Not to BRAG but I'm VERSATILE!

Says Melysah from the Quintessential Housewife!  Thanks so much Melysah!  I do like to talk about different things so I guess that fits!! OK So the rule is I have to tell you 7 things about myself:

1. I love to read... I guess you might have figured that out by the number of book reviews that I do (when I'm not to lazy to post them!)

2. I collect dolls... and I play with them too!  I dress them for the seasons and do their hair real pretty! And I have a doll business to boot, check me out!

3. I've been married for 21 years!!  Yes I know you couldn't guess because of my youthful glow... but it's true!

4.  I have three beautiful children (two boys, one girl) and two grandchildren (one of each).  My daughter and granddaughter are both 10 as of today!!  Happy Birthday Gabby!

5. I tend to spoil my kids.  I know I shouldn't but I can't help it.. they are really good kids!!

6. When you first meet me, I'm VERY quiet, but once I get to know you, I don't shut up! LOL!

7.  I'm the only girl out of six children.  My Daddy did NOT spoil me no matter what my Mom tells you!  I'm in the middle and we are paired off.  The two oldest are in TX, me and my middle brother are her in NJ and my two youngest are in AZ.  Weird how that happened.

So that's some little known facts about me!  Now I'm supposed to pass on the award!

Now for the rules for winning this award

• Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
• Share 7 things about yourself.
• Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.
• Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award.

1. Keep Me Curly
2. Big Mama
3. Happily Ever After
4. Living Rich With Coupons
5. A Mom After God's Own Heart
6. Black Doll Collecting
7. Cherish My Daughter
8. For the Little Doll in Your Life
9. Praise and Coffee
10. Roxanne's Dolls
11. Squarepeg's Misc Musings
12. The Holistic Health Maven
13. Mother of Pearl it is
14. Air Force. Wife. Life.
15. American Girl Doll Hairstyles

CLOSED - Don't You Love Me? And Day 3, Another book Giveaway!

Come on guys, Make me feel a little bit popular!!  Both of the giveaways I posted have VERY low entries, so do me a favor and tell your friends... PLEASE!

OK, enough of that.  I have another book for you today! It's called Forget Me Not by Vicky Hinze.  I reviewed this book here.  It was a really good read!!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Same rules:
Must be 18.
Must be in the US.
Must be a follower of this blog.

Thank you!

Disclosure: Waterbrook Multnomah sent me a copy for my review and a copy to give away.  The opinions expressed are my own! 

Love and Blessings!
Margaret

CLOSED - Busy Day and today's giveaway!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for being so late today but my son was sick and ended up staying home from school!  I felt so bad for him!  Anyway, I had to work from here and run him to the dr. and then pick up his meds and then pick up my daughter and her friend that I watch and then we had the school district strategic meeting and... well you get the picture!  Time just got away from me!

If I can ask, please say a prayer of healing (sinus infection) for my baby boy!  Here's a picture so you know who you are praying for:

Handsome isn't he???  Speaking of my baby boy, he's a teen now, and as a Christian parent, I know he's going to face a lot of challenges over his lifetime. He's going to make some HARD choices some right, some not so much.  But even more importantly,  there is an opportunity to do the RIGHT thing, even when it's hard.

This year, I had the chance to review the book Start Here: Doing Hard Things, Right Where You Are by Alex & Brett Harris.  It's a very quick read (in other words short!).  This book gave solid examples of teens who took a stand and did what they knew was right, what needed to be done.  In fact, Alex and Brett were only 18 when they wrote the book!  I was FLOORED by some of the accomplishments of the teens in this book.

In the near future, I plan to read this with my son and my daughter!  I believe that the teens in this book are inspiring and it will help them realize that they can do just about anything they set their mind to.

I'm so happy to be able to offer one of you a copy of this book to share with your teen.  Just leave a comment below and I will do a drawing on 10/11!  Make sure to leave your email!

Just some quick rules:

You must be a U.S. resident
You must be 18
You must be a follower of this blog

Thanks so much for your participation in my giveaways!!

Disclosure:  This book was provided for my review by Waterbrook-Multnomah and I received an extra copy to give away.  The opinions expressed are mine alone!

Love and Blessings!
Margaret

CLOSED - Novica Review and Giveaway!

Since this is my birthday week, I'm doing a giveaway a day and I have some really special surprises for you!  First up is Novica!!  I was contacted a few months ago to do a review of their corporate gift section and I must say I was very impressed!

First let me tell you a little about the company, this is some information from their website.  Here is a portion of the mission statement:

" We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.
At the deepest essence of our philosophy, we want to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe.  We want you to know about who you're buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it."

Now I'm going to be real and let you know that to me Corporate gifts = $$$$$!  Boy was I surprised.  I found beautiful home decor items and jewelry for VERY REASONABLE prices.  For example, this beautiful Soapstone Jewelry Box  or this Ceramic vase are both outstanding pieces to give as gifts but they won't break the bank!  And what is also unique is that when you visit the page to find out more about the item, there is a bio of the artist!  You get to "meet" the person who crafted your item, I thought this was very cool!

It was a tough decision but I ordered the Purple Orchid earrings by the Thai artist Danai

These gorgeous earrings arrived in a BEAUTIFUL saa paper box with a decorative leaf insigna.  Inside was a little booklet with a note from the artist and a description of the earrings.  I LOVE the packaging and I wouldn't even need to wrap these to give as a gift!

The second item was also a pair of earrings from Thailand.  This time they were Amethyst floral earrings by Narareet.  The crafting is beautiful and I know whoever receives this as a gift will be thrilled.

Since I know your curiosity is peaked now, I would LOVE to give one of you a gift certificate to the Novica store!!  Novica has graciously provided me with a E-certificate in the amount of $37.50.  Here are the rules for the giveaway:

1)  Visit the Novica Corporate Gifts section and tell me which item you would love to gift to someone, and maybe you can share who you would gift it to!

2) Be a follower of this Blog

That's it!  That's all you have to do to be entered into the drawing for the E-certificate!!  But you must do both steps to receive an entry!

Edited to add:

Must be a US Resident
Must be 18 years or older

This giveaway will end 10/11.

Disclosure: I was provided with a gift certificate for $37.50 to purchase and review products from the Novica website.  The opinions expressed are my own.

Love and Blessings!
Margaret

It's My Birthday!!!

Hey everyone,

I took a little bit of time off, but I had to come back and let you know it's my birthday tomorrow!! Woohoo!! I'm 39 for the sixth time!!! I just keep getting younger looking everyday! LOL! 

Anyway, even though it's MY birthday, the gifts are for YOU!!  Starting tomorrow, I will be doing a week's worth of giveaways!  I have some SWEET things to give away, I've been saving them up just for YOU!  So tell your friends, tell your neighbors and don't forget to stop by yourself!!

Note: Digital elements are from Scraps by Jenn Sugarplum Princess (Sunshine Studios)

Love & Blessings!
Margaret

Book Review - I'm Down: a memoir

I'm Down: a memoir by Mishna Wolff

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Summary of Book:



Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. “He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol—telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down.


Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn’t dance, she couldn’t sing, she couldn’t double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too “black” to fit in with her white classmates.


I’m Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.


My Review:

It's hard to find the right words to describe this book. It seems to me that when the author was telling her "story," she picked out the worst things in her father to show how "black" he was. His womanizing and lack of work ethic were not funny. His attitude towards his daughters and how he let his women treat his daughters was not funny. Many of the things that black families are trying to overcome are hysterical to this author... they weren't to me. Now I do understand not fitting in with your community and being moved to different schools to be challenged and people's attitudes toward you when this happens.  So I did appreciate those portions of the book.  And some parts of the book were funny, like her stint with the basketball teams and some of her other antics trying to fit in. But overall, the book did not meet my expectations. Lucky it was a quick read!


Disclaimer: This was a book from my personal collection.


Love and Blessings!

Margaret



View all my reviews