Today is a start of a new week and there is a lot going on at my YouTube channel. I am also making some changes-which evolving, expanding on projects and ideas is a good thing. Having a creative outlet is good for the soul. I am still learning and growing with YouTube and this has been a worthwhile journey. The bonus is that I have the opportunity to share craft ideas and inspiration with the crafting community. As my schedule changes, I do my best to adjust as I go along. I decided it would be a good idea to post on Mondays, a lineup up of videos planned for the week and which days they will be uploaded. This idea is also fun so one can see what is happening on the channel. There will be four videos uploaded this week and each one is unique and gives the viewer many ideas, tips and tricks.
This week’s video Lineup:
Tues. 10th: Update on the Scrappy Snippet Roll Challenge
Wed. 11th: Wild Card Wednesday
Fri. 13th: Yarn Bowl Tutorial
Sat. 14th: September Stitch Book- This month’s prompts are leaves and dots. See Saturday the 7th’s video for what you’ll need for this project.
“Mixed Media Art is taking different elements and bringing them together to tell a story. A telling of a deeper meaning of one’s creative soul.” -Stephanie M. Hopkins
In the last two previous posts, I discussed new beginnings and a never-ending compilation of books. I had taken a bit of an extended leave in blogging and reviewing books. The blogging part at least was random at best however. My blog post titled, “A Never-Ending Compilation of Books Part I,” is about my long overdue visit to NetGalley. You see, I haven’t reviewed books in a long time. I wasn’t even sure I was ever going to again. I had my reasons but that is no longer relevant.
Deciding not to select, accept or request new books to review until I either went through my backlog to decide if I wanted to catch up on a few or decide if I still wanted to review them quickly changed! Sigh. It’s a book enthusiast curse me thinks. At least that is my poor attempt of an excuse. Maybe or maybe not. I have an idea. Hear me out please and don’t judge. I know there are a few of you out there that are in the same state of mind (Insert laugh). I got to thinking, perhaps I could accept or requests slowly while working on my backlog. Did I execute that idea? You bet. Shameful-I Know-but in my defense, I requested a few to see what would happen as an experiment thinking there is not a chance on a bookshelf, I would be approved to review them. Well to my utter shock, I was approved for four of them except two! Those still may go through. Maybe. One never knows with NetGalley. It’s a bit of a lottery it seems like at times, except for the publishers that auto-approve you. I’m actually quite surprised I’m still auto-approved by several publishers considering I have been inactive in reviewing for a very long time. Someone is surely smiling down on me and I’m grateful and thankful that I still may have standing in the reviewing books circle or at best a fresh start. Cheering!
Below is a slideshow of the first group of books I’m going to review. This includes books from my backlog. So far, I’ve finish “The Bad Neighbor by Jenifer Ruff” and I’m almost finished reading, “The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham. Off to an excellent start I must say!
Side Bar: I thought it would be fun to start a reader’s log. Something new and a little different.
It has been quite sometime since I browsed NetGalley for new and upcoming titles and it was delightful to search and discover books to add to my sorely neglected wish-list or to consider reviewing. I felt as if I was visiting a long-lost friend and we literally picked up where we left off as if it didn’t seem we were ever separated but for a short time.
I came across five books that sparked an interest and I look forward to further investigating and perhaps read in the future. Hopefully, read sooner rather than later. For now, I must purchase a new Kindle so that I may access my books on NetGalley. I definitely want to work on catching up to date on books that need to be reviewed or books I need to decide if I still want to review them before accepting new ones. Meanwhile, I’ll gleefully explore their galley of books to blog about and perhaps read one day.
Do these below titles interest you as well? There are so many reasons why these stories interest me and can’t wait to talk more about them!
Stephanie Hopkins
The Sinners All Bow
Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne by Kate Winkler Dawson
Description
Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, andtrue–crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson tells the true story of the scandalous murder investigation that became the inspiration for both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and the first true-crime book published in America.
On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Maria Cornell was found dead in a quiet farmyard in a small New England town. When her troubled past and a secret correspondence with charismatic Methodist minister Reverend Ephraim Avery was uncovered, more questions emerged. Was Sarah’s death a suicide…or something much darker? Determined to uncover the real story, Victorian writer Catharine Read Arnold Williams threw herself into the investigation as the trial was unfolding and wrote what many claims to be the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The murder divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter—but the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.
In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—including “forensic knot analysis” and criminal profiling (which was invented fifty-five years later with Jack the Ripper)—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’s research to find the truth and bring justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given.
Save Our Souls
The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder by Matthew Pearl
Description
From the bestselling author of The Taking of Jemima Boone, the unbelievable true story of a real-life Swiss Family Robinson (and their dog) who faced sharks, shipwreck, and betrayal.
On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers—the ship’s captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog—along with the ship’s crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea.
When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore—on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. Hans appeared to have been there for a while and could quickly educate the Walkers and their crew on the island’s resources. But Hans had a secret . . . and as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man’s assistance became something ominous, something darker.
Like David Grann and Stacy Schiff, Matthew Pearl unveils one of the most incredible yet little-known historical true stories, and the only known instance in history of an actual family of castaways. Save Our Souls asks us to consider who we might become if we found ourselves trapped on a deserted island.
A Feast of Folklore
The Bizarre Stories Behind British Food
by Ben Gazur
Description
Folklorist Ben Gazur guides you through the dark alleys of British history to uncover how our food habits have been passed down through generations of folklore.
Who was the first person to throw salt over their shoulder? Why do we think carrots can help us see in the dark? When did we start holding village fairs to honour gigantic apple pies? Or start hurling ourselves down hills in pursuit of a wheel of cheese? Gazur investigates the origins of famous food superstitions as well as much more bizarre and lesser-known tales too, from what day the devil urinates on blackberries to how to stop witches using eggshells as escape boats.
Hilarious and fascinating, A Feast of Folklore will introduce you to the gloriously eccentric folk who aren’t often noticed by historians. Here lies a smorgasbord of their dark remedies and deadly delicacies, waiting to be discovered.
Sisters in Science
How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History by Olivia Campbell
Description
The true story of four women pioneers in physics during World War II and their daring escape out of Nazi Germany
In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hildegard Stücklen were eminent in their fields, but they had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments.
Their harrowing journey out of Germany became a life-and-death situation that required Herculean efforts of friends and other prominent scientists. Lise fled to Sweden, where she made a groundbreaking discovery in nuclear physics, and the others fled to the United States, where they brought advanced physics to American universities. No matter their destination, each woman revolutionized the field of physics when all odds were stacked against them, galvanizing young women to do the same.
Philadelphia (A Narrative History) by Paul Kahan
Pub Date Oct 29 2024
Description
Philadelphia is famous for its colonial and revolutionary buildings and artifacts, which draw tourists from far and wide to gain a better understanding of the nation’s founding. Philadelphians, too, value these same buildings and artifacts for the stories they tell about their city. But Philadelphia existed long before the Liberty Bell was first rung, and its history extends well beyond the American Revolution. In Philadelphia: A Narrative History, Paul Kahan presents a comprehensive portrait of the city, from the region’s original Lenape inhabitants to the myriad of residents in the twenty-first century.
As any history of Philadelphia should, this book chronicles the people and places that make the city unique: from Independence Hall to Eastern State Penitentiary, Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross to Cecil B. Moore and Cherelle Parker. Kahan also shows us how Philadelphia has always been defined by ethnic, religious, and racial diversity—from the seventeenth century, when Dutch, Swedes, and Lenapes lived side by side along the Delaware; to the nineteenth century, when the city was home to a vibrant community of free Black and formerly enslaved people; to the twentieth century, when it attracted immigrants from around the world. This diversity, however, often resulted in conflict, especially over access to public spaces. Those two themes— diversity and conflict— have shaped Philadelphia’s development and remain visible in the city’s culture, society, and even its geography. Understanding Philadelphia’s past, Kahan says, is key to envisioning future possibilities for the City of Brotherly Love.
Paul Kahan is an expert on U.S. political, economic, and diplomatic history. He earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history from Temple University and lives outside of Philadelphia with his family.
This month on my YouTube channel we’ve been exploring weave stitching and creating various applications of the stitch. Despite only scratching the surface of this medium, we’ve covered a lot of ground and the ideas are flowing. Today, I’m sharing the image of a weaved piece I’ve started exploring this weekend. I’ve called it “Mending Heart” and this heart has different meanings. Most importantly the mending by weaving and stitching bringing the heart to completion or rather wholeness, gives a sense of spiritual healing-if you will.
The YouTube link to Part I of Mending Heart is HERE
There are seasons in our lives when our hardships often feel overwhelming and sometimes, we lose sight at what God’s plans has for us. We get caught up in our struggles, doubts, feelings of hopelessness, and then despair can seep in our hearts. We become consumed with tiredness and weakness in our burdens, our hearts can harden and we can lose sight and we become focused on the wrong things that are temporary. We become focused on self and our troubles and that leads us away from Him. Instead be encouraged to turn to God in faith, continual prayer for healing and trust in His time and plan for our lives. God wants and longs for us to turn to Him for everything. In Matthew chapter 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And in 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Prayer: O mighty God, you are our refuge and fortress in whom we trust. We praise you even in the time of trouble. You are loving and faithful. Hear our voice and be merciful to us O Lord, for our hope is in you. For your word says in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” We humbly ask you fill us with your Holy Spirit to protect us, guide us casting out all our doubts and sorrow for we give it all to you. We put our trust in you, O Lord. May we seek you in all of our ways. May your Spirit renew our minds, fill us your healing power and thanksgiving. May your Spirit surround us with deliverance for we stand on your promises. We ask all of these things in Jesus Holy name. Amen!
What has really helped me in my prayers and daily walk with Christ is to spend time with God in prayer and in His word. If there is something in your life that you are struggling with but you’re not sure how pray, the Bible can guide you with your prayers and help you build your relationship with God. Ask God to give you direction in your prayers. Ask Him to show you the way. We must become like children and seek Him with open hearts. He loves us so much.
Oftentimes, I like to write down my prayers and verses that help me in all areas of my life. There are so many passages and stories of overcoming hardships and thanksgiving in the Bible to help us.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalms 119:105
“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13
I am thrilled to be sharing pictures of this bowl I made for a dear friend. Her yarn looks great in the bowl! This is the first fabric bowl of the year I’ve finished and have quite a few more coming up. I share free tutorials on my YouTube channel on how to make fabric snippet bowls. They are a blast to make and you can get really creative with how to make the bowls. I hope you check it out!
Last year, I made quite a few scrappy ones with raw edges. This particular bowl does have raw edges but they are sewn a bit closer together. I have also explored with using yarn by couching the yarn to the bowl and creating a design. My journey is hand stitching so except that method in the tutorials. I do give tips on what part of the bowls you can machine sew.
Sometime this week, I will be sharing an intro video to the next bowl. Each tutorial includes tips and ideas in how to make them. This year, I’m exploring new designs with the bowls. A must watch because they will be unique and I will be expanding on a few methods I’ve already taught.
Stephanie
The name of my YouTube Channel is, “Stephanie’s Art Studio” or you can click on the link provided above to go straight to the channel. I hope you grab your fabric scraps, needle, threads, yarn-optional-and join me on this journey! You’ll love it!
On January 19th I posted about a few selected non-fiction books I have added to my wish-list. There are too many to count and not enough time in the hours of a day that direct our attention elsewhere! A bibliophile’s struggle one might often say. This topic is an enjoyable pastime to discuss among fellow book lovers and I’m delighted to be sharing this book blog entry with you.
This past weekend I began reading Martin Luther by Eric Metaxas and I’m enjoying his telling of Luther a great deal. I wanted to read a highly regarded biography on Luther and was delighted to find a copy at Half Price Books. I was fortunate to obtain a hardback that is in excellent condition. Below you will find the description of the Luther book and a few other titles that may pique your interest.
Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas
Description
On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the bestselling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched, Martin Luther tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears. Luther’s monumental faith and courage gave birth to the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism that today lie at the heart of all modern life.
Ben & Me
In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner
Pub Date 11 Jun 2024
Description
New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiring and practical lessons in a book that’s part biography, part travelogue, part personal prescription.
Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist, and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.
Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.
At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.
Drawn Testimony
My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist
by Jane Rosenberg
Pub Date 13 Aug 2024
Description
A penetrating, compulsively readable memoir about the four-decade career of America’s top courtroom sketch artist, for fans of Lab Girl and Working Stiff
Jane Rosenberg is America’s pre-eminent courtroom sketch artist. For over forty years, she’s been at the heart of the story, covering almost every major trial that has passed through the New York justice system. From mob bosses to fallen titans of finance, terrorists and sex abusers, corrupt cops and warring entertainment icons, she has drawn them all.
In Drawn Testimony, Rosenberg brings us into the high-stakes, dramatic world of her craft, where art, psychology and courtroom drama collide. Over the course of her legendary career, Jane has had a front row seat to some of the most iconic and notorious moments in our nation’s recent history, sketching everything from Tom Brady’s deflate-gate case, to John Lennon’s murder trial to cases against Ghislaine Maxwell, John Gotti, Harvey Weinstein and most recently, the indictment against former President Donald Trump. Readers will learn how she has honed her unique powers of perception, but also what her portraits reveal, not only about her subjects, but about the human condition in general.
Fearless, fascinating and gorgeously written, Drawn Testimony captures the unique career of an artist whose body of work depicts history as it’s happening.
My Roman History
A Memoir
by Alizah Holstein
Pub Date25 Jun 2024
Description
In this exquisite and profound memoir, a medieval historian traces her lifelong obsession with Rome and the encounters with the city’s past and present that became fulcrum points in her life
From the time she first felt called to its gates as a high school student fascinated by Dante and Italian thanks to a life-changing teacher, Rome has been a fixed star around which Alizah Holstein’s life has rotated—despite the fact that she bears no Italian heritage, and has never lived there long enough to call it home.
In this kaleidoscopic yet intimate memoir, her shifting relationship to a vibrant city layered with human history becomes a lens on why we look to the past, on the mysteries of affinity and desire, and on what it means to grow up. Holstein weaves the stories of Romans past and present, and encounters with the city of historical figures from Petrarch to Freud, into the narrative of her evolution from a curious student abuzz with the thrill of discovery, to a lonely researcher in a city to which she feels she belongs despite knowing no one, to an ambitious young historian struggling to find her place in the halls of academia. Following a trail of memories—that first taste of a tartufo cioccolato in Piazza Navona, the ancient walls of the Via Appia blurring from the back of a motorcycle, the smudge of ink on a manuscript left by a scribe’s hand over seven hundred years before—she explores what it means to be romana, Roman—and to find solace and self-knowledge in the presence of the past.
An enveloping, original, and deeply resonant account, set against one of the world’s most beguiling cities, of the unexpected things that give our lives meaning, My Roman History is a profound depiction of the winding path to self-realization, which—much like history itself—is mysterious, captivating, and ever-unfolding.
Subconsciously, I pressed myself into the loch’s banks as that summer inched forward. We’d got off to a rocky beginning, but I started to see Treig in a different way. There was something about this land that told me just to hold on a while longer. It might’ve been just a whisper at the time, but I knew it was definitely worth heeding. I just knew that was it. This was the place.
Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as “the lonely loch,” where he lives off the land. He fishes for his supper, chops his own wood and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.
From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, Ken always sensed that there was more ot life than an empty nine to five. Then one day in 1974, an attack from a group of drunken men left him for dead. Determined to change his prospects, Ken quit his job and spent his formative years traveling in the Yukon. It was here, in the vast wilderness of northwestern Canada, that he honed his survival skills and grew closer to nature. Returning to Britain, he continued his nomadic lifestyle, wandering north and living in huts until he finally reached Loch Treig. Ken decided to lay his roots amongst the dense woodland and Highland air, and has lived there ever since.
In The Way of the Hermit, Ken shares the remarkable story of his life for the very first time. Told with humor and compassion, his unique insights allow us to glimpse the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature and offer wisdom on how each of us can escape the pressures and stresses of modern life.
My thoughts:
I came across The Way of the Hermit as I started my search for books that will be published this year.I find the premise to be intriguing. Adding this title to my ever growing wish-list! Do you collect titles? Even knowing you may never get a chance to read them all? There is something unique and delightful in the search and discovery. I do hope I get the chance to read this story. Maybe one day. Sometimes those opportunities show up when least expected. Like last October when I went to a library sale with my mother and found books I hadn’t read but I knew of them or had previously added them to my wish-list. Funny thing is, they were not on the list of titles I brought with me to the sale. What a lovely thought to know they were edged in my memory.
I am back on YouTube! Starting tomorrow, I will be sharing the first tutorial on Tag Tuesday. Today, I share and intro video about what to expect with mixed media art projects in mind. I have also founded The Ugly Stitch Club on Instagram, Facebook and now on Youtube. To find out more about the club you can visit the club’s Instagram and Facebook.
My YouTube channel is a place where I share with you all the love of crafting and creating art. My wish is for you to be inspired and encouraged. Social Media Links: The Ugly Stitch Club Instagram: Link My Personal Instagram: Link The Ugly Stitch Club Facebook: Facebook Group Link The Club’s Facebook settings is on private. You may request to join by using the link provided or searching for the group by typing The Ugly Stitch Club in the search field.
Layered Pages 