Book Review - The Kane Chronicles

I'm behind again. I've been meaning to write this post every since I wrote this post back in August, because I finished these books about the same time. But then we moved, and um, other stuff happened (Okay, have you ever seen Julian Smith's video "Pre-blessed Food?" It's super funny, and kind of a light-hearted commentary on how busy we all think we are. At one point, this one guy is explaining how busy he is and says, "We've always prayed religiously before eating. But we got so busy with work and {and here he waves his hands all funny} watching TV." Anyway, Jason and I quote that all the time. And that's how I feel right now when I'm making excuses to you. I've been so busy with work and {waving my hands all funny} watching TV...)

*Cough* Anyway! I read these books!

They're great! This is the Kane Chronicles series. The first book is the Red Pyramid, followed by The Throne of Fire, and finished with The Serpent's Shadow. They're by Rick Riordan, the same author who wrote the Percy Jackson series (for which you can find my review here). And where those books deal with the Greek gods, these books deal with the Egyptian ones.

I have to admit that I was less into the first book than I was into the Percy Jackson series. Don't get me wrong; it was still a great book, especially compared with most of them out there. Maybe I was just still too attached to the Greek gods, and missed them? But the second book drew me in a lot more, and I thought the third book was great. So, in summary = great series. Pick it up if you're looking for something fun.

The one criticism I have for this series is that it felt like some scenes were missing. For example, the second book starts off with the main characters doing something because - and this they tell you, you don't actually see it happen - another character showed up and gave them instructions to do it. And I get that Rick Riordan wants to start in on an action scene, but the whole first half of the book I kept feeling like I was missing something - that scene where the character gave them instructions. It just would have put the book on a more solid foundation, made me feel more settled and less like I was forgetting something, if that scene was there. Both the second and third book have a few of these missing scenes, that I just wish were there and would make me feel better if I could just read them. Anyway, it's not a big deal, but that is one thing I would have changed about the books.

Another side note: I love the way that Rick Riordan deals with race in all of his books that I've read. He has tons of characters of different races, and doesn't make a big deal about it. And when I mean a ton, I mean that probably at least half of the main characters are different races. It's a nice change.

Again, this was a fun series to read and I think you'd like it if you like fantasy/action/adventure books in general. Definitely check them out. :)

No way!

Jason and I went to Costco last night to stock up on formula for Ellie. (It is so cheap there, by the way. Literally half the price of the stuff at the grocery store. If you use formula, you might want to look into it.)

After we got the stuff that we needed, we wandered into the book section, and I found this!

This Son by Lois Lowry, a 4th and final book to The Giver series

 .
Did you guys know that there was going to be a last book to this series? I DIDN'T! (I'M SHOUTING BECAUSE I'M SO SURPRISED AND EXCITED!) I thought she finished with this series years ago! I thought Messenger was the last book! And THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!

Plan: hatched. Find way to read this book.

Only the beginning

 Two Fridays ago I read Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. It was a good, albeit kind of "different," book. It's the first in a series of three, and I'm reserving my final judgement until after I've finished all of them, but I definitely liked it.

I won't go much into the plot, other than to say that a totally normal guy ends up having the following conversation with his seal/otter-like alien friend. They are talking about happiness and memory, and the seal/otter says (and this is one of my new favorite passages ever, in any book I've ever read): 

"A pleasure is only fully grown when it is remembered. You are speaking...as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then -- that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it."

Stop and think about that for a moment. Read it again maybe, thinking about each line.


I love it.

He goes on to say this:

"How could we endure to live if we were always crying for one day or one ear to come back - if we did not know that every day in life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?"

This whole week, that line has been playing over and over again in my head. Every time I've had an especially happy moment, where Baby has been laughing and I'm just feeling joy in my heart, I keep thinking, "Every day is this day." And every time I've thought of a past time that I was especially happy, the same thought comes to me. Remember this post that I wrote just a little while ago? Those times. This day is those days as well.

It's just a super interesting thought and one that I really wanted to share with you. It honestly has increased my happiness as I've been thinking about it ever since I read the book.

If you like C.S. Lewis, I would recommend checking this book out. And I'll give you an update on what I thought of the series once I've finished the other two. :)


(Big side note: The cover of this book (at least on our copy) was totally, totally wrong for it.

The copy of the book that we have is old; it was published in 1965 and I honestly don't think whoever chose the cover for the book had even read it. "It's a space book!" they said. "We need to give it a space cover!" And then they went and found some generic sci-fi drawing on somebody's desk a couple of cubicles over and put it on this book.

This is the cover of our copy:

And here is the cover of a copy that I think suits the book much, much better:

Anyway, I feel better now that we've cleared all that up.)

Books I Love - Beyonders

Do you guys remember when I wrote a post last year entitled "Books I Want to Read this Summer?" (I know it might be hard to remember; it was like a year and a half ago.) Well I did, in fact, read those books. And I planned on writing blog posts on them. And…now it's been so long that another summer has passed and I've actually read their sequels. So! You are lucky enough to be able to read my reviews of the original books and the sequels. Woot!

Today I want to talk to you about Brandon Mull's series "Beyonders." In "Beyonders: A World Without Heroes," a regular boy named Jason is, through a crazy twist of fate, transported to a different world he's never had an inkling existed. People in this new world, though, know about us. Sometimes, like Jason, people from our world end up over there. They're called "Beyonders," because they're from the "Beyond" (our world). Jason learns that this world is almost entirely ruled by an evil lord named Maldor, and also stumbles upon the secret that Maldor can be destroyed by a magic word which brave adventurers have to collect syllable by syllable. He's joined by another beyonder named Rachel, and the two of them set out to find the entire word, destroy Maldor, and return home to our world.

I have to admit that when I read the first book in the series last year, I liked it, but I knew that I still liked Fablehaven more. Beyonders was good, but (I felt) lacking some of the originality of Fablehaven. It seemed to me to be a more typical/regular fantasy plot. With that being said, though, the writing was good, the characters were good, and the story was entertaining. It was a good book and I enjoyed it, and I was very interested to see where the series would go.

(Side note: Have any of you noticed that Brandon Mull seems to have some sort of fixation on betrayal? In Fablehaven, it was one of the major themes, and it's carried over into this story as well. Thoughts?)

Now that I've read the second book, "Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion," I fully endorse the series as a "Books I Love" series. Brandon Mull is just so creative, and his creativity really shines through in this book. I won't tell you what happens, because I don't want to spoil anything, but the book is awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can't wait for the next one. (Which, by the way, comes out next March. Sigh. I wish books came out faster.  But I'm patient. Mostly.)

So, yeah! Beyonders is great. If you're looking for some fun books, definitely try them.

Awesome Jean Tote Bag

All right, last day of this batch of crafts. Like I mentioned in the onesie post, I cleaned out my closet. This left me with not just a bunch of shirts to donate, but a bunch of old, worn-out or ill-fitting jeans as well. Some were so old and so patched that I didn't think even DI would want them. So, I used them to create my very favorite project out of all these.

I made a bag.

An awesome bag.

Jason and I go to the library all the time, and we use these cottony-type of tote bags to haul all of our books back and forth. Bags of this size are particularly helpful, so I decided to make another one using a couple pairs of my old jeans. As soon as I started planning it, I could visualize exactly what I wanted it to look like in my head, and so I just made it based on that. I used our cotton tot bags for a size-reference.

I used two pairs of jeans - a light one and a dark one - for the alternating strips and for the edge at the top. For the inner lining and the strap, I used this faux-jean cotton dress that I was also getting rid of. It was perfect because it's soft and a much lighter fabric than the jeans, so the inside is nice and soft and finished and the strap is soft as well.

By cutting the pieces of fabric carefully, I was able to utilize the dresses's already existing pockets without having to do any extra sewing. So, the bag has two pockets in the inside (you see them in the upper left part of the bag, one on each side).

This bag is by far my favorite of the projects I made last week. It's so soft and yet durable-feeling and I just really really like it.

And that's the jean tote bag!

Adult T-shirts to Baby Onesies

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been on a sewing kick this week. There's actually two factors that worked together to create this perfect storm: One, we're moving. Two, I discovered that What Not to Wear has a bunch of full episodes on Youtube.  Both things motivated me to clean out my closet and left me with a bunch of old clothes that I felt I could reuse for Baby.

(Side note about What Not to Wear before moving on to the sewing project: I love that show. I don't know if you've ever watched it, but it's great. If you've never seen it, you might think that it's kind of a judgmental show because it's telling people that what they're currently wearing isn't so great. But it's actually completely the opposite. Yes, they do come and tell people that their current wardrobe is bad. But, the whole show is about building up the people's confidence and self-esteem, and showing them that they're beautiful and that they can and should wear clothes that reflect that. Anyway, I just really love it.)

One of the main thing I cleared from my closet this week was all those free t-shirts I accumulated at BYU. As Stacy and Clinton (the hosts of What Not to Wear) explain, those free t-shirts have no real shape. They are rectangles. I am not a rectangle. Therefore, they are not very flattering on my body. (Another side note: I did save my "stylish" t-shirts; you know, they ones that are actually made for girls. Not the unisex kind.)

Now, although I logically know that these t-shirts don't flatter me as much as other shirts could, I am still sentimentally attached to them. Some I've had for years, like my girls camp shirts, and others I just like, like my free BYU ones. So, what to do? Make them into onesies for Baby, of course! That way, they get to stick around. I don't have to deal with the emotional trauma of giving them away and never seeing them again, and she has some new clothes for when she grows out of her current onesies.

I've made two so far. Both of these were "test" onesies using shirts I wasn't that sentimentally attached to. This blue one I decided to just entirely wing and see how it turned out. I used a onesie that Baby hasn't grown into yet to get a good idea of what size to make and what shapes to cut. I laid it on top of the shirt, cut the the pieces out, and, like I said, just went for it. Here's before:

And after:

(I used the back of the original t-shirt to make the onesie's front. I should have taken a picture of the back so you could see, but oh well.)

I used buttons at the neck to make the neck opening bigger when putting it on:

And buttons at the bottom for the diaper opening:

This second onesie I did very differently. I followed the tutorial here, using her templates and instructions. (I have to admit, I found the instructions somewhat hard to follow at times; I had to think about each step for a while to get what she was saying. But, I figured it out. And I'm grateful that she made the tutorial.)

For this one, I used snaps at the bottom.

I really like how it turned out. It fits well in the shoulders, though it is a bit long so I will shorten it next time. I think for the next one I'll try making the leg openings like a regular onesie rather than a "shortall," either with a regular hem or possibly using elastic to make a ruffle leg? We'll see. I'll definitely show you once I make more, but it might be a while since we're moving. If I get a chance in the next couple weeks to make more, I will, but if I don't it might be a month or so.

Anyway, those are the first t-shirt onesies!

Sleeves, but more awesomely Rufflebums

Day two of the craft round up! Today is all about altering onesies.

Several months ago, Jason and I were at the Gap outlet store and saw a bunch of long-sleeved onesies on sale. It was spring, and Gap was getting rid of its winter inventory. The onesies were really cheap, and I figured that I could probably alter the sleeves so that they would be more appropriate for the weather when baby could fit in them. So, we got our two favorites.

Baby's finally almost big enough to start wearing them, and I've been on a sewing kick this week, so I finally got around to altering them.  I followed this tutorial here pretty much exactly. (Have you guys noticed how much I love that site, by the way? I love that site.)

They turned out great! Here's before:

And after:

She came.

I added the ruffle bum too, which I love:

 

I should add ruffle bums to everything.

I really like how they turned out. I definitely won't be afraid to do this in the future, if I find more deals on long-sleeved onesies. If you have any that you want to alter, you should try it!

Jason's Handiwork

Over the next couple of days I'll be posting the various things that Jason and I have been making lately. We're going to start off with Jason today, because he's awesome.

About a two months ago Jason saw this piano bench/side table thing by our dumpster:

He grabbed it because it's the perfect size and height to go right next to our couch, and he set about fixing it up. It was in pretty bad condition.

The top (which lifts up, like a piano bench), was broken off its hinges:

And the whole table was covered in this rough, almost sticky layer of old varnish. In this next picture, Jason's already sanded like a third of the top and you can see the difference:

After sanding the whole thing by hand, he used black wood stain to transform it.

Before:

 After:

It is so much better now, all nice and smooth and black. It's been right next to our couch ever since he fixed it up, and it's perfect.

Another project that he did was for Baby. She loves to play with our computers (especially the keyboards), which we like to prevent. We had this old, broken laptop in one of our closets, so we pulled it out for her to play with. It was pretty heavy, though, and she couldn't move it very well. So, Jason took the laptop apart, removed most of its guts, and filled it with cotton. He also removed the old black screen (which was pretty heavy itself), took an old white binder apart, and used the binder cover as the new screen. Since it's white plastic, Baby will be able to use whiteboard markers on it in the future. Jason also left the clear plastic sheet on the cover, so we can slide pictures in the side. Here it is:

Ta-da!

Now it's "Baby's computer." And she does indeed like to play with it.

Jason is so talented and creative.

Why I believe what I do on Gay Marriage

With all that's going on, I figure it is about time that I tell you what I believe about gay marriage, and why.

First of all - and I want to emphasize this - I completely understand if you have a different opinion. I completely see how people would think differently than me. I just want to explain why I believe what I do.

As you probably know, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I believe that there is a God, and that he cares deeply about each of us.

I believe that we have modern prophets on the earth today, just as there were prophets in the old and new testament times.

I believe that God speaks through his prophets. In the Doctrine and Covenants (modern revelation that, if you want to, you can read here) he says, "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

These modern prophets have said (in The Family: A Proclamation to the World) that "We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.  All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

Since I believe that God lives, and he speaks through his prophets, I believe that it is God that declares "Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God."

Now, I want you to know - and this is the biggest thing I want to emphasize in what I'm writing today - I know that God loves us. I know that he wants us to be happy. Do I understand each and every reason behind certain commandments? No. But I know that they are given because God wants us to be happy, and they are the way to happiness. In the Book of Mormon, Nephi, a prophet, is asked, "Knowest thou the condescension of God?"  Nephi explains, "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

And that's what I'd like to tell you. God loves his children. All of his children. He wants us to be happy. If we follow him, we will be. Satan is the father of lies. He can make bad things look good, and good things looks bad. But if we have faith in God, and what he says, we'll be happy.

That's why I believe what I do. I believe God lives, I believe he speaks to us through his prophets, and his prophets have told us that God has said marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Again, I completely understand if you believe differently. I understand if you don't believe in God. I understand if you do believe in God, but you believe that he feels differently than I have explained here. I understand. I respect you. And I just want you to understand why I believe what I do.

Second Lulu Blog Book!

Guess what?! (Hint: If you read the title, you'll probably win.) My second Lulu book came! I ordered it on July 13, and it came on Monday (July 25), so it had a 12 day turnaround. Not bad.

I love my second book even more than the first one. After looking at the first one and seeing how things transferred from monitor to book, I made a couple changes so now it's pretty much exactly how I want it.

First of all (and pretty obviously), I did more with the cover. I like the title bar on the first book, but I wanted this one to be different. So, I simplified the title bar by removing the strip of pictures. I then made a collage on Picmonkey (an awesome site I found a couple weeks ago that I love, and that you have unknowingly seen evidence of on my blog in form of those picture collages I've been doing) using some pictures from the year, and centered that underneath the title. I put both of those (the title and the picture collage) on the polka dot background, which I slightly enlarged (so the polka dots are bigger) and changed to a more yellow-blue tone. I also changed the font on the spine.

I really like how it turned out!

Secondly, I changed the main inside font (Trebuchet) from size 12 to size 11. The size 12 seemed just a bit too big, but the size 11 is perfect. And it takes up less space! Which is great, because this book was also quiet a bit (40 pages) longer than the last one.

Lastly, I added more space in between the date stamp, title, and body of the posts. It just looked better on the printed page. I made the decision after seeing the spacing in the first book, but it was actually kind of tough as I was formatting this book; I kept wanting to put less space in between them. Some things just look different in Word than on the printed page. In Word: less space = looked better. Printed: more space = looked better. Anyway, I'm glad I did add a little more space. It looks good.

So that's my second blog book! I'm really happy with how it turned out. The price (for 188 pages, hardcover, black and white) was $20.02 with $4.99 shipping. I used a coupon code that got me $3.60 off, so my total was $21.41.

Again, I totally recommend Lulu for printing your blog into a book. It does take more time and work than Blog2Print or Blurb (actually, scratch that - I think Blurb would have taken more time. But Blog2Print would have been less), but it's way cheaper and you can format it exactly how you want to. It's good quality printing and binding.

I updated this post on how to make a Lulu blog book, adding what I learned from this time around.

I'm working on this year's book already. I've copied and pasted all the posts up to this point, and I'm working on formatting them. From this point out, my plan is to work on the book once a month. I'll copy all that month's posts and format them in one go. That way, at the end of the year, I'll just have to do the last month's posts and be done with it. 

 

So, yeah! Lulu's great.

Be sure to check out these posts too!

How to Make a Lulu Blog Book

Blog2Print vs. Blurb  
 

Another blog book on the way

I ordered my second Lulu Blog Book! This one is for the year 2011. I'll let you guys know when it comes. I changed a couple things this time around, and I'll let you know how that went.

I'm so excited!

We made Onesies!

So, when Jason's mom was here last time, she spoiled us quite a bit. We went shopping for Ellie at Kohl's, and she bought us these (along with a bunch of really cute baby clothes):

That's right, plain white onesies. Jason wanted to get them, because his creative mind could see the possibilities in them. We had to think about it for a while, though, before we really figured out what we wanted to do. And then we just went for it!

Drum roll please......dumdumdumdumdumDUM!

Tada!!!

Our custom-made onesies! We had a lot of fun making these. I'll go through and show how we made each one.

First of all, the sun onesie with attached skirt!

Both Jason and I wanted to attach a skirt to at least one of the onesies. Jason had a couple old t-shirts that we could use the fabric from, so I chose a nice yellow one. I cut off the whole bottom to use for the skirt, and then followed the tutorial here to attach it to the onesie.

I then made the sun using fabric from one of the sleeves. I attached it (the circle and the rays) using a zig-zag stitch. (I also used a zig-zag stitch when attaching the skirt to the onesie, to give it more stretch and allow it to slip over Ellie's head easier.)

Next, the cloud/sun/tree onesie!

Jason did this one. He used the design from this Threadless t-shirt. He sketched it out and drew it by hand! He's so dang talented!

Then we have the turtle onesie:

I made this one by making a stencil and using spray fabric paint. First I drew a turtle on paper and then cut it out.

I then attached double-sided tape to the back of the turtle and stuck it on the onesie.

Then I sprayed! I sprayed the front first, waited an hour, then sprayed the back and shoulders. I messed up a little, though; after I sprayed the shoulders I put the onesie down without thinking about it, and several paint drops got on the front. So, if you look at the finished picture, you can see some bigger drops on front. I'll be more cautious next time.

After waiting overnight, I peeled the turtle off. And voila!

Okay, next we have the flower onesie!

This one was really simple. I already had the flowers (made of yellow silk; I made them like a year ago. I made a ton of them. I've been trying to find ways to use them ever since) and I simply sewed them on to the front. Done!

And, last but definitely not least, we have the happy organ onesie!

Jason (of course) did this one as well. He is just so amazing. He got the design from this fellow, and then did it all by hand. He is so amazing!  Also, at one point when he was drawing it out, he was like, "Look, it's an organ trail!" (Organ...Oregon...yeah :) ) He also noted that the kidneys should be in the back, but if they were we wouldn't be able to see them. So, everyone, please come to terms with them being in the front.  And, one more note, I think the gallbladder is my favorite.

So that's our onesie extravaganza! It was seriously so fun to make them. We still have lots of supplies (we used fabric markers, spray fabric paint, and extra fabric), so we plan to make more in the future. (And, in case you were wondering what the supplies cost: We bought the fabric markers and fabric spray paint from Michael's. We used 40% off coupons we printed off from online, so the total was something like $13. Not bad at all.) We already went to Deseret Industries (Utah's version of Goodwill) and got some white onesies that we can decorate that were only 50 cents each.

Seriously, we had so much fun!