Waiting for blog candy goodies to get here and current reads

While some of the things I will be offering in my blog candy are here, others are still on their way.  I swear it feels like Christmas, waiting for them, so I can offer them to you, along with my card challenge.  Maybe by Monday.  I probably should be splitting the goodies into two offerings, but am going to keep it as one win.  I hope to offer another when I hit 100 followers.

So, what am I doing while I am waiting?  Since I cannot make any cards, or do any sewing my the dolls, because of the splint on my wrist, I am reading and then reading some more.   I live in an apartment complex served by the local Books on Wheels. Sometimes the driver just knows what I would like to read, and will bring along a treasure with the books I have requested.  A few weeks ago I discovered Lee Child and his Jack Reacher stories.  While I started with the newest, I have gone on to read in the order suggested by Mr.Child, reading in the order written, not starting with the prequel which would give too much away about Jack Reacher.   I have devoured these two this week, and am hoping for two more when the Bookmobile comes back.



I am also fond of the Amish stories by Beverly Lewis and Wanda Brunstetter.   Beverly Lewis has a new trilogy - the Rose Trilogy, and I just read the first in the series, "The Thorn". I am looking forward to the second book which is to be released in April.  Living so close to Lancaster, I have always been fascinated with the Amish and the simple lives they lead.  I am not sure I could do it. 

Oh, I have also been re-reading the entire Cherry Ames series, from the beginning, when the library can locate the books.  I particularly love it when I get one of the original books, and not a newer reprint. 

I have been on prednisone for my wrist and it is really creating a sleepless state that is getting old.  I hate being up all night, I really do. It affects me adversely, and I don't seem to be able to catch up, ever, sleep-wise.  However, I did get two more books read during one sleepless night:

"What a Difference a Dog Makes" is written by a man who felt the true value of his dog as he recovered from radical surgery for prostate cancer.  Since I have two friends currently dealing with cancer, I strongly recommended this book. "Pukka" is a pure delight,  a story told primarily in photographs, with some narrative, but told from the puppy's viewpoint as he relays details of his life with his new friend (owner).  For all of you who have ever loved a Marley-like lab, Pukka does not seem quite as crazy, but he still is all lab, and delightful.  Apparently, the author, Ted Kerasote, wrote a book about his previous dog, "Merle's Door", and this is now on my request list from the library. If you are a dog lover, please read "Oogie" as soon as you can.  If you have ever rescued a dog, it will touch your heart, and may do so even if you are not a "dog person".

Hopefully by Monday all of the goodies will be here for the blog candy, so if you are a card maker, start thinking about the photograph I posted about a week or so ago, for inspiration.  Making a card will get you an additional chance for the blog candy. 

The candy will include the following:  two cookbooks (one for desserts, one for coffee drinks), some vintage lace beading, the wonderful Hershey thin filled with goodies that I showed you before, a chocolate strawberry (wonderful real candy treat that you have to whack on something to get the pieces to open up!), a chocolate candle, hot chocolate scented body lotion, hand-dyed rayon seam-binding, two packs of Recollections flowers, three Magnolia stamps, one packet of Magnolia flowers, one 8x 8 K & Co paper tablet (Julianne), two Hampton Art wood-mounted friendship stamps, a Tim Holtz packet of Adage Tickets and an oriental paper and chipboard pack byJenny Ellory.  Whew!  I think that it is.  If not, the rest will show up when I take photos of everything. I want to thank Diana Crick of Magnolia-licious, for her very kind donation of the three Magnolia stamps and a packet of pink and purple Magnolia flowers for my birthday candy.  She is the best!