Free Craftsy Class for New Members! (Today Only)

For all of you out there who haven't signed up for Craftsy yet, there is a fantastic opportunity to get a Free Class! Today Only Craftsy has a selection of actual classes (not the usual free mini classes - these ones you would normall have to buy) that are completely free for new members :) So, hurry over here to choose your class and start learning! These classes are incredibly informative and you can watch them forever any time you want! I can't say enough great things about Craftsy, and I'm super jealous of you new members!

If you already are a member of Craftsy.com, check your emails - they have promised a special treat for us as well!

Just so you know - Craftsy is hosting this Free Class Day to benefit DonorsChoose.org, a website that connects you with teachers who need specific items for their classrooms - and you can choose which project your donation will fund! If we can help Craftsy meet their goal of giving away 10,000 classes today, they will donate $5,000.00 to fund arts education in public schools across the US.

So, help spread the news! Not only do you get a free clas when you sign up, but you also help a great cause! Just share this link with friends so we can help reach the donation goal!

Book Review: The Devil and Miss Prym

I read The Alchemist many years ago and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to read more of Paulo Coelho's work. The Devil and Miss Prym seemed like a good second venture into his world.

This book can best be described as a good, old fashioned fable. Miss Prym lives in a small town of less than 300 people in the mountains. The town of Viscos is always the same, until a stranger comes to stay and causes everyone to question their moral fiber. The stranger finds Miss Prym and uses her as his spokesperson to the rest of the town and has her tell them his proposition: If they kill 1 inhabitant of their town within the week of his stay, he will give them 10 solid gold bars. If Miss Prym tells them, she will get an additional bar for herself; if she does not tell them, he will tell them all anyway and expose her for keeping the secret from them, which would very likely make her the victim they all decide on. She turmoils over her role in the whole business for several days before she finally figures out how and what to say. She believes that the townspeople are inherently good and also cowardly, so she believes that telling them will only cause them to throw the stranger out. Much to her dismay, the townspeople think the proposition through a little more than Miss Prym bargained for. In the end, she must stand up for her beliefs and call all of the others to stop trying to justify evil actions in order to get financial gain for their dying town.

I had no idea what to expect when I got into this book. Just going off of my experience with The Alchemist, I knew it would be a life lesson-type story. To be perfectly honest, the book was slow going at first. It is well written, but there are quite a few details the author takes for granted and the climax was a little too wordy for me to really say I loved it. I enjoyed the book, the lesson it teaches was great, it's just not one I would read again. I recommend The Devil and Miss Prym for anyone who wants a classic tale of good versus evil told in an unconventional and modern way.

Introducing Show and Tell Book Reviews!

Since I have officially announced that I am a member of The Thousander Club, I wanted to add a new facet to my blog: book reviews. I've been reading a lot lately and in writing my short reviews for the club, I have discovered that I really enjoy the challenge of eloquently summarizing the plots to share with others (lol I guess "eloquently" is a bit of a lofty claim, but I can hope).

I have already had 2 of my reviews posted on The Thousander Club blog, so I will start with those.

Critics and readers alike out there have already sung the praises of Eat, Pray, Love for many years; now that I have read it myself I can affirm that all of the accolades are extremely well deserved. I became interested in Elizabeth Gilbert a few months ago when I came across her contribution to Ted Talks. I could see that she was an amazing person in just that short speech and I wanted to get to know her better. What better way than to read her “freakish success” (as she calls it) of a book, Eat, Pray, Love.

The book begins with Liz (the author) in serious trouble. She knows she is unhappy and decides to pray for help. She says her first ever prayer on her bathroom floor in the middle of the night and it starts her incredible journey to better know God. She comes up with a plan to get out of her own element and really explore the world and its cultures to figure out what the best path is to find God in her own life. This starts with a messy and unfortunate divorce from which it takes a lot of time to recover. She decides she will live out the next year as follows: 4 months in Italy (eating), 4 months in an ashram in India (praying), and will round off her journey with 4 months in Bali (unplanned at the time, but this becomes the loving). Originally her plan was a little different, but she learns how sometimes you must be flexible and intuitive to go where your own personal journey will lead you.

What I have described so far could easily be mistaken for a review of the film based off this book, but let me assure you (as is usually the case) the book is so much better than the movie. The movie covers the high points of the plot and, to be fair, does a very good job of telling the main story – the road to self-understanding and God. The book just has so much more to offer. I learned what an insider’s take is on the cultures Liz visited, not just a travel guidebook snippet. I learned fascinating things like the true reasons and thinking behind the practice of yoga, that ashrams are non-denominational and facilitate all seekers of God, and that pizza margherita tastes best when eaten in Naples, Italy.

Eat, Pray,Love taught me that a balanced life is something that takes discipline and devotion to achieve; and balance can only be found when you let God in show him your gratitude each and every day. How fantastic is it to find a (technically) secular book that promotes a personal relationship with God?! It may sound cliché, but I feel like I am a better person for reading this book, and I only hope that I can employ just a few of the lessons in my own life because I know it would only increase my own happiness.

(Eat, Pray, Love review posted on The Thousander Club here)

I was fortunate enough to be selected as a "giver" for World Book Night 2013. I found out about the organization last year and was a giver then as well (I gave out Little Bee by Chris Cleave). This year, I was thrilled to be responsible for handing out Bossypants by Tina Fey. Having never read the book before (but always wanting to), my giving out 20 copies of it gave me the excuse I needed to finally open it up.

Bossypants is an autobiography that chronicles Tina Fey's life. She touches on some interesting experiences from when she was 5 (did you know she had a large scar on her face?! I never noticed it before reading this book). She tells several funny anecdotes from her teenage and college years, talks a bit about her family and friends and job history. All of this was funny, but the book really took off for me when she gets into her time at Saturday Night Live. Before reading this book, I never knew that she was actually a writer on the show for years before anyone ever saw her. She only hit the camera when she was chosen to read the Weekly News Update apart from Jimmy Fallon. After a while, she decided to branch out and started 30 Rock on her own. She had already quit SNL and solely worked on 30 Rock for 2 years when Sarah Palin was chosen as the running mate for the 2008 election and Lorne Michaels asked Tina back to do her impersonation. I found that all very interesting. 

Tina Fey goes into great detail about her successes with the Sarah Palin impersonations (that only lasted 6 weeks), her (somewhat un-sought-after) critical acclaim for 30 Rock, and even her battling personal anxieties with raising her daughter. The book's main theme is how women can be just as funny as men, despite belief to the contrary in the professional side of things.

Bossypants was just as funny as I would expect from Tina Fey. It's hilarious and a little dorky and embarrassing - the perfect combination! 

(Bossypants review posted on The Thousander Club here)

I will be catching up with a few of the other books I've read over the last month this week, so just know you'll be seeing them more frequently in the next week than you will later on. I'm not that speedy of a reader :)

Free Pet Leash and Pedometer

Go here and register for The Power of Two program and you'll receive a free pedometer and a leash! Hurry while this lasts!

Keep Track of Your Reading with Goodreads

One of the hardest parts of joining The Thousander Club has been trying to remember all of the books that I have already read! I've been reading above 8th grade level for longer than I can remember (fyi - 8th grade level or higher is part of the club guidelines for the book to count), and I used to get books from the library all the time as a kid.

As I was counting my books and discovering "my number", I knew there had to be a better way to keep track other than my not-so-great memory. So, I asked The Thousanders - how do they keep track? Cortney (one of the group leaders) recommended Goodreads.

Goodreads is a website/app designed to keep track of your reading and share with your friends. You can list books you've read, give them a star rating and review, what you are currently reading, what you want to read, see what your friends are reading, have books recommended based on your likes and much more. I'm still learning all the different features of this site and it's lots of fun. I like to use the app on my iPhone and I love the "scan" feature. You can scan the barcode of a book and see the reviews, ratings, etc as well as add it to your own library.

As I've racked my brain to remember books I've read, I am up to 184 books I've read. I know that I'm missing some, so I'm guessing it's closer to 200, but until I remember what they are I'm just going to go with the ones in my Goodreads library. You can even join The Thousander Club Goodreads Group and be connected with me and all the other group members to see what we are reading :)

So, check out this app if you're getting more into reading like me :)

I Am A Thousander!

I made a decision a few months ago to read more books. I have always loved reading, but in the last 5-6 years I haven't really devoted any time to reading and I missed it. Also, World Book Night was coming up and the whole purpose behind it is to promote casual reading. How could I promote something that I don't even do myself? So, I picked up Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert since it was something I had always wanted to read. This book was fantastic and definitely gave me the reading itch; after I finished it, I just wanted to read more.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine from college started a book club of sorts back in 2011 and I decided to join in. It's called The Thousander Club. The premise behind this club is a common goal: to read 1,000 books in our lifetime. This is a pretty lofty and prestigious goal in my opinion, so I joined up :) The group has a nice Facebook presence and members are encouraged to contribute reviews of the books that they read and they are posted to the blog for others to benefit from. They are even having their first official meet up next week!

The Thousander Club is open to anyone who wants to join! You can go here to see the group's guidelines (they are really simple) and you can 'like' them on Facebook to get updates on  reviews and group happenings.

I hope to see some reviews from you in the group! Let's better ourselves together!

And The Winner Is...

So, I'm a complete lunatic and forgot to announce the winner of Wendy's Pattern Giveaway! I'm so sorry to those who entered - it's been an INSANE week. Since I am acquainted with you both, I made sure to use Random.org to choose the winner (I wish I could post the photo of the results, but my computer is freaking out for some reason). And the winner is...

Sarah! I'll be contacting you to get your shipping info. Sarah just learned to sew everyone, how great is that? Hopefully these patterns can give you a boost in your new hobby :)

Thank you to everyone that entered and I will be sure to let you know when there is another giveaway!