The TBR Double Dare 2012

Completed!! I read 16 books between January 1-April 1.

I've been perusing 2012 Book Challenges on A Novel Challenge and came across this one.

I'm going to commit to reading 15 books from my TBR piles from January 1st through April 1st.

Wish me luck!
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Progress:
1. Sinister Sprinkles by Jessica Beck (Donut Shop #3) finished 1/9/12
2. Buzz Off by Hannah Reed (Queen Bee #1) finished
3. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close finished 1/31/12
4. A Sheetcake Named Desire by Jacklyn Brady finished 2/1/12
5. Killer Crab Cakes by Livia Washburn finished 2/10/12
6. Escape by Barbara Delinksy finished 2/18/12
7. Evil Eclairs by Jessica Beck (Donut Shop #4) finished 2/24/12
8. Deep Down True by Juliette Fay finished 2/25/12
9. Silver Girl by Elin Hildebrand finished 3/1/12
10. Tuscan Holiday by Holly Chamberlain finished 3/7/12
11. Tragic Toppings by Jessica Beck finished 3/11/12
12. The Pumpkin Muffin Murder by Livia Washburn finished 3/16/12
13. Fruit of All Evil by Paige Shelton finished 3/19/12
14. Killer Crullers by Jessica Beck finished 3/23/12
15. Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett finished 3/25/12
16. The Gingerbread Bump-Off by Livia Washburn finished 3/27/12

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I have decided to combine my book blog with my crafty blog...one place for me to post makes my life much easier! 

It's been awhile since I've participated in Sheila's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? weekly book meme.

This week I'm reading another book in the Stone Barrington series ~

Stone Barrington and Holly Barker pursue a master spy and murderer in a tropical paradise where very little is as it seems. 

Teddy Fay, a rogue agent last seen escaping an imploding building in Iron Orchid, has been considered dead for some time now. But President Will Lee thinks Teddy may still be alive. In a top-secret Oval Office meeting, Stone learns that he and his cohorts, Holly Barker and Dino Baldachetti, are being sent to the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Marks, courtesy of the CIA, to track down Teddy once and for all. 

St. Marks is a vacationer's paradise, but its luxurious beach clubs and secluded mountain villas are home to corrupt local politicians and more than a few American ex-pats with murky personal histories. Stone and Holly soon discover that in St. Marks, everyone is hiding something, and Teddy Fay may just be hiding in plain sight.

and on my Kindle I'm reading the 3rd book in the Books by the Bay series~

Olivia Limoges and the Bayside Book Writers are excited about Oyster Bay's newest resident: bestselling novelist Nick Plumley, who's come to work on his next book. But when Olivia stops by Plumley's rental she finds that he's been strangled to death. Her instincts tell her that something from the past came back to haunt him, but she never expects that the investigation could spell doom for one of her dearest friends...

Let's see if I can finish both this week!  The first book is due back at the library on Thursday!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree..

I saw the Christmas Tree edition of Craft-O-Maniac Monday Link Up Party and decided to join in!

We put up our trees on Thursday night and spent Friday night decorating them. Yes, them! We have two trees up this year, like we did during our first Christmas here a few years ago.  Someday I'd like to have one in every room LOL, yes my husband thinks I'm a little crazy :)

This is the tree in our living room. It's a 6.5 prelit tree...a little small for my tastes but it does fit the room well.  It's filled with a lot of my mom's Avon ornaments. She gave them to me when I moved since she knows how much I love them <3  I also added some miscellaneous fun ornaments and some Disney ornaments that I've collected over the years.

The Santa is a new addition this year. I was at JCPenney's yesterday and couldn't resist him! He's adorable and it was a fab deal! The tree skirt is one that my mom made me for our first Christmas here. It sparkles and I love it :)

  The glow of the lights!

 My favorite ornament purchase this year! 

This tree is a new theme for me. I fell in love with some rustic ornaments at Kohl's a few weeks ago and decided that would be the theme for this tree. I got picked up other ornaments at Michaels and Target. The straw ones are from IKEA (a few years ago).

 We didn't have any white lights so I picked these up at Target yesterday. 

Of course I had to throw in a cute picture of our pup! Mike was trying to take pics of me decorating and she decided she had to be in one :) I will have to frame this one for sure!

Thanks for looking!

Paper Makeup Stamps Winter Wonderland Hop!

Good morning!

If you're here from Tina's blog (isn't her door hanger cute!), you're in the right spot! If you just happened to stop by, well hello there...if you'd like to see all the wintry wonders created by the PMS team, please start the hop at the Paper Makeup Stamps blog {HERE}. Don't forget that PMS still has their rubber stamp closeout sale going on - use the code CLOSEOUT45 to get 45% off of your rubber stamp order!

For this hop, I decided to use the adorable Pete who was just itching to be inked up and colored! Seeing as I've not colored in weeks, I think he turned out pretty good :)  I used my Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather paper, love the soft colors of them!

Your next stop on the hop is Anita, just wait til you see what she made with Nole!

Challenges entered:

Cards and More - Snowflakes

Crafty Sentiments -  Snowflakes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Hooked on Crafts - Winter Wonderland

Here is the full hop list, in case you get lost along the way:

Picadilly birthday card

It's Sunday and even though Birthday Sundaes doesn't have any more challenges this year, I still have a birthday card to share!

Today is my mom's birthday and I broke out my new Basic Grey Picadilly paper and embellishments that I picked up at the LSS a few weeks ago.

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches - perfect for the fun flowers! Some of the flowers in the package and fabric and the camera really picked up the texture in them.  The sentiment is from the Birthday Cheer set from Paper Makeup Stamps (which is already sold out - bummer!) - have you shopped their rubber closeout sale yet? If not, check out the details HERE!

Thanks for looking!

Don't faint...I crafted!

My crafty mojo has been zilch...zero...nada lately.  Lots of things swirling around in my head and it's really affected my craftiness. Trying to get myself out of this slump!

Today is my stepdad's birthday and I knew if I handed him a store bought card, he would have been really disappointed. So while dinner was cooking, I pulled out a card kit that I got from Taylored Expressions last year.  The paper is from the Imaginisce Birthday Bash line.

I cut the presents and banner from some of the dp included in the kit and layered it on another piece of dp and voila - a card is complete!

I am entering these challenges:
Birthday Sundaes #37 - Birthday card w/birthday wording/sentiment - my own challenge since I've been very absent :/
4 Crafty Chicks #66 - Birthday
Fab 'n' Funky Challenges #101 - Anything Goes
Cooking It Up with Katie #86 - Anything Goes

TFL!