Christian Heritage Conference

This weekend I will be hosting the Sonlight booth at the Christian Heritage Conference in Redmond, Washington. It starts on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and you can register at the door. As a special "thank you" to conference attendees, Sonlight is allowing me to offer a $15 coupon to each family who stops by my booth! You will also have a chance to win my drawing for a tote bag full of books! If you homeschool in the Northwest, I hope to see you there!

My family and I are looking forward to getting away for a few days. I wonder if the tulips are in bloom?

Doily Show-and-Tell

Here's the next installment in my 99 Little Doilies project. (See the first installment here.) I experimented with some different colors on this batch. Which one is your favorite of this group? I'm kinda partial to Doily #6, myself!

Doily #5

Doily #6

Doily #7

Doily #8

Doily #9

Circle C Beginnings - review

I recently got to read the third and fourth books in the Circle C Beginnings series... a spin-off of Susan K. Marlow's Circle C Adventures for older readers. The Circle C Beginnings series is based on the same characters, but at a younger age. They are perfect for children who are just beginning to read chapter books. The stories are about a little girl in the old west, and are full of fun, excitement and adventure. The characters and situations are believable, and while Andi does find herself in all kinds of scrapes, she is never deliberately bratty, and grows in life experience the way we all do... by learning from her mistakes. Even though the main character is a little girl, the stories are not at all girly, and boys would enjoy them just as much as girls.

In Andi's Fair Surprise (Book 3), Andi is very excited to get to attend the state fair with her family. Everyone else is taking something to enter in the fair, and Andi is disappointed that she has nothing to enter. Once she arrives, though, and discovers all the fun things to see and do, she has a wonderful time. She even wins a very special prize, which she would dearly love to keep. However, Mother knows best (as usual) and Andi learns another life lesson. I especially enjoyed the historical aspect of this particular story regarding the 1874 California State Fair in Sacramento.

In Andi's Scary School Days (Book 4), Andi has to go to school for the first time. School is not at all what she's used to, and she is very nervous about the whole experience. What if the teacher is mean? What if the other kids laugh at her? Her misunderstandings and insecurities get her into trouble, but she soon makes a new friend and discovers that the teacher is really a nice lady after all.

As in all the books in this series, I love the illustrations. They are soft pencil sketches that remind me of Garth Williams' illustrations of the Little House books. Just beautiful!

Such a dilemma!

What would you choose if you had a $50 gift card to a big fancy quilting store? I can't decide! You remember I finished that big afghan for my doctor last fall? Well, this week I got a thank you card from her and she included a $50 gift card to Bear Paw Quilting! Wasn't that sweet of her?

So-- I stopped by there yesterday evening so I could browse. I didn't expect to actually spend my gift card before I had a chance to mull it over. Since it took me two years to get my Irish chain quilted, and since I have fabric for the Route 66 quilt that I haven't gotten around to piecing and tacking, I'm not in much notion to work on another quilt right now. They had lots of patterns for things like tote bags, aprons, wall-hangings. Don't need a tote bag or an apron, but a wall-hanging for my bedroom is a possibility. There were a few embroidery kits and patterns. They also had knick-knacks and stuffed animals. I thought about getting fabric for a dress. I've been wanting a black-and-white-gingham-with-cherries vintage-style dress. But then I remembered it was probably all cotton fabric and would have to be ironed, so I'm not sure that's a good idea. I also noticed they had Perle cotton in some really pretty colors that I could use for the little doilies I'm working on.

I just couldn't decide. What would you get?

Looking straight ahead...

Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.

Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe.

Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

Proverbs 4:25-27 (NLT)