The Zen Leaf

A Table Set for Five

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Thistle

Sometimes I kinda go crazy when yarn goes on sale. When Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton skeins went on sale for a dollar each, I bought around 30 of them, all in different colors. A week later, we decided to move across the country, and you know how that progress of that journey progressed! I began making place-mats with my cotton before we left, and had gotten several done before the move. Now, I’ve gotten them all made! We have a table set for five.

I know it’s traditional to have all your place-mats match. I don’t much care, though. I let everyone in the family pick out the design they liked best and the colors they liked best, and then I got to work.

Ambrose’s place-mat was the first I worked on. There was no pattern for this. Instead, we’d seen something similar on image searches for crocheted table settings, and it looked easy enough to replicate. Ambrose loves lots of color, so he chose his colors and the order they would go in, and I got to work. It only took a few hours to piece together, and came out very nice once blocked!

My place mat was the second done. I heavily-modified a potholder pattern from Ravelry. My cotton yarn is size 4 and this pattern called for size 1, but I decided that the size 4 would work for my mat if I added a few more flowers to the longer section. I then changed up the pattern to let me use two colors of yarn for the background. And while the project turned out beautifully, I will never use this pattern again. Nope, nope, nope. There is FAR too much embroidery involved. Those flowers took me several days to put together and I hated every minute of it. I love crochet. I hate sewing. Good to know.

Up next was Laurence’s design (mostly because he kept saying “When will you make mine? Have you started mine?”). I found the design for this on Pinterest, which led me to a page that supposedly links out to the original source, except the original source has gone missing. In other words, no pattern. This looked easy enough to replicate, slightly modified to fit Laurence’s colors and design choices, and it came out quite nice! He loved it, too, and was sad it immediately got packed away before he could actually use it. Ha!

Morrigan’s place-mat is a slightly-adapted version of this pattern from Moogly. This was one of my favorite mats to make – simple and easy and pretty. It was actually my third time making one of these, as I used the non-adapted version of the pattern to make coordinating mats and coasters for my sister and her husband for their wedding in August.

Jason’s place-mat had to wait until after we finished moving to Wisconsin, and even then it took a long time. Finally, though, right after we moved into our own house, I got this one done. The pattern is from Red Heart, with a bit less edging on it or it would have been massive compared to the others. It came out beautifully!

A lot of good stuff came from this project. I learned how to block properly – crucial with cotton projects – and it turned out that our new dining room table was real wood and needs place-mats and coasters if we don’t want to damage it. This came just at the right time!

Posted in Crochet | Tagged I made a thing., Yarn Art | 6 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Goodbye October, Hello November!

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Thistle

October was a pretty crazy month. There are some things going on that are behind the scenes, so to speak, and can’t be spoken about here on the blog. Those are causing (lots and lots of) stress. Additionally, we spent most of the month looking for a new house, setting up the closing of our old Texas house (should be this upcoming week!), then moving into our new house (which should close either late this month or early next). Plus there was both Morrigan’s birthday and Halloween. The whole month went by in a blip because of all this, which is probably good because otherwise I would have been far more conscious of all those awful Trump things going on that make me angry every time I see them. I’m glad Other Things have been at the forefront of my brain.

(scenes from October)

In books, I had a fairly good month, reading nine altogether, five on audio, six for RIP. I did read a lot of fluff in there, and had some disappointments, but I also had some really good reads and rereads, so it all balances out. Considering my head wasn’t really in my books either, I’m happy with the way the month went. It’s hard to pick a favorite, though I’ve given that label to The Girl with All the Gifts, which completely surprised me given that I hadn’t originally wanted to read it. Just goes to show, right? I’m glad I gave it a chance.

I’m glad to be starting November. Sadly, I can’t participate in NaNoWriMo this year, for the first time since 2009. There’s been too much happening over the last six months to have allowed any time to consider writing, and I didn’t want to throw myself into a last-second manuscript and not give it the justice it deserves. I’m a huge NaNo planner, down to the chapter-by-chapter details, and it wasn’t going to happen this year. So I told myself no, that I’ll try again next year, and in the meantime, will work on getting myself a routine and an exercise regimen started again. After six months of constant stress, I need to spend a little time on my health again! That’s where my November will be dedicated.

That’s about all for me. How was your October? Any exciting November plans? I promise I’ll be back to regular commenting and visiting blogs soon. Moving is hard!

Posted in Book Talk, Personal, Writing | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 7 Comments

A Torch Against the Night, by Sabaa Tahir

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Thistle

Because this is a second book in a series, I’m not going to talk about the story itself. I don’t want to give away book or series spoilers. Instead, this’ll just be a mini-review of my experience of the book.

First, I enjoyed reading this one. The first half was a bit slower, so it took awhile to get into. After a certain event about halfway through, things picked up a lot. I thought many of the twists were obvious from the beginning, except it turned out that either I was wrong, or I wasn’t right enough in my predictions. There were also a couple twists I didn’t see coming at all. I’m glad we got to learn a little more of the jinn elements of the story, and I’m fascinated to see where Elias’s story in particular goes. Also to note: Tahir is not afraid to kill off characters when necessary, and I highly respect that. On the downside, there has been nothing in the first two books that have made me need to read the next two. By the time they come out, I’m not sure my interest will be high enough to keep reading. At the moment, I plan to, but without a compelling need, I don’t know how I’ll feel by the time the rest are published.

Posted in 2016, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged mini-review, RIP-worthy, speculative | Leave a comment

Wellness Wednesday #33 – Paralysis

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Thistle

I currently stand on the edge of something. I’m in my own house now, and can control many things I couldn’t before: when/where to exercise. What to buy and eat. My daily schedules and routines. Etc. This is an exciting place, but also a terrifying one. I have a rough road ahead, and as I stand here, so many things paralyze me.

1. Injury: 15 months after I sprained my ankle, it still hasn’t fully healed. I’ve undergone physical therapy twice; worked with chiropractors and massage therapists and an athletic trainer; iced and foam-rolled and stretched and heated and rested and everything else thrown at me to try to make this better. Sometimes there’s no pain, and sometimes I wake up unable to walk without limping. I’m in the process of getting to a specialist for imagine to determine if there are any tears in the tendons or ligaments. Sigh.

2. Insomnia: If I don’t sleep, everything else in my world falls apart. Insomnia has been a problem my whole life, getting worse in my adolescence and then growing extremely severe about five years ago. I rely on a lot of factors to get as much sleep as possible, but I often feel I’m fighting an uphill battle. The issues is so enormous, though, that at this point Jason and I have gone to the extreme of having separate bedrooms in order to not wake each other up multiple times nightly!

3. Addiction: Sugar is bad for me. Not just the typical cookies-and-ice-cream variety, but the general proliferation of bread, pasta, and cereals that basically just turn into sugar the second they hit my tongue. I’m particularly sensitive to carbs of any sort because of PCOS and insulin-resistance, and yet I keep eating them. Addiction.

4. Self-sabotage: This is an odd combination of things. I have a lot of work to do to get healthy, but I keep putting obstacles in my path. I binge eat or drink, punishing myself with food, forcing myself to not be healthy. I’m afraid to try, so I keep making myself fail. I’m afraid that if I do try, I won’t succeed, or that if I do succeed, something bad will happen. (Sorry to be vague on that last point. Can’t talk about it more, but last time I succeeded and felt good about myself for the first time in years, something really bad happened to me and there’s a part of me that’s terrified the same will happen again if I succeed again.) So I’m scared to try, scared to fail, and scared to succeed. How’s that for an impossible knot?

5. Shame: After regaining so much, I feel like a failure. I don’t want people to look at me. I don’t want to exercise where anyone can see. I don’t want to choose healthier foods for fear someone might sneer at me. I want to wear baggy clothes to hide myself away, and not see anyone I know. I’m living in an isolated bubble with no desire to leave. I’ve lost a lot of the confidence I once had, and shame causes me to beat myself up constantly.

6. Anxiety, Depression, Hopelessness, Intimidation: All these things. I’m overwhelmed. I worry about everything. I worry about making extra work for others if I need to count calories or modify my meals. I worry about the difficulty of losing weight again, and feel depressed to once again be in this position. I’m angry at myself for letting this happen, and worry that it was a fluke that I ever succeeded in the first place. I don’t know which path I should take up this mountain of health/fitness/weight-loss, and the sheer volume of work to be done is intimidating and overwhelming.

I can’t move forward until I can address these things. I’m doing my best: setting up doctor and therapy appointments, making schedules and food/exercise plans, working on sleep issues, and trying to remember that I just need to take this one day at a time instead of looking at how far I’ll eventually need to go. But it’s just hard, and I feel paralyzed.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged body image, health, psychology, Wellness Wednesday | 2 Comments

Top Ten Series Starters

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Thistle

Today’s topic is a fun one: top ten books to read if your book club likes ___. I chose “series” to fill in the blank, mostly because the last book club I was in prohibited any series starters as book choices, heh. So here are some really great series starters that would make for lots of fun reading for many books to come!

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
In the Woods by Tana French
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
The Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

Which are some of your favorite series starters?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 10 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Wrapping Up RIP XI

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Thistle

I didn’t have much of a plan for RIP this year. I knew things would be chaotic and sporadic since we were in the process of moving. When I made up my original list of RIP-possibilities, I had no idea which, if any, of those titles I would get my hands on. Two months later, there are a couple I’m still waiting on at the library (The Motion of Puppets, Nevernight), a couple I read (below), and one that I decided I wasn’t interested in (The Swan Riders). I made a reread list on my initial post as well, because I was kinda in a reread mood. Ironically, while I did have a few rereads, only one came from that list. My RIP reads with brief thoughts, in order of when I read them:

The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian (audio) – a random audio pick on Audible that turned out to be a cute cozy mystery with lots of spooky atmosphere.
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (audio) – It’s become a tradition to re-listen to this one yearly.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (audio) – another reread, one that caused me to like the series better than after my initial read
The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud (audio) – I’d been waiting for this one for so long and I loved every second of the twice I listened to it.
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (audio) – Ironically, I liked this one less on audio than I probably would have in print…still, enjoyed it overall.
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (audio) – another reread that was perfect for the season!
The Trespasser by Tana French (audio) – ditto everything I said on The Creeping Shadow
No One Knows by JT Ellison (audio) – my first disappointment of the RIP season
The Masquerading Magician by Gigi Pandian (audio) – not quite as good as the first, but still fun for RIP!
The Girl with All the Gifts by MR Carey (audio) – totally blown away by this one!
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir – assuming I finish by end of day tomorrow!

In the end, I read 11 books, including 3 rereads, and enjoyed all but one of them. And nearly everything on my RIP list this year was on audio – all but the last! It was a spooky listening year, I suppose!

Thanks again Carl for hosting!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists, RIP-worthy, Sunday Coffee | 4 Comments

Winter Wear: Scarf Edition

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Thistle

I’ve moved to northern Wisconsin, and I have way too much yarn. It only makes sense that I create tons and tons of winter accessories to wear! Today’s post features scarves, shawls, and cowls that I’ve crocheted over the last few months.

The first scarf I crocheted was extraordinarily simple, just one stitch all the way through. However, the scarf looks amazing because of the yarn I used. This is Lion Brand Scarfie Yarn in charcoal/magenta, and the pattern just came straight from the skein. It was tons of yarn (over 300 yards) and the entire skein was used. The transition from charcoal to purple and back again is perfect, and the yarn is lovely-soft. Despite how simple this is, I know it’s going to be one of my most-used scarves this winter.

I loved that Scarfie yarn so much that I bought a second skein of it, this time in forest/black. I found a cute chevron scarf pattern at Grow Creative, and got to work! This was the super-satisfactory result!

What would moving to Wisconsin be without a fun autumn rainbow scarf for my niece? Pattern from One Skein Wonders, yarn is Red Heart in Earthy.

This twisting infinity cowl is a pattern of my own design! Mostly I just had a bunch of chunky yarn lying around, the dregs from other projects, and decided to play. I’m really super happy with the results. The cowl is comfortable, reversible, versatile, and in colors that both feel like fall and remind me of my mother’s favorite flower (Indian Blankets), which is perfect when I’m so far away from home. [Yarn: Lion Brand Woolspun in Cranberry, Pumpkin, and Oxford Grey]

This was another dregs project: the leftovers of many skeins of yarn that I wanted to use up and a pattern for a “Mulberry Shawl” I bought awhile back from The Hook Nook. The pattern was fairly simple, basically a triangle granny square with a scallop edge that I ended up nixing in favor of a picot edge anyway. It turned out really cute with all my dregs, though! Nice and soft, too. [Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Woodland (Camo), Woodland Heather, Peacock Feather (Paints), and Dark Country Blue]

One Skein Wonders had a bulky-yarn pattern for a mobius cowl. Unfortunately, other than the little twist in the infinity cowl, the pattern was kinda boring. So I played. I got a super-bulky yarn that was this beautiful gradient of greys and pink, plus a 10-mm hook, and I modified the pattern a bit. It’s still a simple concept, but I like it much better than what the original calls for. Plus, this was my first time using such a large hook as well as super-bulky yarn. It was a fun experiment! The whole thing took maybe an hour to work up, which was nice! [Yarn: Lion Brand Hometown USA in Salem Creek]

Both shawls I’ve made over the last couple months have been triangular and didn’t give me enough arm coverage, so I decided to make a very large rectangular shawl/wrap. I chose the Hoover Dam Shawl from Expression Fiber Arts, which took a bit over 1000 yards of yarn to crochet. I’m in two minds about the end results. On one hand, I love the pattern and the end-product. On the other, I was very disappointed with the yarn itself. This is my fourth or fifth time trying out Yarn Bee skeins and each of them have been frustrating in some way. This particular yarn had at least 1-2 knotted breaks in each skein. Beyond that, it didn’t work up very well. I could block the entire thing to make it neater, but it’s over six feet long, and considering the yarn is acrylic, I’m just not sure blocking would make much of a difference. So the shawl doesn’t look nearly as professional or smooth as it would with a higher quality yarn, but it’s warm and comfy, so I love it anyway. I just don’t think I’ll pick up Yarn Bee again. [Yarn: Yarn Bee Soft & Sleek in Blushy]

Lastly, I decided to make myself one more twisting infinity cowl/scarf. I’ve long loved the rainbow Landscapes yarn from Lion Brand, but I thought it would be too bright on its own, so I mixed it with some leftover brown yarn for a more muted effect. I absolutely love the way it came out, and the double strand made the scarf thick and super warm. As you can see from the photo, I can wear it as a single loop or doubled, and it appears darker or brighter depending on the light. [Yarn: Lion Brand Landscapes in Mountain Range, Lion Brand Heartland in Sequoia]

I have a lot more of this kind of thing that I’d like to make in the future, but I’m set for the upcoming winter season, and so will turn my brain and fingers to a different kind of project now!

Posted in Crochet | Tagged I made a thing., Yarn Art | 2 Comments

Top Ten Halloween Memories

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Thistle

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is a Halloween-themed freebie, so I’m going the non-bookish route and looking back over my favorite Halloween(ish) memories through the years!

1. I enjoyed Halloween as a kid, but it was really college when the holiday got super fun. My friends and I dressed up and went out trick-o-treating in a rich neighborhood despite being 18/19 years old. We also took pictures in front of an old steeple that was just sitting on the side of the road. Really.

2. Pumpkin patches and corn mazes with toddlers who were afraid to pet the goats. 😀 To be fair, Morrigan wasn’t the least bit afraid. Just Ambrose. (Laurence was in utero when this picture was taken.)

3. My favorite Halloween decoration ever was this circle of ghosts we made outside our house in 2004.

4. Making a Halloween-themed gingerbread house has been a tradition for us ever since Jason and I met back in 1999. We can’t do one every year, but we build them when we can. We’ve made a courthouse hanging, a witch-burning, the headless horseman, a scene from Sweeney Todd, and Twilight (complete with a stalker werewolf). My favorite was the year we made a gingerbread Stiffs, Inc concert. They’re my favorite band and they loved the gingerbread portrayal! Notably, Twilight was our last and that was five years ago. We need to get on it next year!

5. Back when Laurence was three years old, he went as a pirate for Halloween. We used eyeliner to draw a scruffy beard on him, because we knew he wouldn’t keep a cotton-ball beard on. We found out later that he was terrified that if he moved his mouth, the eyeliner would drip into it and he’d swallow it, so he held his mouth in this semi-open position all night. Ha! (Next to him, Ambrose dresses as Harry Potter and Morrigan dresses as Stewart Little.)

6. Death and Baby Death had been a part of our family since the early 2000s, but their Book Hour videos on Youtube began in 2009, and they joined us for our Halloween celebrations that year.

7. Because Halloween falls the night before NaNoWriMo starts, I have a lot of great memories over the years finishing up the Halloween-related stuff and getting ready to burst out of the gates for my wordcount. 😀 Pictured is the midnight kickoff in 2015.

8. The Night Circus. I really don’t need to say more than that, I think.

9. Halloween morning, 2014, Boston. Laurence, in full costume, passes me as I’m making coffee. I point to my coffee mug, which is Slytherin-themed, and say, “Slytherin mug.” Laurence stops for a few seconds, points to his vampire-slicked-back-hair, and says, “Slytherin hair.” That still cracks me up every time I think of it. (Laurence was technically an assassin that year, while Ambrose dressed as Luke Skywalker and Morrigan decided he was “too old” to dress up.)

10. And okay, there is some bookish stuff here, because Halloween just wouldn’t be complete without the RIP reading event and the autumn Readathon.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Personal | Tagged lists | 12 Comments

The Girl with All the Gifts, by MR Carey (audio)

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Thistle

I don’t know when exactly this book came to my attention. It was released a few years back, but I only really remember hearing about it this year, when people started raving about it. I glanced at the GoodReads description and decided I wasn’t interested. Between the title and the description, I got the impression this was a dystopia about the government trying to control kids that had been born with dangerous psychic/telekinetic/magic-like powers. I’ve read too many of those, so despite the rave reviews, I passed.

Then I saw a movie trailer, or a picture from the movie. I didn’t really know anything more about the movie, but it looked slightly more interesting after that. I decided to try out the audiobook. Honestly, I kinda thought perhaps I’d already tried out the audiobook at one point and rejected it, and figured I’d do the same this time. Except when I began to listen, I didn’t remember anything that I heard. I gave it a bit longer. My attention was caught. I started thinking maybe this wasn’t about psychic powers, but about a clone colony like in an Ishiguro novel. Another story I’ve read once too many.

I’m not sure why I kept going. I’m glad I did, though, because it was neither of my predictions. I won’t say what this book is about and give away spoilers, but there were no psychic powers or clones involved. Instead, this ended up being another well-worn story with a very unique twist that made it not-so-well-worn, a twist that I loved a lot. The world was very well-developed and I grew to love many of the characters (except Dr. Caldwell, who I doubt you’re supposed to love…). The ending took me completely by surprise and sent a very strong chill down my back.

In the end, I really loved this book and highly recommend it. I’m glad it made my RIP list this year!

Performance: Finty Williams does an excellent job with all the characters. I was particularly impressed with Melanie, because Williams makes her sound young and childlike without any of the whiny bits that too often go into children’s voices in audiobooks.

Posted in 2016, Adult, Prose | Tagged atmospheric, audio, memorable, portentous, RIP-worthy, speculative | 7 Comments

Sunday Coffee – BrainMelt

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Thistle

Back in 2012, there was a time when I didn’t have a blog and was only putting book reviews up on Goodreads. Most of the time, those “reviews” were just a sentence or two about my feelings for a book. When I transferred all my reviews off Goodreads to a private location, and later to this blog, I didn’t bother moving those. They weren’t even mini-reviews.

In the years since, I’ve regretted my laziness in not reviewing those books. I’ve regretted not taking the time to write down some real thoughts. And yet recently, I’ve found myself in a similar mindset to where I was four years ago. I have a blog, but my brain isn’t really reading books in a way that lends itself to discussion. Ever since July, with all the construction and moving going on, I’ve been reading far more shallowly, to entertain myself or even just to take up time. Sometimes I really do have nothing more to say than “I liked this one” or “this book didn’t work for me.” Because I know I’ll kick myself later if I don’t, I’ve been forcing myself to write reviews most of the time. I can’t remember the last time I wrote an in-depth review, though. Early August, maybe? Perhaps even further back.

The thing is, I’ve really liked some of these books. I’ve enjoyed the brain-candy books and reveled in the meatier books and swooned over the romantic books. I’m in brainmelt mode, though, so even when there is something thicker and more interesting to think about and discuss, I’m not really feeling/seeing/processing it. And after awhile, I get tired of writing reviews that say “I don’t really have anything to say about this one.” Because that’s pretty much all books right now, good or bad, shallow or deep. I don’t really have much to say about books, period.

Maybe that’ll change, now that I’m in my own place. Maybe it’ll change once I settle down into a new rhythm and routine. I’ll keep writing my next-to-nothing semi-reviews in the meantime, because I don’t want to kick myself a couple years down the road, but I don’t know when my brainmelt will be over and I’ll be back to really thinking about what I’m reading again.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged house, Sunday Coffee | 6 Comments