Monday Musings

Highlight of the week: We had a nice weekend. Friday evening and Saturday we were in Indiana visiting my grandma. Yesterday I got some tidying and reading done and started writing my Valentine's Day cards. And then, of course, we watched our Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl! (The commercials were disappointing, though.)

Reading: "Fifteen Dogs" by Andre Alexis, about a bet between Hermes and Apollo that involves giving human intelligence to 15 dogs. It's not bad, but it's not totally holding my attention either. At least it's pretty short. I also read an advance copy of "The Widow" by Fiona Barton last week. I realized it was the third novel set in England about a kidnapping I've read so far in 2016 -- it's definitely time to mix things up!

Knitting: Not a thing. Which is a problem!

Watching: "Burnt" (not bad -- and Bradley Cooper looks dreamy in a chef's coat), "Sicario" (also not bad) and "Home" (cute family movie, although the Rihanna soundtrack was kinda strange).

Eating: We made a big, delicious pot of copycat Red Robin chili to enjoy during the game last night.

Listening to: Phillip Wesley, the newest addition to my playlist of contemporary pianists. It's perfect music for reading or writing letters.

Looking forward to: My best friend Katie will be here for a visit this week! And "Walking Dead" starts back this Sunday. Sounds like a perfect Valentine's Day to me! ;)

2015 Travel Recap: Gettysburg National Military Park

*See my first travel recap, about our trip to Hawaii, here!*

Welcome to part two of my 2015 travel recap: our trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous and horrifically bloody four-day Civil War battle and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. We spent a day and a half here on our way to New York City at the end of May. My husband, Jarrod, grew up in rural Florida and is a huge Civil War buff, so I had a built-in guide for our tour around the battlefields.

My favorite part of the trip was having a Victorian photo taken! The folks at Victorian Photography Studio actually do authentic tin types and I would've loved to have one of those, but we were super stretched for time and had to opt for a regular digital photo. It was still so fun to dress up in period costumes. We look pretty good in our mid-1800s garb, huh?

The picture of Jarrod in the red shirt in front of a field is where the first shots of the Battle of Gettysburg were fired, which is how we started off our driving tour. I like history for sure -- I was a history minor in college -- but the Civil War isn't one of the time periods I'm most interested in. But I really enjoyed our trip here, and I learned a lot. It was sobering, though, to think about how many men died there -- more than any other battle of the Civil War. The very ground I was standing on had been covered in blood and bodies of fathers, brothers and sons.

I'd only been to Pennsylvania once before, for a quick trip to Philadelphia, and I was surprised how beautiful the area around Gettysburg was. Lots of green rolling hills, trees and wildflowers.

Yarn Along: Felted Hearts and "In Bitter Chill"

Yarn Along is a weekly link-up hosted by Ginny at the Small Things blog about two of the best things in life -- reading and knitting.



Reading: I took this photo yesterday afternoon, not realizing that I'd end up blowing through the rest of "In Bitter Chill," a murder mystery set in England. It was a super-fast read, though the writing wasn't fantastic so I only rated it 3.5 stars. Last night I started "The Widow" by Fiona Barton, an advance-read book I got from work. It's supposed to be a psychological thriller akin to "Gone Girl" and "The Girl on the Train," but I'm trying not to get my hopes up because "What She Knew," which I read last month, claimed the same and I was wildly disappointed in it.

Knitting: I finished the felted hearts (pattern) I mentioned in last week's Yarn Along, which sat half-finished in a coffee table drawer for two years, and I'm trying to decide what to do with them. When I started the project I intended to string them in a garland to adorn the fireplace mantel for Valentine's Day, but since we're about to move to Hawaii and will definitely not have a fireplace, I'm not sure a garland is the way to go. I've thought about making them into a door hanger, or a wreath, or just putting them in a jar. Or maybe attaching ribbons to the tops and hanging them from branches arranged in a vase (suggested by my mom). For now, they're just sitting on a side table, looking festive.

I'm itching to cast on for a new project, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to knit. I bought some gorgeous teal Malabrigo for a sweater right before we found out we were moving to Hawaii, and that's what I would be working on now, but I'm debating whether to use that beautiful yarn on something I won't get much use out of in the next three years or find a different project for it. And I certainly don't need any more winter gear for myself. I've been tossing around the idea of whipping up a hat and mailing it off to a friend or relative as a surprise. I have tons of stuff on our DVR to watch and only two months to watch it before we move, and I really like to knit while I watch TV. I'm not used to idle hands!

In any case, here's another picture of the felted Valentine's hearts! I think they came out pretty well, despite the fact that I totally overstuffed them before felting. Mid-felt I had to pull them out of the washer and use tweezers to yank stuffing out of the pesky holes that refused to close up because of the fiberfill. There are still a couple holes here and there that didn't fully felt together, but they're not too noticeable.

My 10 Favorite Historical Settings

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic, provided by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish, is about past and future in reading. A variety of suggestions were given, and I decided on my 10 favorite historical settings, which turned out to be a bit harder than I imagined. I love historical fiction and non-fiction, and it was hard to narrow down exact times and places. But I did my best -- though my list is bit of a mess -- with a few examples of each.

What are your favorite historical periods to read about?

1. My favorite historical time period:
Late 1800s England

Bonus: anything to do with Sherlock Holmes!

And the rest in chronological order:

2. 1500s England

 3. 1700s U.K.

Bonus: the TV show "Poldark"

 4. Early 1800s England

Bonus: any and all TV shows and movies to do with Jane Austen

5. Early 1900s Exploration

6. WWI

 7. The Roaring '20s

 8. 1930s U.S.

 9. WWII U.S.

I particularly love reading about Victorian England, but my second-favorite historical setting is WWII in both the U.S. and Europe. It's a time period ripe with amazing stories -- both fiction and non-fiction -- as evidenced by these four wonderful books.

 10. WWII Europe

Monday Musings: Happy February!

Highlight of the week: It was a pretty quiet week around here, but I did spend a lovely Friday afternoon with my book, a cup of coffee and some glorious sunshine streaming through the living room windows. And on Saturday I decided to splurge and make chocolate pudding cake for dessert... sooooooo sinfully good. (P.S. Those socks are a souvenir from the New York Public Library when we visited last May! And speaking of our New York trip, I'll be posting about it this week as part of my recap of all the traveling we did in 2015.)

Reading: I finished "Fates and Furies" by Lauren Groff yesterday morning. It started off slow but ended up being a totally engrossing read! Last night I read the first few pages of "In Bitter Chill" by Sarah Ward, a mystery set in England. I've had it checked out from the library for two months (for shame!) so it's definitely time to get it read.

Knitting: I dug out a knitting project that I had started two entire years ago, put down, and never picked back up again: a felted heart garland for Valentine's Day. It turns out I had knit nine hearts -- they just needed to be sewed up, stuffed and felted in the washing machine. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with my hearts... We won't have a fireplace in Hawaii, so a garland might not be the best idea. (There's a picture of the hearts on Instagram if you're interested!)

Watching: "Straight Outta Compton" and "Everest," both pretty good. Watching "Everest" definitely renewed my interest in reading "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer.

Listening to:

Eating: Red Robin -- yummmmm!

Tired of hearing: The word "caucus"!

Looking forward to: My new tattoo getting over it's peeling phase! It looks and feels a million times better than it did last week, but it's still not quite ready to be shown off. Long sleeves it is!

Yarn Along: "Fates and Furies" and Felted Heart Garland

Yarn Along is a wonderful link-up -- hosted by the Small Things blog every Wednesday -- about two of the best things in life: reading and knitting!

Reading: Yesterday I finally finished "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. After almost 800 pages and two weeks of immersion in the highly atmospheric world of English magic in the nineteenth century, I feel a little bereft without it -- even thought I was soooo ready to be done with the book. Last night I read the first couple pages of "Fates and Furies" by Lauren Groff, a book I've been waiting to get in from the library for a while. It's gotten so much publicity, and even President Obama loved it. We shall see!

Knitting: The mermaid tail blanket I'd been working on for the past few weeks is finished and I was considering casting on for the little stuffed black bear I mentioned last week. And then yesterday inspiration struck -- maybe, just maybe, the time has finally come to finish a WIP from TWO YEARS AGO -- a felted heart garland meant to be for Valentine's Day (in 2014).

I'm usually pretty good about finishing my projects, but for some reason I knit up nine hearts, then left them in a drawer in the coffee table for two years. Instead of knitting more hearts, I decided to just go ahead and sew up, stuff and felt the ones I already made. I got them sewn and stuffed last night while watching "Downton Abbey" (by myself) and "Straight Outta Compton" (with my husband) and they'll go in the washer for felting today.

ETA: The pattern (here) is Felted Heart Milagros by Mags Kandis.

10 Gorgeous Book Covers

The week Top Ten Tuesday -- hosted by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish -- is a dreaded freebie. I hate freebies -- I am apparently not clever enough to think of interesting topics on my own! But, alas, I love lists so much that I endeavored to come up with something, so we have: the 10 most beautiful covers of books I've read the past two years.

I absolutely judge books by their covers and I even have a blog feature comparing a book's various versions of cover art (see my most recent post here or click on the "book covers" label in the sidebar). I like lots of color, bright hues, pretty fonts, paintings/drawings/pictures, and good design, and I enjoy covers that have embossing and/or texture. I don't typically like pictures of real people/photographs on my fiction covers. Looking at the covers below, I think it's safe to say I like a good ol' pop of red!

Do you judge books by their covers like I do? What do you prefer when it comes to cover art? Which of the covers below is your favorite?