Tag: book review
Knitting Book Review on Warm Up With Scarves and Cowls from Leisure Arts
May 3, 2018
I was recently given the opportunity to review the knitting book Warm Up With Scarves and Cowls from Leisure Arts publications. This book contains 9 fun and fairly easy knitting projects for scarves and cowls.
One of the scarves that caught my eye in this book was the Short Row Scarf – which is pictured on the left above. I recently bought some of the Jeans yarn from Lion brand yarn and decided it would be perfect for this project. Below is a photo of the scarf I have started with the Short Row Pattern.
The short row scarf is a great project for an intermediate knitter. It is worked in garter stitch – all knit. It is helpful for teaching you how to wrap and turn and do shaping which is useful in many other more advanced knitting projects. I would think even an advanced beginner could knit this scarf.
The other scarf that I really like in this book is the one pictured above. It is call the Triangle Scarf and is knit with 3 different yarns – 2 solid color yarns and one multi color. I may attempt this scarf as my next knitting project from this book.
There are also a couple of pretty lace cowls in the book and another cowl called the Mosaic Cowl which is in the photo above. The book is titled Warm Up With Scarves and Cowls but there are several projects in it that are lightweight enough that you could knit them for spring or summer weather.
You can click on any of the highlighted text or the photos to take you to the Leisure Arts website to order this book. I think you will really like all the projects it has – there are beginner and intermediate knitting patterns in this book.
I hope you enjoyed reading and learning more about this book.
-Kimberlee
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Cake Doctor Book and Recipe Review
June 28, 2013
I was first introduced to the Cake Mix Doctor books a couple of years ago from one of my knitting group friends. She made this wonderful Apple Cider Cake and brought it to one of our meetings. It was so good she sent me the recipe and told me the book it came from.
I usually check the library for any books I am interested in and did so with this book. To my delight they had 3 different titles of the cake doctor books so I checked them all out. My local library allows you to check books out for 3 weeks and renew, if no one has requested it, for another 3 weeks so that was more than enough time to try out various cakes in the books and decide I would like to own at least one, if not 2 of the titles.
The titles I own are the original Cake Mix Doctor, copyright 1999, and the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor, copyright 2001. The original title I received as a gift a couple of years ago for Christmas. I just recently bought the Chocolate version at my local Half Price Books for only $5.99. My oldest son and I went there a couple weeks ago to trade in some books and DVD’s – after my DVD organizing we had some to get rid of.
The Cake Mix Doctor books have a variety of different types and styles of cakes to bake. All of the directions are easy to read and follow and lots of other helpful baking tips and ideas are offered throughout the book. All of the recipes start with a basic cake mix but lots of other ingredients are added to produce rich and delicious cakes. These cakes are not made from scratch cakes.
I was never one before to bake tube cakes, I usually stuck with the 13 x 9 or round cakes. These books have some awesome tube cake recipes and have inspired me to bake a lot more of this style cake and they are so easy! I made this one in the photo below for my birthday yesterday.
It is a chocolate pound cake that uses cream cheese in the recipe. It is very good. I had made some homemade hot fudge sauce, a recipe I found on pinterest, that was so good and went perfectly with this cake as a topping. My sons loved it! The hot fudge sauce recipe was from a blog called Chocolate, Chocloate and more.
Another recipe I recently tried from the Chocolate book is the Hello Dolly Bars. These are made with a cake mix and are just wonderful. Very easy to make, too. They do require a few ingredients but are a cinch to throw together and bake in about 25 to 30 minutes. The perfect cake-bar treat for my hungry kids.
I hope you enjoyed this review of the books and a couple of the recipes. I have tried many more and they are all delicious. The ones mentioned above are the ones I have most recently made. Subscribe via RSS feed or through bloglovin for future book and recipe reviews.
Book Review – Extraordinary Women
June 14, 2013
Today I finished my 10 week journey reading this wonderful book Extraordinary Women by Julie Clinton and Mary M. Byers. The subtitle of the book is Discovering the Dream God Created for You.
I purchased this book from Mardel a few months ago and began reading it 10 weeks ago. I usually try and do my TAG (time alone with God) time every morning after my workout and decided this was the perfect book for that. The book is divided into 10 segments with different titles for each week. The book is laid out so that you only read it 5 days out of the week so I would strive for Monday through Friday. Each daily page that you read is only about 2 or 3 pages long. The titles of the weeks are as follows:
- Week 1: Secrets to Living God’s Dream for Your Life
- Week 2: Secrets to Knowing God Really Loves You
- Week 3: Secrets to Meaningful Relationships
- Week 4: Secrets to Handling Testosterone
- Week 5: Secrets to Mastering Your Emotions
- Week 6: Secrets to Handling Imbalance
- Week 7: Secrets to Getting Through Tough Times
- Week 8: Secrets to Finding Freedom
- Week 9: Secrets to Creating an Intimate Relationship with God
- Week 10: Secrets to Making Every Day Count
There is a motivating quote at the end of each daily read along with journal prompts if you decide to keep a journal. I also like the fact that there are lots of meaningful scriptures throughout the entire book.
Overall I think this is a wonderful book for those wanting to keep a connection to God in their daily life. The book is very positive and uplifting – getting your day off to a wonderful start. This is the type of book that I will be able to apply to everyday life and will put it on my book shelf and read it again in years to come.
I will now begin to read Becoming the Woman I Want To Be by Donna Partow. It is another book that is set up to read on a daily basis. I read another book by her last summer called Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be and thought it was an excellent book. That is actually the book that taught me the acronym TAG – time alone with God.
I am in no way affiliated with the author or publisher of this book or any books mentioned in this post. I just enjoyed the book and wanted to write a review to share.
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Books To Help You Learn More About Pinterest
May 25, 2013
Have you joined Pinterest? Have you joined but don’t really know how to navigate your way around or see what Pinterest can do for you? These two books can help you learn the world of Pinterest.
I joined Pinterest almost two years ago after a friend told me about it and how much I would enjoy pinning. At first I just made a few boards, pinned a few things, and followed some of my friends. Then, about a year ago I really got into the groove of using Pinterest. I have started following some really interesting people, gained more followers myself, and found some really great things on there I would have never found without Pinterest. For example: blogs I now follow, crochet and knitting ideas and patterns, cleaning tips, garden ideas, photography info, recipes, sewing tutorials and lots of other valuable info. There is something for everyone on Pinterest. I consult my boards regularly for information, recipes and helpful tips on how to do things I am interested in learning.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to learn more about the wonderful world of Pinterest and how to use it more effectively. I bought these two books: Pinterest Power by Jason Miles and Karen Lacey and Pinfluence by Beth Hayden. Both of these books are wonderful resources on learning Pinterest, in my opinion. These books will give you the information you need to create a profile, have great pinterest boards and market your business. There are lots of other good tips in these two books as well on things like Pinterest contests, email marketing, and connecting with other pinners. The books are directed more toward marketing a business on Pinterest. I think those that don’t have a business and just want to learn more about navigating Pinterest would also benefit from reading these two books. The books have the basic information on creating beautiful boards, understanding pinning, repinning and commenting on pins.
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I am in no way affilated with these books or authors. I just really love Pinterest, love to read and learn new things and wanted to share this information on my blog.