Camy Tang's Blog, page 131
May 9, 2012
Buying books online late at night
I just noticed this last week when I splurged and bought a bunch of Elizabeth Ford novels: most of the time, my book buying is online late at night. Literally in the early morning hours, after Captain Caffeine has already gone to bed.
Why is that?
Is there something in the night air that induces a book-buying sickness of the mind? Are my money-spending inhibitions down when I’m tired? Is there something about Captain Caffeine’s snoring that helps me remember the books I want to buy?
I know it has nothing to do with my husband not knowing what I’m doing because I could easily buy those books while he’s at work and he’d still be uninformed. :) Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I do tell him if I’ve spent more than $50 on books.
When do you tend to buy your books?
Why is that?
Is there something in the night air that induces a book-buying sickness of the mind? Are my money-spending inhibitions down when I’m tired? Is there something about Captain Caffeine’s snoring that helps me remember the books I want to buy?
I know it has nothing to do with my husband not knowing what I’m doing because I could easily buy those books while he’s at work and he’d still be uninformed. :) Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I do tell him if I’ve spent more than $50 on books.
When do you tend to buy your books?
May 8, 2012
Go green: 25 spring cleaning tips
Two years ago, I was inspired by this article on earth-friendly (and wallet friendly) spring cleaning tips. (Update: I fixed the link)
One thing I hadn’t thought of before is that we have tons of hand towels and small square kitchen towels that never get used. So I put them in a little basket on the kitchen counter and we use them in place of paper towels--to cover food in the microwave, wiping down the counter or floors, etc. When they’re dirty, we put them in a laundry basket out in the garage near the washing machine, and when the basket is full, we wash all the cloths.
We also switched to cloth napkins--we had a few and I bought a set from TJ Maxx for super cheap, and then we happened to get some when Captain Caffeine’s grandmother died and we were cleaning out her house. She happened to have a ton that had never been used, so we took them and use them now. When they’re dirty, they get put in the laundry basket in the garage.
I also found a pattern and knitted a few Swiffer pads from leftover yarn, which I wash and reuse. They’ve actually been better than regular Swiffer pads because they’re textured and scrub better.
I reread the article yesterday and realized that a better way to clean the floor would be to use our own mopping solution, so I’ll write the recipe down so I’ll have it handy next time we clean the floors. We’ve been using a “lavender” scented PineSol solution that smells horribly strong and nothing like lavender.
What are some “green” cleaning tips that you have?
One thing I hadn’t thought of before is that we have tons of hand towels and small square kitchen towels that never get used. So I put them in a little basket on the kitchen counter and we use them in place of paper towels--to cover food in the microwave, wiping down the counter or floors, etc. When they’re dirty, we put them in a laundry basket out in the garage near the washing machine, and when the basket is full, we wash all the cloths.
We also switched to cloth napkins--we had a few and I bought a set from TJ Maxx for super cheap, and then we happened to get some when Captain Caffeine’s grandmother died and we were cleaning out her house. She happened to have a ton that had never been used, so we took them and use them now. When they’re dirty, they get put in the laundry basket in the garage.
I also found a pattern and knitted a few Swiffer pads from leftover yarn, which I wash and reuse. They’ve actually been better than regular Swiffer pads because they’re textured and scrub better.
I reread the article yesterday and realized that a better way to clean the floor would be to use our own mopping solution, so I’ll write the recipe down so I’ll have it handy next time we clean the floors. We’ve been using a “lavender” scented PineSol solution that smells horribly strong and nothing like lavender.
What are some “green” cleaning tips that you have?
T.L. Higley's Great Book Giveaway
Check out this cool offer from author T.L. Higley! She has a goal to give away 5000 of her backlist books!
An arrangement with her publisher has allowed her to acquire a number of her past titles to give away to Book Bloggers, Homeschoolers, Church Libraries and other organizations. If you’re interested, check out her page here: The Great Book Giveaway
Thrift store junkie
My To Be Read pile is as mountainous as it is mostly because of thrift stores.I haven’t had as much time to do this lately, but I love going into thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army and perusing their book section, looking for Regency romances.
I especially look for the mass market paperback novels of the category Regency romances that used to be printed years ago by Harlequin, Zebra, Fawcett, and Signet. They typically have pretty recognizable spines.
I can spend a good hour looking for Regencies at a thrift store if they have a good book section. After a while, I had to take with me a list of the books I already have (titles and authors) so that I don’t get duplicates.
I have not had as much luck at garage sales. Whenever I did the round of sales in my area, there weren’t many boxes of Regency romances--there were usually other genres instead. :(
I also did buy some boxes of books on eBay where the sellers would auction off a huge box of Regencies, but after a while I didn’t like that too much because there were usually books in the box that I already had.
My TBR pile of print books (let’s not even go into my TBR list of ebooks!) is almost entirely Regency romances I bought from thrift stores. I’m slowly going through them and donating back any book that I don’t want to keep, but I’m thoroughly enjoying having such a huge pool of titles to choose from whenever I’m hankering after a Regency!
I know some of you do the same thing, right??? Confess! And, er, give me any tips you might have. :)
Thrift store junkies unite!
May 7, 2012
The complicated relationship between me and sugar
Okay, so it’s not really complicated, it’s quite straightforward. I love sugar. My bum does not.
Since I got back on SparkPeople.com I’ve been watching my carb and sugar intake more. I’m not depriving myself, but I’m trying to stay near the low end of the range that SparkPeople has given to me.
One thing I’m really striving to do is be more mindful of my food as I eat it, taking the time to taste and enjoy my food as described in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat , and that has made my carb intake very deliberate. When I eat a biscuit with my tea, I’m taking the time to taste it and enjoy it more.
What I’ve discovered is that I’ve been eating less carbs and not really noticing the change in my diet or feeling deprived. Instead of eating 2-3 biscuits with tea, I eat one or maybe one and a half, slowly in smaller pieces, enjoying the taste as I eat it, and I honestly don’t feel disgruntled at all that it’s less than I typically ate only 3 weeks ago.
One thing I did last night that surprised me:
I got a new cookie, Cinnamon Sugar Spice made by LU Biscuits, and while it’s good, it’s much sweeter than the McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits and Digestive biscuits I’ve been eating with my tea. So instead of adding honey to my tea like I usually do, I drank my tea without sweetener and ate my cinnamon cookie. The extra sweetness of the cookie made up for the lack of honey in the tea and I was perfectly happy about it.
I think that a few weeks ago, I would have added honey to my tea and eaten the cinnamon cookie, and I wouldn’t have thought that the combo was too sweet. But now that I’ve been decreasing my carb intake each day and being more mindful of what I’m eating as I eat it, I was able to adjust my teatime snack because I could tell that the extra sugar was too much.
I know this might sound kind of stupid, but I really feel proud of myself for doing the adjustment. I don’t know if this will help anyone else trying to eat healthily, but I’m going to continue to try to monitor what I’m eating so I can make these small adjustments and learn to eat healthier. Every little bit counts, right?
Since I got back on SparkPeople.com I’ve been watching my carb and sugar intake more. I’m not depriving myself, but I’m trying to stay near the low end of the range that SparkPeople has given to me.
One thing I’m really striving to do is be more mindful of my food as I eat it, taking the time to taste and enjoy my food as described in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat , and that has made my carb intake very deliberate. When I eat a biscuit with my tea, I’m taking the time to taste it and enjoy it more.
What I’ve discovered is that I’ve been eating less carbs and not really noticing the change in my diet or feeling deprived. Instead of eating 2-3 biscuits with tea, I eat one or maybe one and a half, slowly in smaller pieces, enjoying the taste as I eat it, and I honestly don’t feel disgruntled at all that it’s less than I typically ate only 3 weeks ago.
One thing I did last night that surprised me:
I got a new cookie, Cinnamon Sugar Spice made by LU Biscuits, and while it’s good, it’s much sweeter than the McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits and Digestive biscuits I’ve been eating with my tea. So instead of adding honey to my tea like I usually do, I drank my tea without sweetener and ate my cinnamon cookie. The extra sweetness of the cookie made up for the lack of honey in the tea and I was perfectly happy about it.
I think that a few weeks ago, I would have added honey to my tea and eaten the cinnamon cookie, and I wouldn’t have thought that the combo was too sweet. But now that I’ve been decreasing my carb intake each day and being more mindful of what I’m eating as I eat it, I was able to adjust my teatime snack because I could tell that the extra sugar was too much.
I know this might sound kind of stupid, but I really feel proud of myself for doing the adjustment. I don’t know if this will help anyone else trying to eat healthily, but I’m going to continue to try to monitor what I’m eating so I can make these small adjustments and learn to eat healthier. Every little bit counts, right?
Author Lacy Williams’ birthday bash and bonus extras from Stalker in the Shadows
Author Lacy Williams is celebrating her birthday and the release of a new book this month, and she is giving away birthday gifts to readers, including free ebooks, bonus scenes, extended excerpts and free books from some of your favorite authors!I’m giving away the ORIGINAL first chapters of my Love Inspired Suspense, Stalker in the Shadows! These are the chapters I first submitted to my editor, but she asked me to nix them and start the story with a bit more suspense. So while these original chapters aren’t as creepy as the published chapters, they’re the original first sizzling meeting between my hero and heroine. Those of you who have read Stalker in the Shadows will get an especially neat kick out of these chapters, but I won’t say why. :)
Participating authors include:
Regina Jennings
Camy Tang
Jordyn Redwood
Angela Breidenbach
Margaret Daley
Lena Nelson Dooley
Myra Johnson
MaryLu Tyndall
Vickie McDonough
Visit www.megamaybirthdaybash.com for details and to get your gifts now!
Avengers movie
Who’s seen it? I totally want to goooooo!!!!!!!!!!
May 4, 2012
Health benefits of tea!
You knew I had to blog about it when I read it, right? :) This article goes beyond just talking about antioxidants to mention 3 teas and 3 tisanes that are good for your health. I didn’t know that puer tea lowered cholesterol, though. I’ll have to get more chocolate strawberry puer tea from LupiciaUSA.com, now! {wink wink}
Rich tea biscuits
Speaking of biscuits ...I mentioned earlier about the dark chocolate digestive biscuits I bought due to the Betty Neels books I’ve read. I also bought these rich tea biscuits which I’d read about also.
McVitie’s is apparently a well-known maker of digestive biscuits (and I think they’re the ones who originally came up with the chocolate digestive biscuit) so I naturally had to try their brand of tea biscuits.
They remind me of a slightly sweet cracker, but more dense than a soda cracker. I have to admit, they are PERFECT with tea because you can dip them and they are just sweet enough to satisfy without being overly sweet.
They also settle my stomach as well as a soda cracker, which I discovered yesterday with the lemon juice stomach problems I had. I ate a couple tea biscuits and my stomach felt much better.
Anyone else had these? I really like them! Maybe not as much as the McVitie’s digestive biscuits, but they’re still really tasty.
Author Elizabeth Ford
I first discovered Elizabeth Ford when I enjoyed a Victorian romance she wrote under her other pseudonym, Mary Ann Gibbs, titled
Horatia
. I completely enjoyed the book--it had great characters I liked and admired and a softly rolling plotline that kept me interested to the very end. I discovered I had picked up some of her other titles through garage sales and thrift stores, so I read them, too, and they were all highly entertaining.I did more research and discovered she also wrote mysteries under the pseudonym Elizabeth Ford, but when I tried to find those books at online booksellers, it was really hard because they were all hardcovers that had been issued only in the UK. All her Mary Ann Gibbs romances were mass market paperbacks published (or reprinted) in the US.
I got all Mary Ann Gibbs’ romances but pined for Elizabeth Ford’s mysteries. :(
But I recently got a new contract with Guideposts books, writing work-for-hire for one of their book club series, and I realized I haven’t bought myself a present in a while.
So last night I went online (why is it I tend to buy books late at night online? Hmm...) and bought a bunch of Elizabeth Ford books from UK online sellers!!! Can you hear the scream of disbelief as I realize what I did???
I used Bookfinder.com and was able to find the best prices for each of the books, although I did end up paying a dollar or two more for some of them because I’m trying to refrain from buying books from Amazon and so I bought them from other online booksellers like Abebooks.com and Biblio.com.
Yes, I, um, spent a lot of money. {sheepish look and glancing around to make sure Captain Caffeine didn’t hear that. Or at least doesn’t know yet.} But these are books I’ve wanted for a very long time. I even had them listed in my book catalog with the note to myself: “GET THIS BOOK!”
So now I am happily awaiting some hardcover books winging their way to me from England. I anticipate some wonderful nights reading with a pot of tea and a plate of biscuits!
