Book Review: Back In Black; An A-List Novel by Zoey Dean

If you have to ask, you'll never be on...The A-List

Back In Black; An A-List Novel is part of the New York Times Bestselling Series. This book, by Zoey Dean, is the first I have read in the series. I purchased this book at Goodwill thinking since it was a fictional story mixed with real celebrity names, it would be right up my alley. I was right in every way!

The story is about Anna and her friends who decide to blow off the senior class trip to Washington DC, and head to Vegas for a glamorous three-day vacation. They check into the ultra-luxe Palms Hotel and the wildness begins before they ahve a chance to unpack their Tuff Betty carpetbags. The girls have a tacky Vegas fashion contest and visit a hypnotist-to-the-stars. While they are spellbound, the gang reveals their deepest, darkest secrets and learns firsthand why Vegas is called Sin City!

Main Characters:

Anna Percy: New to LA from Upper East Side Manhattan. Father is an investment banker divorced from her mother who came from the oldest of "old money" families.

Sam Sharpe: Comes from a Hollywood family. Daughter of Jackson Sharpe, one of the most beloved movie stars in the world.

They also have a group of friends like them, same, but different. I felt like I was walking right alongside the characters in this book. They were very realistic and I could picture every image like I was in the story as I read. If you are a Gossip Girl fan, you will love this book! There is some language,but not unlike everyday life in today's world. One of the quotes on the back of the book states, "The A-List has plenty of intrigue, dysfunctional families,'beautiful people.'" Though I don't want to add more to the dysfunctional families in the real world, reading about it can be quite humorous :)

I can't wait to grab up the next book in line! I belive this book is actually #5 so I will be needing to go back to number 1: The A-List and see if the series needs to be read in order. If not, I will just read them as I find them :)

Vintage Christmas

Though most know that I am totally contemporary when it comes to my home design, most would be really surprised to know that at Christmas time, I am a contemporary mixed with primitive fool! My absolute favorite finds are items from antique shops that can be repurposed into holiday decor. I found a number of random red wooden letters at the Route 40 Antique Mall and fell head over heels!







I tossed them into 2 clear champagne glasses and put them at different levels along with a smaller one filled with red berries.











So gorgeous when the white lights are on :)

Project Cleanup! Week 4

Another great week for "Project Cleanup". This week, I hit my den for books and cds. I also had my 12 year old and 10 year old sons go through their video games. Here is what we ended up purging from our house:



1 & 2. The Wonder Devotional Book-Early Reader paperbacks
3. Decorating with Silk & Dried Flowers hardback
4. Landscape Plans paperback
5. Ideas for Great Kids' Rooms paperback
6. Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Ideas Under $50 paperback
7. Thorndike Barahart Beginning Dictionary hardback
8. The Martha Rules-10 Essentials for Achieving Success as you Start, Build or Manage a Business hardback
9. The Grieving Child, a Parent's Guide paperback.
10. Oui, je parle francais hardback
11. Thank You Book for Kids hardback





12. Wii Barefoot Collision Course game
13. Wii Sixs Flags Fun Pack game
14. Wii Rapala Tournament Fishing game
15. Wii Fifa 08 Soccer game
16. PS2 Conflict Vietnam game
17. GameCube Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 game
18. SuperNintendo NBA Jam game
19. SuperNintendo PGA Tour Golf game
20. SuperNintendo NBA Showdown game
21. GameBoy Advance Beach Bandits: Rocket Power
22. GameBoy Advance Video: Nick, The Fairly Oddparents Volume 2
23. GameBoy Advance Brand New Game: Kerplunk!/Toss Across/Top it
24. Santana Smooth CD Single
25. 1988 Summer Olympiics CD
26. Ka-Boom CD
27. The New Relics-The Hard Road
28. 10,000 Manicas-Our Time in Eden
29. Say my Name CD Single-Destiny's Child
30. Get Over It Motion Picture CD
31. Les Miserable CD
32. Money Talks Movie-The Album CD
33. New Sealed Mozard Musical Masterpieces CD
34. Elton John Greatest HIts 1970-2002 Bonus Disc
35. Jann Arden-Insensitive CD Single
36. ACDC Ballbreaker CD
37. Demo CD
38. Hits of the 80's-3 CD Set (not original artists)

This was my mom's French Book in high school.



Back then, you didn't turn your book back in. I held onto this book for awhile, just loving looking at the doodles from my mom when she was so young. "I love Rusty" (my dad) adorns the front of the book along with his initials on the bottom :)

The inside cover has some markings as well!



Margaret + Rusty all over it!! At one time, I would just smile uncontrollably at the love my mom expressed for my dad as a teenager. They were married for 32 years! The love must have faded around that time for they did end up getting a divorce. The two are good friends now and that is just precious :)


#1 & 2: I took these to my MOPS group and they were grabbed up pretty quickly :)

#3,4,5,6,8,9,11,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38: all of these items will be going into the yard sale.

#10: This item doesn't do anyone any good so it will be trashed.

#11. Most people won't buy a dictionary of this age so it will be donated to the Mission.

#12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23: All of these items will be listed on eBay.

Total items gotten rid of to date: 96

See any items you like? How about on my 3 older "Project Cleanup posts? Let me know and we can strike a deal. I may have something you want....

A Clean Freezer Room = Play Room

When we moved into our house almost 6 years ago, the basement was so cold and drafty with nothing, but paneling (with no insulation behind it) and linoleum floors over concrete. When we finished our basement, we decided to do the whole space except for one room at the very bottom of our stairs. This room still has the block walls and concrete floors. Since that is where our deep freezer is housed, it became known as "The Freezer Room". Now, I am not one to ever misuse a space and believe everything can be used for something. For years, this area has served as a junk room to throw stuff when you didn't want to carry it to the garage. Well, enough was enough...this room should be used for something!

6 kids + large toys = Play Room!!

Let's take the tour:




This is walking in the room from the stairs. Notice we just pieced together a few leftover mismatched carpet pieces (hey, this room is not for display, just to play in) We also added a McDonalds road rug along with a discovery toys road mat.





Straight ahead to the left is our board game shelf...notice I put the pop-up toddler playhouse right in front of it blocking access, otherwise the board games would be down constantly mixing pieces which drives me insane!!! Straight ahead is the big dress up clothes bin (my kids love playing dress up and they have just about everything they need to dress as anybody they want!!) To the right of that is the play food bin just behind the table and chairs set and swivel chair that were mine as a child (boy, they just don't make things like they used to, nowadays it would have fallen apart after just a few years!)





Turning to the right now, we have the white shelf full of Little People playsets along with the kid's real cash register (just so it is up out of the way) Straight ahead, we have the old wooden entertainment center from our game room. We were excited that this fit because it has so much shelf space to put toys (more Little People playsets and books) and we can keep a constant stream of kiddie dvds going while they are playing. In between the wall and shelf we have placed one of our many "pop-up" houses and we stored the bulkier ones between the shelf and the entertainment center.





To the left of the doorway, a better look at the entertainment center storage and a look at our deep freezer, hence the original name "freezer room". Don't you just adore that little chair in front of the entertainment center? It was a $1.99 find at Goodwill :) We were also able to perfectly fit the bargain $5 Sesame Street Tool Bench I got from a yard sale this summer :)




To the right of the doorway, we have another toy box, Lego cube, and train table (another awesome $10 Goodwill find) Our treadmill is standing up behind the train table and blocks the kids from the other half of the room which will serve as my scrapbooking area. I wanted an area where I could leave things lay without wrecking the house and keep an eye on the kids at the same time. Perfecto!!

I am very pleased with this space!!

Project Cleanup! Week 3

I have just finished up week 3 of my project cleanup :) I hit my daughter Kaplyn's play clothing dresser and the playroom toy box this week. The following items were pulled out:




1-9: 9 Girl's T-shirts
10-13: 4 Girl's Shorts
14. 1 pair of pants
15. 1 pair of brief shorts
16. 1 pair of shoes

All will be taken to the mission.




17. Remote control jeep w/out remote (taped)
18. Star Wars Gun
19. Bob the Builder battery operated jackhammer plush toy
20. Fantastic 4 Action figure
21. Superman Action figure
22. Rubik's cube (missing stickers)
23. Playskool munching hippo toy
24-26: 3 AR Books

Always a cheater in the group!



I found this Rubik's Cube with missing stickers...guess someone couldn't figure out the puzzle the correct way ;)


17,18,20,21,22 will all go to the mission.

19,23,24,25,26 will all go into the yard sale box for this summer.

That is 58 total items cleaned out to date :)

Mailbox Monday!! Weeks of 11/21/10-12/4/10

Boy, was it a busy few weeks in the mailbox!! Check out my finds :)




Interview magazine-free subscription

Juno Baby DVD (the little ones loved this one :)

Baby Talk magazine-free subscription

American Baby-free subscription

Soap Opera Digest-2 issues-free subscription

Huggies 8 ct wipes (yay, for Matlyn...soft on the tushy)

Cowboys Fathead (Genin, my sports nut, wanted this one)

PG coupons

Huggies coupons

2011 Oriental Trading Calendar (Kaplyn, my 7 year old, was tickled to get this colorful calendar)

Crest Prohealth (Reiner, my 4 year, wanted his own size toothpaste)

Head & Shoulders 2 in 1 Hair endurance for men (this was supposed to be for Greg, but Genin snagged it saying his hair was too thin....he is 10!!

Support our Troops ribbon blinking magnet (Brandis, my 2 year old, absolutely loved this magnet...just sat and stared at it blinking :)

2 Stickers: No Nukes Y'all (Genin and Cameron both thought these stickers were hilarious!!)

Miracle 7 color protect shampoo

Miracle 7 color protect conditioner

Correctionist Tone Correcting Cream

Project Cleanup! Week 2

I am a little behind on posting, but definitely did do some decluttering during week 2. Since I was putting up Christmas decorations, it was a great time to do some cleaning out. Here is what I got rid of:




1. Snowman w/decorated tree
2. House of Lloyd Santa w/lion & lamb porcelain music sculpture
3. Signature Homestyles Ornament design card holder
4. Cutout Holly Wood Primitive handled box
5. Cutout Angel Wood Primitive handled box
6. Stuffed Snowman (no nose)
7. Patchwork Christmas Bear
8. Red/White striped basket
9. I've been good mini pillow hanging
10. Santa painted twig
11. Silver interlocking garland strand
12. Snowflake garland
13. Snowman silver square basket
14. Primitive rust ornament design tealight holder
15. Primitive rust ornament design tealight holder
16. Springy Santa Hat

All items will be packed into a box for the yard sale except items 4,5,8 which will be reused as holders for basketed items. I will also be sending item 6 to the mission since the nose is missing. It is an adorable snowman and maybe someone will have the time to attach something that can be used as a nose. 16 items total during week 2 brings the grand total to 32 items decluttered. Woot!!!