BLOGGIESTA 2012!!

It's time for BLOGGIESTA 2012!!!

I've never participated before, but from the looks of my blog, I need to!  I'm stuck in a rut and need to freshen up!  

To get to the starting line, head over to It's All About Books and sign up!

As for the mini-challenges, check out The Master List on It's All About Books 

Now for what I plan on doing.

I'd like to focus on first freshening up my blog, then creating better content, and then getting it out there for everyone to enjoy!

I chose these mini-challenges to help me with my goal (quoted from It's All About Books):

• Have you ever thought about making a Facebook page for your blog? Liza from Sockets and Lightbulbs (@brightcdns) has a challenge on How to Promote Your Blog Using Facebook. Now's the time!

• Do you have any idea what HTML even means? Would you love to learn a little about this computer code? Then be sure to check out The Top Ten of HTML Basics brought to you by Pam at Bookalicio.us. (@BookaliciousPam)

• My guess is that by now, everyone's heard of Pinterest. But did you know it can be for more than just recipes and craft projects?  Joy from Joy's Book Blog (@joyweesemoll) tells you all about how to use Pinterest to Promote Your Blog in this fun post. 

• We can never talk enough about commenting. Let's learn more about it... specifically How to Build Readers for Your Blog Through Commenting, a mini challenge found over at Sheila's from Book Journey (@bookjourney). 

• How about those reviews? Can we make them even better? In this post, Jessica from The Bluestocking Society (@thebluestocking) teaches us Five Ways to Make Your Reviews Stand Out. 

• Are you spending too much time on reviews? In this challenge, Melanie from Melanie's Musings (@MelanieFoust) gives you Five Tips to Write Reviews Faster

• Are you feeling in a bit of a blog fog? Well, languish no longer! Emily from Emily's Reading Room (@emsreadingroom) has Eight Ways to Freshen Up Your Content. 

I will also be participating in the Twitter Party tonight at 9 pm EST.

My goals:

• Clean up my blogroll
• Clean up labels
• Visit at least 10 new blogs 
• Anything else I run across to change or fix
• Finish ALL mini-challenges!

I'm pretty darn excited to learn all this new stuff!  Plus I can't wait to improve my blog and hopefully share some new things with even more people than I do now!  :D

Happy Bloggiesta!!

Teaser Tuesday (7)

Hello all!  Today is Tuesday, time again for a little teaser!

Teaser Tuesdays 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 two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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This week I chose a creepy book I can't wait to finish.

"I dream that a dark shape puts me in the crib, puts a hand over my mouth, and whispers in my ear.  Shh, it says.  And, Wait.  No one is there, no one is touching me, and when the wind comes in around the edges of the window frame, my skin is cold.  I wake up feeling lonely, like the world is big and freezing and scary.  Like I will never have anyone touch me again."



 -page 1 of The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff




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That gives me the heebie-jeebies!  Especially since that cover to go with it is so dark! 

I broke the rules a bit this week, because without all of those sentences the voice of the book couldn't be heard.  Sorry, MizB! :)

I just cannot wait to finish this book.  This quote is from the FIRST page of the book.  It's the second paragraph.  I made it through a few chapters and am very excited.  It seems right up my alley.

Hope it entices you the same way it did me!

Happy Reading!


 

Boxes, Boxes, and MORE Boxes!!

I can't believe how many boxes I saw this past week.  Boxes and paper and tape, OH MY!  I finally made my move from Colorado to Maryland.  You never quite realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it across the country.

I didn't even have that much in comparison to others (only 2000 pounds worth of goods), but when I saw all of my things pulled out of closets and drawers and under the bed and out of the bathroom (I have SOOOOO much lotion) I kind of freaked out.  I didn't have very much furniture, which meant I have something like 1500 pounds of STUFF.  Just STUFF.

(Lots of SHOES...and that's not quite all of them)

But eventually the house was empty and I was ready to get on my way.

I am also trying to condense and merge my loads of stuff with my boyfriend's stuff.  It is an interesting venture, but I have a lot of things he doesn't have so it should work out okay.  (Minus how very excited he is to have to share a bathroom with me...)

But after packing up my life into boxes and onto a big truck, I still had to get across the country.  So I packed up my car (to the brim) and my dog and started driving east.  And let me just say, that if I never have to drive through Kansas again, I'll do naked cartwheels in the middle of Walmart.  Sorry to all you Kansas-ites (inians?), but your state is FLAT.

I got to see some cool stuff:

So did my dog:

Anyway, I'm here now, and I'm getting settled in my new place.  I already found Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and Target.  :)  (the important things in life)

So, now you know why I haven't been blogging.  But I'm back, with a lot of new adventures to talk about.

Adios!