Books - Memories of Home

Welcome to Memories of Home, if you would like to find out more information about the series, Click here

Being in a supportive environment is important to our growth as individuals, not everyone has had that opportunity and as adults we try and create an environment that will nurture and bless our children and indeed ourselves.

I have always loved books, which was fostered as a child at primary school, with one of my favourites being 'The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe and Secret garden'.  We were encourage to bring a new book home every week and there would be new adventures for me just waiting to be explored and it allowed me to escape the school bullies if only for a little while.

My dad also had a love of westerns and thrillers and we had books in stacks dotted around the home as a normal part of the course.  I went on to encourage my son to read from an early age, telling him stories and allowing him to look at the pictures and make up stories of his own.  There was the occasional time when I would fall asleep mid-flow while reading him a story and he would lay there looking at me with amusement until he succumbed to the sleep and took pleasure in telling me in the morning. 

I keep offering to make it up to him now, but he says he’s too old for stories and we try and take time talking about the day.   I’ve have now turned my joy to writing and illustrating short stories and maybe one day someone will take my story off the shelf and read it to their child.

Mixed Media House collage on Wood

What was your favourite book growing up as a child, what are you reading now and how will you take time to encourage yourself to take time out if only for 10 minutes. I hope you continue to join me on my journey over the weeks, as I share my mixed media houses and look back to the memories of home. I look forward to hearing about some some of your own memories. Blessings and peace to you!

Gratitudes - Books

I love books, always have, the touch, smell, sound of the crisp pages as they turn.  Amazed at what you can learn, insights you can reflect on.  Places that you can travel to within the words as they weave stories of uncharted places.  I am grateful that I have an appreciation for books that has been passed down to my son.

What is one of your favourite books?

Kindle Fire

When the Kindle first came out I was convinced that it wasn’t for me. I am the sort of person who loves the feel of the book in my hands, turning the pages and smell of a new book is something you can’t replace.  

Fast forward and the Kindle Fire comes onto the market, I debate with all the extra features it might be useful, and with a hint here and a suggestion there, my son and husband got me one for 2012 Christmas.  I never thought I would say this, but I absolutely adore it. The storage is 5.5 GB and along with books it can store music and film, it has quite a good speaker, wireless so you can download apps easily and you also have access to all the other social media, such as twitter, pinterest and whatever else you can think of. Photographs can be uploaded via Amazon cloud drive, videos can also be stored and if you connect to love film you have access to movies.

My screen is 7 inches in size and it’s very handy and fits in my bag without taking up too much room. It’s a slightly heavier than the earlier kindle, at 400g. The selection of books available for the kindle has improved and many eBook stores now have a converter for you to increase access to other eBooks. You can also download documents and PDFs via cloud.

I love being able to carry a huge selection of books that I can dip into depending on my mood, and I have got though more books since I started using it.  The kindle has some good features - storing or book marking your last place read, make notes within a book or highlight specific sections and apparently you can share what you've highlighted on your social media (though I haven't done that yet.  An audio function so that the books can be read to you and in effect you have an audio book (not sure if you can change her voice and she reads in one tone), I use this function when I am in the studio working. Another great thing is being able to look at a sample of the books before you buy, and option to change your mind if you have purchased something in haste. I found quite a good selection of Mixed Media Art books, though with these books I don't think anything can take the place of their visual impact on the pages I still want to hold them in my hands.

What I like most about it is that it has so many different functions; short of making me a cup of tea or having a phone function it has so many great uses. There is of course a down side, I guess we have yet to see the impact of staring at multiple screens and our eye muscles, and remembering to take the necessary breaks.I also find the battery life not as good as it could be currently supposed to last for 9 hours (I find with continuous use I get around 6 hours at best). I was hoping that it would have been like the earlier versions of the kindle that can last for up to 8 weeks, but I find I have to charge it every day, if not twice a day depending on usage which can be a pain, as you need to carry the charger cable around with you.  I found that to preserve the battery slightly you have to shut it down after use rather than leaving it on standby. And other down side is it only comes with the lead to plug into a computer which is a very slow way of charging your kindle. You have to buy the plug separate which to me didn’t make sense considering how much you would have brought it for.  A way round depending on your phone (as many come with a plug with usb connection) and if you already have one of these you won’t need to purchase the kindle plug.

That being said, the benefits and uses of the Kindle Fire outshine the down sides and hopefully with new and improved versions these things can be addressed. I think you will definitely enjoy using the kindle fire and wonder why you didn’t get one sooner!  Blessings, for the weekend.

Gratitudes - Books

I love to read, sometimes there doesn’t seem like there is enough time to fit in all the books, I often end up reading more than one book at a time..