Gifts I made....

Here are a few pictures of gifts that I made this year for Christmas. I made quite a few pillowcases, the tractor one is for my grandfather, while the remaining two were for my husband. I wasn't looking for the Doctor Who fabric but while at the fabric store I saw it and couldn't resist. Both my husband and I are fans. I also just bought a regular kitchen towel and sewed fabric on it as a gift. Did you make any gifts?

Crafty Gifts Received for Christmas

I received several crafty gifts that I had on my wishlist. I have been wanting some of these items for quite awhile and really excited to get started. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/holiday!  For next year I have joined a few stitch a longs, and will be showing some items I hope to complete.

Midwest Readathon Challenge 2016 - SIGNUP

      

  

I haven't seen once of these before and thought I would create a reading challenge for authors born in the Midwest. There are really no rules to this:

• Read books from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 
• Read any book by an author
• Books/Authors can be famous or not

• Any length of book
• Read any amount of books from a state(s)
• Once a book has been read post a review 
• Post progress monthly on the 1st

Here are the list of Midwest states; Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Now I know there are sometimes disputes with what states people consider the Midwest to be, so you can add Ohio, Indiana, etc. or whatever states you consider to be in the Midwest.

Here is my reading list:

• Illinois - Homesteader by Oscar Micheaux
• Iowa - State Fair by Phil Stong
• Kansas - In Our Town by William Allen White
• Michigan - The Iron Trail by Rex Beach
• Minnesota - Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
• Missouri - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Nebraska - Whilte the Patient Slept by Mignon Eberhart
• North Dakota - Middle C by William H. Gass
• South Dakota - A Long Way from Home by Tom Brokow
• Wisconsin - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Bout of Books Jan '16 Readathon

 I have either a hit or miss with these readathons but plan on participating again. I forget usually to do quite a bit of the updates. Here is the needed information for this read-a-thon;

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I am going to be reading the following:

1. Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
2. Homesteader by Oscar Micheaux
3. Catherine and other writings by Jane Austen
4. The Memory Weaver by Jane Kirkpatrick
5. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Obviously I do not believe that I can complete all of these books, but I want to at least finish two preferably three. 

Book Challenge

   Since last year I signed up for so many book challenges, which did not even finish one, I only plan on signing up for this one. It does coincide with my Classics Club list, which I have until August 2017 to finish. I am not going to pick all 12 categories for this challenge, as I am only picking books that I already have that fit a category.


Here are my choices:
1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
9. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
10. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
11. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

If you want to see all of the categories and rules follow here.

New dish for breakfast or dinner...

I decided to make a new dish that would be easy and not that much work. We had one onion, a few potatos and then two packages of smoked turkey sausage. So what is one going to do? Of course put it all together! I did wish we had two onions instead of just one. Since I used a cast iron skillet I made sure to cut up all of my ingredients first, as once the skillet is hot it can cook things pretty fast. I made sure to cut up all of the ingredients pretty small, and actually I used too much sausage. Then I put a little vegetable oil in the pan and then seasoned it all with salt and pepper. Next time if we have green or red peppers I will add that, and perhaps some rosemary as well.

Starting On The Letters....

for this cross stitch project, that once complete it will be hung up in the kitchen. There will be a rooster and the saying Good Morning. I hope to work on this more in the next month.

Number 19 is the winner!

 

The winner for this Classics Club Spin #11 was number 19! So I will be reading Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. There is a television series somewhat based on the books (which Larkrise to Candleford is a triology all in one) which is based on her own experiences of being a postmistress in a small village in England during the early 1900's.  I have heard that the book is quite different, I did start to read it a few years ago, but didn't get too far. In regards to the small part I had read of the book previously it was mostly about the description and every day life of the small village but not that much on any dialogue. That doesn't bother me, but like I said since I haven't read that much of it perhaps it changes in time. I do have a somewhat rare copy of this book as my version is a hardback with lovely pictures/paintings in the book. Once I do my review I will perhaps post a picture of it. I am excited about this book and love the television series. 

The Battle of Pizza Sauces!

I made my first homemade Stromboli the other day, it is like a calzone for those that do not know, but no sauce is put inside it. Normally I make my own homemade pizza sauce but I wasn't in the mood to do that, as there is a lot of leftovers of the sauce.  So, they only had two different brands of pizza sauce at the store, and not knowing which one was better, I figured I would just get a jar of each. We could have our own little taste test. A battle of the sauces!

Normally, I prefer Classico pasta sauce over prego (although I think both are better than Ragu). So I was surprised that we both preferred the Prego pizza sauce over the Classico version. The Classico actually had way too much herbs, so much that I couldn't taste that much of the tomatos. The Stromboli dough that I made was really easy and didn't take too long. I put pepporini, salami, provolone cheese, dried oregano and dried basil in it. We ate half of the Stromboli the first night and had the leftovers yesterday.

Classics Club Spin Eleven!

 The Classics Club is having another spin! You have until Monday December 7th in order to join and list your 20 books. Then once the winning number has been announced then you have until Feb. 1, 2016 to finish and review that book. I have enjoyed previous spins and sometimes haven't gotten to finish the book, but this time I think that I will have plenty of time to do that. Here is my list! Join it is a lot of fun!

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2. Treasure Island
3. Kidnapped
4. Wives and Daughters
5. The Secret Garden
6. Little Women
7. War and Peace
8. Little Dorrit
9. Adventures of Tom Sawyer
10. North and South
11. Northanger Abbey
12. Eight Cousins
13. Barnaby Rudge
14. The House of the Dead
15. Rights of Man
16. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
17. Poor Folk
18. House of Mirth
19. Larkrise to Candleford
20. The Pioneers