Weekend Report

My three-day weekend is gone, and I'm not sure where it went.

On Saturday, I read a lot. Yesterday I read and scrapbooked. Today I read and scrapbooked. I started my March Romancing the Blog column. I didn't do the two articles for work I hoped I'd get to. I didn't write either of my book reviews. I'm not turning off my computer or going to bed until I finish one of them. I don't feel like I really had a vacation, either. Sigh.

I went scrapbook supply shopping today. My reason for going was my need for another sticker binder. I can't believe how many stickers I have, and I already have three binders. I'm stopping with four. I'm absolutely stopping at four. Since buying my house, I haven't bought a lot of scrapbooking supplies. I still have a ton of stuff from when I was a carefree renter. But they had a 40% off sale on stickers and 20% off all other scrapbooking supplies, and I just couldn't resist. I had to buy things like fingerprint vellum (see crime pages below), after all.

Like buying books, buying scrapbooking supplies is an addiction.

Here are the scrapbook pages. I made four about my nephew's 13th birthday. Birthday pages can be challenging for any scrapbooker, because there are so many birthdays each year (especially in a large family), and they occur every year. Sometimes you just run out of birthday creativity. Two of the pages are about my interest in true crime. (I'll add the apostrophe to the page in "it's"--I just have to find my black marker.) And the last page is from a basketball camp I attended before high school.

Happy Birthday to You, Page 1
Happy Birthday to You, Page 2
Happy Birthday to You, Page 3
Happy Birthday to You, Page 4

It's a Crime, Page 1
It's a Crime, Page 2

Nothing but Net

As for my weekend reading, I read Men of Courage II and The McKenzie Artifact. Both receive 4 out of 5.

Men of Courage II is an anthology with stories by Lori Foster, Donna Kauffman, and Jill Shalvis. It's been a while since I read the first Men of Courage anthology, but the stories are by the same authors, though I don't believe they are related. Kauffman's story about stormchasers is my favorite of the three and receives a 4.5, but Foster's and Shalvis's stories are also strong. Both receive 4 out of 5. I think I'll add Jill Shalvis to my authors-to-look-for-at-the-library list. I really enjoyed her installment but haven't read anything else by her (that I can recall).

This morning I read The McKenzie Artifact by Alison Kent. I confess that I was a little disappointed in The Beach Alibi. I had high hopes for it, since I enjoy the one-person-has-a-crush scenario. I didn't quite connect to the characters in that book. I think a longer story would have been better. The McKenzie Artifact was stronger. I like Stella and Eli. I connected with them both and thought their story was a nice combination of passion, emotion, and adventure.

Now that I've written a long blog entry, I must return to my book review.

Alyssa