wordless wednesday

The Art of Breakfast from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

{read: great chick lit} Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

I've been a fan of Jennifer Weiner since she started to publish novels, in part because I followed close upon her footsteps as a reporter at the Centre Daily Times newspaper in State College, Pa. In fact, one of the superintendents that I covered used to call me Jennifer sometimes. I look forward to her books because they're usually a light, refreshing, quick read, like eating a dish of orange sherbet while you're dangling your feet in the pool. All of that being said, this is by far her strongest book. She uses a rotating point of view to tell the story of Jules (egg donor), Annie (surrogate mother), India (adopting mother), and Bettina (India's stepdaughter) and delve into the stories of these very different women who become linked by one baby. The plot may be somewhat predictable, but I enjoyed the character development and thought that the writing grew stronger and the novel went on. I'd definitely recommend this as a good book to read this summer.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner (Atria, 2011)
My rating: 4 stars

{crafts} What we are Lovin'

Brooklyn - NYC photography / Graffiti / paint By Thearwart

THE LAST purple w/ white tips Shaggy Shaker By BeatCreatures

Explosion From Forbidden Clouds by ChristopherKelleher

{a thought for Thursday} More

"So often a thing makes more of itself. Love begets love, and cruelty engenders more cruelty. Chaos, once opened, births chaos." -- Stefan Merrill Block, The Storm at the Door

{wordless wednesday} Cat Tails

Enjoy! Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Click here to purchase a print of this photograph on InkOverPaper.

{read: vacation book} To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

More than just a love story or an exploration of what marriage is or isn't, this novel explores how we deal with the choices we've made when we stop to take stock of our lives. Judith has always been a planner, but she suddenly thinks that perhaps she should have made different choices in love and marriage. The suspicion that her husband is sleeping with his assistant prompts her to use a fake name to rent a storage unit, where she sets up her girlhood bedroom. She spends many afternoons there napping, recovering from migraines that have suddenly begun to plague her. Even her work as a television producer has begun to suffer. The natural next step is to track down Willy, her boyfriend/fiancee whom she dumped after going to Stanford. What she finds and how she reacts surprises her.

I wasn't sure how this was going to end, but I felt the ending was the one that the novel deserved. The writing is beautiful, as is the title, and the book is sprinkled with witty one-liners on marriage from Judith's mother. I thought this was hard to put down. It would make a great book for a vacation, whether you're heading away or staying home. Tom NcNeal creates a world with characters so real that you can't wait to return to them. This is the first book I've read by him, but I've added his first (Goodnight, Nebraska) to my to-read list.

To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal (Little, Brown and Company, 2011)

My rating: 4 stars

{crafts} Homemade House for Toddlers

Here is a fun activity to do with your little ones. All you need is a few empty boxes, an egg crate, toilet paper roll, washable paints, old magazines and glue.

First I helped my 19 month old paint the insides of the shoe boxes. He enjoyed having globs of paint to brush around on the insides of the boxes. This is all we did on our first day. We usually paint on weekend mornings, before having a bath or going to the pool since it gets pretty messy. The following weekend we painted the egg carton and toilet paper roll. Again, he enjoyed getting the paint in the crevices of the egg carton. He also enjoyed putting his paint brush through the toilet paper roll. Then we looked through some magazines and cut out a few decorations for our house. We ended up with a cow jumping over a moon, which turned out to be his favorite part of the house. We also added a car and a dog. I cut up the egg carton to use as chairs, a table, a bed and a bath tub. Finally, I brought the pieces inside and used my glue gun to put it all together. Aaron enjoyed playing with the house with his little people.