Random thoughts on a day spent in bed reading!

Its been a long time since I sat at my laptop to write a blogpost, its been even longer since I read a book from cover to cover - let alone enjoyed it! But it had been a long week at work and all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and spend the day snuggled up with my cats and escape into a world of fantasy and adventure for a few hours.

My book of choice was Deadmen Walking by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Now, off the top of my head I don't think I've read a book from this author in almost seven years... and I have to say it was really easy to slip back into the world that has been created.

Yes, there are some new characters to get to know and a few new rules to learn about them, but there are also a few familiar faces and mentions to help you acclimatize - and I won't waffle on about character and world building, because this isn't an actual review... just a few thoughts I've rattled off as I cook dinner!

I'm guessing that fans of the Dark Hunter world will either have loved it or hated it and that's okay, I thoroughly enjoyed my lazy day in bed meeting new hero's and remembering why I loved this world to begin with... it may be time to catch up on all the books I've missed in between!

For a new series within an already well established world I give it 3.5 stars

When a project takes on a life of its own...

Shortly before Christmas 2015, my hubby and a childhood friend decided to take their shared hobby of truck photography to another level, and produce a photo book for themselves.

The book started off with just 40 photographs and was really just a fun project for themselves. But after sharing what they'd done with like-minded friends on their facebook group, people started wanting copies for themselves... and slowly but surely orders starting rolling in!

After a few redesigns in order to feature more photographs of their friends trucks, the final product ended up at around 120 pages of photos and they had orders for 80 copies! My hubby and his mate couldn't believe it, people wanted copies of their photo book - and a couple of companies have asked for poster sized copies of some of the photo's that featured for their office walls!

The first 40 books arrived from the printer!

So for the last month I've been gathering addresses, packaging books and making trips to my local post office; I'm now keeping an eye on all the tracking numbers, making sure they end up at their destinations!

Childhood friends

The guys have decided to put together a few more books later in the year which means road trips and photo shoots, most of which have been set up and planned for April in New Zealand, and a 10 day road trip/photo shoot planned for Australia in November!

The week that was...

This weeks the week that was is more like the month that was, I've been caught up with my every day life and have been slacking off in the blogging department!

It really has been all-on just recently and blogging has been pushed to the side while life has simply flown by.

My gorgeous Miss 16 went to her first school ball a couple of weekends ago; and as it was such a major event for her, some of our relatives made the trip up to see her and her boyfriend all decked out, frocked up and looking cute as together!

The cute couple!

By all accounts the ball went off smoothly, she had an awesome time, and we had one of the best weekends with all the family around in quite some time!

With my mum, my in-laws, and nieces deciding to stay for the entire weekend, we loaded up a couple of cars and took a family road trip around the top of the North Island. We took a huge picnic lunch, saw some really beautiful parts of the country and just had a really great time. The whole weekend was brilliant!

One of our sight-seeing stops

And then I caught head cold - which I still have! In fact after a week and a half, can it still be just a head cold? I swear I feel like absolute death, and stringing together a coherent thought at times has been a chore hahaha!! I've been dosing myself up with all the usual remedies, and I'm really hoping for some relief soon!

I had a completely surreal moment last week when I was interviewed by a reporter from one of the national weekend papers for an upcoming feature on paranormal romance. I have no idea as yet when or if my contribution to the conversation will make it to print, but I'll be sure to let you know if it does! Hopefully I don't end up looking like a complete and utter tit!

If I suck, I can laugh at myself!

My gorgeous little man Sirius Black has started chasing my older female cat around and trying to play rough, if-you-know-what-I-mean!!

Yes, he has hit the dreaded horny teenager stage and won't leave my poor girl alone... she'll be alright though as she has a bloody good growl on her and a nasty set of claws!!

My Miss 7 had her first ever, non-family member sleepover this past weekend! It so so cool to see her having fun with her little friend; playing games, drawing pictures, running around, and watching movies in their lounge room hut!

Sleepover fun!

In book news, I haven't really had the time to make much progress with the tbr pile, but I have a couple of books on the go at the moment which desperately need my attention. I only managed to review PYROS by T.G. Ayer this past week and I'm still to write up my review for Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh which I finished reading yesterday.

I have a couple of sign up opportunities open at the moment if anyone wants to join...
A cover reveal event for REQUIEM by T.G. Ayer
and
A release day event (with HUGE giveaway) for BLOOD & GOLD by T.G. Ayer

GIVEAWAY TIME!

A few weeks ago I gave away three metal bookmarks that my Miss 12 had made for me, and this week I'm giving away a thong bookmark that I made!
It has a cute peacock feather at one end and a peacock charm at the other :)

For your chance to win, just fill in the rafflecopter at the bottom of this page!

Open internationally, I will post anywhere!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tane Mahuta

The week that was...

I had a reasonably busy time last week.
Not so much on the reading/blogging front, but most definitely busy on the home front. We had a few things going on with our girls - some of your usual teenage drama, fights, nasty facebook rants and messages, meetings with the teachers... but nothing too major!

Haha!

Senior ball preparations are well under way. Dress - check, shoes - check, makeup, hair, accessories, organized, sorted, check! Miss 16's boyfriend just hired a suit and he looked pretty spiffy in the photo I saw!

The weekend was full of drop offs, pick ups, grocery shopping, sleep overs, long drives, and movie nights. I even did my good deed for the week and colored an elderly friends hair for her while my hubby changed the oil and filter in their car :)

Last week I took part in some cover reveal posts and release day blitzes, but I also had the chance to interview author Ashley Townsend, you can check that out here if you wish. She was super sweet and I will definitely be adding her soon-to-be-released book 'Chasing Shadows' to my tbr list :)

Speaking of, I need to crack on with my reading, the pile seems to be getting bigger rather than getting smaller - the curse of a book lover!

It will actually be nice to get a sleep in on Monday - oh that's right, I've got the school run... I wonder if I can con the hubby in to doing it, he has the day off!

Wishful thinking!

I have a few cover reveal posts planned for this week - four or five I think -  as well as a couple of blitzes, a few spotlight posts, and I should have three new reviews up too! better pull finger and finish writing those up lol!

The giveaway winners from last week are... all three bloggers that left a comment!! I'll be in contact soon to get postal addresses :)

There will be no giveaway this week, purely because I'm too busy to think of, and to arrange something!!

Hope you all have a great week - happy reading!

Books, Drama, and Deleted Files

Hello friends and followers.

Well it feels like forever since I last posted anything and truth be told it has only been about 3 or 4 weeks. In blog terms, not unlike ‘dog years’ it actually feels more like 3 or 4 months!

So Christmas came and went and so did the New Year and I haven’t heard from one of my Christmas Blog Hop winners so I will need to do a re-drawing for a metal bookmark winner :) 

Check at the end of this post to see if its you.

My family and I have made our largest move to date and relocated to New Zealand’s most northern city Whangarei. The move itself went fairly smoothly and without too much drama, however now that we are here and pretty much unpacked it’s been nothing but.

There is no TV aerial or satellite which means getting one set up which means a nice big bill. (I’ve had a satellite installed since writing this and it cost me $350)

The area we live in is so new that there is only a dial up internet service available, no broadband for approx 3-4 months at the least!!

No broadband internet, are you serious?!
This is New Zealand for cripes sake…not a third world country! Well the internet provider is 100% serious.

Because this development is so new, and has grown so fast there just aren’t enough ports on the local system to support everybody’s requirements. 

So they’ve put me on a waiting list *scoff* 

Flipping heck that such a flaming cop out…..I’m so far from impressed I can tell you!

As for reading, how’s that going for all of you?

I’ll be honest; I haven’t read hardly anything since before Christmas. Shameful I know but it has been a mad house at my place. I’m hoping to get back into it very soon as I’ve got commitments to meet, great books on the tbr pile and people I don’t want to let down. 

This means I probably won’t be accepting any more review requests until I get my internet sorted out. 

And in breaking news....my husband deleted my ENTIRE book library.

My kindle books are safe but EVERYTHING I've purchased from other sources, my review books, my not yet uploaded book reviews etc is gone :(

I'll work on getting it recovered but at this stage, unless a computer whiz fairy lands in my lap I think I'm pretty much stuffed :(

Hopefully everyone had a safe and happy holiday and I wish you all fantastic things for 2012.

And the winner of the metal bookmark is......miki

I'll send you an email miki, but you have till the end of the week to email me your postal details to receive this.