My Week in Instagram: New Books, New Gifts and New Tours!

 

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

Christmas is over and the New Year is upon us!  It's hard to believe it's nearly 2014.

This week was slow for books.  But I've been having trouble getting much reading done anyway, so that's probably good. 

I got an ARC of Night Owls by Lauren M. Roy but since it's just a solid green cover I just snapped an image off of goodreads.  This one releases in March (or very late February).  It sounds great!  Thank you Penguin!

I got Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo for my daughter for Christmas.  She's been wanting this book for ages!  I read the first chapter and it seems like it's going to be great! (Kate is always great, I love her writing!)

My kids got me the adorable owl mug and the monogrammed coasters for Christmas.  I LOVE them! 

For those who don't know me, I'm all about healthy living. I prefer to avoid chemicals and keep things all natural.  My SIL started selling Arbonne which is all natural, vegan and chemical free.  So I had a party and got some stuff for free and got some other stuff too.  I'm kind of in love so far, I plan to do a post in the future about it all.

 

I made my goal of 200 books!

I have two new tour sign ups posted.

 

Must Love Otters actually  made it on my favorites list for this year so I'm really excited to be putting together a tour for it. It's adult romantic comedy.  If interested in participating, check out the tour page.

The Wolf's Cry was another fantastic read that I'm excited to be doing the tour for. This is YA fantasy, be sure to check out the tour page for info!

That's it for me! I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe) New Year's! 

My Week in Instagram- Early Christmas Gifts for Me, Lovely Cards and More Books to Review!

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

 

I can't believe this is the week of Christmas!  I'll probably take two days off, but I'm not sure yet.  One for sure, but I'm not sure about Christmas Eve.

 

Anyway, here's what I have for this week! 

 

The awesome folks at Scholastic sent Manor of Secrets by Katherine Longshore and Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy.  I hadn't heard of either but I know I'm excited to read Manor of Secrets.  We'll see about Divided We Fall, maybe it'll surprise me and I'll love it!

I got Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien from paperbackswap. This has been on my WL on there for so long I forgot about it.  It's not a series I have seen much in the blogosphere but it sounds great!

I got Echo in Time by C.J. Hill from Harper. I'm on the blog tour and will be reviewing it Friday.  I loved the first book! 

 

In my package of Christmas presents I ordered I finally got Allegiant and Curtsies & Conspiracies.  And yes, I did buy them, but I bought them WITH the Christmas presents, so that just makes it another present, right?

I got some great cards this week, unfortunately I didn't take pics of them all, but I did take a picture of this one.  I actually read Iron Night the day before I received this Christmas card from ML Brennan.  She wrote a very sweet message on the back too.  I had read and loved Generation V and had her on the blog a couple times this year.  :)

 

That's everything for me!  I have a video of my 4 year old singing Puff the Magic Dragon on my instagram feed but I don't know how to bring the video over so you'll have to go over there to see it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday week!

My Week in Instagram- Books, Vacuums and Thank You Letters

 

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back!

I had a slow week in books. At least of the paper variety but I did get this one, The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher.  This came for review and I'm a bit curious to see what I think of it.

I probably got this one last week (or the week before) but I read it this week and I really liked it!  I was liking it so much that I took a picture so I could tell everyone to read it!  And it looks like we're going to be doing a tour for this one in March!  The tour is actually for the 2nd book, with the first available for review as well.  We're still working on details but watch for sign ups soon!

I've been kind of keeping my eye out for good deals on vacuum cleaners because I knew mine was getting wore out and it's starting to get that smell that older vacuums start to get.  I've REALLY wanted a Dyson but they are a bit expensive.  I saw this at half price (maybe it was 60% off) and even though it's a smaller one, I jumped on it.  I can use this on the hardwood and the carpet and we had a blast vacuuming the whole house the moment it arrived.  It's pretty quiet, it didn't wake my sleeping husband. The cord is a tad short but that's not an issue really and the canister seems small but surprisingly didn't need emptied until I vacuumed the entire downstairs.  So far it seems like it should be good.  Fingers crossed it continues to work for us.

Remember that I've been doing the book drive for Pine Ridge Reservation?  Well, I got a thank you letter and I wanted to share it with you because really, it's thanks to YOU as well since so many of you have sent books and spread the word.  It sounds like we've helped a lot!

They accept donations all year, and I'm still pushing for donations this year, so if you are interested please check out the post with all the details and contact me.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

My Week in Instagram- My Book Haul, Some Snow and My Randomness

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

 

 

Last Sunday I met up with my friends to watch The Book Thief and Sara and Mel brought me some books.  They are for donation to Pine Ridge (donations still being accepted) but they told me to take out those I wanted to read so these are the ones I grabbed.  I'm on the fence about Wild Awake though and I may just throw it back in the box to mail.  The rest are ones I've been wanting to read though.   Especially Defy and These Broken Stars.

 

I got an ebook of Must Love Otters for review consideration and I actually started reading it almost right away.  I LOVED it and my review will go up this week.  Highly recommend! 

I actually already reviewed My Yellow Umbrella from the ebook I was sent. But I fell in LOVE with the book so the author sent me a signed paperback and lovely note! 

We got snow!  It was just a tiny bit but the kids got excited. We don't get much snow here.

That's it for us!  I'm prepping this Friday and Saturday the plan is to go see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  We go to the nursery where my MIL buys her live tree and the same Santa and Mrs. Claus are there and actually remember the kids.  It's really cool.  How can you doubt Santa is real when he remembers your name and everything?  

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

BTW, AWESOME giveaway going up tomorrow.  You won't want to miss it!

My Week in Instagram- In the Mail, Prize Winnings and More

 

Happy Sunday everyone! (And Whoa, it's December!)

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

 

I've had a migraine for a few days so I know I'm SO far behind on commenting and stuff.  This coming up week is going to be a busy one but I'm really hoping I can get caught up on everything, including my commenting!

 

 

A couple weeks ago I bought these two.  I might have shared this in a previous post, I don't remember!  A Study in Silks was a compulse buy cause it sounds so good!  I love the Christina Henry books and it's a series I've been able to keep up with so hopefully I can read this one soon.

 

 I finally read Kinslayer this last week, review posts tomorrow.  SO FREAKING GOOD! 

 

 Best prize package EVER came all the way from Germany!  Thank you Sandra Schwab for the book (which sounds amazing, it's gothic romance!), chocolate (long gone now!) and tea (really good tea!) along with a nice note and some bookmarks and stuff.  This package made my day!  I won this at Bookish, I believe.  So thanks to those ladies as well.

 

 I also won an awesome time travelers pendant necklace.  This is from PK Hrezo who is the author of the AMAZING Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc (I'm doing the tour for this one, look at my sidebar and sign up!).  Thanks PK for the awesome necklace, I love it!

 

 For review I got Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill  I have Meant to Be as well and need to read it soon!  This is from Amazon Vine.

 

 Also from Amazon Vine I got No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale which sounds amazing!

 

 

That's it for me!  I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

My Week in Instagram- Weekly News, In My Mailbox, What I Found on Etsy and More...

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

This week I've just been feeling BURNT OUT.  Some days weren't so bad but most days I just don't want to be near the computer.  Keeping up with everything almost became a chore for me.  So I know I'm behind on commenting on some blogs and I'll do my best to catch up soon.  

For now the big news is that I'm putting together a book drive for the Pine Ridge Reservation.  I have a post going up about this week but for now you can think about whether you have some books in good condition to donate.  ARC's are okay.  I'm also putting together an Amazon wishlist and they are in need of books in Lakota, which I have a website you can order from.  Details to come!  

For now I did some shelf thinning of the kids books and came up with nearly 100 to send.  It's a mix of picture books and middle grade books.  I'll send this out this week as I have more in the area planning to donate so I'll have more to send out soon.  I hope you can help out!

This box of goodies came last Saturday after I'd already written up my post, but it's a whole of goodies from author Suza Kates.  All the books are signed and the swag is AWESOME!  Big thank you to Suza Kates!

This was one of the pieces of swag included and I thought it was cute. It's an ereader cleaner and says "Because the dirty bits should be on the inside of your ereader!"

This last one was something I found on etsy.  Isn't it perfect!

It's made by HomeStudio, this is a screenshot but it's not owned by me.  I encourage you check them out, they have LOADS of awesome ones and they are on sale {they are as I type this, but it may be over by the time this is up}!  They have a lot of great  bookish ones and I want them ALL!  I'm warning you now, you go there- you'll never leave!

This week we announced Fiery Hot Reads for Icy Cold Nights, an awesome even hosted by me, Rainy Day Ramblings, My Guilty Obsession and The Nocturnal Library Feb. 8-15.  This also includes a blog hop.  Click on the images for all the details!

My Week in Instagram: Book haul, bookshelves and random photos

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

It's been two weeks since my last instagram update.  I did post pictures for The Book Thief book club in my recap post, I won't be posting those again.

Last week you saw my picture of my bookshelf just put together (all by myself!) and still empty.  Here's my brand new bookshelf full of books.  These are books just thinned from my other shelves so they are so full.  And I cleared off the top of one that was starting to get a little top heavy.  I'll post more bookshelf pictures in the future. For now here's this new one. That bottom portion is for my daughters artwork and I'm regretting letting her do that, I'm needing the space!  Guess I need another bookshelf...

Lisa Schroeder is a local author and my daughter loves her middle grade books.  She thinks it's cool that she can read books by a person she actually knows (we see her at book signings and stuff).  So Lisa sent over her newest middle grade that comes out in the Spring. This is the first in a 3 part series (I believe it's 3...). She signed it and everything!  We started reading it immediately.  I have to say, Lisa really writes great characters, I always tend to really love them.

Charmed Life: Caitlin's Lucky Charm by Lisa Schroeder

Another local author that we know pretty well is Inara Scott  She has her books traditionally published, but she decided to self publish this one and she sent over a copy for me. 

A Sleep So Dark by Inara Scott

She signed it and warned me to keep the lights on.  Yikes, I'm scared!  I'll read this and then I'll be adding this to my blogoversary giveaway. :)  Thanks Inara!

Leeanna.me reminded me how much I loved Pantomime in her review this week. So I jumped over to NG and requested this one (and got it) and can't wait to read it!

Shadow Play by Laura Lam

Because I like taking random pictures of my shelves, here's one I took just to tell everyone these are books that are MUST reads!

And, a last minute add- I spent Saturday at my friend Sara's bridal shower at the library.  Yep, a bridal shower at the library, pretty cool!  This was the author and blogger shower.  So from the left is Lisa Schroeder (author), me, Sara (Novel Novice), Sara Ryan (author), April Henry (author) and our friend Mel (my co-blogger at the PNW blog).  It was a great time!

That's everything for this week!  I finally got all the winners picked for Something Wicked Returns, so hopefully this week will be a bit more laid back and not so crazy busy.

My Week In Instagram- Photo Recap

Happy Sunday everyone!

This post is in my week according to instagram. It's mostly the books I got but I take random pictures sometimes too.  Also, make sure you follow me on instagram, I follow back! 

 

It's been awhile since I did an instagram post, so I have quite a few to share with you this week!

 

If you missed my Wordstock recap, you should check that out.  I'll skip sharing those pictures again.

However, I haven't shared a picture with the new books I got from Wordstock, so here are the ones I picked up there. As well as Falling Kingdoms which came in the mail that week and Endless Knight, which my friend Sara gave to me at Wordstock (she had an extra copy). Thanks Sara (Novel Novice)!

I won a $50 Amazon Gift Card and I got to order some books!  These are a few that I ordered. I'm SO excited, I wish I could read them NOW!

I got a new mouse. Isn't she beautiful?!

I got Masks for review.  This is a fantasy and I'm really excited to read it!

I'm hosting The Book Thief book club and the pretty books came! You'll see more on this as I'll be doing a post about the book club meeting about the book and then the book club meeting about the movie. 

My gorgeous paperback of Shadows of Asphodel came.  I read this already on my kindle and it's SO good!  It was so good I offered to do a tour and we are!  I still have sign ups open (at least as I type this up, cause they might close soon!) so if this interests you you can find that info HERE.

She was awesome and she sent me bookmarks too!  The original cover is the one on the far right.  It's available as well (or should be soon if it isn't yet).

I went and got some storage solutions. This is one of those fake books. I'm going to store swag inside.

I also got a new prize box so I have a place to put my giveaway items.  Apparently I have Paris on the mind... ;)

I read her new book recently and loved it so I had to get this one!

I didn't request this one for ages due to my TBR, but I'm really dying to read it, so I finally grabbed it off of Amazon Vine for review.  I loved the first book!

It's fall here, and everything is about Halloween.  We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and then this week I took a few fall pictures.  I'm not sharing them all, but here are a few!