Author Brenda Novak is currently hosting her 6th Annual Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research. Brenda's youngest son was diagnosed with Type 1 at age five and she started this annual auction in 2005 to raise money and awareness for diabetes research in honor of her son and the millions of other people who suffer from diabetes. Last year, the auction raised over $270,000 to benefit diabetes research, and has raised a cumulative amount of $762,298 in the last five years. WOW! Hopefully this year's auction will break the $1,000,000 mark!
Since Brenda is an author, many of the items up for auction are related to reading and writing. Book bundles, lots of ARCs from your favorite authors, lunch dates with authors and even writing workshops and critiques for aspiring authors. In addition, there are many other items such as collectibles and handmade items such as jewelry and quilts.
This is where my blogging friend Phyl from Phyl's Quilts & Books comes in. Like Brenda, Phyl's young son is also a diabetic, having been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 10. To help raise awareness and money for the auction, Phyl has sewn this gorgeous Rainbow Quilt from her scrap collection and has donated it to the auction. Isn't it stunning? I've had so much fun watching Phyl's progress with this quilt on her blog and I admire not only her quilts, but also her giving spirit to this cause.
Click HERE to get to all of the items up for auction. You can find all sorts of goodies by category on the sidebar or even search for items in a keyword search box.
Library Loot is a weekly blog event that encourages bloggers to share what books they borrowed from the library that week. To participate, simply make your Library Loot post on your blog and link it using the Mr. Linky link at Marg's blog Reading Adventures or Eva's blog A Striped Armchair. This week's link up is at Eva's.
I have an interesting mix of library loot this week. Not just fiction! I always browse the new release section at the library and it recently dawned on me that the entire section always featured fiction titles. I knew the library had to be getting some new non fiction, too, so I walked around the corner and lo and behold! There was a whole other shelf of new nonfiction. I saw several books there that interested me, one of which was a very big and very heavy book, so I only had room in my arms for a few of them. I'll save the others for another day. So without further ado, I present this week's library loot.
Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris Shakespeare's Counselor by Charlaine Harris
These are the last three books in the Lily Bard Mystery series by Charlaine Harris. After reading and absolutely loving the first two books in the series earlier in the month, I couldn't wait to get the rest of the books. I'm just going to be so disappointed when my Lily Bard reading experience is over. I will miss Lily terribly, I think.
Ironically, I will have picked up and read the entire Lily Bard Mystery series from my local library, all the while I have the first SEVEN Sookie Stackhouse books untouched on my personal bookshelves. I most definitely plan on reading the Sookie books, and hope that I like Sookie as much as I like Lily. For those of you who have read both the Sookie and Lily books, how do they compare in writing style and tone?
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
This is young adult novel by author Catherine Fisher, recently released for the first time in the US. I only learned of this book recently and was actually under the misimpression that it is a brand new book, but it is actually only a new release in the US, having been published in the UK in 2007. Incarceron is a fantasy novel about haunting and fascinating prison. There's a boy on the inside of the prison and there's a girl on the outside who are able to communicate via a key that the boy has found.
Here is the book trailer for the novel that I first saw on Carolyn Crane's blog, The Thrillionth Page, a while ago.
It doesn't quite tell you a whole lot about the book and it's premise, but the graphics and sound effects are definitely riveting enough to make you want to find out more, don't you think?
The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech Children's fiction, Gr. 4-6
I was actually all checked out and heading out the door when this little book caught my attention on the "What's New In Children's Books" shelf by the entrance. I've read two young reader books by Sharon Creech in the past-- Walk Two Moons which was awarded the Newberry Medal in 1995 and Bloomability, both really great books. Plus she has written several other books that have received various awards and honors. So I picked up Unfinished Angel and read the inside flap and knew I had to read this seemingly charming tale. The story takes place in a village in the Swiss Alps, in which a young angel with no mission meets American girl and together they save a group of homeless orphans. Sounds sweet with a great message for kids. My fifth grader is reading this one, too.
Now for my nonfiction loot!
The Steamy Kitchen by Jaden Hair
So I'm browsing the new nonfiction shelves, and this title pops out at me. Turns out Jaden Hair had just started following me on Twitter last week. I swear, she followed me first! Well, I mean, she follows about 10,000 other people, too, but hey, a girl can feel flattered that a cool, professional, published recipe developer, food columnist and food photographer decided to follow her, right? Right. Of course, I didn't hesitate to grab the cookbook and check it out. Well, I brought it home and have been checking out and man oh man are there some really yummy recipes in this book that look easy to prepare, too. The desserts? Really creative and really... I want to try each and every one. I just may have to purchase this cookbook for my own library.
You can visit Jaden Hair at her website and blog at Steamy Kitchen. .
Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan
How could I not pull this book off the shelf with a title like that? I have a sewing machine and do plug it in and sew something very easy now and then. Err... definitely more then than now, but I gotta say this little book is inspiring me to send my machine in for a tune up. It's chock full of projects that are, well... sew darn cute! You can take a look at what's inside at amazon.com and it's even on at a bargain sale price of $7.97 right now. Sew awesome!
Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts by The Martha Stewart Living Magazine.
While I am not a huge fan of the woman herself, I do love some of her publications. I try to think of all the people she has on staff who are smart, creative, hard working and hopefully law abiding people who are trying to make a living doing something that they love and that's why I support them by buying some of the Martha Stewart Organization media. Okay then. So I saw this clunker of a book on the new release shelf and did a quick flip through and had to borrow it straight away. It is what it says it is. An encyclopedia of many, if not most, of the really awesome crafts from A-Z that have graced the pages of the Martha Stewart Living Magazine over the years. I recognize many of them from magazines I have browsed at the library and bookstores over the years, as well as those issues I've bought just for the instructions of the said crafts that have caught my eye. I haven't gone through every page yet, but I plan to. As usual, there are plenty of gorgeous glossy photos of the supplies, the tools, the step by step instructions and the beautiful finished products. Hopefully I'll get inspired to try some of the crafts, if not, I'm going to at least make a little list of the ones I want to try someday and then at least I'll know where to find the instructions when I'm ready.
And that's my sort of eclectic mix of library loot for this week.
Is there anything in this week's loot that you want to hear more about?
Let me know and I'll try to do a future post on it.
I started cross stitching the summer after I graduated college (i.e., a long time ago). I used to spend my lunch hours cross stitching at my desk and one day a young woman with whom I was acquainted stopped to talk to me when she saw me stitching. It turns out that she had recently picked up cross stitching, too, and we quickly became friends. We started out exchanging patterns and visiting cross stitch shops together, and before we knew it, we were the best of friends. In fact, three years later she was the bridesmaid in my wedding.
While visiting Jace's blog at Jace Scribbles the other day, I came across a post in which Jace shared some pictures of a cross stitch project she was working on and I became inspired. I decided it was time to revisit some unfinished projects of mine.
When I first started stitching all those years ago, I made so many beautiful wedding, baby, anniversary and housewarming samplers as gifts for friends and family, but never made anything for myself. When my first daughter was born, I finally managed to stitch a birth sampler for my own home. I thought I had a birth sampler started for my second daughter, but I can't find one. I'll stitch one for her. Hopefully before she graduates high school.
She's nine now.
At one point, I started the love sampler below that would be for my and my husband's 10th wedding anniversary, but didn't manage to pull that together in time.
This is what the final project should look like:
(Of course with our names and wedding date stitched in .... )
And you know, I just missed finishing it for our 15th wedding anniversary-- because, well, we just celebrated that today. [Okay, how'd that happen? One day we were newlyweds, and then Poof! Here we are married for 15 years! ]
I have come up with a new deadline, though. Since we are doing an addition to our house which includes a new master bedroom, I am going to finish this sampler--and have it framed-- before we are ready to spend our first night in our new love shack bedroom.
This is another unfinished project that I started even earlier than the love sampler. This one I will try to finish in time to hang in my future renovated kitchen.
(click on photo for enlarged view)
Can you believe that? I got stuck on R for Rooster. I only have S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z left!
Who else cross stitches or does any other form of embroidery or needle crafts?
What about any other craft projects like beading or jewelry making?
Scrapbooking or stamping?
(I have a friend who makes beautiful homemade cards).
