It's the most wonderful tiiiime of the year!

Hey y'all I'm home! Keegan and I got in late Friday night, 11 and a half hours of driving, didn't hit a lot of traffic, ate a lot of snacks, not bad all around. 

I read two books last week:

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier is a YA book about a young woman who is thrown in prison (time period unknown, but they ride horses so... Medieval?) and gets offered a deal that she can escape if she spends the next 7 years helping anyone who asks for help instead of seeking revenge on the guy who got her thrown in jail. There's some royalty, some magic, some forests involved. The book was a nice diversion from worrying about Christmas presents or lack there of! 

I then read Trapeze by Simon Mawer which I loved and I reccomend to all. It's a fictionalized story of the real women in WWII who were sent undercover into Nazi occupied France to help with the Resistance.  I love reading and learning about the world wars, so this novel was right up my alley. 

Not a book but still awesome, Serial, a spin-off of The American Life by NPR, just ended. It's a podcast, so only online, but you can download them to your device or comp through iTunes or listen online at serialpodcast.org/

A reporter reexamines a 15 year old murder case of a teenager girl in Baltimore. Her ex-boyfriend is currently serving life. The story is compelling and exciting and really made me think about the criminal justice system in America. 

In other news, I crafted so much this week!

I painted a moon phases design onto the back of a over shirt I bought at Salvation Army last month:

First I cut out some templates and chose my colors of fabric paint. I used an old cereal box for the cardboard, draw a circle using a bowl, and then decided how many moon phases I wanted to do. Tulip is my favorite brand of fabric paint.

one week to go!

Hello all!
It's been a hectic two weeks, I worked almost 50 hours last week (thank you pregnant co-worker for the extra hours) and then got hit with a massive cold.

I have read a couple of great books while in bed the past few days:
The Circle by Dave Eggers (Keegan's literary crush) was really interesting, but I hated all the characters. The novel is about our society when social media takes over and how it affects our rights to privacy, opinion, etc. Very pop-psychology, a sort of end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel without the zombies. Not Egger's best work, but entertaining non the less.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, another amazing book produced by my favorite author. I highly recommend this to everyone. The main character, Shadow, a man just released from prison, gets hired by Mr. Wednesday to be a glorified errand boy - driving him around, picking up and delivering packages, etc. Shadow comes to understand that everyone he is meeting and working for are gods (stay with me here) that were brought over by immigrants or explorers hundreds of years ago. It sounds kind of lame, but it so so interesting. They don't have magical powers, they're just ordinary men and women who used to have thousands of worshippers, trying to stay alive in a world of car-gods, and internet-gods. So fascinating. I read the 10th anniversary edition which is the extended manuscript but I am sure the regular edition is great too! Really read anything by Gaiman, he's a miracle.

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winters was recommended to me by my lovely mother. Each chapter is a different story but the story-line repeats itself in different settings - pirates, space explorers, a woman living in NYC. The stories examine our relationships with nature, with technology, and what defines us as humans. Similar to Cloud Atlas, which I have seen the movie version of but not read yet. I also recommend this book highly!

Isn't this picture amazing?! My friend shared it online, so I am not sure where it came from, but I love it so much.

rabbit rabbit, happy December!!

December already!?!?

I just posted yesterday BUT I also read a book yesterday that my dad is currently reading, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I loved this book, I am fascinated by psychological thrillers, and I like being scared while reading but then as soon as I put the book down now being scared anymore because the story is so different than your life. The novel alternates every chapter following two threads: the murder of a mother and two daughters in the 1980s and the events leading up to their deaths, and then the story line in present day of the daughter who survived. The main character is unlikable but also I recognize a lot of her very real traits in myself and other people I live with. My favorite part of this book is the historical look at what was happening in the late 1900s, the decline of the farmer, the growth of big business, the Satanic cult worship hysteria, even thinking about therapy methods and how leading and harmful they were. I listened to an NPR interview with Flynn a while back and the interviewer said, "So…what HAPPENED to you?" and she laughed, saying she gets that question all the time, but that there was no trauma in her past, no dark secrets, she really enjoys looking at the physiologically twisted sides of life that often go ignored and unexamined. In her "thank yous" at the end of Dark Places she thanks her husband saying something like, "you know how my mind works and yet you still sleep next to me every night with the light off." haha!!

Well it is 71 degree here, I am wearing shorts, i hope everyone enjoys the last burst of warmth before the winter really sets in!

little abbs last year enjoying the snow

xoxo

Jiggity jig

"Home again home again jiggity jig"

I said this as we were pulling out of the train station last night after our twelve hour train ride back to VA and Keegan almost cried laughin.  Um hello, mother goose rhyme, I am not insane. 

I had a great week home for the holiday! Things are going by so fast, I'll be home again in less than three weeks for three weeks!

I read a lot of books while I was home (24 total hours on a train will do that). 

The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price was a cool science fiction novel about a group of people chosen to survive the end of the world by being moved into another world just like ours except they never entered WWI, so things are similar in essence but totally different in practice. Very cool, love a fun scifi book once in a while.

I finished up Allison Leotta's DC crime mysteries: Discretion and Speak of the Devil, both very interesting diversions about the workings of the sex crimes and homicide divisions of the DC police. 

I also read The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker and The Maze Runner by James Dashner; the stories were fine and exciting, neither was as great as I was hoping but what can you do. The first is about Nora who gets lost in another world, filled with magic DUH, and she has to learn to survive while being hunted by her ex-husband who tricked Nora into marrying him. The other book is about a boy who is delivered to the Glade to live with a pile of other boys and they try to escape this creepy maze they are stuck in. 

My week in photos:

NYC from the train!

california stars

Hey y'all! It is pouring rain and 40 degrees here so I had fun looking through my pictures of sunny California. Wunderground says it's supposed to get up to 73 in San Diego today, enjoy it for me guys.

I haven't been posting a lot of Food News lately because Keegan and I eat the same three meals every night: vegetable stir fry with dumplings, vegetable stir fry with sausage, or pasta and sauce. I tried to branch out the other night with this delicious meal:

(http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spaghetti-squash-cacio-e-pepe) which was great except Keegan apparently doesn't like squash so I ate all four servings myself. We bought some ground turkey so maybe we'll make burgers or spice up a tomato sauce this week, but we're headed home on Saturday so i just have to hold out for my mom's cooking :))))

I read a book yesterday, Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen by Garth Nix, and it was awesome. This is a prequel/ companion novel to the Old Kingdom series that Garth Nix wrote in the 90s-early 2000s which I devoured as a teenager. This newest book was not as great as the others, but the writing was solid and it was fun to explore a different character, one who turns out to be a villain in much later years. The books take place in a world where there is Charter Magic which can be used and controlled with proper training, and Free Magic, which can be used but also may end up using you. The Abhorsens are a family that keep magic in check as well as take down zombies etc that come to eat people. The descriptions in the early books are so well done, there are these people who live in a glacier, and there are awesome waterfalls, it's hard to explain but I recommend them to anyone who wants a fun, exciting, non-thinking book.

Here are some photos from California! I didn't take as many as I thought, I need to get more in the habit of using my camera. You should be able to pull them off the website but I can email anyone from the fam more photos if you want!

mom and Charlie having some snacks, her favorite is the yogurt, less into the sweet potato puree

the flowers here, AMAZING! Mom and I were constantly marveling over them/ deciding what we would plant if we lived in warmer climates

We took a trip downtown to the Mission Beach boardwalk. The adults went on the roller coaster (you can see it in the background) which is called the Giant Dipper. It's a wooden roller coaster built in 1925 and is now recognized as a National Historical Landmark. Charlie and I hung out by the ferris wheel and people watched.

Mom, Cathy, and Bonnie! Three Musketeers! 

Jess and Charlie having a snack

There were hummingbirds everywhere! This is one I caught sipping at a Bird of paradise flower while at lunch.

This is a little guy who hangs out in my grandfather's back yard and likes to sit in this tree. I saw (I think it was the same one) hime every day!

a little blast from the past of baby Grace and grandpa Darcy

Mom and I took an early morning walk through Torrey Pines! Our favorite.

Picture for mom: there's the rosemary

A day at the racetrack!!

go horses go!!!! Mom was the big betting winner and quit while she was ahead, always a good choice.

Went for a walk in downtown La Jolla, there are seals all over the rocks. This is a little baby quietly napping with it's mom but then some jerks snuck up and PET THE BABY SEAL! What idiots, I really though the seals would attack but instead they just got really scared and ran away from the people. Those two are lucky it wasn't a male seal or a sea lion right there because I think they could have gotten really hurt. Never touch wild animals. idiots.

some banksy-esqe wall art

the architecture is so different here! I do not like this house

But I love this one!! The colors!

daddy and baby

happy birthday vince!!!

whoooo! I miss everyone!

xo

Home again home again

Edit: I wrote this a few days ago on my phone and assumed it had uploaded but I just figured out that it didn't. So today is a two-for-one deal!

I got back last night from California and I am exhausted! (And boy are my wings tired!) I had a great time seeing my mom and my west coast family, I ate and read a lot on this mini vacation. After I sleep a lot more and find my camera memory card reader I will put up more photos but here are a few!!

Pacific Beach in downtown La Jolla

Mom and Charlie don't totally get where to look in the photo booth

I love the differences in architecture! So many beautiful colors and textures, makes the east seem so drab. 

Missing the 80 degree sunshine already..

Xoxo

books books books

I still can't find my memory card reader (time to clean my dresser off …) so pictures from California are still on hold. However, I have read 4 books this week and as the weather is getting chillier, you might be looking for something good to cozy up with!

I read The Night Circus by Eric Morgenstern on the way to California. It was so well written that I didn't even mind that Keegan had to drop me off five hours before my flight so that he could get to class on time! The story is about a young man and a young woman who are taught magic using separate ideologies and then bound to fight to the death against their will by their teachers. That storyline however is pushed into the background by the setting of their fight. They inhabit a magical circus that travels around the world and the imagery is just so beautiful and fascinating that you really forget what the book is about. The circus is made up of different tents that spectators can wander through at will; you have the usual acrobats and contortionists and trained kittens, but also tents that are made up of cloud mazes and wishing trees. I've been craving caramel apples ever since I finished!!

(isn't the cover art beautiful?)

The next book I started on the flight and finished while hanging around Darcy's waiting for everyone else to get up. This book is actually our December book club book so I had high hopes. I was sorely disappointed. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani takes place in a small town in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. I guess maybe my reading was colored by The Goldfinch, which was really heavy, and the Night Circus, which was fantastic, but I just felt dumber reading this book. It would have been better suited to reading at the beach or something, pure fluff. The main character's mother has just died, and then these men are fighting over her, and she's finding mystery family from Italy; it was all just blah. I wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't for book club. And they just made this book into a movie for the Virginia Film Festival! I wonder if it was more interesting on screen…

the cover art, so girly (and not in a good way)

a photo from trip advisor from the real town of Big Stone Gap! Much more interesting than the fictional version.

On the flight back from San Diego to Boston I read Law of Attraction by Allison Leotta, a book the my friend Maria so generously sent me! I've got the two sequels waiting on my bookshelf as well :) This novel was also fluff, but at least it had some murder mystery and excitement. The author was a sexual assault lawyer in D.C. for twelve years before she started writing, so the characters have a genuine feel to them. The main woman is Anna Curtis, a new lawyer on the D.C. scene who gets swept up into a domestic abuse case that turns into a hunt for a murderer. But is everything as it seems?? dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. It was fast to read and I gave it to my mom when I was done! I am looking forward to reading the next two.

The final book I read yesterday and it was amazing and I have been waiting for years for it to come out: The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman. It's the third in the Magicians series, which is so great and well written. The series follows a group of friends from their high school years into adulthood. They all meet when they are selected to go to magic school (hello Hogwarts but with a lot of drinking and sleeping around and getting expelled). Basically Harry Potter for adults. This is another book where the descriptions are so well done that you forget what they are talking about sometimes. I really like that people die in this book too (not as weird as it sounds) because it feels more real. There isn't always a happy ending. My favorite part of there series are the magic libraries (similar idea to Night Circus). There are rooms that contain all the books people meant to write but never got around to. And then there's a garden where flowers bloom and fade as feelings are felt and then pass. Such awesome ideas! 

I'm now starting another book that I've been waiting for for years, I'll probably read it all today (seeing as Keegan is still asleep and I am bored). Hopefully the memory card reader turns up soon!! 

Also, I will be home in a WEEK FROM TODAY! Whoooo! As much as I love love love living in Virginia, I really miss my dog and can't wait to run her around on Chappy Beach. Oh also see my family.

xoxoxo

The Goldfinch

I just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tart. It took me almost 4 weeks exactly to  read- it's our November book club book. I am not sure how I feel about it, I have no sense of what the author intended for me to get out of the story. The novel stars with a young man in a drug daze freaking out in an Amsterdam hotel room (700 pages later you finally catch up with the intro). The book then goes back 10 years to when the boy, Theo and his mom and in a terrorist attack in a museam, she dies, and he pretty much accidentally steals an amazing piece of art- The Goldfich. The story follows his tossed around, neglected childhood afterwards, leading into a drug fueled adult life. Mainly I reall want to learn how to restore furniture now. Theo's life revolves around this question, "If your deepest self is singing and coaxing you straight toward the bonfire, is it better to turn away? ...Or... Is it better to throw yourself head first and laughing into the holy rage calling your name?" Page 761. Unclear if I recommend it.

Paper Wreath

The other day I made a paper wreath for our door because real ones are expensive. I used a cereal box for the supporting donut shape on the back and the inside of a trader joe's brown paper bag for the leaves.

here's a bad quality photo of my finished product!

here's the tutorial that inspired me: http://www.carolynshomework.com/2012/09/inkling-brown-bag-wreath-faux-bay-leaves.html

I did red/ brown leaves and green ones for a more festive, fall feeling. I used only one bag, and had a lot of leaves left over. I glued them to the cardboard donut, a step not included in the tutorial. My house feels cozier already!

Happy November! (And Halloween!)

I'm trying out the blogger app that I just downloaded, so hopefully this works out. Right now I am lying on a couch in Baltimore visiting my friend from high school Clea! She is working as an engineer here so I drove up for halloweekend!

My drive here was terrifying because I got lost and my phone was low on battery but finally I made it. I ended up taking a lot of country roads which was slower but so beautiful. 

For Halloween I was a garden, we went down town as a group and it was insane, there were thousands of people on the streets in amazing costumes. 

Today we went and looked at a house boat that Clea and her sister are thinking about renting.

So so cool, it's a finished boat, not like the floating shacks that are in woods hole. 

We also did brunch at Miss Shirley's (https://www.missshirleys.com) and it was AMAZING SO GOOD 

Clea got crab cakes eggs Benedict and I got a breakfast sandwich with eggs, cheddar, avacado, bacon, and friend green tomatos. And a side of grits!!

The weather is getting colder, it's time to break out the coats! Last week though there was a few amazing days, here's a shot from the 80 degrees.

Rabbit rabbit! Xoxo

Happy Homecoming!

Here's a little song to get the weekend started off, Keegan is really into it these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYlVzGUpT0k

Book Club was fun this week! We met at a place I had never been to called Feast! which is a dining section of Main Street Market (http://www.feastvirginia.com and http://marketstreetmarket.net)

I branched out on the suggestion of Nora who has been raving about her fig preserves and got a chicken, cheddar, and fig chutney panini with a side of tomato pesto soup. It was really good! We discussed the book we had read for October, Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan. The group was split over all. I think that this book hovers around the edge of the YA genre which turned some people off the novel. There were some great parts that we all agreed upon, like how the author uses metaphors literally - one character, when she is nagging or angry, has bees fly out of her mouth and attack the person she is yelling at. Someone read online that the author based this mean character off his grandmother and that he dreads the day his mother reads the book and says, "You were too kind to her!"

For November we are still doing The Goldfinch and for December we decided on Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. Apparently it takes place in Virginia and has been turned into a short film that will be playing at the Charlottesville Film Festival. I would go see it but I will be in California visiting my baby cousin!! (and everyone else out there).

I just finished this morning City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare which I do not recommend to anyone except possibly 15 year olds. Obviously I loved the book as it was 730 pages that I read in the past two days. This is the sixth, and final installment I think, of the Mortal Instruments Series. There's a lot of demon fighting and teenage sexual tension. There was a movie made of the first book, City of Bones, that was pretty good all in all!

I also read Lexicon by Max Barry this week. I thought this book was so cool and this one I do recommend! In the novel people are selected for special training based on their ability to persuade and resist persuasion. Called "poets" these agents learn not only how to persuade by being friendly, scary, etc. but by using the tiny sounds that words are made up of against others. There's a part where one main character is breaking down the word sounds that people with liberal political views respond to verus people with conservative views. SO FASCINATING. Although there are some unbelievable parts to the story, there are some really interesting ideas being tossed around that I think are applicable and important in today's society. At one point someone says something along the lines of, "people will resist a census, but give them an empty social media page and they will give you more information than you know what tot do with." 

I have not been up to much this week besides working a lot and figuring out my student loan repayment plans (NOOOOO)

Yesterday before work I did make this shirt though!

design was definitely copied from HowlingBird but I worked there for a year so I feel like it's acceptable. I'm super excited to wear it!

I have the next two days off work - going to do some grocery shopping today. It's Keegan's cousins 6th birthday tomorrow, so I think we are going to stop by her pool party for some cake :))

The coolest thing happened to me yesterday! I was walking to the library with my books in my MHC tote bag and a woman stopped me on the street, gave me a hug, and said she had graduated from Mount Holyoke in 2010! We exchanged phone numbers and are going to try to hang out soon, she's a grad student at UVA. I feel so lucky to be part of such a welcoming community of alums. As happy as I am to be away from Mount Holyoke, and for all the issues I had with the school, I really am glad I chose to go to college there. I think I like it better from a couple hundred miles away though!!

It's homecoming this weekend which means I will avoid driving through town at all costs. I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

xoxogoat

Madre!

Hey y'all!
I am still pushing my way through the Goldfinch, it's good but so so long. Also, I started a new TV show called Reign which is a totally non-accurate historical teen drama about Mary Queen of Scotts. It's done by the CW and is very dramatic and fun! Check it out on Netflix.

My mom visited this weekend!!! whoo whoo!

She got in Friday night where we ate at the Virginian (http://thevirginiancville.com), sitting outside to get fresh air after her long train ride. She got a crab cake sandwich, Keegan got a Rueben, and I got some delish mac and cheese made with cheddar and pepper jack. Keegan and I on Thursday tried out Boylan Heights (http://boylan-heights.com), described as a "gourmet burger bar". Jeeeeez was it good. I tried a turkey burger with lots of yummy toppings and fries :)

Saturday Mom and I went to the Farmer's Market where she found something fun to bring home:

a new yellow orchid!!

I showed her around the Downtown Mall, stopping for a while to listen to this awesome banjo player: Mike Collins Jr. (http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/mike-collins-jr-takes-his-one-man-banjo-act-to-city-sidewalks-worldwide/Content?oid=4932282)

Obviously I took her to Para for some iced tea, it was really hot this weekend!

Here's a photo of my co-worker Kevin doing some awesome art that I helped with. We were putting up a new "special" drink for the autumn season: the Pumpkin Head Latte. It's a latte with pumpkin and hazelnut syrups with some cinnamon!

After, Mom and I headed over to the Gordon St. Library for a free craft class:

metal stamping! We made some gifts and some art for ourselves, it was super cool but also my hands got so tired.

On Sunday we stopped at the Carter Mountain Orchard for the Apple Harvest Festival.

Keegan and I got a little pumpkin!! Whoo Whoo Halloween is coming!

All in all it was a very fun weekend with lots of relaxing. I got to do a lot of art:

some greeting cards

and some paper roses!!! they are super easy, I made them out of some pink paper bags. http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamellis/make-these-lovely-paper-roses-instead-of-buying-flowers-for#20c2xbj

I love them, they're going to be a part of my Halloween costume.

AAAAAAnd mom gave me a little hair cut! Looking cute, as always.

I've got book club tomorrow and am so excited!

xoxo