Very touching story of a girl and her nurse – or a slave and her charge. Horrible and wonderful at the same time. I’m sure that slaves were treated far worse than we read in this book, but even the ‘kinder’ treatment was motivated by the strange beliefs that slaves were somehow lesser people.

I enjoyed seeing the main character change her views even as she lived under the strict rules and ideals of her parents. The internal conflicts of both Mattie and ‘Lisbeth were well played out in their minds for us to experience as well. Great writing, wonderful story. I hope to see more from this author.

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Pretty much not worth the hours I spent listening to it in the car. It tried to be socially aware and sensitive on topics like child abuse and neglect, but it was just cliche to me. Your mom abandons you so you drink and do drugs and push people away. Oh, and you do well in school and get accepted to a good college and get a job in the middle of it all. Bleh.  This girl was two different people who really can’t exist in the same body.  Not worth the read to me.

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Not much of a review for this one. I LOVED The Luxe Series. This one, I can’t get into as much. I stopped being interested in the characters and the story for some reason. I could barely finish the last few chapters. It’s not a bad book, but it just wasn’t captivating. I’m sure I’ll pick up the third book to finish the series, but I hope the author goes back to story lines that suck you in like she did with The Luxe.

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I LOVED living in a big city in my twenties. Strolling Newbury street in Boston, taking weekend trips to New York City. I acquired an appreciation for food other than nachos and Hamburger Helper and I gained a love of diversity in people, art, architecture, etc. Overall, the things I took with me back to the small towns I’ve lived in since have been of value and worth.  

There is one teensy love I brought back that I’m trying to shake, though. The love of BRANDS. High end, expensive, fashionable brands.  I’ve been especially chained to high end hangbags and sunglasses and maybe shoes a little. Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Balenciaga, Chanel, Dooney, Gucci, Valentino, Perlina…the list goes on.  I am in their grip and I pay way too much for their company.  

I DO have a method of paying for them without dipping into the family budget and I often find them at thrift stores. BUT, I’ve been thinking about why I love them and why I buy them. I can tell myself it’s the quality of the bag and sometimes that would be a perfectly fine reason, but for the most part it’s just plain pride.  It’s a tag-along from big city life that I really don’t need in my Provo homemaker, charter school mom life.  In fact, when I see one mom carry a Louis Vuitton bag to meetings at school,  it feels so out of place that I want to grab her by the arm and suggest we hop a plane to NYC.

I only occasionally travel outside of Utah and certainly not enough to get proper use of 30 or more high end bags.  So I’m attempting to un-brand myself.  I’ll keep a couple of my favorites for those rare fashionable occasions, but the rest will have to go. I might even consider buying a NON NAME BRAND or two – or at least a nicer quality mall brand. (I KNOW!!)  I do realize that this is an experiment and it may not go well, but it’s worth a try.  I’m hoping for a feeling of being FREE from the chains of brandage. 

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Finished book 3 of 52 right on schedule. This was a fun and insightful book. I loved the accent of the narrator (on CD) and the language was pretty and lilting. The characters were complex and it made you want to learn more about them. This book reminded me of the Encyclopedia Brown series I read as a kid. Entertaining but you still learn a thing or two along the way. (I had no idea that snakes like to jump up under car engines! Creepy!) I’ll look out for a chance to read the next in the series, but I probably won’t go out of my way to reserve it or buy it. Fun but not a FAVE.

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I just got a cute new hairdo that takes more ‘product’ than the leave-in conditioner and elastic band I have been using lately. My flatiron, curling irons and hair dryer have been a tangled mess for lack of better storage. SO…I hacked (I use the term loosely) an ikea shoe cabinet t fit my needs. Eventually, my awesome neighbor will be commissioned to build a more permanent cabinet there, but until then..here’s my solution.

Ikea Shoe Cabinet – mostly matches the bathroom cabinets. Hair Dryer In the top drawer, plugged into the power strip below. Second drawer has the power strip attached with Command Strips Picture Hanging tabs. Because the drawers are plastic I got a bread pan for sub sandwiches and bent the sides around so it would fit in the drawer. The grooves provide the perfect channels for the irons. No worry of melting the plastic. The power strip lets me keep them plugged in all the time (they all have power switches).

The bottom drawer is super easy access of all my hair products. So far, this is working out great and it is giving me some fun design ideas for the ‘real thing’ that will come eventually.

I haven’t known exactly what I wanted, but this is close!!

And, in case you wondered…here’s the new ‘do.

It’s actually an old ‘do revisited, but it’s new again this year. 

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This book was not on my January Line-Up because I wasn’t going to count it. I read the first two chapters in November and left it through the holidays. But, instead of wasting the reading time finishing if it wasn’t going to count, I reread the first chapters and finished this week making it book 2 of 52 for the year.
Crossed is book 2 in the Matched series by Ally Condie. It’s a dystoipan young adult book, of which there are MANY. Not as many as the paranomal/supernaural genre, but close. Book 2 is the classic post-escape (from a controlling perfect society) survival phase. In my opinion this is not a trilogy, but a meaty book chopped into three pieces for easier digestion and to fatten the bellies of the publishers. The story takes place over a short period of time and covers travel from one place to another, including finding food, defending themselves against enemies, forging relationships with each other and eventually having to trust each other to get to the desired destination. The reader knows almost nothing more than they did at the end of Book 1. A morsel here and there, but certainly not enough for a stand-alone second book. The final book will have to be crammed with information to tie up all the loose ends this one left. It was slightly entertaining, briefly touching but mostly just getting from point a to point b on the way to c.

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I remembered these sayings from when I was 15 or so on a sign outside little white church in our tiny town. They stuck with me and they apply to what I’m working on right now so I put them in pretty boxes, in current meme fashion. Enjoy!

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