Since I’m not going to be designing anymore I’ve decided to start posting everything on my main blog at http://ellielash.com/blog.  This one has become unnecessary, so I won’t be posting here after today.  See you over there!

Melissa won the code to my shop!  Thanks for playing along, Melissa!  I just emailed you your code, so check for it in your inbox!

This morning we went to the mall so that we could walk the boys around and wear them out.  They have too much energy for me.  lol  But while we were there I picked up Karen Moning’s DreamFever and Laurell K Hamilton’s Skin Trade.  I cannot wait to crack them open!  In fact, if you don’t see me for a couple of days, you know where I am! 

My brother’s girlfriend just emailed me this!  Want to play, too?  Answer the questions on your own blog and leave me a link (or answer them in the comments here) and I’ll choose someone on Monday to receive a $6 coupon to my shop.  (I’ll post the questions without answers in the comments senction so you can copy and paste them from there.)  Can’t wait to read your answers!

1. Sneakers or shoes?  Sneakers
2. What time did you get up this this morning?  7:30
3. Tivo or cable DVR?  Neither, I don’t really watch TV
4. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?  Taken
5. What is your favorite TV show?  At the moment, True Blood, but I have to wait for the DVDs
6. What do you usually have for breakfast? Shredded Wheat and milk
7. What is your middle name?  Leilani
8. What day do you dislike?  I don’t dislike any specific days
9. What is your favorite CD at the moment?  I don’t really have a favorite CD, but my favorite playlist contains a lot of Nickleback, Candlebox, Papa Roach, Tori Amos, and Daughtry lately.
10. Favorite Clothing?  Beige cargo pants, t-shirt, and Birkies
11. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?   Ireland, probably
12. Are you an organized person?  Only in certain areas of my life
13. Where would you like to retire?  I don’t know, I kind of like it where I am (except for the hot summers)
14. What was your most recent memorable gift?  My husband brought me home the latest Sookie Stackhouse book as a surprise just because he knew I wanted it
15. What are you going to do when you finish this?  Probably read
16. Furthest place you are sending this?  hehe  my blog
17. Person you expect to send it back first?  n/a
18. When is your birthday?  April 3, 19-something-something
19. Are you a morning person or a night person?  Night
20. Do you have Laptop or Desktop?  Desktop
21. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?  I have a new nephew!  His name is Marcus and he is SOOOOO adorable!
22. What did you want to be when you were little?  A veterinarian.  I love animals.
23. What is your favorite game right now?  Yeesh, I have no idea.  I haven’t played any games in ages.
24. What is a day on the calendar to which you are looking forward?  September 26, my boys will be turning 3!
25. What was the last thing you ate?  A sandwich
26. Do you drive with a gps?  No, I almost never drive at all.
27. If you were a superhero, who would you be?  Bookworm Girl!
28. How is the weather right now?  HOT
29. Last person you spoke to on the phone?  My father-in-law
30. Favorite soft drink?  Pepsi.  It’s an addiction.  I’m currently off it, but I let myself have one when we go out to eat, so I’m already looking forward to that.  lol
31. Favorite restaurant?  Black Angus
32. 1st Kiss?  Cliff.  Ugh.
33. What was your favorite toy as a child?  That’s a toss up between my Strawberry Shortcake dolls and my My Little Ponies.  Both of which my younger brother had a bonfire with.
34. Summer or winter?  Winter, for sure.
35. Chocolate or vanilla?  Chocolate
36. Coffee or tea?  Neither
37. Favorite song of all time?  Wow, I don’t know if I can choose.  Maybe Josephine by Tori Amos or I Will Not Forget You by Sarah McLachlan
38. Do you want your friends to email you back?  n/a
39. When was the last time you cried?  Today, but not for any bad reason
40. What is under your bed?  Maybe a dust bunny or two?
41. What did you do last night?  The same thing I do most nights… read!  lol
42. What are you afraid of?  Spiders, cockroaches, my loved ones being harmed
43. Salty or sweet?  Both!
44. Best quality you have?  I’m accepting of pretty much everyone
45. How many years at your current job?  As a mom?  About 3.  As a scrapbook designer?  About 2.
46. Favorite day of the week?  All days are my favorite
47. Positive or negative?  Positive
48. How many people will you send this to?  As many as will read my blog
49. How many will respond?  Hopefully at least a few
50. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends?  Absolutely!

Thanks for reading!

I’ve been browsing around on You Tube tonight watching all of the Eric Northman videos I can find. I’m obsessed. LOL Here are a couple of my favorites right now…

Yeah, I’m all Eric.  I even had this shirt made up…

I’m working on another one that says, “Go back to Peru, Bill!”  lol  I don’t actually hate Bill, but he’s just such an easy character to pick on. 

I’ve been sitting here for the last ten minutes trying to figure out what to write about.  There’s so much going on, but a lot of it is just unpleasant and I hate writing about negative stuff all the time.  I will just say that I’ll be glad when the economy improves and also when summer is over.

This morning we went to the library and I picked up a bunch of new books to read through.  Tuesdays are always so busy at the library since they’re closed on Sunday and Monday and I’m always glad to just get in and out of there as fast as I can.  I got the last three of Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard books, except for Shakespeare’s Christmas because apparently none of the libraries in our area have it.  So I hope nothing interesting happens in that book!  lol  I’m reading Shakespeare’s Champion and it’s interesting so far.  They are nothing like the Sookie books, so I wasn’t sure I would like them, but I really just like Charlaine’s writing style.

I went through the first three books in her Harper Connelly series last week and I really enjoyed them.  The romantic aspect of the books was a little interesting and as I was reading through the reviews afterward I saw that a lot of people thought that Harper’s love life in the third book was controversial/sick/disgusting, but it didn’t bother me.  After reading Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake books I find that not much bothers me.  LOL  If I can read through the stuff (blood/gore/sex/polyandry) in those books I think I can handle Harper Connelly’s love life without blinking.  hehe

I’m also reading through JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  I just finished the fourth one and am on the list at the library for the rest.  So far I am liking them, but I am a little bothered by the author’s strange spelling (Rhage vs Rage, Rehvenge vs Revenge, etc) and the vampires’ gangsta-speak.  It doens’t bother me enough to stop reading them, but they do kind of throw me off sometimes.  These are definitely URBAN vampires, definitely not your classic Old World types.

Other than that I’ve just been getting my house in order and trying to keep the kids sane since we have to stay indoors almost 24/7 because of the heat.  I made cinnamon rolls for my husband the other day and I was SO good, I only ate one.  Yay me!    And that is the extent of the excitement in my life this week.  I can’t wait for the weather to cool so we can start doing things outdoors again!

I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since the last time I posted.  Bad me!  But July has been a terrible month and I am more than happy to see it gone.  I’m also happy to have one more month of Summer down.  It is HOT here and I am not a sun worshipper.  I much, much, much prefer the cold, but somehow I keep ending up in warm climates.  This morning we took the boys to the park early (8 o’clock is early for us!) and it was still so hot we only stayed for 45 minutes.  I was completely wilted.  I will be SO happy to see Autumn arrive!

The last time I posted I was reading Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series.  I finished it, except for the last book.  I’m 30th in line for it at the library so it will be a while before I get my hands on it.  I really liked the whole series, but it was kind of odd how it changed sort of in the middle.  The first five books or so are definitely horror, but after that they seem to switch over and revolve more and more around her love life.  I’m not complaining, I just thought it was an interesting switch.  Almost abrupt.  The content was a lot more… descriptive than I am used to reading, but the characters are SO well written.  I mean, I have never loved or hated another character as much as I loved and hated Anita.  There’s a lot to admire and a lot to despise.  And the men?  I started out mistrusting and disliking Jean Claude, but by the latest book he was one of my favorite characters.  And Richard?  I was SOOOOOO in love with Richard!  But now every time he enters the story I cringe because I can’t stand him.  There are so many great characters in these books.

I also read through Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series, which revolves around the Fae.  I LOVE books about the Fae, even more than I love books about vampires, so I really enjoyed reading them.  The next book comes out in December and I can’t wait!

People have been recommending JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, so I have those on my list at the library.  In the meantime I’m re-reading the Sookie Stackhouse books.  Can’t get enough Eric!

And in between all of this reading I’ve been designing my tail off!  I’m going to be a guest at one of my favorite stores for August and I have a new kit and a grab bag.  I’ll post about that in a day or two!

I finished reading through all of the Sookie Stackhouse books last week and WOW!  I LOVED them!  My husband had bought me the set a few months ago, but I wasn’t in a vampire mood, so I kind of put them off for a while.  Now that I’m through them I can’t believe I waited so long!  lol  So after reading through them he also got me Season 1 of True Blood.  My in-laws were awesome and took the kids for a night so that we could spend our anniversary (8 years!) alone and we spent most of the day on the couch watching the DVD’s and eating junk food.  It was awesome.  We never get to just chill out and relax like that!  We did manage to drag ourselves out later that night to celebrate, but I think I had more fun just hanging out and watching the DVDs together.  I am easy to please like that.  lol

I’m so glad I read the books before I watched the show.  They are both excellent in their own way, but I think that watching the show before reading the books would have affected my imagination too much.  Anyway, I’m hooked on both now. 

Someone recommended Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, so I picked a few of them up at the library.  So far I really like them, but I’m glad I borrowed them rather than buying them.  They are VERY interesting, but almost more gruesome than I can handle.  I’m not really into horror.  Also, I find that I can’t eat while I read the Anita Blake books.  lol  Although maybe that’s more a positive than a negative?  I’m just finishing up Obsidian Butterfly now.

What are you reading?  I’m always interested in what everyone else is into right now!

(There’s a freebie over on my design blog, if you’re interested!)

So I made some bread pudding last night and it turned out really nice!  Usually when I make bread pudding it turns out too dry (I’m not really the best cook to ever walk the planet), but I had half of a loaf of homemade bread that was ready to go stale and I found a recipe in one of my file folders that had, “Custardy Goodness!” written on it.  Can’t go wrong with custardy goodness, right?  It turned out awesome and of course I ate too big a serving.  That always happens!  Anyway, if you want the recipe, here it is…

Bread Pudding (with Custardy Goodness!)

• 1/2 a loaf of bread cut into 1″ cubes
• 3 T melted butter
• 6 eggs
• 3 C milk
• 1 C sugar
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Spray 9″x13″ pan with cooking spray.  Toss bread cubes in and pour melted butter over them.

In a large bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon together.  Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Whisk until well blended.  Pour over bread cubes and combine to saturate cubes.

Bake for 45 minutes.

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So now that the bread pudding craving is out of the way I can concentrate on other things.  Like losing weight.  Should I have made this a separate post?  It seems sort of wrong to mention weight loss and bread pudding in the same post.  Anyway…

I’m one of those people who always has a few pounds (or ten or fifty or…) to lose, so I’ve pretty much tried it all.  Since my boys were born and I had no energy/motivation/brains at all I have kind of been in this mindset of my-husband-doesn’t-care-that-I’m-fat-so-why-should-I?  But I find that I do care.  Years and years ago I was really into Body for Life and it was the one thing that totally worked for me, so I’ve decided to go back to it.  The last time I did Body For Life was in 2003.  I didn’t finish the 12 week program, though.  I made it to 8 weeks and had lost almost 30 pounds and was feeling great, but I got pregnant and started taking it easy.  Then I had a miscarriage, got depressed, and totally fell off the health wagon.  My point is that I know it works and I know I love how I feel when I’m doing it.  His exercise routine is simple but intense and the food part is totally do-able.

Anyone want to do this with me?  I’m starting Monday (I have to dig my book out of storage first)!

Anyone else get their hands on this book yet?  (Did you read it yet?  Did you like it?  Was it better than Fourteen???)  I pre-ordered it from Amazon and they say it should arrive tomorrow.  I can’t wait to read it!  I’ll let you know what I think as soon as I get through it, but I’ll probably love it.  I love almost everything I read, so I’m probably not a very reliable source for a good review.  lol

Oh!  And look at one of the things I got my husband for Father’s Day…

Bvlgari Green Tea Shower Gel

Okay, okay, so it was more a gift for me than for him, but we BOTH benefit from him owning it!  heh.  (You Plum girls know exactly what that stuff is!)  It’s very YUM.