Annette's Acre

I finished the book on Thursday.

It’s still sitting on my nightstand.  I can’t bear to put it away in the office…. I mean, it will be *lonely* on the shelf since all of it’s Brothers are on my Kindle.  Which happens to live on my nightstand.

Hmmm…connection maybe?  In the meanwhile I’m going to leave it on the nightstand so I can open to a random page and re-read bits and pieces whenever I want.  You know… like I do on the Kindle for all the other books in the series.

Wow.  Definite connection!!

In other news, the Stitching Bloggers’ Question has returned!  And it’s now Monthly!!  Without further ado….

Suppose we say that there are two types of stitchers.  

There are those who enjoy the “process” of stitching.  They stitch for stitching’s sake and if something gets finished, so much the better, but it’s not necessarily the end goal.   Primarily, it’s the application of needle and thread to cloth that makes them happiest.

Then there are those who are “project” stitchers.  They move steadily through their projects, certainly enjoying their stitching time, but finding their greatest joy in the completed stitching. 

If you had to pick one to describe yourself, which type of stitcher would you be?  I imagine that we could all say that we fall somewhere in between, but really think hard about this and try to pick just one.  And once you’ve decided whether you’re a Process or Project stitcher, tell us if your recognize that approach in other parts of your life.

I am closer to a “Process” stitcher.  Probably surprises no one given the number of WIPs I have. 

And yes, this relates to other areas.  I work with business intelligence applications where understanding the business process and the “why” of the reporting and metrics is far more important than trying to nail down the end result.  I would much rather build a reporting application filled with properly related attributes and well-defined metrics and let the business user create hundreds of ad-hoc reports to their hearts’ content than go thru the ”joy” [a bit of sarcasm there] of defining dozens of canned reports that are stale by the time they are implemented in production.

I also love reading series, especially if I can look forward to more installments coming out.  I’m always a little sad when I get to “The End” – whether the story is one book or a dozen long.  I know folks that say “I won’t start the series until it’s all been released!” and I just have to think of what they are missing out – that joy of discovery and re-reading and waiting and just savoring the world and the story in-between

The good thing about having to buy a “real” book is that I can use my lovely bookmarks

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to catch up with my Boys…..

(If you haven’t met the Black Dagger Brotherhood….and enjoy steamy paranormal romance… start with Dark Lover.  The Brothers are waiting but they aren’t all that patient….)

A few things of interest from the weekend…

I read this:

Other than a trip to the grocery store and dinner out for my stepfather’s birthday, that essentially was *all* that I did on Saturday.

The Black Jewels series is one of my all-time favorites and a world I could happily live in!  I enjoyed this installment in the series better than the last – a whole lot more happened and we got more detail around the politics and workings of the world.  Now for the interminable wait for the next volume  Which will be a series of short stories next March…

I finished this on Sunday:

This is a Baktus scarf in Interlacements yarn. The yarn was nice and springy and the resulting scarf loosened up nicely when washed.  I didn’t actually block it… the weight of the yarn will keep it loose.  It will meet its new owner on Thursday (I’ll be giving a repeat performance on the presentation I gave back in January in Vegas.  Locally, this time).  No, it’s not going in the mail and I’m pretty darn confident she doesn’t read this blog LOL.

My bookshelves continue to groan as I got some interesting items in the mail:

Spellwright by Blake Charlton – how could I resist something with my *name*  (Wright) in the title?

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A. E. Moorat

Hmmm….need to read faster, stitch faster and knit faster to get thru all the stash…  any hints?

Just some odds and ends to share….

First, I snapped this (with my Blackberry) yesterday as I was leaving work:

I was sitting in the vanpool van, this isn’t thru my windshield.  The rainbow was so bright!  It was lovely.

Here’s my Olympic knitting progress:

Sadly, my Olympic goal is not looking good.  This is a two-skein project and I’ve yet to finish the first one (seen on the left).  We shall see.

I did manage to finish the latest in the Mirabilia RR – this is a portion of Violet.

I also finished a couple books… and have to recommend one of them to any fan of good old fashioned sword/sorcery/epic fantasy.

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

This is the first in a trilogy and by all that’s holy, do *not* read the blurb for the second book before you finish the first one.  MAJOR spoiler right there!!  It’s got magic, politics, fighting, assassins, heroes and a nice twisty plot

Next week I’m off to Las Vegas for a business/pleasure trip.

I’m flying up Monday and will be there for a work conference until noonish on Thursday.  It’s an annual conference put on by one of the software vendors that I work with daily.  I’m giving a presentation on Tuesday on Ad-Hoc Reporting (exciting, let me tell you) but otherwise it will be sessions (both technical and not) and meals with friends and peers in my field.

DH is driving up on Thursday and we’re staying at the Monte Carlo.  We’ll be driving back to Phoenix on Saturday.  It’s about a six hour drive and I thank the heavens for satellite radio every time we make it LOL

As you might suspect, I’ve been giving some thoughts to packing.  I’ll be there six days and the conference is definitely business casual all the way…. it’s mostly tech people after all.

Took me all of about 10 minutes to decide on what to wear for my presentation (black pants, black shell and pink blazer) and what to bring for the rest of the week (a lot of jeans and nice tops).

I’ve spent several days thinking on what to take to stitch on and read   This was helped a little last night as I finished the latest Little House ornament, Pear Tree:

Here’s what I’ve decided (subject to change on a whim until I actually put them in a suitcase, of course):

On the left:  Jody Steward’s Pagoda Pincushion from one of last year’s Gift of Stitching magazines.

On the right: Little House Needleworks’ From Sea to Shining Sea.  Right now this is slated to be the next focus piece after I finish Summer Queen

I’ll also be taking along a crocheted baby blanket to (hopefully) finish on the drive home Saturday.  Also may throw in a simple knit scarf for airport time.

Now for reading… I need your help!  I’ve pulled five books from my bookshelves:

I will have my Kindle (of course), but I like to have a “real” book as well.  The Wynn has some gorgeous bathtubs   A nice long soak one evening is going to be heavenly, but I’m not going to risk the Kindle above a tub of water.

The books are:

• Sunshine by Robin McKinley
• Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
• Nightlife by Rob Thurman
• The Patriot Witch by CC Finlay
• Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Which one should I take?

All packages have landed safely and been well received (as evidenced by the comments).

You are all very welcome

What did I send?

Five bookmarks.  Here’s the one I kept for myself (all pics clickable, as usual):

All are unique.  Where mine has read beads, the others are all different color Delicas.

Can’t see the theme?  Here’s a closeup of the letters…

B-D-B.  Black Dagger Brotherhood, baby!!  w00t!

Here they are ready to go:

Inspiration came from Missy Ann.  She mentioned she was hoping to have a Black Dagger bookmark someday and I figured I could work up something.  I found the dagger charms and letter beads at CharmFactory (great selection, fast shipping) and a little black nail polish (Revlon Black Lingerie – which may go with me for my pedicure appt this weekend) made them perfect.

While I only ordered enough letters for the half dozen, I did have enough of the other bits to make another bookmark:

If you would like to commemorate your love of all things BDB with a one-of-a-kind bookmark, just comment on this post with your favorite Brother and I’ll draw a name on Monday

And if you haven’t discovered the crackilicious Brothers, get thee to Amazon (or your local bookstore) and start reading Dark Lover.

My favorite?  Gotta be Vishous.  I’m a sucker for a man with brains and technical skills….. computer skills, that is, but other skills are always welcome…..