Favorite Childhood Books

I recently came across some of my favorite books growing up while cleaning. My family was a huge book reading family. I can not remember a day that my mom didn’t read aloud to us! When the bookmobile rolled around near our school, or those special days when we would take a trip to the BIG Portland library downtown, we each checked out the maximum number aloud. And were ready to to the same thing the next time around! I’m still an avid reader, and ALWAYS read before I go to sleep.

So here are a few of my childhood favorites:

“Why Do You Love Me” is the first book I remember reading and was a reminder of my life before my new family at 3 years old. A reminder of the mother and sister I spent the first 3 years with. A tie to my past and first family.

I had 3 favorite fairytale books as a kid: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and…Snow White and Rose Red. I was able to see the first on film as a young child, the second in college when friends surprised me for my birthday and took me to see it in the ’90’s. But I’m still waiting for the third to become a film for me. And it turns out…I still love it!

 

This sweet book I discovered later through one of my younger siblings (I have 10). Sweet pioneer family, dolls, a redhead, quilts, etc.

And I had a couple of personalized Sesame Street books, with my name, siblings cousins, pets all included in the stories.

I also adored “Baby Island” by Carol Ryrie Brink”, “On the Banks of Plum Creek”  by Laura Ingalls Wilder and “Fifteen” and “Jean and Johnny” by local Portland author Beverly Cleary! And I’m sure I’ll think of more favorites after I publish this. :>

Happy reading!

Modest Monday: Autumn Style

Finally another Modest Monday post! We took these photos after church and the Oktoberfest, that wasn’t really an Oktoberfest. Last year they added German music and food, but this year they went back a street fair with live music, but not German. It was a bit misty, so my hair was a bit weird, and I was tired of smiling, so these are the best shots we took. Also my Sweetie is out of practice, so we had a lot of review happening. But, here you go!

I can’t remember where I bought this dress. My Sweetie calls it my African dress, I think of it as Autumn colored and super cool fabric for hot days. I’m wearing a Halftee underneath and a fancy cardi from Ross. Also gold hoop earrings with black beads and Sanita shoes.

And I pinned on one of these leaf pins from my SHOP!

Happy Monday and happy Autumn!

Update 10-4-15: I wore this outfit again today paired with these necklaces from my sister-in-law. They’re perfect!!

And I thought I was FINALLY wearing my hair down, because it was supposed to be rainy and cloudy, but instead it was hot and sunny…sigh. So, up the hair went again.

A Morning Visit to Ireland

Sometimes you need to enjoy a quick visit to Ireland.

So that’s what I did, with my Barry’s tea and cottage mug we bought on our trip 12 years ago!

So lovely and relaxing.

 

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Bethany House Book Review: Unforeseeable by Nancy Mehl

It’s time for another Bethany House book review. This one is absolutely a mystery. I basically only read Christian books, because of soooo very much inappropriate content in others, but do enjoy a mystery sometimes, so this was a good example of a Christian mystery plot.

{FYI: I received this complimentary book from Bethany House in exchange for this review. But this is my honest opinion of the book.}

It’s about a Mennonite girl named Callie, engaged to the new pastor of her church and working with his sister in law at the town cafe’. A recent murder just outside of the small town seems to be the work of a serial killer. And to add to Callie’s frustration, her fiance’ Levi seems to hiding something about the murder.

Callie lives in an apartment above the cafe’ and the cafe’ itself becomes the place the town gathers to talk about the crime, and whether the killer could be one of their own. Much of the charm of this book is similar to other Plain books, the characters and relationships in the community. I personally related to the mother/daughter part of the plot, due to my own story. I won’t tell you any more so you can figure it out along the way as I did, but  I loved that part. :> I also love how caring Levi is and the wonderful friend his sister-in-law, Lizzie is to Callie. She and his brother Noah already treat Callie as one of the family, and are always looking out for her. Callie matures a lot throughout the story, and really emerges from girlhood into a young lady who now has a better grasp on what it means to trust God.

I would have prefered a better gospel message, emphasizing the need to repent of our sins and follow Christ. The author does stress the importance of being a light in the world as followers of God though, and there were a lot of great pearls of wisdom about the type of relationship we should have with God. Filled with trust, freedom, follow Him and only Him, forgiveness, etc.

Sometimes mystery plots are easy to predict, but my guesses were not always correct this time! That makes the story more interesting to me. I enjoyed reading this book, and I’m sure I’ll read it again. I’m one of those people who reads books over and over again. If you like mysteries, plain people and/or Christian novels, you’ll probably enjoy this book.

Happy Reading!! :>

Surprise Roses

I was on my “death bed”  and asked my Sweetie to run to the store for 7-up and soda crackers. As I lay there wondering if I would “live” until he returned, I tried to remember that he was being nice and doing me a favor. :>

He “finally” returned, handing me a beautiful bouquet of red roses! My Sweetie wants me to feel better and to cheer me up. The flu is no match for a sweet husband and pretty flowers!!!

New Storybook Playsets for the Shop

After many distractions, gift making, traveling and many local events, I have FINALLY been working on these adorable Storybook House Playsets! And more stories are on the way, once I get over this flu I’m dealing with at the moment.  The first set to enter the SHOP, is Gretel and the House of Sweets! Adorable colors and cute dolls make for a fun play time for any girl!

Each house has a “home” wall, “wall papered” walls and a play mat.

A certain little Sweetheart ADORED her Goldilocks and the 3 Bears House! We even rifled through her other toys for furniture and accessories for extra fun playtime!

You may notice we turned one of the little skirts into a lamp shade! And Rapunzel loves her pool and Little Bear loves her bed!:>

For this sweet girl’s birthday gift, I also made a bonus Rapunzel doll, as she considers herself Rapunzel!! She chose this set the very day I bought the fabric, and months later, she was still in love with it as I presented the gift to her. So sweet!

And here’s a taste of what is yet to come:

I’ve been so excited about these for months! They are just so adorable!!! I think I’m especially in love with Red Riding Hood!!!

Do these put a smile on your face? My face smiles EVERY time I look at ANY of them! :>

Danish Days Festival

A couple of weeks ago, we spent the day celebrating Danish culture in the nearby town of Solvang, with their annual Danish Days Festival. My main goal at these events is to see as much dancing as possible!  :>

And enjoy all of the fun costumes, as well as some yummy food!

This year we attended the party of an adorable 1 year old an Saturday, so we missed the general festival parade, and saw the children’s parade instead. So adorable!!

I can’t resist other redheads! Her American Girl doll matches!

And…the dancers…and their costumes!

I love this guy!

My Sweetie learning the dance!

And Swedish delight and Napoleon delectableness from my favorite bakery! If only it were closer to home…

Autumn means less traveling, but MANY local activities for us! Our area crams all of the fun, cultural activities into 2 months! Fun, but busy here! But I plan to finish the last few details on the new SHOP addition TODAY!! So, stay tuned!

 

The Homemaking Party

 

 

 

 

 

New Shop Items Coming Very Soon!

A sneak peak at the new items I’ve been working on for the SHOP! You’ll be seeing the finished products VERY soon!

So much adorableness!!

My little 6 year old sweetie begged for one when I showed the fabric to her big sister months ago, made her choice…and waited. I told she could have one for her birthday, months away. To her impatient credit, she did, and never mentioned it again. She didn’t forget though…this girl has the memory of an elephant!!

I started by making one as a gift, but didn’t like the final product. So, I went back to the drawing board, tweaked a few things, and came up with one I could be proud to give! It did take me longer, but I’m used to creating my own patterns or tweaking things to suit my style, so that’s okay. I just felt bad that she had to wait. I did give her the finished dolls as a teaser though. :>

Cuteness coming soon…

Autumn Loveliness

Even though it doesn’t feel like Autumn here, I’m really enjoying this beautiful glass! I can’t believe how nice it is…and I found it at The Dollar Tree! I have red hair with darker eyebrows and eyelashes, so I’m an Autumn when it comes to the colors that I look good wearing. Over the years, I think this fact has contributed to my love for all things Autumn, and all things in Autumn colors, (except red, I only like that in leaves).

But green, brown, yellow and orange? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

Happy Autumn everyone!!