Scrapbooks anyone?

I love crafting... in case the post about the owls and painting did not let you know. ;)

Last year I was contacted by a lady who needed a scrapbook finished for a person who had retired from work. I had never made a scrapbook for others outside my family before - but agreed to do it. It was challenging to keep the style of the pages the same as the ones that were completed in the book and in the end I had to change the pages and add vellum to keep the photos from being damaged.

I loved it though! The challenge, the creativity and that finished product - all of it! Enjoyable!

So, now I wonder...

Do you have a bunch of photos that need to be scrapbooked? 
When last did you let your family page through your photos?
Is your story reflected in your photos?

I am happy to help you!

This is my proposal:

One 12x12 page with 1 - 6 of your photos on it, complete with embellishments, page protector, and safely mounted photos $40.00 per page.

One 8x8 page with 1 - 4 of your photos on it, complete with embellishments, page protector, and safely mounted photos $30.00 per page.

Or you can have a whole book of 10 12x12 pages (all complete with embellishments, page protector, and safely mounted photos) for  $300.00

Contact me at posbus4me @ gmail .com  to talk about placing an order! 

Help a dream come true!

Review of " The Curiosity Keeper" by Sarah E. Ladd for NetGalley

 

 The Curiosity Keeper

By Sarah Ladd

3.5 stars out of 5

I try not to give spoilers in my reviews. I hope this review helps you decide if you would like to read this book.

This book is about a lonely shop keeper's daughter. It is full of twists, intrigue, history and a dash of romance. 

I loved the development of the characters in this story. Jonathan who cannot live up to his deceased brother's ideal, but is happy as an apothecary. His sister, Penelope, is a society dame looking to make an advantageous match and serves as a revealer of society's true nature - her journey and growth was lovely to read. Their father who is an avid collector and does not connect with his children well.  Then there is Camille, whose father is the owner of the shop where she works and is quite a loose cannon in life. Camille is the steadfast, soul of this book... it is her journey you mainly follow. Her growth in her identity and her shift from shop keeper to a leap of faith to become more. 

The history and romance of things is rife in this book as are the themes of greed, money and power versus following ones heart, seeking happiness and love above earthly pleasures.  There are surprises and mild violence in this book (I would not recommend it for a young reader) and heart wrenching realizations that make this book weighty and make you feel more for Camille. 

For those looking for a struggle of soul or a growth of faith - this book does not expand on those themes. There are mentions of prayer and church going, and at the very end there is mention of an inscription but it is not mentioned anywhere else (a bit of a loose end with that).   I was disappointed in the lack of Christian struggle as it would have been so easy to weave that in to both Jonathan and Camille's stories rather than an off handed comment about church, prayer and a belated inscription.

I appreciated the opportunity to read this book in advance of it's release. This is the first book of Sarah Ladd's that I have read, I would enjoy reading more to see if her themes change. :)

This is an unbiased review for NetGalley ARC. I was in no way compensated for this review.

What is NetGalley?

A while a go one of the authors I follow on facebook posted about this new (to me) site for ARC (advanced reader copy) and other books to review.  As I was intrigued by the books offered I decided to give it a try. 

The sign up process was not hard or too complicated. I chose 2 books and waited to see if I would be chosen to read them.  About a week later I got this email from NetGalley - 

Request notification from Thomas Nelson--FICTION.

Thomas Nelson Fiction appreciates your interest in our books and respectfully requests that you wait to publish reviews until 30 days prior to the book's release date. We'd love for you to send us a link to finished reviews. Thanks so much for your interest! Please understand we will only approve you for one book at a time until you post a review. Follow us on Twitter @nelsonfiction Find us on Facebook. Thomas Nelson Fiction

The Curiosity Keeper: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/61772


I was approved!! Yay! I was very excited to start reviewing books again. I had gotten frustrated with the process of paper books, as I mainly read on my devices now.

Little did I know that the process of getting this book onto my device would prove a mild frustration... and I cannot lay blame on any 1 thing, I believe it is a combination of things.


I dutifully clicked on the link for the book, signed in and followed all of NetGalley's clear instructions on getting the book into my reader. After finding that I had entered the wrong kindle email address for my device and repairing that, I found no matter how many times I clicked "send to device" I did not see my book there for review. I even went so far as to email Amazon about the problem... and they could not get back to me right away by email, I did not feel this was urgent enough for a phone call. So, I waited and checked my email in the morning. (Suffice to say patience is still being learned by me...) Lo, and behold I saw an email from Amazon in the morning and after checking my Kindle reader app, I say 3 copies of "The Curiosity Keeper" in my library list! Oops. I guess the instructions did work. Patience is a good thing to practice.

Now I was ready to read!

To read my review of "The Curiosity Keeper" please click here.


The book itself did not translate well into Kindle reader. There were capitalization errors (for every sentence!) and spacing problems as well as line problems (no spaces between paragraphs and such). This did make it harder (not impossible) to read.


I would suggest to NetGalley to make sure their ARCs are actually readable in the format presented. As writing a good review relies upon being able to read and enjoy the book.