Author: alissachristensen

Breaking up Book Week with a double post for July 20. Why? It’s a special day in our house. Its my dad’s first Birthday as a Granberry! {His name is Barry, and a little kid asked him what kind of Berry he was. I jumped on it that he was now a Granberry!} Cake will be on its way soon, can’t wait to wish you a happy {belated} Birthday in person! Here’s to wishing you many happy years of Grandkids and laughter.

Children’s books!

I LOVE Children’s books. In fact it was the one thing I went a little overboard on when we found out about Sawyer. I couldn’t help myself at the annual book drive. It was for a good cause and it had great classic’s! Growing up I couldn’t get enough of Go, Dog, Go. {Possibly because it was the LONGEST bedtime story 😉 } So I love that I will get to read the same books to Sawyer soon. He’s not as into books right now. Except for You Are My Cupcake. Fitting as ever for Mommy. I think the pictures are amazingly cute. And Sawyer just bursts into giggle fits whenever we look at it together.

Anything by Oliver Jeffers. In that local {The Calgary herald annual,} book drive I found Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.I hadn’t really looked at it too much. I just love simple board books. Its a little over sized which I love, and the pictures again are so sweet. But the big sell for me was the way he captures a little boys imagination. It’s how kids should see the world. We recently got a care package from the Auntie in Calgary for Sawyers surgery. Included in it were: How to Catch a Star and The Way Back Home. I fell in love all over again. There are others in his collection too. {I want to get The heart and the Bottle. But I can’t vouch for it yet, because I haven’t seen the whole book. But how can you not love it when everything else he does is so great!} They are just sweet little stories, and not on the usual list.

I could keep talking about Kids books forever. Like anything Robert Munch, I cant get specific because I would end up listing them all. I gave the boys I babysit, each a book of his last year and they quickly became favorites. And though I love the little picture books we will enjoy these first years, I really can’t wait to break out the one chapter a night books. Harry Potter, The Princess Bride, The Unicorn Chronicles. I do hope Sawyer inherits my love of reading. And the annual book drive sale. O fun reading traditions!

One last thing to share since we are on the topic of many books in a children’s room. I knew back when I was designing his nursery, that I was going to want a big spot for all these classics. But I didn’t want just a regular shelf or chest. Plus we were very limited with space. So I used an outdoor garden shelf. Brandon was mighty skeptical when I brought it home. But to my delight it worked perfectly. I had to add a small board to the bottom so the little books wouldn’t slip through the grates. I absolutely love it. Its unique and low enough for him to pick out books when he is able to walk. Its functional and cute! And a perfect addition to a books lovers room!

Before I lose you, after talking about books for a week, let’s break out the big ones: The series. I feel like lately that’s the biggest seller. Make a hit and pump the sequels out as fast as possible. And then of course make a movie out of it! But I am a fan of that whole process. The longer I can live in the world of a book the better.

I am having trouble narrowing this post down to just a few of my favorite series. So lets just start with my favorite. For a long time I was sure I was going to name my first daughter after the main character, Gemma, because I loved her. My second daughter was going to be another characters name from the same book, Pippa. That’s when you know you love a book/you are a geek because your going to name your child after a fictional character.{Not at all like how Sawyer’s name came along 😉 } A Great and Terrible Beauty By Libba Bray. I think I found the Gemma Doyle series the year I graduated high school? Its hard to keep books straight when you power through this many in a short period. Its like Harry Potter with a strong female lead. Set in a Victorian boarding school and an other world realm. She brings the magic to life so vividly you want to believe it’s real. Its followed by Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. And though its hard to come by, I think each book holds it own. Usually I find by the last one its barely hanging on to the story. I promise its one you will have a hard time putting down.

The Hunger Games. That should be all I have to say about that one. Its current. Everyone is, or has read it. I sat down last year while I was still pregnant and had nothing to do but read. {O reminiscing is cruel sometimes!} I read one a day. I was hooked. A world I wanted to live in, but not play in! I found Katniss enticing, and I was in love with Peeta. I love to fall in love with Characters. Their world was fascinating. So if by chance you haven’t read the Hunger Games Trilogy, please read it before seeing it. Or if you thought you would catch the movie and skip the book, don’t. As per usual, the books are far superior to the movie. I was a die hard fan, could barely wait the 6 months for the movie to come out, and I left the theatre sadly disappointed. And I even went in with low expectations after hearing the same from other readers. So read the books, always better than the movies {sigh this brings back memories of The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud, and its movie. I went to see it opening day at the first showing, I even dragged Brandon along. Another murdered book at the theaters.}

Lastly for today is the Mortal Instruments series be Cassandra Clare. Starting with City of Bones, followed by City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels and just published City of Lost Souls. Which I just got in the mail and can’t wait to break into. {But I am still in the middle of the prequel series: The Infernal Devices series. So I haven’t been able to Start Lost Souls yet.} I have been reading this series since before I was married! So yes, again I was in love with the main male lead. You might notice a pattern that tend to fall in love with my favorite characters. {I think it dates back to Reeve from Face on the Milk Carton, back in 1997! Um that’s 15 years ago!} Jace and Clary don’t disappoint on that front either. Another real world mixed with fantasy world type story. And surprise, surprise, they are making it into a movie too! Why wouldn’t they? But you have a full year before it comes out!! So great cracking, or at least read the first of the 5 Mortal Instruments series.

Of course there is lots of other series I would love to mention. Yes, I just powered through the Shades of Grey series. {Like every other woman on the planet, it seems. I liked it, I just couldn’t get past the poor writing to care more about it though.} The Fever series: think shades of grey mixed with A Great and Terrible Beauty. Most of the series I like are fantasy. I need to get around to reading Game of Thrones, instead of just watching it. I think watching all that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sailor Moon when I was little made me want to live in a fantasy world.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss an important, very special book collection. Children’s books. So stay tuned!

Are you still with me after yesterday’s V.C. Andrews confession? I hope so. Because today we’re going to talk about possibly my all time favorite book. This is a pretty tough award to give. But this one book has kept me mesmerized through the years. Sundowners by Lesley Lokko. The first time I read it, it was left behind at a dance studio I was working at. Don’t worry I waited forever before borrowing it. Plus I left it somewhere too. A traveling book I guess. I’ve seen it go through 3 different covers already. {Does anyone else hate when books do that! I have definitely bought double copies of other books, thinking it looks so good, only to find out it looks good because I already read it!} Both my copies have been the far right cover.

So on our second Christmas married, I had mentioned it to Brandon but didn’t think anything of it. {It was harder to get your hands on in past years because its a UK writer.} But I unwrapped that little package and it was a joyful surprise! We’ve always had books in our relationship. I think telling him about my love for reading is what made him fall just that little bit more for me. The first present I ever gave him was my favorite book. So he could read it while we were still Calgary-Toronto long distance. {little did we know how many more long distance combinations we could do!} And he has definitely bought me a number of books as presents, gone on opening days of books made into movies. And they were as girly as could be for most of them. He rocks and so do books is what I am saying.

She is a fantastic writer with an ease of guiding you through a number of different countries with confidence. {London, Paris, South Africa and New York to name a few of the places you will travel in this story.} It focuses on 4 young women and follows their life through school and the years after. Lasting friendships that continue to grow and change. I love each one of her characters, I can’t even pick a favorite even though it centers on Rianne and her immediate family and friends. It’s definitely one that I did not want to ever end. Much like most of the books I read. But I am almost happy that it isn’t a series like most of today’s big hits. Sometimes your imagination can finish a book better than an author trying to cash in and pump out extra books. If you have a teen daughter in your house, this book is for them. If you are my age, this book is for you. If you like to read, this book is for you. If you need to escape and live someone else’s life, this book is for you. Love it like a friend. And enjoy an amazing story about the simplicities of love, friendship and life.

“Four Friends, Two Decades. One Glorious Love Story.”

Stick around, 5 more days of book week to go!

P.S. if any of my lovely readers picks one of these books up, let me know! I love to hear if I am actually reaching any of you, or just talking to myself again! lissables@gmail.com. Or just write me to say hey! I recently had another cranio mom reach out to me over the blog {that’s a total of 2 now} and it made my day to know I am actually getting my stories out to someone! Thanks for reading! Check back with us soon!

I am declaring this book week on lissables. I have been meaning to do this for awhile. I have a huge love of reading. And somehow with a 9 month old its gone into overdrive in the last couple months. I said I would never read on a kindle. I was a die hard, the bigger the hard cover monster book, the better. However, {and that’s a big however.} I am hooked. 100% I don’t leave the house without this dang thing now! {special thanks to my wonderful husband who gave it to me!}

That being said, lets start at the beginning when I toted around 1-2 of those monster books everywhere I went. There has been so many books over the years, so I am going to pull some out to talk about. Some that are embarrassing! Ones that I still think about daily, and others that are just fun, yes I read twilight and fell for it hard too. Books, not the movies! Just had to clear that up.

Lets start with the summer we spent 6 weeks travelling in the back of a truck pulling a trailer across Canada and the USA. Let’s add that I was a teenage girl. I hated my family. Normal and regrettable. I have already apologized to both of my parents for that time in my life, it certainly didn’t end there. Teenage girls. So instead of enjoying the awesome trip my parents gave us, I spent most of my time with my head in my books.

{FYI these are the only pictures I can pull up last minute, from this time in my life. I did say there would be embarrassing parts to this book tell all!}

V.C. Andrews. It’s a right of passage isn’t it? At least that’s how I feel. My mom said she read them at the same age, I think my sister took a little interest in them. Certainly not like me though. The only parts of the trip I got involved in was buying more at the vintage, antique, second hand book stores. My copies were all well loved with yellow aged pages. I think that’s what made them even better. I started with the “Flowers in the Attic” The Dollanganger series. Quickly followed by the rest of the series, ‘Petals on the wind’, ‘If there be thorns’,  ‘Seeds of yesterday’, and ‘Garden of shadows.’ As I’m writing this and pulling all the images. I am getting a craving to re-read a couple of these. I love re-reading favorites. It would be fun to read these again 10 years later. {Whoa that’s a lot of years for this short life to be in the past already, aka am I getting old?!!}

I can’t even tell you how many other V.C. Andrews I read. As I was just scanning through them on amazon it looks like I read them ALL. {There is a reason I’ve never had a tan over summer break.} I lived for them for the next couple years. It really blossomed my love for reading. Get it, flower theme+blossomed reading. Clearly I am writing this post too late at night, and need to crawl into bed asap.

I hope you stay tuned for the coming 2012 Book Week! I’ll finish right in time for you to start Shark Week! Or in my house Birthday week! 🙂

Happy Reading Everyone!

You may have noticed I have not been around lately. My little white mac is in being repaired right now and I am so not tech savvy. It took me a couple days to figure out how to log into my own website. I am sad. So please forgive me that I am behind as per usual on my blogging. I’ve also been dealing with feeling very inadequate for topics to blog. After 5 months of SAWYER SAWYER SAWYER, CRANIOSYNOSTISIS, SURGERY, RECOVERY!

I feel like my life is so boring again! Which is great, it just doesn’t give me much to talk about. My lovely sister has offered to have her baby in my car on a 2 hour road trip between cities so I get to deliver the baby in the backseat. Just for a blog story of course. Isn’t that so sweet of her! I told her she might rethink that “no pain killer” thing in the actual moment.

So be patient. I will be back on my toes asap. My computer should be back in the coming days. Yay. I don’t know what to do without all my millions (yes that’s probably accurate,) of pictures. But I did manage to get a new shutterfly book made, all about Sawyers story from diagnoses to recovery. It will be an amazing memento. As well as some thank you cards, for our friends and family that went out of their way to show their love for Sawyer. So I will be sharing those. I’ll be talking about some books and my re-found love of reading, plus some hair style stuff! I may have been able to teach myself to french braid my own hair last night! Again this is the exciting stuff in my life now 😉 And of course with my birthday coming up, all those shenanigan’s and as always lots and lots of lissables creation cakes!

Thanks for sticking around for the boring side of lissables 2012!

I may live in another country but that is no reason to not celebrate a happy holiday. When we were little we spent every Canada day in Sylvan Lake with my grandparents. We would walk down to the lake and watch the boat parade with fireworks above it. And it was always so cold no one went in the water. Except two little girls who couldn’t resist just a little bit. I love traditions like that. Its why I embrace fourth of July just the same. This Canada day I am about 2000 km { 😉 } away from all the celebrating. So we are having our own little party, with our other Canadian friends. My Sister-in-law and her family are coming by tonight for BBQ and a movie night!

{Wedding cake & cupcakes from a wedding I did in 2010, Canada Day colors!}

When I was little I also dreamed of living in the states. We did all our summer vacations here and I thought it was amazing. Better weather, new things in the grocery store, cool new restaurants, TARGET! And while Target still fascinates us daily, the rest fell short pretty fast. Living abroad makes you realize what a perfect place home is. You might call me crazy to miss the snow and rain, but those make for a beautiful country. I am in awe every year by how green it is once we leave this desert. We may have sun but we have too much of it. And I am a girl who would give anything to read a book cozied up under layers of blankets while it blizzards outside. You don’t do much in the winter there because of the weather. We are the same but opposite, its too hot here in the summer to do much outside. We now make requests for Kraft Peanut butter, Maynard gummie bears, Old Dutch chips, and the latest, Mr. Christies arrow root cookies! I miss the Canadian only restaurants now too. The heart wants what it cannot have. It why we look forward to going home every summer so much. O and one other little thing that’s missing too.

{Both family pictures are in major need of updating but they are the closest I have of everyone!}

Family. How we miss each and every one of you daily. Almost all of our family lives back in Calgary.  One day I would love to too. For all those reason’s and more {healthcare!!! haha} I miss my home, my Canada. But for now we’ll embrace these blazing temperatures. And lower cost to living, {see it’s not all bad I guess 😉 } But my heart will always be in Canada. {unless we move to Texas, my heart could live in Texas too.}

Happy Canada Day!