Book Review - A Whisper of Peace

Late last night (or maybe it was early this morning....) I finished Kim Vogel Sawyer's latest book, A Whisper of Peace. I am excited to be one of the blogger book reviewers for Bethany House Publishers. So many wonderful authors are published by them and Sawyer is one of my favorites. Her first publication, My Heart Remembers, is one of my favorite fiction books. I was excited to be able to review her latest.

A Whisper of Peace is mainly about Lizzie, a young woman that lives in a cabin in exile from the local tribe. Her father, a trapper, married a woman from the tribe and the tribe excommunicated them. After her father left and later the death of her mother, Lizzie only had her sled dogs to keep her company. Her goal is to reconcile with her maternal family before leaving Alaska for San Francisco and reunite with her father.

 Clay and Vivian are step siblings headed to begin mission work in the tribal community. Against the wishes of the tribal leaders, they befriend Lizzie and Vivian even begins teaching her the skills needed to survive in "modern" San Francisco. Clay is so driven to build the mission building that he looses sight of what his true mission is in the village. Vivian strives to earn God's forgiveness through her work aiding Clay.

In her book, A Whisper of Peace, Sawyer illustrates some wonderful truths. God loves all people, regardless of skin color or background. We cannot earn God's forgiveness by works, only by faith in Him. And finally that in all of our busyness doing things for God, we must not forget that people are most important.

Once I started the book, I had a hard time putting it down. Sawyer's last several books have been rather varied in setting - it seems as though she is trying to find her niche. The characters and setting aren't as deep as they could be, and I think she could be stronger in history. Although this isn't my favorite of her books, it is a book I would certainly recommend it to anyone! I look forward to reading Sawyer's next book!


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My thanks to Bethany House for providing me this copy to review. My opinions are my own.

Finished Object Friday - Got it covered!

Yes, it's FOF week! (I guess I usually end up blogging in spurts, huh? I really had been working on last night's post for most of the week...) :) But we sure don't want to miss Finished Object Friday!!! heehee!

One of my friends had a birthday last week... ok. MOST of you know her... ;) She's the spray painting/home decorating queen! She's also is great with a camera. And what better to make a photographer than a fun camera strap? And what better style for an Alabama girl than houndstooth and red?

Roll Tide! (wait... I'm in Texas. Is it even legal to say that??)  ;)

One of her favorite features, it turns out (and mine too) is the lens cap pocket.

I think it would really come in handy, as I would always be laying that cap somewhere! :)

As for the specs... You probably guessed I used my ruffler again. :) Worked pretty well, even going through two layers of fabric. (I made a tube and then sewed down the center to hold it together before putting it through the ruffler.) I mainly used this tutorial for all the dimensions, and referenced a few others. I felt a little like I was in the dark, because I didn't have a strap to try it on - but thankfully it fit just fine! :)

So what have you been up to? Maybe something special for fall? I'm excited to see! Happy Friday!

Learning - More steps

Last week was a super busy week for us adoption wise!! It is such an exciting time, but overwhelming at the same time. After getting our paperwork filed with the agency, things really started speeding up - the main reason being to be ready for a two day seminar in Dallas last Thursday and Friday!

Tuesday we had our first visit with our case worker. She came here to our house, so we got a few of the "homestudy" jitters out of the way! :) (And the house wasn't perfect... but I was so glad to have my flowers planted and my front porch all prettied up!) The visit went very well! Our case worker is very nice and we felt really comfortable with her. (Which is great because she basically knows everything about us!) :)

Wednesday evening we headed to Dallas to be closer to the agency and our meeting Thursday morning. We stayed with some sweet friends, James and Beka, who are also in the process of adopting!! I've told Beka it's like experiencing "pregnancies" together! :) Then it was up on Thursday for a YUMMY breakfast and head to the agency for our seminar.

 

The seminar went very well. There was so much information! I woke up Friday morning thinking "Can I absorb another day of this?" :)  We made it though! There was only one other couple there for this meeting (there was another seminar earlier this year.) We had fun getting to know them a bit and look forward to seeing what little one God has in store for them as well! :) 

Friday, while we were in the meeting, my mom was doing a bit of shopping for me! I was bummed to have to miss our favorite sale, but it was for a good cause!! :)  So I told Mom to pick up anything for baby safety! We now have plenty of outlet covers (and the grand total for those was around 50 cents!), furniture anchors, and cabinet locks, as well as a few other things that were too fun to pass up! (And a few things for around the house.) Mom makes a great personal shopper! :)

November is National Adoption Month. I am going to be writing a series on adoption. There are so many kinds of adoption, but I will be focusing on what adoption will look like for our family. (At least this first time...) :) I am looking forward to sharing some of what we have learned and to helping others understand our heart for adoption!

Annual Fall Tour

Welcome!! It seems that my "Fall Tour" has become somewhat of a tradition - at least for me. I really enjoy decorating the house cozy for fall. Pull up a chair and have a cup of hot cider! Welcome!

Monday I worked in my flower beds. I have been so ready for pretty color, especially after such a long hot summer. 

I'm loving the color on the front porch - I usually have an ivy in the stand, but it didn't survive the summer too well.

I got lots of pretty pansies planted, but they haven't quite recovered from the replanting. (Don't we all take time getting used to new situations?) :)

Into the living room:

My fall mantle - much more simple than usual, but I'm enjoy it! (unfortunately... I just now realized that I forgot to fasten my fall word picture back down... amazing what pictures will reveal... heehee!! It doesn't like to stick to the paper backing...)

My piano! I need to do another post on this later... it is my mom's old piano, and I am really enjoying having an actual piano in my home! (as well as decorating it...)

On my dining room table:

Well, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed the tour... come back soon! :)

Finished Object Friday - Ruffled Edition.

So you probably figured they were coming, right? Especially after my last post! Ruffles!!

A while back I fell in love with this scarf from Dear Lillie:

Source: dearlillie.com via Charity on Pinterest

However, I just used what I had on hand (a t-shirt I hardly ever wore...), so I didn't have a whole lot of material to work with (and another shirt would have been a slightly different color, unfortunately. So I improvised! I backed it with a fun black and white print that I had picked up in the remnants bin at Hobby Lobby. :)

About the ruffler. Yes, it really is handy and so fun to see straight fabric turning into ruffles. But... it only works for wider strips of fabric. The smaller ones were almost too narrow to feed into the mechanism. It took a little faniggling, but I did get it to work. (Side note: Isn't faniggling a word? I sure don't know how it's supposed to be spelled, but I use it a lot!)  :)

Anyway... I hope to take a couple more "styled up" pictures tomorrow. I'll update this post if I get them done... :) Until then, happy Friday and happy sharing!!

Adventure

Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.

~Alfred North Whitehead~

Adventure means different things to many people... One adventure for me is learning something new. (which is one reason I took up knitting... then spinning... and on the adventure goes!)

I am discovering some of the neat things that my my grandmother's sewing machine will do. Recently I've been trying out the ruffler - learning what works and what doesn't. It's fun to look through the old boxes of tools and read the vintage manual. Maybe you'll see some of the projects here soon. (and no that scrap of fabric isn't a hint - it's just my test scrap.)  :)

Findings

I love old stuff. I grew up in a family of antique lovers. I married into a family of antique lovers - especially my mother-in-law.  I love vintage stuff, but my problem is that I want to pay thrift store prices for it! :) Maybe I'm just too cheap.

Well, Saturday I was out with my parents (Mark had some studying to do...) and we stopped by a local antique store. We found lots of cute things and lots of cute ideas! (as well as a place that I know my MIL will enjoy next time she comes for a visit!) :)

I loved some of the piles that I found!

I also found some crafty inspiration:
Love the map on this... I've saved an old atlas...

hmm... I'm thinking maybe using the rest of that book I tore up... No sense letting a good thing go to waste!



and a few unique items...

I love the looks of old fans!

Love the old radio!!

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately... for the budget anyway..) I didn't find anything I couldn't live without. I would like to find more retro/50's items, but I'm not certain what I'm looking for. Guess I'll know when I find it! :)

Book Review - Thank you, God

This is the first young children's book that I have reviewed. It came in the mail today and it (obviously) didn't take me long to read it! :) I do have quite a weakness for children's books. They are the hardest for me to pass up at book sales (I usually end up with a few...). I really am a kid at heart - I love quality books and movies for kids. The Hermie shows have been some of my favorites for a while. They teach great lessons in such a fun way. There is quite a line of products for Hermie, but these recent books published by Tommy Nelson have been just a little different. I love the illustrations in this book. They are more artistic than the usual cartoon pictures that are in most children's books today. I think the watercolor style drawings are a great style for a book for young children. The pictures are so pleasant and would be especially enjoyable for a young one to look at.

I also love the content! The first page in the book has a picture of Hermie talking to God - what a great way to start. Prayer has been one of the best things about the Hermie series - in each episode the character talks to God about his or her problems and God talks to them. In this book, Hermie is thanking God for taking such good care of him and for loving him. Such a good reminder of God's love for children.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.