Mosaic Monday - Apparently I like this tree

This little aspen ends up in several of my photos unintentionally. It just happens to be at the perfect angle for sunlight from sunup to sundown so I find myself using it to frame a photo. I just didn't realize how often!

See the tree again in these photos:

Funny. :)

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

Totally Random Thursday

I have a new favorite guilty pleasure show - Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet. I've always loved the unexplained and mysterious and had a bit of a soft spot for sasquatch. This program blends actual interesting research with odd characters quite well and despite their overuse of the term "squatch" and that ANYTHING to them is "totally evidence of nearby squatches" I'm totally hooked.

Personally I've experienced plenty of unusual things in the woods - the clacking rocks that had an actual rhythm I heard. Was it a raven trying to open a nutshell or....?
There was also an incident at my home but I think that story might traumatize you gentle readers.

The typical "squatch" proof involves large footprints...

Okay this could totally be a person track...EXCEPT there's no shoe tread. Also note the weird marks at the top like claws or toenails. So it could be a bear, but isn't a bear's foot shaped differently?

And as evidenced below, the track isn't much larger than my brother's foot...

But it still seems odd to me.

If you want to read an interesting "realistic" Bigfoot book try Wild Life by Molly Gloss, but do keep in mind my warning about her stories here.

What about you? Do you believe in strange creatures and the unexplained?

I'm thinking about making Totally Random Thursday a weekly feature - sound like fun?

Mosaic Monday - pastels

Funny enough Mary's post this week is about winter pinks and that was my plan too! Soft blues, pinks and yellows covered in water and sometimes ice have made up my landscape this week. Last Monday was snow and I slid all the way to work, passing cars in the ditch while I went by at the breakneck speed of 35 mph. Then the rains came and Thursday night my way home became a serious issue as part of the road collapsed and I had to take a huge detour. But there is still a beauty and softness in this time of year that I will always love.

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

A bit of a pane

My mom was given this old farmhouse window and it was in pretty rough shape but perfect if you like the junque patina.

However, there was a bit more dirt on here than was really desired. I did do a bit of cleaning and I definitely cleaned the glass but I didn't want to do too much to this because I was pretty sure this was lead paint.

After giving it a mild cleaning I added two coats of oil-based varnish to keep the paint from continuing to flake off absolutely everywhere. It was an enormous pain of a pane to varnish because of all those strips between the pieces of glass. I felt like I was never going to be done.

It goes great above her fireplace....tv stand....mantel....whatever. She actually rested it on a couple of small pieces of that grippy stuff you buy in a roll and put in shelves. It doesn't slide and it solves the problem of, how do you hang something this big and heavy without ruining the window or ruining the wall?

I think it has great character and goes perfectly with her style.
Oh my gosh I just remembered she has a fireplace DVD - I totally should have put that on while I shot these photos! :)

Equine design

I recently read somewhere that equine inspired items are coming into style.

(Two of the horse photos are my relatives, one is a photo I bought at a shop.)

I should really jump on that.

(A thrift store print, a garage sale print and my mom's old button with her horse's name.)

Considering that has been "in style" for me since I was like five, I think I'm going to like this trend.

Mosaic Monday - I guess I kinda like the gloom

(click to enlarge)

For as many photos as I take of flowers and sunshine during the summer, I take just as many fog and raindrop photos during the winter. It could be because that's all I've got in winter, or it could be because I think those things are just as beautiful as my sunshine and summer flowers.

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

Books read in 2011

This year was different in books for a few different reasons. First of all, I joined Goodreads in June and I set a goal of reading 50 books for the year. When they have that little progress bar that tells you how you're doing it is ridiculously motivating. I actually went 4 books over my goal - woo! Secondly, I did a bunch of house-sitting and visiting and had tons of time to read. Thirdly I made this the year that I read a lot of books on my shelf that I just never seemed to get around to reading. I really wanted to clean up the shelves and pare down to books I really wanted to keep because I knew I'd read them again. Most of those books got donated to the library. Apparently I'd been hanging on to them for nothing.

I ended the year reading Melody Carlson's The Christmas Dog, which I initially thought was going to be The Christmas Bus because that is what the dust jacket told me I was reading. I was so confused, and then I thought it was hilarious.

My standout favorites this year - which were not many - were:

I also love the movie just as much as I love the book, despite their differences.

You know how there are aproximately a zillion Pride and Prejudice or Jane Austen spin-off books out there? I read quite a few of them this year. This one was probably my favorite.

I try to read a certain amount of classics a year, and really I blame the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde with all their classic literature characters and inside jokes. This year I didn't get to very many because the ones I seemed to choose were monsters or the kind you have to kind of slog through. This book was both - yet it was amazing!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this next book but it. was. hilarious. Over-the-top, but hilarious and I really enjoyed it. The rest of the series was a complete disappointment.

This book was a bit of a slog because of all the history that seemed slightly unrelated, but actually wasn't. Still, it totally made me want to become a mystery writer.

Some of the books I finally got around to reading off my shelves this year were 3 books by Molly Gloss. Loved them. However, there were seriously awkward and horrible intimate encounters in the first two. So awkward I almost wondered if she was trying to make the reader uncomfortable? Other than those brief and completely random scenes her books are awesome. The Hearts of Horses didn't have a scene like that but this book was awesome for many other reasons.

Last but not least of my favorites was Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson. I've read two of her Faery Rebels series and finally got my hands on a copy of this book. It was totally not what I was expecting and it was amazing.

I have a TON of books on my list to read for this year and am looking forward to getting to them. Did you read anything I should add to this year's list?

 

Books Read in 2011

• The Christmas Dog - Melody Carlson
• The Inheritence - Louisa May Alcott
• The Skin Map - Stephen R. Lawhead
• Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
• The Mark of the Golden Dragon - L.A. Meyer
• Holmes on the Range - Steve Hockensmith
• Ultraviolet - R.J. Anderson
• The Christmas Bride - Grace Livingston Hill
• The Hearts of Horses - Molly Gloss
• Letters From Yellowstone - Diane Smith
• Dark Canyon - Louis L'Amour
• Pirate King - Laurie R. King
• The Cherokee Trail - Louis L'Amour
• Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
• Wild Life - Molly Gloss
• The Jump-Off Creek - Molly Gloss
• Pattern of Wounds - J. Mark Bertrand (review)
• The Day the Falls Stood Still - Cathy Marie Buchanan
• Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew & The Women Who Created Her - Melanie Rehak
• Blameless - Gail Carriger
• Changeless - Gail Carriger
• Mr. Darcy's Secret - Jane Odiwe
• Soulless - Gail Carriger
• Charlotte Collins - Jennifer Becton
• Serendipity - Cathy Marie Hake
• Louis L'Amour His Life and Trails - Robert Phillips
• Something Like Regret - Kara Louise
• The Courteous Cad - Catherine Palmer
• The Sweetest Thing - Elizabeth Musser (review)
• Kingscote - Linda Chaikin
• Under Eastern Stars - Linda Chaikin
• Silk - Linda Chaikin
• The Peach Keeper - Sarah Addison Allen
• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
• Divine by Mistake - P.C. Cast
• The Knight and the Dove - Lori Wick
• Who Brings Forth the Wind - Lori Wick
• Middlemarch - George Eliot
• The Girl in the GateHouse - Julie Klassen (review)
• Promises to Keep - Ann Tatlock (review)
• The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe
• The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists - Gideon Defoe
• Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
• Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson (review)
• Sahara - Clive Cussler
• The Wake of the Lorelei Lee - L.A. Meyer
• Assumed Obligation - Kara Louise
• Forevermore - Cathy Marie Hake
• A Darcy Christmas - Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, Carolyn Eberhart