All Together Dead

All Together Dead is the seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse, or Southern Vampire Mystery, series by Charlaine Harris. I took a break from these for awhile because they're very light reads, though nice to interject in between the larger books to give your brain a break. The whole series would be a great beach read if you're so inclined. Perfect for the pool that is noisy with children because you don't really have to pay too close attention.

In the previous book, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Queen of Louisiana, wed and subsequently may have murdered her new husband King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill. Thus, she must stand trial at the vampire summit to be held in All Together Dead. She has requested that Sookie travel in her entourage so that she might commandeer Sookie's telepathic skills. During the summit, there may be other humans who do no have Sophie-Anne's best interest at heart and Sookie is there to suss them out. Sookie's new shifter boy toy, Quinn, will also be in attendance, in a business nature as well as his company is planning the event. Tagging along are a number of other vamps including, of course, Eric and Bill. Bill and Sookie are not a couple in this book after she learned some disturbing news about their relationship in the previous book.

All hell breaks loose at the summit when vampires are suspiciously murdered left and right. It is clear someone is out to get a number of them and it's up to Sookie and her telepathic friend Barry Bellboy to find out as much as they can and aid in the safe-keeping of multiple vampire kings and queens. Who could be behind these dastardly plans? If you've read any of these, I'll give you one guess.

I liked All Together Dead because I appreciated the new setting. Things were getting old for me in Bon Temps. I also liked Sookie's interactions with the Queen and other vampires that are new to this series. I think I still have 4 books left which shouldn't take that long to get through. They're extremely fast reads but enjoyable all the same. Good guilty pleasures.

And lucky me, True Blood is back on HBO! The new season just started a couple weeks ago and already it is crazy good. There are some divergences from the books but they also provide interesting unexpected twists so it's okay. I also saw an interview with Alan Ball in which he said if you're a fan of the 4th book, you'll be happy with this season. YEA! I really liked the 4th book because Eric is loads better than vampire Bill. So, I'll be happy to see more of him this season.

Recipe Re-blog #27

I tried two new recipes this past one, one for over the 4th of July and one for a normal weeknight dinner. One a winner and one not so much.

Deviled Eggs: Believe it or not, I've never made deviled eggs and I L.O.V.E. them. John had never had one before and was skeptical until I reminded him that he likes egg salad. Duh. This recipe is from the Food Network's Sandra Lee and it was a winner. Super simple and tasty. Give it a try!

Asian Pulled Pork: I had really high hopes for this recipe. I already had the pork in the freezer just looking for a reason to defrost it. We like Asian flavors and we love crockpot meals. Unfortunately, this recipe fell a little short for me. It didn't get a sleeve in my recipe binder and I don't think I need to revisit it.

Bye Bye Vertical Blinds

I loathe vertical blinds with the passion of a thousand suns. I realize that they are practical in trying to cover large windows or sliding doors but they are so hideous I can't stand it. Our house has vertical blinds covering the double sliders heading from the dining area out to the backyard. Not only are they in a super visible area of the first floor of the house, but they were also not holding up to being slid open and closed every time Sadie needed to go outside. Thus, three of the slats had broken off at various points in the last 6 months. Yes, we could have just replaced them but why bother? I wanted them all gone anyway.

A couple weeks ago, I got my wish!

After filling the holes and painting over the patches, John installs the new rod, from the Martha Stewart line at Lowe's.

Yeah, I don't miss them either, Sadie!

The curtains are not permanent. I happened to have these hanging in another unused room and decided they would work for the interim downstairs. I like the color but the fabric isn't my favorite and I could stand to hem them a couple inches too. An added bonus of these curtains is that even though they're not thermally insulated, they help keep the dining area cool when the sun is beating through the glass doors. Those nasty vertical blinds never did that. Little by little, things are coming along.

Rugby to Halter

I get so inspired reading other blogs that upcycle clothing and yet I rarely attempt these sorts of projects myself. I think the only one I've ever undertaken was my ruffled wool Christmas skirt. I saved this long-sleeve shirt from John's Goodwill pile. Sorry, Goodwill shoppers. I distinctly remember it costing him $5.00 on the American Eagle clearance rack some years ago. There were a few different ideas floating around in my head and ultimately, I settled on a halter top. Probably because I love halter tops. Love them!

Let's get started!

Using a tube top from my closet as a guideline, I cut two rectangle accounting for seam allowance. I've forgotten to do that in the past. Forgotten seam allowance = a sad Ashley. I wasn't sure how I wanted to make the halter portion except that I purchased some white cording from Joann's months ago for this very project.

After stitching up the side seams to make a tube, I cut out a trapezoid-like shape for the top portion. I always thought it might make things a bit more interesting if I made the stripes vertical.

I stitched the top to the body and folded it down a bit to make the casing for the cording. The fit on the sides was a bit trickier than I thought it would be. There was a bit of re-sewing but I finally got it.


Ta-da! Free nautical halter top for me!

I like how long the halter top is. Isn't it the worst when you have to constantly yank your top down? I will be the saddest girl in the world when this white skirt dies. I could live in it!

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

My goodness this was a large book. It had over 1,400 pages and I read every one of them. So, since it took me 3 1/2 weeks to finish, just figure that I read 3-4 normal sized books in that time span and we'll call it square, okay?

A Breath of Snow and Ashes is the 6th book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. If you're still with us, keep going, I have a feeling the last one is going to be really good! However, if you haven't read any of them and do plan to tackle the series at some point, you should probably skip this review. The synopsis, for as long as this tome was, will be very brief because I simply can't cover it all succinctly.

Claire and Jamie are still trying to carve out their niche on Fraser's Ridge in a burgeoning colonial America. Brianna, Roger, and Jem are happy there and are even considering adding to their brood. However, Stephen Bonnet is still afoot and that concerns everyone. They're also trying to figure out if the snippet they read in a newspaper forecasting Jamie and Claire's deaths by fire will really come true, or if their time-traveling, all-knowing ways can help thwart their demise. You Ian and the others are still around as well. Lord John is back, as are Jocasta, Duncan Innes and some nuttiness with their staff. This book was chock full of kidnappings, murders and near murders, crazy baby daddies and much more all as the American Revolution swells around Fraser's Ridge and Jamie is forced to choose sides knowing what will come from Brianna and Claire's re-telling/foretelling of history. Sakes alive!

I liked A Breath of Snow and Ashes but it was a beast for sure. My fleeting paragraph above doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what happened but I figure if you're this deep into the series, you don't really need me to tell you what it's all about. And if you've never read any of them, then of course you wouldn't start here. The tough part about a book (and series) this large is that by the time I get to the end of a book, I've forgotten where it all began. That's the real reason my summary is lacking for detail. Admittedly, I'm not the best at recanting tales. Anyway, if you're thisclose to the end, keep going! If you haven't even cracked Outlander, start there.

Taking a slight fluff break before tackling An Echo in the Bone. Stay tuned!

P.S. Blogger has been hatin' on Internet Explorer 9 so I couldn't italicize everything I normally would have.

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing you all the happiest of Independence Days! Have you been cooking out? Did you see or are you going to see fireworks? John and I had a backyard fireworks show from a couple streets over. It was great! Sadie disagreed. We also tried our darnedest to get our fire pit going so we could make s'mores. At posting, we were still making them in the microwave. But, fingers crossed tonight will be the night the fire actually starts and stays lit!

We went shopping and were semi-successful in our purchases though nowhere near successful in crossing any of the pieces of furniture we need off the list. We grilled out in the backyard. I finally made it back to the pool, and didn't burn! We drank beer (John requested Sam Adams because, "he was a patriot") and sangria and had a good old-fashioned time. I'm a bit sad not to celebrate with family though. I guess there's always next year.......

Recipe Re-blog #26

Halfway, halfway, halfway through 2011!! Can you believe that? Where did the first part of this year go? I'll tell you where......in my kitchen! I have made it 26 weeks of at least one new recipe a week.

Almost-Famous Rosemary Bread: Oh.My.Goodness! I have a new obsession. That obsession is baking homemade bread. Pretty much nothing beats hot bread straight from the oven. The reason this is almost famous bread is because it is a recipe-alike of the bread at Macaroni Grill. This recipe takes a bit of time and loving. You have to be patient and let it rise, twice. You have to trust that the 4 hours you put into it will result in the saltiest goodness you will put in your mouth. Is it strange that I absolutely love kneading my own bread? I have a bread maker that would take care of this labor intensive step for me but I chose to do it the old fashioned way. If I could knead bread all day long, I would. Knead bread and sew. I guess I should have been born in colonial times. If you've never made your own bread before, don't be scared. Just follow this recipe to a T and you'll be A-OKAY!