This Week's Reads 10/25

Little behind getting this up!


Going, Going, Ganache by Jenn McKinlay
I actually read the entire series, but this is the last (for now!).  I enjoyed it a lot!  It kind of ended as a cliffhanger...so I'll be sure to read Sugar and Iced when it comes out next year!









My One Square Inch of Alaska by Sharon Short

Bittersweet.  I'm still not totally sure how I feel about it.  It's the story of a teenage girl in the 1950's, her alcoholic father, her dreams of leaving her small town, and her little brother whom she has raised...and who gets sick.  Very sick.  Worth reading.









A Place of Confinement by Anna Dean
The last in a mystery series set in Regency England.  I love the heroine, Miss Dido Kent, who, at the ripe old age of 36, is consider a spinster.  (Shaking my head.)  Anyway, she is a bright, inquisitive and very intelligent woman who has a knack for unraveling mysteries.  A GREAT series.

This Week's Reads 10/18

It's cozy mystery binge week!  :)

Book, Line, and Sinker by Jenn McKinlay

The third in the Library Lovers mystery series.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, of course.  And can't wait for the fourth,  Read It and Weep, to be published next month!










Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay

I enjoyed Library Lover's mysteries so much, I thought I'd pick up another on Jenn McKinlay's mysteries.  This is from the Cupcake Bakery mystery series, number two unfortunately (I hate starting out of order!).  I liked it, I liked it a lot.  Not as much as the Library Lover's series, but still a great cozy mystery.  I've got the rest of the series on hold at the library as we speak.

Garden Plot by Kristen McKendry
Thoroughly enjoyed it.  The owner of an in-patient halfway house of sorts finds a dead body in her garden, presumably one of her patients.  Presumably.  I love a good puzzle to figure out, and the main character was detail oriented and sharp as a tack.  This is an LDS fiction book, meaning the main character is a Mormon and there are a few cultural references that a non-Mormon reader won't quite get, but it wouldn't take away from the rest of the story.  My only complaint is there is no sequel!

Faux Robeez and a simple Fabric Flower

I love Robeez.  I think they are awesome shoes for baby.  And I also think they are pretty expensive shoes for baby, and I don't like to spend so much money on shoes they will wear for such a short time!  But making an imitation pair is pretty quick and VERY inexpensive.

A few years ago, a friend of mine gave me an awesome free pattern she had found online for these shoes.  You can find it here from stardust shoes.  I won't give you step-by-step instructions for sewing the shoe, as you'll find that in the pattern.  But I will tell you about the supplies I chose and how I made the decorative flowers.

So I chose a faux leather from the home decor fabrics at JoAnn.  This one.  And then plain ole bleached muslin for the lining.  Since the faux leather is so heavy and sturdy, I skipped the interfacing.  (If you want to do real leather, check my pinterest board here for some inexpensive scrap leather sources.)

Now making that simple leather flower!  First, cut six circles out of your leather (or other fabric), three for each shoe.  Mine were inch circles that I cut using the Sizzix Circles No.4 Die and my Big Shot.  Now fold the circles in half,

and sew a little triangle from the middle point to the edge, making sure you backstitch at each end.

Then trim off the excess.

Fold out, and voila!

Your petal.  Repeat.  Then arrange in a triangle shape, overlapping edges as you go.

Sew into place.  Add your embellishment (in my case, buttons from my stash), and you're done!

These simple flowers make great accessories to add to shoes, handbags, jewelry, hair accessories, etc.

Linking up here:

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This Week's Reads 10/11

Someone asked me if I blog all the books I read.  The answer is no, I do not.  I only blog the ones I think will be of most interest to all of you.  Which brings me to this week's reads!

Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay
Book 2 of the Library Lovers mystery series.  Yes, I am a library lover and I am loving this series.  Cozy mystery.  Set in a coastal Conneticut town.  Main character is the library director (totally surprising of course, given the series title).  Great series.  When I'm all caught up with it, I'll have to pick up another Jenn McKinlay, she's written a few mystery series'.





Austenland by Shannon Hale
This is actually a re-read for me.  I didn't like it the first time (though I have to say I love her childrens and young adult novels).  But then a few weeks ago, my mom convinced me to go see the new movie with her.  And I kinda loved it.  So I thought I'd try the book again.  I did like it better the second time around, because I was picturing the movie.  I really liked the changes that Shannon Hale and Jerusha Hess (the director and co-screenwriter) made to the story for the movie.  Sooooo.....yeah, for once I liked a movie better than its literary counterpart.



Mr. Darcy Forever by Victoria Connelly
More Austen fan fiction from the author I picked up last week.  It's a rather convoluted retelling of Sense and Sensibility.  This just may be my least favorite of hers.  Didn't love it.

So about digital scrapbooking....

....you know how I was participating in the Studio's Next Designer competition?  Except I only did it one week?  Yeah, not how I meant for things to go.  It didn't help that the competition fell on an extremely busy month for me.  But I still want to make digiscrap freebies and stretch my designing wings a little bit.  Ideally, I'd like to do a freebie kit a month, but I can't commit to that.  'Cause frankly, it may not be realistic.  But say I was able to get my act together enough to have a kit ready for DSD (Digital Scrapbook Day, first Saturday of November)?  What kind of kit should I design?  Head over to my Facebook page and give me some feedback!

And if you haven't picked up my current mini kit freebie Stick Shifts and Safety Belts

here are the links:

Papers

Elements

Hope to hear your opinion!

This Week's Reads 10/4

Let's see what I've got for you this week while I'm off having a blast at Disneyland!  :)

Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay
Another cozy murder mystery series.  Needless to say, I love books and libraries, so this Library Lover's Mystery series had obvious appeal.  I really enjoyed it.  The characters were winning, relatable and endearing, the setting and murder mystery interesting.  I'll be continuing on with the series for sure.







Dreaming of Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly
Austen fan fiction (obviously).  Didn't love this one.  Didn't dislike it, but didn't love it.  The premise is a woman who is starting her life over in Lyme, one of the most famous settings of Persuasion.  Then what do you know, here comes a entire crew, etc., to film an adaptation of Persuasion.  The heroine bugged me.  She was, well, kinda stupid in the choices she made, the rationalizations and white lies she told herself and the obvious things she chose not to see.  But then again, who isn't stupid about love at times.  It was interesting enough that I read another book from the series...




Weekend with Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly
Another book from the above series.  Again, liked it but didn't love it.  A light read with a happy ending.  And much less frustrating main characters.  Probably liked this one better.