Handmade dinosaur and awesome coconut cake--apparently

After a few weeks of hand-sewing whenever I had the chance, Jack's little dinosaur is all done. I found the most awesome free pattern here. The details aren't filled in yet on this little guy, but I wanted to post it before I moved on to the next project. There's a confusing section in the pattern (I thought) so I took pictures of how I decided to sew up the tummy and feet. I ended up sewing the feet together last.

In other news, my sister turned thirty (!) and she requested this coconut cake that I made last year for a family get-together. I personally am not all that crazy about coconut cake, but people looove this one. It's pretty easy to whip up too-it uses boxed cake mix and just a few other ingredients.

We are enjoying the beautiful Spring out here in wine country. Hope everyone else is too.

This will come in handy this summer...

The Hunger Games

I am obsessed with these books. They are a trilogy, the first one being The Hunger Games. A review from Amazon describes the tale as "a gripping story set in a post-apocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death." I know, brutal.

At first, I wasn't sure that I could get into books with as much violence as these have got, but I quickly got over that. They are real page-turners and the plot gives you what you want. I found myself saying, I wish this would happen...and then a few chapters later, it would.  Books with short chapters are great too--they tell the stories in little nuggets, perfect for lunch breaks or nap times. And there are great cliffhanger endings for nearly each chapter. "His heart was no longer beating" or "And that is how a revolution dies." They are classified as young adult lit, but aren't as full of sappy, drawn-out conversations as say, the Twilight series (which I loved but ended up skimming over a lot of the romantic stuff.)

I'm on the last book now, Mockingjay. A friend who recommended these books found this one a bit slower than the others. I'm enjoying it so far. Anyone have ideas for good summertime reading?