Book Review: Wooden Boxes

woodenboxesWooden Boxes is an amazing how to book with several different boxes featured along with instructions on how to make them.  I don’t trust myself with saws or anything like that so I don’t think I’ll be trying out making these anytime soon, but I did enjoy looking at them.  They are all so beautiful!  Each type of box has a chapter which includes the material list needed and step by step instructions (including photos) on how to make them for yourself.  If you trust yourself with saws and have some creativity then you should definitely check out this book!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

A small box is an ideal woodworking project for anyone looking to gain skills and learn techniques. The reward is something elegant and functional that also makes a great gift. In this book, Dennis Zongker gives clear, step-by-step instructions for seven different projects (with variations), each designed to teach the reader skills that can be applied to a wide variety of box projects as well as to furniture and other woodworking projects. Some of these steps are also mentioned in the resources on Wood 2 New, and they are an absolute delight for anyone who is interested in carpentry.

The boxes featured are traditional in style, with a modern twist, and incorporate a rich variety of woodworking techniques from basic to advanced: wood selection, veneers, cutting, gluing, joinery (including elongated dovetail joints and lock miters), segmented turning, and routing inlays. Also included are detailed sections on carving and marquetry, which give these stylish boxes an elegant look that makes them stand out from the field.

Book Review: Angels

Angels is a cute short book about all sorts of angels and what they look like and that they are always protecting you for kids to read. It is a short rhyming book, great for bedtime!

The book is short, 32 pages, and easy for a beginning reader or for mom or dad to read to a child before bed.  Great illustrations as well!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

 

Did you know that angels of all kinds are everywhere? “Some are big, some are tiny. They’re all so bright and very shiny.” This lyrical, breezy, and nondenominational picture book introduces children and adults to a magical place which radiates warmth, love, and caring throughout its colorful and delicate pages. Through the artwork of world-famous artist, Flavia, readers can experience a world of gentle wonder, beauty, and comfort that makes this a perfect bedtime story. “Angels, angels, always near, protecting you, my special dear!”

Book Review: Santa’s Cookie Elf

santacookieSanta’s Cookie Elf is a cute book for kids which tells the story of just who it is that helps Santa eat all those cookies left out for him on Christmas Eve.  A fun and cute story, easy to read with great illustrations.  Perfect Christmas Eve bedtime story!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Christmas is a magical time of the year. Santa’s toy factory builds a lot of toys for children all over the world. His flying reindeer help him deliver all those toys in one night and at every house the kids leave Santa their favorite cookies. WOW! That has to be millions and millions of cookies. Now if Elves help build the toys, and flying reindeer get Santa to every house in one night, ever wonder if someone helps him eat all those cookies?

Product Review: PicLight

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
piclight1

PicLight (Normally $19.99, now $4.99 during the limited-time new product promo) is an app for Mac for adding various lighting effects and stacking effects to photos for endless possibilities.  Think of it like Instagram for your Mac but you can add multiple filters and effects to it to make a really unique photo.  Please note that this app only works if you have OS X Lion or above. (I had to upgrade my OS in order to use this app and because my Mac is “vintage” this is as high as I can go with operating system. Might be time to think about upgrading.)

There are 4 different categories of lighting effects: Montage, Light, Glow and Texture with over 170 different effects total.  There are also over 25 image filters such as B&W, Sepia, Vintage, etc.  There are also different features such as cropping, flipping, etc.   You’ll have a ton of fun playing with it.  So far I’ve done one photo but I know there will be many more to come over time.

Buy it in the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/piclight/id734946882?ls=1&mt=12

It is super easy and fun to use, you can click through all of the different effects to see which one works best for your photo and stack them in each of the categories.  You can see what I did above with my Backstreet Boys M&G photo – it looks like we are on fire and the photo almost looks like it’s been burned as well.  I was able to do all this clicking through every effect in less than 5 minutes and I am very pleased with he results!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Book Review: Who Is Santa?

whoissantaWho Is Santa? is geared at kids and explaining the story of Santa and how he got to the North Pole.  I thought this would be a short book but was surprised to see that it was actually over 100 pages.  Don’t be alarmed though – while there is a lot of text (probably better for an older child or to read out loud to younger children) each page has an illustration on it, so it’s not really quite as long as it appears.

It’s a cute and fun story to tell your kids around Christmas time to explain to them who Santa is.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Who is Santa? And how did he get to the North pole? Is a delightfully creative and entertaining reading experience guaranteed to make your heart smile. Stephen shares how Santa and Mrs. Claus discovered the mischievous but devoted Elfians, why Santa uses a sleigh and how in the world reindeer learned to fly. How DID Santa and Mrs. Claus get to the North Pole, and what was Elf Norman’s big idea? Where did the sweet invention of Candy Canes come from? You will learn how Santa fixed a case of the Grumpies and how the actual North Pole itself was discovered. Throughout the story line are lessons on the value of sharing, teamwork, and treating others well. Parents and Grandparents will find this book will bring families together with fun and laughter, with many nights of happy reading. The book is an 8.5 x 11 format to make 40 plus illustrations more enjoyable for children’s viewings.

Book Review: Alice in Tumblr-land And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation

aliceThis book is absolutely hilarious and I think that anyone from my generation would absolutely love it as much as I did.  It is all your favorite Fairy Tale characters living in a modern day world and they all have social media.  Snow White wants to become a mother but vows not to post pictures of the baby on Facebook every day.  Belle and Beast are together but Belle keeps trying all these fad diets.  Peter Pan has a blog.  Puss in Boots has an Etsy shop.  Cinderella is trying her hand at photography.  The Ugly Duckling is having issues with her upcoming 10 year reunion and hating how she looks.  Chicken Little is worried about everything.  Pinocchio wonders if he puts his lies on Wikipedia if they’d be true… and much, much more goes on in this book.

It is a relatively quick read – you can probably knock it out in a couple of hours and if you’re anything like me there will be at least 5 pages that make you laugh out loud because they describe you to a T.  (Sleeping Beauty and I are meant to be BFFs, I think)

Seriously hilarious and a MUST READ!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

How many selfies would the Ugly Duckling post on Instagram? Would Geppetto make Pinocchio pay his own rent like a “real boy”? Maybe Rapunzel freshened her look with a pixie cut? Did Prince Charming try browsing the Facebook Events page to find Cinderella after the Ball?

These questions and more are answered in Tim Manley’s forthcoming Penguin Hardcover, ALICE IN TUMBLR-LAND: And Other Fairy Tales For a New Generation (On Sale Date: October 29, 2013; ISBN: 978-0-14-312479-5; $18.00). Tim is well known for his popular blog “Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings”, which has been featured in the Seattle Times, Buzzfeed, Flavorpill, and the Huffington Post, and has expanded that idea to create the perfect read for a generation adept at social media and acutely nostalgic for the idealistic stories from their childhood. This colorful, enlightening resource contains more than a hundred new stories and cartoons of classic fairy tale characters finding themselves, tackling relationships, and pondering their contribution to the globalized corporate machine — one text message/night of binge drinking/creepy OkCupid profile at a time.

Causora.com: Give a Dollar, Get a Dollar

causora

Causora.com is a website that has a mission to raise money for charities by rewarding donors with free vouchers to socially conscious merchants. When you donate $20 you get thank you rewards in the amount of $20 for these merchants products.

1. Pick Your Cause

Choose your favorite cause and make a donation

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Get the equivalent value in Causora credits (Donate $20, get $20 credit to spend)

2. Redeem and Feel Good

Redeem your credit for vouchers at 150+ socially responsible merchants

Browse the causes: https://causora.com/cause/

Explore rewards: https://causora.com/merchant/

(This is an affiliate widget and I will be getting a commission if you donate. I have also received thank you rewards from Causora in return for posting about their site.)

Book Review: The Diary of Brad De Luca

delucaFirst things first – this is a novella (38 pages) and is a companion piece to Blindfolded Innocense, which I have not yet read.  It tells the introduction of how Brad met Julia.  Julia is an intern at Brad’s office and therefore off limits. Supposedly. But Brad wants her.

The book is short, but I think that it gives a lot of back story and now I am interested in reading the full book to see what happened there between the two because there were a few loose ends left unanswered. As a standalone novella it was interesting enough and I was able to follow even having been unfamiliar with the story it came from.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

I was happy with my life. And who wouldn’t be? Beautiful women, money, a job that I could sleep through and still make bank. But I was bored. And I never could walk away from a challenge.

This challenge turned out to be brunette. Feisty. Just the way I like them. But innocent. Too innocent for me. Too innocent to do anything other than sample and then toss back. Anything more would be too risky, too much work.

I was unprepared for Julia Campbell. I should have done my homework, should have looked before diving into unfamiliar waters. Ditching her proved to be problematic, my sexual needs greater than my common sense.

She was different. She became more than a challenge.

She may just bring my world crashing down.

Book Review: Fosse

fosseFosse is a biography on none other than, you probably guessed it, Bob Fosse.  This book is actually quite long, but so well written that you don’t even realize how much you have read until you take a break and look down to see what page number you are on.  The biography is incredibly thorough and so detailed you almost feel as if you are there living it too.  Fosse is certainly a name that I have heard of before, but not a person I ever knew too much about.  Certainly a legend in the entertainment industry though – and that is what drew me to reading his biography and I am so glad that I did.  While it wasn’t always a wonderful life it was interesting and I now know much, much more than I ever thought I would!

I received a free e-copy in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated

 

About the Book

We see Bob Fosse’s legacy everywhere—from Broadway to “Billy Jean” to Beyoncé’s moves in the “Single Ladies” video. Yet in spite of Fosse’s deep cultural significance, no biography has ever brought him fully to life, unveiling the man behind the bowler hat and the swaggering sex appeal. Now, acclaimed cultural historian Sam Wasson traces Fosse’s numberless reinventions of himself over a career that would spawn The Pajama Game, Cabaret, Pippin, Chicago, All That Jazz, and other iconic works of art and earn him Tonys, Emmys, and an Oscar.

Wasson traces not only Fosse’s prodigious professional life, but his intense relationships with everyone from Liza Minnelli, Fred Astaire, and Neil Simon to Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange, and Dustin Hoffman. Through extensive interviews with collaborators and lovers and unprecedented access to Fosse’s archives, Wasson also reveals the deep wounds that propelled his subject’s excessive appetites—for spotlights, women, and life itself. In Fosse, Wasson’s stylish, effervescent prose proves the ideal vehicle for reanimating Bob Fosse as he truly was—after hours, close up, and in vibrant color.

Book Review: Stir Me Up

stirmeupThis book made me crazy and I don’t know why.  I think because Cami’s best friend is so much like my best friend.  Not so much with the rest of the story.  But, anyway. The book is about a girl named Cami who is a senior in high school.  She works at her Dad’s restaurant and wants to be a chef.  Her boyfriend works there too.  And sometimes she sneaks out of her house to go meet up with her boyfriend and her Dad and Step-Mom have no idea.  Then Cami’s Dad tells her that her step mom Estella’s nephew, Julian, is in the hospital because of injuries he got during the war. He lost a leg and is hurt pretty badly.  Estella practically raised him so she is going to the hospital to see him and he wants Cami to go with her.  At first Cami wants nothing to do with it but she goes along and realizes that Estella is so frazzled she really needs Cami’s help.  Julian screams for them to get out of his room and is just a really awful guy.

Estella tells Cami that since her room is on the first floor, Julian will be taking it when he moves in to recover.  Cami will be moving in to a small alcove upstairs.  Cami hates the idea and doesn’t know why they have to have this jerk moving in.  He ends up moving in early and Cami hadn’t moved her stuff out of her room yet because she wasn’t expecting him.  The two are constantly fighting, Cami won’t put up with his attitude and dishes it all right back  to him.  She actually throws dishes she has prepared for him to eat at him.

One Tuesday the family is having dinner and Cami invites Luke and her BFF Taryn.  Luke and Julian are not getting along at all, and Taryn realizes that it is because Julian likes Cami and Luke has caught on to that. Cami doesn’t think so but once she starts paying attention she realizes Taryn may be right and after they share a kiss, Cami breaks up with Luke.

The two end up having a secret relationship but soon Estella figures it out.  She tells them to make sure Cami’s dad doesn’t figure it out.  But not too long after he comes home unexpectedly and catches them together.  Cami’s dad makes Julian move out to Estella’s son’s house – where he’ll have to go up several flights of stairs. When he’s just learning how to deal with his prosthetic legs.  Cami tries to get her Dad to realize that Julian isn’t a terrible guy but doesn’t have much luck, but the two continue seeing each other.

They make a plan – Julian doesn’t want to hinder Cami’s plans for the future so they both pick what they want to do and can’t tell each other.  It is killing Cami and she doesn’t know if she should go to college or just become a chef and work in a restaurant – her dad is pushing her to go to college but she’s not sure it’s what she really wants.  Cami decides to travel the world staying with different friends and family and working in different restaurants.  She doesn’t know what Julian is doing and won’t find out until they have already gone their separate ways… or have they?

As soon as Julian moved into the house I KNEW that he was going to end up with Cami.  But I didn’t know how the parents would end up reacting since they are “step-cousins”… I found the characters to be very relatable and I was just completely brought into their world when I was reading this book – it was really well written from Cami’s perspective.  There are some more mature content and situations in this book and it is recommended for 16 and up. It is a Harlequin Teen novel, after all.

I received a free ecopy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

 

About the Book

A Harlequin TEEN E-Original Title:

Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She’ll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father’s French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami’s family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Julian’s all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami’s starting to feel. And Cami can’t stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He’s got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated….

Contains mature content and some sexual situations. Suited for readers 16 and up.

“Fun, steamy, and leaves you hungry for more. Sabrina Elkins nails the vulnerability of becoming an adult and the choices that come with growing up.” —Katie McGarry, author of Dare You To

“Cami’s slow burn for a wounded hero will rivet readers. I seriously loved this book.” —Jennifer Echols, author of Dirty Little Secret

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