Review Link Ups for February

Good morning everyone!  Since it seems like Mclinky has done away with my lists and my new service is giving me fits about copying the code into the posts until I get my "issues" figured out could challenge participants please leave a comment with the link(s) to there reviews on the respective posts please.  I'm not quite sure what's going on...It let me put the new linky into my YA challenge posts but not this blog!  Yeah technology! 

Scene's from our Blizzard

So I live in the Great White Midwest...More specifically...Wisconsin.  Since Monday it has been pretty much snowing non-stop here with the exception of about 10 hours...But that was before the REAL blizzard showed up and raised all sorts of hell.  Below are some scenes from the blizzard.  

 The little bit of green you can see is a flower window basket attached to the side of our deck and the post is the corner post of our deck...We have a covered deck so that my mom could have a porch swing.  As you can see at about 3:15 this morning the snow was as high as our deck and it's not supposed to end until later this morning.

 This is the same corner post just a different angle.  The red thing is a shovel...we have to dig out a path/area for our dogs to do their business.  Again it's deck high on this side too.

The snow depth according to our patio window.

Still looking for Guest Posters/Guest Authors

I'm still looking for some more guest posters/guest author for my Love event over at For The Love of YA.  If you are interested you can drop me an e-mail at bookjunkie221@gmail.com.  I don't really have a "theme" I'm going with love wise....just as long as your post has something to do with some sort of love and your able to email me a copy before it goes live that is all that I really am asking. 

Looking for Guest Posters/Guest Authors

 

Coming up in February I am in the process of putting together a little bloggy feature called "14 Days of Love." This little feature will commence on my YA book blog For The Love of YA on February 8th @ 12:01 am and will conclude on February 21st (MY B-DAY! The BIG 27!)) @ 11:59 pm.

So here I am...Putting out a call for the following:

~ Guest Posters*

~ Guest Authors*

~ Individuals who might be interested in hosting or contributing to a giveaway



If you are interested in becoming a guest poster/guest author please feel free to drop me an email at bookjunkie221@gmail.com.



*Since this feature is about love and this is being hosted on a YA blog, I am trying to guest post "love" related.
 

Bloggiesta Update # 1

So here's my first update for Bloggiesta here on The Book Junkie's Bookshelf.  I don't know if you would consider them a "series" or not, but I have decided to bring back GnL Recommend.  Starting on Monday with the Animal Story edition GnL Recommend will be a regular Monday feature here at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf.   Yeah I accomplished something on the list that I hadn't even thought about doing! 

See what reading has got me doing now!

Ok, so for the past couple hours I've been reading The Frugalista Files by Natalie McNeal (review coming soon) and as I was reading I kept thinking...."I am in the same boat as Natalie."  So I have decided that I am going to make some lifestyle changes and I AM going to get myself out of debt.  I've already created the blog...It's called Sheepless in the City....and not only am I going to blog about becoming debt free I am going to blog about my life in general....I've got some recipes and other crafty stuff to share so I hope that you'll drop by and say hi.

Update on being Hacked

After hearing from several bloggers out there in the bloggy world I have come to realize that I may have jumped ship too quickly. After the security measures I've already put into place I have decided that I am going to remain here. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused...believe me it wasn't intentional....I tend to do things like this when I'm really tired.

I've been HACKED!

Have I mentioned how much I REALLY don't like bad people?!  I really don't.  I like the bad people who hacked my blogger account even less! I've been doing what I can to remedy the situation but it doesn't seem to be working (dang hackers!).  As a result of this very unfortunate situation I am in the process of moving my book blogging venture to a new account.  You can find me at my new book blogging home Once Upon A Time.....  So far all I have up on there is 1 review of my first ever Christian fiction novel and some goals I have set for myself for 2011. For those who are participating in challenges that I am hosting....I will continue to monitor this account and get rid of any "bad" posts as soon as I find them.  I will also be linking my reviews back to the original challenge post from the new blog. If you have any questions you can e-mail me at bookjunkie221@gmail.com.

Gentlemne/Ladies....

Start your reading challenge engines! In the next few days (hopefully) I will have a post up for each challenge where you can post your reviews (if you intend to review the books you've been reading).  So there it is...short and sweet.  Let the reading challenges begin!

Sooo Busy

I am soooo busy! So I haven't had a lot of reading time lately between work and knitting some Christmas presents I've been UBER busy. Hopefully everyone is having a Happy and Safe Holiday season?! We just survived our first BLIZZARD of the year here in Wisconsin. I've been hearing on the news that all over the country there has been "interesting" weather lately.



I won't be back to blogging regularly until after the New Year....So early Happy New Year everyone!

Pick The Blog Apart - The Book Junkie's Bookshelf Survey

It's been a while since I've done a survey and I think it's time that I do one again.  I am in the process of giving this particular blog a major overhaul...complete with a new blog design.  So I'm asking you, the reader's of The Book Junkie's Bookshelf, to help me pick my blog apart in an effort to improve my blog.  Below is the survey that I've come up with.  If you have idea's you can leave them in the survey or feel free to drop me an e-mail (if you do drop me and e-mail please let me know in the subject that your critiquing my blog).  I WANT you to pick my blog apart.  I WANT an unbiased opinion.
Here are some of the idea's that I've come up with so far for my upcoming overhaul.....

**Pages**

Home
About
Reviews - Coded so when you click on the page it shows all of my review posts.
Review Policy
Challenges - Coded so when you click on the page it shows all of my book challenges.
Interviews - Coded so when you click on the page it shows all of my interviews.
GnL Recommend - Coded so when you click on the page it shows all GnL posts.
Discussion Posts - Coded to show all Discussion Posts

**Contact/Social Networking/Other Blogs**

Email Button - Click the button and it goes to e-mail
Twitter Button - Click the button and it goes to Twitter
Facebook Button - Click the button it goes to FB.
Goodreads Button - Click and goes to my Goodreads profile
YA/MG reviews - Takes you For The Love of YA
Romance/Erotica Reviews - Takes you Nitty Gritty

   

Wedding Pix part UNO

 

This is my family....L to R: My dad, my new sister-in-law, my brother, myself (apparently I was going for "Sarah Palin" when I got my hair done) and my mom.

AWWW!

My Brother and his witness being...well...themselves.



 

The very wedding day is coming up!

I'm more than likely going to be scarce around the blog world for the next 2 weeks or so.  See my brother is FINALLY (they've been engaged for about 4 years) marrying his loverly fiancee on the 17th and we're in Full On Wedding Mode here at our house.  Now I can HARDLY WAIT for the day to get here! 

Big Changes

There will be a bunch of big changes coming up here at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf.  Almost all of them are taking place because I feel this blog in particular has gotten disorganized and is nowhere near where I would like it to be.  One of the big changes that is taking place here on the blog is that in addition to taking the romance reviews out of here and giving them there own blog I am also doing that with my YA reviews.  I am in the process of moving my YA reviews from here at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf and posting them on there own blog, which is called For The Love of YA. 

New Blog

All righty then!  I've gone ahead and created a new blog that will be specifically for reviewing Romance and Erotica.  I LOVE me some romance novels and Erotica is a newer to me genre that I'm really starting to like A LOT!  If you want to check it out (though for right now there really isn't anything there) it can be found at Nitty Gritty Down and Dirty. I will be reviewing everything else here on The Book Junkie's Bookshelf.  

Changes

As a result of some changes that are happening both in my personal and work life I have had to make some decisions about this here blog.  I'm not giving it up but I am going to be posting a little bit less until things get a little bit more under control.  I'll be out and about commenting as much as I can but there are some things that I have decided to give up for right now. 1. There will NOT be a book club for the month of October...I just don't think that with things the way they are in real life that I can handle it on top of all of those things. 2. At this time my 1 year blogoversary giveaway has been moved to February and it will be a 1 year blogoversary/birthday giveaway.   

The Book Junkie's Bookshelf's 1 year Blogoversary!

The 1 year blogoversary of The Book Junkie's Bookshelf is coming up on September 29th.  I'm in the process of coming up with a great giveaway...Ought to be interesting! 

Photography Blog, reading funks....Oh My

I've been out and about taking a lot of picture's with my newish Nikon D3000 DSLR camera recently. So I've decided that I am going to put my photo's up on their own blog. You can view my pictures at One of a Kind Photography. I've just started uploading so I don't have a whole bunch up their yet but I'm slowly but surely working on it. In reading news....I am running short on reading time! DANG YOU REAL LIFE! It doesn't help that we are in one of the two busiest seasons at work right now either! I've been working on getting my way through this month's book club selection...I'm finding it hard to find time between the urge to go on photo taking excursions and just getting the things I need to get done done.

NOW ACCEPTING

I have decided that I am now going to start accepting review books again. But this time I have put "rules" to what I will and won't accept. I have listed what I will accept in my sidebar under my "request a review" section and I have updated my Review Policy as well with the information.

August Book Ban!

I've decided that I am going to continue on with my book ban for the month of August as well. I did really well in the month of July...I tried to go cold turkey but I ended up buying 1 book. I consider just 1 book a major victory considering I'm known for bringing home HUGE bags FULL of books.

So here are my rules for this month's ban:

1. I am NOT going to purchase any more books for the month of August.

2. I am going to work on reading my own books (hardbound and e-books), so I won't be utilizing my library this month either.

3. The two books that I have pre-ordered will not count against me.