I feel like I am always using Sunday Salon for something negative but it has been a tough year all around. Earlier this week another furry member of my family passed away very suddenly. Freya was a darling sweet cat who literally minutes before the event happened was being her usual self. Playing and cleaning all the usual things. It was a sudden cardiac event that took her from us and absolutely nothing at all could have been done according to the vet. That of course does not make it any easier to handle emotionally.

Heap onto that a literal load of Drama from a friend that really doesn’t need to be happening and I have pretty much had a certain Lilly Allen song going on in my mind for days now. Sorry for the negative and not book related. On the book end of things I finished my re-read of The Handmaids tale which was spurned by the Hulu adaptation playing and while I still like the show better I didn’t hate the book as much as I did the first time I read it.

A rare case of the book giving me more clarity on the book has occurred! This is not usual for me and I almost always like the books better then the movies or TV shows. So count me surprised on this one lol. I probably wont go back and read the book for a third time but stranger things have happened lol. I will be making a new review of it since I have changed my mind on many things, so there is a positive thing.

Another Sunday is here, and for me it is a lazy Sunday. Means my to do list is only one page instead of like 5. Anyways, afraid I do not have much in the way of bookish news to say this week. It has been a tough week for a lot of reasons and I did not get much reading done.

The biggest reason it was a tough week for me is that this week on April 21st 2017 marked the one year anniversary of Prince’s death. It is still a large open wound for me. I find myself want to cry when I think about the loss, the world as a whole has lost so very much in that soul. The world is a little darker thanks to it, and the other loses we all suffered in 2017. At least we know one day we will all sing together again. No matter what your belief is I think we all get a happy place. My happiest place will certainly involve the likes of Prince.

Another reason it has been a tough week is that my sweet fuzzball Kirk has not been feeling well. I think he just has a touch of a spring cold but given what a tough year it has been already I can’t help but feel all of my mom alarms going off at once. I have lit a candle, watched him eat and drink and rubbed his tummy. All things he was happy with.. he drew the line when I started trying to make him stay where I wanted him. Fair enough I know I was being a bit of a suffocating Mom. The vet took my call as well and said it sounds like he’s just a little stuffed up and he should be okay but to bring him in if I feel the need or anything gets worse. I steamed him a bit in the bathroom which did seem to help a bit, even if it did make his hair frizz. So I am trying to quite my frayed nerves.

I have also been having some major stomach trouble especially the last two days, but I am just going to leave it at that. You guy’s don’t want TMI info there. But it has made me a little grumpy to say the least.

On the bright side I have been able to channel my worry and frustrations into something good. I have been playing with and making several kinds of slime this week. I only recently was shown that apparently slime is a HUGE thing right now, like seriously HUGE one account I follow on Instagram has 361K in followers. I honestly had no idea. I have been making slime since I was a kid, though we called it GAK haha. It was one of the first major science things I did and have off and on made some to play with ever since. Now I see there is a whole new vocab and things to do with it and its been fun and interesting really to read up on it. So I channeled some of the bad vibes into making and playing with some Slime and have come up with a few really nice ones that have been nice stress relief for me.

I have also managed to get some expected packages in that I needed for a cosplay costume. Also sent out my first large wholesale order and it arrived safe and sound as well. So all in all while the week has been tough and I have not been able to read much, I have managed to find a bright spot or two within it.

Here is hoping for a better week ahead in the new one. How did your Sunday and week in general go?

 

I hope that everyone had a good weekend and a relaxing Sunday. I need to take my own advice when it comes to relaxing on Sunday’s though, I am terrible at it. I tend to use Sunday as a day to catch up on everything that I am behind on from the week before. Terrible right? At least this week I managed to get a little bit of sleep before I dove in and tackled the behind on stuff.

I am still in a full fledged spring cleaning kind of mode and that is great except that it puts me behind on other things I should be doing. Anyone else have that problem? On the good news side of things I am still on track for my reading challenge this year, I am almost done with a huge wholesale order for Creations of Bastet (excited about that) and overall I am starting to feel a bit of my stress and Machiavellian mood lifting. It might be baby steps but I will take them.

Now it is time to run into a new week..here comes Monday.

 

Another Sunday is here and it is the first of April. Can you believe that it is April already? The year seems to be flying by at this rate and given some of the crud that has been happening, maybe it is a good thing that it is. This last week for me was not a very good one. I don’t wish to drag readers down so I don’t want to dive into tons of detailing, but let’s just say stress, work overload, snapping and jealous friends make for an all around not so fantastic week. Couple that with the previous weeks massive incident of rolling around in so much pain I wanted to put my head through a plate glass window and the cold that has continued, I am just a barrel of laughs. Maybe I need to cast myself as a sad Victorian or something presently, lol. Safe to say I have decided that it is a good idea to stay away from any more Machiavelli for a while.

On the bright side of things (I am really deeply, trying to always find at least a little sunny side) it is April which means spring and spring often brings new life and new things eh? I miss the smell of lilac’s in bloom. They are such a delicate sweet flower with such a short life span, but they are truly one of my favorites. I can close my eyes and conjure up the scent sometimes which is always a nice thought.

Spring ha also brought with it for me the need to purge things and to reorganize. So of course I have despite still not being 100 % started the process of the purge and scrub. I am sure the process which includes book, by book dusting is going to take me a while. *laughs* In the end it will make me feel better though eh? I am even going to attempt to organize and straighten my crochet project area.

Stop laughing..I know you are laughing already.

Yes, I know it tends to look like a yarn shop threw up in my crafty area, but I am going to make an attempt at sorting it out at least. On the Sunday list of things to do is moving some new shelving into an area that needs it and then organizing what will go on those shelves. Will then be time to pick out another book to read..you know after I have finished dusting it.

Hope everyone is having a decent Sunday.

 

Happy Sunday to all who see this and a VERY Happy Mother’s day to those in England who are celebrating today. It always makes me smile a bit when I post a Mother’s day message in March and some of my readers or Facebook friends are very confused and say I am off.

Different countries have different Mother’s Day’s. Just like Thanksgiving in Canada is in October if I remember off the top of my head without checking my calendar. I don’t claim to know all the different Holiday’s but with English connections I try to be aware of their different days. You never know how much it can mean to an expat to hear a Happy Mother’s Day on the day they are used to celebrating it on.

What a week it has been in the world eh? Attacks in London and Ohio, I am sure I am missing another one ,but it just hurts my heart to think about all the senseless violence. I wish we lived in a more Utopian world. I know that the world that H.G Wells had hoped for is never likely. We are human and we will always have those among us who think violence prevails. Beyond that we have seen imaginations of what can happen when we want a peaceful never speaks out against anything society. It doesn’t work well either, not without violating a lot of personal freedoms and rights. We can and should do better though.

Love is going to be what will fix the hurts of the world. Not so much violence and hate. Maybe I am an idealist, but I hope someday for a world which is not so violent. I truly hope that we will not have to see daily accounts of mass shootings and attacks anywhere in the world. It is so heart breaking to think this is where we are.

Having a conversation with a dear friend made me happen upon a phrasing that I feel fits. Many people today think we are more civilized than we used to be. That ancient times and even the more recent Renaissance times were so much more savage than we are today. Were they really though? The biggest difference is that we now have access to the savagery almost immediately. We are a society that has a 24 hour at your fingertips news cycle. Very little happens in the world that isn’t seen, uploaded and then spread across the world. Back in ancient times and say, the time of the wars of the roses or the Tudors it took time for news to spread. Things were not as connected as they are today.

Yes, we have come a long way in certain areas, medicine, science and rights for many people. But are we really any less savage? Honestly, I think the age of the internet has allowed some to become more savage. When you look at the way people who in regular life would never raise a bad word, then attack and bully others on the internet. It is astounding. So, maybe we need a little bit more of the age of chivalry put back into our lives. Heck, at least when the Roman’s came in they took over, built roads, let people live their lives. Yes, I know that is simplistic, but early Roman’s expanded for the sake of expansion and Empire. The conquered people generally still got to keep their religion, and were absorbed into the society of Rome. If you look at how many different religions and Gods were present in Ancient Rome before Christianity the number is astounding. Alexandria was also a huge melting pot of religion and culture in its day. While the Knights of old would often (not always I am WELL AWARE) leave women and children alive.

Anyways, sorry for all the random rambling and heavy talk on a Sunday Salon post. I really set out just to say Happy Mother’s day and I look forward to the week to come. I guess I needed to get some things off my chest.

Or I could blame the nyquil for the nasty flu I have been battling.

Either way. I hope you have a good Sunday and pardon my deep ramblings on topics and the world today.

Sunday again already, the first Sunday of March at that. Is it just me or does the year seem to be flying by already? I have not gotten as much reading as I wanted to do this week, my brain has been a little bit “squirrel” feeling this last week, but I am learning to not be so hard on myself for the weeks like that. What I did read quite a bit of this week was preparations to make sure I am caught up on my Read it first personal challenge. There are so many good movies coming out in the future or that have recently come out based on books. TV is starting to get a little bit more into that as well. Two examples that are coming up this year are the Hulu original series The Handmaids tale and the ABC series Time after Time.

I am a little conflicted over The handmaids tale, I know for many it is a classic and one that they really enjoyed, but for me the book has always just been a little bit, meh. Among just my friends on Goodreads I know I am in the minority as most of my friends gave it a much better rating than I did. Yes, I only gave it 1 gem/star if anyone remembers my review of it. If not here is the link and you can see it for yourself, at least there is a Doctor who reference in my review right? I want to give the show a chance though and I am sitting here laughing at myself and asking why? I clearly did not like the book. Well the short and simple answer is because I wanted to like the book and sometimes I am actually upset at myself for not liking the book. There is so much there that in general I like, but I guess it is one of those things that for me it never came together. I am going to give the show a chance though, I really hope I like it better than the book. Stranger things have happened, right? I mean I liked True Blood as a whole much better than I liked The Southern Vampire mysteries (lets not go down that rabbit hole with how much I hated the “last” installment).

Time after Time however, oh boy it has all of the elements to be fantastic. You have a great plot, fun history to work with and a little eye candy never hurts right? This is not the first adaptation of the book by Karl Alexander of course, there was the movie with the same name done in 1979 (same year as the book and funny enough the movie screenplay was written up before the book was finished) which was touted as being filmed in Panavision ooo! In a world of reboots (I am not a fan of all of them trust me. Footloose not cool and now Dirty Dancing SERIOUSLY?) I feel this is one that actually is worth visiting again and playing around with more.

Despite my slow reading progress this week I am actually slowly starting to feel like I am getting my book mojo back, which I take as a good sign overall. I went on a spree this morning of adding a whole slew of Historical fictions that I have missed over the last few years to my want to read list. I had to say sorry to my Facebook friends since my Goodreads activity posts there, LOL. Reading mojo may be waking up like a slow bear after hibernation, but I am so happy to see it again. I find that it also makes me want to get back to writing for myself, instead of just doing it for freelance work. There is the inspired feeling of wanting to sink my teeth into writing something historical, maybe even an alternative history. Beyond that, I have a feeling that I am going to end up feeling very inspired to make creations for my shop once I dig into a bunch of books again. I often get teased by loved ones who say I could find inspiration is a puddle, but seriously as stimulating as movies and TV shows can be for creativity (I want to make ALL the things from Outlander and the Tudors? So many pretty things!) I find books are fantastic for that as well, mostly because you can completely build the vision yourself. You get the context and of course the description from the writer, but it is your mind that can see it come to life without someone else putting their stamp on it, beyond the writer of course.

So I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Sunday and that the week you have coming ahead is enjoyable as well. I’ll be back for Musing Monday for now it’s time to go poke around my kindle a bit and line up a short list TBR for the upcoming weeks.

I used to be able to curl up with a good book in the same place for hours on end and simply get lost in the world that was being given to me though the pages. I have not been able to do that recently. This is not because of any lack in the books it is because of me and how I have been the last 4 years or so. A lot of it I think is because that is when my anxiety really got worse. My mind just refuses to be still, no matter how much I try. I am sure that some of you reading this will understand the issue. I do hope at some point to be able to make my mind relax enough so that I can curl up for hours at a time again.

Of course, just because I can’t spend hours at once reading doesn’t mean I don’t read. I have learned to smile and not just laugh outright at some of the mistakes the kindle reader makes. When I pick up a hard copy book I can read for an hour at most before the brain starts running again and demands that I do something else. That is the biggest issue for me, there just are not enough hours in the day to do every single thing that my mind comes up with. From writing ideas to, crochet ideas too, make up ideas, to clothing ideas and so on and so forth you get the drift. So many wonderful ideas I want to bring to life and I can’t make time stop so that I can do them all and then write a book. There are also the regular duties we all have in life, mothering, cleaning, working. Oh right and every once in a blue moon I manage to get some sleep. I guess one benefit of being a chronic insomniac is that you do tend to get more time in the day than many others, but that is going to be a completely different kind of post.

I have been thinking about the trouble I have keeping still a lot lately. I know I need to work on it so I am going to make an honest effort to do so this year. I was treated to a fidget cube, several days ago and I am wondering if that will help me with this new mission. I love writing and crochet so much that it often feels like if I am just sitting and only reading (vs having kindle read out loud to me (like I am right now lol) or listen to an audio book, my hands want to be crocheting. So maybe the fidget cube, will keep my hands busy while I read. I plan on giving that a try later this week.

Alas, I fear this has become a little bit of a random ramble. I am going to blame that on the lack of sleep again I am afraid. I almost got to sleep at a semi normal hour for once, and then new little boy Misha decided my feet were his fun toys. I wasn’t even moving them! Little stinker and yet I love him for it.

Here is hoping for a good week for everyone reading this.

 

Sadly I am not going to be making a very long post this Sunday. For the second time in a month I have suffered a blow and a loss to my family. My beloved special little guy Cubby passed on the 27th and right now the best I can do is take life one breath at a time. I haven’t read a thing since he passed, I am sure I will again soon. Right now though all I can think about is my sweet boy. I think losing Pasha broke his heart and he just stopped fighting his thyroid cancer. I miss them both, it just has a feeling at the moment of life is not very fair.