Dorothy Must Die - Book Review

Dorothy Must Die By Danielle Paige

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige | A Love Worth Living For Book Review

Published April 1st 2014 by HarperCollins

Goodreads

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy.

They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.

I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I've been trained to fight.

And I have a mission.

My Rating

5/5!

My Review

Dorothy is crazy?! Who saw that coming?

I loved this book! If you haven’t read it yet…what are you waiting for?! I was skeptical at first too because I love the Wizard of Oz and I didn’t want someone messing up a good thing. But this title though? I had to read it and I am glad I did.

The book follows Amy Gumm, a high school outcast with a drug addicted mother from a trailer pack in a dusty city in Kansas. One day there is a tornado warning and the next thing you know Amy wakes up in Oz with her mother’s pet rat named star. We get to see and experience Oz with its munchkin, monkeys and witches all over again. Only NOTHING is the same.

The pace of this book was great! I never found myself bored or felt it was dragging. There is a lot of world building but it’s freaking Oz so I just loved every page of that. Amy Gumm is a great main character. You can really get behind her and root for her. Plus, she is freaking hilarious.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loved Oz before and anyone who didn’t but likes magic filled humorous fairy tale like stories.

Dorothy Must Die is the first book in what I think will be a trilogy. This next book of the series, The Wicked Will Rise, is expected to be published March 31

st

, 2015.

This Review is also published on my GoodReads where I also comment as I read. You should follow me there! ->

my goodreads!!

Have you read Dorothy Must Die? What did you think of it?! Let’s discuss in the comments below! Also leave any book suggestions you may have!

A Love Worth Living For

Never The Less I Live - Valentine's Day

The Life I Now Live: Valentine's Day - Why everyone should get behnid this holiday and celebrate it!

Yesterday, as we all know was Valentine’s Day. I find people have very strong emotions and opinions in regards to how they feel about the holiday. I for one love Valentine’s Day. I have loved it for the last few years many of which I was single. Don’t get me wrong I would have rather had my husband to spoil me like he did yesterday, but we were very on and off and usually we were conveniently off on this particular holiday.

Anyways, Valentine’s Day! I love love. I heard the whole “It’s a commercial holiday invented by greeting card companies and chocolate salesmen!” and I have heard the “You don’t need a special day to love someone. You should express your love every day.” I agree that the day has been commercialized, but what holiday hasn’t. I also agree that we should let those we love know every day but I think a special day a year where we can step back and reevaluate how we’re loving is great! IT’s like thanksgiving. Yes we should be thankful year around but that day comes around to remind us to check our focus in this busy and distracting world.

My day was awesome! My husband spoiled me. My love tank is very full. I hope you had a great weekend. But if you didn’t, I hope you will shift you focus to the ultimate Love.

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

So matter your stance on the day, if you know that you are loved by a God who literally is love that's something worth celebrating!

Hope you all have a great week. Lots of great post coming up this week so check back!!

I have been

crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and

the

life

which I now live

in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

A Love Worth Living For

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

How to make a lovely framed calender that looks like a work of art from thrifted frames. 

I have had this huge old ugly framed floral print in my craft room for years. I never could throw it out because it seemed like such a waste of an awesome frame! In November I got married and moved into a new house. That means a new craft space. I wanted a huge dry erase calender for the wall to keep my projects right in front of me. 

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

I love how it turned out. Now here's how I did it.

This is what you'll need:

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

and of course the frame.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Frames are super expensive I have noticed. However the thrift stores are over flowing with people's old prints from the 90's. You could get huge frames for under 5 bucks usually. I got this one, which is 29 1/2 x 23 1/2, from the local homeless shelter by trading them one of my painted canvases and taking this one off their hands. 

I don't think it's the print that I hate but the mat. Just not my style. The frame, however, is gorgeous!

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

So first things first. We gotta take this thing apart. The back usually has some king of paper covering it. once you rip that up, the print is usually just cardboard. Gharrah came to investigate. (:

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

The print and the glass are generally held in by staples. I just bend those staples all up using a butter knife and see if the guts will come out that way. If you can get it out without removing the staples this will make reassembling it sooooo much easier. 

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

After I had the glass and card board print out of the frame I put the glass somewhere safe, grabbed the frame and headed outside to spray paint it. I love the frame but the yellow gold just wasn't my style. Insetad I toned it down with some champagne spray paint. I let that dry and then sealed it with a clear coat. 

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

I left that to dry and went back inside to start working on the guts of the calender. First I took the print and flipped it over on my desk and covered the back of it with double sided tape.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Then I tool my roll of paper and just rolled it across the taped back of the print. I used a craft colored paper used for mailing things. Depending on the look you are going for, you could use any wrapping paper or bulletin board paper for a background.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Now just flip it over and trim around the edges and you have your foundation.!

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Next comes the slightly more difficult part. Math. 

You are going to want to measure your frame and then figure out how big you want your calender day squares. I wanted an inch and a half margin around so I subtracted 3 inched from the height and width. Then I wanted to have margins that were a fourth of an inch in between the days so I subtracted another 3 inches from the both the height and the width. I took the width and divided that by 7 (days of the week) and that's how wide my squares are. Height wasn't such a big deal because I wanted space left.

I decided I wanted a colored border around mine so my blue squares are 2 3/4 inches and my white squares are 2 1/2 inches. I also made my day squares a half of an inch longer just because I liked the look of it. 

So once you have decided what size to make your squares you will need to cut seven for the days of the week and then 35 for five weeks worth of calender days. 

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Once I had those cut I used more double sided tape to tape the white squares to the blue.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Then I layed out the days the way I wanted them and began to tape them down. It was around here that I realized I wanted a space or the month. I cut that out and spaced everything accordingly. 

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

Once I had all the days down, I wrote out the days of the week on the top row before I taped them down. I decided to hand write mine but you could use a cricut or sticker letters or even just print them out.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

After I taped those down. I just measured what space was left at the bottom and cut out some large solid pieces of card stock that would fit perfect and taped them down as well.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

After that you can decide if you want to add decorations or washi tape to it. I wanted mine clean and simple so I left mine minimal and slid the glass and then the calender back into place.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

I just folded the staples back down to hold it all in and then mounted it on the wall.

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

I love how it turned out! If you DIY this then leave me pictures on instagram using the tag #WorthLivingFor!!

DIY Framed Wall Art Calender - All you need to turn old outdated thrift store paintings into beautiful dry-erase wall calenders!!

The Kiss of Deception - Book Review

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson

Published July 8th 2014 by Henry Holt   

goodreads

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love

My Rating

3.75

What I Thought

The book is told in duel perspectives. We read from Lia mostly, but we also read from the point of view of Rafe and Kaden. One of the guys is the prince who got stood up and the other is an assassin that is there to kill her. It’s unclear who is who until the last third of the book.

So now let me just tell you that I LOVED the last third! The last portion of the book draws you in and makes you fall in love with Lia. I flew through this part of the book. I was literally sitting on my couch in my pj’s letting out shouts of encouragement for Lia. She is a strong character who simply wants to be free to live her own life but she also deeply cares for those she loves and would do anything, including risk her life for them. What is not to love about a main character like that?! By the end I found myself routing for her to succeed and eagerly anticipating the second book.

Overall I liked the writing style and loved the plot. I think the book started strong but there is a lot of character and world development in the beginning and middle portions that can slow you down. However the last part of the book is wonderful and seems to be the tone the rest of the series will take.

The next book,

The Heart of Betrayal

, is expected to come out July 7

th

of this year!

This review is also posted on my Goodreads Page! I comment as I read! Follow me! - 

my goodreads page

How about you? Have you read The Kiss of Deception? What did you think of pace? Lets discuss in the comments below!

DIY Birchbox Box Storage

I am a huge subscription box fan. I love getting a wonderful box or bag full of goodies on my door step each month. Birchbox is one of my favorite subscription services. Once I have sorted through the goodies, I am always inspired by the left over box. Over the past several months I have had the  boxes just piling up because I cannot for the life of me just throw away a perfectly good box.

So I have decorated them and glammed them up to us in my craft room. Here is how!:

What I used: White Gesso (you could also just use a white paint.); Lace Ribbon; Glitter, Glitter & More Glitter!; Mod Podge (or your favorite glue.); Paint!; Scissors; Paint Brush & Double Sided Tape (pictured but not labelled.

So first, it makes things look nicer if you coat each box with a coat of gesso or white paint. I used gesso.

Next I gave each box a coat of paint. I let this dry completely & then painted in a second coat. If you are going to cover the box in glitter or the lace one coat would probably be enough.

For this box I wanted to cover the lid with the lace ribbon. I used the double stick tape to stick the lace down & then I brushed on some Mod Podge & let that dry.

I wanted one of the boxes to have just a stripe of lace. I used a strip of the double sided tape & then Mod Podged over the whole lid to give it a finished look.

This one is my FAVORITE!!! I painted the box & lid a pale pink. Then I brushed on a layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled on some cheap glitter (1) that I had laying around that I wasn't even really crazy about. After shaking off the extras (2) I immediately sponged on some more Mod Podge (3). I did this is dabbing motions so that I didn't move around any of the first layer of glitter. Then I sprinkled more glitter on top (4) and I let those two coats dry.

I repeated that process on the sides & then I gave the whole thing one more protective coat of Mod Podge. At first I was super unimpressed but once the glue dried it looked sooooooo good! 

I let boxes dry completely, attached some labels & filled them up with things!

They turned out so pretty. I love them! 

If you do this project on your own send me a picture! 

If you don't have a Birchbox subscription & want one feel free to use my referral link! ---> 

Subscribe to Birchbox!

(This post is not sponsored.)

Those Who Know Him Trust Him

     Lately my thoughts have been on relationship and communication. In order for any relationship to be successful there has to be good communication, right? The Bible repeatedly communicates the importance of prayer. 

We are told to pray constantly (1 Thessalonians 5:17), enthusiastically (James 5:16) and expectantly (Matthew 21:22). 

I have this desire building in me constantly to dive deeper into prayer. I crave a close intimate relationship with God.

However I feel like I keep hitting a barricade. Searching my heart the question came to mind: Do I trust God? Do I really trust God? I think I do, but does my life reflect that? As I was working through this question I stumbled upon this verse:

And those who know your name put their trust in you,

for you, O 

Lord

, have not forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:10 ESV

     Such an appropriate verse for what I was working though, right?! I love the Holy Spirit’s timing. This verse says that those who know His name put their trust in Him. God has more names than I could count and each one gives a glimpse of who He is. His name is Jehovah Rapha which means He is the Lord that heals. His name is Jehovah Shalom which means He is our peace. He is Jehovah Jireh. He is our provider. The names go on and on. His names are a description of who He is.

     So knowing who He is causes us to put our trust in Him. When we know Him to be a healer we can trust Him to heal. When we know Him to be our provider we can trust Him to provide. The verse goes on to say assure us that He will not forsake those who seek Him.

     Jeremiah 29:13 says, “

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart

.” (ESV) God promises to be found by those who seek Him. So maybe you are like me today. Maybe there is this burning desire in you for more of God but at the same time there’s this root of doubt deep in your heart. Maybe you like me need to learn or be reminded of His names so that you can strengthen your trust in Him. Maybe you need Him to remind you that He is our peace. Maybe you need to experience that He is our healer. Maybe you just need to know Him as El Shaddai, our Lord God Almighty. Whatever you need He has promised that if we seek Him out we will find Him. When we find Him we will learn more of who He is. The more we understand who He is the more we trust Him.

He will be found by the seekers. Let’s live like seekers.

Weekly Challenge!: Do some  research. Look up some of God’s names and pick the ones that stick out to you. Find where they are in scripture and just meditate on their meanings this week! 

The More I Seek You

I wanna sit at Your feet
Drink from the cup in Your hand
Lay back against You and breathe
Feel Your heartbeat
This love is so deep, It's more than I can standI melt in Your peace, It's overwhelming.

Guys, this song has been on repeat in my mind all day. They even played at church this evening. That line... "Lay back against You and breathe, feel Your heartbeat" Is my prayer. I just want to fall into His embrace. It's the only place that I know of to run to knowing I can just rest.  In His presence I can breathe. His presence is like breathing and I have one of those moments where I realize that I have been holding my breath for far too long. I just need Him closer than my skin. I can't stand any space between us. I want to hear His heartbeat. I want to memorize His heart. 

I don't know if this is making any sense. I just keep thinking of Psalm 42 where David says, "Like the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you God. When can I get to this God?" I am desperate for this God. I can't live without Him. I can't breathe without Him. 

My soul is hungry for more of Him this evening. I love these kind of evening. May they never fade.