I'm over at Five Minutes for Books, reviewing an absolutely beautiful children's book. Once you read the review, you might well want to win one of the three copies Source Books is giving away. Please leave a comment over at FM4B, for me (there, not here!). I'll do a random number drawing for the copies in conjunction with Melanie / Chilihead's Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. on Friday, August 1.(Is that a paragraph full of links or what!)

If you're interested in winning a copy, please be sure to leave an email where I can contact you. You don't have to have a blog, just a way for me to contact you. Sourcebooks will be sending the books out, so I'll need to be able to easily get your mailing address to them to do one mailing.

This was an absolutely precious children's book - When it arrived in my mail, I literally stood at the kitchen counter, eating my lunch, reading the first page, and couldn't put it down. The gorgeous drawings should encourage any young child to look over your shoulder as you read from its pages. I'm keeping my copy to read to my own grandchildren, but there are three other copies out there, just waiting for homes! I'm turning off comments here, so you can go there instead. For today, go to Five Minutes for Books. You can come back here in a day or so, and I'll share some fun photos of our weekend activities. We crammed as much summer fun as we could into every day. Hope you did too.

Labels: 5 Minutes for Books, The Price is Right

This is a sticky post and will stay at the top of my posts, til the drawing on Monday, June 30. For newer posts, please scroll down.

Gretchen, over at Jewels in My Crown Someday is in the middle of a book giveaway carnival, and goodness knows I have plenty of books. I scanned my shelves, looking for duplicates and found this:


I have a tendency to lean more toward non-fiction than fiction, but this is a great book, if you're inclined to serious Bible study. Kay Arthur's method, which is the Precept Upon Precept Inductive Approach, is one of the best out there, and this little book makes it easy to understand.

Labels: The Price is Right

I reordered copies of Know What You Believe, and Know Why You Believe for my bookshelves, and added another copy of Know Why... to give away to someone who followed my last series of posts.

Labels: The Price is Right

UPDATE: I have no idea why my profile isn't showing up to give you my email address. Best ask Susie at Bluebird Blogs to figure it out for me! In the meantime, my blog email is scratchinthesurface@gmail.com Sorry about the confusion.

Finally, I'm getting around to giving away those books I listed a good three weeks ago. I swear I used Random Number Generator, but I was surprised to see that my sister and a dear friend of almost 30 years won! So here are the results:

#1 Christy - goes to Vicki, comment #33 (no homepage?)
#2 How to Read a Book, goes to Susanne, comment #6
#3 Pleasers, goes to Andrea, comment #14
#4 If You Want to Write, goes to Robin, comment #26
#5 Writing Down the Bones, goes to d, comment #24
#6 Bird by Bird, goes to Robyn, comment #35
#7 Hobbit, Sad, Sad - nobody wanted him so I'll keep him a bit longer
#8 Susanne's Diary, goes to Tris (I can find you!), comment #30
#9 Memory Keeper's Daughter, goes to Renna, comment #18
#10 Clay Aiken, goes to my sister Barb (I can find you!), comment #3
#11 Shadowlands, goes to Stacey, comment #11
#12 Hillsong CD, goes to Mary B, comment #7
#13 Dog Sitter Video, goes to Trina, comment #12

You can email me on my sidebar and let me know where to ship the book and I'll get them out quick as a wink. Can't promise to dust them first though. I've got bigger fires to put out around here! Happy Reading.

Labels: The Price is Right

Next week will be the two year anniversary of this little blog. I thought I'd have a birthday party for STS, even though I'll actually be on the white sand beaches of Mexico. So you're all invited to come on over, and grab a door prize. I cleaned out my bookshelves and decided to clear out a bit. Some I've read, some I intended to read, some are just favorites and I buy a copy anytime I see it, with the hopes of sharing with someone who hasn't had the pleasure of reading one of my all-time favorites.

So without further ado - here's a long, long list of books and videos to be given away. I'll leave this open til I get back from Mexico. After we get home, soon as the house is caught up to a reasonable level (clean undies and fresh milk) I'll announce the winners and send them on their way.

NOTE: I seriously didn't realize all the photos are sideways and just don't have time to fix them. Our house is a wee-bit crazy with family here, getting ready to leave on vacation, so please just turn your head as far sideways as it will go!

#1 Christy, by Catherine Marshall. One of my all-time favorite books. Precious for anyone age ten and up, with the true heart of a missionary here in the U.S. captured. I have a hardback copy of my own, held together with fiber tape, that I'll never give away.

#2 How to Read a Book. Seriously. By Mortimer J. Adler (don't you just love that someone went through life with the name of Mortimer?). "Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading", so if you are interested in that rather than dumb reading, let me know. I have my own copy.


#3 Pleasers by Kevin Leman. Began to skim it and realized I'm not. A Pleaser. Too sassy for that, but it had good stuff in it. Hardback practically brand new. I'd be pleased to send it to someone.


#4 If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland. Like she said, if you want to write, this is a good one to read. I have my own copy to keep.


#5 Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg. Classic on how to write, and I'm currently reading and marking up my own copy. You don't want my copy, it's way too messy but you might enjoy this one. She has some funky Zen stuff in it, but the woman knows how to write.


#6 Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Another classic on how to write, and I have my own copy, and her hair is really, really funky, like that dreadlock kid on American Idol, but again, she can write. Brand new copy.


#7 The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkein. I always loved that he has two middle initials - how interesting is that? This is a fabulously fun book to read, for anyone about 12 or older. They're making it into a movie, so you need to read this. I've read it twice, and I have a dog-eared copy to reread someday, after retirement.

#8 Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, by James Patterson. Given to me as a gift, still brand new, hardback. If you like sweet romance, and what woman doesn't?


#9 The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards. Not a light-hearted book, but a good read. It'll keep you up reading, late into the night.


#10 Learning to Sing, by Clay Aiken. Okay - a little weird but I really liked his singing and wanted to hear what he had to say. The first thing he did after he started making money was buy his momma a house, and I'd like him just for that. Hardback, uplifting book.


#11 Showdown, by Ted Dekker. Weird writer, good Christian fiction. You either like him or you don't. My husband does, but he doesn't read books twice. Hardback, new condition.


#12 CD of Hillsong, London, with bonus DVD, so if you like good worship music, this is it. Great stuff to clean house to!


#13 - and drum roll please, for last, for weirdness, The Dog Sitter. DVD of stuff dogs apparently like to watch, and you leave this on while you're away to keep your dog happy. Funny clippage of monkeys in costume riding around on dogs, squirrels, birds at birdfeeders, ducks on pond, we used this the first time we took our grandson Landon to the zoo. Not as a prep, but he was fussy and we didn't have any other DVD's to keep babies happy and he actually liked it. So maybe babies at 8 months and dogs are at the same intellectual level? Anyway it's a DVD made just for dogs, to babysit them while you're out and about, escaping the smell of dog in your house.

Note: I forgot to take a photo of it, but if you're an animal lover, you'll get a kick out of this, and your dog(s) will too.

So if you'd like any of these, leave me a comment telling me which one, and a way to contact you. I'll draw numbers, figure it all out after we're back home first week of May. I'll date this to stay at the top of posts, although with the price of Internet Service when you're out of the country I won't be posting til we get back home.

Labels: The Price is Right

We rearranged the family room this past weekend, which led to rearranging the living room since we stole furniture from there to go there, and that led to rearranging the eating area of the kitchen, and if you're thinking this is a little like "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.....", you're exactly right, and thank goodness the only other room on this floor is the bathroom and anything in there is attached to the floor, or I might never stop this nonsense. Who has time to rearrange their entire house this year, and what was I thinking? And yes, I've already read Sidetracked Home Executives. I'm aware of my personality quirks, as is the rest of my family. So where was I?

Labels: The Price is Right

After 183 comments, I went into the Random Number Generator and gave it a twirl, and it came up with Paulette at My Life Shifting. Looking over her blog, sounds like she might enjoy learning to knit.

I did manage to find exactly the same kit I used, at Michaels, so I'll be sending that to Paulette. Girls, being completely honest here, I have to tell you, it was $9.99 (less expensive here than in Texas at Hobby Lobby), and I used my 40% off coupon, so if you'd really like to learn, or give the gift of learning to someone else, it's very affordable and I really did learn using it. It has everything you need except a skein of yarn, which can be had for $1.49. Of course, I also had a personal knitting coach sitting right next to me, and I'd highly recommend, if you do decide to learn, that you find someone who knits more proficiently than you do, so you can run to her when you get stumped. (Thanks, SarBear!)

How's my scarf coming along? Thanks for asking - here's where it's at.



Shaping up nicely I think. I chose something that had knit and purl in it so I would remember both stitches, and decided to make myself something first, so I can keep it to look back at and hopefully see some progress, but also I won't be offended by a missed stitch or two. If I can learn, Paulette can learn, and so can the other 182 of you, give or take a few, who wanted to learn. For the record, a few of you mentioned being left-handed. Knitting isn't either one or the other, it's both, you use both hands, so it makes no difference. I actually use my left hand more because of the style I chose, and I'm right-handed.

I've also got a few secret projects in the works, after going to Knitting Night this week - I bought a beautiful charcoal wool to make my husband a scarf for his stocking, there's a pretty red skein of yarn in my knitting box too. I'm having a blast with it - hope a few of you dive in also. So as they say on Knitty Gritty (DIY), "Knit On!"

Labels: Creative License, The Price is Right

I wasn't going to do this; I told myself I didn't have time to do this because I don't, and when I saw my sister, Barb, over at A Chelsea Morning with her post, I realized I'd completely forgotten about it, because I've been a little covered up with other things since returning from Texas, little things like groceries, bills, laundry, blah blah blah.

Then I started thinking about it and just felt bad, but girls, I didn't have anything to give away unless you'd like a load of laundry and I'm happy to give you a choice of darks or whites, or maybe some bundled up pet fur - we have that in abundance around here.

So I decided to go wild and buy something to give away, and of course realized that would have to be the kit I just bought myself. It's called "I Taught Myself Knitting" which is a bald-faced lie, since I could never have learned it without my daughter, Sarah being just a teensy bit pushy to make me keep trying when I everything in me wanted to have a hissy fit and quit. So that's what I'm giving away. If I can find one at Michaels in the next few days. Mine looked like this:

So I'm not promising the winner's will look exactly like this, but I'll give it my best shot. If it doesn't I'll make sure it's very comparable. It will not have yarn in it, but the yarn I'm using to make my first scarf costs $1.49 a skein and I bought two of them. I'll let the winner decide what yarn she'd like to start with.

So I'll keep this up however long Shannon told us to (don't know that right now), and will use the random number thingy to pick a winner when I'm supposed to, and of course, if you enter please leave me information so I can contact you if you win.

Update - my scarf is now 6" long, and I've only ripped it out four times. If you're feeling real patient, enter away!

Labels: Creative License, The Price is Right

If you'd like to enter to win the cookbook, go here. I'll draw Friday morning, 9/21.

Labels: The Price is Right

I've never lived anywhere they're really called that, but "Tag Sales" sounds so much more quaint than "yard" or "garage", don't you think? Like something Martha would go to, where of course she'd find exquisite pieces of china and turn them all into bird feeders. Or she'd buy old buttons, and make all her friends lovely jewelry to wear on their sweaters.

So I've been in the mood, lately, to go to Tag Sales on Saturday mornings. The last few weeks Leslie and I have started our day with a run through Starbucks, or I make homemade vanilla lattes, we grab the piece of torn newspaper listing all the sales, a local map, and we're off. With a baby in tow, and lots of one dollar bills.

In the past few weeks we've found all sorts of treasures. I picked up a spare microwave for $15 to have around the next time ours breaks and it takes the usual three weeks to repair. A wonderful end table with drop down leaves, and big wooden wheels on it; a small metal rack to hold the firewood indoors; shelves for the basement project, favorite books or future reads; a stroller, too many items to list, or recall.

This past Saturday here's what I brought home:

Music for beginning piano, that I'd previously bought, and given away.

A book of piano Christmas music, simple enough I may learn to play the songs. In time for Christmas. This year.

A pink Baby Gap coat for Miss Addison to wear this winter, when Texas finally cools off.

A lovely jumper for same sweet baby girl, to wear next Spring, when it starts to heat up again.


Funky teal-green slippers with pom poms on them, to put in the guest room for an overnight visitor. (I'll wash them first!) If I were an overnight guest in someone's home, I'd think these were very fun.


A 2007 calendar of quilt patterns, one per day, for my quilt room.

A quilt rack, for $5.00!

A VCR of "How to Make An American Quilt" to take to our Quilt-by-the-Sea trip. Perfect!

More fun than the treasures we found, was observing the people holding the sales. One was run by a single person, with her stuff neatly organized and labeled, and she wouldn't budge on the prices (of course I offered less!). Some were held by a group of girlfriends, with stuff strewn across the lawn, and they just wanted to get rid of their over-buying, or toys that were threatening to take over the house. Or spend the morning together, eating donuts in the garage, a completely valid reason to hold a tag sale.

One woman who hosted a sale this past weekend wore a t-shirt that said, "I'm not the girl down the street, I'm the B---- next door". She had teenagers, younger children, and her husband was a professional ball player. Her home was lovely. Somehow the t-shirt just amazed me. Who would wear such a thing? I could be wrong, but I don't see us being close friends anytime in the near future. She scared me just a little bit.

One woman offered raffle tickets, one for each $10 you spent, and she would draw one name to give away a baby quilt. I never would have thought of that! I believe she may have a few more bingo games under her belt than I do. She had a little hot-rod in her garage, but explained if she sold it, she'd have to call a divorce attorney.

One man was selling his elderly mother's belongings, after moving her into an asst. living facility. What I thought were old, fire-hazard appliances had become "retro" and the prices were unbelievable. Somehow it seemed like her things should be treated with more dignity, handed down to family members who would treasure them, use them. I'm pretty sure that women selling them would have felt more fitting also. My eye went immediately to an old metal sifter, with a red wooden handle. $12.50. A man would have considered any possible uses for it in his garage, and moved on. A female would have conjured up memories of sugar cookies, or cake flour being sifted. Shown it the respect it deserved for a job well done. Then hopefully given it to a grand-daughter at her wedding shower, even if she had to store it for a few years before doing so. What would he have done with the $12.50 he asked, had he gotten it? Unless it was to take his mother flowers, I can't think of anything fitting. How do you sell your mother's flour sifter? I'm not even a pack-rat but some things are holy.

How often do we drive down neighborhood streets, at night, looking in for a glimpse of others lives? Tag sales - not only do they offer us a chance to bring home a treasure, giving it a new lease on life, sometimes they offer us a peek at other's lives, with lessons for living included in the price, if we pay attention.

Labels: Glimpse of the Heart, The Price is Right

Free coffee is fun. This is fabulous - a free flat screen TV, being given away by Susan and Janice over at 5 Minutes for Mom. Only difference - everyone can have the free coffee, where the TV will have one winner.

Labels: The Price is Right

I got an email from 'Your Friends at Folgers', with a fun photo of my personal favorite character from Gray's Anatomy, Chandra Wilson who plays Bailey, asking my opinion on coffee. As a thank you for expressing said opinion, I was invited to choose one of three flavors of coffee - for free -which they will send straight to my front door!

Then they even gave me a link, just in case I might happen to have a blog, and wanted to let all my friends know about the free coffee. Here it is:

Labels: The Price is Right

I got this post ready last night, so all that was needed was to do the random number thing, which is a lot easier than cutting up little pieces of papers that have everyone's name written on them, then asking the dog to draw one, since sweet husband is away at work supporting me, and you just can't count on a cat to be of any practical use much of the time.

I love that was all one sentence :-) If I were a retired English teacher I might find it a bit depressing. Rather, I'm a retired secretary and saw the speed the letters were typed, so it's encouraging instead. Not that encouraging my grouchy typing teacher, Mrs. McKinney, would EVER be my goal, but I digress.

The winner of Giveaway #1, the Susan Branch planner, is Jennifer at Snapshot. She was #20 out of 147 comments. I'm familiar with pretty Jennifer who lives in Connecticut; I read her blog and see her comments on my posts now and then also. So it feels a bit like giving it to a friend, which is nice. If I had several more to give, I would have given one to the man who wanted it for his wife, since I wonder if he's lived through several incidents where she forgot the boss was coming for dinner til he walked through the front door and the kids were swinging from the light fixtures and tuna casserole was in the oven, or they were leaving on vacation the next day and nobody had clean underwear, or he stood waiting for a ride home from work. And waiting. And waiting. I would send another to the woman who said she was in desperate need of organization with school starting again soon because I can really relate to that, once you start having to write in sports practices, school pictures, parent's night, etc., then I'd send another to TaunaLen who spoke to my soul when she said, "planners always call to me. I don't know what it is about all those numbers and squares, but they make me feel all fluttery inside, like I'm falling in love." TaunaLen and I could be friends in real life I do believe. And one would absolutely go to this woman, can't you just hear her all breathless saying, "Oh my gosh, I could really use this! I am SO absentminded (blonde) (she said that, not me) and unorganized." I have a friend like her, and every single time we meet, 30 minutes before, she phones and asks me what time and where. Maybe I should buy another one for my friend's upcoming birthday? Jennifer strikes me as already having her act together, and so she'll be able to pull out this oh so pretty planner when she's at the doctor's office, or school, to pencil in appts. Congratulations to you Jennifer - hope you really enjoy it.

The winner of Giveaway #2, the chalks I rarely used and even managed to photograph upside down, is Fiddle D. Dee, at Seedlings to Sunflowers. She was one of the very last comments, so she barely squeezed in! I hope she wears them out, they needed to be used by someone, and I think she'll do just that. The only use they might have gotten at our house, after I unearthed them, was giving them to the grandkids to draw on the driveway. Seriously.

This was such fun, I've never given anything away on my blog. Rather, I usually drag it up the driveway and set it out by the street with a "Free to Good Home" sign, but I'll have to do this again, in the not so distant future. Stay posted.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm whipped from all the blogging this past week. I'm off for a bit of catch-up around here. xooxox

Labels: Girl Talk, The Price is Right

To say The Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway is in full swing would be the major understatement of the summer. I've listed two items to give away, the first is a set of Stampin' Up Pastels (CLICK HERE), (which I was clever enough to photograph upside down) and the second is a Susan Branch Planner (CLICK HERE). You can leave a comment through Friday at 5 pm, Eastern time, when I'll hopefully figure out how to do a random counter thing and pick two winners.

I'll leave this post at the top of my blog in the ever-so-unlikely chance that I post a single thing the rest of this week. After going to Shannon's place and clicking on 472 lovely items to consider, leaving a comment for a good number of them to the point that I can truly no longer type "thanks" without stopping to think how to spell it, and having to type my web address, email address, etc. one more time tonight might make me twitch too much to go to sleep, I think I'd have to be struck by lightening or find out I'm pregnant to actually write another post, (in the case of the latter I'd title it "Gloom, Despair and Misery on Me" and we'd be scheduling an angioplasty for dear husband, who'd likely have a massive heart attack, right after he realized his retirement had been delayed by about 20 years, give or take.)

I'm afraid to go back to Shannon's place in the morning, for fear 99 more bloggers will have stayed up all through the night, listing their items that are just too good to pass up. If by any chance Shannon even starts to mention doing this as an annual thing, summer of 2008, I plan to start sleeping in a bit every day for about two weeks ahead of time. Even if I can summon up enough energy to get through the day after missing sleep several nights in a row, the bags under your eyes just take way too long to retreat once you're in your 50's...

Trying to visit everyone of the sweet ladies who left comments at my giveaway - that may take just a bit, only because I still have to cook meals, do laundry, remove wallpaper, quilt with the girls, buy groceries, have lunch with a girlfriend, and a few other trivial things around this place in the next few days. Besides, I'd like to tell them I appreciate their visit, but typing "T.H.A.N.K.S." around 200 times right now isn't altogether possible.

If you, on the other hand, suffer from insomnia, experience nightsweats, or are up with a crying baby, etc. run on over to Rocks in My Dryer - there's fodder to last through the night, trust me.

Labels: Girl Talk, The Price is Right

You may remember, or not, a post regarding giving away about half the stuff in our house, then taking anything that showed signs of having monetary value to the local Click 'N Sell. (Translation: a place for people who don't know how to sell anything on Ebay themselves.) I sold all my Stampin' Up supplies, for something like $50 or $60, and was tickled to just have it out of my house.

I also came across this. Buried pretty deep. It's the chalk set from Stampin' Up, used only once or twice before I decided it was way too much trouble for me. If I'd found it a few weeks ago I would have added it to the Ebay box. I doubt there are a lot of you out there who might be interested in this, and it's not totally new, but pretty close. (I apologize - the photo is a bit fuzzy.)

If any of you crafty ladies are interested, I'd rather give it away than toss it. If you make cards, or whatever else you might do with this dandy thing, that I'd prefer not to think about how much I spent on it and didn't really use, please leave me a comment. I'll draw a name Friday, then send it the way of the winner. And be oh so impressed with you, that you actually do a craft that I spent too much money on, then left all the supplies sitting on a shelf in my basement for about 7 years. (Aren't we glad most husbands don't read our posts???!!!)

For about anothor gazillion giveaways, go to Shannon's place, and start clicking on all the Mr. Linkys. I plan to do that myself, because a girl can only stand so much going through piles of stuff in one week! Note: I'll be happy to ship it to anywhere the mailman can get to.

And, and, and - look! Two scrapbook pages, the first done in well over two years, or maybe five, but who's counting? I scrapbooked Barb's daughter's wedding. That's my semi-enthusiastic scrapbooking partner, daughter Leslie. She stayed up with me til way too late, but I suspect it was the chai tea and snickers that kept her there, more than a love for preserving photos.







I used this handy gadget - the Hewlett Packard Photosmart 716, referred to as a portable photo printer, to print out the photos. It was $179 at Office Depot, it's smaller than a toaster, prints 4x6" and 5x7", does color, b&W and sepia. I'm completely in love with it. Being over-the-top analytical at times, I spent several months researching photo printers, and with some guidance from the nice man at Office Depot, am convinced this is just the ticket. I bought an extra cartridge of ink and 200 photo papers, so I should be set for awhile.

I wanted something that was completely portable, for when I scrapbook away from home. I can even take this in my camper and crop, edit, then print out photos, all by itself. You can hook it to your computer, your camera, insert the memory chip, and it holds 4000 photos in storage, which I'm thinking is about right for me. The money I made off the Click 'n Sell will cover most of the cost. Not bad payment for cleaning out the basement, I think. (Please note - I'm giving away the CHALKS, not the printer...)

Labels: Girl Talk, The Price is Right

It's July, so next year is just around the corner, at least for anyone who's into planning. Who said being organized can't be pretty too? I'm a big fan of Susan Branch, and so I offer up her "Days from the Heart of the Home" planner. It is yearless, by which I mean you can use it no matter the year, and it has a spiral binder so it will lay flat. Each week takes up two pages. It's size is around 8"x8".

Typical Susan-style, the pages are full of lovely illustrations, quotes, and tips for squeezing just a little more goodness out of whatever time of year it might be. I picked it up as a gift to an unknown friend, so maybe that could be you?!

To see the entire list of giveaways, and the guidelines, and do the Mr. Linky thing, etc. (some of which I don't entirely understand), you can go to Shannon's place, Rocks in my Dryer, who is hosting this fun event. If you're interested in winning this fun planner, leave a comment, and I'll draw a name this Friday. I'm happy to ship it anywhere the mailman can get to.xoxo

Labels: Girl Talk, The Price is Right