Craft Project: Superhero Coasters

When I was younger my grandma taught me how to cross stitch using plastic canvas. I've posted a few of my cross stitch projects before (check out here and here). I'm determined to get back to working on craft projects (the last one I did was in November- you can see it here), so after finding some cute cross stitch patterns online, I decided to make some coasters for a friend of mine (as a late Christmas present). 

I found the patterns for these coasters here (thank you Kandy Kreations for sharing the pattern).

These were fairly simple to make- and didn't take me that long. I started on a Sunday and finished that Wednesday. I worked on them for a few hours in the evening while watching TV- I can multitask! :)

Getting started: I cut 6 squares 28 x 28 holes (each coaster needed a backing).

For Superman, I stitched the blue part first before moving on to the "S" logo

I was able to read the pattern off of my iPad (instead of printing it out)

I did the Batman logo first, and then filled in the background

The pattern for this one was a little difficult, just because she used a white slash to present the white yarn, and since the background was also white, it was harder to see. I had to carefully count the stitches

I started late the night I worked on this one, so I had to finish the next day

To add the backing, I just lined up the canvas pieces and stitched around the top and sides

The final product!

I posted this picture on Instagram and I now have people wanting me to make coasters for them. Who knew they would be such a big hit! :) Oh, and my friend loved his superhero coasters! :)

XOXO!

Book Review 2016: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

**All reviews on Randomness With Rachel are done on a five-star rating system. The reviews are solely my opinion and no one else's. Randomness With Rachel does not receive any incentives or compensations for reviews.**

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Let me say this first: I wanted to like this book, I REALLY did, but it just didn't do anything for me. I have never read the original Pride and Prejudice, so I honestly can't compare the two. The only version of Pride and Prejudice that I have ever watched was on the TV show Wishbone (click here for that video). Maybe if I was more familiar with the original story, I would have at least found this book humorous.

First of all, he should have called this book Pride and Prejudice and Ninja Training with some Zombies. There was a lot of ninja talk. More ninjas than zombies actually. I didn't realize that being a trained ninja was a prerequisite for killing zombies. But, I'm no zombie-killing expert. The zombie parts weren't THAT bad (even though the word zombie rarely appeared), but the rest of the story line just seemed a little boring to me. I felt like I was back in school forcing myself to read a book for class and I had no interest in it.

I didn't really like ANY of the Bennet sisters. Lydia probably annoyed me the most. I kept hoping she would be the victim of a zombie attack. Even Elizabeth (the heroine of the story) didn't appeal to me that much. I've read in other reviews of this book that her character was changed from the original story (besides her being a ninja-trained zombie killer) so even people who loved her in the original story didn't like her in this one. But yeah, I definitely wasn't cheering for her at any point in this book.

Mrs. Bennet had a "Kris Jenner" attitude going for her (thank you to my friend Cara for giving me that analogy). She annoyed me more than Lydia. She just seemed nasty to her family and made her daughters seem worthless that they weren't married.

Mr. Darcy seemed like the biggest jerk* ever. The story between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy made me think of all the bad teen TV shows and movies where you know two people are going to end up together, but you HATE the idea of it. If I were to do a top ten list of the biggest jerks* in literature, he would make the list. Again, I don't know if his personality was changed for this version or not. So my apologies to Ms. Austen if he's a nicer guy in her book. But in this one, I just didn't like him.

I don't know if I could recommend this book or not. It's gonna have to be your call if you want to sit through it. I personally will never read it again. I will see the movie though (because that is the only reason I read the book in the first place). Maybe this will be one of those few instances where the movie is better than the book.

*I really wanted to use a word other than "jerk", but my mother might read this review

XOXO!

It's OK!

It's OK...

...that I've had this song stuck in my head for the past week. No, I don't know why (I'm not even that big of a Carpenters fan). Lol.

...that I want to read this book SOLELY because of the title (actually the description sounds interesting). Thanks to my wonderful niece-in-law Jennifer for making me aware of this book!

...that I blocked Carter Blood Care from calling my phone. I understand that donating blood is important, but they are calling me every other day. I've already told them I'll donate during the next drive at my office (which happens quarterly). No need to keep calling. I'm O +, it's not like I have a rare type or anything.
...that this picture accurately describes my life. I will eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a week if that means I can buy a new book (or two...or three). :)

...that I'm sad there are only THREE new episodes left of The X-Files. It was just a special six-episode event, but gosh, it has made me miss this show. Why can't they just bring the series back? WHY?? 

...that I'm having a difficult time getting into the book Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. The zombies part is okay, I'm struggling with the part that Jane Austen ACTUALLY wrote. It's not my favorite style of writing (sorry Ms. Austen). 

I'm determine to finish this book before I see the movie (yes, I'm going to see the movie)

XOXO!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I know I stopped doing the link up (because being in charge of a link up is hard, lol), but I'm still gonna use this idea. MAYBE I'll start the link up again if I have people ask about it. :)

I'm loving...

The Gustave Caillebotte exhibit on display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Some friends and I went last weekend to see it. I'm a big fan of Impressionism. I knew of his painting Paris Street; Rainy Day (because it was in so many of my art history books) but I really wasn't familiar with the rest of his work. I absolutely loved this exhibit. If you live in DFW, the exhibit is here until February 14, I highly recommend checking it out!

The Kimbell had a replica of Paris Street; Rainy Day that you could pose in front of (they even had props) 

I'm loving...

Dallas Stars hockey games. I went to two games last week with some friends. It was a lot of fun, especially the night that the Stars actually won! :)

With my hockey-loving peeps!

I'm loving...
This sweet picture with my best friend's kiddos, Miss E and Mr. A. I saw them last month when I was in Austin.

I'm loving...
These amazing, tasty treats. My friend Alan bought some for me. I love them!

Why yes, I do have the complete sets of Diagnosis Murder AND The Waltons on DVD

I'm loving (kinda)...

That I've had to put this on every form of social media since so many random people kept asking if I was a fan of Steven Avery from the documentary Making A Murderer (if you know me, I KNOW you know my Averyfan obsession is from Steve Avery, the former baseball player). :)

I'm loving...

That after having it planned for five months (no lie, I wrote about this in September) my best friend Mandy and I are FINALLY going to the Supernatural Convention in Houston next weekend. We've known each other for 27 years and neither one of us can remember taking a road trip by ourselves together. This is LONG overdo! :) We may or may not need bail money by the time the weekend is over with- stay tuned. :)

I'm loving...

That my first "midnight showing" in the theater was for the new Stars Wars movie (yes I know, that was almost two months ago, I'm way behind on updating my blog). :) 

I love this shirt!

I'm loving...

My sweet nephews C and E. I spent a lot of time with them over Christmas. I can't wait to see them next month! 

On Christmas morning C wanted to get a picture with me. I told him I didn't have any make up on and I didn't look good. He hugged me and told me I always looked good (THIS KID!! Love him.)

After my carjacking in December 2012, I spent a week with my family on the beach in Galveston. E and I took a picture while collecting shells (L). We went back to Galveston after Christmas this past year and took another picture (R). Again, we were collecting shells. If you hear of a shell shortage on the beaches of Galveston, it's because my nephews picked up most of them. :) I can tell how tall he's getting by comparing these pictures!

What are YOU loving today??

XOXO!

Product Review: Young Living Essential Oils

**I received sample products from a Young Living Essential Oils representative for testing purposes only. I returned all products after three weeks of testing. I did not receive any free products or any other compensations for this review. This review is solely my opinion and no one else's.**

If your social media feed is anything like mine, I'm sure at least one of your friends has mentioned essential oils. Most of my friends have been fans of Young Living Essential Oils and their products. Until I did this review I had NO CLUE there were so many other essential oil companies out there. I personally had only heard about Young Living. Maybe that's a sign they are the best one since more people talk about it? That is only an observation, I'm by no means stating that as a fact. :) But here is some information I found about Young Living (for those who don't want to do the research).

A few months ago I was contacted by someone who is a representative for Young Living Essential Oils. She asked if I would like to test out the products for a few weeks, JUST to see if I liked them. She didn't ask me to sign up to buy anything or even commit to writing this review of the products. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try them out (since I've heard so much about them), so I agreed and she mailed me a kit that included a diffuser and some oil samples.

I received the kit around the time I was decorating my place for Christmas, so I decided to test out the diffuser while I was home decorating. She had included some nice "Christmas-y smelling" oils (that were not included in the kit), so I tried those first. I made sure to check the instructions on the diffuser before I started (they are pretty simple, nothing complicated at all- I like things that aren't complicated).

I used regular tap water and it worked fine. I don't think it HAS to be distilled water

I will mention when it says to use 8-12 drops of the oil, be sure that you don't over do it on the oil. The drops come out kind of fast, so you have to really watch and count how many drops you use. The first time I think I used too many drops, so the mist smell was a little overpowering for a bit (but that was user error, not the fault of the diffuser or the oils). 

The diffuser made little to no noise (I don't recall noise being a distraction at all). It has settings so you can have it constantly diffusing or diffusing every 30 seconds or so. I kept it on constant diffusion the first time I used it. I placed it on my kitchen counter and had no issue with water getting on the counter or floor from the mist. I don't remember how long it ran (I was busy decorating), but it wasn't more than a few hours. The next time I used the diffuser (a few days later), I tried the intermittent setting. I liked both settings but I think I liked the intermittent setting the best. I noticed even a day after using it (with either setting), the scent was still noticeable (in a good way).

I read online where people put drops of oil on cotton balls and use them as air fresheners. I tried this out in my pantry. I put the lemon oil on two cotton balls and placed them inside my trash can (outside of the bag). I also placed one on the top shelf. It kept the pantry smelling fresh. The lemon oil was one of my favorites. I also really liked the orange oil (it was one of the extras that she included), but since it wasn't in the kit, I wasn't sure if it was still available. But I did like it!

I don't know how many "drops" are in each bottle, but I know that the orange bottle sample was maybe 1/4 full when I got it and it still had some left after I used it for three weeks. Don't let the small bottle size fool you, you get a lot of oil in that little bottle.

I've read testimonies from people swearing that essential oils help them relax when they are stressed out. I personally didn't have great success with that part. I was told to put some of the lavender oil behind my ears and on my wrists and it was supposed to help me calm down if I was dealing with anxiety (back in December I was dealing with A LOT of anxiety). I didn't notice that much of a difference, but maybe I'm beyond help when it comes to being stressed. Lol. Again, I've read too many success stories from people I know personally that this works, so I'm thinking it's just me. :) I did use the diffuser in my room using the lavender oil and it was quite pleasant. Lavender was another oil that I really liked. I can't swear it helped me sleep better but it definitely didn't hurt.

I did not put the oils in any of my drinks nor did I ingest them at all. I read online that it was safe to do that (and even have friends who do it), but I still did not try it. That was just a personal preference, no other reason. 

I did my research and discovered that Young Living Essential Oils are safe to use in homes with animals (dogs, cats, birds, fish, snakes, etc). That is good to know in case I ever get a dog (yes, I still want a dog). I know a lot of the scented plug-ins are not safe to use in homes with animals due to the chemicals. These essential oils are a great alternative. They did have some tips on their website for how to use the oils (and how much to use) if you have pets.

Overall, I give Young Living Essential Oils my seal of approval. The variety of scents are pleasant and I like that they are still noticeable even a day after using the diffuser.

**If you are interested in knowing more about Young Living Essential Oils, please check out this representative's page here. There is more information about the oils and you can find her contact information. Randomness With Rachel did not receive any compensation or incentives for mentioning this information.** 

XOXO!

Book Review 2016: The Silkworm and Career of Evil

I'm horrible about posting my book reviews. I still have several from last year (I will get to them eventually). Today I thought I would combine two since they are in the same series. I actually finished The Silkworm last year, but never wrote the review. I just finished book 3 of the series, Career of Evil, last week. If you would like to check out my review of the first book in this series, The Cuckoo's Calling, click here.

**All reviews published on Randomness With Rachel are done on a five-star rating system. The reviews are solely my opinion and no one else's. Randomness With Rachel does not receive any incentives or compensations for reviews.**

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

This is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series. After finishing the first one, I couldn't wait to start this book. This time the private investigator and his sidekick secretary assistant Robin Ellacott are hired by the wife of novelist Owen Quine to track down her husband. She is convinced he has gone off to escape from the world for a few days and she wants Strike to bring him home. 

During the investigation Strike and Robin discover that Owen has written a "tell all" book, revealing intimate details about the lives of several people, including fellow authors and some women in his life. Although it was "supposedly" a work of fiction (and names were changed), it was written in such a way that the "guilty" parties would know who was who. It's no surprise that Owen is later found brutally murdered and that there are many suspects. (Note: the author does go into some great detail describing the murder scene, so just a warning if you are squeamish). 

I will confess this book started out a little slow, but once it picked up, I really enjoyed it. This book is over 450 pages, so it's not the kind you can sit down and read on a Saturday (unless you have absolutely nothing else to do except read all day. Honestly, those are my favorite kind of days). 

The Silkworm takes the reader more into Robin's personal life and her relationship with fiancè Matthew. I'll leave my personal opinion of those two out of this review (so I don't spoil anything for those who will read this series). It also shows the growth of Strike and Robin's professional relationship (which I really liked). Robin moves past being just a secretary to a colleague that Strike can rely on, and someone he truly respects. 

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

I checked out the first two books of this series from the library. When this book came out, there were 53 people on the waiting list AHEAD of me, so I broke down and bought it. (Okay, I bought the first book in the series eventually because a certain friend of mine was too lazy to go to his library to check it out. I finally bought it so he could borrow it. He loved it (I knew he would). He's hooked on the series too. Lol.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I keep bugging friends to finish it so we can discuss it. :)

The book starts with Robin receiving a severed leg in the mail (I know, gross, right?) The package was addressed to her, but Strike is convinced it was meant for him. Strike can think of four people from his past who are capable of doing such a horrible thing (for the record, I don't know ANYONE who could be capable of mailing a severed leg). 

Strike and the local police have different theories on who is responsible (of course they do), so Strike and Robin set out on their own to track down the killer (mailer?) J.K. Rowling I'm sorry, Robert Galbraith, once again gets very descriptive in some of the scenes (so that is another word of warning for my squeamish friends). In my opinion, this book is creepier and darker than the first two. Of course this would be my favorite of the series. Lol.

SPOILER ALERT! Only click this button if you have read the book (or just don't care about spoilers).

Robin is helping Strike with this investigation all while planning her upcoming wedding to Matthew. Matthew is obviously jealous of her working relationship with Strike, and this is causing issues between the couple.

This book made me desperately wish that book 4 was already published. But sadly it's not. And there isn't even a release date. OH THE TORTURE! I decided to tweet about it on Friday afternoon (copying Robert Galbraith and J.K. Rowling's Twitter handles). For those who didn't read my review of book one, Robert Galbraith is J.K. Rowling's pseudonym. When I checked Twitter later that evening, I noticed that J.K. Rowling had "liked" my tweet. I'm convinced we are best friends now. Lol.

If you have read this series and would like to discuss, please let me know! I'm desperately wanting to talk about it with people. Lol.

I promise more book reviews to come soon! 

XOXO!

Just Be Nice

I know, I know. I haven't updated my blog in over two months. You should know by now this is probably going to happen with me.

Sometimes thoughts are jumbled in my head and I'm not sure what to do with them. My therapist tells me I need to find an outlet and let these thoughts and emotions out. Because according to him, I have issues with keeping my emotions bottled up inside of me, and evidently, that is not healthy. Lol. Anyways enough about that- back to finding an outlet for my thoughts and emotions. My outlet is writing. Since I have a blog, this is where I let my thoughts out. Since you are my friend (or you randomly clicked on this link on some social media site), you get the job honor privilege of reading my random thoughts. Lol.

I don't know if it is just me, but has the world seemed crueler lately? It just seems everywhere I look, people are being mean. Or just NOT nice. I don't know. Maybe I'm too sensitive and my heart hurts too easily. Maybe I'm too much of a goody-goody. Maybe I'm trying too hard to be a "Pollyanna". Regardless, I honestly believe if everyone was nice to at least ONE person a day, the world would be a better place. (BTW, if my life was a musical, there would be a song and dance number right here).

I'm not even talking about a huge act of kindness here. It could be as simple as letting a car into your lane during rush hour (although you know that they waited until the last minute to move over). It could be telling the person at the drive-thru window of Whataburger to have a great day. It could be returning a shopping cart you see in the middle of a parking lot to the cart return location. It could be not losing it when Taco Cabana takes 35 minutes to give you the two tacos you ordered. It could be complimenting someone on their outfit or hair. It could be acknowledging a coworker in the elevator instead of pretending that you are on your phone (okay, I'm so guilty of doing that). It could be as simple as smiling and saying "hi, how are you?" to a stranger. 

I love social media, but sometimes I think people use it solely as an outlet to be mean to others. I have to stop myself from reading the comment section of Facebook posts because people can be downright ugly. It can be the cutest video of a dog or a kid, and someone will find something negative about it. It goes back to the old phrase "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all". I actually found myself deleting a tweet last night because after I posted it, I realized it just wasn't nice. I personally stay away from controversial topics on social media: Politics. Gun control. Abortion. War. The correct way to hang a roll of toilet paper. I know there are people passionate about those topics, and that is fine. But if you and someone disagree on something, there are ways of discussing the topic in a respectful manner. Odds are, neither one of you is going to change the other person's mind. No need to be flat out mean and call each other names. Personally if I see a friend post something and I disagree with it, or it makes me angry, I just keep scrolling. I'm sure someone else has posted a cute picture of their kids or fur babies, and that will take my mind off of it.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go off about cyber bullying (although I know it's there- and not just with kids. Adults can be 10 times as cruel). I know it is so easy to be mean when someone has been mean to you. I think it's human nature to react that way. It's also easy to let other people bring you down. I'm not saying if you react with kindness that it's going to make everything better and you and the other person are going to hug it out (but you never know). A little kindness can go a long way.

 XOXO!!

Craft Project: Harry Potter Monopoly

EDITED DECEMBER 2021: Please see bottom of post for links to the PDFs

I mentioned a few weeks ago I was finally back to working on craft projects again. I wasn't able to post about this one until now because it was a birthday gift for one of my besties and he reads my blog. :)

My friend Chance is obsessed a huge fan of the Harry Potter books and movies (he is the person who forced encouraged me to read the series). A few months ago he mentioned how he couldn't believe that there was no Harry Potter Monopoly game. We even double-checked and looked on Amazon but couldn't find one (I'm convinced if you can't buy it on Amazon, it just doesn't exist). Lol. I decided a few weeks later to go online to see if someone not associated with Amazon sold the game. I found this website called Mugglenet and it had a picture of a Harry Potter Monopoly game someone had designed. First and foremost, I want to make sure I give full credit to Robbie, the designer of this game. I just printed the PDFs and made my own game pieces. He was the master mind behind this design. He was gracious enough to provide PDFs for everyone to make their own game. He just obviously asks that no one sells his designs. Please check out this post here if you want the PDFs to make your own game.

I used white card stock paper to print out the property "titles" and red and yellow card stock paper for the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards (which are called "Spells" and "Potions").

I needed to find a design for Harry Potter Monopoly money (I didn't like the one provided on MuggleNet), so after a Google search, I found this website that provided PDFs of Harry Potter themed money. I originally was going to print out the money on different sheets of colored paper, but instead I took the files and used Microsoft Paint to color the edges so each denomination was a different color. A quick search online let me know how many bills of each denomination is included in a regular Monopoly game.

I used my handy dandy craft cutter to cut them apart (that was such a great purchase a few years ago). :)

I had originally planned to find an old Monopoly game so I could just Mod Podge the board layout on top of it. I looked at four different Half Price Books and couldn't find one (I didn't want to buy one new). So, I had to improvise. I bought art board at Michael's (with my 40% off coupon, it was very reasonably priced) and used Mod Podge to glue it down. My only problem with this is that the board couldn't be folded up, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I figured he wouldn't mind.

The first time I glued it down, it didn't seem even, so instead of ripping it up (and ruining the board), I just glued a second "layer" on top of the first one. There are two PDFs of the board (divided in the middle), so in order to not have a huge line running down the middle of the board, I used Microsoft Publisher (am I the only person who still uses that?) to "combine" the logo portion of the board so I could print it as one piece. That way there wasn't a line down it.

I covered the entire board with several layers of Mod Podge to give it a "glossy" look and less "papery" feel.

I kept wondering what to use for game pieces. I looked online for Harry Potter mini figurines or Legos, and they were WAY TOO pricey ($16 for one piece is crazy). A few years ago I used glass beads in a craft project and had a ton left over, so I decided to cut out pictures of Harry Potter characters and glue them on the back for the game pieces.

This is what the pieces looked like afterward. I know I had more pieces than what was needed, but I figured whoever played could pick their favorite character (I did design two different Harry Potter pieces though).

Since I wasn't able to find an old Monopoly game, I didn't have house or hotel pieces. I decided to use buttons. Mainly because I had a lot of buttons left over from another craft project and I was trying my best to use supplies I already owned. :) I used 36 smaller buttons as the "houses". I tried to use buttons that were the different colors from the houses of Hogwarts, but I had to improvise (again). I didn't have gold, so I used orange. I didn't have silver, so I used clear. I used bigger purple buttons to represent hotels (mainly because it was the only color I had bigger buttons in).

I decided to make a "Rules Book" so I looked online and found a copy of the Monopoly rules. I copied them and "altered" them to fit a Harry Potter Monopoly game. The Rules Book is the one thing that was actually MY design. :) 

I bought this little plastic tote (again at Michael's, I love that place) to keep all the pieces in. I also bought a set of dice and included them in it. I used "sticker" paper and printed out the Harry Potter Monopoly logo designed by Robbie and stuck it on the top and edges of the tote. I also used that same logo on the cover of the Rules Book. 

I gave Chance the game last Friday. I also had bought him the illustrated version of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (he had not so subtly hinted that he wanted that book). I had bought the book as a back up in case I didn't finish the game or if he didn't like it. But of course he loved the game. :) He has a son (who is beyond adorable) and can't wait to play a game with him and read the illustrated book with him.

I didn't get a picture with Chance on Friday with the gift, but here is a picture from last Tuesday when I forced him to take one at the Stars hockey game. :)

And here is a picture of his dog Dobby (who I like better than him). Just kidding. A little. Maybe. :) I always take a Dobby picture when I see him. HE doesn't complain about taking pictures (unlike someone). :)

Dobby was not happy that Aunt Rachel would not share her Whataburger with him

Hope you enjoyed my craft project! I'm hoping to do more around the holidays! :)

XOXO!

EDITED DECEMBER 2021:

I'm so sorry if you have emailed for PDFs and I haven't responded. I got locked out of the email associated with this blog and since I haven't posted in a year, I haven't had use for it (so I now have to figure out how to either change the email or get back into my old one). I am going to try and link the PDFs below- I hope that helps everyone looking for them!! Again, so sorry for the delays!!

Board PDFs:

Part One Click Here

Part Two Click Here

Rules:

Click Here

Money:

Click Here

Properties:

Part One Click Here

Part Two Click Here

Part Three Click Here

Part Four Click Here

Part Five Click Here

Part Six Click Here

Part Seven Click Here

Part Eight Click Here

Part Nine Click Here

Potions:

Part One Click Here

Part Two Click Here

Part Three Click Here

Spells:

Part One Click Here

Part Two Click Here

Part Three Click Here