarge them to get the full effect-especially on the first one.

I had a nice weekend- didn't get much done in the way of stitching but took the kids and Hanna's friend to a local historical village.  We've lived here for years but have never been there. It's free and it was actually a nice little park.  It's made up of old homes, offices, and schools that have been re-located from different places in  the county. Here are a couple of snaps-

And the kids had fun clowning around in front of the old outhouse-

And just a few more- it was such beautiful weather that day!

Sorry this one's not so good, was hurrying to catch up with the kids! This is an old doctor's office.

Thought the view of the trail was pretty too. :) Well, that's about it for now.. I am close to finishing "Wishing Waiting Hoping", so hopefully I will have a finish to show you soon!