Monday, April 22, 2013

C is for Craft Creek



Craft Creek was first established in 2012 by Ashley Archer, who decided to take a well-loved hobby and turn it into a business. Right now it's mainly homemade crochet items, if she plans to venture out with anything else we will have to wait and see.

Here is a recent item she added, a securtiy blanket, can be made in any color to fit a boy or girl.

Item #AS01
Baby Security Blanket
Dimensions: 24" across from point to point
Message for Color Options
$35
Pattern By: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/9-pointed-star-round-ripple



She does such beautiful work. One of her specialities, in my personal opinions would be hats. Who doesn't want a picture of their little one wearing a cute hat these days. I will share a couple of options below.

Item #HU01
UK Hat
Sizes: Newborn Through Adult
$22.00
Pattern Base By: http://repeatcrafterme.com/


 
This is my little man, Mason, wearing a UK hat!
 
Item #HMC01
Cow Hat
Sizes: 0-3m Through 3T
$25.00
Pattern By: http://justbehappycrochet.com/
 
 
This is her beautiful niece, Bristol, wearing her cow hat! Isn't she a doll?
 
Check out many more hats, scarves, and other cute designs at her Facebook page, Craft Creek.
 
Be sure to visit her Etsy shop as well.
 
Oh and FYI she makes things for our four legged babies as well :)
 
 
 

Friday, April 5, 2013

B is for Bayou

Researching the Bayous
by Elle James

 

My sister, Delilah Devlin and I took a trip last August to Louisiana. We drove all the way down to Grand Isle then back up to Thibodeaux, LA and then over to New Orleans for the Authors After Dark conference. We were determined to get a feel for what it's like to be live in bayou country. So we stopped along the way. Stayed on Grand Isle for a night where houses are built on stilts and fishing is for fun and a livelihood. In Thibodeaux, we took an airboat ride touring the swamps, took great pictures and I pet a 12ft long alligator. Yikes! There are people who actually rob alligator nests. We stopped by one and the mamma alligator was pretty adamant we didn't get close to her eggs! It was fun, beautiful and creepy all in one. And the driver was insane! Talk about great fodder for the air boat chase scene in DEJA VOODOO! Then we drank mint juleps at Oak Alley, a sugar plantation house that made you want to put on a hoop skirt. We wrapped up our research trip in New Orleans where we explored some of the Voodoo shops in the French Quarter, had our palms read and experienced the charm and smells of the city. All these forays were great research for my Cajun Magic series which combines Voodoo, romance and suspense in an exciting group of books coming out this year from Entangled Publishing.



VOODOO ON THE BAYOU (Feb 2013), VOODOO FOR TWO (April 2013) and DEJA VOODOO ( Jun 2013)
Voodoo on the Bayou
Book #1 of the Cajun Magic Series
by Elle James (aka Myla Jackson)

Blurb
“By day a frog, by night a man, ‘til de next full moon...”
At first, lawyer and ladies’ man Craig Thibodeaux thought Madame LeBieu’s chant was a strange bayou joke. But the voodoo worked and Craig is spending his days as...well, a small green frog. Now he has only two weeks to find love, or his new froggy transformation becomes permanent.
When she receives the anonymous toxic water sample from Bayou Miste, research scientist Elaine Smith decides a trip to the bayou is the perfect excuse to escape the lab, and forget about her cheating ex-fiancĂ©. Then she accidentally stumbles upon Craig’s oh-so-fine naked form, and her science-nerd brain is overrun with naughty thoughts about her new gorgeous night-time bayou guide.
But there’s more to Bayou Miste than voodoo curses and sexy late-night trysts. Dark secrets threaten the delicate ecosystem, and there are those who would do anything to keep those secrets hidden. Even murder...






Elle James Bio

Elle James aka Myla Jackson spent twenty years livin' and lovin' in South Texas, ranching horses, cattle, goats, ostriches and emus. A former IT professional, Elle is proud to be writing full-time, penning, sassy western romances, intrigue
s and paranormal adventures that keep her readers on the edge of their seats. She has 34 works with Harlequin, self published works under pen name Elle James, over many works with other publishers including Samhain, Ellora's Cave, Kensington and Avon and 19 works self-published under pen name Myla Jackson. Now living in northwest Arkansas, she isn't wrangling cattle, she's wrangling her muses, a malti-poo and yorkie. When she's not at her computer, she's traveling, snow-skiing, boating, or riding her ATV, dreaming up new stories.


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Thursday, April 4, 2013

A is for Alpha!

Welcome to my blog!

During the month of April you will see several posts, all beginning with letters from the alphabet for the annual A-Z Blog Challenge.
This is my first year to participate and I’m excited to see what topics I come up with and other topics from other blogs.

I am running behind so today, April 4th, I will post A and B, tomorrow, April 5th, I will post C and D to catch up some! Thanks for stopping by and if you have any suggestions for future posts please comment!! 

I’m a writer, more to the point a romance and erotic writer. So A is for Alpha. In every romance/erotic novel you need an alpha male! 

A is for Alpha

What is an Alpha Male?
An alpha always knows what is best. He’s a protector, confident, sexy and importantly sexual and confident in his abilities in and out of the bedroom. And he’s always stubborn! To the point he makes your knees weak while you want to bang his head in for being ridiculously overbearing! He takes control, all the men and women around him lean on him and follow in his footsteps. He stands out, but can blend in if needed. He’s dreamy and sexy. Says the right thing, only after putting his foot in his mouth.
At least that’s what I think of when I think of an alpha.
In my opinion he is the hardest character to write…90% of the time. He’s easy to get wrong. I’ve finished a book only to realize my alpha is all wrong, by the end of the book it comes together for me, but that means going back to the beginning of the book and rewriting the alpha the way he should  be and not how I thought he should be. And in most cases that can mean rewriting several scenes and/or the entire book!

In my opinion there are two authors I know when I pick up one of their books, I am going to find the perfect alpha! He’s going to add up to everything I defined plus more…a whole lot more!

First is Sylvia Day, I love her style of writing, especially when it comes to the alpha. They add up to everything I explained and oh so much more!

One of my fave alpha’s has to be the scandalous Alistair Caulfield, from Seven Years to Sin by Sylvia Day.
Oh Alistair is near perfect. He’s gorgeous, flawed, very intense and sexual. He’s the guy that makes good girls go bad!

To learn more about the book and/or order it visit Sylvia’s website for this book and many other great reads!







My all time favorite author is Lisa Renee Jones, she has some serious hot alpha’s. They are flawed, but there flaws make them perfect and memorable.

The Walker Brothers! Oh, how I love these boys! They are bad boys that protect the women they love and the family that always has their back!

In Secrets Exposed we meet Lindsey, she’s strong and beautiful and stubborn. Then we meet Mark…oh Mark!! Mark Reeves is one of the sexiest men alive! He is ruthless, in the courtroom. Romantic and oh so dreamy!  You have to check out The Walker Brothers!

Be sure to check out Lisa's site for more about this book and the other books in this Tall, Dark and Deadly Series, which you can get as a boxset at AMAZON for only $2.99!

Thanks for stopping by Check out the other bloggers particpating in the A-Z Blog Challenge Here:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/2012-to-z-challenge-sign-up-list.html