3 hours ago
Wyatt has two things he loves right now - anything related to transportation, and animals. But he's been especially interested in tractors, trucks, trains, planes, and cars for the past several months. Any mechanical thing that moves.
This week Wyatt and I opened up some new books that Teresa from Barefoot Books was kind enough to send us!
One of the books was "I Wish I Were A Pilot", which was a book with a ton of vehicles in it - airplanes, cars, ships, submarines - you name it. Wyatt loved looking at all the pictures and pointing out the things he knew, and there were a few things he didn't know! It was so fun to hear him say "submarine". I liked that it was a board book too, because he's less likely to tear the page when he "reads" by himself.
The other book Teresa sent us was called "Driving My Tractor". I thought this book was so fun, because not only were the pictures beautiful and the story perfect for a two year old, the book came with a music CD!
The lyrics on the CD are the same as the words in the book. Wyatt was too busy looking at the pictures in the book for us to listen to the CD the first time - we probably spent five minutes on each page. He was so excited about the tractor and animals and was exclaiming over everything! But I love that it comes with a CD! Wyatt also loves music, and I think it will be so fun to follow along with the song.
Gwen got in on the book action too!
Teresa was also so thoughtful and sent along a worksheet/craft idea that goes along with the book! I had no idea that Barefoot Books came along with activities! The website has activities to go along with many of the books! I think this will be a great resource for some fun home pre-school projects this year, and in homeschooling years to come.
The craft she sent me was a cut-out coloring sheet to make paper finger puppets, and she even sent along some popsicle sticks in case we didn't have any! So Wyatt and I sat down and colored the pages together. It was such a fun project for the two of us!
This one was a joint effort (see the green scribbles):
So was this one:
Ah, but this one was Wyatt's masterpiece! I think he was really trying to stay inside the lines (up to now he hasn't cared):
If you haven't checked out Barefoot Books, definitely visit their website - they have so many fun books. I think some of them will be great for future homeschooling lessons, and they have a lot of books that are just for fun and perfect for gifts! Be sure to order through Teresa Banner - I highly recommend working with her. She's so knowledgable about all the books that are available, and she is very thoughtful! Thanks again Teresa for the opportunity to review these great books!
Note: Teresa sent me these books for free in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion!
When I was in grade school I loved reading Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer at the library. We didn't have any at home, and I just thought the illustrations and stories were so fun!
I was excited to learn that Thomas Nelson has come out with some new Little Critter books that have a biblically based message! They sent me "It's True" and "You Go First".
"It's True" is about Little Critter learning to tell the whole truth, because telling half-truths is the same as lying. In the end he corrects his lie and all the other kids forgive him for lying to them.
"You Go First" is a story about Little Criter always wanting to be the first to do everything, and he steps all over his friends to do it. His teacher tells him that we are supposed to treat others as we want to be treated, but Little Critter ignores her and learns his lesson when he rushes ahead of his friends and gets lost in the woods. He didn't exactly have a change of heart for the right reason in this book, but in the end he learned how to be a better friend, so I still liked it.
Both of the stories were cute, and as always the illustrations were colorful and fun! Wyatt loved looking at the pictures, and I like that these are good lesson books as well, and they will be good for training as he grows!
Note: I received this books for free from Thomas Nelson as part of their Tommy mommy program in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
I had never thought much about the fonts that I use on this blog for my blog design and graphics. If I could get a font for free somewhere, I was just excited about it! I pinned all the images with cool font pairings and downloaded some of them to use in graphics for my posts. Who doesn't love a free cute font, right?
Then last week I read this post on font types at Pink Heels Pink Truck and I don't know why I never thought about it before, but obviously there are people who created these free fonts. And they may only want them to be used in a certain way.
Taylor does a great job of explaining the different font license types, so I won't re-do that here - please go read her post. But the bottom line is this:
If you advertise on your blog, you need to use fonts that are free for commercial use.
If are advertising on your blog and you have used fonts that are only marked free for personal use, then you need to purchase a commercial license.
Talk about a nightmare! Back when I created the majority of the graphics that are on my blog I was not advertising on my blog - so it was fine to use fonts that were free for personal use. But earlier this year I started advertising with Blogher and selling sidebar ads - so all those fonts that require a commercial license that I used in the past needed to be fixed!
I spent two long nights going back and changing all the fonts I could find on my blog that were not free for personal use, and purchasing a commercial license for a few of the ones I used heavily. Thankfully most of the ones I had used in the past were already either free for commercial use or the commercial license was pretty inexpensive - but I still had to change a lot of my graphics and it took forever!
You want to know the one that really hurt? I've been using a font called "Before The Rain" for the watermark on all my pictures for the last few years. I knew I was going to have to buy the commercial license for that one, because there is no way I could realistically go back and edit all those pictures with a new watermark. Well, the commercial license for "Before The Rain" cost $60! Yes, $60! Ouch. There goes all my ad profits for the last few months.
In the process of researching all my fonts, I found a website that has only fonts that are free for commercial use, called Font Squirrel. You can try to research the licensing information for every font you want to use (trust me, it can take some searching for some of them), or you can just get all your fonts from Font Squirrel. They include a file with each font that gives the specifics of each font license, and most of them are fine for commercial use on blogs (though you should still read the individual licenses to make sure).
So blogging PSA:
If you advertise on your blog, or you think you might advertise on your blog at some point in the future, make sure all the fonts that you use on your blog are free for commercial use!
You'll save yourself a lot of work, money, and stress later on if you do.
(Click on image for more posts in this series.)
(Click image for all the posts in this series.)
For my blog, I really like the look of having my images laying flat against the background. Not only does it look cleaner, but when I want an element to look like it's embedded in the page, I just make the background white! This lets you do images that appear round, triangular, with rounded edges, or like the text is embedded into the post or page.
(This seemed like a good time to share a picture of Harvey. He's kind of cute, even though he drives me nuts sometimes.)
Unfortunately, Blogger automatically adds this annoying shadow/box thing around the photos you add to your blog. If you're like me and you want your images to just lay flat against the background, there is a way to remove the photo shadow that Blogger adds!
Lots of people have written very nice tutorials on this, so rather than re-write one here, I'm just going to point you to one that I think explains things well.
How To Remove Image Shadow In Blogger
One thing that I will note is to make sure to hit the space bar after adding the HTML to custom CSS box! I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, and then I realized I just needed to hit the space bar to get the code to register.
Also, I've noticed lately that when I upload a picture with a white background, it sometimes appears a yellowish white on my actual blog. Which kind of defeats the purpose of making the text look embedded. I was even having problems with my new header because of this!
Thanks to some experimentation and good 'ole Instagram informational sessions, I learned that it's some sort of issue with Blogger and .jpg's. So if you want the background to truly be white, save your image as a .png instead and it should work!
I recently received Return To Me by Lynn Austin in the mail. I actually requested this book in the summer, but I wasn't sure I was approved to review it - and I unknowingly requested it again! So I actually received two copies of this book from two different review programs! Whoops. I'm thinking someone might just get a little surprise present.
This book is about the period of time in the Bible when the Israelites are exhiled into Babylon, and King Cyrus issues the decree that the Jews may return to their homeland to rebuild the Temple. It follows the story of Iddo, a descendant of the temple priests, and his family as they make the journey back to Jerusalem. When they arrive there they receive a lot of trouble from the local people, and the building of the Temple is put on hold. Will they ever get it built? (Obviously you who know your Bible know that they eventually do.)
I love Biblical-based fiction when it is done well, and this book is done extremely well. Not only is everything in it very biblically accurate, from what I could tell (I'm thinking I need to go back and read those passages in the Bible again - it's been a while), but the story was gripping. I love the personal stories of the characters that Austin weaves through this book. I could hardly put it down! I think this book may be the first in a series, and now I'm definitely keeping an eye out for the next one!
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Biblical fiction or is curious to read more about Biblical history. This book is a really fun and interesting way to do it, and I was inspired while reading it to dig further into the actual record of these events in the Bible!
Also, check out this page to enter to win a free Kindle Fire and RSVP to Lynn Austin's Facebook party on October 22nd!
Note: I received this book from Bethany House publishers, and also from Litfuse Publicity Group, for free in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
I have to admit, the reason I requested Unforseeable by Nancy Mehl was because I saw that the main character was named Callie! I rarely meet a Callie in real life, and I think I've read two other books with a character named Callie. It's kind of fun to see your name in print.
Callie Hoffman is a Mennonite woman, getting ready to marry the man she loves, Levi. But then a series of murders come to their town, and Levi starts acting like he knows something about what's happening. At the same time Callie starts to wrestle with some things about herself that she has never faced before. Will they find the murderer? What does Levi know? Will Callie and Levi get their happily ever after?
I really enjoyed this book. I felt like the struggles and doubts that Callie had throughout the book were believable, and there was good character growth (which I always like). The mystery was really good, and I didn't figure it out until the very end, and even then there was a little surprise twist that I wasn't expecting at all.
I also really liked Mehl's style of writing. If I had to pick one word to describe this book, I would say "cozy". Mehl's writing style is warm and cozy, which is quite a feat when she is writing about blizzards and murders.
I would definitely like to read the other books in this series after reading this one, and I would recommend this book! It had just the right amount of suspense, romance, coziness, and lessons-learned. Good read.
Note: I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
In Stranded by Dani Pettrey, Darcy St. James returns to Alaska to help her old friend with an undercover investigation aboard a cruise ship - but right after she arrives, her friend goes missing. Darcy goes on a hunt for her friend while struggling to maintain her cover. What she doesn't expect is to run into Gage, the man she almost fell for on her last trip to Alaska.
I liked this book. It was full of adventure and sinister happenings, and I liked the romance woven in as well. The characters were likable, and it was easy to read. The conclusion of the mystery was not something that I was expecting when I started the book. I don't want to say too much so I don't ruin it, but I really liked it.
This is another one of those series where the characters are connected to characters in the other books, and once again it leaves me wanting to go back and read all their stories! It also makes me want to visit Alaska.
I'm looking forward to checkin gout more of Pettrey's books - I love it when I find a new author that I like. I would recommend this book - it's a perfect fall/winter read, because you can read about the cold Alaskan landscapes from the comfort of your cozy living room!
Note: I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
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