Dream Lover

Té Russ

This is the first book from this author that I have read and I was pleasantly surprised.  Dream Lover was well written and thought out for the most part.  The hero and heroine were relatable and the secondary characters were well written.  Most of the lovemaking takes place off the page.  A few things distracted or disrupted my reading a bit.  The character voice changed from hero to heroine without a clear break at times so I had to reread the previous paragraph.  There was one character that was introduced that I feel that their presence was not resolved but I’m guessing that it may be addressed in one of the related books.  But overall I was impressed by this author’s first work  On my personal scale I would give this book 4 purple roses.

My book review rubric:

<i><b>Character Development:</b></i>  Fully believable characters, Likeable

<i><b>Secondary Characters:</b></i>  Likeable secondary characters that added to the story

<i><b>Character Chemistry:</b></i>  Good

<i><b>Plot:</b></i>  Believable

<i><b>Did the story make me laugh or cry?:</b></i>  Moments of laughter

<i><b>Typos:</b></i>  No typos remembered (Did not get in the way of the story)

<i><b>Story pacing:</b></i>  Excellent pacing

<i><b>Sex scenes:</b></i>  Most love scenes take place off page

<i><b>Story ending:</b></i>  Leaves room for a sequel or related books

<i><b>Was the story predictable?  If so in what way?:</b></i>  No

<i><b>Did the story keep my interest?:</b></i>  Yes

<i><b>Would I read this story again?</b></i>  Yes

<i><b>Would I read more of this author's work?</b></i>  Yes

<i><b>Would I recommend this book?  If yes to who?:</b></i>  Yes.  This book is a must read for romantics at heart

<i><b>Part of a series:</b></i>  First book in the The McAllister Friends series

<i><b>Connected book:</b></i>  Taking Chances, Always You, (The McAllister Family Series) After the Storm, Just One Kiss, Perfection, Love After War, Just One Knight, Just One Touch

<i><b>Genre:</b></i>  Romance

<i><b>Tags:</b></i>  AA

Get out of my way ...

Believe it or not this message about me. I have been sabatoging myself for so long that I thought that not really participating in my life was normal.  Well no more.  Cha Cha is back. Woo hoo. It's great to be back.

It's time to get back into the workforce and that is another one of my goals for this year since I haven't been able to start a business of my own.

Wish me luck.

Adorn

Whoops.  I almost missed Music Monday.  Today's musical selection is Adorn by Miguel.  I have loved this song for such a long time.  Miguel is such a talented singer and I've enjoyed every single that he's released so far.

Before he released his first single a cousin of mine met him at a restaurant during a rehearsal dinner where he (my cousin) was a member of the wedding party.  This restaurant had a live band and an announcement or something was made acknowledging the couple.  Miguel was in the restaurant and ended up singing a couple of songs for the couple.  My cousin said that Miguel was a "cool dude" and I thought that was very nice of him to serenade the couple.

Anyway, here's this weeks song Adorn.

Happy Monday,

Cha Cha

The Clean Up Woman

Today is all about cleaning up for me.  I decided to try my hand at making homemade laundry detergent.  The 1/2 batch that I made actually filled the 3 laundry detergent bottles and 2 fabric softener bottles shown.  Of course I'm not as organized as other bloggers out there so I don't have my stuff in clear bottles that make good DIY photos.

SDC10748, a photo by Ms ChaCha on Flickr.

I don't know how well this will work out but if it works half as well as it smells then I'll not only be sharing this on my blog but I'll be saving a ton of money.

Anyhoo, back to the song of today.  In celebration of my day of cleaning I've chosen Betty Wrights Clean Up Woman.  Although Betty and I are talking about two totally different kinds of "cleaning up" this is a great song to clean to.

I Don't Care

Happy Monday.  My song for today is I Don't Care by Raheem Devaughn.  A couple of weeks ago I heard this song on the radio and it's stuck with me since then.  I play it on my ipod and I just have to dance.  I'm an excellent chair dancer you know.  Anyway turn up the volume and join me in singing loud and proud along to I Don't Care.

Family

Well tomorrow is Labor Day and while some people will celebrate then my family will get together today for a BBQ.  Since my family is so close any excuse will do for a simple meal or a huge gathering and today is no different.  In addition to the marathon quick clean that I'm about to do my mom and I will start seasoning the meat so we can throw it on the grill this afternoon.

No family is perfect.  We all have our own problems and ways but one thing is true for my family.  We may fuss and fight but we always have each others backs.

So with that in mind I'll prepare myself for the aunts and their "subtle" attempts to find out why I'm still single and I'll even try to refrain from rolling my eyes as they "suggest" ways that I can find a man.

Family, you gotta love em.

Let's try this again

It's hard to believe I haven't posted anything since November but it's true.  I can't really say that life got in the way or that I've been too busy to post.  My life has been at a standstill and I haven't had the inclination to move myself forward.  I distanced myself from friends and family and I did not want to do anything. Until now. :)

I've decided that now it's my time.  No more living through others or sitting on the sidelines watching my own life passing by.  No ma'am.  It's time to get a move on and be the woman that I've always wanted to be and do all of the things that I've always wanted to do.

Something that few people know about me is that I'm a closet writer.  So far I've started on two books with over 3k words written for the first book.  And I have notes and quasi outlines for three more books.  I never realized what "real" authors go through until I started on my writing journey.  The first book that I began writing will actually end up being the second book in a series of books.  My muse, as some people call it, has taken me all over the place and would not stick to the story in the order that I wanted the story to be told but I think this will turn out to be a great read in the end.  My goal for September is to submit my first book for publishing by the end of the month.  Hopefully putting this out there in cyberspace will help me push through to complete my goal.

I feel like a toast is in order so I'll raise my glass of sweet tea to us.  May we reach our goals and move forward towards our dreams.

What are your dreams and/or goals?

He Wants It All

Today I decided to add a video to my Groove section and I chose forever JONES song He Wants It All.  This song speaks to my spirit on so many levels that I can't even explain it.  When I feel like throwing myself a pity party and I listen to this song my whole attitude changes.  I feel like there's so much more for me to do for Him, to please Him that I don't have time for the small things that are bothering me.  I hope you click on the Groove tab, watch the video and enjoy the song.


Cha Cha

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Okay so technically we haven't even reached Thanksgiving yet but my mini me and I have already started our Christmas journey.  Our first project was making glittery Christmas ornaments from plain old clear glass ornaments.  I said it was our first project but she actually did all of them so I didn't get a chance to do a single one.  :(

I found this project randomly but once I saw it I thought that it was something that we'd definitely enjoy doing.  The first youtube video that I saw on this project made it seem simple but I really didn't want to spend money on the stamp ink and glitter that was recommended.  I am on a tight budget you know.  So I kept searching and found this youtube video and this one was right up my alley.


Supplies needed:

Clear Glass Ornament (obviously)

Pledge

Fine Glitter

Disposable Cup

Funnel (trust me this is crucial)

- I made mine by rolling up a small piece of paper and secured it with double sided tape

Plain piece of paper to pour excess glitter onto


Instructions:

Remove ornament hanger thingy

Pour a generous amount of Pledge into ornament and
swish around until well coated 

Pour excess liquid into cup and allow ornament
to drain for a few seconds

Using the funnel pour a very generous amount of
glitter into the ornament

This is what it looks like before the inside is coated

Turn the ornament to coat the inside

Once the ornament is coated to your liking begin
to pour excess glitter onto paper

This is all that came out at first so I thought that it
took a lot of glitter for this ornaments but ...

She shook a little more and we got this.
And then ...

Finally all of the excess glitter was out

Viola

I wish that I could say that we got all of this right the first time that we did it but alas that was not the case.  What you saw above was actually our eighth ornament but we really had our process down by the third ornament.  Initially we didn't use a funnel or have any paper to catch glitter and we wasted a little glitter.  That didn't work for me because the packs of glitter that we bought were $5 and $6 a piece for six small bottles of glitter and I didn't want waste a single glit (In my mind that's the singular form of glitter.  Don't judge me).

Drying tray with finished hearts

Ornament dried and hook thingy reattached

Happy creating and crafting

Cha Cha

Watch out world ...

I've started to figure some things out. I found out how to add a widget that is linked to my Goodreads account and I also found out how to add an image that commemorates Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I've read how to change my header and I'll probably do that a little later.

I'm so excited. I feel like a real blogger now.