Daily Archives: October 10, 2017

Heartwarming small town story with lots of laughs and a few tears

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Iiiireader

Hope at Christmas: A Novel

By: Nancy Naigle

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely story about Sydney Ragsdale and her young ten-year old daughter starting over again in a small town. Sydney is running away to lick her wounds after finding out that her husband has been cheating on her for years. She and her daughter RayAnne head to Hopewell, North Carolina to live in the house that her grandparents left her.

She has a few marketable skills but, like many women, was out of the workplace for years raising her daughter. She has the promise of a job and a roof over her head but has to deal with attitude from RayAnne who didn’t want to leave Atlanta or her dad. RayAnne doesn’t quite get that it was her father who walked out on the family.

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25 Beautifully hand-drawn designs featuring fairies and foxes printed one side of the page

Posted on October 10, 2017 by iiiireaderadmin

Foxes & Fairies coloring book by Meredith Dillman: 25 kimono, kitsune and fairy designs

By: Meredith Dillman

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a beautiful coloring book of 25 designs by Meredith Dillman. According to her introduction in the book, the designs are inspired by various Asian fox spirit myths, traditional costumes and nature. I have recently read a novel which featured information about kitsune (Japanese fox spirit) and was thrilled to find a coloring book which meshed so well with it. The artwork is based on Ms. Dillman’s finished designs and each has a name which is printed on the back of the page.

In this coloring book, there are designs of both foxes and fairies (and sometimes, just young women) in traditional kimono style fashions. The designs are detailed and have a beautiful hand-drawn and sketch-like look to them. There are some areas which have intricate and small areas to color.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
25 Lovely Asian inspired designs featuring kimono-clad foxes and fairies and young women
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality by CreateSpace printing: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not merge into the binding. The designs have framing lines at the outer edges though some finished elements overlap the framing line to give a three dimensional look to the design.
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.
I like to use a blotter when working in the book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.