Book Review : Milk Money by Cecelia Dowdy

Book Title : Milk Money
Author : Cecelia Dowdy
Publisher : Heartsong Presents
Pages : 170
ISBN : 978-1-60260-255-7

Book Synopsis:

When her dad dies, Emily Cooper must work hard to save the family farm. She manages--- until the day a CPA pulls in her driveway and announces he’s there to do an audit. Franklin Reese is appalled at the lack of interest the Cooper women have in the financial aspect of their livelihood, but he dives in, determined to help them learn. The further he looks into Mr. Cooper’s dealings. However, the more uncomfortable he becomes. Can he uncover the truth of the situation and still earn the love of the amazing Emily Cooper? Or will issues in Franklin’s own life keep them apart, even after the farm is taken care of?

My review:
I love the storyline of this book, from the very beginning when two persons with different personalities, believes, and thinking aspects --- Emily Cooper and Franklin Reese met each other, until they gradually fall head over heels with each other, and finally getting married. It’s nice to read how God brings two people from different worlds together. Another good thing is that this book is easy-to-read and is suitable for all ages. I would strongly recommend this book to those who like reading Christian and romance fictions with a happy, blissful ending.

My rating: 8/10

Sick

I'm sick. Very sick. I'm still having a bad flu. My sinus has made it worse. Mucus drip until they become as watery as water. I'm telling the truth. They look just like water running loose. My nose hurts so much. It's skin is slowly peeling off because of the friction produced by using tissue papers. I'm not lying. I used a whole bundle of tissues and now my rubbish bin is full of used tissue papers. I'm so sick of being sick. Gotta rest.

SHINE Necklace Review

Mickey at Nicholas Landon Jewelry sent me a very special gift a few days ago --- the SHINE Necklace! It was perfectly wrapped in a beautiful little box, which was neatly tied up with a green ribbon. When I lifted the cover of the box, I must say that what I found inside really made me jumped with joy! The necklace was so beautiful that I couldn't help showing it to my parents and my two sisters. It looks just like the picture below, just that the pearl is white in colour.

This necklace is an interpretation of the inspiration drawn from Christina's book, Ocean Star. It is made of an 18” sterling silver ball chain, sterling silver Starfish, a single 9-10mm round freshwater pearl, 1 1/2 inch sterling silver Shine! tag and sterling silver components.



The meaning behind the creation of the SHINE Necklace:

The OCEAN STAR or STARFISH may have broken pieces, but they will heal and mend when it is connected to its life source...the ocean. We, like the Ocean Star, will be made whole when we are connected to God as our Source of Life, no matter what gets damaged or broken along our journey.

The SHINE tag is to discover the unique gifts and purpose that we are created with and to pass along those blessings to others. We each have a destiny to be discovered, a light that is meant to shine and a journey before us yet to be explored...so Shine!

The PEARL represents us as well as the people who come along our path that are willing to share their hopes and blessings for our lives and encourage us to Look Up to the possibilities that await us in our future. We like the pearl are a unique, one of a kind treasure!

To buy:

This necklace is made by Pearl Girl, Mickey Johnson. If you'd like to have one for your own, please click here to purchase. The retail price is $38.00.

Proceeds of the sale of this necklace will go to You’re Designed to Shine ministries where their goal is to help women ages 8-88 discover that they are designed to Shine and to be the women that God planned for them to be.

Please remember that you are DESIGNED TO SHINE, that God knows the STARs as he knows you and has a plan for your life and that as you allow God to take the irritations of your life and coat them with his grace, you too will be turned into a PEARL of great value to encourage others on their journeys, as well as be reminded of all those pearls who have encouraged you.

Contact info:

mickey@mickeyjohnson.us
http://nicholaslandonjewelry.blogspot.com/

Interview with Jenna from Wave Cloud & A Review

I'm so lucky to be given the chance to interview this creative seller from Etsy who loves to create jewelries that are unique and catches the eye --- Jenna! Jenna is currently selling her handmade items on her Etsy store, Wave Cloud. She has a variety of beautiful jewelries at her shop, and each one of them is sold at a VERY reasonable price. Let us see some of the products for sale at her store.

My favourites:



The always-so-gorgeous Vampire Earrings!

Price: $ 11.50




The Great Gift --- The Twilight Bracelet

Price: $12.50

This locket is a must-have for any Twilight fan!

The Twilight Locket

Price: $ 18.50

"Could it be

Three simple words

Or the fear of being overheard

What's wrong?

Let him in on your secret heart."-Fiest's Secret Heart

Secret Heart Locket
Price: $18.50




The cute, petite Purple Swirl Spinner Ring
Price: $ 10.50

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Now, it's time for the interview!

1. Hi, please tell me more about yourself:
I was born and raised in Utah, where I live with my husband of 1 1/2 years who I absolutely love! He's so supportive of my jewelry business and he's my best friend. We live in a tiny apartment right now, but hope to buy a house someday soon. I work part-time in the banking industry, so I need a creative hobby like jewelry so I can keep myself sane.

2. How was your shop started?
I'd been shopping around Etsy for awhile and I absolutely fell in love with the products and the community! I made jewelry for myself as a teenager, but I never had the tools or supplies to really get into it. I had a friend who made jewelry as a hobby who had a jewelry party and I thought, "Wow, I could totally do this!" So I researched a lot on the Internet and Etsy and opened my own shop!

3. Who/What is your source of inspiration?
I hated seeing the same kind of jewelry being sold in malls and online. Basically, I love making anything that's different and unique; the best thing I can say about my shop is that it doesn't look like all the regular jewelry everyone else wears. My shop is unique, fun, pretty, and elegant all in one!

4. What handmade possession do you most cherish?I buy handmade fairly often, and one of my favorite things is rings! When I was dating my husband, I always told him I didn't want an engagement ring (even though I ended up getting one later, lol) so he would buy me handmade rings all the time as my "wedding ring"--they all hold such great memories.

5. Which items in your shop receive most compliments from customers?
My best-sellers are my Vampire Earrings and my Little Lockets--not only are the products themselves gorgeous, but the pictures capture them so well. One of my biggest encouragements to other sellers is to have the best pictures possible, because they can really sell a product.

6. What is your favourite material used in creating your products?
I love whimsical jewelry--I am IN LOVE with flowers, in case you couldn't tell from my shop. I also love experimenting with different jewelry media--resin, beading, wirework, leather, etc. I use a lot of antiqued brass, lockets, oxidized silver, and czech glass flowers. I love making new things look old and beautiful.

7. How do you promote your Etsy store?
I keep track of when the best time to renew my items is (through Google Analytics) and be sure to renew daily. I also promote through Facebook, Etsy forums, and my blog (wavecloudetsy.blogspot.com)--right now there's a really easy contest going on for my Tulip Trio necklace.

8. Make a wish!

Umm, world peace? I just wish I could make people happy with my jewelry, one piece at a time.

The Twilight Bracelet Review!

Jenna sent me a Twilight Bracelet for my review. I'm so excited to get this dainty handmade bracelet because it's one of my favourite items from her shop. I was extremely delighted to see the beautiful bracelet! It is lightweight, but it's of good quality. This bracelet is simply classy and stunning!

The Twilight Bracelet is made with gunmetal chain and findings, a swarovski heart crystal, and a deep-red teardrop bead.

Me wearing the Twilight Bracelet.
This is one of the best-loved pieces in her shop!



I arranged it into a heart shape. Loving it much?




Gorgeous bracelet. I just LOVE it! If you'd like to buy one as a gift for yourself, your friends or loved ones, please click here. Hurry, there's only 1 more in stock.


Attention everyone!

There's a giveaway going on at
at Jenna's blog. Winner gets a Tulip Trio Necklace worth $10.50!
Contest ends 3oth April 2009.


*Thank you so much, Jenna, for this wonderful opportunity. I promise I will treasure this bracelet forever.*

Have a nice day, everyone!
Best regards, Aik.

A Surprise!

Today, my father went to the post office to claim my prizes.

I opened the smaller package first...and I found a little box.

It's wrapped! How mysterious! I can't wait to see what's inside.

Ta da! My first pair of handmade earrings from Fringe Lore! Thank you, Julie!

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This is the bigger parcel. Wow...Look at the postage fee! $25.85! That's approximately RM 90.475!

Lo_Ok! A set of 10 books in the parcel! Hooray! These are the 10 books I won from Cecelia Dowdy, the Christian fiction writer's blog. If you'd like to visit her blog, click here: http://ceceliadowdy.blogspot.com. She's so kind and generous to mail these books to me and I'm very thankful for that!

See my winning comment : http://ceceliadowdy.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-book-giveaway.html

Alright, that's all for today. Have a nice day, everyone!

Featured Artist ~ Ana from The Pretty Peacock

I was so excited when Ana agreed to do this interview. She's a talented artist who's selling her own Handmade, Hand Stamped & Personalized Jewelry at her personal website
The Pretty Peacock and Etsy store. All her pieces are made from high quality metals
which are Eco-Friendly. Now let's see some of my favourites...

The GOLD Family Tier Pendant

This is my favourite piece from her shop. This pendant set has 1" gold filled disk (Gold fill lasts longer than gold-plated and is less expensive than solid gold jewelry), a 3/4" gold filled disk and a 1/2" gold filled disk. And there's a gold plated Swarovski crystal birthstone which adorns the top of the disks.

Sterling Bear Pendant with Birthstone

This cute pendant will make a great gift for any little girl!

This sterling silver bear measures 13mm wide by 16mm tall - a very wearable size for a little one all the way up to an adult! You can personalize this piece with a short name or initials, which is the more popular alternative.

Petite Circles of Love in Sterling Silver

This is a very beautiful necklace.
This pendant set comes with two, tiny (10mm) sterling silver circles with the names of your little sweetie peas stamped along the bottom curve (as pictured). A Swarovski crystal birthstone is wire wrapped on a lovely sterling silver head pin, for that perfect bit of sparkle.

Time for...The Interview!

(Read till the end and receive a surprise!)

1. Hi, please tell me more about yourself.

I am the mother of two lovely little hoodlums (6 and 3) and the wife to a techie-geek extraordinaire (and also my #1 fan/supporter). I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and have finally accepted the fact that suburbia isn't all THAT bad!! I sing to relax and calm myself down, I am shamelessly addicted to Rock Band, I prefer overcast(but not necessarily raining) days over gloriously sunny ones, I don't like to cook - but love to eat!! I can only eat cookies when they are still warm and I can't sew - not even a button back onto a shirt.



2. How was your shop started?
I come from an East Indian family where my two career choices were to either become an engineer or a doctor...I gravitated toward neither and after speeding through my undergrad, getting a double major(academic over-achieving is a requirement, after all!!), and getting admitted to law school - I decided that none of it was for me. I worked in corporate America up until I had children and then had the luxury of taking a step back and focus on feeding my creative soul.What brought me to creating jewelry is a long story, but something that should have been apparent from the start. Sometimes you just need the journey, though, to make things fall into place just right.


3. What inspires you?
I love words. Lyrics to songs, poetry, funny phrases that come out of my children's mouths...It's amazing how words can bring you back to place in time or just make you stop in your tracks and ponder.


4. What handmade possession do you most cherish?
I designed my wedding ring, and it was then created by another artist.It is, in my opinion, just perfect. It uses the small solitaire my husband bought for me when we were 19 and is set in a gorgeous platinum band that is so thick and heavy and unique...and then has about a million sapphires (we were married in September) set all along the edges of the ring. It is phenomenal.



5. Which items in your shop receive most compliments from customers?
My fine silver work (I call it my "GOOD KARMA Collection") is really well received. I always try to do something unique - there are few things that haven't been done in jewelry, but I do try!http://www.theprettypeacock.com/good-karma.html My more modern pieces- Love you to the Moon Pendant:http://www.theprettypeacock.com/pendants/love-you-to-the-moon-pendant.html,Regal Family Tier Pendant:http://www.theprettypeacock.com/pendants/regal-family-tier-pendant.htmland my Eternity Bangles:http://www.theprettypeacock.com/bracelets/eternity-bangle.html are very popular. I love doing custom work/designs...people have the most amazing ideas and visions of what they would like to own and it is always so rewarding to create someone that special treasure.


6. What is your favourite material used in creating your products?
I love fine silver - it's eco-friendly, it starts off as a clay and then becomes pure (99.9% silver vs. sterling's 92.5% silver content)and is just incredibly versatile. I like anything that allows me to
create what is in my mind's eye.


7. How do you promote your Etsy store?
---- Can this be : How do I promote my Website??? ----My website is relatively new, so I'm still learning on how to promote it and bring traffic to it. Having a blog:http://theprettypeacock.blogspot.com/, doing giveaways/features another's blogs, making sure my items are tagged correctly and making sensing of Google AdWords have all been helpful!


8. Make a wish!

I wish that my house would self-clean. I don't ask for much!! :)



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Now, for the surprise! Be ready...

Dear readers...Ana, the generous owner of The Pretty Peacock has agreed to give all of you a 5% discount on your entire order from her store http://www.theprettypeacock.com starting from today, 9th April 2009 to 16th April 2009. Please be sure to enter the discount code : AIK when checking out.

~Jewelry should tell a story, invoke emotion, be a touchstone, a tangible memory - not just a bauble that matches the outfit for the day.Here, at The Pretty Peacock, we believe in creating meaningful treasures with your words, loved ones' names, dates, quips - anything that speaks to you, or want close to your heart. ~

http://www.theprettypeacock.com
Handmade. Personalized. Treasures.

Hand Sketching

Okay, today I'm posting 2 pictures of my original sketching here. Please rate them from 1 to 10 and leave some advices/thoughts/critiques if possible. All comments will be appreciated. Thanks and have a nice day!

Looking For Love

I love this photo. Flashes of love...Enchanting illuminations...