Copic Creations:1

So recently I discovered these things called Copic Pens, and lets just say ADDICTIVE!!! I love these pens, even if they are $8million dollars each ;)

I already have 40plus... but there are 322 different colors, so don't worry plenty more to buy...

I joined the Copic Club at my local scrapbook store (Krazy Kreations in Novato, CA) and during my first class taught by certified instructors Kara and Karina I created this adorable card.

I have also joined an online club at Funkie Munkie Scraps in South Carolina so that should be fun also, I have not yet recieved my first kit from them, but when I do I will make sure to share.

and the winner is....

Yay, we have a winner!!!!

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 5

Domestic Designer

make sure to send me your snailmail at my email

QallieQ@gmail.com

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everyone else, there is still one more chance to win this great book, be sure to enter on the actual review post of

A Passion Denied

Mailbox Monday: May 25th, 2009

Visit the printed page for more Mailbox Monday posts.

Outlander: In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don't let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It's one of the fastest reads you'll have in your library.

Raising a Modern-Day Knight: What does it mean to be a man? Moreover, how does a father instill these qualities in his son? Using as an example the process by which a boy moved through the medieval stages of knighthood, author Robert Lewis identifies parallel stages for today's fathers to create ceremonies to commemorate significant milestones in a young man's journey toward becoming a modern-day knight. Beginning with a biblical perspective of manhood, author-pastor Robert Lewis shares a unique approach to shaping a boy into a man by equipping him with three essential elements: a vision, a code of conduct, and a cause (Christianity) in which to invest his life. Complete with ceremony ideas to celebrate accomplishments and ingrain them in his mind, this softcover is as insightful as it is practical in raising a boy to be a chivalrous, godly man.

Headed out to SPAM-a-LOT In San Francisco~!

headed to the city with my BFF (Joe and Katherine) and my Hubby, catch you all tomorrow.

ps: we are having a BOY!

random prize

for a random person to comment with what changed on my blog...

A Passion Denied by Julie Lessman (review and giveaway)

From Amazon: Young Elizabeth O'Connor is the little sister John Brady always longed for. But she wants much more than that from her spiritual mentor. As she blossoms into a beautiful young woman intent on loving John, he must push back the very real attraction he feels for her. His past just won't let him go there. Unfortunately, Lizzie won't let him go anywhere else--until she discovers he is not all that he seems. Can true love survive such revelations? Full of the romance and relationships Lessman readers have come to love, A Passion Denied is the final book in the popular Daughters of Boston series.


My Review:
Julie has done it again, this latest installment into the loves of the O'Conner family
is truly a can't stop until you reach the end page turner.
Taking place in the roaring twenties, Elizabeth O'Conner is all grown up, and a woman in love... both with God and John Brady (yes Collin's friend from the war). Now called Lizzie, seeking love advice from both Faith and Charity her older sisters is a recipe for disaster, and yet the results lead to a endearing love story. Giving us continued glimpses into the O'Conners while also maintaining a exciting and thrilling mystery this book left me up reading into the wee hours of the night because I just had to know how it ended. As always Julie is such a wonderful and talented writer, and her story of Lizzie' and Brady's love is a gift from God.

Remember that it is better to read these books in order, so while I am now going to give you an opportunity to win a copy of #3, please find a way to start with A Passion Most Pure, and A Passion Redeemed.

Please post a comment with your email address in the

(at) (dot) format to win a copy of this great book!

Winner will be drawn on 5/31/09 and announced that Monday

Interview with the Wonderful and Talented Julie Lessman

Every once in awhile an author comes along that has a gift, a gift that is truly given to them by God. It is with great honor that I am hosting one of my new favorite authors as my very first Author Of The Month: Julie Lessman

Bio as written by Julie: I’m Julie Lessman, an Inspirational Romance author with a passion for God and a passion for romance. Since the age of twelve, I’ve been in love with the idea of being “in love.” It happened the moment Scarlett seared Rhett with a look on the winding staircase of Twelve Oaks. Suddenly I was a goner, spellbound by the emotional ebb and flow of romantic relationships.
As an adult, I quickly learned that true romance is spiritual as well as physical and emotional. And one pass through the “Song of Solomon” in the Bible told me that God was the biggest romantic of them all, deeply passionate in His love for each of us. Through my love affair with Him, I have discovered that romance can transcend to another dimension where romantic passion and spiritual passion merge, creating a 3-D love story: the hero, the heroine, and the God that brings them together. I hope you enjoy my stories ... and may they bring you closer to the Father’s heart.

Julie was generous enough to answer a few questions for us...

so without further ado I give you Julie.

1.) Why Irish Boston and am I Irish-Catholic?

Well, I actually started writing A Passion Most Pure at the age of twelve after reading Gone With the Wind and immediately knew I wanted an Irish family (a la The O'Haras). I then picked Boston because when I was twelve, I LOVED Boston Baked Beans candy as well as anything Colonial (I used to love Disney’s Swamp Fox show too).You can imagine my excitement when I finished A Passion Most Pure some 40 years later and learned that Boston was considered the heart of Irish America because of its large contingent of immigrants after the potato famine. Very cool! As far as being Irish-Catholic, I was raised Catholic and am 1/4 quarter Irish, so I don't know -- does that constitute Irish-Catholic, I hope? :)

2.) How many people ask you if the characters are based off real people???

Actually not too many, but I DO get asked if my personality is reflected in any of the three O'Connor daughters (Faith, Charity or Lizzie), and to that, I must answer ... uh, yeah, afraid so! :) For instance, Faith, the sister heroine from A Passion Most Pure, is my spiritual self while Charity, the “wicked” sister is my sensual or worldly self before I “got religion.”J In book 3, A Passion Denied, the sister heroine is Lizzie, who is a bookworm and dreamer, which is how I used to be as a child, often sneaking downstairs at night to watch forbidden romance movies on the TV when my parents were sleeping.

3.) Besides the Bible, what has been the #1 book that influenced you the most? (GWTW right??)

BINGO!! We have a winner -- Gone With the Wind is correct! :)

Wow Julie, thank you so much for writing such an inspiring and wonderful family, and most of all for becoming one of my newest friends.

Friends I am so excited to share her new book with you and so please if you want to win a copy let me know in the comments here..

Please post a comment with your email address in the

(at) (dot) format to win a copy of this great book!

Winner will be drawn on 5/24/09 and announced that Monday

Mailbox Monday: May 18th, 2009

Hello Friends, its that day again, Monday.Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.You are probably wondering what showed up in my mailbox this past week so here you go!

Please note that May continues to be the month of Julie Lessman.
We have one more title in her collection to feature and give away.
Watch for an exclusive interview with her, as well as two opportunities to win her newest book. A Passion Denied: Book 3 of the Boston Daughters Series.
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From Amazon: It's 1889 and Alexia Travers is alone in the world. Her father has died unexpectedly, leaving her burdened with a heavily mortgaged horse ranch. Marrying one of the towns alltoowilling bachelors would offer an easy solution, but Alex has no interest in marriage. Instead, she dons mens clothing and rides the range, determined to make the ranch a success on her own. Help arrives when Justin Phillips, an acquaintance of her fathers, comes to Last Chance with his young son. Justins and Alexs combined effort to save the ranch quickly turns into a fierce competition between cowboy and tomboy. But when disaster threatens Travers Ranch, they must work together to save someone they both love. Can these two independent people learn to depend on Godand on each other? Love Finds You is a series of fulllength romance novels that give readers a peek into local life across the United States. The novels are uniquely named after actual American towns with quirky, interesting names that inspire romance and are just plain fun! This means that each fictional story draws on the compelling history or unique character of a real place. Our fresh, original love stories will feature everything from romance kindled in small towns, to old loves lost and found on the high plains, to new loves discovered at exciting vacation getaways.

From Amazon: How this story came to be written is a big part of the drama. The only World War II survivor of her wealthy Russian, devout Christian family, Nonna Lisowskaya came to the U.S. in 1950, married Henry Bannister, and never spoke about her Holocaust ­experience––until a few years before her death in 2004, when she revealed her diaries, originally written in six languages on paper scraps that she had kept in a pillow strapped to her body throughout the war. Now those diaries, in her English translation, tell her story of fleeing Stalinist Russia, not knowing what was waiting in Hitler’s Germany, where she saw her mother murdered in the camps, escaped a massacre of Jews shot into a pit, was nursed by Catholic nuns, and much more. The editors’ commentary in different type constantly interrupts the memoir, but the notes are helpful in explaining history and context. The added-on heavy messages celebrating Nonna’s Christian forgiveness seem intrusive and unnecessary, no matter how heartfelt.


From paperbackswap: Philadelphia cafe manager Cornelia Brown drifts effortlessly through her unattached life, unapologetic for idealizing romance and breathlessly recommending The Philadelphia Story—to the reader and everyone else. Eleven-year-old Clare is a child of divorce whose mother, a successful party planner, is quickly going to pieces. In alternating chapters of Cornelia's first person and Clare's free and direct third, poet de los Santos, making her novel debut, tells the story of their finding each other. That Cornelia, early on, immediately falls for Cary Grant doppelgänger Martin Grace is no surprise; his relation to Clare, revealed a third of the way in, isn't really either. As she discovers maternal instincts she wasn't sure she had, Cornelia works up the courage to face her own feelings for Clare with honesty. As Martin exits, Cornelia's childhood friend Teo enters, but neither makes much impact, and Clare's rather serious issues get reduced to Clare-did-this, Clare-thought-that episodes. The two main characters exist for one purpose: to enact a cross-generational, strong-but-vulnerable-and-loving, screenplay-ready femininity. Chick lit? You bet: with rights sold in at least eight countries, and, indeed, to Paramount—Sarah Jessica Parker will star and coproduce with Sideways's Michael London. The book is fine, but for this property, it's a case of waiting for Carrie to walk in.

and the winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers: 1

Brittany Ann

Timestamp: 2009-05-17 15:03:07 UTC

yay Britt I am so excited for you....
please email your snail mail.

WE ARE BLESSED!

I Am a Kept Woman?

You see, there were a few times when I thought I would lose my mind,But GOD kept me sane. (Isa. 26:3)

There were times when I thought I could go on no longer,But the LORD kept me moving. (Gen 28:15)

At times, I've wanted to lash out at those whom I felt had done me wrong,But the LORD kept my mouth shut. (Psa. 13)

Sometimes, I think the money just isn't enough,But GOD has helped me to keep the lights on, the water on, the car paid, the house paid, etc.., (Matt. 6:25 -34)

When I thought I would fall, HE kept me up.When I thought I was weak, HE kept me strong! (I Pet. 5:7, Matt. 11:28-30)

I could go on and on and on, but I'm sure you hear me!I'm blessed to be kept. I am indeed a kept woman and praise God for it!

(I saw this over an danielle's and had to re-post it)

A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman (review and giveaway)

From Amazon: Graced with physical beauty, though shallow of heart, Charity O'Connor is a woman who knows what she wants. She sets her sights on the cantankerous Mitch Dennehy, editor at the Irish Times, who has unwittingly stolen her heart. And although the sparks are there, Mitch refuses to fan the coals of a potential relationship with his ex-fiancée's sister. But Charity has a plan to turn up the heat and she always gets what she wants--one way or another. Is revenge so sweet after all? Or will Charity get burned? Full of intense passion, betrayal, and forgiveness, A Passion Redeemed will delight Lessman's fans and draw new ones.

My Review: Julie's 2nd novel Passion Redeemed is filled with vibrant characters that we came to love as well as a few new faces, wonderful story telling and important messages. We follow Charity, Faith's younger sister as she uses all her wit and charms to get what she wants. Along the way she learns that what she wants is'nt always what she needs. Sometimes you have to make others happy, to truly realize what you want. Sometimes you have to hit bottom to before you can know who you really are.
This book resonated so much more then the first as I saw myself in the pages, and found it difficult to move on without shedding tears. This book, like the first is a class act. Thank you Julie, you did it again!!!!!!

Please post a comment with your email address in the
(at) (dot) format to win a copy of this great book!
Winner will be drawn on 5/17/09 and announced that Monday

Mailbox Monday: May 11th

I really need to get better and remembering to

post my Mailbox actually on the Monday that is happens.

Once again in the hoopla of daily life I forgot to post. I have decided to change my mailbox format a little... so now I am introducing to you my feature authors of the next three months. For the Month of May I will continue to feature books by Julie Lessman. My review for A Passion Redeemed will be posted on Tuesday, and then on Sunday 5/17 I will be giving away a copy pf that one as well.

Yahoo, book #3 in the Daughters of Boston series, wait for my review later in the month when I will be giving away a copy of this.

Gee friends are you starting to notice a pattern, read a great book and then pass it onto a new home so that others can read it too.

Of course remember you MUST read these books in order,

so if you win #2 OR #3 in the words of Julie

"Beg, Borrow or Steal the others"

Time to enjoy on of the newest Christian Authors on the scene

and he just happens to be a friend of a friend, so we will be reading this one together as my feature author for the month of June.

Of course I will be givinng away a copy, and who knows maybe Conlan will stop by and grace us with his presence as well.

This is what Amazon had to say on the subject:

Conlan Brown bursts onto the scene with a story that's every bit as intriguing as it is intense. Secret orders, superhuman gifts, and a deadly plot dot the landscape of The Firstborn. Brown's voice is unique and captivating and will draw you in on the first page.



Feature author of the Month of July will be Tina Ann Forkner. Tina is a member of the bookclub and decided that I would be a good person to review her book since it takes place in Sonoma Valley and that happens to be just where we live. I am excited to share this book with all of you, as well as her first novel. So when I read these two wonderful books I will be sure to share my thoughts and of course I will be giving away copies also.

and the winner is.........

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 2
Soxy Deb

Timestamp: 2009-05-10 16:23:02 UTC

yay deb I am so excited for you....

please email your snail mail.

to those women that have been there for me....

Lupe, Debbie, Amatchi, Mayie, Jenn, Kimberley, Chris, Lisa, CJ, Patti, Julie, and Jill

all of you wonderful women have been like a mother to be, where would I be without each and every one of you. I love you all, Happy Mothers Day!!!!!

A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman (Review and Giveaway)

You know it’s a great book when your husband walks into the room and catches you lecturing the main characters, or surrounded by tissues saturated in tears. Julie Lessman’s debut novel is all that and more! -QallieQ

From Amazon:

Refusing to settle for anything less than a romantic relationship that pleases God, Faith O'Connor steels her heart against her desire for the roguish Collin McGuire. But when Collin tries to win her sister Charity's hand, Faith isn't sure she can handle the jealousy she feels. To further complicate matters, Faith finds herself the object of Collin's affections, even as he is courting her sister. The Great War is raging overseas, and a smaller war is brewing in the O'Connor household. Full of passion, romance, rivalry, and betrayal, A Passion Most Pure will captivate readers from the first page. Book 1 of the Daughters of Boston series.

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My Review:

Set at the cusp of America's entrance into World War I, the O'Conners; a loving Christian family of proud Irish descent experience both triumph and tribulation in their quests for love, faith and patriotism, separated from each other and their home in Boston Massachusetts while waiting out the war from the shores of Dublin, Ireland.

Earning a permanent position in my personal library, this truly was a book that I was unable to put down. This book went everywhere with me as I was unable to stop reading until the very end. Every time that I was sure I knew what would happen next, this wonderful story would take an unpredictable twist. Faith and Charity O'Conner bring to light an honest relationship between sisters as they fight, sharing a truth that while families require love this does not always mean you will like eachother.

Peppered with scripture this families love and faith in both God and eachother is woven through out a romantic tale tantalizing enought to appeal to the mainstream reader as well. This is a book where I laughed, cried and hugged the book in my arms before tearing into the sequal. Thank you Julie for such a delightful read.

Please post a comment with your email address in the

(at) (dot) format to win a copy of this great book!

Winner will be drawn on 5/10/09 and announced that Monday