Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What would you say is the best and worst thing about moving house?

  I think everyone will agree with me that the worst thing about moving is packing. The very thought of having to pack or unpack makes me want to shudder. My favorite part of moving is literally to be done with moving.

2. What's moved you recently?

  Sighs, absolutely everyone of my followers probably knows that I love LOTR, (goodness knows I yap about it enough) but oddly enough, I had never watched "Battle of the Five Armies" before. That is until last Sunday. It was an awful experience really, but I'll wait to give you my story about it until tomorrow.

3. Do you feel your life is moving forward, backward, or is on hold? How so?

  Oh it is very easy to say that I feel my life is moving forward, it almost feels as if it is just beginning to get started really.

4. On the move, move mountains, get a move on, it's your move, or bust a move...which phrase best applies to some aspect of your life right now? Explain.

  "Get a move on." I have been wanting to do several craft diys, bake several new recipes, and write several stories but I just wasn't getting it done. However, I realized that it is just about time to get a move on it if I want those things done before I say goodbye to life. (I'm not about to die soon, I was just giving you an idea of how much of a procrastinator I am.)

5. What song makes you want to get up and move?

  The title of this song is pretty much obvious enough "Make a Move" by Royal Tailor. It is definitely on the upbeat side and has been listened to by Diane and I frequently while we clean up supper dishes.

6. Your favorite snack to grab when you're 'on the move'?

I love to grab a granola bar when I'm  on the move. We make homemade granola bars that are quite tasty. My second choice would be carrots.

7. What one accessory makes your house feel like home?

  The one accessory that makes my house feel like home? I don't think there is one. Being surrounded by my family always make me feel as if I were at home, even if I'm not. So no, I do not have one accessory that makes this house of mine feel like home, I have my family.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

  A few days ago Diane and I made our own Walnut ink, it was quite the interesting experience, one that served to stain our fingernails and make our clothes smell like rancid smoke. On the bright side, I now have almost a pint of ink to use for calligraphy!

For the Love of Books

  Books, books, glorious books! Though I love settling down to watch a good movie nothing comes close to replacing to a good book. A truly wonderful book captivates me and is the subject of my daydreams. Fortunately my parents are both book lovers and we have a huge home library. I have read quite a bunch of captivating books and believe that my writing style - which you get to experience every time that I make a post - is due largely to the books that I have read.

  Today I will be putting my own spin on the usual Wednesday Hodgepodge since it doesn't exist this week. Today I will be answering book related questions. Without further ado....

#1 Would you rather read only trilogies or stand-alones? 

I love both of them equally. Sometimes I wish there were more books to whatever I'm reading and then other times I wish that there was only one book in the series that I'm reading.

#2 Would you rather read only male or female authors?

  I do not prefer one over the other. I was prepared to say I prefer female authors until I realized I loved all of the books by Louis L'Amour, and the books by J.R.R Tolkien. So yes, I stand firm when I say I do not prefer one over the other.

#3 Would you rather shop at Barnes and Noble or Amazon?

   I would definitely prefer to shop at Barnes and Noble. Actually getting to see, smell, and touch the books in front of me is a priceless thing and can't be replaced for me by an online store.

#4 Would you rather have books become T.V. shows or movies?

  I would rather have books turn into movies that way you have the whole deal right in front of you instead of fretting "when will the next episode play?"


#5 Would you rather read five pages a day or five books a week?

   Now this is an easy question. Obviously I would rather read five books a week!

#6 Would you rather be a professional reviewer or an author?

   If I was a professional reviewer I would be sent free books to review; if I was a professional author I would get paid enough to buy my own books.... Yep, I would rather be a professional author.
And sorry by the way, that you had to experience my thought process.

#7 Would you rather read your top twenty favorite books over and over again, or always read new ones you've never read before?

  I would rather always read new books that I never read before. Even though I have favorites I enjoy rereading, it would be sad to devote my reading time to only twenty books.

#8 Would you rather be a librarian or a bookseller?

   I would much rather be a librarian. Being surrounded by books all day. Helping others find that perfect book to read. 

   Confession time .... I think it would be so much fun walking around with my nose turned up, busily tut-tutting at noisy people. And perhaps I would start a "Stop Abusing Books" program, telling people dog ears are for dogs, not books.

#9 Would you rather read only your favorite genre(s) or anything but your favorite?

   Is this question even real?! Why in the world would I want to only read my least favorite genres? This question is so infuriatingly obvious I'm just going to stubbornly turn up my nose and walk away.

#10 Would you rather read only physical books or e-books?

  I don't think anything will ever replace real physical books for me. I love everything about real books. From smelling the pages, to crying onto them, to stuffing them into a freezer for a while because they are just too scary for me and I need a little time to prepare myself to continue reading.

Portrait Art

  I have a few possessions that mean a lot to me; one of those possessions is my old tattered art book that I received when I was about twelve. I dug that book out of a stack of random objects this morning and almost felt like crying just looking at it. The poor thing is now so tattered and it won't be long before my pages of art start falling out. The cover is loose and ripped in various places and the binding is twisted and banged up.

  I very hurriedly started making plans to slip all of those pictures in protective sleeves once they fall out. It simply won't do to let my hours of time and effort go to waste. I was relieved when my dear mumsy went about scanning my favorite pictures for me and printing out copies of the others.
Now I don't feel quite as heartsick whenever I look at my art book.

  I was cheered up a little though to see the progress I made in my art over the past year or so and now I am inspired to bettering my art some more because I am still not anywhere near as good at drawing as I would like to be.

  Here are two of my favorite drawings.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Have you ever been to and/or lived near the desert? What did you think? Travel and Leisure lists the 'coolest' American desert towns as-

Palm Springs CA, Virgina City NE, Bend OR, Winslow AZ, Marfa TX, Grand Junction CO, Silver City NM, Moab UT, Taos NM, Yakima WA, Borrego Springs CA, Terlingua TX, and St. George UT, and Tubac AZ

Have you been to any of these? Would you like to visit a desert town? Which on the list would you most like to see?

   My Mom says I have already been to Taos, NM, but I don't remember anything about it because I was just a little girl. I have never had any particular desire to visit deserts but if the opportunity arrived I wouldn't say no.

2. What's a plan or project you've deserted in the past year? 

   I had dreamed about being capable of reading crochet charts so I eagerly printed out a sheet of the symbols, but since then I have washed my hands of that horror. Exactly how does one keep his wits about him trying to read those charts?!

3. Desert-dessert? Share two or three words you find yourself having to think twice about when it comes to spelling.
 
    I often find myself  stumped how to spell ridiculous, and then there is opportunity, and Mediterranean. In fact, I never fail to get a headache by trying to spell Mediterranean,  I spelled it incorrectly even while I was writing this and had to resort to my History book for the proper spelling.

4. High and dry, like watching paint dry, dry run, dry as dust, not a dry eye in the house...which phrase can you relate to currently? Explain.

   Dry as dust.... Have you ever read the Dottie Dimple books? They are the worst books that have ever had the gumption to disgrace paper! You know how when a little kid is bad and they are sent to have a timeout, yeah, well my parents sent me to read a page or two of the book every time I deserved a time out. Talk about being punished.

   I opened the book to a random page this morning and here is the first paragraph:

   Horace wished the conductor had been in that car, so he could have seen Miss Flyaway trying to prop her mother's head against her own morsel of a shoulder - about as secure a resting-place as a piece of thistle-down.

   Dreadful, isn't it?

5. How often do you frequent the dry cleaners? Starch or no starch?  

   I have never stepped foot inside of a dry cleaners. My clothes also are never starched.

6. What's a food or beverage you enjoy that's named for a place? 

   I love Philly Cheese steak sandwiches, I think they are the best thing that Philadelphia has ever invented.

7. Do you need solitude? 

   While I don't usually need solitude, every time my sister's friend comes over I get to dance around the countryside by myself. I enjoy that time, nothing but me and the great outdoors as I run to one of my favorite little places in the world - A woodland path covered in ferns and sunlight, that I call Glass Road because of the sunshine glinting off of millions of little glass shards - my solitude really is the stuff of daydreams.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

   Today my world is enveloped in a blanket of fog, its damp creeping chill seems to have permeated the walls of my  home. Because of that I decided it is the perfect day to bake some apple desserts to chirp up our surroundings and fill our home with the scent of warm cinnamon.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Thursday (September 22) is the first official day of autumn in this part of the world...how will you welcome the season? I know some of you have been celebrating way too early, but it's official now so permission granted. House Beautiful recently listed ten ways to make your home smell like fall (you can read the list here) What's a scent you love this time of year and how will you add it to your home?

  I absolutely love Fall but somehow it seems to have arrived way too early and I am in season denial about right now. However, since I love Fall I have been attacking the kitchen and filling the house with apple pie bars, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, and apple cider brown sugar cupcakes.  Yes my friends, I love fall desserts!

2. Apple pie or pumpkin pie? Apple cake or pumpkin bread? Warm apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte?

  Concerning all of those questions, I prefer apple everything. Why, you might wonder? Well because it tends to taste cleaner and fresher, almost crisp, in most scenarios.
 

3. Do you suffer from what is sometimes referred to as an afternoon slump? What helps ward it off before it hits and/or tell us what helps you shake it off once it's here?

  Yes, sometimes I suffer from an afternoon slump, so what I do to ward it off is simple, I go to my living room and crochet like a mad woman. Especially in my slump am I quite productive!

4. Ladies-how have your friendships with women inspired you or made you a better person? For the men here today- how have your friendships with men inspired you or made you a better person?

  Friendships, are undeniably a blessing. My friendships have served to brighten days. Though I cannot point out just one particular thing that my friends have done to inspire me. You can rest assured that they have helped to make me life sweeter.

5. Are you a people pleaser? If you said yes, do you think that's a good or bad thing? If you said no, do you wish you were more of a people pleaser?

  I am not sure what exactly I am. Do I try to be as pleasant to people in general? Yes. But I'm not sure that overexert myself to please them though.

6. The seasons are a-changin'...share a favorite song relating in some way to change (not necessarily seasonal change, it could be change of any kind).

   This is a song by Billy Boyd, it was generally made for LOTR (Lord of the Rings) Funny side note,  the first time I saw LOTR I though it meant laughing on the roof. Since the song is just so beautiful that it made me cry (twice, I shouldn't have watched the video again) but I had to share it anyways. It does not specifically say change but it implies it so therefore.... I'm choosing it to share today.

                        

7. What do you wish would never change?

  My life with my family, I love being surrounded by all of them so it's a little hard to accept that someday my siblings will all be going their separate ways and we'll have to grow up. Growing up really stinks sometimes. Now if you'll excuse me I think I go upstairs to jump on my bed, and do various other age defying acts.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

  Did you know dead butterflies smell like rotten seafood? It is a horrid surprise. I suppose I just assumed that something so beautiful had to smell of rainfall, flower petals, and honey. Not like rotten seafood...

Asparagus

    These past few days I have been reflecting back on the A-Z challenge I had participated in. and decided to review my blogging idea list for the challenge to see the options I never wrote about and today I decided it was time I delve into it and choose one of them to share here.

  When I was a very young girl, (I'm guessing anywhere from 3-5) My parents had needed someone to babysit me and so after one of my relatives agreed I was dropped off at their home and my parents went to wherever it was that they were going.

  The relatives in question were very nice and caring people, and I always had fun around them, except for the time I am now telling you about.

  Though I don't remember a single other thing from that day, I vividly remember lunch. There we were, all seated around the table in their sunny dining room. My bare feet were swinging merrily under the wooden table. After bowing our heads in silence for grace, my dear Aunt got up and went about preparing my lunch. She placed a small dish in front of me. I timidly scooched forward in my chair and peered into the little dish. Whatever name grownups might have for the grayish green glop that resided in that dish hardly did it justice. I wrinkled up nose and stubbornly refused to take a single bite of whatever that earthly abomination was.

  My Aunt, though quite pleasant and kind would not tolerate me not eating my food so she rose from the table and hovered over me and told me quietly but firmly that I had to eat at least one bite. Quite grumpily I took one small bite and almost keeled over at how horrendous it tasted. "It's asparagus, it's good for you" she coaxed further to absolutely no avail.

  Seeing she couldn't get me to eat any more of it she removed my dish and scurried off to the kitchen. When she returned I was even more horrified. She had taken that glop of canned, mushy asparagus and stirred a bunch of crumbled crackers into it and mashed everything together. The moment she said I'm supposed to eat it now I knew there was no hope left for me and I was left to do nothing but shove spoonful after spoonful of awful, dripping with slime asparagus and cracker blobs into my mouth.

  Even though that day was so dark to me back then, the memory now serves to only bring a smile to my face. But, if I have to be completely honest I have to say that to this very day I can't stand asparagus, whether it's roasted, grilled, fried, and especially canned.

Ten Things ~ Fave Actors

  I hardly think I am the only person that gets that insanely bubbly, warm and fuzzy kind of feeling by watching their favorite of very favorite actors doing what they do best in all of that person's favorite movies. I have collected quite a list of favorite actors over the years so having to make a list of only ten of my favorite actors kind of posed as a problem to me but I have eventually picked my favorite of favorite actors to name in this post.


  My Favorite Actors. (Just a note, I have listed them in random order, it would be too hard to summarize which is my favorite actor from all of my other favorite actors, if anything that I just wrote made sense.)

#1. Viggo Mortensen ..... First of all to explain his name, (which I happen to love saying) he is of Danish origin so that explains that. Why is he one of my favorite actors? Well he is a pretty awesome actor and always takes the movie-watcher on a very surreal journey. He truly becomes Aragorn, for example.

#2. Martin Freeman ..... Need I truly give a reason?

#3. Sean Astin ..... He is an undeniably magnificent actor and somehow he makes me feel all of his 'acting' emotions right along with him. How many actors can do that?

#4. John Rhys-Davies ..... Now this one is obvious, he is a riot to watch and never fails to bring a smile to my face. (He is Welsh by the way.)

#5. Billy Boyd ..... He is also an insanely good actor, you know it's kind of hard trying to think of different ways I can compliment all of these actors. (He is Scottish.)

#6. Dominic Monaghan ..... Naturally I couldn't possibly list Billy Boyd without putting Dominic right beside him. (He is German, born to British parents.)

#7. Lee Pace ..... He played Thranduil, and was insanely epic in his own right, My mom actually abhors the person he portrays but she just doesn't appreciates his graceful malice like I do.

#8. Lily James ..... I like her best for her role as Cinderella, breathtaking really. (She is British.)

#9. Rachel Khoo ..... Though she is not technically considered an actor, she was a TV personality and was far too awesome to overlook. Besides I absolutely love her on her former shows Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook, and  Little Paris Kitchen.(She is British.)

#10. Julie Andrews .....  I have to be honest and say that I thought there were two famous Julie Andrews up till just a few moments ago when I discovered that both my beloved spunky governess in The Sound of Music and stately former queen in Princess Diaries are both played by Julie Andrews. Yes, I am momentarily at loss for words. (She is British.)


  Somehow this list left me feeling empty, it feels completely barbaric to list only ten favorite actors, but you know the saying, "You made your post, now post it." Actually I just made that up but whatever, it works.