Category: Ruminations

Into the Dark of the Night…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations48 Comments

RIP8main400My favorite source for reading experiences is kicking off another seasonal challenge: Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) celebrating autumn with books on the darker side.  This laid-back reading challenge focuses on mysteries, gothic and horror.  Even squeamish-me is looking forward to the fun!

I must admit, this doesn’t align with my favorite genres with quite the serendipitous perfection of the Sci Fi Experience or the Once Upon a Time Challenge, but I do like a good mystery now and then, and I have a few shadowy novels in mind. Continue reading “Into the Dark of the Night…” →

Saturday Snapshot: Botanical Gardens

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot14 Comments

Today, a few more pictures from my Vancouver trip.  These are from the botanical gardens, and if you’re ever going to Vancouver, I recommend it!  My camera battery died halfway through the gardens, but I managed a few pretty pictures…

Vancouver Garden (1) Vancouver Garden (2)Vancouver Garden (3)This hedge-maze labyrinth was amazing.  So much fun–big enough to feel like a challenge, but not so big that it got frustrating.  And it amuses me that there’s a “monkey puzzle tree” in the middle!

Visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots–and have a great weekend!

 

Blog Hop: Becoming a Reader

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations9 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Were you a born bookworm or did somebody get you into the habit of reading?

Is “both” an option?  I feel like a born bookworm–I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember.  I don’t know that that was just ingrained, though…it probably has a lot to do with my parents reading to me.  The first book I ever “read” was The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree, which I memorized before I could actually read.  It wasn’t until I looked at the book again as an adult that I realized the vocal inflections my parents always put in weren’t at all indicated in the text (and trust me, there’s a big difference between “yes, they dare” and “Yes–they DARE!”)

I also went to the library every week as a kid, and still do.  I live in the same city I grew up in, and I still have my first library card.  I don’t know how old I was when I got it, but even though it was in my name, it originally had my mom’s signature–which has pretty much faded past legibility now.  I go to a different library now…but I scan the same card.  I keep waiting for a librarian to comment on how old it is.  They never do!

If you’re here, you’re probably a bookworm. 🙂  So how did you get into reading?

Saturday Snapshot: Fingerless Gloves

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot12 Comments

I’ve posted a time or two about my knitting projects…  Well, I recently decided I didn’t want to knit another scarf, and I had a somewhat inexplicable hankering for fingerless gloves.

So what did I do?  Naturally I Googled “how to knit easy fingerless gloves” (and I’m pretty sure I landed on this video).  Here’s the result:

Fingerless GlovesThey’re comfy too, even if it’s too warm to really wear them yet…  And they’re my best project yet for sounding complicated when they really weren’t!  It turns out you can knit fingerless gloves even if you can only knit rectangles…

Visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots–and have a great weekend!

Blog Updates!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations4 Comments

You may have noticed (or not…) that there’s been some changes around here in the last few days.  Nothing TOO dramatic and earth-shattering, as I still have the same basic design, and the same header image.  But I decided it was (long past) time for an overhaul of my About pages and my sidebar.

So you’ll see that over there on the right-hand side, things have been cleaned up and reorganized a bit…and I finally decided to put up, well, half of a headshot!

I also have all new About the Blog and About the Blogger pages.  I wrote the old ones when I first started the blog, and while the content wasn’t exactly out-dated, it felt like time for an updated style and tone.  Regular readers probably won’t learn much that’s new…but if you do take a look, I’d love to get your thoughts on anything I should be mentioning that’s left out.  In other words, what do you like that I should tell other people about, to encourage them to read the blog too?  Which I suppose is fishing for compliments, but do be honest…

And last but not least, if you look up at the very top there, I have a new domain name!  Rather than the WordPress address, it’s now http://marveloustales.com  Just so you know, in case you ever wanted to tell a friend…and if you kindly already have a link up somewhere, the old URL should still be sending people through to the new one.

I’ve rather enjoyed my overdue overhaul.  Other bloggers, do you have a plan or a habit around when to make updates?  Or do you just do it whenever the spirit moves?