Crafty - Mermaid Blanket

Well hello there book lovers!

Did you know that your life is incomplete? Why you ask, because you don't have a mermaid blanket.

I hope that you have been liking the blog and have been reading some of the books. As I have told you before I have a big pinterest problem, and I love to sew too. So naturally when I saw crocheted and knitted mermaid blankets I was all about it. Search online, search pinterest, you will see them too and they are so cute. I do try my hand at crocheting and knitting now and then. But I am NOT fast, and I am NOT very good. We all have our strengths. So I decided to sew one instead. Now I couldn't find any patterns or tutorials online that I liked so I did make this one all by myself. But it was based on ones I saw on pinterest. You too can make one of these. They are just too amazing!

You will need fabric, 1/4 inch foam, matching thread, and your standard sewing supplies. I had to make a pattern for the tail, now I am not good at drawing anything. I just can't seem to make any sense of it. My husband however, he is amazing! If you will let me brag, one of his drawings was selected by a local museum to be on display. I know! He is so talented. I had him draw half of a mermaid tail based on my vague descriptions on what I felt would be an ideal mermaid tail. This is what he came up with for me. 

Isn't it so cute? I placed the straight edge of the tail pattern on the fold line of the fabric and cut 1 side, and then cut another tail out for the back. So you would have a front and back of the tail. I sewed all around the edge leaving it open at the top and then turned it inside out. I cut out the tail shape in the foam, and put the foam inside the mermaid tail. I used "minky" fabric for the tail and then a nice soft fuzzy material for the blanket part. I found it with the "minky" in the fabric store.

There the tail is with the foam in it. Below is what the tail looks like all ready for the blanket part to be attached. I put the tail aside and got the blanket part ready. I am going to take this moment to say that in the end I thought of some better ways to assemble this blanket and probably would do it differently. But this is what I did this time around and it worked just fine.

I laid down on the fabric and had my very helpful husband cut out around me to get the right shape. Then I surged around the edges. If I make a normal seam all the way around I thought it was going to be too thick. So I just surged the raw edges and then folded them over to make a 1 inch seam around the sides and the top. 

Once the edges and seams were done I looped the blanket around so the seam was at the back. I sewed about 8 inches at the bottom to tuck my feet into. Then I placed the bottom of the blanket into the top of the tail. Made a seam, and sewed it together. I did a lot of back stitching to make sure that it all stayed together.

Here is is all done and me snuggling and watching some Netflix. I hope that you all get crafty too and make your very own mermaid blanket.

Once again. I found these ideas on pinterest, I just made them based on what I saw. If you do some searching too, you will find some amazing ideas out there. Make yourself a mermaid blanket and your life will be complete too!

Love
Elyse

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

By Tom Rachman

Doubleday Canada 2014

Genre: Fiction

The story follows the life of Tooly who was stolen from her parents at a young age. We flash back and forth from her as a child to her in her early twenties, to the “present”. Tooly owns a bookshop, when she gets a call from an old friend. He tells her that her father is quite sick, and she needs to come back to New York to help him. This leads us on a journey to understanding what happened to her in her formative years.

Ok, can I just say that I thought that this book was going to be so great! It sounded like it was full of intrigue and mystery. I was very disappointed, and I was really bored. I really didn’t like Tooly. I feel like she was naïve and that irritated me. I questioned the entire time reading how she couldn’t see what was happening to her? How can you not see that what is going on is illegal? I wondered why she wasn’t inquisitive at all? I had a LOT of questions when I was a child. I know that ALL the people she was with wouldn’t really tell her, but some of them would. That is what irritated me. I felt really bad for Humphrey. He was a good man, who took care of her despite what she seems to think. I liked him and feel he deserved better than Tooly.

I did not feel like this was a big mystery it seemed pretty obvious to me what was happening through her life. So the whole novel felt a little bit pointless. I kept waiting for things to get exciting or mysterious but it fell flat for me. I was very frustrated with this one, I was huffing and puffing and putting it down because I felt it was so ridiculous how annoying Tooly was. Or I was rushing through it so it would just be over already!

What I did like was the writing style and I didn’t mind how we were flicked from childhood to adulthood I liked the important occurrences being revealed to me slowly. I think that it all worked very nicely. I don’t feel like flitting back and forth was choppy, it made sense and the sequence was still logical.

My Verdict: Pass on this one

This picture is a clue to next week's blog post. I hope you guys are excited!

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What did you think of this book? Were you charmed by Tooly or irritated by her?

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Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers

By Stephen King

Scribner 2015

Book 2 of the Bill Hodges Trilogy

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Action, Adventure

Writer John Rothstein wakes to three men in his home trying to rob him. One of these men is Morris Bellamy, he has been obsessed with Rothstein’s Jimmy Gold novels his whole life. Rothstein doesn’t care if they take all the money in his safe, his main concern are his notebooks. He doesn't want these men to steal them. There are quite a lot in there and they are very important to him. Bellamy knows that Rothstein has these books, and he has a hunch they contain more about Jimmy Gold. Bellamy hates what Rothstein has done with his favorite character, Jimmy Gold. He feels Rothstein made Jimmy a sell out and lose that rebellious passion he had. But old Rothstein’s temper rises and he gets angry, so Bellamy shoots Rothstein during the altercation and takes the notebooks. Bellamy’s cohorts don’t make it long into the night either. Bellamy knows these books have to be hidden, so he buries them in the forested area behind his childhood home. Once completed, he gets black out drunk and when he wakes up, it’s behind bars and it’s for life. Fast forward to young Pete Saubers, he and his family now live in the house Morris Bellamy grew up in. This story is set during the recent recession and Pete’s family is struggling financially. His father was injured by the maniac that ran everyone over at the job fair (see Mr. Mercedes). His parents are always fighting and he worries they will divorce. One day Pete comes across a buried treasure…

I really enjoyed this one. It wasn’t one of King’s usual scary supernatural type of books. It was a look into the reader and writer relationship. It felt a little Misery-esque. What with the crazy obsessed reader. But that was only at the beginning. I found it a little hard to believe that young Pete got in as deep as he did. But I still really liked it! If you are a Stephen King fan, you will like the little nods here and there to his other works and some of his other funny little references. I found that I was eager to reach the end and know what was going to happen to Pete and how he was going to get out of that mess.

Morris Bellamy was a great villain, someone you can really hate. I was so surprised at how much I resented that he just took loving a book too far. It was an affront to me as a book lover. We all have stories that we love, but I can’t imagine anything ever pushing me that far! I loved Pete Saubers and that he was the opposite of Bellamy. He felt the same passion but it was healthy and what I feel when I read a great book.

If I had to give this book one criticism it would be that it dragged in the beginning. There was a lot of background information on Morris’ life and his time in prison. But that didn’t really bother me too much. I do love King’s character development, his stories always feel like these are real people that you know. I think that this is due to his elaborate backgrounds. Also, I was horribly upset at the end that left me going “NOOOOOO!” I wanted to know what was going to happen. But I guess we will all have to wait to find out what happens…. CLACK! (Read the book and you will be in on that one)

I didn’t read these in order. I read Finders Keepers first and then I read Mr. Mercedes. You don’t have to read them in order. But what happens in Mr. Mercedes is obviously ruined in Finders Keepers.

My Verdict: READ IT!

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Are you reading the series? What are your thoughts? How do you feel it fits in with Stephen King's repertoire? Did you like this book?

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If you Liked Finders keepers try:

Cuckoos calling

The silkworm

Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes

By Stephen King

Scribner 2014

Book 1 of the Bill Hodges Trilogy

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Adventure, Thriller

I hope you all had a fabulous Hallowe’en. In the spirit of this fantastic holiday (hallmark Holiday – or whatever you want to call it you Grinch!) we are going to delve into some of the newest releases of the horror master himself. One of my favorite writers of all time Stephen King. These books I think, will be a trilogy surrounding Bill Hodges a retired detective. These are standalone books you don’t have to read them in order. I hope you are tantalized and want to read them too.

Mr. Mercedes is set during the recent recession, when people were hit hardest and were lining up jobless at a local job fair. They were waiting all night hoping to get in, and find some work to help support their families. Brady Hartsfield, a lunatic, brutally runs down these poor people with a Mercedes he stole. Flash forward months later to newly retired detective Bill Hodges. One of his last cases was the Mercedes killer. It still haunts him, as he sits in his lay-z-boy pondering suicide. This is when Bill receives a letter from Mr. Mercedes taunting him and attempting to push the retired detective into suicide. Hodges finds this letter makes him get back into this case rather than kill himself. He is wondering if he worked all the angles the first time around. We follow these two men in a cat and mouse chase. We are introduced to Holly and Jerome who complete the unlikely trio of detectives. We watch them in a gripping race against time to stop Mr. Mercedes before he strikes again.

I read Finders Keepers first, and I kept telling myself towards the end that I knew what happens. It didn’t matter, I was still enthralled while reading this. In the end, I was racing to find out if everything was going to be ok. BUT I ALREADY KNEW!!!! Isn’t that sad?

I loved the character development. I feel like I understand Hodges better now. Some of his reactions in Finders Keepers I questioned and now they make more sense. Once again we have a villain that I HATE! I kept thinking NO ONE can be that messed up. Alas we live in a world with many a Brady Hartsfield. I loved watching Hodges “wind him up” and then have Brady lose his mind over it. It was very satisfying watching him get so angry. I was my vindictive self “YES DIG THE KNIFE IN DEEPER HODGES! MAKE HIM SQUIRM!”

I love that King’s writing is deliberate. He writes in a way that we all do. His style is very informal and has many pop culture references that we all get (Ok fine, I get them and it makes me happy!). I think that his is a style we all understand and he does it to make his readers feel connected. I consider myself one his devoted readers, and I feel like if you’ve read his books you are in on it with him. Perhaps I am the crazy reader? – Thoughts?

I think that if you are looking for a bit of King, nothing too gory you’re looking in the right place for this one. It was very exciting, and I enjoyed every minute.

My verdict: Read it!

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Are you reading these ones? Did you like Mr. Mercedes? Did you like it more than Finders Keepers?

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If you liked this try:

Finders Keepers

Cuckoos calling

The Silkworm

Doctor Sleep