Light of the Last -- book review

Lightof the Last is the third and final book in the War of the Realm series. I have read the two previous books in the series; Cloakof the Light and Rise of the Fallen. Both of the previous books were good reads; this book follows right along with them. Although, I must say, if you were to read this book without reading the previous two, you would miss out on a lot of what is happening and some parts may be a bit confusing.

This book is truly the coming together of the first book, which focused on the main character Drew Carter, and the second book, which focused on the main character Validus. Light of the Last goes back and forth between the two and brings everything together. The three part story is wrapped up in the end, but (spoiler alert) there is just a bit of an open ending.

Once again Chuck Black does a good job of crafting a fictional story around the topic of spiritual warfare. Speaking of warfare, this book is action packed. With that said there were parts that seemed like a bit of a stretch. Now of course this is a fiction book, and Black does himself say that he takes some liberties in the area of spiritual warfare. I believe I pointed it this out in my reviews of the other two books in the series, but I’ll say it again. I appreciate that Black includes Reader’s Guide at the end of the book that states Scripture references that he uses to back up his writing. So, for anyone worried about the Biblical context of the book, there is the foundation of that.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Baby Room - Crib

So, scraping wallpaper and painting a baby room while taking care of a baby is just not happening. Ugh! Maybe it will get done by the time Kizzy is one, or at least I hope. Poor child may just have to live in a room with partially scraped wallpaper.

It is time to transition Kizzy from her bassinet to a crib though. Actually past time since the weight guidlines for a bassinet is up to 15 lbs. and Kizzy is now 17lbs. Oops! Since we bought an older used crib at a yard sale, I wanted to at least paint it before she started using it. We got it for only $15 and it was a bit worn, but it is functional.We did buy a brand new mattress for it. :) As you can see in the picture, I taped off all the areas that were plastic, the side pieces where you hook it all together and the plastic on the top of the sides.

I debated for a while on how to paint the crib. Doing a quick search of how to paint a crib basically went with both spray paint and regular paint. So, I guess it would just be a preference. I chose to spray paint cause I figured it would be easier with all the bars and such. After all is said and done, I think the best way to paint a crib would be to use a spray gun and regular paint. This would give you the best coverage.

Then I debated (with just myself of course) what color to paint the crib. After browsing Pinterest, I found this picture of a red crib and loved it.  (Found here.) But then I wondered if that would be too bold. So, I almost convinced myself to go with a white or cream paint. Then I saw this one and was sold on the red.  Red will be perfect for the sock monkey theme that I plan to go with.

Painting the crib took longer and more paint than I expected. It took a whole 5 cans of spray paint to get it all covered. Trust me, it isn't a perfect paint job either, but it will work. So, here is the end result. (Ignore the less than great picture.) For now the crib is in our room, as we haven't transitioned Kizzy to her own room yet. Thanks to my brother, Dale, for helping my assemble the crib. It was more difficult than I anticipated.

One last note. Since this is an older crib, it has a drop down side. That is a big no-no these days since it is a safety issue. Sometimes you can get parts from the manufacture to fix it. If not, there is an easy way to fix the crib so that it is safe to use. All you need are two corner brackets and some screws (about $5 at most hardware stores.) Just put the bracket at the bottom of the side rail, with the railing in the highest position, and screw it to the bottom of the rail and the side leg of the crib. Do this on both sides and the rail won't move at all.Problem fixed and crib safe! The only down side to this is that you can't take off that one side of the crib without taking off the brackets.

Again, here is the crib before and after.

Time to Get Back to Work

Yesterday was Mother's Day. My first Mother's Day. It was also the anniversary of when we moved into our home. Three years, we have been in this house for three years. In that time I have only gotten two rooms fully redone. At this rate the house will be the way I want it about the same time we pay it off. It isn't that I don't have plans. I have plans for each and every room and outside. I even have plans for it we are ever able to add on to the house like we hope to do someday. Plans ain't the problem. Time, motivation, and money seem to be what stands in my way.

Since finding out last summer that we had our first baby on the way, I knew that the nursery would have to be the next room to get done. On December 31st I posted Step #1 of getting the room done. (You can find that post here.) I got started on the room.......then we had a surprise five week early arrival. The early arrival was followed by a twelve day stay in the NICU. Then the reality of not being able to get anything done with a newborn set in. Now that our baby girl is almost four months old it is getting slightly easier to get some things done. She isn't in her room yet though, which is good. You'll know why it is a good thing when you see the pictures of the current condition of the room. She will be moving out of our room and into her room when she is six months old, so it is time to get back to work!

The cats think the spare bed is their bed. (Notice all the sock monkeys, that will be the theme and color scheme.)

We cleared out clutter......and need to clear out clutter again. 

Partially scraped wallpaper. It is a long and not very fun job. 

Lovely Adult Coloring -- book review

In case you haven’t noticed, a newish trend is adult coloring books or coloring pages. (Side note: they couldn’t come up with a better name than “adult coloring?”) Now, I was aware of this trend for a while before I actually tried some of the adult coloring. This past Christmas my husband got me two of these coloring books. That is the first time that I had tried them. Now I liked the idea of them, but I wasn’t sure if I would actually find them enjoyable. Turns out, I did. I think they are quite relaxing and more enjoyable than using a child’s coloring book because they are more complex.

Whateveris Lovely is an adult coloring book that has some aspects that make it stand out from some of the others. It was created for the purpose of devotion, worship, or meditation on God or God’s Word. Each picture is based on a verse, quote, poem, or hymn. The back of each picture has the full piece that the picture was based on and a little blurb about the author. Water Brook Press has also created a Spotify playlist to accompany the book. That is more than your average adult coloring book does. Another thing that sets this book apart is that the coloring pages are created by a variety of artists. Because of this there is a variety of styles of work throughout the book. One down side that I think this book has is that the pages are not perforated, so you can’t tear them out and use them for art.

So, who would Whatever is Lovely appeal to? In my opinion people who have an artistic side would enjoy it. Someone who is looking for something different to use a devotional could find it useful. I think that it would appeal to both the young and the old. This would make a fun gift for a wide variety of people, or just something to purchase for yourself.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Here two of the pages that I have colored so far. (Sorry about the not so great photo quality. I just snapped the pictures real quick right before posting this.)

Apartment Therapy -- book review

The newest book from the creators of the very popular website www.apartmenttherapy.com, is Apartment Therapy Complete + Happy Home. If you are a frequent browser of Pinterest, then you have most likely either heard of Apartment Therapy or at least seen a pin from the website. This book takes a lot of decorative and home advice from their website and compiles it into a well organized book. The book itself is somewhere between a coffee table book and a reference guide. It is comprised of three main sections: general setting up of a home advice and how to, a closer look at each room of a home, and some cleaning, maintenance, and organizing how to points. The entire book is stuffed full of a ton of pictures from real homes with a wide variety of styles.

 When I first received this book I initially thought that I would enjoy it simply for being able to browse through all the pictures and get some ideas that could be used in my own home. It did not disappoint at all on that point. Now, of course not every style of home in the book will appeal to everyone, but there is such variety that I don’t know how you could not find something that you like. What I did not expect it how much I would enjoy reading every page of style tips, advice, and general information. That part of the book stood its ground for being just as interesting as every page of pictures.

This book would be great for someone who in general is into home decorating, just moved into their own home or apartment, or just dreams of the day that they have their own place to do with whatever they want. I spend time probably everyday thinking about rooms in my own home that have stuff that need to be done; so much from this book can be implemented into those ideas.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.