The Christmas Quilt - Patricia Davids

Summary from Goodreads: Years ago, Rebecca Beachy kept her reasons for rejecting Gideon Troyer's marriage proposal a secret. Then Gideon left their Amish community. Now, Rebecca crafts quilts to raise money to cure her blindness. She's also busy guarding her heart against love. Until Gideon returns, at risk of being shunned, to make the winning bid on one of her exquisite quilts. Will the quilt—a patchwork promise of rediscovered love—bring Gideon and Rebecca back together again?

Rebecca Beachy is selling one of her quilts at an auction to help raise money for her eye surgery that may return her vision.  Gideon "Booker" Troyer sees the story on the news and returns to the Amish community to help her by buying it.  After being in Hope Springs for several days, Gideon realizes that he misses the Amish lifestyle more than he thought and returns home.  Will Gideon get back together with Rebecca?  Will Rebecca find out the truth about Gideon and Booker?  Does Rebecca's vision return?

This was a great story about honesty and God's will.  It was also a tender story about love that never ends.  I really enjoyed this book and the strong characters in it!

Craft Room Lighting

We have completed the final phase of my craft room update.  Here is the light fixture we picked:

We found it at Home Depot.  It hold (4) 48" T8 fluorescent bulbs which is equivalent to (24) 60 watt bulbs.  OMG, it is soooo bright in my room.  We used natural light bulbs so the colors are more defined and clearer.  It is like a huge Ott Light mounted to the ceiling.  I was using a tall floor light that gave out very little light.  This is such a great improvement!

We are finally done with my updated craft room!  I am so happy with the results!  Thanks again honey!

More Craft Room Storage

Okay, here is the progress and results from phase three of my craft room renovations!

Here are my new cabinets:

Jay stopped at Lowe's on Saturday Thanksgiving and bought the countertop.  We found the cabinets at Home Depot.  They are their in stock kitchen cabinets by Hampton Bay which were 20% off for the holiday weekend.  I bought one 18" cabinet with drawers and one 30" cabinet so that a 48" countertop would fit on top perfectly.

Here is another benefit of having the 30" cabinet:

This drawer holds all my quilting rulers and cutters. This is now my new cutting station.  I love it!

We have one more phase left to complete my updated craft room.  We are in search of better and brighter lighting for the room!

Craft Room Update from 2008

Hubby installed these cabinets for me on one wall of my craft room back in November 2008 as a Christmas present.  I did not have a blog back then so you have not seen this picture before.

These cabinets are on the right hand side of the room when you enter it.  For phase three, we are thinking of adding more cabinets like this on the left hand side of the room.  You'll see what we decided tomorrow!

A New Color in my Craft Room

Okay, my dear hubby is on a kick to make my craft room better for me.  So for phase two of his master plan, he painted my craft room the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Here is the room before:

My room was the original egghsell that the house was painted when we finished building it.  I was so afraid of adding color that we left it the same for so long.

And now for the after:

The color he chose was Oatmeal Bath from Ace.  I wanted a change from eggshell but nothing too drastic to affect my color planning for making quilts.  This color is about 2 shades darker than the eggshell.  You can notice a slight difference when looking at the white cabinets.  We talked about it before he headed out to Rocky's to buy paint.  I said that I wanted did not want white, yellow, blue, pink, purple and no pastel colors.  I love how it is a subtle change and the room feels good with a fresh coat of paint.

Thanks honey for taking the time to finally paint my craft room!

Stay tuned for phase three ~ Coming Soon!

Darlene's Iris

Meet Iris:

She is going to live with Darlene.  You see, I brought Goldfish Petunia (a/k/a Turbo ~ to match his father's snowmobile) over to her son, Stephen, and she fell in love with my monsters.  She asked me to make her one.  So she looked through my blog and picked out Iris.  Little does she know that Iris is my favorite monster to knit!  So I went through my yarn stash and found this colorful yarn to use for her.  I hope she likes her Iris!!!

Supplies:
Pattern: Iris the Gourmet Monster by Rebecca Danger
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore Colorspun Worsted #7124
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) on 40" Cables

New Craft Room Closet - Grand Finale!

Okay, today is the final step to my new craft room closet transformation.  Are you ready???

Here's Jay installing the new orange shelves that we bought from a packaging company in Palmer from Craigslist.  They are painted orange because we used leftover paint from our bedroom instead of buying more.  It is in a closet anyways so I did not care about the color of them.  Plus orange is nice and bright and cheery!

Look at his cute assistant, Hershey!!!  He just had to get involved!  LOL!

Now, the final result.  May I have a drum roll please???

Starting from the bottom, shelf 1, 2 and the stacked containers on the left of shelf 3 are full of quilting fabric.  The tote on shelf 1 on the right is filled with completed projects.  So when I need a gift or people at work have asked me to bring in stuff, it is easily accessible.  The rest of shelf 3, 4 and 5 are totes filled with yarn, organized by yarn weight.  On shelf 6, I have various shaped totes up there with filled with muslin, stablizer, embroiderable items, 4 quilting project boxes and my bag of accessories to assembling my knitted monsters.

You can barely see it but there another shelf above shelf 6 about 10" high to the ceiling.  I put my packaged quilt batting, pillow forms and stuffing for my knitted monsters.  I do need Jay to get it for me since I am still too short on my step ladder.  Lol!

Also, there is about 11" of space to the right of the shelves.  Jay and I looked at Lowe's for storage options for that space but it is tough with the closet door in front of it.  So I have empty project bags and my sewing maching cover in there.

I am very happy with the results!  Now I do not have to clean out the entire closet to make a quilt or to go digging for specific yarn for a knitting project.  Thanks Jay for all your help and inspiration for making my craft room better!

This completes phase one of the craft room renovations.  Stay tuned for the results of phase two and three!

New Craft Room Closet - Part 2

On Saturday morning, I emptied out the closet to get it ready for Jay to bring the shelving upstairs.  It looks like my closet threw up! LMAO!

Here's the first half:

And the second half:

Look, it is empty!

I will be sharing the final results of my craft room on Friday!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

New Craft Room Closet - Part 1

I wanted to share this weekend's project with you.  If you know me personally, you know that it is not like me to be unorganized.  Well I have proof.  Here was the inside of my craft room closet:

This is the left hand side of the closet.  All the stacked totes contain quilting fabric and all the tied bags are filled with yarn.

This is the right hand side of the closet.  On top of the gray tote are various quilt kits from Connecting Threads that I NEEDED to have!  To the right of the totes are bags upon bags of MORE yarn.

This is the top shelf of the closet.  More tied bags of yarn, cotton quilting batting and items to embroider like finger towels, baby bibs and fabric napkins.

Check out my blog tomorrow for part 2!

My Memories Suite Winner!

OMG, I cannot believe that I forgot to pull a winner yesterday, sorry!  Well in my defense, it was my birthday and I was very busy re-organizing my craft room closet.  I will post pictures of the transformation during the week.  So without wasting any more time, the winner is:

Posting #3 - Anonymous - Sam

I will be contacting Sam to give her free promotional code!

If you did not win, please remember you can always purchase the My Memories digital scrapbooking software for $10 less by using my coupon code STMMMS7100 and you will also get $10 gift certificate to purchase additional kits from the store.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Secrets - Kristen Heitzmann

Summary from GoodReads: Lance Michelli is on a quest to discover the secrets his grandmother cannot tell. What happened all those years ago, and what is it she so desperately needs him to find? The old villa in Sonoma holds the answers, but it is now owned by a young woman who neither knows nor cares about his mission. But Rese Barret is a force to contend with, and her own impending storm could sweep him up as their sparring creates a fierce and uncomfortable attraction.

Lance Michelli heads to Sonoma, CA on a quest for his grandmother. Along the way, he meets Rese Barret who is renovating an older home to make it a bed and breakfast.  There are strong connections between them but Rese does not want to get emotionally involved.  Will Lance be able to uncover what his grandmother sent him out there for?  Will Rese allow Lance into her life and heart?

I thought this book was just okay.  It was a kindle freebie a few months ago so I did not pay for it.  I felt that the book dragged at some points.  Also, Rese is so emotionally cold that she frustrated me.  Lance is an over all good guy that you can't help but like yourself.

My Memories Freebies

Here are some freebies that are available from My Memories.

They will only be free until November 19th.

Take Out Box 1

Take Out Box 2

Take Out Box 3

Here is a link to the TUTORIAL for making these cute boxes!

To get these freebies, you must have a My Memories account to access them.  The account is always free and it saves all your downloads in case you accidentally delete something or change computers.

Don't have My Memories Suite software?  You can buy it now using my coupon code STMMMS7100 to save $10 plus get another $10 to use in the store.

Pumpkin Patch Pages

Here are some pumpkin patch pages (say that 5 times fast ~ lol!) for my friend Sam:

Here is her oldest daughter, Victoria, from 2008 to 2011:

Here is her younger daughter, Abigail, from 2009 to 2011:

Here are the two of them in 2012:

I liked how I was able to make  page for each kid showing how much they have grown over a short period of time.  She was very pleased with them!

For these pages, I used My Memories Suite digital scrapbook software along with Pumpkin Patch kit, Autumn Spray frame (free) and Pumpkin Patch Monograms.

Bright Ursula and Uma

Here are Ursula and Uma:

Here is Ursula alone:

And here's Uma:

These were both fun to make!  I was able to make Ursula using one skein of Red Heart varigated yarn with more yarn to spare that I thought.  These were fun to make!  I love those really long arms too!

Supplies:
Pattern: Ursula and Uma the Understanding Monsters by Rebecca Danger from Scarlet Fleece
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Bonbon Print & Shocking Pink
Needles: US 5 on 40" Cables

Goldfish Petunia

Here is Petunia:

Here she is lounging in bed:

And finally here she is sitting out on the deck:

Man, there sure are a lot of leaves down but it is still relatively warm outside.

Supplies:
Pattern: Petunia the Patio Monster by Rebecca Danger from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Baby #132 - Goldfish
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) on 40" Cables

Some Halloween Scrapbook Pages

Here are a couple of digital scrapbook pages that I made for Halloween using My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software:

This is my hubby's friend Steve and his son dressed up to head out trick-or-treating.  I wonder how many kids actually know who Bettlejuice is???

These are my co-worker's Tara's kids as batgirl and batman.

Both of these scrapbook pages were made from quick pages from Mummy's Little Monsters, a free kit.

Don't forget to leave me a comment on this page for a chance to win your own copy of My Memories Suite digital software!  The contest ends November 18th!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This weekend only, everything on My Memories website is 30% off to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day!  That means that the My Memories Suite software is now $27.98 before my $10 off coupon.  Also, when you use my coupon code, STMMMS7100, you also get $10 towards any other purchases in the store!  So with 30% off, you can buy 30% more!

Do you already own My Memories Suite?  They are having a blog train celebration this weekend over on their blog featuring 25 designers and each designer is giving away a free kit.  I grabbed all of them already and there are some really great kits out there for free!  Begin HERE to board the blog train!

My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway

I was recently contacted by Liz Gardner, a representative from My Memories, about giving an honest review of their digital scrapbooking software, My Memories Suite, in exchange for a free copy of the software to keep for myself.  Plus as an extra bonus, I am able to give away an additional copy to one of my blog readers.  Are you interested?  Keep reading to find out how!

MyMemories Suite 3 is the #1-rated scrapbooking software.  Here are some reasons why:

• Create in minutes.  Fast, and easy to use. Simple enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for a serious scrapbooker.
• Make it Easy.  Setup and cleanup are as easy as the exit button. And the savings over traditional scrapbooks is huge!
• Speaks for itself.  Video, music, and narration can bring all your memories to life.
• So, go ahead, show off!  Countless ways to share your creation with family and friends again and again—and again.

Making a Scrapbook

MyMemories Suite will help you create your beautiful pages from scratch or build an entire album using one of the many professionally-designed scrapbook templates provided within the scrapbook software. A large collection of papers and embellishments are also included and available at your fingertips to help you make each page uniquely your own.

If this were any other scrapbooking software, you might be finished. But with My Memories Suite, the real power-and fun-of this software is just beginning. There are so many ways to save and share your memories, you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

Affordable

With over 1,500 papers, over 1,000 page elements, and over 30 album templates (including 10 new for v3), MyMemories Suite lets you hit the ground running with your very own scrapbook or photo album in a matter of minutes. It’s easy-to-use and affordable—and compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. Don’t put off your important memories any longer, add MyMemories Suite to your shopping cart now.

You can make a beautiful scrapbook an interactive memory experience for anyone who sees it. Use simple one-click options to enhance your scrapbooks, with music, narration, video, and even the Internet. Go beyond pictures by showing off video of the birthday party, or record a narration to capture the memories that pictures alone cannot. With My Memories Suite you simply don't look at a scrapbook-you experience it!

I downloaded my copy of My Memory Suite and I found it easy to use, navigate and to create my own custom digital scrapbook pages instantly without much difficulty.  Here are some simple sample pages:

My cousin, Jessica, had a baby on Friday.


Here are the new parents on the left and the new grandparents on the right.

I used Sweet Boy Quick Page and Home Sweet Home Wordart along with a flourish that was included in the software to make the above pages.

I used Rescue Me Extras free kit to make this page.

Then I decided to try a quick page and I added my own journaling:

I used Snowflake Winter Page Sample kit to make this page.

It was fun, easy and addicting!  I instantly wanted to keep making more pages but I had other things I should be doing too!  LOL!  All of the pages above were created using some of the free kits available from My Memories.  Currently, there are over 200 free kits available to fit your scrapping needs.  Check them out for yourself over at Free Kits!

So would you like to win your own copy of My Memory Suite digital scrapbooking software?  Please leave me a comment telling me what you like best about the My Memories Suite software along with your email address to contact you if you win.  The contest will close on Sunday, November 18th (on my 40th birthday)!  Good luck!!!

If you are not the lucky winner, you can purchase your own copy of My Memories Suite through me and save $10 by clicking on the banner below or on the side of my blog, costing you only $29.97!

My coupon code is: STMMMS7100

A special thanks to Liz from My Memories for contacting me and allowing me to review this amazing digital scrapbooking software!