Where To Find Free Fonts For Monograms
My Favorite Christmas Reads
I keep a list of books of Christmas themed books that I want to read, and as with my full to read list, it grows faster than I can possibly read. (Often my Christmas reading list introduces me to new series, which extends my general to read list... ) Looking back over my goodreads list, I have definitely made a dent over the years, these were some of my favorites:
Christmas Classics:
Each year, JRR Tolkien wrote letters to his children, from Father Christmas.
"They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents everywhere; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house. Sometimes the Polar Bear would scrawl a note, and sometimes Ilbereth the Elf would write in his elegant flowing script, adding yet more life and humor to the stories. " - Goodreads
Our copy has pockets that hold the letters, and it's one of the few I insist on keeping in hardcover here at the house.
A short story from the author of the Wizard Of Oz.
After failing to tempt him to their own vices, Santa is kidnapped from the Laughing Valley by the five Daemons of the Caves (Daemons of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance) on Christmas Eve. Can Christmas be saved?
"A young boy and his mother spend Christmas 1943 with relatives in northern Minnesota while his father is fighting in the war in Europe. They take a long journey by train to a snowy land of vast frozen lakes, deep and sparkling cold, and the most magical Christmas tree the boy has ever seen. He knows this will be the last Christmas he will spend with his cousin, who is dying. The boy's uncle overhears the two cousins say there is no Santa Claus, and in a grand gesture that is nothing short of a Christmas miracle, he restores the children's faith in the spirit of the season." - Goodreads
Cozy Christmas
(Light reads, but not mysteries)
Christmas on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball
Ladybug farm is one of my favorite light summer reads - the whole series is a quick read, and there is a Christmas book in the series!
The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson
Another Patterson that I liked a lot - this one is not a mystery.
Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah is another of my favorite authors, and while this is far from my favorite book by her, it's a good read. Like many others, it's a typical Hallmark Christmas Movie plot. Divorced woman, goes on a trip to avoid the holidays, makes a detour, crosses path with a child who has recently lost his mother. " When the little boy meets Joy, these two unlikely souls form a deep and powerful bond. In helping Bobby and Daniel heal, Joy finds herself again. But not everything is as it seems in quiet Rain Valley, and in an instant, Joy’s world is ripped apart, and her heart is broken. On a magical Christmas Eve, a night of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, Joy must find the courage to believe in a love—and a family—that can’t possibly exist, and go in search of what she wants . . . and the new life only she can find."
Lost December by Richard Paul Evans
A retelling of the story of the Prodigal son
The Christmas Box Trilogy by Richard Paul Evans
Looking for short, sweet, and sappy? This will be a great choice.
The Mistletoe Series by Richard Paul Evans
Three Christmas romances - each one is the plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Quick reads.
The Noel Series by Richard Paul Evans
Labeled "The King Of Christmas Fiction" on Amazon, this series by Evans is one I have not yet read. The first is about a son, returning to his family home after his mothers death.
"Jacob’s mother had become a hoarder and he must excavate through two decades worth of clutter. As Jacob digs through the detritus, like an archaeologist, he uncovers many puzzling items including a diary left by someone named Noel, a young woman he has no recollection of, who stayed with Jacob’s family during her pregnancy. That’s not the only echo from the past. Jacob has an unexpected visitor, Rachel, a woman looking for the mother who put her up for adoption thirty years before. United by their quest to make sense of the past and rewrite their futures, Jacob and Rachel begin a search for Noel. Along the way they find more than they possibly imagined, including grace, forgiveness and a chance at love."
Cozy Christmas Mysteries
Another one of my favorite (mystery) series, Her Royal Spyness. This is book 6 in the series, it's stand alone, you don't need to read the first 5 to love this book. Although once you read it, you might want to read the whole series....
Georgie is 35th in line to the throne, expected to live as royalty, but with no income to do so. As she moves from home to home, and visits with the queen, she stumbles into all sorts of mysteries, and of course, solves them.
A Meg Lanslow mystery - book #6. If you are looking for a silly mystery, with lots of laughs, try this one.
The Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle
There are two Christmas books in this series.. this one I liked a lot, the other was just ok. This is another series I would love to read more of.. mysteries set in a coffee house!
A Christmas To Die For by Marta Perry
I read this and loved it even before I learned that this is a local author, who I eventually met at our local library! An Amish mystery.
More about Marta Perry
Another charming (but not TOO sweet) Cozy Mystery. This was my first introduction to Hamish Macbeth. I keep meaning to read the rest of this series, but I have not yet gotten back to it...
Rest Ye Merry - a Peter Shandy Mystery by Charlotte McLeod
An extremely light, traditional, Christmas mystery
A Christmas scrooge discovers a murdered librarian in this holiday novel from an Edgar Award finalist known for her “witty, literate, and charming” mysteries (Publishers Weekly).
Christmas Detective Stories
The Hercule Poirot series is one of my favorites!
There's also The Adventure Of the Christmas Pudding
The Christmas Mystery by James Patterson
This is a bookshot - less than 100 pages I think... it's a Detective Luc Moncrief mystery. (There are a lot of Patterson's books that I do NOT like, this is one series I like a lot.)
Silent Night by Robert Parker
A Spenser Novel - this book was unfinished when Parker died, it was finished by his agent.
More:
- My Favorite Christmas Reads 2013
- Christmas Mystery Book List From The Cozy Mystery Blog
- Christmas Themed Historical Fiction
===================
Which Apps & Websites To Use With Cricut -
A list of websites and apps to help make the most of your cricut machine.
Ten Of My Favorite Reads This Fall
This fall, so far, my reading list has been much more diverse than normal. I have only read a few thrillers & mysteries, and instead have read more memoirs and fiction that reads like memoirs. It wasn't a conscious decision, but somehow I managed to choose some really, really wonderful books. And through them I've traveled to India, Australia, Hungary, Tibet, Ireland, and Italy. That sounds so pompous and.. uninviting - but please believe me, I have no patience for dry boring stories... these books were all books that drew me in and continued to occupy my thoughts when I was unable to be reading.
The Book I Can't Stop Talking About
Speaking of light reads, after listening to John Grisham's book tour podcasts (they are excellent! I am usually not a huge fan of podcasts, but these were like visiting bookstores to hear authors speak.. and we were doing a lot of road trips at the time, so they were perfect to listen to while driving) I had to read Camino Island. Grisham set out to write a "beach read" and he nailed it. It's about a fictional theft of the Fitzgerald manuscripts from Princeton's library, and also about a bookstore. This is nothing at all like his normal books.
Harlan Coben is second only to Rex Stout on my list of favorite authors. So oddly enough, even though this is not one of my favorite books by him, it's one of my favorite books. It was very, very good. Not his best, but still fantastic.
Room, by Emma Donaghue, remains on my list of all time favorite reads. That is the only reason I picked up this book. I can't imagine I would have ever been interested based on it's description alone... and it is a different read, for me. I loved it so much more than I would have thought possible. Goodreads touts this as a "psychological thriller" - but I don't agree. It is a mystery, but the mystery isn't as interesting as the surroundings. I've read several books since I finished this one, but as I sit here trying to explain why I loved this, I can still picture, the room, the house, the area it is told in.. and there were never long descriptive passages to tell you those things, they were descriptions weaved into the story that stuck with me. "In the latest masterpiece by Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room, an English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle-a girl said to have survived without food for months-soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life.
Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl."
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is everything I hate in a book. It starts out with a "mystery" that you never return to in this book. It ends abruptly - so abruptly that you may think your book is missing pages. And then you find out that it's actually book one of FOUR, and that the four books are really not stand alone at all, but rahter one monstrously huge book that is cut into 4 books to be sold separately. (I think book two, alone, is 470 pages. )
But what a story... it grips you, pulls you in, and is hard to put down.
(On the other hand, I've started book two, and I am not loving it nearly as much. I want it to move on so I can find out what happened and it's dragging a bit...)
"Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists."
My husband follows Jon Actuff on twitter, and as I started about my 15th project this year (Nope. Not exaggerating. A children's book, a cookbook, two different etsy stores, new craft venture (I got a cricut! LOVE this machine!), three new committees, TWO fiction novels at the same time (I've written approximately 3 chapters for each book - that's it.) a new genealogy book (written about our family history, not genealogy in general) , Redoing a bedroom in our house (with intent to make it the "new" master bedroom, and our current bedroom the new guest room - TWO of our sons got married and moved out this year...)
Well, he may have mentioned 8 or 37 times that John Acuff has this new book out about finishing projects. Finishing, not starting, apparently being the goal. Who knew? I'm the queen of starting. I love to start things. I love to plan them and organize them. Finish them? Uhm... I'm too busy starting the next 12 things!
So this book was written for me. And yes, I finished the book. And the cookbook, and I'm almost finished with the children's book. Did THIS book help me? Maybe. I didn't actually follow the homework each chapter. (Although I always thought his suggestions were great ideas.) But it is a really great book, and a lot of it has stuck with me. My favorite is Choose What To Bomb. I now at least feel better about not keeping up with my email.
Seriously, this is an incredibly practical book that I think I will re-read next year. Because I realized by chapter one that my problem is not really "finishing". My problem is that my kids are grown, for the first time I am facing a truly empty nest, and I have no idea what my focus is supposed to be.... so I am trying everything. And that's ok. This is also a year where I had two weddings (two sons married in one year), two cross country trips, two surgeries, two construction projects on the farm... so it wasn't the best year for finishing projects. And that's ok. Maybe next year I'll make figuring out my goals a project.
Making Pillows With Cricut
For about two years after I bought my first cricut, I made dozens of envelope pillow covers, for every season. They are a quick and easy project - and a great project for someone who wants to sew but has never really sewn before.
Below is a look at some of the different ones I have made.
FREE Single Line Fonts That Will Write without bubbling In Cricut Design Space-
A very long list of where to find FREE fonts that will work as writing fonts in Design Space, with examples sorted by which pens they work with, at what sizes, and all with the links for downloading them.
How To Glitter Christmas Ornaments
The Cliff Notes Version:
- Glass or plastic makes no difference.
- I use Polycrylic - See a comparison with mop & glo here
- Ultra fine glitter works best. White always looks thinner. Brand does not matter.
- Make your design about an inch smaller than the ornament, roughly
Supplies:
- Polycrylic (Polycrylic and Polyurethane are NOT The same thing)
- Condiment bottle (check Dollar tree for these!)
- Glitter (The color I used here is Champagne)
- Ornaments
- A paper funnel (or you can buy one)
- And Egg Carton
- A lint brush (for cleaning up glitter)
I use a plastic condiment container to pour the polycrylic into my ornaments. I pour a lot in.
After swirling it around to coat the ornament, I dump the excess back into the can.
Then I set the ornament upside down in the egg carton to drain for another minute or two
Pour in the glitter
Then I place my thumb over the top, and shake well to coat.
I usually use Recollections glitter, but I found this Moxy today and it's super sparkly.
It's hard to say exactly how much glitter to use - but this is how much is left after I made 6 ornaments. The bottle was full to the top when I bought it, there was no gap at the top.
(Although this ornament is also gold, it is not the same as the ones above, this is one I made earlier with Recollections glitter)
To avoid scratching the tops of the ornaments when putting the tops on, pull the metal cap all the way to the bottom of the wire, like the one on the right in the photo above. Place it on the ornament, then push the wire in.
The size of the design will vary - but as you can see here, for the 4 inch ornaments I used a roughly 3x3 design, and for the 3 inch ornaments, roughly 2x2.
=====================
How To Curve Text in Phonto - for Cricut Design Space
http://www.phon.to/
Phonto works on Android and Apple. I use an android, so my screen shots are from Android.
Open that app. Tap in the middle of the screen.
Choose Use Plain image
choose the first white box you see. All you need is a plain background.
Click on the pencil at the top of the app.
Type the first half of your text.
(Helpful comment from an iphone user - Just an FYI on the iPhone, no pencil image comes up. You swipe left once you type the text to find the ‘curve’ option.)
a menu will drop down, choose curve.
Once you get the curve for the top half of your circle, click on the pencil again, and add the bottom part of your text. This time when you choose curve, move the curve negative - to the left.
Then go to your computer, save the image, open it in design space. I choose simple, then make sure to erase your background - don't forget to erase the areas inside the e's and a's..
That's all there is to it!
How To Use The Samantha Font In Cricut Design Space
The Samantha Font has more glyphs than any other font I know of
Here's how to find, and use them - Step By Step
How To Make A Bitmoji Christmas Ornament With Cricut -
I love these! I do wish I had used white glitter though. I think the white background is a better look. I didn't have white glitter, and I was too impatient to wait...
First, go to the bitmoji app -
Bitmoji is available for Android, Iphone, & windows chrome. My screen shots are from Android.
Create your bitmoji, if you do not already have one. There are TWO style options:
Click on the three dots on the right - that's where you will find settings,
Then choose Change Avatar Style.
This is the difference:
Bitmoji's all look a bit alike - and extra cartoonish.
Bitstrips are a bit more distinctive, and usually the choice you want for this project.
The images on this screen have necks and collars - so it is easiest to go back out to where you customize your image, and screenshot that screen:
crop that down -
Send this image from your phone to your computer. (Most email it to themselves, I like facebook messenger for quickly sending photos between my devices. Just send the message to yourself.)
Open Cricut design space, new project, and upload your screenshot.
Now start to delete the excess. This takes a bit of experimenting, to see what you like. Use the preview button in the bottom as you are erasing things, to decide what you like.
This is what I ended up with:
When you go to make this, be sure it it set to cut, NOT print and cut.
I sized it to just under 2x2 for this ornament.
And that's how I ended up with this:
=============================================================
Free SVG Files For Christmas Ornaments
(a collection of links)
http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/11/free-svgs-for-christmas-ornaments.html
How to Make Floating Acetate Christmas Ornaments
http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/11/making-printable-acetate-christmas.html
(a collection of links)
http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/11/free-svgs-for-christmas-ornaments.html
How to Make Floating Acetate Christmas Ornaments
http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/11/making-printable-acetate-christmas.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)