Have a Kindle? Three Great Blogs for Free Books

I've been doing a lot of reading in what little free time I've had lately.  The beautiful thing (since like most people, I'm watching my wallet) is that most of the books I have been reading I haven't paid a dime for.  Below are three blogs I read that post about bargains or free books available out there.

Books on the Knob - Recommended by my knitsib and fellow Kindle Fire owner, CaughtKnittin, Books on the Knob is a great resource for Kindle users.  They also list deals for the Kobo and Nook as well, so still check it out if you aren't a Kindle owner.  I find the posts really comprehensive and very easy to browse through quickly.  There are short descriptions of the books as well as the publishers they come from.  As an added bonus they even post about any free audiobooks through audible.com.

Pixel of Ink - I just recently started reading Pixel of Ink after it was recommended to me by my friend RisenPhoenix.  This blog is specifically for Kindle users and is similar to Books on the Knob in format, though the updates range a bit more throughout the day rather than all at once.

Kindle Nation Daily - This is another blog I stumbled across recently that again is only for Kindle users.  The format for their updates is a bit longer than the previous two blogs.  There are more reviews and sometimes samples from the books that can be quite lengthy, so if you are looking for more in depth info about the books, you might want to check this one out.

By following all three of these blogs I do see a fair bit of repeat info, but I don't mind.  Someones one will post about something that the other doesn't.  Anyway, that's it from me today... so HAPPY READING! :)

FailBlog Submission That I HAD to share

see more funny videos

When I saw this on FailBlog today I was laughing so hard.... but honestly people, I hope no one is praying for more snow!

Stylish Blogger Award

A very sweet and considerate fellow blogger recently awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award as one of the 15 bloggers that she likes.  Thank you very much Julie, for passing the award my way.  It was so sweet and thoughtful!  Please make sure to check out her blog, Twisted Strands, and see what she has been up to.  Like her, I always wonder if anyone reads my blog, so it was such a treat to hear from her and have her share her blog with me.

There are two things I have to do to accept this award.  I have to tell you 7 things about myself, so here goes!

1. I am an third generation only child on my mom's side of the family.
2. I have been known to blast my favorite movie scores at full volume in the car.  Music geek :P
3. I tweet, but honestly, I really don't get the point of the whole hashtag thing.  It's fun reading people's updates, but it pretty much ends there for me.
4. I don't like reality tv, but for some reason I adore Food Network's Worst Cooks in America show.
5. I was a major tomboy growing up and pink was definitely a four letter word in more ways than the obvious.  Today its presence in my life and wardrobe no longer incites mental rioting requiring containment.
6. I have a very hard time being stuck in traffic and would almost rather drive 40 miles out of my way just to keep moving.  This winter has not been kind to my commuter nerves.
7. I love taking photographs in natural light.  It lends so much warmth and life to my photos. 

Also, I am supposed to pass the Stylish Blogger Award on to other fellow bloggers.  I decided to pass the award along to a few that I particularly enjoy.  While I do read quite a few blogs, I think these seven are really the ones that I look forward to reading the most when I see a new post pop up on google reader: 

bag 'n' trash - Maryse has gorgeous photography on her blog and she is so stinking talented too!

{creative chick} - Jenn is very crafty lady and in real life I take card making classes with her.  Check out her blog to get inspired!

Knitting to Stay Sane - Glenna is a knitter and knitting pattern designer.  She has beautiful patterns for sale and even lets us get some of them free.  One of my favorites is her Podster Gloves which are a set of fingerless mitts that have a mitten flap and a special flap section on the thumb so you can still use your iPod touch or iPhone.  Very cool!

Planet June - June is another favorite designer of mine, but she designs for crochet.  Her blogs post feature her new designs and other neat products and projects she is working on.  Her patterns are very easy to follow and she also has great crochet tutorials.  She also offers quite a few free patterns for us crocheters on a tight budget, however her for sale patterns are very reasonable and worth every penny.

Knitting a Baby - Melissa is blogging about her first pregnancy and about all the things she is doing in her life to prepare for baby.  I love the way she writes and she shares all sorts of neat projects she is working on.

Jane Deere - Jennifer shares great recipes along with beautiful photographs of the cooking process.  Yum!

she shoots sheep shots - Gale shares her life as a knitter and professional photographer on her blog.  Her photography and projects are amazing.  I actually only started reading her blog after I took a really cool Photography for Knitters day class she taught.  You can see my blog post about the class by clicking here.

So, congratulations ladies on a job well done.  And keep on sharing!  I hope you enjoy reading these blogs as much as I do!  I think it's time for me to turn in, or maybe knit some more, lol.  Good night all!

Request for my blog readers

Hi Folks!  I have a little favor to ask.  I'm really curious just how many people are reading my blog these days.  I think the best way for me to find that out is if you would be willing to "follow" my blog.  It's really easy to do and really helps me know who I'm talking to when I post.  Also, with some more followers on board, I'm hoping to do some fun giveaways of all the crafty things I do. 

All you have to do to follow this blog is click on the Google Follow button on the right side of the page next to the most recent post.  It looks like this:

Once you do that, you can sign in using your preexisting google, yahoo or twitter account.  If you don't have any of those you can sign up for a google account for free and use that if you are willing.  Having a google account offers you a lot of neat features including free blog and photos hosting, email, reader for those of you who read many blogs to name a few.  Anyway, I will stop waxing poetic about google now.  But I really hope that if you read my blog often you will really think about officially "following" it. 

Thanks!

-Jo

I started a new photoblog!

Don't worry, it's in addition to this one, so everyday ephemera will not be going away.  After doing my 10 on Tuesday post a couple weeks ago I decided I wanted to start doing Project 365, which if you don't know of already, is basically a photo a day for a year.  I thought this would really get me focused on taking gorgeous photos again instead of the utilitarian ones that I take for documenting finished projects and get togethers.

So, today I started the ball rolling... and created the page and the first post.  So, if you are interested, please visit my new blog called My Year: Through the Lens.  I would love any comments you can give that are constructive in nature or feel free to just share your thoughts and ideas!

New Blog Design Completed

So, apparently the first time is the charm on blog redesigns for me.  Other then following a few suggestions from followers (thank you all some much for your input!) and making appropriate changes to the blog, I've decided to stick with the grapevine theme.  I had looked at a few different background as inspiration for the design and thought about trying them out, but this one really spoke to me, so I went for it.  Once I had chosen the background, I perused my abundance of photos, found a good candidate and started playing around in Photoshop.

The image I picked was a great shot I took at Ferjulian's, a local seasonal market in my town, (see above).  The owner is very nice and on several occasions has just let me wander around with my eye glued to my camera.  

Last night, when I layered the text of the blog title over over the image, it all fell into place.  The font, the colors, everything!  I just love it when a plan comes together.  So all I had to do after that was add all my widgets back.  It's too bad that they all disappear when you change templates.  Oh well, it could be worse, there is only one I can't figure out, my current Ravelry projects, but I'll fix that soon enough.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the change as much as I do.  Please feel free to make comments or suggestions.  As I said, I'm open to change ;-)

No you haven't gone crazy....

I am finally working on changing around my blog template and design, so for a little bit my little 'ol blog will look a bit of a fright, but don't worry, all the fun stuff will be back soon! My 10 on Tuesday from this week inspired me to actually do something about the somewhat lackluster selection of blog templates that blogger offers.

So, until I get everything figured out and finally decide on something, I'm going to keep you guessing :-)

10 Things I Wish I Knew How to Do

This list ranges from the altogether easy to downright science fiction. I figured I would go whole hog with it:

1. Crochet - This is well within the realm of attainable. Especially since my self imposed ban on learning it to keep myself knitting for a year will end on December 31st 2009.
   
   
2. Create my Own Blog Template -I am so sick of the templates available in blogger, I just want to make my own, but don't really know how to begin. I'm sure I could do it, it would just take me awhile. For some reason I've always had trouble designing things for myself, yet have no problem doing so for others.
   
   
3. Dance - Now, I'm not saying I would be all that good at it, but I think if my husband and I took some lessons, dancing could really be fun.
   
   
4. Speak another language fluently -I took about 7 years of Spanish while in school and actually could speak rather well in the most recent years of my study. Now since I don't actually have anyone to practice speaking it with consistently, my mastery of the language has returned to it's infant stages and really I'm only good at translating the gist of text now. So sad...
   
   
5. Finish my Medieval Hooded Scarf - This was my first lace project and so far it has only been successful at being ripped out multiple times. It is currently waiting for me to rip it all out and start again. This wouldn't be so painful if the scarf wasn't knitted lengthwise and happened to be 530 stitches long :-/ I so want to make this scarf to wear at King Richard's fair next year, but I don't know if I have the strength or the skill to figure out the pattern and execute it perfectly. This is especially difficult since I think the pattern is wrong at the end of every row. Sigh... maybe after Christmas I'll begin again.
   
   
6. Role Play - Despite my enjoyment of role playing and the fact that my husband is so good at it I thought it might just rub off on me, I am a terrible role player. Anyone that can create a character and manage to act like that character has a skill that seems beyond my grasp.
   
   
7. Hang Glide - I've had a thing for flying ever since I was a kid. The zip line at camp was always the coolest thing ever and I swear I could have ridden that thing all day. Being able to hang glide would be the closest I could get to flying without being in a plane or helicopter and it would be truly glorious!
   
   
8. Sleep less - There always seems to be so much that I want to do and just not enough time to do it all in. Maybe if I didn't have to sleep?
   
   
9. Teleport - My commute stinks and it would be way easier if I could teleport to see all the people I know in Florida, North Carolina and Texas :-)
   
   
10. Spontaneously break into choreographed dance in the middle of a busy train station - the video says it all...
    

another Friday approaches

May is passing far to quickly... It's already the 21st and I haven't posted since the 11th! Ok, so my work and social life have both been pretty busy lately. But I haven't even been sending out many tweets and that's just silly. Think about it, I haven't had time to type 140 characters or less? A few times a day? Ridiculous I know, especially since I'm sure all my followers are mourning the loss of my witty comments of life, the universe and everything. My twitter even updates my facebook for me, so I don't have to do both... so the ultimate in social laziness has occured!

Anyway, I really just wanted to post a quick hello and tell my blog buddies and other various media followers that I haven't forgotten you and nothing of note has happened to me other than being so busy I became slightly anti-social. Until the next post, tweet or update!

a*muse valentines class samples

These are the very cute cards and treat bag I made at my class tonight with Jenn (see her cool blog here). Jenn teaches classes at a few area craft stores with her home store as Colorful Creations in Hyannis, MA. Mom and I go to all of her a*muse classed at Ink About It. We used a*muse stamps, cardstock and ribbon with copic markers and watercolor pencils to color everything in. These classes are always so much fun. They and mom's and my scheduled play time. Anyway, I only had time for a quick post, so have a nice night!

playing with my markers

So I took today off to have some fun me time, so.... I broke out the copic markers! I absolutely love these markers. They are made and Japan and are used by a wide range of manga artists, designers and crafters. They have tons of great colors and 4 different styles of marker to fit your crafty needs: ciao, sketch, wide and original. My set of colors is basically all the original design which holds the most ink.

What's nice about these markers is that they last a long time, don't require you to store then flat (like many others do) and while they are pricey you can buy ink refills and replacement nibs, so essentially once you have the marker, all you might have to buy is ink for the rest of your lifetime. Cool huh? You can do all sorts of things with these markers too.

There is a great blog I read called I Like Markers that show all sorts of techniques from beginner to expert. Off to the right is one example of what I colored today. You can do some amazing layering of color if you pay attention to Copic's numbering system.

Also, Jenn, my a*muse instructor, uses therse alot in the cards we make during class. I dare say I might have some cards to show off after my Valentine's day class with her tommorrow... the card samples look very cute, so I'm sure I will have plenty of neat things to share.