Goodreads Review: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

I've decided to start using my Goodreads account again, at least for now. I phase alot, so we'll see how long it lasts.

Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the second time I read this book. The first time was several years ago. I remembered loving it then and wondered if I still would on a second reading. And oh yes, I did.

The characters are set as modern day fairy tale. Min has just been dumped by her boyfriend for not having sex with him. Cal has just broken up with his girlfriend because she wanted to get married. When Min's ex bets Cal he can't get her into bed in a month...and hears him...hijinks ensue.
The characters are fun and well written. Min is the atypical heroine. She's not thin, she's rather plain, and the book starts with some not-so-nice comments being made about her. But it's not long before everyone falls for her sense of humor, and Cal starts seeing the sensual things about her.
The dialogue in this book is fun and gave me a boost for my own current writing project. "Bet Me" is also one of those cutesie sigh inducing romances that always tends to give me warm fuzzies. I BookMooched this one, but since it rates as a 5 star even after a second read, I don't think I can let it go again. It now has a permanent home on my bookshelf.

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Two Scarf Projects

I'm currently working on two different scarves, mostly for practice. My Pink Lady scarf had originally been intended for a silent auction at the Relay for Life. Then Phinn got ahold of it and I decided not to go that route. I actually gave up on knitting it for awhile, but decided to finish it, or at least try to finish it for the Miss Relay 2009 contest at the walk (fyi, a guy from our team has to dress up as a girl. We have a candidate in our guest walker, Jon's younger brother).

At any rate, I'm glad I started it back up. The stitch is simple as it's just knitting a garter stitch scarf. The challenge is in knitting the black and frou frou pink at the same time. It's hard to be precise in my knits, so it's full of mistakes, but because of the thickness of the joined yarns, there's only one place I can really see the dropped stitches, and that's where the puppy got to it.

Talk about soft though. I've never been a pink girl, but I'm definitely tempted to keep this one for myself.

The second one is more of a practice scarf, but I like the colors alot. I'm using a pattern from Stitch 'N Bitch Nation for a drop stitch scarf. It's helping me practice the yarn over, which is insanely easy, and the "on purpose drop" to get a nifty looking pattern.

The pattern is called "Yo! Drop It" but because of my modifications I gave it my own name. Not going to lie..."Drops of Jupiter" was based on a knitting night conversation that was less than elegant, but the name seems fitting for the way this one looks. It won't keep anyone warm in the winter. I used stashed thrift yarn that seems to be lighter weight and gives the scarf almost a lacy look (my opinion, not knitter expertise). And unfortunately, my edges are extremely ragged. However, I know a few people who might appreciate this as a gift.

Alien Illusion Scarf

I finally finished my Alien Illusion Scarf, and of course now realize I've periodically called it an Alien Invasion Scarf. But whatever, it's still cool. This is the first time I've 1) finished a project with both knitting and purling; 2) did illusion knitting; and 3) used fringe. And even though I know fringe isn't difficult, I'm glad I finally stopped being lazy and just did it.

I made Jon model for me, which works well since it's his scarf. I have to say, he knows how to pose to make an Alien scarf get an extra dose of eerie. Not sure if he does it on purpose, but it cracks me up.

The pattern came from the Stitch N Bitch handbook and I must give thanks to my friend Angela for teaching me to purl so I could actually do this. I'd like to try this one again, but in different colors, or at least in a different contrast color (what green is in this one).

This weekend....between in-law visiting of course...I will try my hand at the currently elusive increase.

Punishment by Glue and Glitter

I thought that over the past few years I’d learned the fine art of saying ‘no.’ And while I don’t employ that word as often as I should, I was doing well with not taking on too much. The Relay for Life was about as much as I could handle and even that was overwhelming me.

However, I have now volunteered to decorate the Relay for Life luminaria that our team sells. Not only did I volunteer, I did so without consulting my team, which means I obviously can’t hold them to something they didn’t agree to. I’m having visions of being covered in glitter and hot glue in a sea of paper bags.

Luckily, one of my team members has already offered to help, so that’s a big plus. Another one hasn’t volunteered, but he gets to do it by default since he’s going to marry me. I’m trying to look on the bright side. It could definitely be fun, and I have a bunch of crafting stuff I’ve picked up recently at garage sales and freebie Craigslist offerings. It could also just be a pain in the butt, especially because we’ll be doing it the two or three days before the actual walk.

Let me tell you, though…if I’m decorating them, I’ll make sure they’re pretty snazzy to honor who they’re for. That’s a guarantee.

Sharing

Besides my previous dabble in fan fiction (which I may or may not do again in the near future), I hadn’t really shared my writing with anyone since college. Sure, I posted my NaNoWriMo for people to read, but there’s a difference between entertaining the internet and getting actual feedback for something.

Last night was our Writers Meeting and I was armed with one of my current writing projects, a fun fluff story/novel called “Highest Bidder.” Romance is one of my favorite things to write, not only because I’ve read so much of it in my life, but because the actual act of writing it is fun for me. I love all that cutesy mushy gushy type stuff, and this is the genre my past few writing projects have centered around.
The only thing that makes this one different is the importance of dialogue, and I was a little worried about conversation overkill between my characters. I’m proud to say though that my work was met with positive feedback, some great constructive criticism, and some good laughs. While the humor played out in my head as I was writing it, I was highly pleased to see that it translated to other people.

Once I get this done, I may take on a few beta readers for feedback. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even try to get this one published.

Yarn, Yarn, and Did I mention Yarn?

I got a huge haul of yarn last night, a fact of which I’m pretty proud of, especially because considering what I got, I basically spent pennies. The thing that sent me to the store was the need to start a new project from the Stitch N’ Bitch Handbook I borrowed from my friend (I am on the hunt for my own copy though…must have it!). Because I needed specific colors I didn’t already have in my stash, we made a trip to Hobby Lobby armed with two coupons printed from the internet and the list of needed things.

Luckily, I didn’t have to buy the needles since I already have not one but two sets of size 7 needles. The yarn I chose was pretty cheap, second only to Red Heart and chosen because I liked the texture better. This was the “I Love This Yarn” brand from HL and I’m not sure if I got a bad skein or just part of it was messed up, but I found later that there was a big section where the yarn was separating. I got around it…luckily I found it while I was making my gauge swatch and I had no problems after that…but it’s probably not the best quality of yarn I’ve ever used.

Besides the project skeins (more on that project later once I get it into my Ravelry account), Hobby Lobby also had a clearance sale on frou frou yarns, so I picked up three small skeins of those for $1.19 each (originally marked at 6.89 a skein). I already have an idea for a scarf using one of these.



If that weren’t enough, a day or so ago I posted on Craigslist that I was looking for knitting items. I got a hit last night from a girl who hooked me up with five skeins of Baby Coordinates yarn, a random skein and a random ball of yarn, a tape measure, and a small pair of scissors…all for free…and she was nice enough to bring them to my front door. I love Craigslist.



This weekend is definitely going to be one dedicated to knitting because nothing gets me in the mood like new yarn.

Good-Bye to the Citrus Scarf

On Monday, I started knitting lessons. They’re very informal as a friend of mine is teaching me things beyond the knit stitch (the only thing I could do really). I’ve managed to catch on to purling pretty well, and I’ve started combining my colors a little bit. My first little project was going to be what I had named the Citrus Scarf due to the colors. It was a K1 P2 rib stitch in green, yellow, and orange and it was coming along swimmingly.

And then I messed up. And guess what I don’t know how to do yet? Fix things. My friend showed me how to do it, but I learn by doing things repetitively. Not only could I not figure out exactly where I messed up, but when I tried to fix it, I messed it up even more. Then, because I was tired and a little out of it (I really shouldn’t try to knit new things after giving plasma), instead of waiting to take it to her for help, I just frogged the whole thing. Then I was depressed.

Not wanting to deal with it, I tried another project. Had to frog that too. It was not a good knitting night for me at all. However, I’m feeling better today and ready to tackle it again tonight. Unfortunately, I’m also having issues with my camera, so I’m not sure if I’ll have pics up on the blog for a few days. I think I’m getting a newish one off Craigslist this coming weekend, but it depends on a lot of things…money, whether the person sells it to someone else before I can get the money, and whether they even get back to me about it. So we’ll see.

I’m going to tackle that citrus scarf again. It will not get the best of me!