Literary Junkies - May 2013!

It's time for a book chat again! Every third Tuesday of the month, Taylor & I host our monthly Literary Junkies link-up for all the book loving bloggers out there! And this month, we've added a co-host, Sara! We'll have a different co-host every month every month! Join in the fun and let us know if you're interested in co-hosting!

Follow Taylor  |  Follow Lesley  |  Follow Sara

 What are you currently reading? Tell us about it.

I'm only one chapter into Silver Linings Playbook, our next Literary Junkies book club read, so I can't say much about it yet. So far, I like the way it's written but it's too soon to tell! I'm about 100 pages into The Forgotten Garden. I've heard so many great things about this book. Rachel from the blog Front Row Seat was SO sweet and sent me a copy of the book after I commented on her review of it on how I need to read it! So here I am now, getting into the book and definitely enjoying it so far! I can't wait to see where this garden comes it - it sounds like we might get some fun magical-ism come into play. That is a word, yes.
 

Summer is just ahead and my favourite thing to fantasize is laying in a hammock with a good book. What are your top 3 favourite "summer" reads?

Could I have picked two more opposite books? haha! Summer reads are meant to be fun and airy, hence Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang. Hilarious read! I also adored Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; what a cute series! So easy and fun to read. I picked Girl with a Pearl Earring because I couldn't put it down years ago when I read it. This is one of those books that you could spend an entire day reading in a hammock. Perfection.

What are your top 3 summer "to-reads"?

I don't know about you, but I thought Nanny Diaries was hilarious so I, obviously, have to take a stab at its sequel sometime in the near future! It's the perfect kind of summer book - light and fun. And the other two books, Outlander and Love in the Time of Cholera, are just a couple that I hear are great! I especially want to get into a series so I hope Outlander is as good as I hear.

What book do you wish they'd make it a movie of?

Definitely The Night Circus! Luckily, I heard a rumor that there is a movie coming out. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out!

Has your favorite author published a book lately or going to publish a book soon? Tell us about it.

After reading The Birth House by Ami McKay, I decided I loved her. I have yet to read her latest book The Virgin Cure, though, because a friend who also loved her debut novel told me the second one was a real disappointment. I'm almost scared to try it! We read The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling for the Literary Junkies book club a few months ago and since I loved Harry Potter so much I couldn't wait to get into it! I was so very disappointed. I'm scared that the author of Hunger Games is going to come out with an equally disappointing second stab at writing now!

While my hubby listens to Metalicca...

I sit here cringing, trying to release the tension from my shoulders as my least favourite sound blasts next to me - heavy metal. Ugh.

I seriously love and adore my man...but, good god, he has got to shut that stuff off. It's hard to get too mad, though, while he grooves and sings along and air drums like a pro. It's kinda cute. Maybe he'll fall asleep soon...

It's a holiday here and I couldn't be loving it more! We said "screw it" to all the house work that needs to be done and are just hanging out, relaxing a bit after having breakfast for dinner. In between wishing Steve would turn off his music I'm searching good bake sale recipes since my fundraising sugar sale is coming up soon in a couple weeks!

June is fast approaching so I think it's a good time to re-advertise this great deal. I'm fundraising doing some fundraising for Easter Seals, an organization that works towards bettering the lives of children and youth with physical disabilities. I just happen to work there, too, in the programming and recreation department so I get to see first-hand just how the money is used and interact with the wonderful kids we help.

Image source

I'm offering you free ad space in exchange for a small donation to Easter Seals. If you donate $10 I'll give you a FREE large ad space - including individual &/or group giveaway, guest post, feature post and social media shout-outs! If you donate $6, you'll get a FREE medium ad space! Good deal? Yes, I think so.

So, go on! Help some deserving kids and claim your free ad space for June! Use the promo code DropZoneLrg or DropZoneMed accordingly.

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I want you to meet Cassandra from The Lyric Locket! She's one of my beautiful, creative sponsors this month. Cassandra loves to celebrate and appreciates life's good things, big or small. She's also really crafty and has lots of great DIYs on her blog including one of my favs, her chalkboard coffee table. She's also recently redecorated her office space. Isn't this a cute spot to blog from?

Pop over to The Lyric Locket, say hi, and check out some of Cassandra's great DIYs!

St John's, NL photo dump

A few pictures, new & old, of out and about around this city. I have a love/hate relationship with this place. It is clearly beautiful and characterful but can just be so gray, foggy, damp and cold like today. Despite the crappy whether we get, though, the city is warm and welcoming and I'd be surprised to ever hear anyone say they didn't like visiting here!

20 easy-intermediate knitting projects

Summer is just around the corner which, obviously, means it's time to get our knitting needles out!

Okay, maybe not. But I still like knitting in summer! Here's a list of 20 of my favourite easy to intermediate knitting projects!

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Happy knitting!

Loving right now

Beautiful St John's, Newfoundland

Know what I love about Newfoundland (or, rather, St John's) in summer-time? You can walk into a bar on a Tuesday night, get two pints for the price of one, listen to some great live music and watch a cute little old man tap dance to the Irish tunes! This was a lovely evening. We live downtown and are lucky enough to just take a walk and within a matter of minutes be in the heart of St John's where there's always something interesting happening. I'm really glad we decided to pop into that bar tonight. That little old dancing man was priceless!

Know what else I love right now?

Chelsea Handler- I'm on my 2nd book of hers right now but, yet, have never seen her show!

Knitting scrubbies - it's gonna be a wild night! Here's the pattern if you're interested.

Boat shoes!

Bolla Pinot Noir

Eating popcorn for supper, apparently

Mail! I love sending and getting mail. For this reason, I joined "Hello Box".

Let me introduce you to my partner for May, Heidi! She's the blogger behind Greendoodle. Heidi is super crafty and talented! Seriously. She blows me away with the things she makes!

Check out the tutorial!

My favourite thing on her blog at the moment is her leaf sculpture tutorial! I've been wanting to make these forever so I'm glad to have instructions now!

Another fabulous tutorial is this bag made out of an old jacket! Oohhh, I need to learn how to sew!

Check out Heidi's bag tutorial!

Go say hi to Heidi on Greendoodle and see what other crafty things she's been up to!

I might be [cat] obsessed.

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Bake sale goodness!

Oops! I unintentionally took a couple day blogging break! I certainly didn't mean to leave you hanging (as if you were haha), it's just been an uninspired week with not a whole lot of free time. However, now it's Friday night and I'm too lazy to change out of my sweats and wash my hair so here I am, watching reruns of The Office and knitting as many kitchen scrubbies as I possibly can! I love life.

I'm knitting like a madwoman because I'm doing some fundraising. As you may have read in a previous post, I'm raising $1000 to have the honor of scaling down a tall building in support of Easter Seals! Booyeah! So, what goes better with fundraising than a bake sale? And what is a necessity of holding a truly successful bake sale? Knitted dish cloths. Obviously.

I found the cutest bake sale printables!

On top of this bake sale, I'm also giving away free ad space in exchange for a small donation to the cause! For a $10 donation, you'll get a 1-month large ad space here on By the Porchlight and a $6 donation gets you a medium space. That's a huge discount! And you're helping support kids with physical disabilities.

To make your donation and claim your free ad space, click here!

I'm going to have to make my favourite thing - banana bread! I've made this recipe so many times that I could probably do it in my sleep. It turns out great every time and is a great seller!

Umm... and what about these cookies?!?!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies! I'm, obviously, going to have to use this for my bake sale! Holy moly... these sound like heaven. And by heaven, I mean real money-raisers! :)

Rachel, from the blog Life Unsweetned, posted this great recipe! I also think I might have to try her recipe for Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies would be a hit! Just because Easter's is here and gone doesn't mean those little eggs aren't still crumptious! Life unsweetened?! Not according to these cookies!

Rachel's a real doll! And she's so real - check out this post about embracing imperfections. She also recently wrote a nice post about things she's learned from her mom. 

Visit Rachel and say thanks for the great recipes! And please consider claiming your ad space to help support kids with physical disabilities!