Project 52 - Week 4

Leaf inside a pine tree.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

When a book is really good, I lose myself in it completely. A no sleep, do nothing until it is finished kind of lose. This is how I was with The Hunger Games trilogy. I was inspired to start the book by some friends of mine on Twitter and they just happened to be on the Kindle my dad got for Christmas. So even though I hate the Kindle... I dove in. Three days later I had all the books read. It's going up there on my list of favorite book series.

Here are my reviews of each book. To avoid any spoilers, I did some sections of the review in white. Just highlight over that area to read the review.

© Goodreads.com

Well, where to start. This book, it was a little "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, a little of TV's Survivor, a little Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and a whole lot of amazing. Suzanne Collins is a great writer. She really knows how to write an engaging, albeit disturbing, story. Her characters are interesting, the story is fairly unique, and the parallels to today's society are interesting, whether she meant to make a statement or not. Overall I throughly enjoyed the book once I looked past the main purpose of the games.






Overall Review: ★★★★★

© Goodreads.com

Catching Fire was a great book, though not as great as the first one. I found it to be a tad repetitive and not as quick paced. But it was good filler and a great set up for the final book. Collins still knows how to tell a great story and I'm glad to see some of the secondary characters fleshed out some more.


Spoilers - Please do not read if you plan to read the series:
I will say the game arena in the Quarter Quall was very creative and found the clock setup and an excellent why to distinguish it from the first games.




Overall Review: ★★★★★

© Goodreads.com

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed in Mockingjay, the final book of this series. The book felt rushed, the characters very undimensional, and it was very violent. I just wasn't satisfied with how a lot of the plot lines were wrapped up. There is more I want to say about this, but I want to avoid spoilers, so I wrote those parts below.


Spoilers - Please do not read if you plan to read the series:
Initially I was upset about Prim. I though it was cruel and senseless to kill her off, but the more I think about it the more it was called for. It's what drove Katniss the rest of the book and gave her a reason to no longer love Gale. Speaking of Gale, here is some of what angered me about this book... Gale. Where was the closure? I mean he didn't even try to fight for her in the end. Just took a job in District 2 and that was it. No visiting her in the hospital, no talk about why she killed Coin. Nothing. I want some closure! I wanted to see Katniss forced to choose between her two loves. Which leads me to another sour note... Peeta. She just settled. Where is the no marriage/no children Katniss? She gave in to having kids? What is that? She went from strong and independent to someone who just needed a guy around.  Though maybe part of it was from her being damaged by the events, but still... Or maybe I'm just bitter because for most of the story I was team Gale. Besides those two points my biggest issue with this book, like I mentioned, was the overall feeling that the ending was rushed. Till the end everything was well thought out and had great timing. But the last couple of chapters were hurry up and get it over with. I mean for a girl like Katniss who had a speech for every injustice, to just shoot and be done. Where is the speech? Where is the Mockingjay speaking out for the cause. Surely there needed to be some explanation to the people. And then to not even read about the trial, just the highlights. Really that could have been a whole chapter with Katniss being aloud to defend her actions. Instead they played the crazy card? The whole ending, it just seem that is wasn't thought out very well.


Overall Review: ★★★★

Have you read The Hunger Games trilogy? What did you think of it?

2012 Reading Challenge

April has read 4 books toward her goal of 10 books.

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4 of 10 (40%)

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Project 52 - Week 3

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

STOP SOPA

As an artist, I'm all for the protecting one's copyrights.... but censoring the Internet is not the way to do it.

Project 52 - Week 2

Cookie time!

2012 New Years Card

Lately, I haven't been one for sending Christmas cards because it's just one more thing to have to do during an already busy holiday season. But I still like the idea of sending a greeting. So this year I send out my first batch of New Years cards. It's a nice way to send a greeting of wishes for peace, happiness, or any other sentiment for the upcoming year. My greeting for this year was "Wishing you a peaceful 2012". I went with that because the picture I decided to used invoked a sense of calm and peacefulness to me, while its snowiness matched the season. I simply ordered a bunch of copies of a photo I took with a digitally added sentiment from Snapfish in a matte finish. I then matted the photo to a piece of black cardstock and added a small piece of ribbon. I finished it off by stamping some branches onto the envelopes. A simply project to send a message of peace to your friends. 

A simple project to send a message of peace to your friends. 

All the World is a Playground

A 2006 layout of my favorite kitty playing in a paper bag. I did this for a monochromatic challenge on a website I used to belong to.

Supplies

• Paper - Bazzill
• Diecuts - QuicKutz
• Fiber - EK Success

My First Attempt at Jewelry Making

Back in 2010 I decided I wanted to get into jewelry making. This was my very first piece, a bracelet for my sort of sister-in-law. It's made out of glass beads, crystals, and metal findings. I'm pretty proud of it. Since then I've only made one other bracelet, but I'm hoping once I get my workspace all squared away I'll be able to crank out a ton more pieces and start up an Etsy store!

South Carolina Family Layouts

Layouts I created for a visit my family made to South Carolina to visit family in 2006.

Supplies

• Paper, Rub-ons, Embelishments - My Mind's Eye
• Flourishes - QuicKutz
• Brads - Making Memories

Project 52 - Week 1

My New Year cards are finally ready to hit the mailbox!

A Tale Dark and Grimm

I have signed up to do the Goodread's 2012 Reading Challenge and so far I've gotten one book read. Not bad for the first week of 2012! As I finish a book, I plan to do a review of it here. My first book:

A Tale Dark & Grimm

by Adam Gidwitz

I had high hopes for this book when I first added it to my must read list, mostly because I love stories of twisted fairy tales. And for the most part the story lived up to my expectations. So much if I was to rate on just the fairy tale it gets 4 stars, however, and this is a big however, during the book the author interrupts the story to either warn you about what is coming or to explain something. I found this very annoying and unnecessary. Okay, we get it, the story is not one to read to little or sensitive kids. But you don't need to keep repeating it, even if  you are doing it in a playful manner. So on commentary alone the book gets only 2 stars. Combining the two I give this book an overall review of 3 stars. 

Overall Review: ★★★

2012 Reading Challenge

April has read 1 book toward her goal of 10 books.

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1 of 10 (10%)

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Cherish Mini Album

I'm still on my break from crafting and my workspace is even farther away from being finished, but I do have a number of projects I can still share! So let's get back to some crafty posts! Here is a desktop flip album I made for my mother in 2006. It contains all photos of my family... though sadly looking through it today I've noticed a number of people have passed since I made it. But it's still one of my more favorite projects I've done and mom still has it on her desk at work.

Supplies

• Making Memories Flip Book
• Making Memories BoHo Chic Paper, Frame, and Ribbon- Lauren
• Prima Flowers
• Making Memories Rub-Ons and Stamps
• Penguins - QuicKuts

2012 Resolutions

It's that time again! Time for some new year resolutions.

• Do Project Life - this is going to be interesting... since I rarely leave the house
• Do Project 52 - going to focus this project on macro images
• Lose 50lbs - I want to/need to lose more, but I'm being a bit of a realist with this goal
• Build readership on all 4 of my blogs
• Start up Pop Hearts Studio
• Try to find my drawing style
• Create, Create, Create

That's it. I have lots of little goals and things I want to accomplish, but these are the big ones... the ones that will last all year.

What's in a Word

A Facebook friend of mine posted this link to an article about "Word of the Year: Why & How to Choose One". I've never really thought about picking a word for the year and the article got me thinking. I know it's a popular trend with blogs to define their year with a word, but I never have. So I'm going to change that this year and go with the trend.

But what word to use?

I've been tossing around ideas on my word but nothing seems to describe how I want me year to go. There is BELIEVE in yourself, just DO it, FEARLESS, ACHIVE your goals, and so on... but those just don't fit. Then it hit me...

CONFIDENCE

I need some.... CONFIDENCE in myself, CONFIDENCE in my abilities, CONFIDENCE in my creations, CONFIDENCE in the people around me. My life is lacking CONFIDENCE. So I'm going with it. That will be my word of the year.

CONFIDENCE that 2012 is going to be a good year. Let's see if I can do it.

Do you have a word for 2012? Share with us in the comments.