Weekend Book Report #12

Well I hope that everyone has had a good weekend. I've finished a few books that over the past few weeks.

The first book that got finished was Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr. This is the second book by this author, all are part of the a series. It is classified as a young adult fantasy. In these books we are introduced into a world of faerie. In this book we are introduced into the Dark Court. It was an okay read, rated at three stars.








The second book that I read was Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr. This is the third book in this series. In this we are dealing with all four courts of faerie. Another good read. This was was better the the second one. Probably a three and half star rating.










And the last book that I read was Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton. This is the second book in knitting mystery series. In this book Kelly finds the dead body of one of her new friends while taking a group of knitters out on a tour of this friend's ranch. A nice easy read. Three stars.

Coffee Cake

Good evening all!

The Monkey and I were in the kitchen again this weekend. We made one of my simplest recipes that's in my notebook/recipe book.

We started with these:



And made this:

Easy Cinnamon Coffee Cake
(Printable recipe)

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 vanilla pudding mix (3.4 oz instant)
1 butterscotch pudding mix (3.4 oz instant)
1c. brown sugar
4 eggs
1c. water
1c. oil
1Tbsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9x13 pan

Mix cake and pudding mix. Add eggs, water and oil. Mix well.

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in separate bowl.

Pour half of batter into pan, top with half of cinnamon mixture. Cover with rest of batter and top with cinnamon mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes more.

Goals

Well good morning! The sky is clear, the air is crisp and we're looking at another almost 60 degree day. For us here in Minnesota, that's amazing for this time of year. And on the even brighter side it should be staying like this into the weekend.

I told my husband last night that I wish there was about three more of me. That way I could get everything done that I wanted to and needed to. I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there that feels this way. I always set myself goals or should I say to do lists. But I can never get them done. Things keep moving to the next days list. Then to the next weeks list. And it doesn't matter whether it's housework or crafting, I just have a hard time getting things crossed off the list.

For example last night's list went something like this:
1. do dishes
2. clean living room
3. fold last two loads of laundry
4. finish sleeve on Squirm's sweater and sew shoulder seams
5. take half hour to sew on quilt

And well I got #4 done. That's it. And well it doesn't help that I fell asleep at 8:30 in the chair watching Big Bang Theory. And well #'s 1 and 2 would have taken all of a half hour to get done. I'm just not sure where the time goes in the evening.

So in hopes of getting more done I'm going to post one goal here that I want to get done this week. I want to get Squirm's sweater done this weekend. That includes buying a piece of ribbon for it.

Sorry for such a long, boring post with no pictures. But on the plus side I do have a post in mind once I get the pictures out of the camera and into my laptop. See another thing that I want to do. So any tips on getting things done? Anybody else want to hire a maid and a nanny some days so they can get to work on fun stuff without feeling guilty?

Muffins

Well now that the weather has become and stayed fall like, its baking season.

Last week me and the Monkey made muffins. Everyone seemed to like them. And since we made a double batch they lasted all week. And were still really moist. They made a perfect breakfast for me to take to work.




Apple Muffins
(printable recipe)

makes 11-12 muffins

You will need:
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 c. oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c. finely diced apple
1/2 c. raisins
1 c. milk
2 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl mix sugar, egg, oil and vanilla. Beat with spoon until well blended. Stir in apples raisins and milk. Sift together flour, cinnamon, salt, soda and baking power. Add flour mix to wet mixture. Mix only until dry ingredients are blended in. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 18 minutes.


Well here to a productive weekend, whatever that might be . . .cleaning? baking? crafting? or just taking it easy.

costume

Well, Halloween came and went. And I struggled to get Monkey's costume done. It took all of 3o minutes to get it done. It started out that she wanted to be a white cat. And while we were at the fabric shop, she decided she wanted black ears. So this is what we came up with.


She loved it. We added ears to a regular headband and made a tail out of a piece of elastic that went around her waist with the tail and a piece of wire attached.

Weekend Book Report #11

Wow another week has gone by!! But it's been busy. Some crafting, cleaning, and of course costume making. Some of which I'll try and show you this week. But I thought I'd bust out the book report on the weekend again.

I got a couple of books in this week. So. . .



First I read The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais. This would be the fist book in the Elvis Cole series. For those who don't know this is a mystery series. In this book Elvis, a private investigator is try to find a missing husband and child for a woman out in Hollywood. This was an alright read. Nothing special but not bad. I'll probably try reading more of this series. Three out of five stars.






The other book that I got finished was Christmas Jar by Jason F. Wright. This is a fictional book. A very good, feel good book. Very short and easy read. If you haven't read this book, please do so. Four and half stars.

Well that's all for tonight. I need to head to bed, that alarm clock just goes off too early. Hope everyone has a good Monday.