Monday, January 12, 2026

T Stands for Time for a New Year

 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17


It is already the 12th of January 2026, and this is my first post of the year!

A belated Happy New Year to all my readers! 

I have been doing more reading since the new year rather than crafting.  I finished three books and am on my 4th.  Just seems like I am in a reading mood! The first book I read was by a friend of mine.  My Story: The Life of Donald Bland, by Donald Bland.  She put it together from his telling her his story.  What makes it so interesting to me is that it takes place in Kansas and relates his story as part of the Orphan Train movement from 1854-1929, part of our history.  I read this in two sittings as I couldn't put it down. The next book I read was Designed with Love (The Hope of Cheyenne #2) by Tracie Peterson.  I am now reading the next book in that series.

But the book I absolutely could not put down was The Lost Carousel of Province, by Juliet Blackwell.  This was about a photographer who travels from California to France to photograph carousels current day but gets caught up in the history and restoring of one. But the funny part is I checked this book out by mistake. (I check books out from the library on my Libby app) I was thinking I was getting a book by another author by the last name, Blackstock.  I am so glad I made the error, because there are several more books all taking place in Paris, apparently, by the sound of the titles.  So, mistakenly, I found a new author!

I will share one card that I did make for our grandson's birthday.  I used an image from Lili of the Valley, a company in the UK.  I have collected a lot of their stamps but forget to use them.  I think they are so cute.

The sentiment stamps are from CC Designs.  I used an older SU! embossing folder, and a My Favorite Things Wonky Rectangle die.  I colored the image with Copics.



And lastly here is my ticket (from the archives) to the TSFT party over at Altered Book Lover, hosted by Bleubeard & Elizabeth.  Elizabeth has been showing her photos of mugs at Spice Merchant.  Here is the one I bought there last year for my self as a Valentine gift.  It is still my favorite.  I might go there again this year and get another pretty one. 



Thank you for stopping by!  Happy T Day to the T Gang.  See you next time.

6 comments:

Iris Flavia said...

Thank you, Sharon, I ordered "Orphan Train movement" on my kindle. I wonder why at school we never learned about such movements.
Beautiful mug, have a great T-Day.

Maria Medeiros said...

Lovely post Sharon! Happy New year and I wish you all the best this year. Love your cuppa. It's so beautiful! have a lovely rest of the week!

Mae Travels said...

The bird mug is nice. I have so many mugs that two of my unreachable top shelves are completely full of them, and I don’t have the energy to climb up and do a rotation.

CJ Kennedy said...

The card for your grandson is adorable. Your hummingbird mug is very pretty and a lovely gift you gave to yourself. Happy T Day

Lisca said...

I like reading about the books people have been reading. I tried to get The Life of Donald Bland but it was too expensive. (and not available on Kindle, so high postage cost too).
Lovely birthday card and also a beautiful hummingbird mug.
Happy T-Day,
Lisca

Lana said...

Cute birthday card! I'm sure your Grandson loved it! The Lost Carousel of Province sounds like my kind of book. I love historical fiction books. I reserved it on Libby.