Authors, Books and Crafts

What a great day! Authors, books and crafting all in the same day. It can't get much better than that. Oh, I did have some great food too :)

This morning a co-worker and I went to the annual Pfeiffer Univ. Friends of the Library author luncheon. The author was Beth Webb Hart who has written two books - Grace at Low Tide and Adelaide Piper. Beth gave a great presentation about writing and getting published. She said she wants to write a literary coming of age southern novel that is faith based. I got autographed copies of both of her books, and I'm really looking forward to reading them. Beth is from the SC Low Country, so we had a delicious Low Country lunch - She Crab soup, butter beans, collard greens, hoppin' john and pecan crusted chicken with some bread pudding for desert.

This evening I came home and finished up a fun little craft project. One of my SCS online friends had an online craft class last night to make a great artists canvas clock. I painted my artists canvas with some Sahara Sand colored acyclic paint. Then used some pretty Spring Showers paper from SU. I added a very nice black and white photo of my parents from our trip to Bodie Island Lighthouse in February. A few shells for embellishment and a clock - and viola - a great birthday present for my dad. Happy Birthday Dad :)

Look What's in My Yard

Quick - look and see what is in my yard. I took these pictures yesterday morning before I went to work. I'm sure these beautiful tulips won't be there very long. They are grow along the side of our steps down to the sidewalk. And every year someone comes by and picks them! I'm sure it's grade school kids. So I have to enjoy them for as long as I have them. I really should plant myself some more, shouldn't I?

The Lighthouses

Yesterday I got a little package in the mail from Darcy, one of my SCS friends. She had kindly stamped some images for me from the retired SU lighthouse set. So I was able to finish up a layout I'd been working on from our trip to the Outer Banks while my parents were here in February. I used a sketch challenge from SCS for the layout and the used the same colors that I had used for another layout about the trip. The title, journaling and lighthouse poem are all printed on vellum. These are the Bodie and the Hattaras lighthouses. The large photo on the left is Tim and I in front of the Bodie Island Lighthouse. I have one more layout to work on from this trip - the Wright Brothers Memorial. I still have lots of great picutres of the Outer Banks that I need to do something with.

I have a love/hate relationship with Maeve Binchy. She can create the best characters, and I love them all - the good, the bad and the ugly. But, her novels are more collections of short stories. I hate that I don't get to follow any of her amazing character for a whole book. The unifying theme in her newest book, Whitethorn Woods, is a pagan wishing well called St. Ann's Well in the Irish town of Rossmore, that is being threatened by a new road. Each of the wonderful characters in the book has some tie to St. Ann's Well. And the last section of the book is an unsatisfying tie up to some of the stories. I would love to hear from other readers of Maeve Binchy to hear your ideas of her books.

I wanted to show you a scrapbook page I finished up this weekend. Over a year ago I made this pretty page about the bridal showers that were held for me before my wedding - in 1993. This weekend, I fianlly finished up the journaling and put the pages in my wedding album.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law, Kirsten sent me a link to her photo bucket. So now I have more pictures of the girls to scrap - halloween, epiphany and ice show. I can't believe how grown up those girls are getting.

This morning, while Tim is away riding, I've been playing around with my scrapping supplies. I got some new craft inks this week that I've been dying to try. I stamped Paisley Print in brocade blue ink on pumpkin pie paper. I mounted that on a close to cocoa card base. For an embellishment, I stamped the "F" from A is Adorable in the brocade on a scrap of cocoa. I mounted it using pop dots for some depth, and added some ribbon. Not crazy about the card - but loving the craft ink.

This morning I frantically finished reading my book club book - and realized book club isn't until next Tuesday. :) Well, now I prepared for next week. We'll be discussing The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I'll admit, I was disappointed in the book. It got such good reviews and really did well on the paperback best seller list last year. Can't wait to hear what my book group has to say about it.

I have a recipe I've been wanting to share. Last week I was looking for something new to cook with a few things I had on hand. I went to http://www.kraftfoods.com/ and checked their recipe finder for chicken breasts and stuffing, and here's what I got:

Easy Cheesy Chicken Bake

1 pkg (6oz) stuffing mix

1-1/2 lb chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 bag (14 oz) frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare stuffing mix as directed, set aside. Mix chicken and broccoli in 13x9 pan. Stir in soup, milk and cheese. Top with stuffing. Bake 30 min. or until heated through.

Enjoy - both the book and the hot dish.

I did some crafting on Friday! It felt so good to be creative. Friday morning, before going to lunch with Karen, I made a couple of cards. I got my inspiration from the Splitcoaststampers.com gallery. The purple card was inspired by starofmay and the blue card was inspired by scrapbookgirl44.

On Friday evening, I went cropping. I made 2 layouts - one I need to finish the journaling before I post, and the other is a secret for VSBN.

This is the layout I did of Tim's race at Fontana in early February. I used some of my Basic Grey paper that I love. This is one of the two layouts I did last Saturday at a crop that Judi and I went to. There is a nice CM consulatant who hosts an all day crop each month for no charge - we just have to bring a covered dish to share at lunch time. I only completed a couple of pages, but had a great time as always. My next cropping opportunity will be this Friday night. I have the day off, so I hope I can get several pages done that day.

I'm in the middle of another good book! My library book club just read and discussed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. It's a great little book that I really enjoyed - which is why I picked it for book club :) I thought I should read the author's newest book for comparison, and I'm glad I did. His newest book is called, A Spot of Bother. George, is 61 and just retired, when he discovers a lesion on his hip. As he starts experienceing panic attacks, his wife is having an affair, his daughter is questioning her upcoming marriage and his so breaks up with his lover. Reminds of of a male version of Joanna Trollop or Elizabeth Buchan - which reminds me that I need to read thier latest books too.

Finally, I got some scrapping done. I worked on this layout yesterday while the plumbers were here putting in a new water heater. I used the square punch to punch out pieces of all the Christmas cards we received. And included any photos that came with the cards. I think it needs some embellishment - maybe doodling - around the edges. Any suggestions?

I missed book club yesterday while I was home with the plumbers. I hear they had a great time, and there were a few new ladies that I'm sorry I missed. The book up for discussion was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. It was a little book, and very enjoyable. I've started on his newest book, A Spot of Bother, and I'm enjoying it.

We're back from the Outer Banks. What a great visit we had with Mom and Dad. We spent one weekend in the mountains and the next weekend at the coast. Didn't get much reading done while we were gone, but did read a little on the ride home. I've found another book that I'm really enjoying - The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. It's a wonderful novel set in 1909 Montana. After Mom and Dad left today, I spent some time sorting all the scrapbook pages I did last year. I've filled and album for both Sarah and Hannah - it's only taken me 7 years :) Now on to scrapping this year...

Just a quick note on a couple of books I'm reading at the moment.

My online book club is reading and discussing Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I really am enjoying this book, and learning a lot about Nigeria and the Biafra civil war of the late 60's. I really wish this book had a map so I could follow the movement of the characters.

To balance out the seriousness of Half of a Yellow Sun, I started the humorous book, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg. It's a warm fuzzy book, set in Missouri with familiar characters.

Now I'm having a hard time deciding which book to read in the evening :)

We had a great weekend at Fontana Village for Tim's races. It was sleeting as we drove into the mountains and snowing as we drove out. We rented a nice two bedroom cabin and Mom and Dad met us there. Dad really enjoyed watching Tim race and Mom spent her time reading by the fireplace in the lodge. Tim did the cross country race at noon and then the downhill race at dark thirty. He was cold and tired when he got back to the cabin.

I actually have a work blog, but got to thinking I should have a personal one too. This will hopefully turn into a little about books and reading - the Librarian part of me - and a little about stamping and scrabooking - the Scrapping part of me.

To start out - here's a picture of one of my poor daffy's. They bloomed in early January - a little early :)