Quick Takes (39): Holyart and a Giveaway

- one - 

With Easter just a few weeks away, I have started thinking about what I want to put into my niece's basket.  Usually it is a toy and some candy, but Sis has asked that we skip the usual big chocolate bunny.  I suggested a big chocolate cross instead, but I don't think that's what she had in mind.  Too much sugar sends Sara bouncing off the walls.

- two -

I think I found the solution to the Easter basket dilemma.  I recently learned about a new-to-me website, Holyart, that sells all things Catholic, including books and videos appropriate to younger children.

- three -

Based in Italy, this company started as Pulchra Point Snc religious shop.  Due to the great success of its website, they decided to move exclusively to online sales of religious art and products.

- four - 

The selection of items that they sell is extensive.  They have items needed for churches including vestments and altar linens, candles and chalices,  furniture and, my favorite, bells.  Things for your home or for gifts is almost unlimited: statues of saints, icons, rosaries, holy medals, books, videos, magnets and greeting cards.  I can't tell you how long I spent going through all the beautiful rosary bracelets looks for just the right one, there were that many from which to choose.

- five - 

I was amazed at just how fast their shipping is.  The package I received from Holyart arrived in just a few days.  From Italy!  I have ordered things from US based companies that have taken much longer than that.

- six - 

Holyart has graciously provided me with a bracelet that I will give to one winner.  To enter, visit their website and leave a comment here on what piqued your interest.  Also indicate if you would prefer an adult or child sized bracelet.  I will draw a name next Friday, April 5th.

- seven - 

"Charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all."

- G.K. Chesterton (“Paganism and Mr. Lowes-Dickinson,” Heretics)

Don't forget to check out more Quick Takes at This Ain't The Lyceum.

Have a great weekend!

AMDG

An Open Book: February 2019

Some people binge watch television shows.  I binge read books.  When I find a new author that I enjoy it's like finding a pot of gold.  I want to read everything I can by that person.  Books by Rex Stout, Kendra Elliot and Carlene O'Conner are what I am gorging on lately.


Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout is the first novel in the Nero Wolfe series and was originally published in 1934.  The story revolves around the murders of an Italian immigrant and wealthy college professor.  As with all the books in this series, much of the fun in reading them is the banter between Nero and his assistant, Archie.

 “Some day, Archie, when I decide you are no longer worth tolerating, you will have to marry a woman of very modest mental capacity to get an appropriate audience for your wretched sarcasms."

The Red Box has Nero Wolfe trying to determine who is poisoning people with cyanide laced candies. 

It was after two when I went to the garage for the roadster, and there I got another irritation when I found that the washing and polishing job had been done by a guy with one eye. 

I received Merciful Fate by Kendra Elliot through a GoodReads giveaway.  Mercy Kilpatrick is an FBI agent that has recently moved back to the small Oregon town in which she grew up.  The skeletal remains of someone that had been involved in a bank heist thirty years prior are found.  Of the other people involved in the crime, three have vanished and one, caught at the scene, now resides in jail.  Mercy sets out to solve a seemingly unsolvable case.

Although this is the fifth book in the series, it read well as a stand-alone story, but at the same time made me want to read the rest of the series to learn more of the history of all the characters within it.

Merciful Death, also by Kendra Elliot, is the first book in the Mercy series.  Mercy Kilpatrick comes back to the small town in which she grew up but hasn't been to since she left fifteen years ago.  Someone is targeting the survivalists, murdering them in their homes and stealing huge numbers of weapons.  This has created federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event.  Mercy is sent by the FBI to assist local authorities in stopping these murders.

Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O'Conner is the first in the Irish Village Mystery series.  One morning as Siobhán O’Sullivan is about to open the family bistro she runs with her siblings, she discovers a man dead in one of the booths, a pair of pink scissors sticking from his chest.  With the local Garda suspecting her older brother of the crime, she sets out to find the real culprit.  This was a fun, sweet read.

Head on over to Carolyn's for more An Open Book.

AMDG

First Photo: March 2019

There's a saying we use around here - wait five minutes and the weather will change.  That seems to describe February.  Up until yesterday, the falls were solid ice this week.  And that's because we had some warm weather last weekend and turned the water on.  The temperature fell quickly and froze it over in just a couple of hours.

The scenery changed in just minutes today, too.  When I came home from my outing, there was a migration of Grackles going through the area.  Some were checking out the falls and others feasted on the suet on the shepherd's hook.

AMDG