8/365

September makes me feel alive all over again.

Some thoughts on rest and the Sabbath from a tired mind.

Do you ever have those weeks when it's just so busy that you don't know how it's Sunday night already? This was one of those weeks for me. I was gone every evening during the week, and then yesterday I spent all day cleaning the house (because I was so busy that it hadn't happened for a while). And then we spent most of the day today either with church or family. This is all good stuff, but I'm tired.

Doesn't it just seem like everyone in our society is just running around, busy all the time? Has life always been like this, or is it just my generation? How do we get out of this, and actually slow down?

God knew what he was talking about when He commanded us to have a Sabbath day and keep it holy. I am not good at that. I think He must have said that with introverts in mind. I think I need to start actually making an effort to have a Sabbath day. Maybe then I wouldn't be so wiped out by Sunday night.

I want to explore this more but I'm tired, so I'm going to go get in bed with my book (Pride & Prejudice, the best before-bed read).

Room || Emma Donoghue

I love audiobooks. I've dabbled in them over the years, but it's just been this last year or so that I've been listening to them consistently. Ever since I started working as a receptionist and doing data entry, they can make my day go by so much faster, and I've read upwards of 20 books in the last year by listening to them at work! I know people who don't think that audiobooks count as reading, but to them I say, baloney. It might not be your cup of tea, but don't discount it altogether. I'm still ingesting a story, and sometimes audio is just as powerful as print.

Yesterday, I finished listening to Room by Emma Donoghue. I read this book back in 2010 or 2011, and I thought it was really good. I'd been wanting to reread it ever since I found out about the movie that came out a year ago, and when a friend of mine on YouTube said that the audiobook of it was really good, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad that I did.

This a story told from the point of view of 5 year-old Jack who lives with his Ma in Room. Jack was born in Room and has never known anything else. He and Ma sleep, eat, exercise, play, and learn in their 11x11 space. Every night Ma puts Jack to bed in Wardrobe, and after Jack goes to bed, that's when Old Nick comes. Jack is perfectly happy with their life, but for 7 years Ma has been captive in Room, and she's desperate to be free.

Room is not a book for the faint of heart. This book ripped my heart into shreds. I finished it yesterday and I cannot stop thinking about it. There are so many interesting things that Donoghue did with the storytelling and themes. It's certainly interesting that she chose to tell the story through the eyes of a child, and I feel that it tells a very different story than if she had chosen to tell it through the eyes of Ma. Seeing things through Jack's eyes puts the situation into such an innocent light, while we as the reader know that Ma was kidnapped and has been held as a prisoner all these years. We know that Jack is a result of rape. We know that Ma is living in every woman's nightmare. But hearing these things in the voice of a child somehow makes it even more horrifying, because a child is in the middle of all of this.

The audiobook of room is narrated really well. It's done in a child's voice, with other voice actors doing the adult characters dialogue. I've heard that the child voice is hard for some people to get into, so it might not be for everyone.

I measured my bedroom yesterday, mostly because I have been wondering for a while what the square footage of our house was (I forgot almost promptly after we bought it). And maybe subconsciously I did it yesterday because I just finished reading this book. My bedroom is 12x13. I cannot imagine being trapped in that room for 7 years, raising a child on top of it. And in that moment, I prayed for every woman and child that is in the same situation as Ma and Jack, everyone held captive by evil men. I think if a book can move you to prayer, than it's done a very good job at telling a story.

I would highly recommend Room to those that want to read a gripping story, or want to read something powerful. There is hope at the end of all of this, so if it feels like it might be too heavy at times, just keep going. I have so many thoughts on this book, I'm planning on filming a spoilery book talk for my YouTube channel this weekend, hopefully I will have that up soon. I also plan to watch the movie soon while the book is fresh in my mind, I'd like to do a book to movie comparison as well. Just today I heard of a new book called Baby Doll which sounds very similar to Room, so I'm kind of curious to see how it compares to this one.

Have you read Room? What did you think? Do you have a hard time reading stories about subject matter like this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

4 podcasts I think you should listen to.

I have a very on-again/off-again relationship with podcasts. I have been introduced to quite a few over the years, but eventually I stop listening to them (or really, any at all). In the past couple months, however, I have come back to podcasts, and I might be here to stay.

There are a few that I listen to occasionally, one I was introduced to today, and one that I actually listen to every week. Let me share them with you now :) (As a note, I've linked the Google Play page for each podcast. I discovered that you can listen to and subscribe to many podcasts through Google Play, and I find this amazingly convenient. I'm a fan!)

Dear Hank and John - I have been a fan of the Green brothers for a few years now, and every so often I listen to their podcast. I find their relationship so cool, how they just like and appreciate each other so much, and how they can be business partners and do so many cool things together!

Poddy Break with Tim Hawkins - Tim Hawkins is my favourite comedian. I've seen all of his dvds multiple times, and I've even been to a couple of his live shows. He is just hilarious, and I love this weekly look into his weirdo brain, often featuring guests.

Christy Wright's Business Boutique - I was just introduced to this one today, and I think it will quickly become a regular listen. I have many dreams of working from home, running my own creative business, and this might actually inspire me to get my tail into gear! Christy Wright is a successful entrepreneur, and in this podcast she shares what you need to do to actually start your own business in today's age with social media. I love that she is specifically talking to women, and that she brings her faith into it as well.

What Should I Listen to Next? - This is my favourite podcast, can you imagine why? Anne Bogel (aka Modern Mrs Darcy) is what I want to be when I grow up, just talking to people about books all day. Each week in the podcast, Anne has a new guest, and they (the guest) talks about 3 books they loved, one book they hated, and what they're reading lately, and with all that information in hand Anne will recommend them new books to read next. I have to listen to this podcast with Goodreads open in another tab, because I get so many amazing book recommendations. If you are a book lover at all, I highly recommend this podcast.

Those are 4 podcasts that I regularly listen to. Now I just need to find some good podcasts about knitting and I'm set. What are your favourite podcasts?

1/365

I have been very blessed to be married to a very creative man. We have many conversations about our creative dreams and projects we would like to do. For awhile now Christopher has wanted to do a poster-a-day project, where he designs a poster everyday. He works as a graphic designer, but he misses designing just for fun. I decided to start my own project alongside him, partly to support him, and partly because I would like to challenge myself. So I said that I would write everyday that he designed a poster.

However, I didn't realize that he wanted to do it for a whole year! But I already committed, so here we go.

Day one of writing every day.

For a year.

It might not be a blog post everyday, as I'm also counting things like writing letters and doing writing prompts for short stories, maybe even writing poetry. But I will try to post here as much as possible. I'm kind of excited to see what might happen as I grow over this challenge. And I really hope that both Chris and I will stick it out the whole year, that would be pretty big for us. We are very similar and we tend to lose stream on things after awhile. Hopefully this will be the one that sticks, wish us luck!

12 Geeky Pins That Will Have You Reaching For Your Craft Supplies.

I have a new obsession.

It's looking up geeky crafts on Pinterest.

I have no delusion that I'll end up making all of them, but there's just something I love about the combination of my geek loves and my passion for making things. Really, crafty geeks are the best kind of people you could ever hope to meet.

Clockwise from top left: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Chris and I are massive Avatar the Last Airbender fans, and I'm desperate to have my own Airbender gear. When I showed Chris these knitted Link gauntlets, he asked me why he didn't already have them. We're eventually redoing our bedroom this fall, and I think this Triforce pillow would look really nice on our bed.

Clockwise from top left: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Doctor Who is basically my life now. Yes, I'm one of those crazy people you see all over the internet. Making things like this is basically why I learned how to crochet. And that bookshelf is so amazing I don't even know what to do with myself.

Clockwise from top left: [1] [2] [3] [4]

I actually have yet to finish playing through Portal, much to Chris' chagrin, but I was having a lot of fun when I did play it, and I love this crocheted companion cube. Stitch is one of my most favourite Disney characters, and I love this little crocheted guy! Ditto with Totoro being one of my favourite Studio Ghibli characters. And my love for the tv show Chuck is all-consuming, and I want to learn how to cross-stitch so I can have this in my house. I think it would also translate fairly well to crochet.

Clockwise from top left: [1] [2] [3] [4]

I have never done string art before but I am loving these so much that I'm going to make one for every room in my house! (I'm sure all of these will be familiar to you except for the pineapple - that's from the tv show Psych. It's so good, you should watch it now.)

I'm really itching to try string art, so that might happen sooner than later. What are some of your favourite geeky things? Do you have any geeky art in your home?

To see more of my geeky craftiness pins, check out my Pinterest board here!

My triumphant(ish) return to blogging.

A while back I was thinking a lot about this blog, and blogging in general. In the past 2 years, I have written less than 10 posts, which makes me really sad. I think I've figured out what the reason for that is.

It seems that over the past few years, blogging has turned from something you do for fun into something that you have to run like a business. It feels like it's about taking the best pictures, writing the most click-baity titles, integrating with Pinterest and Facebook, being active on Twitter and Instagram, tracking SEO stats, and dozens of other things that just go over my head. It seems like every other blog these days is solely about blogging, for goodness sakes.

I got overwhelmed by that, and I felt like that was what a blog had to be. I felt like I had to do that, but the thing is, I don't want to do that. I don't want to optimize everything for Google and Pinterest. I wish I cared about that, but I really don't.

I just want this to be about writing. I miss sharing my thoughts here, logging my mail and creative endeavours, and documenting my life.

So I let go of that comparison. My blog isn't going to be the most professional thing that you have ever seen, and maybe my formatting will be a little wonky, and maybe my posts will be too long and rambly, and maybe my pictures will be a little too dark. And that's okay. This is about my life behind the yellow door, and it's good the way it is.

Expect to see more of me around here in the future. You'll know it's me because it won't be polished. But it'll be me.

Red Rising || Pierce Brown

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the colour-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. He spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Inspired by a longing for justice, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Red Rising is unlike anything I have read before. It does feel heavily like a mix of The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, and Braveheart, with some Greek and Roman mythology thrown in, and the result is something completely unique.

Good things:

• The cast of characters was fantastic. I felt like they were all well developed, with depth to each of them, even the side characters. There were some characters that I expected to behave in a certain way, and they didn't, which I found very refreshing.
• The world that Brown created is amazing. He just drops you into this totally different time and place, and it was so well crafted. It was totally believable. 
• I found the plot really compelling. The twists and turns kept me turning the pages.

Not so good things:

• Toward the end of the book things played out a little too conveniently. I wasn't sure if I could let my guard down or not; it felt like something bad should be around the corner because that's usually what happens when things seem to be working out for the main characters, and that totally threw me off.
• It wasn't too much for me, but this books is often quite brutal and bloody. There is a heavy battle element to this book, which is where that comes in, so I just want to point that out for people who don't handle things like that well. I would definitely recommend this for more mature readers.

A tip for readers: I suggest keeping a list of who all of the characters are as you encounter them, just their name, the house they're associated with, how they relate to Darrow. There is a large cast of characters and sometimes it was hard to keep track of them, especially people that we hadn't seen for a good chunk of the book. Luckily, book 2 does have a list of the cast, but that would have helped me out a lot in this one. 

Overall thoughts:

Red Rising was such an intense ride. I have book 2 sitting on my shelf, and book 3 was published in January, so I am really looking forward to seeing where things go for Darrow! 

The Graceling Realm || series review

This year I made a resolution to write a review for every book I read. As you can tell, I am doing pretty well at that (/sarcasm). But it's not too late in the year that I can't get caught up! So here we go!

The first book I finished in 2016 was Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. It's the final book in the Graceling Realm trilogy, so I'm just going to review the series (as evidenced by the title of this post).

The Graceling Realm trilogy is a YA fantasy series. The books of this series feature a different main character, but they all tie in together. Bitterblue is the direct sequel to Graceling, and features characters from Graceling and Fire. Fire is a companion prequel to Graceling, but I wouldn't read it first because it would have spoilers for Graceling.

Some series stats:


In this world, there are people known as Gracelings, people that have with an extreme skill, or "grace". They are born with different coloured eyes, which is how they are able to be identified. Katsa, our main character in the first book, is graced with killing. Being the niece of a brutish king, she is forced to be his personal assassin, even though she loathes every minute of it. She is part of a secret council that goes performs tasks that seek justice against the crown. One day a prince named Po comes to the council and asks them to find his missing grandfather, believed to be kidnapped by one of the neighbouring kingdoms, and our story takes off from there.

Fire takes place many years before Graceling, and it tells the story of a girl named Fire, the last human monster living in a wild country. Monsters in this world are brightly coloured versions of regular animals, and they also possess the ability to control minds. Fire has this ability but she is very reluctant to use it, as she doesn't want to force her will onto innocent people. However, Prince Brigan needs her help to uncover a plot against the king, and convinces her to come to King City to become a part of his investigation.

The final book in the series, Bitterblue, takes place a decade after the events of Graceling. The young Queen Bitterblue has ascended the throne of Monsea, and she must unravel the mysteries surrounding the reign of the previous king, who was a tyrannical ruler.

Good things about this series:

• The world building in this series is amazing. It really felt like a proper fantasy world, with many rich elements woven together. 
• The characters were very strong, and for the most part they showed good development over the course of their respective stories. Strong female protagonists are always good.
• The romances in these books feature slow-burning, "will-they-or-won't-they" relationships, which I quite enjoy. 

Not so nice things about the series:

• My main complaint about this series is the very casual attitude toward sex that Cashore depicts. It's nothing at all for people to have sex outside of marriage, with multiple partners, and we also see several homosexual relationships and an implied bi-sexual character. The middle book, Fire, is the worst one for this. One of the male side characters sleeps with nearly every female character introduced in this book. All of the women just accept this as how he is, and they have no qualms about the situation at all. There is also a very convenient plant that serves as a "morning after" device, and the only negative depiction of a sexual encounter at all in this series is that a female character gets pregnant because she didn't have any of this plant on hand. [I realize that others might not share the same opinion on this topic, these are just my personal moral convictions.]
• Bitterblue suffered from some pacing issues; it felt like at times the story was just spinning it's wheels because Cashore was trying to build more mystery, but really it just felt the same things kept happening over and over. It could have been a good 100 pages less and not suffered at all. 

Overall conclusion:

I think that Kristin Cashore is an excellent writer, and if you want to get into fantasy but are intimidated by it, this would be a good place to start. 

If you are bothered by the sexual elements I mentioned, just skip Fire altogether. It does have elements that are fascinating regarding the world, but you won't miss anything at all if you read Graceling and Bitterblue as a duology.