When I started writing today's Three Good Things post, I was sceptical about whether I'd be able to write it in the spirit in which it's intended. You see, I'm still poorly and with it, VERY grumpy (as you probably realised from my previous rant!). However, it only took a few minutes of editing my photos ready for this post and the better side of my mood started to emerge. It just goes to show that little things really can make a difference to our everyday lives.

One

I recently happened across a series of blog posts about everyday make up essentials, which really struck a chord with me. I do find that I feel more confident in myself when my skin tone looks even, my eyes are accentuated and my lips have a little colour; however, for some reason (a lack of taking time just for myself) I very rarely wear make up anymore and actually own very little. I wish I could remember whose blog it was because it inspired me to invest in the following few basics from Superdrug:

Beauty UK Blush & Brush No.4 (Rustic Peach), which is a revelation, as I've never really used blusher before and am amazed at the difference a little makes!

Make Up Academy Intense Glitter Eye Liner in Malt Chocolate, which is quick and easy to apply, and really enhances my green eyes.

Make Up Academy Lipstick Shade 2, which I picked for everyday use, as it enriches my natural lip colour.

Make Up Academy Lipstick Shade 3, which is a fabulous bright pink, perfect for day or night, and really suits my cool skin tone.

And it all added up to the bargain price of £5.99! Bonus!

Two

This week we've made Egg Box Monsters! To make your own you'll need:

* A cardboard egg box
* Some googly eyes
* Glue
* Any other crafting bits and pieces that you have to hand, like paint, glitter, foam, card etc

We painted our egg boxes, glued googly eyes to the front, cut out pointy teeth and glued them to the inside of the box and then covered the top of the boxes with glitter.

When you make yours, you could add a big tongue that sticks out of your egg box, or you could glue wool or pipe cleaners to the top of the box for hair!

Whatever you do, have fun doing it!

Three

I read the most INCREDIBLE book! Okay, I know I've mentioned it a couple of times on here already but it was seriously THAT GOOD!

Nameless : A Tale of Beauty and Madness
By Lili St Crow

Don't be put off by the fact it's a reimagining of Snow White or that it's primarily aimed at the Young Adult market. It's dark, evocative, full of suspense and beautifully written.

You can read my review here but I'd rather you just READ IT!!









Now you've read my Three Good Things, do pop over to Margot and Barbara and read Liz's post. And if you join in, don't forget to let me know in the comments so I can visit and read all about yours.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2 (two) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title and author so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can decide whether to add your book to their TBR list. 

I've got 2 very different teasers to share with you today. The first is from Haunted Moon by Yasmine Galenorn and the second is from Only Lycans Need Apply by Michele Bardsley:

Shade hollered as he tried to pull her back. Yanking, he tumbled back, and she came with him, but the moment we saw what had happened to her, I wished he'd let her go. I stared at her in horror.

"It only let two of us inside," he said. "Why?"
"Well, I'm the chosen," I said with mock haughtiness. "So you're probably screwed."

What did I say, they're very different! Look out for my review of each book, coming soon.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2 (two) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title and author so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can decide whether to add your book to their TBR list. 

My teaser is from Nameless : A Tale of Beauty and Madness by Lili St Crow:

The Kiss took its own time, and it was burning away his mortality. When it finished he'd be one of the immortal Unbreathing, an Elder instead of a daywalker, and his only son would take his place as the living Vultusino of the Seven.

Enjoy! I can't wait to bring you my full review of this book! I was so excited to receive it for review. Watch this space ...

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2 (two) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title and author so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can decide whether to add your book to their TBR list. 

My teaser is from Redemption (The Seven Signs #2) by Erica Hayes:

He reeled. The floor shuddered. The cracked window lit with forked blue static, and he struggled to deny it, hold it in like he had for centuries.

You will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

He couldn't unsee what he'd seen. Couldn't unknow what he knew.

Page 186 - 187

Enjoy! And look out for my full review of Redemption, which is coming very soon!

I recently discovered the Stacking The Shelves meme that was launched by Tynga's Reviews back in 2012. It's all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, whether they are bought from an actual shop, online, are borrowed from friends or the library, have been given to you for review or as a gift and also includes ebooks!

As you can already find a list of books that I'm in the process of reading for review purposes here, I've decided to share the books that I've bought for myself over the last, erm, 8 months and which I'm sure I'll find an opportunity to read soon!

Top of the list, and by one of my all-time favourite authors, are:

 

 Then it's anyone's guess which order I'll be reading these in:

I think I read a Rachel Vincent book a few years back but apart from that, I have no experience of any of these authors. I'm particularly looking forwards to Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, which sounds like it will be a very British version of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and also to John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things because I genuinely have no idea what to expect from it.

If you want to take part in Stacking the Shelves, I've included the guidelines set by Tynga's Reviews below:

Guidelines:

• Create your own Stacking The Shelves post. You can use the official graphic or your own, but please link back to Tynga’s Reviews so more people can join the fun!

• You can set your post any way you want, simple book list, covers, pictures, vlog, the sky is the limit!

• Visit Tynga’s Reviews on Saturday and add your link so others can visit you!

• Don't forget to visit the other participants and see what's on their shelves.

I'm taking a temporary break from thoughts of fitness and the zombie apocalypse to take part in the Tots100 Book Club, in association with Tesco Books.

Reading is one of my big passions in life. Other hobbies have come and gone but my love for books has remained a constant.

With life being so expensive at the moment, I've found myself making regular visits to my local library rather than downloading books straight to my kindle. The whole experience of browsing book shelves and then flipping through some of the pages of a book before making my borrowing choices has actually resulted in my reading tastes broadening and I've tried books that I probably wouldn't have even come across if I'd carried on reading purely via my kindle.

This book is one of them:

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

You can read a synopsis about Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children here. What I want to talk about is why I liked it.

I was immediately drawn to this book due to its cover art and title. It exudes a feeling of eeriness (I wasn't sure whether I wanted to bring that type of "vibe" into my house) and it also made me very curious about what I would find within the book itself.

The story itself was like a modern, dark, almost-gothic, fairytale. There was something very charming and enchanting about it, in spite of its subject matter, and I found it a quick yet addictive read.

It wasn't flawless and there were a few times when I felt the author, Ransom Riggs (how awesome is his name?!), skimmed over things or wrote something that made me think  "hmmm, that was a bit too easy and convenient" but it didn't put me off reading. Anyway, there were more than enough positives to this debut novel to make up for any imperfections in the story.

What really made this book stand out was the many vintage photographs contained within it, all of which added to the atmosphere created by the author and made the story seem like a real-life fairytale rather than something conjured up in his imagination. The photographs are both spooky and fascinating to look at and if you're of a sensitive disposition or have a very overactive imagination, I imagine they could leave quite an impression on you.

According to Ransom's website, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children has been taken on as a film project with Tim Burton attached as director and Jane Goldman adapting the screenplay. I really hope this doesn't change as I think they're perfect choices who will do the book justice and bring the story to life.

I'm recommending Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children to my best twitter friend, Liz who blogs at Margot and Barbara. I think she'll really appreciate the story and the way it's illustrated by the photographs.

I'm looking forwards to finding out what the other Tots100 Book Bloggers recommend. Why don't you come and find out as well?

Just over a month ago, Mammasaurus tweeted an opportunity to join the team behind her newest brainchild Love All Blogs.

 

 

If you haven't come across it yet, Love All Blogs is a brand new blogging network, which supports any and all bloggers by providing, amongst other things, a weekly showcase into which you can enter one or more blog posts in order to attract more viewers, and a Community Network in which you can ask questions, find support and get to know others.

Mammasaurus has entrusted me to write the weekly introduction to the Love Book Blogs Showcase, which is incredibly exciting but also a little daunting, given that I'm still very new to the world of blogging. Anyway, as I'm now 3 weeks into my new role, I figured it was time to actually mention it here!

Although I've been given free reign to write about whatever takes my fancy in my weekly intro, I'm trying to keep it relevant and I've decided to use it as a space to encourage book-related conversations amongst the blogging community (or anyone else that may read the showcase) and to hopefully inspire more posts that can then be entered into the next showcase.

This week I've asked:

What have you read that was surrounded by lots of hype and what did you think of it? Was it deserving of the media buzz? Maybe you’ve read something that caused you to change your life in some way, or affected the way you think?

 For me, three books immediately sprang  to mind:

 Like many others, I loved Judy Blume books with a passion and when the rumour mill started at high school that she'd written a book with actual S.E.X in it, every single one of us wanted to read it! "Forever" was on permanent loan out of our school library and the waiting list to read it was immense! As a child, I recall it being a very  tender story of first love and losing your virginity. As an adult, I found myself questionning the healthiness of their relationship and thinking it was "for the best" when they broke up. It's funny how time and a bit of life experience can change your view on something isn't it?!

 Ah, "Flowers in the Attic" that sunny afternoon read all about child neglect and incest. I can remember reading this book as a teenager because I couldn't begin to imagine why such shocking and taboo topics would be the subject of a novel or how they would be addressed. My memory is faint on my reaction to it and I'm tempted to add it to my ever-growing reading list to see what I make of it as an adult and mother.

  

 There was so much hype regarding this book that I gave it  a go even though I wasn't particularly sure what it was about. For me, this book is the equivalent of films such as "Saw" and "Hostel"; so-called torture porn with scenes of horrific violence for nothing more than violence's sake. I recall it leaving a very nasty taste in my mouth and I would never read anything else by the author.

So those are my "controversial reads". What are yours? You can tell me in the following ways:

• Leave a comment
• Hop on over to the Love All Blogs Community Network Forum where I've started a thread on this topic
• Tweet me using the hashtag #conreads
• Write a blog post (and if you send me the link, I'll even spread the word about it on twitter for you)
 

Lets get the conversation flowing x

Just a quick post tonight because the baby is ridiculously overtired and screaming very loudly in my ear!

What I should be writing about is how "I robot...you, Jane" reminds us that we never really know who we might be talking to over the internet. In this case, it turns out "Malcolm", the 18 year old boy that Willow has fallen for after several lengthy online conversations, is actually Moloch the Corruptor; a demon that had been imprisoned in a book but was inadvertently released into cyberspace when the book contents were scanned onto the computer.

At the very least I should be talking about how modern technology like computers, CCTV and mobile phones has changed our day to day lives.

Instead, what I'm going to say is...LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT COMPUTER!!!!! It's a beast!

It's weird to think computers and mobile phones haven't always been sleek and light and slimline. Once upon a time, technology had lots of wires and aerials! How things have changed huh?!

Anyone remember when mobile phones were like this?

Or what about when computers were like this?

Imagine trying to blog with that little beauty on your lap instead of your handy laptop or trusty smartphone?!



Today, I finished filing 3 years' worth of paperwork. Of all the tasks I've done so far, this was by far the most soul destroying and I'm so relieved it's out of the way. Husband and I have agreed we need to take some time out each month to sort and tidy away all the post we receive, rather than letting it all accumulate in a box. We'll see!

 

Husband has the day off work tomorrow so I'm planning on delegating some of the to-do list to him. Fingers crossed we'll clear a big chunk of the list and I'll have an extra positive challenge update for you tomorrow.

 

Visit the rest of #teamBuffy?

To find out Nyssapod's thoughts on "I, robot...you, Jane", head on over to minibreakmummy and from there you can access her daily audiboos. Please also show her some support for her own to-do list that she's started to tackle.

 

After that, head on over to Chapters of Claire and read Claire's days 6 and 7 post. If you can, leave her a comment to boost her spirits a little and to let her know it doesn't matter if she's a little behind, life likes to throw these curveballs at us and it's okay to catch up when she can.

 

Next, go and visit Made by Tamsin and check out her rock buns. No that's not a euphemism!

Finally, if you haven't had chance to yet, pop over to Margot and Barbara to read how Liz is feeling inspired to tidy and sort her house, starting with her bedroom.

 

Join In!

As I've been saying every day so far, there's still time for you to join #teambuffy and jump into the 4 remaining days of this challenge (oh my god! two thirds of the way through!). You don't have to be a fan of Buffy - you just have to have a desire to get rid of some of those jobs you've been putting off for a while.

 

See you tomorrow x