Martha’s Flowers by Martha Stewart and Kevin Sharkey

I have been looking over this great book for a couple of weeks. Martha’s Flowers is an amazing and interesting read. It is full of valuable information. I really love the photos and beautiful glimpses of Martha’s property in Katonah, New York.

When I received this book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve read Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine and have enjoy the hours I’ve spent reading about her crafting ideas and other household and decorating ideas. I’ve been glimpsed at some of her wedding books, but this book was awesome.

It was organized by several different flower categories- spring, summer, and autumn. The one flower I was interested is more of a shrub. My mom has 3 hydrangeas that don’t seem to bloom so I thought this book might have the answers. Guess what, I found too many answers in this book. I found how what zones hydrangeas like and work best in. I learned that there are like 4 varieties of flowering hydrangeas. Then I learned how to prune, propagate, and  transplant. I learned how to get the hydrangea to have blue flowers (add sulfur or even lime; don’t use pennies). The best decorative information I learned was how to arrange them in a water vase and how to make the blooms last a while. 🙂  Martha adds and entire section of the book for arranging flowers, and you know how neat a Martha Stewart arrangement is! Lastly, I learned that they like all kinds of weather, except hot, because they wilt in the heat.  Just make sure to wrap them in burlap in winter months.

All the information I mentioned was learned in about 10 minutes. So if you know what type of flower and what season you are looking blooms  in, you can quickly look through this book and find the information for all those difficult confusing flowering plants.

So did I find out what was wrong with my mother’s hydrangeas? Well… I’m not totally sure, because I’m not definite on the variety of the plant. I know one hydrangea probably has root rot or something. The other two are huge, but no blooms. Maybe they need some special food to bloom or maybe they are being pruned at the wrong time. It could be multiple things, however, I’ve try a lot of ideas already. I guess I’ll keep trying and now I have this book to refer to. 🙂

This book was awesome and the photos are extraordinary.  I’m happy I was able to review this book today for you. It is the last book I have received from Blogging for Books. That was a great program, and I will greatly miss it. Thank you to Clarkson Potter Publishing as well for the opportunity to receive this great informative read.

Tomorrow we will look at The Pirate’s Bride. I can’t wait to share that with you.

Have a great day!!! 🙂

I can’t take the cuteness!!! =D

Okay, Today I got permission from NetGalley to borrow this awesome book. I’m totally in love with  this book. This is a crafting book. Called Dumpling Cats, this book has endless patterns for crocheting these cute looking cats and critters. You can also make their boxes, bowls and bed. I love them. They are adorable.

I can’t say enough about this book already and I’ve barely read any of it. The patterns are fairly easy and I love the guided images. I really like the images because they are very clear and help with the instructions.

This is the first crochet book I’ve reviewed on here.  Again, this book is called Dumpling Cats  by Sarah Sloyer. I’ve really enjoyed reading and reviewing this book today for all of you.  Plus, I want to thank the publishers at Dover Publications and Netgalley for letting me review this book.

I can’t wait to see it on shelves at a store nearby soon.

I’ll see you next week with a great review on a historical situation of the heart. Enemy versus friend. Forgiveness and Love. All these things are going to happen in the next book review. 🙂

 

 

A Holiday/Advent Devotional Coloring book

Since we are going into the Holiday/ Advent Season, this devotional and adult coloring book, All Is Bright, written by Nancy Guthrie and illustrated by Lizzie Preston, is the one to go to.

The readings are once a day during the entire month of December, and there are some awesome pictures to color. They have a lot of detail to them. I can imagine what they’d look like once you get your gel pens and fine tipped markers out and begin coloring. What’s even nicer is that there is a family discussion section just for the kids. This helps them understand the true meaning for the season and since it is a coloring book they didn’t leave out the easy coloring pages section that nicely pulls out the book. There are even some cut out crafts to hang around the house. 🙂

This is a great book and an easy read. It makes you have to sit and think about what the season is really about and how it all started.

I got this through Tyndale Publishing for an honest review. I really liked this book. I read about half of it in a sitting. Plus, since I was willing to review this book I got a packet of stickers, too!  I’ll add both links below. I don’t know if I really like the stickers so much. They are okay, but you are the one who is suppose to color them in. Might be fun for a little kid, but not for me. I’ll be giving these away to some of my aunts who are in nursing homes. They are into the adult coloring trend. I’m okay with it to a point, but sometimes I it gets a little more tedious than I like it to be.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this book and that it gets you in to the holiday spirit. This would be a great book for an early Christmas gift or a coffee table book. 🙂

Stay Tuned for next week; we’ll be looking a wonderful novel about the trials on the Oregon Trail.

All Is Bright Paperback Coloring Devotional Book 

Amazon:$11.83

Barnes and Noble: $11.87

Christianbook: $11.49

Faith that Sticks Scripture Stickers

 

Tyndale: $2.39

Gratitude- A prayer and praise coloring journal

What an uplifting set of praises and prayer this little book has!

I was surprised how positive my mindset became after receiving this book. I walked away reading this this 102 page book feeling relaxed and uplifted as well. Plus, the pictures are detailed enough that you feel relaxed just reading the scriptures. The coloring idea is new and I did like it, although I’m not a person that would be sitting reading my devotionals with my crayons in my desk or back pocket.  The drawings are pretty enough to frame once you finish coloring them in.

My opinion:

Although I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t like my all time favorite devotional to want to go back to again and again.Sometimes the drawing part did not appeal to me. I’m giving this book to my mom for her birthday, because I feel she may enjoy reading the prayers and praises and share them with other people in cards or notes.However, if someone wants to purchase a book that appeals to the coloring book types, this book is for them. Below are a few places you can purchase the book. As always, if you have a chose purchase the books locally in your area to stimulate your local economy.

CBD: $11.99

Amazon: $14.99

Barnes and Noble: $14.99

Walmart: $10.60

As always I need to mention that I got this free through Tyndale Publishers and I want to thank them for the opportunity to read and share this book.

Happy reading!! And next week I’ll be telling you about the 6 week Bible study I AM FOUND by Laura Dingman. Have a great week!

 

Learning the Art of Manga Book

😀 I just love this book. I haven’t gotten all the way through it yet, but I’m really having fun sitting down and trying to draw and sketch the awesome Manga characters in the book. 🙂 This book is called Doodletopia Manga by Christopher Hart.

This book is broken down into several chapters and you teach yourself to sketch and draw Manga. After chapter 4 you get to draw your own characters. I like this book, but it’s not like a step by step book. It’s more sketch it first then try freehand. It gets tricky and I for some reason got burned out because there were very little instructions. However, this book is funny and has a lot of humor in it. The characters are fun to draw and I’m enjoying it very much. I’ll probably finish drawing all the characters before too long.

If you get this book, you’ll be on your way to making your own anime characters and Pokemon pretty easily. If you don’t know what Manga is, it is the art of Japanese cartoon drawing. This is probably more of a young adult teenager book. They’d appreciate the humor and the technique the book is giving. Anyone younger I don’t believe would enjoy this book.

Here’s are some links to where you can get this book. Remember to support your local businesses or bookstores instead of always going online. It helps the local economy and gives people jobs. Also check out your local library to see if they have it. I’m only mentioning the paper back version today, because its easier to sketch with.

Amazon: $13.27

Barnes and Noble: $13.39

Lastly, I thank Blogging for Books for the opportunity to receive this book for an honest review… 🙂 Remember to please follow my goal is 30 followers we are up to 11… Come on we are getting closer. 🙂 Thanks and have a great day!