Month: February 2014

February 12, 2014

Sinners’ Garden by William Sirls #review

Hope, love and forgiveness. Finding God in all the quiet and small places. This powerful novel, The Sinners’ Garden has it all.

The Sinners’ Garden is set in the small township of Benning. Andy Kemp is one of the main characters of this novel. His life has been centered around the scars that mar his face. His face had been disfigured by an abusive father and he now hides his pain behinds books and anger. His Uncle Rip returns from prison a different and more religious man. He becomes a mentor for his nephew, trying all he can do to help ease Andy’s pain. When Andy begins to hear strange music through his iPod and making near prophetic announcements to those around him, Rip is convinced that Andy is hearing the voice of God.

Local police officer, Heather Gerisch, responds to a late night break in and enter in a poorer area of town. The masked prowler has left thousands of dollars in grocery gift cards! The bizarre break ins continue and is dubbed the “Summer Santa”. Andy and Rip discover an enormous and well kept garden of wildflowers that seem to have grown overnight. They speculate on whom the gardener could be and soon a spree of miracles transforms the small town from a place of hopelessness into a place of healing and beauty.

This novel was so moving and touched me deeply. It touched on so many difficulty topics of abuse, poverty, pain, forgiveness and healing. It forced me to open my eyes and remember that God is all around us. Sometimes life can become so busy that we forget that God is there listening to us and guiding us. We just need to slow down and listen to Him.

It can be so difficult to forgive those that have hurt us. This novel makes you realize how important the healing process is and if we don’t forgive we will continue to hurt. I loved how real the characters were. They were normal people, they were imperfect and their lives did not end in a happy fairy tale ending just because they were in a novel. This is a definite must read.

If you would like to find out more on this novel and read other reviews, please check out the Litfuse Blog Tour. To purchase a copy of the book please visit here.

Rating: 5/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book for the purpose to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

February 12, 2014

Homemade Valentine’s Day Picture Frame Cards #shop #cbias

This Valentine’s Day craft is a part of the Valentine Crafts with Kids campaign for the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop & post have been compensated as a part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser. All opinions on this blog are my own.

Craft time is always fun time in our house. We love spending hours painting, colouring and using crafts as a teaching tool. Crafts are important for developing fine motor skills in children, expressing their creativity and can also be used as a successful learning tool.

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching we set upon the task of coming up with a creative way to send our loved ones Valentine’s Day cards for this #CollectiveBias campaign. We wanted something unique and different from the typical Valentine’s Day cards.

So what did we come up with? We decided to create picture frame cards! So we headed off to Walmart to explore their Art Supplies section.

Valentine's Day Picture Frame Cards #shop

There were so many craft supplies to choose from when we were there – the possibilities were endless. This is one of the reasons why I love shopping at our local Walmart. Our little one kept pulling everything off the shelves that he could get his little hands on he was that excited!

And now for our craft!

You Will Need:

wooden picture frame
Elmer’s craft glue
Elmer’s felt stickers
Elmer’s short craft popsicle sticks
felt
Elmer’s paint
photograph of your child
pen
scissors
Elmer’s sequins and gems if desired

Instructions:

1. Paint wooden frame with desired colours. You can also choose to make a pattern on the frame as well. To do so you must first outline the design on the frame with pencil lightly. Remember to paint the lighter paint on first. Allow the frame to dry.

2. Paint five of the small popsicle sticks in a different colour. Allow the sticks to dry.

3. Write on two of the sticks, “Happy Valentine’s Day”, on one stick “2014” and on the final two sticks “I Love You, Love <insert your child’s name>. Make sure to use pen and not a marker as the marker will bleed.

4. Glue the sticks to the felt and cut the pieces out in an oval like shape.

5. Before gluing anything down, arrange all the material on the frame where you would like it to be placed. When you are happy with the design – start gluing! The Elmer’s felt stickers were awesome, you just have to peel off the back and place them down. Made the whole process so much simpler for my little ones.

6. Insert photo on the back of the picture frame.

Voila! A perfect Valentine’s Day card personalized just for your loved ones!

Valentine’s Day is a special day for families, friends and partners. It is a day where we can go above and beyond to show those we love how much we appreciate having them in our life. A moment to slow down in our busy lives and truly live in the moment.

“Valentine, just a few words to tell you how I love you. I have loved you since the first day I saw you. Whenever that was.” — Charles M. Schulz

February 11, 2014

Beating the Indoor Blues with #DKCanada Sticker Boutique

Sticker time is always fun time! From beating boredom, adding to crafts and fixing boo boos at the doctor’s office – stickers have always fascinated kids!

I was (and still am) a huge sticker fan – I actually still have my large collection of stickers in the original tin box I collected them in. My boys are able to go through them and use them in their own pictures – although they are full of hearts and animals which I never hear the end of. Stickers have come along way since my childhood – you can now even purchase favourite characters (from Disney to Lego to Superheroes, the possibilities are endless!).

With the deep freeze we have been under lately (and not to mention the constant colds!) my boys have been itching to find new things to keep them busy. For them the chance to try out some of the DK Sticker Books from their boutique was the best news they had received in a long time.

My boys were beyond thrilled when they received their books. Superheroes and Lego, yes please! Our youngest is going through a huge Hulk and Spiderman phase – he even slept with his book that night!

The boutique offers sticker collections ranging from Disney princesses and movie characters to Lego and superheroes as well as animals and dinosaurs. There are over 1000 reusable stickers (the pages are made so that they can stick them on and peel them off – not sure how many times they would last through this process but my boys peeled them off about five times without causing them any problems with how effectively they stuck on). The book itself is thick which is perfect for little ones as you know it wont tear easily and cause tears. The selection in each book was perfect and also had extra stickers because if your children are like mine – many will end up on a nose or cheek or even as a pretend tattoo!

We fell in love with the DK Canada Sticker boutique and the boys rated them a 5/5 for being awesome, superior collection and downright fun.

http://cn.dk.com/static/cs/cn/11/nf/features/stickerbookboutique/index.html

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

February 11, 2014

Craft Time #WW

With all this cold weather and my children being sick we have spent quite a few hours indoors lately. This past week we have done so many crafts so I wanted to showcase them in action.

I would love to visit your Wordless Wednesday Post so please link up below! Have a wonderful day!

February 6, 2014

Hopeful Blog Tour: Review

I have only started reading Amish fiction in the last two months but I have become a huge fan of this genre. I love the feeling of community, the selflessness and the stories are easy to relate to.

Hopeful by Shelley Shephard Gray is a story centred around Miriam Zehr. Miriam works at the Sugarcreek Inn and has been there for a very long time. The Sugarcreek Inn is a favourite among both the town residents and the tourists. Miriam always keeps herself positive at work but it is a reminder that she is missing her own family to love and care for.

Miriam has always felt like a wallflower and not quite pretty. She has always been a little heavier than the other girls her age making her self conscious. She has always held a special spot in her heart for Junior and when he finally begins to pay attention to her she is elated. She thinks that he has finally noticed her only to realize that he is using her to help him gain the attention of her pretty friend, Mary Kathryn. Miriam is faced with the dilemma to help him and be able to spend time with him or potentially lose him.

I felt like I could closely relate to Miriam. I have always felt self conscious and a bit of a wallflower. I have always been shy and afraid to talk to others in my classes. I was always self conscious about my body and she was just a character that really touched me. You can’t help but like Junior even though the situation is frustrating and you feel bad for Miriam. He is just a likable character!

The characters in this story are easy to fall in love with and care for and you just want to know more about them. There is a real sense of community and you can see how the series is beginning to develop. I looked into The Sugarcreek series (Seasons of Sugarcreek) as many others have suggested and I am going to start reading from there as many people stated that some of the characters in this novel were also present in her past novels. I love seeing this type of continuation but it also did not affect the plot line at all.

Shelley Shepard Gray is a two time New York best seller, a two time USA Today best seller, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award and a two time Holt Medallion winner (pretty lengthy list right? But very well deserved!). She lives in Southern Ohio and writes full time. You can learn more about her here.

To find more reviews of Hopeful in the Litfuse Blog Tour you can visit their page here. You can purchase your own copy here.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.