Things I Don't Love Thursday

{Hosted by Lulu & Sweet Pea}

The bedroom tv died.

Yeah...totally not happy about this one. It's been making this awful ringing noise for a long time, but it's not very loud and doesn't really bother me unless the cable box isn't on and the tv isn't making any noise. Right now, my tv really isn't dead...but all of a sudden the sound just STOPPED WORKING. The video is perfectly fine. I am a nighttime/bedtime tv watcher. I watch it to go to sleep. It freaks me out to have no light and no noise when I go to bed. I just listen to everything and think someone is coming to kill me or break into the house. BLARGH.

My kids acting CRAY.

They are angels in public for the most part. I mean like everyone compliments me on how well behaved they are...and then they get home...

At the moment, both of them are 5. Matthew will turn 6 very soon. They are in a very crazy stage right now where they are cooped up from it being winter...and one second they are best friends, the next they are fighting. They hardly listen to me at all. The most ridiculous part is that the punishment that works...is the front-lean-and-rest. Yes, my kids are officially army brats. LOL.

TV breaks.

Does it really have to be until March that Revolution comes back on...and Game of Thrones returns...really? I feel like I've been waiting for sooooo long. I miss my favorite tv shows!

What are YOU not loving lately?

Pandemonium [Review]

Stats:
#2 in Delirium trilogy
414 Pages [Kindle]
Published 28 February 2012
ASIN: B005MMJ84K

Find on Goodreads

Beautiful Creatures [Review]

Stats:
#1 in Caster Chronicles
577 Pages [Kindle]
Published 1 December 2009
ASIN: B002WAUV7S
Find on Goodreads

Design: The Chickapea & Me

Alright y'all...this design is one I am SUPER proud of. I'm also really jealous that it's not MY blog design because it's really that awesome. I was so excited that I never got a before picture.

Amber from The Chickapea & Me contacted me about a blog design. She wanted a blog with block lettering, a solid background, and teal, coral, grey, and white.

For fonts, I used Accidental Presidency for the block letters, Janda Stylish Script for the "and" in her header and her name in her siggy, and My Own Topher for the ampersand on her button.

I really love her social media "icons" or bars...we'll go with bars.

And the label button is fun too.

Make sure you check out the design AND her blog!

Crimson Frost [Review]

Design: Mandie's Two Cents

So one thing led to another and Jessica, who I did a design for, told another Cafemom friend of mine that I was doing blog design and Amanda emailed me :)

Amanda wanted teal, black, and chevrons. Luckily she was a fan of Amber's header, which I did, and some fonts that are on Picmonkey. So I went to town...because I am a fan of chevron and any color paired with black. I used Things We Said font in her header. I really love how her little button turned out as well. I used purple as an accent color.

Make sure you check out the design live on Amanda aka Mandie's blog and check out what she's sharing :)

Before:

After:

Stop by and say hi!

Wicked Valentine's Readathon: Starting Line & Updates

Host: April @ My Shelf Confessions

It's time to begin :) I'm so excited. I'm going to try and read a lot for the first part because the 11th, 12th, and 13th are going to be crazy busy for me.

I am trying to recover from a heartbreaking incident yesterday. I dropped my Kindle in the toilet. It's sitting in rice right now and I guess I should be optimistic, but I'm not. I'm trying to control myself from having a mental breakdown. It's my new Kindle I got for Christmas. My husband was going to let me use my old one, that is now his, but then we discovered that the e-ink display is messed up and it'd be virtually impossible to read on it. So that's two very messed up Kindles in my house. It's a Kindle graveyard. *fingers crossed for mine* 

Here are the (revised) books I'm wanting to read:


These are my main (revised) goals:

• Read 5 books
• Read 253 pages a day (1766 total)
• Participate in 4 challenges
• Participate in 1 Twitter chat
• Visit blogs every day
• Beat last readathon's accomplishments: 4 books, 1461 pages

Daily Updates: 

Day 1 - Thursday, Feb 7
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 51
Books Finished: 0
Notes: AM: My new Kindle will be here on Saturday - Amazon has amazing customer service.
PM: I fail today. So hard. I was busy making cupcakes and lasagna and we had an FRG meeting. Shoo.

Day 2 - Friday, Feb 8
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 172 (TSLP)
Books Finished: 1 (TSLP)
Notes: AM: It's a snow day today - meaning all my plans and running around were cancelled. Also my new Kindle is supposed to get here today instead of tomorrow :)
PM: Participated in this challenge and finished one book. Tomorrow may be sketchy...we're going out to eat for a friend's birthday and then going to their house to spend the night.

Day 3 - Saturday, Feb 9
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 10+
Books Finished: 1
Notes: I honestly didn't read very much at all. I spent my morning shoveling and cleaning house. Left at 1:30 to go out to eat for a friend's birthday and then went back to their house to spend the night.

Day 4 - Sunday, Feb 10
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 21 pages (5%) of DWW. 13 pages of KLPM.
Books Finished: 1
Notes: Can I just ouch?!

Day 5 - Monday, Feb 11
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 10 pages of DWW. 10 pages of KLPM.
Books Finished: 1
Notes: I did this challenge today. 2 down, 2 more to go :)

Day 6 - Tuesday, Feb 12
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 22 pages
Books Finished: 1
Notes: Participated in the Cover Challenge (YAY!) and going to join for part of the chat. I've not read all day. Damn training. I've become very frustrated at the lack of reading I've been able to accomplish. Also it makes me want to cry. I need to read like some people need coffee in the morning.

Day 7 - Wednesday, Feb 13
Books I'm Working On Today:

Pages Read: 50
Books Finished: 1
Notes: Did another challenge - woohoo! Met my goal of 4 challenges.
------------------
Finish Line
My goal accomplishments:

• Read 5 books - I finished 1.
• Read 253 pages a day (1766 total) - I didn't read this many :'(
• Participate in 4 challenges - DONE!
• Participate in 1 Twitter chat- DONE!
• Visit blogs every day - if you count visiting the challenges blogs....yes, I did. But otherwise, no, I haven't gotten around to visiting :(
• Beat last readathon's accomplishments: 4 books, 1461 pages - Not even close. 1 book, 359 pages.

My thoughts:
I never expected my week to be nearly as busy as it was, but it was crazy. I'm surprised I read as many pages as I did! I did move "I Know I Am, But What Are You?" to my DNF pile. It wasn't as great as I expected. I also made a dent into "Dead Witch Walking". So all of that is awesome :)

I cannot wait for the next readathon. I desperately need one to get back on track!

Roseannearchy [Review]

*3.5 stars*

Wicked Valentine's Readathon: Goals

Host: April @ My Shelf Confessions

Last month, I participated in my 3rd Bout of Books readathon. This will be my 3rd #WWReadathon and I'm really excited that it is coming so soon after Bout of Books. I especially wanted to keep my momentum going for reading this year - I feel like readathons definitely help boost my reading!

I'm doing things a teensy bit different for this readathon - dividing my total page number to get my daily page read goal. So here are my goals:

• Read 5 books
• Read 253 pages a day (1771 total)
• Participate in 4 challenges
• Participate in 1 Twitter chat
• Visit blogs every day
• Beat last readathon's accomplishments: 4 books, 1461 pages

You Are So Undead to Me [Review]

Stats:
#1 in Megan Berry series
272 Pages [Kindle]
Published 22 Jan 2009
ISBN: B001Q8V6OO
Find on Goodreads

February TBR List

I read 8 books in January and I'm really excited to see only one book leftover. I was supposed to start the Gone series a few months ago, so I can't read the books for January and February until I read the others. Whoops. I'm really excited to blow through the 10 books planned for February and hoping the readathon will help me accomplish that. I may even catch up on some of the 2012 Reads that never got read :/

Books from January:

• Plague by Michael Grant [We Heart YA - Series Read Along]