TUSAL and Books and Stitching!

February has been so busy! I celebrated my birthday (Warm Bodies was funny and cute, and my boyfriend didn't even think it was torture!) and then the next day went to Clemson for a best friend's birthday (WE SAW SNOW FLURRIES) and then came the Super Bowl (crushing, absolutely crushing). Then came a week that flew by in cross stitching (while listening either to War and Peace or one of my new Great Courses lectures), giving in to my mild addiction to the Sims 2, being in pain, reading, and seeing my Ben (<3). So here's the meager stitching from this week!


I finally steeled myself to stitch with overdyed floss for the first time. Santa's House is providing me with all sorts of fun challenges!

I also finished Mario on February 4th. So cute!! 

I read a good bit, too. I finished reading Northanger Abbey on February 3rd. It was a delightful book to read! Oh, Jane Austen's wit and vivacity at its highest. I'd call Northanger Abbey my favorite novel by her - of those that I've read, that is (Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility). This novel has the awareness of its being a novel about a hero and heroine, and it's all the funnier for it. Speaking of Jane Austen (<3), I saw the movie version of Emma (the one with Gwyneth Paltrow, if there's others). It was wonderful! I also saw Joe Versus the Volcano, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. A bit quirky, but wonderful nonetheless.

I also read The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. On February 8th. In one night. Almost in one sitting. It was amazing. I laughed out loud a ton (and I never laugh while reading), then I sobbed for like an hour, at least, some while reading and some in the wake of finishing. It was the most amazing book and I know I'm going to have to own it, and read it all the time. I also felt healthier than I have in a long while after reading it, because, hey, I'm not dying. Anyway, READ IT. EVERYONE. Laugh and laugh and cry and sob and stay up until two.

In the currently reading area, I've got This is How You Lose Her and The Casual Vacancy, but I'm mainly focusing on Walden for now. Thoreau is tossing and turning in his grave right now, I bet. Poor guy thought things were bad then - they've gone even further from his ideal. Of course, I'm not that sure about his ideal being actually ideal. Seriously, this guy has spent fifty pages railing on everything and everyone and acting like he knows better than everyone ever, and I'm convinced he'd find cross stitching a terrible hobby. Thoreau also thinks there's no reason for telegraph communication between Maine and Texas - and now there's the Internet. Anyway, interesting book.

To wrap up this very long post, it's TUSAL time! I found some jam jars, so now I have real glass jars for my ORTs! :) The framed cross stitch was made for me by an aunt for the Christmas I was two.

And all my ORTs this year:

Happy stitching!