Cockles and Mussels....Oh My!

I decided to completely humiliate myself and share my progress on my ukulele in the area of chord playing. You are free to laugh as you wish, as I am well aware of the giant pause each time I have to play a specific chord. I'm still trying to master the crazy fingers! I suppose you can now get a little taste for what everyone in my house has been hearing me singing for the past several days! I think my oldest is hating Cockles and Mussels at this point, but my ever cheerful and positive youngest just continually tells me how wonderful it all is. Even just now I heard her faintly singing Cockles and Mussels from the other room. My purpose for sharing is mainly to force myself to have fun with it all. I wanted an instrument that would allow me to not be so serious and that I could play in a very casual way, and I am finding myself trying to "master" it all in a perfectionist sort of way, so I am trying to remind myself to just have fun. Hope you enjoy!

What musical instruments are in your own life? I'd be curious to know!

Color Cover Challenge

This is day 5 of Bout of Books, and the challenge is all about cover colors! Basically, pick a color, or colors, and find at least 4 books whose covers match! You can find more information on this challenge here.

I picked covers with a lot of blues on them. Here is Charlie Bone and the Beast, Star Wars: The Swarm War, Last Wool and Testament, and Letters of E.B. White (without the dust jacket, as I don't have the dust jacket).

My Mother's Day Flowers

My special blue flowers are still holding strong and looking beautiful! I took a few photos that I thought I might share on here:

beer and tobacco?

This is the Bout of Books week, and to be honest, I haven't felt in much of a reading mood this week. BUT, I am going to count my ukulele book, which I have been devouring on a daily basis. I am actually having a blast learning Irish songs on my tenor ukulele, finding the lyrics hilarious and super fun. Even though I am loving learning this new instrument, I have to say, I am absolutely more in love with being immersed into all of these folk songs- I think I have found a life long love affair. I am a singer, which I sort of keep to myself. Not the proud (or even good), wishing to be famous singer...but the constantly rhyming to a tune throughout my day singer. Just so you fully get the picture, I generally don't sing known songs...I sing constantly made up songs about whatever task I am doing or whatever I am talking about. I think it is more of a personality trait that at times drives my family insane, but I don't hear a word of it! I am sort of loving that I have stumbled upon this genre of folk type songs that suite me perfectly, even though I am singing about trying to find me noggin' hat that has been all gone for gin and tobacco, or a woman cryin' over cockles and mussels. I think it perplexes my husband why I am enjoying them so much, sitting there listening to me going on about beer and tobacco, but I love it! When I am reading through the lyrics, I can picture a moment in time where people were just belly laughing and having a great time singing together, like a real musical (whether that is how it went or not, it makes me smile!). Right now I am really good at reading the music and playing the harmony of the songs on my ukulele, which is my comfort zone of playing instruments. But, I would like to get really good at playing just the chords (which is how most people approach the ukulele, because it is probably actually easier), but chords like that don't really come natural to me coming from my musical background. I struggle more with that. Makes me feel like I have crazy fingers. But I would love to just be able to play the chords and have relaxed fun singing these wonderful jigs. 
My daughters have become quite interested in Mom's fun, so I jumped on the opportunity to bestow some of my musical knowledge upon them and ordered two soprano ukuleles from amazon (for only $35 each), and will be giving them some music lessons and teaching them how to play it. They are pretty excited, though they will most likely not be playing and singing songs about beer and tobacco. Since I was placing the order, I also picked up another songbook for the ukulele by the same author, Nautical Songs for Ukulele, which I am super excited about. I am glad that I pulled my ukulele back out this spring, the timing must have been just right...

Character Face-off!

Another fun Bout of Books challenge, hosted over at Lulo Fangirl.
This is a favorite character face-off:

Opponent #1: Pip from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Cons: He stumbles through life fixated upon trying to change who he is to please another.
Pros: He learns the truth of life, and develops a strong sense of duty towards protecting another that did right by him.

Opponent #2: Antonia from My Antonia by Willa Cather
Cons: To be honest, I can't think of much?
Pros: She acknowledge the earth around her and went through her entire life with a love for the land that never faltered. She understood that ones happiness is their own truth and that it doesn't need to be hinged on societal expectations.

Winner: Why Pip, of course!
Even though Antonia is amazing and beautiful, and looks at the world through eyes that allow her to see the beauty all around, I just love Pip and always will. He is a relatable character, in the sense that most people struggle to find their place in the world and have to learn the harsh lessons of life that he did. I also really admire people who stand up and helps others, even in situations when it goes against the norm or even the law. No character has ever really topped Pip for me since I read Great Expectations. 

bookish survey challenge

Here is the first Bout of Books challenge! Answering all of these fun question, hosted over at Writing My Own Fairy Tale.

1. How do you organize your shelves? I actually really only have one book shelf that is quite small, with 3 shelves. It is in our living room, and I have given a shelf to each of my daughters, leaving me with only one. I usually tend to fill that shelf up with my favorites and books that I am interested in reading at that time. All my other books I have stacked up to ridiculously high levels in my closet. I switch them out on my shelf, depending on what I am in the mood to read during that time period.

2. What is your one of your favorite books that is not in one of your favorite genres?
Hmmmm. I will probably say Grayson by Lynne Cox.

3. What is the last five star book you read? Well, I had to look it up on my Goodreads, and it made me laugh. Meet Molly: An American Girl.

4. What are you most excited to read during the readathon?
I am not sure yet. I went to the library today and picked up a few middle grade books that looked interesting. I have yet to look over my spoils, but I am thinking I will either read a lot of Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood, or The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu.

5. What book do you recommend the most?
I am guessing this is pretty much the same as asking what is your favorite book, so I'd have to say Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. But as I am in a fairy tale mood lately, I will also say One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey, just because it is a fun book.

10 Favorite Screen Characters Tag

I was tagged by Olivia from Meanwhile, in Revendell. I will just get right to it, in no particular order:

1. Sherlock in Elementary. Jonny Lee Miller plays such an epic Sherlock Holmes, I am always in such awe when I watch this show.
2. Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. I love characters that dance creepily along that line of good and evil...
3. Regina from Once Upon a Time. Same thing, she is a good mixture of good and evil, with a background that backs it all up and has the viewer loving her for it all.
4. Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, played by Charity Wakefield. Marianne, oh endless emotional Marianne, how I love thee!
5. Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars films. Quite similar to Damon and Regina, I love watching Anakin make that shift from good to evil. It is quite eye opening to see how many factors in his life are at play, and why it all occurs.
6. Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean. Need I explain? Jack Sparrow is quite an awesome character. You can't help but to love him, even through all is grime.
7. Dr. House from House. I absolutely love those characters that are so grumpy, but really awesome at what they do. Also, I just respect a doctor that just does what needs to be done, even if it is with a bad attitude. I will take that any day over some of the stupid doctors we have had.
8. The Doctor in Doctor Who, played by David Tennant. Awesome show, with a lot of awesome characters, but David Tennant as The Doctor was pretty epic.
9. Miss Havisham from BBC Great Expectations, played by Gillian Anderson. That was one creepy Miss Havisham, and I loved it!
10. Candace from Phineas and Ferb. She is just awesome.

I tag anyone reading this who wants to participate!