Category: Guest Blog

[Guest] Book Review: The Widow File

I love those books that keep you on the edge of your seat. This is one of those books. I have to admit, when I first bought the book on Kindle, I was doubtful. I mean, for all I knew it was some romance thing where the wife died and everyone spends the book feeling sad and talking about her, and you want to kill yourself afterwards. Wrong! This book is about private espionage, the CIA, murder, cover-ups, assassins, the whole nine. I seriously couldn’t put it down.

My favorite part was the literary style the author uses. S. G. Redling switches voices between the heroin who is running for her life and trying to reveal the systeries of the company she worked for, and the assassin who was hired to kill her. They meet. You sit on the edge of your seat. Your roommate laughs at you for gasping at a book (no? That was just me? Whatever). Do yourself a favor. Read it. And then do what I did and look up her other works and read those too.

xo. Brie

I also read this gem shortly after Brie, and man I could not agree more! Such a great book, and this author has so much more where this came from. Happy reading!

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Monday, the 10th of March, in the year 2014 by Adora Mae

Guest Post: Book Review

In the spirit of encouraging more reading, I’ve decided to add some book reviews of the books I’m reading. Yay book! Yay nerds!
…ok, I’m done.

So, Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberly McCreight. Oh. My. Goodness. This book was good. It was one of those books where you don’t know what truly happened until the very last page…which drives you crazy in a way, but is really the best thing ever. Now stop! I know you want to go read the last page now, but don’t! It’s worth the read. I read it in about 4 days; Adora read it in two. To be fair, she has a longer attention span, but that’s how good it is.

The narration goes back and forth between Amelia in the past and her mother Kate in the present. And of course there’s the random letter or text conversation thrown in for good measure. It all keeps you guessing about what could have happened to Amelia, and how it all played out. It’s not a spoiler (maybe a tiny spoiler) to tell you, Amelia dies in the beginning. First chapter. But did she commit suicide? Or was she pushed? Or was she perhaps manipulated by…well, who? So. Many. Questions.

Secret clubs, murder or suicide, piecing together the past…just go read it. Definitely one of my top picks so far this year.

xo. Brie

Briana has an amazing blog over at accordingtobrie.com that you should check out!

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Tuesday, the 27th of August, in the year 2013 by Adora Mae

Guest Post by Briana Bramm

What’s that saying about being poor making you thrifty? I can’t remember. Maybe I imagined it. Either way, I think it’s true. I’ve never been more creative in anything than when forced to work with limited resources, in this case, monetary resources. Because I like to redecorate and still afford groceries, I’ve been learning how to take an idea for something I love but can’t afford.

How does that tie-in to a dresser re-finish? I’ll explain.

There’s a dresser I love at Ikea. It’s beautiful, cream colored with black hardware, 7 drawers, pretty much exactly what I wanted for my room re-model. However, the $300 price tag caught me every time. Whenever I’m going to make a big purchase, I compare what else I could get for that amount of money to decide if it’s worth it. For $300 I could go to the keys for a weekend. I could get a cheap flight somewhere. I could do months of Pilates classes. I could cook a whole bunch of fancy dinners and drink a lot of wine. Sigh. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

So on to plan B, I headed out to the thrift shop with Amy and Adora. And at Faith Farm I found this treasure. For $60 I found a dresser whose shape I loved. The color not so much, but it was nothing some sanding, priming, and painting couldn’t fix. And of course some black spray paint for the hardware.

So I give you my monochromatic take on a French dresser. I’m excited to see this piece against my book-wall. Let me know what you think!

xo. Brie

We fit the dresser in the back of Adora’s car (barely) but that didn’t leave much room for me!

Through the glass door, sanded and primed!

I painted the white first and let it dry for a day, then taped around the top and painted the black top.

All finished! Moved into my room against the book wall.

Room is coming along! Next project will be bed coverings and curtains. Stay tuned…

Briana is a beautiful SEO/Ad genius who works with me at my day job and has an amazing blog over at accordingtobrie.com that you should check out!

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Monday, the 17th of June, in the year 2013 by Adora Mae