Another Holiday Craft!

Crafts! Crafts! Crafts!

Step One: Buy Supplies! I had made these darling accordian style mini-scrapbooks the year Devin was in Four-Year Pre-School for his teacher and the two aides. I made one for myself too, but never added the pictures :). After making the cinnamon ornaments, I thought about this little book and thought it would be fun to make them with Devin and figured I'd even include his friend. He can take it home and give it to his mom for Christmas!

Step Two: Try not to rip hair out as you explain how to fold and attach squares!! Eventually I just took over and folded their paper and attached them. It was much easier :). And I still have my hair. And my sanity! I forgot how time-consuming these little things are! So I decided to make the darn things and then just let the boys do the decorating. It's much easier that way :)! Devin did help me with the stitching on his. Of course it became a race to see who could get all the way around one square! We tied :)!

The Finished product! I think these things are just the cutest things! And with pictures inside...they make for wonderful handmade gifts. The only problem that I have with this is you have to cut some of the pictures so small. But then I just had a thought! If you did want to use most of the picture you could cut it in half, or where ever it would look right, mount the first half in the top section and then mount the second half in either the section right below or right across! Like say Devin was opening a present you could have him on one side and the present on the other or below! I think that would look really cool like that. I'll have to get out a pic from last year and experiment! Who doesn't love to look at pictures? It's a nice and fun little way to display a few moments forever captured.

Tuesday, me and my mom will be making ours :)!

Holiday Craft Time - Cinnamon Ornaments!

Over at the Lust in Time blog, Amanda posted about the Holiday season and she shared this wonderfully aromatic recipe for these cute little ornaments. And I had to make them! So me and my little helper whipped up two batches last night. The recipe says it makes about two dozen, but my cookie cutters must be bigger than the ones you should use. In two batches I ended up with 29. And this morning, my house smells amazing! Oh the potency of two cups of cinnamon permeating the air!

The recipe:

1 cup of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground all-spice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 cup of applesauce

Mix dry ingredients. Add applesauce a little at a time (Mixture should have consistency of play-dough, so you can work it with your hands.) If mixture is to dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of applesauce. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness on an ungreased surface. If mixture is too sticky to handle, sprinkle surface with a bit of cinnamon.

Use sharp-edged cookie cutters to cut out as desired. Place on level surface (I leave mine on the cookie sheet of cutting board) and air-dry for 4-5 days.(Turn them once half way through)

Recipe makes about two dozen ornaments, depending on the size of the cookie cutter. Use the end of a straw or small round stick to create a hole that you can put wire or ribbon through after it's dry. Ornaments will lighten in color as they dry.

It only took about an hour to make them all, but now they have to sit for the next five days or so. It's been awhile since I did any kind of craft and I had a lot of fun making them with Devin. And I have some fun ideas as to what I'm going to do with them!

Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, Amanda!

It Snowed! And November Reading List!

It finally snowed! The month of November was such a wonderfully mild month, highs in the 40's and 50's and not a lick of snow. But you know, it's getting closer to Christmas and I'm missing that lovely white stuff. It enhances all the beautiful Christmas decorations outside. However, once the Holiday has passed, I'll be wishing we would stop getting all this snow, cuz then it just isn't anymore fun. Only means it's cold! And people are predicting we are going to have a bad winter. But don't they say that every year?? :) But for now...

Let it Snow...Let it Snow...Let it Snow!

Devin and I also took a drive through a bit of Lockport looking at Christmas decorated houses, and we found a new one that was totally decked out, one we hadn't seen before! There is this one house just up the road that we look forward to seeing every year. It's a house we drive by anytime we go shopping, we pass it. It's always exciting to see everything lit up. My husband does our outside lights and he does such a pretty job too! And now with the bit of snow, it's only prettier :).

Have any of you gotten any snow yet? Do you like the snow? Or are you like me...Love it until after Christmas then wish it would just go away and get warm again? :)


Also, here are my list of books read in November!

1. Janet Chapman - The Seductive Imposter ****

2. Cindy Miles - Highland Knight ***

3. Lois McMaster Bujold - The Sharing Knife: Beguilement(Book One) *****

4. Kathryne Kennedy - My Unfair Lady ****

5. Diana P. Francis - The Black Ship *****

6. Janet Chapman - A Highlander Christmas ****

7. Tessa Dare - Surrender of a Siren *****

8. Tessa Dare - A Lady of Persuasion ****

I had started Bujold's second book in her Sharing Knife series a week ago, or maybe longer. I don't know what happened, but I have been unable to stay with it :(. I loved the first one! And I did read two short stories from two different anthologies.

I have a couple Christmas books to read this month! And looking forward to reading them :). I still have a few I didn't read from last year. Not sure if I'll get to them or not.

Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, and A Lady of Persuasion by Tessa Dare

This is a rather long post. It's my reviews of all three books by Tessa Dare. I figure I'd just post them all together, since the books are the continuation of characters. This is such a lovely trilogy! Most especially the second book, Surrender of a Siren. But as a whole, I loved it! Tessa Dare is an amazing writer, and I look forward to her next trilogy coming out next year (even though it's not my normal historical setting). She simply has a way with words that I love reading!

Goddess of the Hunt
Book One
July 28, 2009

Lucy and Jeremy

I read this book based on the recommendations of my lovely friend Christine. This time period usually isn't what I choose to read for Historical romances, but I am so glad that I did. Jeremy and Lucy were so very fun and entertaining.

Lucy is on a hunt to capture the one man she has 'loved' nearly her entire life. She fears that if she doens't act soon, then this love of hers, Toby, is going to propose to another woman, Sophia. So Lucy sneaks away to the bedroom of a long time friend, Jeremy, one night and seeks out practice at seduction. Now this is a man Lucy has forever ribbed and taunted, trying for eight years to get under his skin. That night soon leads to Jeremy acting the besotted fool toward Lucy in an attempt to make Toby jealous. However, Jeremy claims to be doing it to protect Lucy from making a fool of herself, but what neither of them realize, is love really is blooming, just not where either of them ever expected!

There were some truly lovely scenes in this book. Some will make you laugh, some will make you want to yell at Lucy to grow up, and others will make your palms sweaty from the heat that generates between Lucy and Jeremy. Tessa Dare has some amazing prose. Several places I marked to go back to reread through. Several paragraphs that just left you breathless.

I enjoyed this book so much that I bought the second, which is Sophia's book and third, which is Toby's book. Both are characters that I enjoyed reading, especially Sophia. Even though she was a rival to Lucy in this book, you couldn't help but like her!

Surrender of a Siren
Book Two
August 25, 2009

Sophia and Gray

Sophia Hathoway, a beautiful London society miss, flees her family and betrothed mere days before her wedding. Seeking passage aboard the Aphrodite under the guise of a governess, Sophia longs to feel passion. She's tired of being treated like the prim, proper and innocent young woman she was raised to be. For deep inside Sophia resides a yearning for passion and the sweet seduction of a man. Aboard the Aphrodite, Sophia is swept away on the grandest adventure her heart could ever desire!

Gray swore that he would turn over a new leaf, becoming a respectable man in societies eyes, but most importantly in the eyes of his brother Joss, who happens to be the captain of the Aphrodite.In the past Gray has done things that's shamed him, and he's ready to start anew in an attempt to make up for his selfishness. But he never anticipated the beauty seeking passage aboard his ship. With her seductive innocence, Gray is left with a terrible ache for the woman known to him as Ms. Jane Turner. He never thought being respectable could be so hard.

Neither Gray nor Sophia expected the raging storm, sweeping them into a vortex of desire and yearnings the likes of which neither of them ever experienced.

The second book in Tessa Dare's trilogy, and I loved it more than the first one! Tessa Dare is simply amazing with her prose. Delightfully enchanting, her words connect seamlessly, creating wonderful characters and some very hot, very intense scenes. My favorite being the one that Gray pushes Sophia head first into her own raging passions during his sitting when she sketches him.What a breathtaking scene. It even brought a tear due to its intensity.

Surrender of a Siren ranks exceedingly high on my list of historical romances, and I'm left without any hesitation to pick up another of her books in the future. She's definitely made her place among my keeper shelf!

A Lady of Persuasion
Book Three
September 29, 2009

Isabel and Toby

After reading Goddess of the Hunt and Surrender of a Siren, I was eager to read this third in the trilogy about Bel and the poor jilted Toby. And what a wonderful set of books these are.

Toby's determined to gain some sort of revenge on the man who 'stole' his intended, the beautiful Sophia, and Bel is determined to find a man with decent political standings in order to become a 'lady of influence' among London society. There's no room in her life for love and desire, not with her goals for charity and helping the less fortunate. Yet Toby awakens within her a craving for passion that terrifies her.

Their marriage is nearly doomed from the beginning, for Toby promises things that he shouldn't, only to appease Bel in order for her to find him to be the one suitable husband she seeks. Each of them have their doubts of worthiness regarding their own significance to the other. I think Tessa Dare did an outstanding job formulating how Toby and Bel struggle with their issues and realize and come to terms with their shortcomings.

I wasn't sure what I thought of Bel in the beginning, with her rather 'holier than thou' attitude in her quiet and innocent sort of way. But over the course of the book, I began to understand and accept her behavior and beliefs. That's the one thing about how a person is shaped after tragic incidents in their past. You just don't know. Everyone deals with things differently and takes from them what they will, shaping them into who they will become. And with what Bel suffered with her mom, her father, and her brothers, well, I can understand how she would grow to want the things she does and fear the things she fears, such as desire and love.

I greatly enjoyed the conclusion of this trilogy with Bel and Toby. And I loved the way all three books tied into the other. Such wonderful characters. It was a pleasure spending more time with Lucy and Jeremy, and Sophia and Gray. And even the side story with Gray's and Bel's brother, Joss and Lucy's physician, Hetta. That was a sweet surprise and one I was very thankful to read!

A fine historical trilogy, one I would not hesitate recommending to others!

www.tessadare.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving Poem

T’was the night of Thanksgiving,

But I just couldn’t sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned,
The dark meat and white.
But I fought the temptation,
With all of my might.
Tossing and turning,
with anticipation.
The thought of a snack
became infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge,
Full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey,
And buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots,
Beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling,
So plump and so round.
‘til all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling,
Floating into the sky,
With a mouthful of pudding,
And a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell
As I soared past the trees
Happy eating to all,
Pass the cranberries, please!!
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize
And May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!
by Lauren

Happy Thanksgiving.
I wish you all a beautiful day!

My Unfair Lady - Kathryne Kennedy

My Unfair Lady
by Kathryne Kennedy
December 1, 2009

www.kathrynekennedy.com

Born and raised in the infamous town of Tombstone, frontier lass Summer Lee is far from one of London’s gently breed society ladies. But London is where she is looking to hire a titled man to teach her the ways of ladies.

You see, after Summer’s father made a fortune doing this and that, he uprooted her to New York city where a handsome young man named Monte caught her fancy, and he’s asked her to marry him, but his family snubs their nose at her because of her lack of propriety. Summer’s not too suave when it comes to upper-class formalities.

So it’s off to London for some training. Lord Byron, Duke of Monchester finds himself filling that precarious position as his need for the money she offers overrides his better judgment.

Neither Byron nor Summer are looking for a love match. But after much time spent attending balls, and dinners and the occasional deal that may or may not include a kiss, as well as a dose of danger. Summer and Byron are finding it easy telling their heads nothing is happening between them. It’s trying to convince their hearts. That stubborn organ doesn’t appear to want to listen.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I’ve read Kathryne Kennedy’s Relics of Merlin series and while those are filled with magic, I felt that My Unfair Lady was filled with magic as well. Not in the paranormal sense, but in the writing. Ms. Kennedy weaved her characters together in such a way that you could feel Summer as her unconventional behavior penetrates Byron’s cold façade, chipping away the layers to the true man beneath. And the love between them felt as accidental as it was meant to be. Another sweetly sensual tale weaved and brought to life by one of my favorite writers! However, I did grow a bit concerned with the continued motivation of Summer toward the end to continue carrying the pretense she wanted to be a lady for the sake of her vow to Monte. But all in all, it moved along swiftly. And I adored the secondary cast of ‘critters’. Most especially, India, the monkey!

The moral of this story...Be happy for being who you are. Don't change yourself for love or for social standings, love will find you. The right person will embrace you, stand beside you, and support you for being you. And that's what both Summer and Byron learn in this book. My Unfair Lady is a remarkable tale of love and acceptance.

More Reviews of My Unfair Lady-

Mandi @ Smexy Books
Marissa @ ROOB

Other books by Kathryne Kennedy:

The Relics of Merlin Series

(I loved these books!)