Book Review: Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert

I recently read Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert.  I loved this book.  It was easy to read and was hard to put down.  The book is about a widow that runs a cafe, and her journey of healing and new beginnings.  She meets and slowly falls in love with the representative of the development company that is looking to purchase her cafe and tear it down to build some condos.  Through tragedy, triumph and relying on the Lord, they both come to the place where they are able to move past their individual pasts, and look towards a future together.  This book is perfect to read in a weekend, on a trip, or the beach!  I highly recommend it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

 

 

 

 

More Love in the Mail!

Yesterday, I received some more love in the mail!

Some fabric I got from Katie at Swim, Bike, Quilt!

A jelly roll of Amy Bulter fabric, a charm pack of Benartex Curiosities fabric

and a mini charm pack of Moda Jubilee fabric.

I am going to make a postage stamp quilt with the fabric from Moda.

A devotional to review and a new Sak purse that was on clearance online for $22.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Wednesday Work In Progress

Don’t you love getting packages in the mail?  This is what I got yesterday:

Once again, I am apologizing for the picture quality.

I purchased this fabric from Connecting Threads for $2.96/yard.

I purchased 7 yards for $18 roughly.  Where do you find a deal like that?

Only at Connecting Threads.

It is the back piece for my niece Gabby’s quilt.

I think it’s gonna look fabulous!!

I also think Gabby’s quilt is my favorite quilt I have ever made.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Keep Simply Delighting!

No Reply Blogger

Just so anyone who cares would like to know…because I use Word Press as my platform for blogging, I am automatically a No Reply Blogger. So…if I comment on your blog post or enter a giveaway on your site, please have enough courtesy to at least leave me a comment on my blog or email me to simplydelighting@yahoo.com. 

Thanks!

Strips are cut!

Yesterday, I finished cutting the 2 1/2 in strips from my stash/scraps into 16 inch lengths for my #scrappytripalong quilt.   All together, I have 241 strips!!!!  That’s enough to make over 40 blocks.  But I love this pattern and I love scrappy quilts so I might make a couple from my strips.  Or…I may just make it big enough for my bed, which is a queen.  I know I said just last week that I will never make queen size quilt again, but, we will see.

Today, I am going to spend the day catching up on my reading (and maybe DVR…we’ll see).  I subscribe to several magazines and I need to get them read and ready to pass on.  My Mom and I swap magazines.  The only ones I don’t pass on are my quilting ones.  Although, I am thinking about letting some of them go as well, as I feel like there isn’t a lot of quilts I have made from the magazines I have and with all the blogs I subscribe to, well…I have MORE than enough inspiration.  Here is the stack I have to read today.

On a side note, here are my reading companions for the day.  I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture with my phone.

And one more thing.  I downloaded to my phone this cool app called Photo Grid.  You can take your photos and make them into a mosaic.  I have been having fun doing that with all my different pictures on my phone.  Here is one of some of the quilts I made last year.

They are across the top left to right:

1.My Mom’s winterscape quilt

2.Pam’s Calico Candies and Sweet Shoppe quilt

3.Brianna’s quilt

4.Shortcake quilt

5.Shannon’s Tuxedo quilt

6.Maxton’s baby quilt

7.Chelsea’s quilt

8.Gabby quilt

9.My Pink quilt

Linking up with Plum and June.

Keep Simply Delighting!

 

 

Simple Sundays!

I love Sundays.  It truly is my favorite day of the week.  Worship, family time, football, afternoon naps, time to do whatever you please…that’s what Sundays are for.

Today, among doing other things, I spent my Sunday doing several loads of laundry, running to the store, cutting some fabric (see tomorrow’s post), and making homemade vegetable soup for this week’s main meal.  It’s not what we had for dinner tonight, but it’s what’s for lunch and dinner at least a couple days this week.

I forgot to take a picture of the soup, sorry.

I had lots and lots of frozen vegetables from my parents’ garden and my brother’s garden.  Also, I had several bags of frozen vegetables that I wanted to use up that were taking precious space in my freezer.   So…here’s the recipe:

Homemade Veggie Soup

3 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes (I put my kitchen shears inside the open can and chop them up more)

2 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

1 10,75 oz can of tomato soup

1 lb of ground sirloin, browned

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups frozen (or fresh) chopped carrots

2 cups of green beans

I also added 2 2/3 cups of frozen mixed veggies and 2 cups of frozen green beans I had just hanging out in the freezer open.

Various spices, such as Italian seasoning, minced onion, garlic powder and salt and pepper.

You can also add a couple peeled, diced potatoes, but I just forgot.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Scrappy Strips!

I was trying to figure out what I finished this week…

Does it count that I finished cutting my scraps into 2 1/2 inch strips for my #scrappytripalong?  I have to cut them into 16 inch strips and then start sewing, but at least I can put my scraps away.  I can’t wait to start sewing the blocks.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, and TGIFF!!

Keep Simply Delighting!

 

Book Review: The 5 Money Personalities by Scott and Bethany Palmer

I recently read the book The 5 Money Personalities by Scott and Bethany Palmer.  This book was by far one of the most helpful, resourceful books I have ever read.  While it is geared towards teaching couples how to manage their finances, it is useful for anyone.  We all know that one of the major issues in any relationship is money, and how to manage it.  This couple give practical tips and advice on managing and communicating about all things surrounding finances.  It is definitely an eye opener!!!!  I highly recommend it to EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through BookSneeze®.

 

I love hexagons!

For so long, I have been wanting to attempt a hexagon quilt.  I am not sure what about hexagons intrigue me…but they do.  So…last year when I ran into some charm packs on sale at Craftsy, I knew that it would be the right fabric for my hexagons! 

I just love this fabric!  It’s Curiosities by Nancy Halvorson for Benartex.  So…last night I decided to break out my hexi template and start cutting.

At first, I thought “Oh wow, this is gonna take me forever.” And because I am a new quilter (sort of) I didn’t think that charm packs are probably not the best cut of fabric for hexagons.  But whatever.  I ended up cutting them in stacks….and I cut 4 charm packs (40 pieces each).

I love this fabric!

160 hexies cut!

And because I am crazy about not wasting anything, I saved the itty bitty scrap pieces.

My friend Melissa, who I talked about in the great big friendship blog, and who is super creative herself, has agreed to make a ticker tape canvas for my bathroom.  I got the idea from Crazy Mom Quilts blog post, which you can see here.

Also, I have put together (finally) my list of UFOs, WIPs, and upcoming projects.

UFOs:

*Gabby’s quilt

*Mom’s star quilt

*My winterscape quilt

*Crazy Daisy quilt

*Americana quilt

WIPs:

*Moda honey bun #scrappytripalong

*Regular size #scrappytripalong

*Hexagon quilt

*Ticker Tape canvas

*granny square afghan

Upcoming:

*Scrapper’s Delight from Sunday Morning Quilts (you can see it in this blog post)

*Postage Stamp quilt in pink/aqua/yellow

Linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Pillow Shams

Today I finished up the pillow shams that match my Mom’s queen size quilt.  I am pleased with how they turned out.

Front

Back

I also worked on some more of my Moda honey bun #scrappytripalong blocks.

And when I was bored with that, I cut some more fabric strips for the 2 1/2 inch #scrappytripalong quilt I haven’t started sewing yet.

Strips not cut into 16 inch pieces yet 😦

16 inch pieces 🙂

stack of fabric yet to cut for #scrappytripalong

The best part about playing with scraps is that it creates more scraps for the other 2 scrappy quits I want to make.

Scrappy leftover scraps

the overstuffed bag of scrappy leftovers from previous quilts

I can’t wait to get started on the other quilts too.  I have to hold myself back to not have 3 or 4 or 10 quilts started at once.

Linking up to Plum and June’s Let’s get acquainted party at Fabric Mutt.

Keep Simply Delighting!