The Enchanting World of Garden Irene McGeeny is a cute children's book about a girl named Garden Irene, who tells her classmates one day in social studies that she lives in an underground castle. I remember being amazed at castles when I first read about them, so I can just imagine that a statement like that would bring about such excitement in a classroom!

Naturally everyone doesn't believe poor Garden Irene - the author states that she came up with an unusual name so that people will remember her story. She goes home and tells her parents what she did, and her parents - especially her father - are very disappointed with her. And the rest of the story goes on from there.

I think this is a great, cute story for tweens. My only real negative is the drawings were all in black and white and it would have been nice to have seen at least a few color drawings.

CUTE! cute, cute cute teddy bears, how can one resist?

These are fully jointed, "real" teddy bears, like grown up teddy bears you'd pay $100 for in the store, complete with clothing. Though I think these teddy bears are more intended for adult collectors then children, with some minor adapting they'd be great for any kid in your life who wants a new friend.

There's a LOT of assembly, a lot of little fiddly pieces to make and sew together. Everything is well explained, however. The other great thing about making bears and bear clothes is that you don't need a lot of yarn or a lot of fancy yarn, to make these critters.

There's the usual how to section in the beginning of the book, geared towards making a good, well finished teddy bear, including sewing and embroidery.

The patterns for the bears are spelled out, so you not only know you are knitted the head, but which part of the head you are knitting - hints like this really do make patterns more accessible for beginner knitters. It's not the knitting that is hard, so much as the pattern reading that can be hard.

I normally like BH & G books, but this one fell a little short.

The photography is beautiful, the book is well arranged, but there's just nothing new for me here. The recipes are all things I already make (or similar enough, anyway), and the sections on the garden (the real reason why I wanted this book in the first place) was way too beginner for me (I've only had a vegetable garden for two years, so I'm still way a beginner).
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I do not remember where I got this book - I think from the library

Gardening is more and more taking over my life, and now that spring is here (maybe? sort of? Is that the sun?) I'm back to reading about gardening, taking notes, and making plans.

I normally like the Dummies series of books, I like how they are laid out, I like the helpful hints and notes, etc, the no frills approach, etc.

This one is just too much of a beginner book for me. I've only had a vegetable garden for two years, and that's basically all the gardening I've done in my life (other than mulching) so I do consider myself a beginner. But I didn't take away one new fact from the whole book.


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I don't remember where I picked up this book, but I think I got it from the library

Anyone who regularly reads my reviews knows I'm obsessed with quilting, even though I'm not, you know, an actual quilter or even much of a sewer. Still, I have to get my hands on every single quilting book out there.

I enjoyed this one. It includes a section on how to quilt, and the actual instructions for a variety of projects. Like I said, I'm not a quilter, but the instructions to me looked easy enough that even I could follow them & really makes me want to try a quilt. I love the fact that all of the quilts use wool, a fiber I love and a fiber often not used in a world of cotton and cotton blend fabrics. Just thinking about how cozy a quilt would be made with wool makes me want to dig out my sewing machine.

There's also a great little section on the history of Pendleton wool, which I found really interesting.

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received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

Bad, just bad, no matter how you look at it.

Purdy's lack of research, lack of likable characters, and penning everyone as extremely one sided (Jane's jealous; Anne's hot; George is perfect; Henry VIII is fat; Anne of Cleves smells) just makes for a tale not worth reviewing or thinking about, ever again.

Anyone who regularly reads my reviews knows I'm obsessed with quilting, even though I'm not, you know, an actual quilter or even much of a sewer. Still, I have to get my hands on every single quilting book out there.

I enjoyed this one. It includes a section on how to quilt, and the actual instructions for a variety of projects. Like I said, I'm not a quilter, but the instructions to me looked easy enough that even I could follow them & really makes me want to try a quilt. I love the fact that all of the quilts use wool, a fiber I love and a fiber often not used in a world of cotton and cotton blend fabrics. Just thinking about how cozy a quilt would be made with wool makes me want to dig out my sewing machine.

There's also a great little section on the history of Pendleton wool, which I found really interesting.