Friday, February 8, 2013

Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Will love conquer all?

Nora and Patch thought their troubles were behind them. Hank is gone and they should be able to put his ugly vendetta to rest. But in Hank's absence, Nora has become the unwitting head of the Nephilim and must finish what Hank began. Which ultimately means destroying the fallen angels - destroying Patch.

Nora will never let that happen, so she and Patch make a plan: lead everyone to believe they have broken up, and work the system from the inside. Nora will convince the Nephilim that they are making a mistake in fighting the fallen angels, and Patch will find out everything he can from the opposing side. They will end this war before it can even begin.

But the best-laid plans often go awry. Nora is put through the paces in her new role and finds herself drawn to an addictive power she never anticipated.

As the battle lines are drawn, Nora and Patch must confront the differences that have always been between them and either choose to ignore them or let them destroy the love they have always fought for.
Finale, by Becca Fitzpatrick is the final (what an original title) in the series.  I started reading this series when it came out, I wanted to move from vampires to something different but stay in the YA genre.  Hush Hush came on the heals of the Twilight Saga Craze and when I started the book it read so similarly to Twilight that I almost put it down.  While there are similarities in the books they could never be placed in the same categories.   
Becca's writing is much darker and more realistic (when it comes to the humans) than any other YA I've read. 
 
Nora lives with her mother, her father is dead.  Her mother does have a job that keeps her away a lot but her mother also has her thumb on Nora.  This motherly act keeps up when Nora is hurt badly by Patch (the angel/boyfriend) and Nora's mother shows open distrust of Patch, a very motherly thing to do.  However by the time I got to Finale Nora's mother had taken a back seat in order to finish up the story.  Needless to say I was disappointed in this change. 
The books take place in Coldwater Maine, a fictitious location, but I kept picturing a small town outside of Portland Maine, a place I've visited frequently.  I do find it interesting that so many YA paranormal books take place in cold wet locations (Twilight - Washington, Shiver - Minnesota).
I tried to get all the book trailers to load but for some reason I couldn't, probably technical issues on my side.  But you can view all 4 HERE
 
It is clear that Becca did a great deal of research for this series about the Fallen Angels, Nephilim, Cheshvan and the Books of Enoch and I love how she weaves all this seamlessly into the romance and mystery. 
Overall this series is about loyalty, finding one's place, dealing with loss and addiction (not touched on until Finale).  Many issues that teens and adults face on a day to day basis.  The great thing is that unless you were reading the book to do a review I don't think you would notice.  What you would notice is the good decisions verses the bad ones that were made. 
 
I could have done without the Epilogue, but I feel that way in most cases.  The series ended on a good note the Epilogue made it an ever happier ending but also a bit of an unbelievable one for the age of the characters. 
 
Overall I would recommend this series.  And you should read it fast because guess what...it has been picked up for a movie, you can read the details HERE
 
I'm linking up with
 

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Artfully Musings: Dreaming of Romance Altered Book

Laura Carson of Artfully Musing has done it again, created something so stunning it makes your mouth drop! An altered book she calls Dreaming of Romance
But this time it is especially special to me because she used images from my Paintings of Romance Collage sheet (available through Alpha Stamps and on sale right now!). 
Paintings of Romance is the first collage sheet that I have ever done and I am thrilled that Alpha Stamps considered it good enough to add to their stunning repertoire of Collage Sheets. 
In the above image (you can close your mouth now LOL) Laura used 5 of the images on the sheet!  I haven't even used them all yet. 
If you are unfamiliar with Laura's work you really must go to her website.  She has wonderful tutorials and her art is always this amazing. 
This is the outside of the book, scrumptious! 
Laura is going to be putting together a tutorial on how she got the texture.  I'm familiar with the technique, I used it HERE.  But Laura always does things in a much simpler way than I do to achieve the look so I am looking forward to her tips. 
 
Thank you so much Laura for sharing your art and your talent with all of us.  I am tickled pink with your creation and so glad that I can call you one of my friends. 
 


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

I saw it on Pinterest and Did it ~ Monthly Linky Party Reminder

 Hey Gang, this will be the last of the "reminder" posts, the real thing starts next week (and I will probably post early just to make sure I get the linky part thing right)
 
I saw This on Pinterest: 
It is a Green Wood Cleaning Solution
By: The Make Your Own Zone
And I mixed it and used it.
Conclusion, my chairs no longer have the above Ewww but the mixture seemed to have left a coating on the wood. 
 
Now that the wood was clean it was painfully obvious how dirty the cusions were.  Here is where things get tricky, I plan on re-doing the entire table and chairs so I didn't really want to spend that much time scrubbing but at the same time who knows when I will get around to the re-do.
 
So, I found This formula on Pinterest (there are a bunch)
Homemade all natural upholstery cleaner
Green Living:  How to Make Natural Upholstery Cleaner
Y'all have no idea how embarrased I am at showing you my dirty chairs.
Conclusion, it worked, the glitter is off along with whatever the other stuff was but really it took more elbow grease than anything else.  Maybe next time I will try a different formula.
 
My husband noticed so I guess they are cleaner and just the other day I was looking at them and they do look brighter.  So my vote is yes, and it didn't take me too long to do both cleanings. 

Glitter Tart Designs
 
I really hope you are going to link up with me, I'm thinking I'll post on Saturday.  Can't wait to see what everyone else has been trying out.

February Art Giveaway

Glitter Tart Designs

 Congratulations to all the winners last month!  I hope you enjoy your treats. 
This month I decided to go all Valentine themed.
 
Giveaway #1
3 handmade heart embellishments. 
The hearts are wood painted and sanded with crepe paper rosettes behind them. 
 
Giveaway #2
Heart shaped Rose Scented Bath Bombs with real rose petals
 
Giveaway #3
A Romantic ATC
 
Just leave a comment or e-mail me if you would like to be entered in the drawing to win one of these items. 
 

I am thrilled to say that last months giveaway was a huge success everyone contacted me and all the items are already on their way to their new homes.  I will miss them but they were getting lonely in my drawer. 
 
Good Luck to all!

Monday, February 4, 2013

January Art Giveaway Winners! ~ Tarnished Rose, C Pohl and Jennifer

Winner #1
Soar ATC with envelope
 
is
Tarnished Rose who said...
 
Would love to win a piece of your art!

Smiles~
Marilyn
 
Winner #2
Happy Birthday ATC
 is
C Pohl who said...
Wow, love 2 win, so much fun and great art!!!
C
 
Winner #3
1920's Tag, front and back decorated
is

Jennifer who said...
Beautiful artwork!! Please count me in... :)
 
Thank you all who participated.  Later today I will get up the February Art giveaways.
If you are a winner please e-mail me within the next 48 hours and I will send your winnings to you right away.
 
Hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Huge Announcement!!!

I have created my first ever collage sheet!
and you can get it on sale now at Alpha Stamps. 
 
Better yet you can get it and use it on the latest Alpha Stamps Swap
The February Valentine Kit Banner ATC Swap.
 
And here is the first piece of artwork I have created using an image from my Collage Sheet.
 I printed out the text on transparency and adhered it to the image.  Then cut out just the lovers and placed them on top.
Laura of Artfully Musing also made a Valentine collage sheet that is selling through Alpha Stamps, Romance.  I fell in love with her Cameo image and decided to bling it out. 
 The Kit includes some Mixed Color Metalic Starbursts that I decided to turn into flowers.
 The centers are from the beads that were included in the January Doorways Kit, the leaves are Olivine glass Leaves (the small AB set) and I used Silver Craft wire for the stems.
I always like creating pieces but to see something that I truly created from start to finish is so rewarding.  I can't wait to see what you do with the collage sheet.  I hope you like it!
 
 
 
 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

 This is my second go at Scavenger Hunt Sunday and I must admit this week was hard for me.  Last week my mind immediately grabbed onto the textural aspect of the hunt items.  This time they were all very open to interpretation and some I found very hard to interpret, I even ended up getting help from Mr. Glitter Tart.
 
Hidden
My glorious vintage Webster dictionary helped with with this one.  The word 'Hidden' can be found snuggled/hidden between hidalgo and hiddenite.
 
Plain
I have big plans for this canvas but right now it is in a very plain state. 
 
Left 
Yep, you guessed it I had trouble with this one.  Originally I was just going to take a picture of my left hand making the letter L.  But then I went walking in the woods and there was a perfect log begging me to sit down.  Mr. Glitter Tart took a picture from behind where I was predominately on the left.  So with a lot of editing, this is my Left photo for the week. 
 
Fast
Again thanks to Mr. Glitter Tart.  What's Faster than the speed of light???? 
 
Peace
I hate this picture, it's fuzzy and not peaceful at all like I wanted it to be.  To me peace comes in the form of a cup of afternoon coffee and a chance to devourer a few pages of a good book.
  

Friday, February 1, 2013

Order of the Demensions by Irene Helenowski

 
When Jane Kremowski first began her graduate studies in physics at Madison State University in Wisconsin, little did she know where her work would take her. Now, she is embroiled in a multitude of dimensions all leading to different outcomes. She and her colleagues therefore must act wisely in order to take and keep away the Order of Dimension from falling into the wrong hands for the sake of her loved ones.
Review:
This is a self published book, not the first I've ever read, and I have the same advice for Irene that I have for all the other self published books I've read.  Please get an editor.  I love sci-fi so when Irene sent me the description of her book I was uber excited about reading it but I did get hung up quite a bit on small typos, missing words, or the wrong word all together.  This makes the reading not as smooth and it gives the reader a chance to nit pick. 
 
A Little Bit more about the Book:
Order of The Dimensions is a story about a physics graduate student, Jane Kremowski (can you see the similarities between the author's surname? ).
 
Jane is on a team that is working on a device called  'Multiverser'.  It's a device that allows another person or 'being' to enter/visit other alternate universes/dimensions.  Immediately this made me think of the TV show Sliders (yes I watched, and loved it!)
 
 
Back to the Review:
To be 100% honest I didn't realize that Jane was traveling to different dimensions until page 27 where the author wrote "...slender girl that she was already familiar with from the other dimension."  After that I paid a bit more attention and ended up counting 9 different Dimensions. 
 
Since I am a Sliders fan I figured that each dimension would have the same people in it.  In other words if Jane went to a Dimension there would be another Jane there.  But Irene doesn't make this clear until almost the 3rd Section of the book, Establishment of the Order (the bad group Anton leads).  On page 180 "She (Jane) started wondering about her mirror images in the other dimensions and what they were doing."  Now she's wondering!  By this point she has been to 6 different Dimensions.
 
   This aspect really bothered me in the 3rd Dimension where she ends up in Miami with Anton (the bad guy) and they are married.  Okay so if they are married, why dosnt' she have memories of getting married?  If there was another Jane there, what happened to her?  Why does Anton have to replace her with Jane from another Dimension?  Questions, questions and more questions.
 
Anton is a constant, but it is never made clear why he is obsessed with Jane.  Jane has a boyfriend in the 1st Dimension but they don't seem that serious.  However apparently they are because they are married in the 4th Dimension and Jane is blissfully happy.  Their family being torn apart is what makes up the later portion of the book.
 
Over halfway through the book an entire new set of characters is introduced.  These characters are going to help Jane get back to Randy. 
 
Finally once these new characters are introduced the question of are there multiples is clearly answered on page 224 "If you do this you must be cautions so as not to have any interactions with your other self...If you do, there is a possibility that one of you may diminish - simply disappear or enter an unknown black dimension..."  But all this made me do is wonder what Anton had done with all the other Jane's.
 
Long story short I think I got a little hung up on that aspect.  But then again at the very end I'm not sure what Jane from the final dimension closed out the book. 
 
Irene has a great idea but I think too much ended up on the cutting room floor or needs to be rearranged a bit. 
 
I've read a number of other reviews and most non sci-fi readers lovers really enjoy this book.  So I guess it just isn't for those of us that are going to get nitty gritty into the sci-fi physics of it all. 

I'm linking up with
come join us and check out what everyone else is reading. 

Grow Your Blog ~ Winners Kelly Deal, Sea Witch and Wendy

Well I guess this means the Grow Your Blog hop is officially over. It was a wonderful hop and I feel like I have already met some wonderful new blog friends and have been sharing some fun comments and e-mail.
Now it's time for me to announce the big Winners!
 
 
Winner #1
Who will receive Prize 2, the yummy Brownie Mix is...
Kelly_Deal who said...
Hi Caroline! Wonderful giveaway! I would be happy with anything!
Kelly
 
Winner #2
who will receive Prize 1, a book of their choice from my Amazon store is...
 
Sea Witch who said...
So glad I found your blog through the Grow Your Own Blog project. I noticed that you did a post on the Physick Book of Deliverance Dane...just finished reading that book last week. Just loved it. Would actually like to see it become a movie. Sea Witch
 
 
Winner #3
Who will recieve Prize 3, My artwork is...
Wendy who said...
Hello Caroline, nice to meet you too! You have a wonderful blog and beautiful art and crafts. I loved it already by the sight of your blog header :) Would love to receive one of your own crafty creations, either by being the lucky winner, or a swap or trade. Going to visit your blog more often!

Hugs and wonderful weekend to you,

Wendy
 
Okay ladies, please e-mail me your addresses within the next 48hrs and I will get your prizes off to you on Monday.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the hop. 
Congratulations!