8 & 9 of 13 in 13 Challenge

Where have I been?  Well not reading that's for sure.  I think it is pathetic that I have only read two books in the 6 weeks.  Hopefully I will catch up when I am on holiday in October.

The Golden Louise Hay Collection by Louise Hay

I'm actually wondering if I can count this as three books as it does contain three of her best sellers.  You can Heal your Life, You can Heal your Body and The Power is Within You.  I truly enjoyed this book and it really resonated with me.  In fact I have now bought a copy for my book shelf.

While reading it it prompted me to make a couple of changes in my life and that is a good thing.  All three books talk about how you can make a difference to your life and health by changing your thinking and letting go of the past when it is holding you back.  It is a little controversial for some people as she claims you can cure yourself of any disease including Cancer if you are willing to change your thinking.  I personally loved it and there is a lot in there that is just common sense.

I did get the most out of the third book in the collection The Power is Within You and most of those little tabs you see are in that section.  I am hoping my personal copy arrives before this on has to go back to the library so I can transfer all the sticky tabs.

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason

This is a great little book (be warned the writing is tiny) that gives you some incredibly sensible and easy steps to building your wealth.  It is NOT a get rich quick book but gives practical advice for growing your wealth over time.  I love the first step which is to always pay yourself first by putting aside 10% of all your income to start building your wealth.  Guess who is putting that into practice right now.

Only four books to go and 4 months to do it in.  I still feel I might complete this challenge which I think will be the first one I have ever managed to complete.

In other news I am behind on my sewing this year but steaming ahead with the new business and absolutely loving it. I won't bore you all with it here except to say that the only downside to loving what you do is that it is hard to put it aside for long enough to do the other things you love like quilting.

I have a quilt for Jot to finish in the next 4 weeks for her birthday and then one for my nephew for his birthday in January (and have no idea yet what I am going to do with that one) as well as whip up two quilts for childcare workers for Christmas and a number of other childcare worker gifts.  I can see myself having to put time in the diary to sew or I will never get to it :)

Quilting - Finally

I have finally been at the machine again and in fact now that both quilts have been received I can even show pictures.

This one was for my nieces 6th birthday.  The plan was to give all my nieces and nephews a quilt for their fifth birthday but I got completely confused last year and missed one.  Whoops.  Never mind she has it now and loves it.  It is rather too hot in the UK right now for it to get much use but I am pretty sure it will be used a fair bit in the winter.

The second one is for a gorgeous family who I know online through my mothers group with CT and who have a lovely little girl who is rather sick at the moment.  I made the quilt big enough for at least 2 people at any one time so they know that their friends are thinking of them.

Apologies for the picture quality.  They didn't look as dark on the camera and I am not in the mood to fiddle with them right now.

6 & 7 of 13 in 13 Challenge

Well Little White dove updated her challenge stats the other day and in pushed me into getting a book out.

As I have two (or is it three) non fiction books on the go at the moment I decided to pick up a fiction.  While waiting for Jot in the library the other day I was browsing the librarian picks and saw this.  Needless to say I picked it up an devoured it in only 2 days.

The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

The great thing about the Elm Creek Quilt novels is you always know what you are going to get and this is no exception.  You are taken into a world of old friends and new friends and often finish the book wondering where the characters are going to end up.  I will admit that our library does not have the whole series so I have been reading them a bit haphazardly and out of order but what threw me completely is that the babies that were just conceived in the last book I read were 4 in this one.

I enjoyed it like I enjoy all of the Elm Creek Quilt series and hope to read the rest in the near future.

Book 7 is a complete opposite as it is non fiction and in no way is it light reading.

Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

At one of my trainings recently this book was for sale and as I had heard about it in the past I decided to buy it.  It is an amazing book yet I have no idea how to review it for you here.  I guess I am still sorting through a lot of the information.

This book is in two parts, the first is a very matter of fact personal account of life in the concentration camps of WW2 including Auschwitz.  He points out how and why some men survived and how fate intervened on occasion.  The reason he wrote this is to highlight the second part of the book which is about this theory of Logotherapy.  This is his theory that every man is responsible for how he chooses to view the world and the suffering it holds.

As I said it has a lot of information in it and I found the first half of the book to be incredibly well written and a very factual account with what seemed like no emotion attachment.  It is a book I will be using when it comes to teach my kids about WW2 and the atrocities it produced as it shows how some men just refused to let it over power them.  Those are the real heroes, those that lived to tell the tale and make sure no one ever forgets.

Hello

Yes I know that over a month has past since my last post.  I did warn you all that with study and the new business this blog would probably get a little neglected :)

So what have I need up to in the crafty arena.  The answer is unfortunately not much.

The big finish in time for winter (just) was the Mondrian Quilt.  This was part of a quilt bee (run by MMQG) that I took part in in 2011 and has taken me two years to complete.  I can safely say it was worth the wait.  I absolutely love it and it keeps us very warm on the couch each night.  I ended up hand quilting each colour block in coordinating thread.  This has depicted a lovely pattern on the back.

I also whipped up this quilt top for a family who are going through a tough time with a sick baby right now and I am in the middle of hand quilting this with flowers and the families names so they are all included.  It is taking some time but I have plenty of study dvds to watch while I quilt.

I must quilt Jot cousins quilt in the next two weeks as well but this one I am going to do by machine.

Oh and I need to find time to whip up a couple of birthday presents as well.  I just wish I knew what I was going to make :)

I need to go now and get working on an assessment but this evening I will be back with the hand quilting.  Its a great way to wind down after the day.

Time Flying but I got to sew

Is anyone else wondering where this year is heading?  I am finding it is flying by, which is OK really.

SO it is already May and I haven't done all the sewing stuff I had hoped to by now.  This is actually OK as I have been filling my time with study and setting up the business and really enjoying the process.  I do miss the creativity a bit especially as at the moment my sewing room is doubling as an office as it is the only room that I can get peace and quiet in.  This of course means I see my sewing machine and UFO every time I do any work or study.  I'm amazed I have only been side tracked once or twice in the past 3 months.

Anyway, I did make time to sew in April, mainly it was dresses for Jot but it is still sewing.  I mentioned the cool mermaid fabric I found a couple of  months ago in one of my previous posts.  It sat on my table for a while until Jot decided she wanted a mermaid dress.  Not what I would have made with it if I had the choice but who am I to argue with a 4yo.  While looking for my go to dress pattern Molly by Sis Boom I found two dresses I had already cut out ready to sew together so I did all three.  One of which proved to be rather old as when I put the pieces up against the pattern they are a size 2.  Please excuse the pictures of the children, it was a long day for them.

In addition I have finished the hand quilting of the Mondrian, just sewing down the binding and that will be finished.  I got my blocks in May 2011 and am finishing it in May 2013 it seems 2 years is my longest time to finish a quilt (so far).  Photos of that will follow once it is complete and in use.

I had to bribe Jot the other day as I needed to go to Spotlight for elastic for her dresses but she was driving me nuts so I said if she behaved I would make her a purple kitten cushion.  Personally it freaks me out but she loves it and is currently using it as her pillow.  I have the fleece to do a dog one for CT but I am thinking I might line the ears etc with quilters cotton to reduce the bulk I spent a lot of time forcing the multi layers of fleece through the machine.

I haven't managed to finish any other books for the 13 in 13 challenge but I am very pleased to say I found my copy of Awaken the Giant within and am now a few chapters further on.  I need to finish this book as part of my assessment so I am doing a couple of chapters a month.  It is a great book and very thought provoking I have a companion work book that I am carrying around with it now as there are so many exercises Tony Robbins asks you to do to get the most out of the book.  I am learning a lot (not all of it something I really want to admit to) and I would recommend the book to anyone looking to develop themselves.

I am planning not to leave it a month between posts this month, well I know I wont as once the binding is on the Mondrian I am going to want to show it off.  Until then.  Have a good one.

5 of 13 in 13 Challenge

I really wanted book 5 to be the Tony Robbins Book that I started a number of weeks ago but I still can't find it.  So instead Book 5 is another Fiction book.  If it helps I do have  3 other books on the go at the moment none of which are fiction.

Book 5 - THE FIRST CONFESSOR: The Legend of Magda Searus - Terry Goodkind (ebook exclusive)

Image taken from Amazon.com

This book is another on my original list and I am really glad I have read it.  I hadn't used my kindle much in the past few months mainly cause I love the feel of turning pages but I dusted it off for this ebook exclusive by Terry Goodkind and I am so glad I did.

This book takes up the story from hints and mentions in throughout the whole of the Sword of Truth series.  It has to be my favourite Fantasy series of all time and I love the introduction to all the aspects of that series that are explained and developed in this book.

For those of you who have read the series, this book is about the creation of not only the Sword of Truth itself (and how it got its name) but also of the Confessors, the Book of Counted Shadows, the Rahl Bond and a couple of others items as well. 

For those of you who haven't read the series it is a great stand alone story to introduce you to the History behind the original books (of which I think there are 9).

The ending of the book left me hoping that there will be another dealing with Magda and Merrick as well as the various other characters that we have heard about in the original books.  I did miss turning the pages but it being an ebook did enable me to read it on the train (the paperbacks of the Sword of Truth series are too heavy to live in my handbag so rarely leave teh house) and so I got through it in record time.  

I am really tempted now to pick up the Wizards First Rule again and start the series from scratch.  I think that will be a reward for me once I find and finish Tony Robbins and the two assignments I have allocated to this month.

I'm feeling pretty good now that if I read at least one book a month now I will actually complete this challenge (although I do intend to read more than one a month).

3 & 4 of 13 in 13 Challenge

Guess what?  I got to read.

I have been very focused recently on the kids.  I really wanted to say the business but at this time it has been the kids that have taken up the time and effort recently.  Sick kids take up a lot of time.  I had forgotten that this time of year usually means we will be sick in rotation.  Hopefully we will get over it fairly soon.

Anyway I got to read in fact I finished book 3 at the beginning of February but have kept forgetting to blog about it.  Book 4 was finished today and I decided I had to post it tonight to make sure I didn't forget this one as well.

Book 3 - 7 Habits for Highly Effective Families - Stephen Covey

I loved this book.  It is basically his 7 Habits for Highly Effective People that he has adapted specifically for families.  It is fantastic and very thought provoking.  It highlighted a number of areas that we can work on as a family and has prompted me to read the original 7 Habits book and I am really looking forward to that.  I forgot to take a photo of this one - whoops

It prompted me to pick up 7 Habits of Happy Kids for Jot (written by Sean Covey - Stephens son).  It contains 7 stories, 1 for each habit and they are really cool little stories which Jot loves.  OK I know this challenge isn't about kids books but I had to tell you about that one :)

Book 4 - The law of Nines - Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind is one of my all time favourite authors.  I have long since been deeply involved in his Sword of Truth Series (and was quite gutted when the final official book came out) and really wanted to read this when I saw it in the Library.  I am usually disappointed by the books not in the series that I love but this time I wasn't.  It is sent in our world rather than a fantasy one and is very well tied in to the Sword of Truth series but you do not need to have read the series as it stands very well on its own.  In fact I kinda liked it because it was only loosely linked.

There were some bits that I wish had been slightly better explained and I would love to hear the story from the other side.  Overall I really enjoyed this and in fact was late picking the kids up from childcare cause I wanted to get to the end.

Whats next?

I am reading Awaken the Giant within by Tony Robbins and I have managed to misplace it.  I am pretty sure I took it to the library the other day but now I can't find it :).  I am going to search for it properly this weekend as I will be mightily bummed if I have lost it as I had been highlighting and flagging bits in it.

I also bought Hot Confidence by Nadine Love the other day and was terribly excited when it arrived on my doorstep today.  I was just waiting for the kids to get into bed (and be asleep) before digging into it.  You can find more about it HERE.  I met Nadine at the Coaching Institute at the beginning of February and have been wanting her book since then.  I finally got off my procrastinating butt and bought it now it is here and it is calling my name so I am going to finish up here and get stuck into it.

See you later