Throwback Thursday - Apple Core Necklaces

Apple core necklaces -- for some reason these were all the rage in the late 1970's.  Everyone wore them.   Fruit themed jewelry was popular with preteen and teen girls;  I'm not sure why.  It would be interesting to find a few Seventeen magazines from this vintage and look through them for trends like this.  Do you remember these necklaces?  This is one retro trend that I don't want to repeat. 

Daily Vintage - Easter Postcard with Chickens

This lovely, frameable vintage Easter postcard depicts chickens eating feed.  I always love the illustrations on these early 1900's cards.  You will find several vintage chicken postcards for Easter at Birdhouse Books.

Book Review - Rachel's Day in the Garden by Giselle Shardlow

About the Book

Title: Rachel's Day in the Garden (A Kids Yoga Spring Colors Book) | Author: Giselle Shardlow | Illustrator: Hazel Quintanilla | Publication Date: December 23, 2014 | Publisher: Kids Yoga Stories | Number of pages: 34 | Recommended age: 3 to 6 years Summary: Experience the benefits of yoga while learning about the signs of spring! 

Join Rachel as she and her adorable puppy look for signs of spring in the garden. Crawl like a caterpillar, buzz like a bee, and flutter like a butterfly. Disc over spring, explore movement, and learn the colors of the rainbow. The storybook includes a list of kids yoga poses an d a parent-teacher guide. Kids Yoga Stories introduce you to engaging characters who will get your child laughing, moving, and creating. Reading is good for the mind AND body! The story links several yoga poses in a specific sequence to create a coherent and meaningful story. This spring yoga story for ages 3 to 6 is more than a storybook, but it’s also a unique experience for children. 

Rachel's Day in the Garden is the first book in a seasonal yoga book series. The summer yoga book is also now avail able: Ella's Summer Fun. The fall and winter ones are in production, coming soon!

Amazon * Book Website * Goodreads

My Review:

Rachel's Day in the Garden is a charming picture book about yoga for young children.  It begins with suggestions for parents or teachers on how to use the book: learn each yoga pose, act the book out for the child, and see the parent-teacher guide in the back of the book.

The illustrations in this book are bright and colorful.  They are sure to appeal to children, especially with the inclusion of a cute puppy dog named Sammy.  Colors are also incorporated in a very clever way.

Children will find this book a fun read, and they will also learn about colors and yoga poses!  Rachel's Day in the Garden would be a wonderful addition to a home or school library.

Sneak Peek

About the Author: Giselle Shardlow

Giselle Shardlow is the author of Kids Yoga Stories. Her yoga stories for kids get children learning, moving, and having fun. Giselle draws from her experiences as a teacher, traveler, yogi, and mom to write the stories. She c an be found at the Kids Yoga Stories website or on her Amazon author page.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Goodreads

I received a copy of this book from Mother Daughter Book Reviews in exchange for an honest review. 

Daily Vintage - Shabby Chic Print of Woman and Spinning Wheel

I found this little framed print last year at a vintage sale.  I picked it up, brought it home ... and never found exactly the right place for it.  It's so cute, shabby chic in style, and I think it would look great in the right setting.  The print shows a woman in silhouette at an old fashioned spinning wheel.  You can find it at Birdhouse Books: spinning wheel print.

Author Interview and Giveaway - Too Quiet In Brooklyn by Susan Russo Anderson

Too Quiet In Brooklyn (A Fina Fitzgibbons Brooklyn Mystery Book 1)  
MYSTERY Self Published Print Length: 304 pages  
E-Book ASIN: B00HFEY5PU

A Murder, A Child Missing, & A Young Woman Determined To Find The Truth …

Something weird’s happening. It’s too quiet, at least for Brooklyn, so twenty-two-year-old Fina Fitzgibbons is not surprised when she stumbles upon a throttled woman in the heart of Brooklyn Heights and discovers that the dead woman’s four-year-old grandson is also missing. She begins a wild hunt for the strangler-kidnapper, Ralph. During the chase, she resists falling in love with her boyfriend, Denny, an NYPD patrol officer, steps on the toes of Detective First Grade Jane Templeton, and uncovers secrets about her own past. In the end, Ralph has a deadly surprise for Fina.

View From The Birdhouse Interviews Susan Russo Anderson:

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? I’ve always thought word stringing was a great place to be, but after my husband died nine years ago, I got bitten by storyline and started to write mysteries. 

What was your favorite book as a child? Great question. Favorite book of all time: Fell in love with Paris through the hobo in A Family Under the Bridge. But there were lots of writers and books I loved: whoever wrote the Nancy Drew books, as well as Georges Simenon, Ross MacDonald, Agatha Christie, James Joyce (not that I understood him when I was ten, but I loved the sound of language), T.S. Eliot, lots of early twentieth-century American writers, even Hemingway. Love love love A Moveable Feast.

What is your writing day like?  I get up in the morning and write which I do until noon. I work on two books at one time, writing a first draft in the morning, editing in the afternoon. After editing, I market (work on a marketing plan). When I take a break, I walk, which is how I plot or listen to a book or music. I read in the late afternoon until dinner. While watching TV, I tweet and Facebook.

Do you have any interesting writing quirks? No, I’m pretty boring. Just consistent.

What was the most surprising thing you learned while creating this book? The book takes place in Brooklyn where I lived for fifteen years in the late 1980s until 2002. When I started the book, I hadn’t been back, but as I wrote, it was like I’d never left. I could feel the rumble of the subway around Clark Street, smell the ocean (aka, fish), feel the wind, the planks beneath my feet while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Toward the end, I made a visit, a physical visit, and it was the same: Brooklyn was me and I was Brooklyn. So I learned you can be anyplace you want to be in your head: i.e., free.

Who are your favorite authors? Love P.D. James, Flannery O’Connor, Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Agatha Christie, Virginia Wolfe, Reginald Hill, Val McDermid, Anne Tyler, Anne Perry, Ann Cleeves, Ann Beattie (if you want your daughter to be a writer, name her Ann), I know I’m leaving someone out.

What is your next writing project? I just finished the first draft of the fourth Fina Fitzgibbons Brooklyn mystery and I’m starting a new mystery, also set in Brooklyn but it might be a new series, I don’t know the protagonist yet. She might be Maddie, a ten-year-old I created (or who created me) in Whiskey’s Gone.

About This Author

Susan Russo Anderson is a writer, a mother, a member of Sisters in Crime, a graduate of Marquette University. She’s taught language arts and creative writing, worked for a publisher, an airline, an opera company. Like Faulkner’s Dilsey, she’s seen the best and the worst, the first and the last. Through it all, and to understand it somewhat, she writes. Too Quiet in Brooklyn, the first book in the Fina Fitzgibbons Brooklyn mystery series, published December 2013. The second book in the series, Missing Brandy, about a missing teen, published September 2014, and Whiskey’s Gone, about the abduction of a single mom, completes a trilogy. The working title of the fourth is Dead in Brooklyn.

Author Links:
Website: http://susanrussoanderson.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Russo-Anderson/349374975075796
Twitter @SusanRussoAnder
Purchase Link Amazon

Giveaway:

One lucky winner will win an eBook copy of Too Quiet in Brooklyn.

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