IMM (#4) 26/6/11

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren as a way of showing off our addiction to books every week. You can learn more about is here. 

Didn't do any shopping this week as I appear to have run out of money...I have had £20 to last me since 21st...and I get paid on the 1st! However...I do receive a big bonus this pay check and Mike has already agreed to let me spend £50 on books!!!! =D So poor poor amazon will be doing a massive delivery to my house =)

But before I get ahead of myself...this week I got


Birthday books!!! Both of these were gifted by Raimy! My mother has already read Sister and loved it, and Forgotten sounds really interesting! So really excited and thankful to Raimy for being lovely and kind =)

So next week...bigggggggggggggggggggg haul =D Squee...now just need to open a library in my house...

What did everyone else get?!

Steffi xx

Challenges

I want to try and think of 22 things to do this year before I turn 23 (next June). This year just gone, my challenge was to learn to drive and see more people and I did! I passed my text in March and then drove to Manchester and Preston, which I'd never done, and I'd never been there either! Doing that's made me realise I want to live in that area!

So now my plan is...well y'kno I haven't got one!

Defiantly got a few I want to try and I suppose I will keep updating as I think of more!

1. Take Part COMPLETE NaNoWriMo November 2011
2. Go to Amsterdam
3. See more of the people who really mean things to me!
4. Read 100 books
5. Review at least 50 of those books!

Few more given by Mike in the car (19/6/11):

6. Keep 5 plants alive for a year...(I have a habit of killing them!)
7. Buy a new Corset
8. Go to a Strip Club
9. Find a hat that suits me
10. Beat the boys at a computer game
11. Successfully dye my hair blonde, and keep it for at least a week
12. Eat an animal I have never eaten before

 More! Now from Noeleen! (20/06/11)

13. Visit a museum or all the museums in the North East
14. Teach the cats a new trick and put it on YouTube.
15. Bake something really complicated and take a photo and put it on facebook to be judged in an online baking competition. 
16. Submit one of the book reviews or NaNoWriMo to a publisher 
17. Build a bee house for the garden (save the bees). 
18. Take up a new hobby like photography or write a short story and submit to local press to see if you could get published. 
19, Go and do something outdoors you haven't done before like tree climbing (Go Ape), paint balling, go-karting, mountain biking, orienteering, camping

Any more ideas I am very open to suggestions...well as long as it doesn't involve endangering my life! COME ON!! 4 more to go!! =)

Thursday Photo Challenge

Thursday Challenge is a place for photographic fun and learning. A theme is announced on this site each week. You may either take a new photograph related in some way to the theme or select one that you have taken previously...

Theme: "LIQUID"

So new challenge I found! Wish I could say that was me being all awesome and Surfing...but it's my old housemate Claire...I never progressed past getting on my knees before falling off!

My Birthday Baking fun!

Vicky cracking the eggs 

Yesterday (13th) was my birthday so me and one of my bestest friends, Vicky, decided to drink wine and bake Marble cupcakes...baring in mind Vicky had never properly baked before!Looking back on last night...(with a slightly fuzzy head..) we should've baked first...then drank while waiting for them to finish!!

I apologise for the pics...my camera was a bit crap due to the battery dying!Also the reason theres quite a few steps missing...Such as when Lesley came over and banged on the door...Vicky flew across the kitchen panicing...

Cupcakes ready to go in the oven!

Soon they were ready to go in the oven and looked all tasty! 

30 mins later...yumm!!


Defiantly a fun way to spend my Birthday!! =)

IMM (#3) 12/6/11

TIn My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren as a way of showing off our addiction to books every week. You can learn more about is here. Small haul this week...Though I am expecting Jessie <3 NYC tomorrow! Plus a few more when I go buy them!

Borrowed:

The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton

Squee! I loved Enid Blyton when I was a child, especially the Faraway Tree and the Famous Five, so am really happy I've managed to borrow this. Really excited to read it again and I really hope all have read her before...if not...go do it now!! =] 

Bought:

Truth & Dare - ed. by Liz Miles

Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin

Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

I think this haul kind of shows how varied my bookcase is! Raimy_Rawr reviewed this and from reading that I instantly went and bought it! i used to read a lot of short story collections when I was younger and am excited to be getting to read another! Her review is Here, and you should go give it a read! 

I, like a lot of people, am currently hooked to the Game of Thrones TV series, and bought this last food shop. I can't wait to read it but am having to wait for the TV show to end so I don't spoil the finale! Apparently the book was written so that it could never be turned into a series...so I'm expecting a lot of back story and descriptions which could really spoil it for me and the partner! 

What did everyone else get?!

Steffi xx

Not My Idea of Heaven - Lindsey Rosa

Those who had not discovered our truth had Satan in their hearts. We lived amongst them, but not with them, 'in the world, but not of the world'. We were special. We were the disciples of the Fellowship. When she was a child, Lindsey Rosa's every waking moment was governed by the rules of an extreme separatist sect. It controlled what she wore and what she ate; it forbade her to listen to music, to cut her hair, to watch television, to use a computer. The Fellowship said her family was special. Why would she believe otherwise? Then, when Lindsey was seven, her elder brother was caught listening to music and the family were expelled from the sect. But Lindsey's parents knew nothing but the ways of the Fellowship, so they remained in hope that they would be accepted and continued to make the family live by the sect's strict rules - cutting themselves off from their local community. But as Lindsey grew, so too did her awareness of a world outside. And, feeling increasingly isolated, she struggled with her own identity. Until finally she was faced with a devastating choice: to continue to live by the rules of the religious sect or to be brutally cast out and leave the family she loved behind forever.

*~*~*

I picked this up at the supermarket...and hid it from the partner as I was so excited and didn't want to have to fight to read this book!! I wrote on my In My Mailbox #2 about this and how I was half way through and really excited to finish this..

Unfortunately I wish I hadn't finished the book! Really shocking to say, but I was loving this book and I picked it up due to the difference in the subject matter. I usually read books involving true life stories and overcoming issues, i.e. depression, self-harm, eating disorders and battles people have to face. This book from the description just seemed different. Yes she had a battle to face but it was very different to the books I usually read and as Religion is a taboo subject I was excited.

The first half of the book I spent it enjoying the story, loving the child like innocence of Lindsey and just how much power the sect had over these people! I think one of my favourite passages involved her running outside her front door without her hair covered, and how she felt so scared she was doing wrong. 

At the middle point I wasn't able to stop reading the book and was attempting to eat and cook while reading! Then...It just changed into a usual life story book. Usually there's nothing wrong with that for me, as I'm expecting it...but this...I don't know I think I just hoped for more.

I did finish the book but I was severely put off after I realised the subject had changed, It is a good book! I just hoped it was all going to be about the religious sect and her battles with that as it was suggested...