Books Galore!

If you know me in real life you'll know how much I love to read. I'll read pretty much anything though chick-lit and thriller/mysteries are probably my favourite genres at the moment. I love a well-written chick-lit book: something with likeable characters, that makes me laugh out loud at the dialogue, smile with satisfaction at the turn of events and shed a tear or two (ok, occasionally sob my head off) at the inevitable sad stuff. There's nothing worse than reading a book where you don't actually like the main characters all that much. And yes, it happens more than you'd think. I also love a well-written thriller, one that keeps me guessing and frightens the daylights out of me at the same time. I hate working out who the killer is on page 12 and having to read another 200-odd pages to be proved right. It's okay to have a hunch, and even better to change your mind about who the villain might be three or four times through the story, but it's just plain annoying when it's so completely obvious right from the get-go.

Maggie Alderson, who incidentally is one of my favourite chick-lit authors - heck, she's just one of my favourite authors all round, recently tweeted that she was going to keep a list of all the books she reads in 2010. I tweeted back asking if she planned to count re-reads or if they had to all be new reads and... she replied to me. OMG. I just about fell of my chair. My brushes with famous people are few and far between and this one ranks right up there! Anyway, she said she was planning to count re-reads but would mark them accordingly. So... I've started my own list. It's down a ways on the side bar and I'll add to as I read more. I don't have a goal number or anything like that, I'm just interested to see the volume I read (I know it's generally what other people term 'a lot') and the kind of stuff I read.

My rules for my list?

- Pretty much everything I read will be added. Except crappy little romance novels. Like Mills&Boon. Because it's kind of embarrassing to admit that, yes, I do read them and, because they take me about 45 minutes to read and are fluffy and light I particularly like them when life is heavy and I need to chill out a bit. But I will include the heftier historical romance-y ones that I'm quite enjoying at the moment. By the end of the year you'll no doubt be horrified by the amount of utter crap that I read. And enjoy.

- re-reads will be marked with an * and there will be re-reads. There are several books that I read once every year. You'll see them as time goes on. There are already a couple on there.

- I won't include books I don't finish. Although for me to not finish a book is pretty rare. It's more common that I'll get to the end and then exclaim, "That was the worst book I ever read." And then hubby questions why I bothered finishing it and I tell him I need to know how it ended and he shakes his head and wanders off muttering about mad women. And yes, I am one of those annoying people who check the last page before reaching the end of the book. Can't help it, won't apologise for it.

- I'll only include cookbooks if I read them sort-of properly. Not if I just skim through and look at the pictures. There's one coming up.

- If I love a book I'm going to blog about it. Again,there's one coming up. If you love a book I'd really like you tell me about it. At least recommend it to me so I can check it out.

So, any thoughts? Anything you want to suggest for my rules? Any books you want to recommend? I'd love to hear what you think. And if you want to play along, let me know.

Sexed Up Salad

I had this deliciously different salad well over a year ago when a friend brought it to share one night. I begged for the recipe and then didn't get around to making it until Christmas where it went down an absolute treat (well, except for with my brother. But I made a very boring, very plain salad for him. Hi little brother!!).

We had it again last week when we caught up with some old friends from a previous life and one of the girls brought this along to the bbq lunch. As I'd planned a bbq for tonight's dinner, and was getting a little bit bored with regular garden salads, I thought I'd throw together a mini-version of this so that Hubby and I had something a bit special to enjoy. Again... yum! At Christmas I did the pumpkin in wedges and laid the salad out on a large platter and tonight I cut it into cubes of about an inch square and served the salad tossed in a bowl. Both worked a treat but I think I prefer the bowl version more.

Pumpkin and Spinach Salad

600g pumpkin - peeled and cut into wedges/slice or cubes

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

1 packet baby spinach (150g)

1 packet pine nuts, toasted. (I didn't have pine nuts today and used toasted pumpkin seeds instead - they were just as good)

200g fetta, crumbled

Dressing

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey - extra

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

Heat oven to 220C. line baking trays with baking paper. Place pumpkin in a large bowl and coat with oil and honey, season with salt and pepper and gently toss. Place in a single layer on baking tray and bake turning once during cooking for approximately 25 minutes or until cooked. Remove from oven and cool.

Combine dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well. Dress salad just prior to serving.

Put salad together with pumpkin, spinach, fetta and pine nuts. Drizzle with dressing and serve.

Back At It

All my scrapbooking stuff has been sitting idle for so long and, while I've missed it and wanted to get back at it, I haven't been quite motivated enough. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much while we were in Red Dirt Central was because of the group I scrapped with each week. The social side was as much fun as the creative side and it was great to have a few people ( or some weeks more like 20 people) to seek inspiration from, share ideas with and learn new techniques with.

I tried to get into a few scrapbooking groups down here but there was always a but. But... the night they met didn't work for me. But... they weren't very welcoming to newcomers and it wasn't really much fun being there. And so on.

Anyway, I was chatting with one of my neighbours recently and discovered that she had some scrapbooking stuff and wanted to make a start but wasn't really sure what to do next. A brief conversation later and... wa-lah. We have ourselves a scrapbooking session each Tuesday night at my place. A couple of neighbours wander over just after my kids go to bed and we spend the next few hours creating, trading gossip and drinking coffee (or in my case, tea). Altogether, a delightful way to pass a few hours and get some 'work' done at the same time.

Here's last night's effort. The colours didn't come out too well in the photo but they're much brighter and prettier in real life.

The Finished Product

This will be the last post on the new tv unit. I promise!

It's all together and in place, everything has been relocated (and I still have quite a bit of space to fill - insert evil laugh here!) and the old tv cabinet has been removed to the carport while Hubby decides what to do with it. I'm not entirely sure I made the right choice colour-wise. Maybe I should have gone with the black? Oh well, it's too late now. I do love that there's heaps of space, all the cords that used to hang down all over the place are hidden away neatly and this piece is actually slimmer than the old one so we've gained a weeny little bit of extra space in the living area. This last one is actually very important when you realise how small the space in my house really is.

So.... here are the pics. They're a bit um... rubbish, partly because I waited until it was dark to take the pics and the lighting wasn't great and partly because my batteries were on their last legs.

Number 1 - Hubby putting it all together last week.

Number 2 - Doors, doors and more doors!

Number 3 - The finished product. We're waiting on another sliding door to cover the drawers down the right hand side and some glass shelves for the top outside sections - they should be in stock in a couple of weeks. We'll also pick up some door handles then because we were a bit dopey and forgot about them.

Number 4 - And here it is with the lights inside the cabinets on.

Wishful Thinking

My whole house looks like the living room threw up across it at the moment. Whoever tells you that Ikea furniture is easy to put together is lying. And probably doesn't have a husband who is sick as a dog but making a Herculean effort to get the damn thing looking like what it's supposed to. I had high hopes that by now we'd be snuggled up on the couch watching Friday night tv and sneaking admiring glances at the cabinets during the ad-breaks. Instead I'm following orders, listening to him swear under his breath and wincing in sympathy each time he tries to cough up a lung. Hubby has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning and then we're heading out for the day to catch up with some old friends so that pretty much wipes out Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by Sunday afternoon things will be a little more settled both living room-wise and Hubby being a wee bit more healthy-wise.