Card Monday-Spiderman Birthday Card

This week, I am going to be sharing The Boy’s Spiderman birthday party, so I thought I would start things off with the simple birthday card I made:

This was so easy.  I cut a Spiderman out of wrapping paper and adhered it to the card.  Then, I took my black pen and drew on lines to look like a spiderweb.  Viola-instant birthday card!  It took me no time to make, turned out great, and used simple supplies I already had on hand.  That’s a win-win in my book!
Tomorrow, I will start the birthday sharing in earnest-there’s a LOT! 🙂

Pinterest Thursday-Doodle Bookmarks

Last year, you may remember seeing my post with some coloring pages I had completed.  I really enjoyed all that coloring, but as I mentioned, I wasn’t thrilled with colored pencils, and I only had a few Sharpies.
That was until Christmas.  Hubby surprised both The Girlio and myself with GIANT sets of Sharpies that he got Black Friday from WalMart for super cheap.  YAY!!!!!
The two of us have been coloring like crazy with those sets.  So much fun.
Anyway, I had been searching on Pinterest for fun things to color, and I ran across a gal named Dawn Nicole.  I really like her style, and she has lots of fun stuff to color, so The Girlio and I have been going to town.  🙂
We started with some bookmarks.  This is was one of my favorite sets:

pin found here
I especially like the snowflake and coffee ones!
There is another set here that I really like too.
Here are a few of the ones I colored:

And, there is also a fall set I haven’t colored yet if you want more coloring fun in this style.
Happy Coloring!  🙂
p.s. in case you were wondering, I just printed these on white Recollections cardstock from Michaels, and I will be laminating them so they hold up longer too.  I will be sharing more of our coloring adventures later.  Have fun!

Wednesday Words

pin found here

Book Review-Amish Sweethearts

Summary: Amish Sweethearts is book two in the Neighbors of Lancaster County series by Leslie Gould.  It continues the story of Zane Beck and Lila Lehman and their families.  Zane and Lila had been best friends for years, and even though their feelings were beginning to turn into something more, Zane wasn’t Amish and Lila wouldn’t leave the Amish and all that she has ever known.
In hurt and frustration, Zane runs away to join the Army and Lila dutifully courts the Bishop’s son.  Neither is happy, but neither sees a way to resolve the cultural battle they each face.  Will they continue to stay apart and do what is expected of them, or is there a way that they can be together after all?
Thoughts:  Yeah, well I didn’t care for this book.  It isn’t that the author isn’t a good writer-I have read others of her books-but I just did not like the way the characters developed in this story.
First, there are a LOT of characters to keep track of.  I know this is common in Amish stories, but I found myself easily confused trying to remember which person was which.
Second, Lila’s family members were extremely selfish.  Every one of her immediate family seemed to be out for themselves, which seemed to go against the Amish culture in a way.  It was almost as if Lila was a Cinderella type of character, and she was just “poor me, my life stinks, but there isn’t anything I can do.”  I could see being a dutiful daughter, but she just really didn’t have any backbone.
Zane wasn’t much better.  He joined the military for the wrong reasons, and even though he does some heroic things, he considers deserting.  Maybe coming from a military family, this rubs me the wrong way, but I just felt like both of the main characters seemed totally helpless in their lives, when really it was their own choices that had put them there.
As much as I wanted to like them, I kind of wanted to just kick them in the pants and say “get over yourselves already!”
And, the way everything was solved in the end-I won’t spoil it for you-but I was like “that’s it?”  Seems like they could have resolved the whole love problem without this book even being a part of the series.
I really did want to like this book, but it just wasn’t something I enjoyed.
As always though, I want to thank Bethany House for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book for my unbiased review.

Card Monday-A Birthday Card

Here is a super simple birthday card I made for my dad:

I stamped a Hero Arts background stamp in black, and then colored in a few of the diamonds with colored pencils.  And, that was it!