And I'll Just Keep on Stumbling

     I don't know if you've noticed this about me yet, but I love planning.  I love planning and coming up with awesomely amazing ideas almost more than I love actually going through with the ideas.  While Mom and I were making sure the furniture we had picked out in the store would fit well in our game room she mentioned that she wanted to get rid of all of the blankets.  She hates the ones that Will and I love to use.  They aren't very pretty but they are so dang comfortable and cozy.  So I volunteered to knit/crochet a blanket or two or three for her to use up in the game room.  We saw one that I really loved at Pottery Barn already completed but I couldn't bring myself to actually buy it when I knew I could make one (maybe not as cost efficient as the one on sale, but it just means so much more when it's handmade as opposed to hand-bought).
     So Mom and I are going to try our hand at making throws for game room.  I'll keep you informed on how successful we are.

Pottery Barn inspiration:

 Mom is going to try her hand at knitting this:

Hip to be Square Blanket Pattern

I'm going to try and turn this scarf into a blanket:

Lamar Braided Scarf

To make something like this:

Cable Blanket Pattern

Red Blanket Photo Credit and Blue Blanket Photo Credit

This blanket is also really awesome.  

The yarn suggested on this blog is rather expensive, but I think I might have some yarn that will be a wonderful substitution.

Hudson Bay Inspired Crib Blanket Pattern

This is just a baby blanket, but I definitely would want to make it bigger (it's definitely possible).

Title: "o0Oo0O" by Oberhofer

I Wish I Had a Mango Tree

     I miss reading.  Back in high school I used to always have my nose stuck in a book when I wasn't actively doing something else (like learning in class), but once I got to college and had to read more and more it became a chore and definitely more like school work than pleasure.  It's been a recent change that I've found pleasure in reading again (like in the past 6 months), but then with my migraines I was unable to read even when I really wanted to.  Now I'm hoping to get back to reading again.  I have on my bookshelves a good number of classics I want to read and I just printed out a few different book lists.  I came across Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list (and Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels), which definitely encouraged me to read some books that I would normally never read.  (Plus I felt pretty accomplished to check off the ones I had already read-- it wasn't an astonishing number, but it still made me feel good.)  Yesterday (or maybe the day before) a friend posted a link to the "Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge" book list.  It's a book list of all the books on Gilmore Girls that Rory is seen reading throughout the 7 seasons.  I crossed off what I could, but again it wasn't an astonishing amount (about 30 and I already have about 15 other books lined up for me to read off of this list).  Then I ended up looking up a list of the Best Southern Literature (according to GoodReads).  Their list includes 471 books and some I definitely don't agree with (the first Sookie Stackhouse novel should not be number 23 on the list) but all in all the list seems at least somewhat sound.

     I took all of the lists and made a small list of my own (in a notebook) of books I would like to read; this does not include the books that I already have on my shelves. I'm going to slowly make my way through every single one of those books until I have read them all.  I'll keep you updated, if you like, especially if I find a book that I really love.  Right now I'm reading Jane Austen's Persuasion.  I started it before I made the list or even thought about making the list.  I've read it before but now I know it's going to have so much more meaning to it.  I have wanted to reread all of Jane Austen's books since I reread Northanger Abbey in college (I liked the first time I read it, but I didn't really get the whole meaning so it was just so much more the second time around and I have a feeling all of her books are going to be like that).

     Oscar is recovering nicely, well, he seems to be anyway.  I've noticed that he hobbles when he gets up from naps (like an old man) but I think his paw just gets stiff when he isn't using it.  Sometimes he limps and sometimes he's having so much fun he forgets to limp or not jump or not do something equally silly.  When I love on him, his hurt legs keeps ending up in my lap.  He paws at me kinda like "look, it hurts, do something about it" but besides that he is his old self.  He still barks at the cat and roughhouses with Jack.  He's totally terrified with a capital "t" of my car.  He looks at me with those sad, scared puppy dog eyes when I get in it.  While I'm glad he's not hanging out under my car anymore, I hate that I was the one who ran over him and I'm the one getting those eyes.  I'm his mom!  He still loves me though.  Which is completely wonderful because I would be very, very sad if he didn't.

     We just booked a flight to Hawaii (for my parents and me) for the beginning of August.  I can't wait to go.  We'll get to see my sister and her husband, their puppies (there's one of them we haven't met), and see their brand spanking new house.  Seriously, it seems so far away.  So the video that I chose is in honor of us going to Hawaii (even though I don't exactly like mangoes).  

Title: "Mango" by Angus and Julia Stone