Silhouette Giveaway @ A Bowl Full Of Lemons

Toni @ A Bowl Full of Lemons is giving away a Silhouette SD on her blog!  Check it out to enter.

It's a very cool machine and I would love to have one of my own.  I can just imagine all the things I can do with it.

I'm so excited!

I've been wanting a KitchenAid mixer for quite some time.  I've been eyeing colors and trying to decide which one I want.

I finally made my decision and ordered it last night!

KitchenAid Artisan 5 Qt. Stand Mixer
Cornflower Blue

I had a really hard time trying to decide what color I wanted.  I thought about getting a 'neutral' color that would match any kitchen I may have in the future, but ultimately I could not get the Cornflower Blue out of my head.  Isn't it just gorgeous?

I've decided that when we eventually move (and I hopefully get the kitchen of my dreams!) I will decorate around the color of my mixer.  Does that make me nuts??


P.S. Oh, and best of all, this mixer comes with a 'rebate' for a FREE glass bowl (or food grinder attachment).

P.P.S. And of course I signed up for a free trial of Amazon Prime for free 2 day shipping so I could get it ASAP.  lol

Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

"Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life."



I thought this was a great book that really sucked me in.  I can't count how many times I was crying reading this.  There were a few things that I didn't like, one of them being Julia's 'drama.'  It just seemed there was too much of it and a lot of it was unnecessary to the book.  However, I would still recommend reading this book.

I never learned of the Vel' d'Hiv' in school so this was a real eye-opener.  It's ironic in a sense because that is mentioned in the book a lot, how most people haven't even heard of it, let alone French people.

Silhouette SD Giveaway @ A Bowl Full of Lemons

Toni @ A Bowl Full of Lemons is giving away a Silhouette SD!  This thing looks way cool and I'm hoping to win it.  There are a ton of ways to enter so just head over to A Bowl Full of Lemons if you you want to enter to win.

Free eBooks

If you have an e-reader, check out the Jane Austen page on Amazon.  You can get 8 of her novels in Kindle format for free.

I downloaded all of them.  I've never read Jane Austen before but this will be a good start for me on reading the classics.

Organizing

I've felt this need lately to organize.  Organize everything.  I feel the urge to get things in order.  And not just physical things, but myself too.  I feel like I need to start with external things first so that I feel good inside.  I've got some great ideas from reading tons of other blogs but my 2 favorites are A Bowl Full of Lemons and I'm an Organizing Junkie.  Both have given me tons of inspiration.

Part of this need to organize comes from 'organizing' our finances.  Harvey and I started last March using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover plan.  We immediately stopped using credit cards and haven't used one since.  We also set up a budget that we both work and agree on every month.

Having our finances organized has made me realize that I need to get everything else in my life organized too.  It's amazing the peace I feel about our financial situation and how much better my marriage is just from being able to talk about them.  I want to feel that way in the rest of my life.  I don't want to feel so 'out of control.'

Over the next few months as I work on this stuff I will share with you some of my inspiration and ideas.  I'm reading all over the web and while nothing seems to be exactly for me, (and why would it?  Everybody is different, right?) I plan to incorporate a little bit from here and a little bit from there to find something that works for me.

Mini Makeover

If you haven't noticed, I've constantly been changing the look of my blog.  I'm struggling to find something I like that fits me.

I really like this one.  It's simple and 'clean' looking.

If you don't know me that well, I get pretty OCD when it comes to certain things.  With the blog, I really like my colors to match and complement.  The colors of this one are pretty frustrating to me.  I love black and pink but am having a hard time with link colors.  I can't seem to find the right pinks to match.  Blogger doesn't make it very easy either.

So, who knows.  I'm sure you'll see it changed again before too long.