Thank you for stopping by my blog. Lately I have been reviewing books and haven't had as much time to scrap. Hopefully soon I'll get back to scrapping and creating some new files. Thank you for your patience.

I have made files available at absolutely no charge. I do this for fun. I am learning the wonderful Make The Cut (MTC) program and trying to improve my skills. Most of the files have been created from free coloring sheets online. You will need MTC software in order to cut these files. Please use these files for your personal use only and if you want to share them with others please direct others to my blog. I hope you enjoy these files. Comments are always appreciated. If you are not a follower please consider doing so. I have lots of new files that I want to add over the next few months.



PLEASE DO NOT USE MY FILES AS YOUR OWN AND DO NOT POST THEM ELSEWHERE. IF YOU WANT TO SHARE MY WORK WITH OTHERS PLEASE DIRECT THEM TO MY BLOG. THANK YOU

Monday, March 23, 2015

John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography

John Shaw’s Guide to Digital Nature Photography has some beautiful photography throughout. This book is full of useful information for anyone who is new to photography. I’m not sure it has much in the way of new information for people who have a lot of experience in photography.
The book is broken into 6 sections or chapters beginning with gear. The rest of the chapters are: Getting Started, Lenses, Composition, Close-ups, and The Photographer at work. Mr. Shaw goes into detail about the type of equipment that is out there. He uses Nikon and uses a lot of Nikon examples but you by no means need to be a Nikon user to enjoy this book.
The one thing that may or may not be a negative about the book is to me it is very “textbook” like. There are a lot of definitions and explanations but not a lot in the way of how to implement those things he tells you about. Yes he explains the different lenses, filters, etc. but really doesn’t go into what situations would these thing be beneficial. It is more explanation and less application. I’m thinking his intentions is to give you all of the information to understand the mechanics of photography and your job to figure it out.
I would recommend this book to people who have some knowledge of photography and those who are beginning to delve into dslr cameras and photography. It does have a lot of useful information and is beautifully laid out.
I received this book at no charge from www.bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for an honest review.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden by Karen Newcome is a revised guide to gardening.  A guide for gardening in small and limited spaces. “To accommodate today’s lifestyles, a garden needs to fit into an extremely tiny plot, take as little time as possible to maintain, require a minimum amount of water, and still produce prolifically.”
I am so glad I got this book. We have a very small yard. We have had a very small 4x4 spot for a few veggies and herbs that was semi productive. I just felt like we couldn’t yield enough to make it worth our time. This book has renewed my hope. It is full of wonderful information from planning to harvesting in small spaces as well as container gardening.
It begins with planning and gives diagrams of some small garden plots.  There is information on preparing your seeds, soil and gardening spot. There is a lot of detail written in very easy to understand methods. One sections explains when and where to plant and there is even a section that explains watering properly.
The advice given on what crops to grow range from planting tips, crop stretching, recommended varieties, typical problems, harvesting, and storage. I am not a very experienced gardener at all and this book makes me feel like I can actually do this. Spring is right around the corner and planting season will start in just a couple of months. I can’t wait to try out some of the ideas in this book.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is the least bit interested in gardening but may feel like you don’t have the space or the time to invest. I feel like this book takes a lot of the guess work out of it and should help to have success come harvesting season.
I was given this book by www.bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for an honest review.