I hope I am not the only one out there who loved the Movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It has remained one of my top 5 movies ever.  

 Paul Newman and Robert Redford were such a great team.  I have not watched it in years but I just finished a new book just published that brought back so many scenes from my memory and gave me such a pleasant experience I wanted to share.  I am posting my review here and I hope any of you who love books and enjoyed this movie a long time ago will go out and get "Sundance".

Sundance by David Fuller 

My review will be totally biased since my most favorite movie of all time is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  When I saw Sundance as an option on the LibraryThing's, Early Reviewers list I wanted it! I am so glad I received this book. 

I am not sure if David Fuller was trying to capture the same feel as the movie or not but he nailed it.  In every short, precise statement Harry utters I could see and hear Robert Redford as “The Kid”.  After finishing the book last night I read where Mr. Fuller is a screenwriter, well no wonder I saw each and every person, scene and dialog as a movie! I WANT this to be a movie and I need Brad Pitt to be Harry. He is the only actor I can see pulling off this part. 

For those of you who have not seen the movie and have nothing to base this character on but history may find faults with the book and were expecting something different but I am giving this 4.5 stars because of the cinematic experience it gave me and the fact that he made so many memories of my favorite scenes came flooding back to me after so many years. I fell in love with “The Kid” all over again.

Very enjoyable read, Thank you David Fuller!

Is there any body out there still?

Are there really people out there looking at my blog?
My stats say so.
I find this hard to believe after I abandoned it months ago.
I lost heart because it seemed there wasn't but a few people reading my blog and I just didn't feel I had anything interesting to say so I just let my blog slide.
I still review books for Good Reads and Library Thing and enjoy passing along good book recommendations and sometimes have time for photo taking so if anyone out there wants me to keep up my blog I will give it a go again.  The only way I will know is if you leave me a quick comment like "Keep going" or something like that.  If you have been a follower and have been checking in I'm sorry I fell off the earth and thank you so much for your faithfulness.

The Woman In White a book review

A masterpiece!

 This was a book I have had on my “to read” list since seeing it referred to in The Thirteenth Tale. I have been sprinkling in a classic here and there throughout my reading for a few years now. I picked it up as an audio book to listen to while sewing. I am so glad I chose this method as the various narrators gave the story life. Also at over 600 pages I would have put it off, choosing to get more books on my list read first. That would have been a big mistake! As I listened to this book I found myself questioning whether this was really written in the late 1800’s as I had thought. The writing was very contemporary and very easy to listen to. The plot in the beginning was simple enough and after a bit I thought editors today would have suggested cutting a lot out but then a new twist would be introduced and the story would grow more interesting. Mr. Collins did a superb job developing his characters and the story continued to unfold in a suspenseful way that keeps you wanting more. I actually sewed much longer than normal so I could continue to hear the story! This is a must read! A great book for discussion and a wonderful example of classic writing.

My 1st trip on the 127 Worlds Longest Yard Sale. I am tired and broke!

So, I'm not sure what is going on with blogger but I can not figure out how to get my text to be where I want it so my post will be strange.  Sorry about that.

I got home today from my 1st trip to the Rt. 127 Yard Sale. My Sister and I left Thursday Morning and joined the sales in Florence, KY.  Unfortunitaly I was on a budget this trip so I was very picky about what I purchased.  We found some great stuff right off the bat!  I was mainly looking for vintage linens that I could use for the new bags I am making. Also fabrics I could use for my re~purposed pillows. Many of the set ups were large flea market's with 100 or more vendor's set up. These tended to be higher priced because the sellers were regular dealers and paid a fee for their spaces but I was lucky enough to find a few dealers who had some items they were willing to let go at reasonable prices that allows me to not have to charge so much for my products. These stops make it easier because you don't have to get in and out of the car so much. A bit farther down the road we went off 127 to a home that had some great deals and they were very nice to work with. Next was a small town with lots of individuals set up in parking lots of businesses. We stumbled upon a family selling their Grandmother's estate items. This was where I spent what I had left! We had not even gone 30 miles yet. We had made many stops and did not get far our first day. On Friday we started out from Frankfort,KY. We were going to try the smaller personal sales more this day but the pull to try to get as much done in one stop and having stoped at a few small sites that were disappointing we ended up at stops with at least 10 vendors. Again, we found more good buys and I had to start a tab with my sister. She is such a good to me! Anyway, she really wanted to get to Tennessee so we got more selective and stopped going to the large sales. Much of the offerings in the large sales began to be all the same. We crossed the border and the dynamic quickly changed. In the mountain area there were not so many wide spaces for the larger sales, where we got to anyway. By 4:00 we knew we needed to call it a day because we needed to be home that night. So, we were deeper into TN than we thought and we decided to take a small route east to Knoxville so we could catch I75 and get home faster. The small rural road was very curvy and slow but beautiful! It took us 7 hours to drive home from Knoxville. We got to my sisters at midnight so I stayed with her and came on home Sat. around 1:00 after sleeping in! I saw many garage sales on my way home and my 1st thought was do I stop? And my 2nd thought was Oh, No Way!LOL I have added some images of a few of my finds but there is more! I left these at my Sisters for her to soak and wash to work on the stains. I'll post them later this week.

I am so excited to get started on my new creations!

I am headed to the 127 longest yard sale tomorrow!

Tomorrow Morning I am headed South from Dayton, Ohio with my sister to experience the longest yard sale. I have never done it before and I am very excited to see what it will be like. I see us stopping every few minutes and not even making it 100 miles LOL! We plan on coming home sometime Friday night. I am on a strict budget and have a list of what I want so hopefully this will keep me from unnecessary purchases. We are also driving a smallish car so we won't have room for a lot.

These are some items I purchased at a large neighborhood sale. My favorite is the feed sack quilt. I will be making pillows for my glider out of it soon. I tried to add the link for the 127 sale but am not having any luck so you can Google 127sale.com

I Loved this book!

 I know you are not suppose to judge a book by its cover but when I saw this book on my local book store’s counter it jumped right out at me. Then I read this quote on the cover.


“My grandmother said she prays for me every day. Which is funny, because I’d only ever heard Mamie pray, “Dear Lord, give me strength.” That sure sounded like a prayer for herself - and Mrs. Knopp in Sunday school always said our prayers should only ask for things for others. Once I made a mistake of saying that out loud to Mamie and got slapped into next Tuesday for my sassy mouth. My mouth always worked a whole lot faster than my good sense.”

It had me. I asked about it but they had just received it and it wasn't being released yet. Bummer! My friend then gave me her advanced copy to read, Yeah!
If you liked The Secret Life of Bee’s or The Help you will love this book. This has got to become a movie!

The story is about Starla, a feisty, nine year old who is being raised by her Grandmother while her Father is working on an oil rig and her Mother, who left when Starla was 3 is in Nashville trying to become a famous singer. Life with Mamie gets hard and Starla decides she is going to go live with her Mom in Nashville and is sure her Daddy will come live with them too and they will be a happy family. The adventures start when Starla runs a way and is picked up by Eula and as another reviewer says “ The inseparable bonds and relationship that develops between Eula and Starla is the stuff compelling novels, that leave a hole in your heart are made of.”

I love the story being told from a 9 year old child’s perspective. The southern slang and phrases she uses makes me laugh. Her innocence about how she sees the world is so real. When the Bible says we should be as the little children, I think this is what it’s talking about!

Miss Crandall has many words of wisdom to share with us throughout the story but the one that sums up most of what this story said to me says. “My daddy always said being brave wasn’t not being scared. Being brave was keeping going when you were.”

I gave this book 5 stars because the messages throughout the book are thought provoking and heartwarming. The relationship between Starla and Eula makes me want to cry and cheer. I loved several of the characters and they will stay with me for a long time.  If you need a good book for discussion this one is it! 
Don't wait, read it this weekend!

Yarn bombing and other crafts

I have become a part of several different artist groups over the past few months.  This group is by

far the most fun ;)  I have been asked to participate in a Yarn Bombing in an adjacent town.  Since I am just learning crochet I thought this would be a great way to practice stitches.  I am having lots of fun working with strange combinations I would not usually put together.  It has helped me get out of my safety zone.  This piece when finished will be 15 x 41 inches!  If you are not familiar with what this is I am adding a link to some examples. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yarn%20bombing 

While working on my piece today I sat on my front porch and listened to Major Pettigrews Last Stand.  Since I am doing so much sewing and it doesn't leave me much time to read I have decide to listen to some of the books on my Goodreads list of books to read.  This list is growing ever longer since I keep looking at their suggestions! 

I have been very neglectful of my blog of late because of all the sewing and reading and other art pursuits.  Who knew you could be so busy when unemployed! I have also negelected my Etsy store so I am making a committment here that I will fill it up by the middle of July.  I have items I just need to photograph so I am going to do this this weekend.  Here are some things I have been busy with.

These are the pillows made from vintage tablecloths that I have not put in local shops.  These will be in my Etsy store soon.

 I also joined an ATC (artist trading card) group and these are some I have made but may not trade but put in my shop as Aceo's  I am having a lot of fun making these small pieces of art.

 This is a digital ATC I made to trade. The theme was sun, moon, stars

This one everyone had to use the little girl's image they provided.  I did this one digital and printed it on fabric.

 These are the cards I received in the swap with the little girls image.

This is another version I did for the sun, moon, stars.

I hope you have been inspired to do something crafty this weekend!