For the Moms

New Reads

source: alicebaby.tumblr.com

This spring, several of my favorite authors are releasing new books.

Charlaine Harris releases the final installment in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series, Dead Ever After, tomorrow, May 7, 2013.  This book is coming to our local library and I'm number four on the wait list so I've still got some waiting to do, but I'm really looking forward to discovering what becomes of my beloved Sookie.  In the meantime, I'm beginning her Harper Connelly series which is available at our library.  I just finished Grave Sight and have book two on hold.

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Next up, Mary Kay Andrews is releasing Ladies Night.  I always enjoy her reads.  I've currently been reading her Callahan Garrity Mystery series.  I'm just starting, To Live & Die in Dixie which is book number two in the series.  I like going to look at authors' past works to fill in the time until their next release.

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Michael Lee West has released the follow up to Acquainted With the Night under the pen name Piper Maitland.  This book is titled Hunting Daylight. 

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I think she may also have a third installment on her Teeny Templeton series released this spring, but am not entirely sure about when.  I'll enjoy reading that, too, and if you haven't meet Teeny Templeton, you should.  The first book in the series is, Gone With a Handsomer Man, followed by A Teeny Bit of Trouble.

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Are you building a summer reading list?  If so, what's on it?

Playhouse Updates

The playhouse, not complete, but getting close, has brought a lot of smiles to our girl.  In this photo she is enjoying the table we'd just set in place.  We have finishing touches to complete, still, and I've been picking up fun little things to decorate her space, things that will stand up to outdoor weather.  It's proved to be somewhat of a more difficult task than I'd imagined.  For example, I can't find a plastic flamingo anywhere around town and we live in a coastal community!  I did find a metal art yard stake flamingo at the Hobby Lobby and it will have to suffice...

It doesn't look terrible, but I'd imagined a little line of plastic flamingos marching across the front of the house.  The flowers helped add some whimsy.

Here's a bit more of the décor.  I found the seahorse hooks at a local antique store and finagled them down to $2 a piece.  I painted them purple and think they add nicely to the beachy vibe we've got going on.  The oven mitt came from the Dollar Store for, you guessed it, one dollar.  The Mason jar was on hand as was the bit of twine and the crocheted trimming.  I wove the twine through the crochet and tied it onto the lattice.  I'm thinking of adding a few more of these in various spots to use as silk flower vases.  This one is being used to hold her utensils.

Her Memaw clued us in on these chairs found at Wal-Mart for $5 bucks.  The daisy bench, I'd bought long ago, was rusted so I touched it up with some white pray paint.  I'm thinking to spray it another color so that it stands out against the white lattice.  The little melamine plates were found at the same antique store as the sea horse hooks.  The doily and centerpiece were things stuffed in a closet.   I was glad to pull them out and find use for them.  The table cover is nothing but a plastic Dollar Store shower curtain.  I need to trim it down, for sure, but it's serving its purpose for the time being.

 

I've got just a few more things left to do and I'll post a completed picture soon.  The girls and I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the house for lunches and sessions of blowing bubbles.  We've been stuck indoors with a stomach virus and it's not finished having its way with us so any entertainment has been welcome.

Even having certain feathered visitors...