Where is it?!

So, I had a little moment of panic this week-end and thought I'd share it all with you... because I know you guys will get it :)

I've been running out of space in my room for books - LOL, I know most of you get THIS - and so decided to make some space. My dream is still to re-organize my closet, but since we're having guests arriving on Wednesday for two weeks, I didn't have time to re-haul the closet... But I could make some space! I have a dresser in my room and on top, I've been storing DVDs and CDs and lately, stacking up hardcover books. Well I don't watch DVDs as much and simply don't listen to CDs anymore... So my plan was clearing up the closet top shelf so I could store the DVDs and CDs in there and have the whole dresser for books! Oh and the jewelry box I've gotten for my birthday last year and which has been gracing the floor every since ^_^;

Everything was going according to plan and Sunday morning was the fun part - re-arranging the books! :P I needed space mostly for the new hardcovers I have acquired in the past couple of years. (There's just too many paperbacks ^_^; I'd really need to purge to fit them all in the bookcases) So the authors I chose to go there: Ilona Andrews, Kelley Armstrong - everything I got starting from Waking the Witch, Anne Bishop's The Others series, Jim Butcher's latest, Kay Hooper's latest trilogy, Nalini Singh's Psy-Changelings hardcovers and finally, Maria V. Snyder's Magic Study. I added a few orphaned hardcovers, my favorite Nora Roberts re-reads and Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. The latter's paperbacks are different format, ugh. 

See, what happens is that most of my hardcovers are in the second row on my shelves ^_^; That means every time I want to read them, I have to remove the paperbacks in front in order to reach them. Having this space on my dresser just improves accessibility so much! Anyway, everything was going well... till I realized I was missing Written in Red by Anne Bishop. Just couldn't find the book. Looked where I usually keep the Anne Bishop books, looked under the various piles of books I have in my room, looked among the hardcovers that I had removed from the dresser. Just couldn't find it. Was so annoyed that I even posted it on FB - which I rarely do. Sent a message to all my friends to see if I had lent it out. I remember re-reading Written in Red earlier this year and my fear was to have forgotten it somewhere... but then, when I read hardcovers, I remove the dust jacket. There was no dust jacket anywhere, so I either lent it to someone or it was somewhere in my room. 

I'm usually very good at keeping track of my books. Yes, there is a lot of books in my room, but I know where most of it is :) I rarely buy the same book twice by accident - usually, it's on purpose LOL - because I remember what I own and where it is. So to say that missing Written in Red was frustrating was an understatement. I pretty much looked for it the whole day. At the end, I looked at the only spot where I keep hardcovers that I haven't looked for... and of course, lo and behold, there was Written in Red. The reason why I didn't look there earlier is because it's the mystery shelf and the only hardcovers that I have there are the In Death books ^_^; I even remember thinking "It won't be there." LOL. Guess it was the only space that fit a hardcover book left before I started stacking them on the floor and then, on the dresser LOL. 

Anyway, that was my mini-adventure. Ever happened to you? Looking for a book and not finding it? And what do you think of the new set-up? Wish I had taken a picture of before :P

Tada!!

I'm finally done!!! Took some time, but now, I have not only a spacious desk... but a spacious room as well! LOL.

So what do you think? I didn't get to sort out all the books, but I did weed out some :) I'll also be slowly weeding out my old clothes and cleaning out drawers to make more space :) But I'll be doing it really slowly LOL, one thing at a time :)

In any case, it's one thing out of the way as the new year starts and I go back to work tomorrow :)

Hauling Sunday LXVI

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May 2012 be filled health, love and happiness!
and great books!

I hope everyone had fun during New Year's Eve and didn't party too crazily! :) I can't believe we're already January 1st of 2012. How did that happen?!?

No plans for me today :) Just taking it easy. I definitively need to continue cleaning my room. However, it is going well. Look, look!!

Yep, that's my shiny new computer!! Along with my extra spacious desk!! :) But I'm not showing pictures of the rest of the room LOL. Hopefully, in 2012, I will be spared from the computer troubles! :)

I really like that this year, New Year is on Sunday. It feels like you're really starting the year afresh. Obviously, it'd have been better if I had managed to finish my Monthly Reads posts ^_^; I will definitively try to tie that loose end. In the meantime, here are the last book I've bought in 2011 :)

The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill S. Alexander - I've been wanting to read Ms Alexander for a while. Ames read and really enjoyed Paradise by this author. Then, not long ago, Alex reviewed The Sweetheart of Prosper County and I decided to give this one a try as it sounded a little bit more light-hearted than Paradise :)

And there it is. I've kept track of all the books I've bought in 2011!! I'll be making a tally in the new couple of days :)

Lost mojo...

Hello everyone! How are you doing?

So sorry that I haven't really blogged or blog-hopped recently ^_^; The conference has really put a kink in my blogging routine and even though I've been back for two weeks already (gosh, how did that happen?!?), I still haven't settled back into a routine yet. I have lots of excuses for it... Want to hear them? LOL.

Well, work has definitively been quite busy as my boss has decided to rush an experiment, sigh. My parents have been away ever since I came back and so my sister and I have been fending off for ourselves. I don't mind, but it is time consuming LOL. Good thing they are coming back tomorrow :) It's the holidays season and I've been trying to squeeze in some shopping... and finally, my room. I'm still not done with it ^_^; It's mostly a matter of re-shelving the books in an order that I like. Hopefully, I'll be done with it tonight especially since my parents are coming home tomorrow ^_^;

And oh, I've finally given up on my computer and therefore has been using my dad's laptop. It's not bad, but I prefer a desktop which I'm hoping to buy on Boxing Day, hoping there'll be a good deal. In the meantime, well my desk is a mess and I feel cramped when using the laptop and so I've taken refuge into reading... Although I'm really having a hard time deciding what to read. Ugh, December is just too slow release-wise :(

And that's what I've been up to. What about you guys? Blogland has really been quiet lately so I'm assuming everyone's busy with the holidays :) Still, read any good books lately?

Anyway, since it's been so quiet, here are some pictures of my room. I didn't really want to post them at first, because seriously, it's a bit embarrassing ^_^; But hey, maybe it'll liven up my blog LOL. Also, Tabitha was wondering how much a mess could one person do... The answer is: a lot ^_^;

So this was at the start, when I came back from the conference...

This was during the week-end...

It looks like there's been very little changes, but actually it's mostly books. So if I could just shelve them... However, I've been feeling quite cramped in... Wonder why ^_^; and so instead of continuing shelving, I've decided to just ignore it and read... Don't think it was the best idea...

And this was as of this morning:

 See there is some progress!!! I'm also weeding out books as well. Stay tuned for a list and perhaps some books... and hopefully, I'll be able to shelve everything and at the end, it'll look like this:

Isn't that pretty?!? Okay, need to get to work now!


EDIT:

This is as of this morning (Dec. 15). Ames says she can't see a difference, but hey, you see a lot more floor! The books are all on shelves or in boxes. All I have to do tonight is put them away either in the basement or corner of the room. Quick vacuuming and straightening the desk and chairs and voila. Might not be as organized as I wished, but much better than when I came back from the conference :)

Book landslide

I'm still not ready for NYC ^_^; Haven't packed - actually, I need to do laundry first. Then, I'm half-done cleaning my room... I'd like for it to be clean before I leave... so all I have to do is pick up my books. Hopefully, I'll be able to weed my bookshelves at the same time...

Anyway, I've had this book landslide next to my desk for a couple of weeks ^_^; I told Ames I'd take a picture - perfect time to test my new camera! What do you think? I think the image quality is pretty good.

Lucky I have tomorrow off, so I'll have time to take care of things. The downside though is everything is close because it's a holiday. Ugh.

And I'm really crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that I have time to write some reviews and blog posts for next week :P

In any case, wish me luck LOL.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

I wish you all health, joy and lots of books :)

I hope you had a nice time in the past few days :) At my house, it was very relax on New Year's Eve. Actually, my dad and I fell asleep and only my sister and mother were up to welcome the New Year :P

I've been scarce the past few days, because I was busy running some errands and mainly, cleaning my forever, perpetually messy room ^_^; I seriously don't know how it gets so messy... and so fast!!

Sigh, it was great to get some time off. I'm really dreading going back to work... although I have to admit that at times, I didn't know what to do... Besides reading, sleeping, eating, blogging and blog-hopping... what else is there to do?

I did end up going to work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday... but only a couple of hours each day. Did the experiments and then left, so it wasn't so bad. I brought with me speakers and dvds so I had some entertainment. Today, I've worked the whole day at the Fathers' house. It went faster than I thought it'd would and it hasn't been too busy, so that's good.

My parents did organize a get-together on December 30 for New Year. Basically, we organized another's family get-together LOL. See, we don't have many relatives living close to us and so, we get invited to other people family holiday party. The past few years, me and my sister have begged off... simply because for us, it was more fun just hanging out the two of us. I mean, all the other young people are cousins - they see each other all the time. So whenever we show up, we're clearly outsiders. Oh, they don't mean to exclude us, it just happens... and when they try to include us, it's always by asking us: "Where do you work?" "Are you done school?" Blablabla. Boring. This year, my parents decided it was our turn to host - can't always be the invitee... So I basically spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning my room... and it took me both days ^_^; As always, my mom over-cooked and it was kind of pot luck style... There was way too much food ^_^; We ended up with 5 different desserts... Ugh. I do have a sweet tooth, but seriously?!?

I've already finished my first book of the year 2010 :D Woohoo! It was My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. I will be reviewing it along with Almost Like Being in Love sometimes this week :) LOL, the year has only just started and already, I have so many posts to write!! Luckily, I caught up on my bloghopping :)

By the way, one of the authors I want to try in 2010 is Josh Lanyon... and guess what?!?! My library is not totally useless! I've discovered that they have 2 books by Josh Lanyon. Too bad it's not open today :( However, I'll definitively go tomorrow... and might stop by the bookstore :P

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my clean room LOL. These are for you, Ames!

The good thing is that I got rid of some junk and re-organized some stuff. Didn't have enough time to re-shelf my books, but that will come :P

New corner shelf

Still no review, but some exciting news :D

First, guess what? Yes, I registered for the RT convention yesterday morning!! It's official ladies, I'm going!! Wooohoooo :D I'm definitively looking forward to it. It's exciting and scary all at once, LOL.

Also went to the bookstore yesterday and bought a few books. Didn't go crazy, so that's good news... but the real good news is for Canadian bloggers: it's customer day at Chapters/Indigo/Coles this week-end (November 14 and 15)!! :) Okay, so they have renamed it Family & Friends Day, but who cares what it's called :) What matter is that you get 25% off on books and products in-store if you're an irewards member (15% off if you're not). You have to show the coupon, but I'm sure they'll just give it to you in-store on those days anyway. That's good news, right? So I'll probably stop by the bookstores again this week-end :)

Finally... I think I did mention a while ago that I won a corner bookshelf over at Anna's Book Blog, courtesy of CSN office furniture. Well, I've finally received it yesterday!! Yay!

So this is how the bookshelf was supposed to look:


However, what I didn't realize is that it would need to be screwed onto the wall for it to stand ^_^; Yes, I know, I know - DUH! LOL. How did I think it'd stand on it's own? To tell the truth though, I didn't really want to screw it onto the wall, especially since the corner it's going to sit in is one wall and a bookshelf. So I thought it'd modify the design a little... and now, it looks like this:

It looks a little more like a nightstand or a coffee table, but hey, it'll still serve it's purpose! :) And yes, my room is pretty dusty and disgusting ^_^; I didn't realize we'd see all the dust in the pic ^_^;

I put some books in it to see how it'll look:

I think it's quite pretty. So far, I put most of my trade-size books in it. I'm not sure though if it'll stay that way. I think I'm going to have some fun with my books this week-end ;)

So what do you think? Not bad, right? :P

Annul BBQ, 8th edition, over

First, since I've still got about 45 minutes...

HAPPY CANADA's DAY
to my fellow Canadian romance bloggers and whoever want to celebrate :)

So how was everyone's day? My long week-end is coming to an end (boo!) and the BBQ's been over for a couple of hours now... Everything went really well. I didn't over-buy too much food and I have to admit this is one of the most enjoyable BBQ I've hosted in the 8 editions. Everything was pretty good this year... the weather was very nice, quite sunny and not too humid. We had some cloudy moments which were really appreciated. We were only 10 this time and it felt like a pretty intimate group. It was nice to have time to sit down and chat with the others and to actually enjoy the food! My only complaint is that not everyone arrived on time... but that's pretty minor.

Note to myself... reminder BBQ grocery shopping list for 10 ppl:

- 5kg of chicken wings
- 10-15 pork chops
- 10-15 European sausages
- 10-15 hot dogs
- one bag of shrimps (2kg)
- 2-3 lbs of fish balls
- 4 2L lemonade
- 2L of soft drinks
- ice tea
- 1 or 2L of other kind of juices
- 1 dozen corn
- 1 big bag of carrots, 1 broccoli, 1 cauliflower
- 1-1.5L of dips
- desserts: rice crispies squares, watermelon and sweet soup

*don't go overboard with chips, salsa and etc.
** honey

Sorry guys to post this up. It's because I usually tend to buy wayyyy too much food and this year, it was good quantities of everything... so I have to write it down somewhere so I can remember for the next year.

Like I said, everything was great this year. We played a bit of Wii... but mostly spent our time talking to each other and just hanging out, enjoying the food.

For those who wonder, I did finish cleaning my room!! Look at the result:

*My friends were quite surprised to see my room this clean, LOL :) Especially some that helped me out in the process ^_^;

Okie... time for me to go to sleep... Have to work tomorrow (boo!)... I'll have my list of reads for the month of June up tomorrow... and I haven't forgotten the people for my books away!! I'll try to email everyone tomorrow!

My beautiful bookcases... in my messy room :P

Okie, you all know that I've been re-shelving my books... slowly LOL :) I know, I know... it's taking forever. Well I blame it on having too much books (which is not going to stop me from buying more), on reading and on not wanting to do it after work. What can I say? I'm lazy ^_^;

Anyway, I think that I am now done! Hurrah! All I need to do is finish cleaning up my room ^_^;
So here are some pictures:

So you've seen these 2 pics. That was two weeks ago, when I've just started and was so proud. I thought I was almost done... See how the bookcases are pretty full already (except for the one next to the computer)... Also, can you see all the boxes in the middle? I seriously thought it'd be done quite fast after it.

Of course, I was wrong. This is when I open the boxes and took out all the books:

Okie, obviously, these boxes can contain more books than I estimated ^_^; Can you imagine what it would have been if 75% of the books weren't shelved already? I had my wonderful sister helping me out to sort these alphabetically. Then, I had to shelve them... In the end, I had to re-think some of the organization...

So after finishing up yesterday, here are the final shots:

So what do you all think? I know that I'll have to start over soon, since again, I'm going to run out of place ^_^; but for now, that's how it's going to be LOL :) I have 2 baskets that you can't see containing books I want to read next and some urban fantasy series I've never gotten around to read. Also, I have a couple of hardcovers coming, not to mention the books I've been buying recently... but for now, that's it :D

By the way, I have been purging my books... See that Dell computer brown box? That's the treasure chest LOL :) I don't really like selling them at the UBS, because I think I don't get much for them... so I'm offering them to romance bloggers first! :) Then I'll give them to a friend or charity :) I'm going to have a separate post for it :) but here, you can still have a look:

My newest books!

LOL, seems like many are curious to see what I got! Thanks for showing interest! I would have posted it up earlier... but I ended up going to work super early today ^_^; Someone needed my results before 9am for a meeting... so I ended up being at work at 6am! Two good things about showing up at 6am... first, it wasn't wasted since I did get the experiment done on time and she got her results and was super happy... and I got to go home at 11.30am, because today was early summer Friday where we only work 5.5 hours. Thing is, my afternoon was a bit wasted since I got home and slept LOL.

So here are the books I bought yesterday. Turns out I went to the UBS at lunch time :P and 2 of 4 books I was planning to buy were available!!! Ugh, I still went to Chapters to buy books... but I hard to work hard to find 4 books... how sad?

So from UBS: (UBS is still having the buy 3, get 4th book free sale too)


- On the Prowl --> anthology. By the way, I read Alpha and Omega. It was a good (very) short story :P I like the twist of event and I'm definitively looking forward to Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs.
- Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
- Weddings can be murder by Christie Craig --> I'm really happy I found this at the UBS. I've heard a lot of good about Christie Craig, but her books are not in stock at the bookstore. I was going to order it, but now I don't need to :)
- Chances Are by Barbara Bretton --> I enjoyed Just Desserts last week-end, so wanted to try something else :)

From Chapters:


- A Match Made in Hell by Terri Garey
- The Hob's Bargain by Patricia Briggs --> I want to try something else by her :D
- Bombshell by Lynda Curnyn --> Rowena reviewed Engaging Men not too long ago. While I can't find that one in store, Bombshell was available... at 5$
- The Funeral Planner by Lynn Isenberg --> didn't know what to get as my 4th book. This looked funny and it was also 5$

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Sweet Spot by Susan Mallery. I guess they just received it, so it wasn't on the shelf and I didn't feel like asking. I'll be looking for it before the sale ends :)

Onto other news, my room is getting somewhere. I got my sister to help me a bit LOL :) and as I expected, even with the addition of the new bookcases, not all the books fit :( but it's way better than before at least :D I'll be posting some pics up, like Holly over at Book Binge.

Oh and stay tuned, because I thought I'd offer up the books that I'm not keeping. So I'll be posting them the titles up sometimes next week and if anyone wants it, then it's yours :D

Loosing battles...

Okay, it seems I have little control over myself and so everything ends up being a loosing battle... sigh. At the moment, I'm trying not to go downtown and buy books. 1) To save gas and 2) to save money as the sale 4 for 3 starts this Thursday. I mean, I should be able to wait till Thursday right? That's what, 3 days away... I'll let you know if I succomb or not... ^_^; At the moment, the book I want is Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins. Basically, I read Fools Rush In yesterday and I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to read something else by the author.

I was able to read 3 books this week-end (yay!): Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Just Desserts by Barbara Bretton and Fools Rush In by Kristan Higgins :P Reviews coming for all of them :P

So how was your week-end? I managed to clean another part of my room... so now, all the books and stuff are really in the middle of my room, like a little mountain. That's also another loosing battle, cleaning my room. My sister offered her help on Saturday night and I refused... then when I asked if the offer was still valid on Sunday, she said no. LOL :P And that's pretty much what I did this week-end. Clean my room, go to work on Saturday evening and read all of Sunday. Very nice week-end, unfortunately, I'm a bid tired today... which mean I won't be going to the gym.

So far, I've been able to go to the gym about 2x/week and each time, I exercise for at least 45 minutes. I'm trying to go more often, but stuff always comes up... or perhaps I'm making excuses?

By the way, I know this is a long shot, but I thought it was worth giving a try. I've read a blurb recently of a book that's coming out this summer about demon or something slayers... and it sounded funny. Anyone knows of this book? I know, that's very little information... but that's all I remember ^_^; I probably jotted down the title and author somewhere, but can't find the paper anymore...

New hair and shelves

Me again... no review for today I guess... but here are some pics!!

Ok, in this post, you'll find pics of my room BEFORE.

And here are the pics after. Okay, it's still a mess ^_^; however, it's just to show the difference.

AFTER:

And here are the pics of my new haircut. To tell the truth, it's not that different. However, it looks rounder... and it's shorter in the back and longer in the front. I don't have any BEFORE pics, LOL... however, if I can get my friend to send me the pics we took 2 weeks ago, then I'll post them and you guys will get to see.

Hmmm, my hair looks like a broom on the second pic... ah well.