Yarn along and a book review or two!

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

I haven't been able to do many of the things I enjoy lately.

Lil G was hospitalized the end of July when her epilepsy decided to misbehave.

It's taken 4 months of adjusting meds

 to get to a place where we are actually sleeping well at night again 

and feeling more human.

Everything is off but we are thankful for the good place we have finally found ourselves.

        ( keeping a close eye on our girl while she sleeps)

I was sent the book, " what your heart needs" by Holley Gerth to review " on accident" by Revell books. Let's just say I think of it as a " happy accident". This beautiful little book has 52 devotions that Holley wrote based on the Psalms. I love how there is a table of contents with each devotional title and page in the front of the book. I started reading the devotions as soon as I recieved the book but then started skipping around and reading them as the title jumped out at me. Each devotion starts with a little life story and then ends with a simple thought to really ponder and a space to add your own prayer in as well as what you might hear after reading through that days selection. 

   A few of my favorites were: God wants to lift you up when life lets you down, God will give you everything you need, God notices when you cry, and God doesn't expect you to be fine. 

I've been a Christian almost my entire life, I appreciated how this little devotional is small so it can be packed in a purse or tote bag on the go and really think it would make a great gift for almost any woman on my list. 

I know it really was a gift for me during this hard time. I'm going to give this little treasure five stars over at Amazon! Thank you to Revell books for the opportunity to review this book, this is my opinion and I was in no way compensated for this review.

The second book I want to review is really a book title that will make you laugh, I recently read through " make comics like the pros" by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente. A few of my children and their friends ( fiancé) are comic book readers. I saw this book and I'm an artist so I thought, " Hey, this might be an interesting read." I really didn't know what to expect and can't believe how much I really enjoyed this book! The two authors have collaborated on some well known comics and went so far as to create a comic for illustration purposes during the writing of this book. I really enjoyed following along the steps as they developed the script and all phases of writing and illustrating - even offering tips on promoting your work and interesting advice that any artist or author would enjoy. I loved the dialogue. For example: " you're about to dive into a giant pool of awesome directly relevant to whatever interests in comics creation might be." I'm also going to give this book five stars on Amazon. Thank you to blogging for books for the opportunity to review this book . This review is my personal opinion and I was in no way compensated for this review.

Lastly, I've come down with a bad cold this week and it gave me extra time piled up in my lounge pants, drinking hot tea, and sucking on cough drops to also read this book. " at Bluebonnet Lake" by Amanda Cabot was so good that I read it in two days. This book is a well written Christian romance. I enjoyed the depth of the characters, the development of the plot and how well the story flowed. The author did a great job describing the scenery and atmosphere so that I really felt connected to the characters and the Rainbow Lodge where the story takes place. The exciting part is that the author plans on writing two more stories at Rainbow Lodge. As always I never give spoilers about the characters or plot but I will tell you this book is a two for one deal- I highly recommend you read this one for yourself! I look forward to reading more by Amanda Cabot. I'm going to give this book five stars on Amazon. Thank you to Revell books for the opportunity to read " At bluebonnet lake". 

Since we gather together at Simple things to talk about what we are reading and knitting I will close with a photo of the Sweet November shawl I am knitting. I had to rip out three rows much to my dismay last night and haven't picked it up today to see how I did at keeping track of all my stitches. I'm hoping I can get it done to wear soon. The yarn is really pretty and enjoyable to work with.

In case you'd like to see our girl.

We went out and about and were able to see the Clydesdales! 

She kept signing, "horse". It was really cute!