29!

Today is my birthday! At 8:30 this morning, I turned 29 years old. It's hard to believe it, really, because I still feel like a teenager sometimes. But here I am, with one year left until I turn 30. Let's hope it's a good one! :)

Reading Resolutions for 2010

After thinking about it for a few days, I finally came up with some reading goals for 2010.

1| Read 100 books.
I contemplated not counting re-reads, but really, reading is reading, right? I still want to focus on reading new books, I'm just not going to exclude re-reads from my total count.


2| Read longer books.
While trying to complete challenges, it is tempting to look for shorter books to read to be able to get through more books. Not this year! This year, I plan on finally reading Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy, as I have an excellent translation on hand. I will also read The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and Outlander by Diana Gabalon.


3| Read from the LOST Lit List in January.
Speaking of The Mysterious Island, this February begins the last season of my favorite TV show, LOST, and I want to read as many books as possible from the LOST Lit List this year. To start this out, I am going to try to read exclusively from that list for the month of January, up until the season premiere. I do have a few book club books to read, so I'll be throwing a few other books into the mix for variety, but the vast majority will be for LOST! :)


4| Read a Russian book every month.
Speaking of Anna Karenina, another goal is to read at least one book by a Russian author each month. Since my major in college was Russian Language/Literature, I always feel like I know so much about Russian lit. I haven't read any Russian books in ages, though, and a lot of the stuff I read in college has faded. So, I want to renew my knowledge and love of Russian lit this year! And reading things for pleasure vs. reading them as an assignment for class is a really different experience, so I'm looking forward to it!

5| Write weekly reading updates.

I keep tracking of all of my reading on Goodreads.com, but I thought it would be fun to write a blog post every week, talking about what I have been reading. It seems like it would be a fun and interesting way to look back over the year and see what my reading experience has been.

What about you? Do you have any reading goals for 2010?

More green tumblers

Yesterday, I sat down and trimmed up the rest of the tumblers blocks I had and finally counted them. Turns out I have 234, and I only need 240! Yay! Only 6 more needed! Although that is quite frightening, because that means I actually own over 200 fabrics. Eek!

Now, I'm setting up my machine so I can work on my block exchange from this past fall. Only millions of tiny half square triangles to go!

102 Books Read in 2009!

The reading goal I set for myself in 2009 was to read 100 books. I'm happy to say I met that goal! I read a lot of great books this year, re-read some of my favorites, and struggled my way through a few stinkers.

My reading was majorly rejuvenated this year by 2 things.

First of all, I bought a Kindle! I thought at first that I might miss the feel of holding a book in my hand, turning the pages, smelling the ink on the page. For the most part, that isn't true at all. Reading on a kindle screen is so much like reading ink on a page that most of the time I hardly notice the difference. Add that to the fact that my Kindle is thin and light enough for me to take it everywhere with me, and that I can have 1,500+ books on it at one time, and I am more than just sold on the idea - I am thrilled! I do still check books out from the library - not everything is available on Kindle yet - and I read those at home.

Second of all, I found this great book-tracking site called Goodreads that allows me to keep track of the books I've read, what I'm currently reading, and what I want to read. I can keep track of when I read things, write reviews, and rate books, so in the future I can remind myself of my opinions. I've tried to do this by myself in the past, and just didn't have any luck, so this system is perfect for me. Plus, a lot of my friends have signed up as well, so we can share book reviews, see what each other are reading, suggest books for each other. I've also found a challenge group on there that has really helped me push the boundaries of what I was reading.

If you feel like signing up for Goodreads, you can add me as a friend here. You can also check out a list (with links!) of the books I read this year. :)

I think my reading goal for 2010 will be 100 books again, but this time, not counting books I've previously read. We shall see. :)

Quilting Retreat

Long time, no post! Life has been busy for here - since my last post, I have been to Disneyland with my family, to our winter quilting retreat, and have celebrated Christmas!  I'll be posting more in the new year to keep people updated on the quilting bees I am in, so before that all starts, I wanted to update you all on the stuff I got done at our quilt retreat.

Our annual quilt retreat with our whole group is in September in Poulsbo, but we do a smaller one (6 of us instead of 8) in December as well. We normally go to Langley for our winter retreat, but had to move it to Poulsbo this year as Quilting by the Sea in Langley was closing. Luckily, someone bought the shop, so we can go back there again next winter!  Poulsbo is a great place to be in the fall, but all the walking makes it difficult in December.

Here are some of the projects I worked on:

Candy Garden - This is from a class I took with Sandy Bonsib. I love this one!


I put this little guy together from scraps from Candy Garden. I don't know if I like it, though. :| Oh well.


This was based of a challenge fabric our sewing group was given - the chocolate cakes and candies in the middle of the blocks.


This is the back I pieced for my Candy Candy quilt - it's at the quilter's now! :)


Tumbly Greens - I'm working on this charm quilt as a surprise gift for someone! So far, I have about 150-200 blocks cut out. I need to finish trimming them to size and count them. But yeah. That's a lot of blocks. I also own A LOT of green fabric. :)

vegas!

revolution, originally uploaded by fuzzirella.

I've been in Vegas this past weekend with friends for my friend Josh's birthday! Much fun has been had, and although I don't relish heading back to work tomorrow, I am ready to be at home again, I think. :)

But yes, much epic fun has ensued. :P

WIP: candy garden

candy garden, originally uploaded by Rachel-B.

This is my latest WIP, named Candy Garden, mostly because of my current obsession with bright colors that remind me of candy. :P

This quilt is from a class taken from Sandy Bonsib at Quiltworks NW in Bellevue. I am proud to call Sandy a friend - she is a great teacher and wonderful lady! I don't often take classes because they can be rather expensive, but I started this project (the reverse appliqued basket block in the center) at a picnic at Sandy's house, and once I saw the rest of the quilt, I knew I had to take the class!

I was hoping to find time to put this together during our quilting day last Saturday, but I ended up fussing with bindings and backs almost the whole time. Frustrating, but oh well! I'll probably keep this on hold until our little guild's winter retreat in December.