October Books and Monday Whatever

Books!  Books! Books!

Books are very important around my house.  In case you didn't already know that.

October's list:

1.  Without a Word, How a Boy's Unspoken Love Changed Everything by Jill Kelly.  This was about a boy who was unable to speak due to a health condition he was born with.  I don't remember the details, but I think it was a good book although a sad one.  True story.

2.  Regretsy, Where DIY Meets WT_?  By April Winchell (Fill in the letter in the title yourself).  Really funny.

3.  Weird US, Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Moran and Sceuman.  This was good in general, but a lot of it was of no interest to me.

4.  D-Day in Photographs by Andrew Witmarsh.  Recommended reading for anyone and everyone.

5.  Lips Unsealed by Belinda Carlisle.  Autobiography and like most of the other books by/about the entertainers of "my generation":  drugs and she's lucky to still be alive.  Bad choice after bad choice.

6.  Swim to Me by Betsy Carter.  Entertaining, she reminds me of Debbie Macomber in her writing style.  It was ok and I might see what else I can find by this author.

7.  Little Girl Blue, the Life of Karen Carpenter.  By Randy L. Schmidt.  I'd already read a couple of books about her so I already knew the basic story and I remember when she died.  Karen never had a chance.  For a lot of reasons.

8.  Plus Size Crochet, Fashions that Fit & Flatter by Margaret Hubert.  I don't remember finding much in this one.

9.  My Heart May Be Broken But my Hair Still Looks Great by Dixie Cash.  If this is the one I think it is, it wasn't anything to get excited about.

10 - 17.  Batman

18.  Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule.  Many times a rerun and will be on my list again in the future.

19.  The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas.  Froggy recommended this one.  It is about a group of quilters.  Froggy and I have a similar situation, quilting in her case and crochet in mine - you know you are addicted when you choose a book just because it has fabric/yarn in the title, story or on the cover!  This was actually good and I think that I have another book by this author waiting on my bookshelf.

20.  The Village Bride of Beverly Hills by Kavita Daswani.  This one was ok, but it was a little too close to a romance novel for my tastes.  But it wasn't bad.

21.  Amish Grace, How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy ty Kraybill, Nolt and Weater-Zercher.  This was about the Amish school shooting and how the Community responded.  We could and should all learn a lesson from them.

Not as many books as usual for me, but October was a busy month.  November might be just as busy, but I'll give it a good try to read as many as I can!

We had a trick-or-treater last night, we didn't actually buy candy to hand out but had some on hand for us, but this one came when it was still light.  It was a clown.  A very young clown, maybe 3 but probably closer to 2 years old.  He was so cute!  Of course we gave him candy.  I wasn't about to turn him away!  His parents were smart, they were taking him around while it was still light.  We did that with Otter the first few times, her first Halloween was when she was a baby and she still had a costume.  She didn't really trick or treat then, but Bill carried her around with him while he was accompanying (sp?) a friend of ours who was taking his daughter around.  The next year, we were in Oklahoma and she had a family clown costume that she wore to the zoo for their event.  She didn't actually go around the neighborhood then as I recall.  But the year after that, she got to trick or treat for real.  She wore another family costume - she was a jack 'o lantern.  She was escorted by Grandpa and Bill, around Grandpa's neighborhood.  Which is now ours.

Really bad picture, I already know that!  But this is the costume that Otter wore to the party Saturday night.  She wasn't quite finished when I took the picture.  This is one of the few pictures of Otter's face I'll EVER post.  I think this one is pretty safe, considering that she's made up and wearing a wig!  But I really do need to get busy and learn the camera settings.

We just came from the Halloween store.  Today is their last day and it's half-price clearance day.  We ran into two of Otter's friends there.  She found several things and I found a package of squishy rubber bats.  I was hoping to find spiders, TOADLES IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED.  But no spiders, just squishy bats.

Speaking of spiders, our 8-legged tan friend is still out on the deck.  He's got a good spot for his web.  We might get a freeze towards the end of the week, we didn't quite get that cold last week but I'm thinking that we probably won't have the spider's company for much longer.

I finished the last part of the crochet on my pillows.  I put Otter's together completely last night, I just have to finish the ones I made for the couch.  There are 4 of them.  I sewed the fabric covers yesterday and stuffed the pillow forms into them - which was kind of difficult, since I didn't leave the openings quite big enough!  But I managed to get them into the covers.  They are still waiting on me to sew them closed, then I just have to attach the crocheted covers.  Because they are granny squares, the white of the pillow form would show through so I bought some fabric to cover them with first.  Otter's is blue fabric, one crochet side is blue and the other side is the color called Beach that I made a scarf out of - the scarf is on the craft blog if you want to see the color, it's the one I made for my sisterfriend Virginia.  The ones for the couch are all various shades of brown or tan, some solid and some varigated - one is turquoise and brown and is similar to the color I made the prayer shawl out of that is also on the craft blog, but is not the same yarn.  The fabric covers are tan for two and brown for the other two.  I might get them finished up tonight.

I guess that's it for now!  I hear the dogs making nosie in the living room, I hope that they are just playing but I probably should go check on them.