2013 in Review, part 2

Continuing from yesterday's first half of the year, here are my favourite cards and books from July-December. The months are linked to the original card posts here on my blog.

July
Books: Wife 22, Melanie Gideon; The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, Rhonda Riley; The House Girl, Tara Conklin

Well, July is a little harder for me to pick a favourite card, turns out. These ones are linked underneath each card:

Original post here

Original post here

Original post here

August
Books: Dead Ever After, Charlaine Harris (the very last Sookie...); Sisterland, Curtis Sittenfeld 

September
Books: The Last Word, Lisa Lutz 

October
Books: Let Me Go, Chelsea Cain; The Returned, Jason Mott
Another tough month for me to choose a favourite card!

Original post here

Original post here

Original post here

November
Books: Down & Out in Bugtussle, Stephanie MacAfee 

December
Books: The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion; Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh
I've linked to the Hyperbole blog, because if you haven't read THAT, you're missing out. And in book form? JUST AS ADDICTIVE. I am in love with Simple Dog, and Allie herself.

Next will be a round up of my favourite Christmas cards from this year - and then some new stuff!

xoxo,

Jessi

2013 Year in Review!

I've recovered enough from last night's festivities to realize that today would be a good day to share my favourites from 2013 with ya! Although I will say, the computer monitor is a little bit bright. lol. The last couple of years I've shared my favourite books of each month along with a card, so I'll keep with that tradition. Long post, be forewarned :) This year I read 193 books, and as Rob pointed out to me, my cell phone is taking up a lot of my reading time. I'll have to watch that in the new year (usually I read about 220+).

All the month links will take you to the original card posts.

January....
Books: Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese; Necromancing the Stone, Lish McBride

February

Books: Five Miles South of Peculiar, Angela Hunt

March

Books: Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (oh em gee, this book is INSANE) 

April

Books: The Gilly Salt Sisters, Tiffany Baker

May

Books: The 5 available Game of Thrones books....they're not my usual thing, and I don't really like the show, but I was determined to finish those suckers!

This card has incredibly special memories for me - you can see why in the original post. 

June

Books: Life after Life, Kate Atkinson; Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore, Robin Sloane

To be continued tomorrow...supper's ready :) Click here for part 2! 
Stephanie is again hosting a linky party for favourites - I love seeing what everyone else likes about their own work!
There's a linky at Catered Crop too :)

xoxo,

Jessi

2012 Favourites in Cards & Books

Before I begin, let me first direct you to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog, where we're introducing one of our new design team members - an incredibly talented person I've been lucky to be a follower of for a while now: Dawn!   Pop on over & say hello, and make sure to check out her stunning projects on her own blog, Paper Stamp Scissors. It's her first turn hosting the challenge, so I hope you can find some crafty time to play along this week :)

I'm sitting out this week because I still haven't been able to get to my desk. Once I finish the massive stack of dishes I plan to give it a shot - this is the first time I've had to sit out on participating in any of my design team posts, and it bites. I don't like the feeling of letting the teams down :( Sitting at the computer forces me to sit up straight - and I am a terrible crafty sloucher.

Anyway, last year I did individual posts for each month of favourites in books & cards, and this time around I think I will just keep it one big long massive post. I keep track of the books that I read with a spreadsheet (nerd...I know). I don't rate them or review them, just note which ones. Several years ago someone asked me how many books I read in a year, and the answer this year is 222. Most of  them are books I forget instantly on finishing - murder mysteries and procedurals - but I read for entertainment. Life is too short to be reading books I don't enjoy! The funny thing is - most of my favourite books? Not crime books at all.

January: (all the month links will be to each card's original post)

and for books:

Sinead Moriarty, Me and My Sisters (all the book links will be to synopses so that you can read a bit about the books!)

February:

books:

Joshilyn Jackson, a grown-up kind of pretty

Patricia Cornwell, Red Mist

Charlaine Harris, an ice cold grave

March:

books:

Ami McKay, The Virgin Cure

Jodi Picoult, Lone Wolf

Sarah McCoy, The Baker's Daughter

April:

books:

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games trilogy

May:

books:

Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy

June: 

books:

Molly Harper, the Nice Girls don't Have Fangs series

Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

July:

books:

Rachel Simon, The Story of Beautiful Girl

Sandra Dallas, True Sisters

Alice Laplante, Turn of Mind

August:

books:

Leila Meacham, Tumbleweeds

September:

Jeanne Ray, Calling Invisible Women

Lynda Rutledge, Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

October:

books:

Nancy Jensen, The Sisters

SJ Bolton, The Awakening

JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy

November:

books:

Jenny Lawson (The Blogess), Let's Pretend this Never Happened

December:

books:

Val McDermid, The Vanishing Point

Lisa Genova, Love Anthony

John Grisham, The Racketeer - seriously, I haven't liked his for a while...the last half makes this book.

Lish McBride, Hold me Closer, Necromancer

Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior

If you made it this far, bless you :) I'd love to hear your favourite books - or even just what you're reading right now. As you can no doubt tell, I kind of love to read ;)

I hope to be back with some new cards shortly!

xoxo,

Jessi

ETA: I'm joining in with two year-end reviews - with the Recipe Swap at Catered Crop, and with Stephanie at Ingenious Inkling! Check them out & share your year-end review too :) 

Thank goodness, December!

*link up your 2011 favourites at Ingenious Inkling until January 10th*

Original post here, with supplies

I was determined to not pick a Christmas card as December's favourite. I haven't gotten my Christmas craft supplies put away yet, but I'll have to this week so that I can make room for Valentine bits & pieces!

I was still catching up with Sookie Stackhouse for much of December, but there were a few other books that crept in:

 Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston Once you get past the eerie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" aspect, it actually becomes a fun read. IF you can get past that.

 Angelina's Bachelors by Brian O'Reilly This definitely made me hungry while reading it, but it's a quick and light read that I picked up & finished on Boxing Day. 

(In case you're interested, the total number of books that I read in 2011 was 211.) 

Thanks for checking out my favourites :)

xoxo,

Jessi

November...getting closer, thank goodness!

Original post here, with supplies

Oh yeah, I definitely love this card. Texture, sewing, fun stuff!

Don't forget to link up at Ingenious Inkling! You have until January 10th.

November & December's reading was incredibly un-diverse. That's because I started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, and I had to read them all. Immediately. 

 The Sookie Stackhouse books, or Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris

I'm still on the wait list for the third season of True Blood at the library...and I can't wait! 

  Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress. Funny. The concept is funny, the execution is hilarious, and I actually found myself gasping and laughing out loud while reading.

xoxo,

Jessi

October favourites

*don't forget to link up your own favourites at Ingenious Inkling!*

Original post here, with supplies

Still love this one :) Yummy orange, pretty bling...happy sigh!

October's reads were more satisfying, and actually I mentioned most of them already. I read 16 books, and there are 4 I'd recommend - only 3 for Meg, though, since I already know she didn't like the first one!

 The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich. Granted, the ending was a little tidy, but I enjoyed the journey.

Second Nature by Jacquelyn Mitchard - O.M.G. If you get sucked in within the first few pages, as I did, don't plan to do anything else before you finish reading. I loved it. I cried buckets. 

 The Fine Art of Insincerity by Angela Hunt 

and 

 The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian. I haven't regretted a single book I've read by Chris Bohjalian. There is always something that leaves me thinking, occasionally something that leaves me scratching my head, but always I close the book at the end and think "whoa." This one is definitely worth reading all the way through - and that's all I'm going to say about that ;)

xoxo,

Jessi

September

Looking through September's projects I found quite a few favourites...and then I saw this:

Original post here, with supplies

And when you see what Rob found for me for my birthday (and finally, the hat arrived after Christmas) you'll see why I had to pick this one: 

   Go see what else Knitwits offers! 

They're too awesome. The mittens are super warm, and they double as hand puppets. Awe. some. ness. 

If you're just now getting around to thinking about your favourite cards of the last year, Stephanie's round-up at Ingenious Inkling is still open until January 10th, so you have loads of time to join in.

Books for September...there were only 13, and I've looked through the list a few times & not sure I really recommend any of them as must-reads. Almost every one was part of a mystery series, series that I'd recommend as a whole, but not necessarily the individual books, if you know what I mean. That includes the latest Temperance Brennan book by Kathy Reichs - a series I normally love, but not so much this one.

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs (and I love the TV series, or, at least, I did as soon as I accepted it as its own 'thing' and not a by-the-book adaptation!)

and how about
 The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews I love this series that combines humor, crafts, and mystery. Her Turing books are even better, imho, but again, this particular book wasn't my favourite.

I haven't made many things in the past couple of weeks, but I do hope to spend some time at my desk once the boys head back to school on Tuesday.
xoxo,
Jessi

August...running out of titles...

I only blogged 8 times in August?! Strange! It does make sense, because we got Abby the Wonder Dorg at the beginning of the month, and adjusting to life with a non-cat took some time, and so did soaking up as much sunshine as possible. That made it very easy to pick my favourite card of the month, though:

Original post here, with supplies & creation story

I'm pretty sure there's still black ink splotches in my kitchen from THIS adventure.

Nineteen books read in August, and several stood out looking back:

Big Girl Small by Rachel deWoskin

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner (an author I love!)

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (seriously, seriously creepy. Seriously.)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (another favourite author)

I've been lucky to read so many good books this year - hopefully some of these are piquing your curiosity as well!

xoxo,
Jessi