Mani Monday in Morganville

Today is a MEGA post. I'm just finishing up reading Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine, book 8 in The Morganville Vampires series. (Approps title, lately I've been feeling like I've been kissed by death! Hmmm, a lil too ironic, don't you think? Bonus points for an Alanis Morissette reference! Score!!) I really enjoy the Morganville series, they are easy, fun, YA reads. 

The first book in the series is Glass Houses. I read it about a year ago so I won't even try to review it but obvs I liked cause I've kept reading! Basically, there are four main characters, Claire a 16 year old college student, Eve resident Goth chic, Shane the cute, cocky slacker, and Michael the gorgeous, sensitive musician. They all end up living together in some kind of catch all Frat house of sorts in a town of vampires. Each installment of the series focuses on the four dealing with some major (vamp) related problem.

Here's a summery of Glass Houses (from goodreads ):

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

Per wikipedia (which I know isn't always correct but seemed to have the most comprehensive list of the Morganville books) here are the Morganville books in reading order:

1. Glass Houses
2. The Dead Girls' Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
10. Bite Club
11. Last Breath
12. Black Dawn
13. Bitter Blood (scheduled November, 2012)

As of September 2011, an extra 3 books were contracted to the Morganville series bringing the total up to 15 books. The books will be released in hardback.


(Just 4 more to read and I'll be caught up with the books that are already out! YAY!)


I checked this copy of Kiss of Death out from the library and it looks "much loved" but I loved the cover with all the pink-the hair the words. (I love pink!) And there were several mentions of pink throughout the book, not always complementary to my color but that's ok. I got to thinking, it's been a while since I've done girlie girl nails so I decided to let the Kiss of Death cover inspire me. (Oh, yeah, there's a kick butt librarian in this book too! YaY! Goooo librarians! I know I love mine!)

Summary of Kiss of Death (from goodreads):

Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell...

I loved this quote from Kiss of Death:

"Eve," Michael said, "horror movies are not documentaries."

Annnnd, I just wanted to mention I got to meet the author, Rachel Caine when she appeared at Dragon*Con last year. She was super sweet and even posed for a pic with me! Here we are me in all my Steampunk glory and Morganville mastermind, Rachel Caine.

Not too shabby for a Monday, you got 2 books and manicure. (Better late than never, right??) Have a MARVELOUS week!

OOOOO, I almost forgot today is the first day of Once Upon Readathon! I've gotten a slow start today with too many non-reading things to deal with today but tomorrow is gonna be my intense reading day!! Wish me luck!

Impressionable and Inspired

I am very impressionable.  As defined by the dictionary, impressionable means: readily or easily influenced; suggestible. If I hear a phrase that reminds me a song, I feel I must sing it, loudly (mind you my singing is horrible, ask my co-workers, bless their hearts). I fancy myself as a somewhat crafty person and if something I watch or read inspires an idea, I've been known to craft up some kind of homage to the original. See example:

I made these shortly after I first became addicted to both the book and movie, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I'm not quite as neurotic as I once was but I will always love Twilight and be thankful for what it meant to me in that time in my life. 

So the red bracelet, more represents Edward (get it, blood is red, he's a vamp :). The charms in case you can't make them out from left to right are: a graduation cap, dice ("I'm betting on Alice!"), baseball bat and glove, music clef, Carlisle's cross, a crystal heart, engagement ring, bride and groom, dolphin (Isle Esme, anyone?), Edward's piano, and Renesmee's baby shoe.

The black beaded bracelet is for Jacob Black, of course! The charms again left to right are: an apple (like the cover of the first book, Bella's truck, a wolf, a heart, a feather (supposed to convey Jacob's tribal roots), motorcycle, and moon (for New Moon). 

As you have seen on this very blog at least once already (see this post), I have even been inspired to paint my nails in honor of certain books and movies. Here are my attempts are "Girl on Fire" nails from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

Not everything inspires such a response from me but the "good stuff" can certainly lead to projects for me.

I was trying to figure out why I did these things the other day, most people I know don't do this, I beginning to think this was just one of my many idiosyncrasies. But after discussing with a friend her children's summer reading assignments, it became clear. When I was in school, even on up into college, my favorite (English/Lit) teachers were the ones who had us do "fun" projects that related back to the materials we were reading in class. I was never "artistic" in the sense that I could draw or paint or sculpt but I could collage with the best! And often times I'd receive praise from my teachers on my hard work on those projects. I think that those simple words of affirmation over ten years ago have stuck with me and why I continue with my media inspired projects. (So, there's a little side bar for ya, be careful of what you say to kids cause apparently they really are listening!)

There is actually a point to all my ramblings today. If you've been following me at all, you'll have seen that I've been reading through the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich. They are ones with numbers in the titles like One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, etc. If you are not familiar with the books, Stephanie is Jersey girl of Italian/Hungarian descent working as a bounty hunter even though she's not very good at it. The books are a brilliant blend of mystery and humor. The interaction Stephanie has with her family, especially her Grandma,will leave you laughing out loud, literally. Almost always when they have these family times they are eating and having a family meal. In fact, the offer of a good home cooked meal is how Stephanie's mom lures her home. And if I'm not mistaken, the offer of stuffed cabbages always draws Steph home.

My most recent Plum read.

I got to thinking, I've only ever had stuffed cabbage once and it was delish, much better than it sounds. And I've sure never made stuffed cabbage. So this evening I thought I've give it a try. Only I know how lazy I am and I altered the idea just a bit. My cabbage still has all the flavors but I've layered the ingredients into a casserole so it would be easier and less time consuming. I search the net for recipes, such as this one and this one too and then I adjusted with seasonings based on our liking and what we had on hand. I'm not one to measure or do things exactly the same each time.

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Plated with green beans and mashed potatoes.

Verdict: It was pretty good. Hubs liked it, said he'd like it again! I think Stephanie and the Plum clan would approve!

Have you ever been inspired by something you've seen or read? Leave me some comments. I HEART comments!

Follow Up: Obsidian Obsession

So, I just want to start by saying I have the BEST mother in the WORLD. She took off work early to go with me to the book signing so I wouldn't have to go alone, even though it really isn't her thing. I love my mommy! Now that I got that out of the way, I'll move on to the event itself.

My Jennifer L. Armentrout Collection

Details: June 8th, FoxTale Book Shoppe, Woodstock, GA 3:00pm. Book signing with author Jennifer L. Armentrout and [book] cover models Pepe Toth and Sztelle Tziotziosz.

Me, Vania (of VLC Productions) & Jennifer (author)

Before the actually signing, there was a questions and answer session, during which people had lots of question for Jennifer and especially the models! There were lots of good questions and a good bit of giggling going on during that time!

Sztella, Me, & Pepe 

(they are the cover models for the Lux series books)

While in Atlanta, Jennifer said that they were filming scenes for the first three Lux books (Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal)  with models, Pepe and Sztella, for the book trailers.  And, if you are familiar with Obsidian, the laptop scene is being filmed! (Whooo-hooo!)

Jennifer answered my question, is there more to come from Daemon's point of view (POV)?

She said, YES!  She has found people tend to only have one perspective from him and that perspective changed after reading scenes from  Daemon's POV. (I know that was true for me!) She doesn't have any plans to re-write the whole book but she has written most of major scenes from his POV. 

This, my friends, is the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of

Onyx!

(This doesn't even come out til Aug!!)

When asked if there was anyone in her life she based the Daemon character off of JLA said that there isn't. But she does like snarky, witty guys with good come backs. She said her editorial notes on this book were to make him more of jerk which she was surprised by. Obsidian's female lead is a book blogger.  JLA says never reviewed books and she learned blogger language from talking to bloggers.

JLA credits her boredom and her overactive imagination as her sources of inspiration. She's putting out so many books so quickly, she's worried she will run out of ideas and is scared she will have to write about zombie were-llamas. (I bet with her writing it, it would still be pretty awesome!) She said she does listen music while writing sometimes but doesn't have to but for fight scenes, she listens to heavy metal band Drowning Pool and rock band Disturbed. And while writing the laptop scene, she listened to  ET (Katy Perry, I assume) over and over, as it seemed appropriate! (Uh, yeah!)

When asked about making Obsidian into a movie, she said it was a long process and she was waiting on Hollywood but given the chance she probably would! 

Upcoming news: JLA is contracted for another novella in the Lux series which will probably come out between books 5 and 6. (The first novella is Shadows and is a prequel to Obsidian, which I haven't read yet, I know shame on me!) She likes novellas that connects the books or moves the plot forward not just a rehash of what has already happened. Her next books, Onyx come out August 14, Opal comes out December 7, and then two more that don't have release date as of yet. In the Fall, she has a book coming out every mouth,in addition to the aforementioned, includes Cursed in September, Deity in November. YAY for not having to wait on a JLA fix!!

Lastly, my nail design was inspired by the awesome cover of Obsidian, so I had to include a pic or two of that too! I used Sally Hanson Insta-Dri in Jumpin' Jade, then painted the top "corner" of my nail black (In Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme) over the green. Next, I painted a line of silver glitter (kinda like lightening from the cover of the book) between the black and green. I used Art Deco silver glitter polish that has a very thin "striper" brush. I'm pretty happy with the results and I think I captured the essence of the cover. 

I'm sure I've seen some nails similar over the 'net at some point but I don't know who to give credit to for this idea, please know if it was your idea, I wasn't trying to steal it!

Mani Monday

Hey y'all! So I'm trying out the blogger app for the first time today! And I'm posting from my new phone (thanks hubs)! It's been a while since I posted a manicure. Today, I'm rocking both accent nails and polka dots! Yay!

First, I started with a clear, strengthening base coat. Then painted all my nails with two coats of Sparitual Lucid Creme nail polish. Except for my index fingers, they got three coats of Maybelline Express Finish nail color in Sunshine.

I let that all dry a bit, then added dots of yellow onto the Lucid Creme onto the Sunshine and Sunshine onto the Lucid Creme. I achieved this design by using my "dotting tool" which you can purchase or make. I made mine by sticking a straight pin with a ball like pin head on the top into an old fashion pencil. (I'll try get a good pic of it later.)

Next, I let that dry a bit. And lastly I applied a layer of Seche Vite top coat. If you haven't tried this stuff...oh my gosh, I'm telling it's good! It dries super fast and let you know about its lasting power.

Also, I had a slight change in my reading selection. I'm reading High Five by Janet Evanovich. Hubs and I are working our way through the Stephanie Plum series. There's like 18 of them and we are utilizing the library as often as possible. So, I gotta read as they come. It's a good series-quick and funny read, perfect summer series.

Mani Monday

Accent Nail

So I'm really girly and I really enjoy doing my nails. I'd love to go get them done professionally but alas I am cheap and I like the small bit of creativity doing my own nails affords me. Plus I like changing them up fairly often and they can be attention getters and conversation starters. (*note* I look at a lot of pics online of nails, I'm sure this idea came from one of those I've seen in the past but I can't seem to find the original. I'm sorry if I "stole" an idea, it wasn't my intention.)

This weekend I'm rocking what is called an "accent nail" which is basically painting all but one of your nails the same color and then choosing one nail to have a totally different color. You can pick which finger you want to "accent" but I usually go for accenting my ring fingers. (I'm already wearing my wedding band on my left hand and I have a birthstone ring hubs got me I wear on my right ring finger so to me accenting the ring finger makes sense.) But I've seen where others accent there pointer finger and that looks pretty cool too, so it's completely up to you. FUNky manicures are all about FUN so have FUN with it! :)

Here are some pics of my current mani:

I started by painting all but my ring finger in a light pink, then painted my ring finger gray. Which looked pretty good I thought but of course I can't leave well enough alone!

So I added a couple of layers of silver glitter over my gray polish. (I heart glitter!) And I love the way this mani turned out.

These are the polishes I used. From the right: LA Colors silver glitter (I think I got from some Dollar Store) and the gray and pink came out of set I got at Ross.

Feel free to leave me some comments and share your fav nail designs!