All Sorts of Things...

Life has been quite random and exciting lately; not to mention extremely busy, which would explain my lack of writing on the blog. The cold, snowy days have brought all sorts of adventures...mostly good ones, but then there's, well, we'll just say I haven't had a dull moment for quite some time! A dull headache maybe, but it's all good, and definitely keeps life interesting. :) 

I was excited to have my first book signing at the Stryker Library early last week. I sold several books, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people that came. 

Connie even made cookies for the occasion!

 I was interviewed by the religion editor for the Crescent News yesterday, and he is going to put a story in the paper next week about my book! That phone call was quite a surprise!

Besides working on selling books, I've been having a whole lot of fun with Bible Quiz and a new puppy!

Of course there are always a gazillion things to keep me busy around home, as well as the excitement of learning new things, having new adventures and hanging out with friends--both from near and far. Good times...

Oh, and for my readers, you may be interested to know that I've started playing around with a sequel...and it's going to be a good one! 

My next book signing is scheduled for March 26th at the Wauseon Public Library from 5:30 - 8:00 pm. So for anyone who is from around here, you should come! There's going to be food. ;)

Hope y'all are having an awesome weekend! Oh, and please tell me that I'm not the only praying for spring to come...tomorrow would be good. Don't you think?

~Keri

All Kinds of Excitement

Wow, this week has been crazy in just about every way. Complete with snow, ice, a bitter wind, and temperatures between 10 - 20 degrees some days...I don't know about any of you, but I was not ready for winter to come! At least not yet. 

We started out the week with a lot of corn yet to be harvested, and though the weather conditions aren't what we'd prefer to work in, we didn't have much of a choice. And complaining won't change anything, so why bother, right? So, we bundled up and went out, thankful that the days of cabless tractors ended a long time ago around here! And of course we look forward to coming in and sitting next to the wood stove with a cup of coffee--if you're Dad, that is. I know I'm boring, and Dad gives me a hard time about it, but I'll just stick with my hot chocolate! :) 

In the midst of desperately trying to finish up harvest, my book happened to be in the final stages of editing, with a ton of last minute things that needed to be done there. I sat on the couch with my laptop working on that basically all day Monday and most of Tuesday.

Wednesday I returned to grain cart duty, feeling like a free woman to have the editing behind me and to be back in the tractor seat again. But within a couple of hours, the snow had plugged up the sieves on the combine, so we quit for the day. 

Then on Thursday a couple of guys from the Case dealer brought out a red combine for us to demo. Now that wasn't our idea, it was theirs!! Just so we're clear on that! (Remember, we're John Deere people here!) But hey, if they're just going to let us try it out for a day, why not, right? And wouldn't you know but that machine made one round in the field and broke down... :) To be completely honest and fair though, even though I'm partial to green, I got to drive it for a little while and thought it was pretty nice. { cough } Of course I've been driving the only red tractor on the farm for the last month and a half, so I guess I don't have any room to speak! I was actually very impressed that we could harvest at 4 mph in the Case IH, whereas 2.5 is about the limit in our John Deere. 

But anyways, you all didn't really want to know all of that I'm sure. :) The big excitement of the week is...

#3: My dog had seven puppies on Thursday!

Definitely an answer to prayer...these little guys are going to help me pay for a book! Anyone want to buy a puppy?!

Lady Carliss (anyone else a Knights of Arrethtrae fan?!) and her babies

#2: We're done with harvest!!

Once again, God has blessed us with a safe and bountiful harvest, and we praise Him for it. What a relief to be done!

And now, the news that I've anxiously been waiting to share with you all week! Or all month...or really all year.... 

#1: My book has officially gone to print!!!!

I don't know what more to say than that! Praise the Lord, it's actually going to happen!!

Plenty of excitement for one week, don't you think?

I know harvest is over, but I've still got a few "thoughts from the tractor seat" to share with you. So stick around!  And next month I will have a book for you all to read! :)

The Green Dress // From Boring to Lovely

Hello!

I have a fun outfit to share with y'all today! Recently I played piano in a friend's wedding, and needed to wear certain colors. So, Mom and I went shopping...and it was a rather discouraging event. Store after store after store. Really?! How hard should it be to find a sage green or tan dress? In September! They are fallish colors, so one would think that you'd find them just about everywhere, but no! It couldn't be that easy! :) Until.....

.....at Dillard's.....on the clearance rack { <3 } ....we found this:

...for the lovely price of $16!!! I was so excited to have found something in the right color, the right size, not too short, no plunging neckline...I would've paid good money for that dress, but $16!!! This is exciting! Relieved to have found something, I didn't stop and consider how perfectly boring the dress was until a couple of days later. Then I realized it was going to need a little help! :0 Did I mention that it wasn't too short? Obviously, you can tell that from the picture! ;) 

So, I got out my scissors and commenced to amputating a great deal of the lower portion of the dress.

 

After measuring, marking, cutting, pinning, going to great lengths to make sure it was straight, re-pinning several times, and finally sewing up a new hem, I had a dress that I was much happier with! 

Now for the fun part!

To dress it up, and eradicate any last traces of boring... 

....the belt was a definite must. It breaks up the "plainness" of the dress. 

....it needed a little brown sweater....
(also on clearance!) 

...and of course a little bit of jewelry is always fun. :)

Totally did not get a picture of the shoes....

But, anyhow, here it is: 

I was so excited to see how this outfit came together. It was a lot of fun, and even though I had to put an hour or two of work into it, I didn't have to spend much money, which is worth it to me. 

I also discovered that the big piece I cut off of the bottom could be used as a scarf!

I hope that this is encouraging to some of you. There are definitely a whole bunch of ways to spice up your wardrobe a little without having to spend lots of money or lower your standards.

// Outfit Details //

Dress: Dillard's, Jones New York, $16

Sweater: Cato Fashions, $13

Belt: Kohl's, $10 ?

Shoes: Shoe Dept., Hot Cakes, $18

Necklace: Local gift shop, $25

Bracelet: gift

Hope y'all have a lovely day!

Keri

The Favorite // What I Wore

Thank you all so much for letting me know which picture you like the best! I was very excited about how many of you left a comment, sent me an email, or even told me in person. It really helped with my decision! :) If you haven't seen the pictures, check out my last post: Author Photos // Pick Your Favorite Out of 15 suggestions nine said that they like: 

#4 In the Hay Field

This will be the official author photo for the back of my book! #2 was the second favorite with 3 votes, 2 people liked #3 and there was only one vote for #1...sorry Grandma J.--at least this was your second favorite! ;)

// Outfit Details //

{ for those of you girls who were wondering :) }

Shirt: Pink Republic, Kohl's

Skirt: Made by me from a pair of jeans

Layering Shirt: So Perfect Tee, Kohl's

Scarf: Old Navy

Shoes: Faded Glory, Walmart

Hope y'all are having an awesome day!

               ~Keri Nicole

Author Photos // Pick Your Favorite

Hey y'all!!!

I'm trying to decide on an official "author photo" for the back of my book but I'm having some difficulties! :) So, I thought I'd post my favorites and let y'all give me your input! 

Please leave a comment and let me know which one is your favorite!!

#1 Down by the Creek

#2 In the Breeze

#3 By the Fence

#4 In the Hay Field

Photos taken by my awesome cousin Kelsey.

Slightly Sunburnt // How It All Started

Hello!

So, considering that the book I just finished writing took me 3 1/2 years from start to finish, I decided that I'll have to really discipline myself in order to get the sequel written in a reasonable amount of time. And why put off starting on it, right? But yesterday afternoon it was just so beautiful outside that I couldn't bring myself to sit in the house and type. So, I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and went out to enjoy the weather. Finding the perfect little place out in the sunshine, I sat down and wrote for a few hours. It was lovely! But apparently my mind was so lost in a frigid Minnesota winter evening that I completely forgot my body was still sitting out in the 75 degree sunshine of an Ohio afternoon! It turns out that I got a nice little sunburn on the right side of my face, the right side of my neck, my right ear and right arm....ah, such is life! :) But hey, I filled 4 notebook pages, so at least I accomplished something!

I thought I would share with you all how I got started writing. It definitely wasn't one of my favorite subjects in grade school. I actually didn't care for it too much. But at the end of my freshman year I was given an assignment to write a short story. Got that? A SHORT STORY. Like 10 pages long, max. But no! It couldn't be that easy, could it? I got this grand idea for a story set in the "olden days", because I love everything about the way of life in 19th century America. "Little House on the Prairie" and Sauder Village were a big part of my childhood. And for those of you who haven't heard of Sauder Village, come to Ohio for a visit sometime--it's pretty cool! 

So anyways, back to the story! I made up all these little characters who were friends from church--David, Hannah, James and Jill. Then there was Henry. He was the bully at school. Henry was always mean to these four friends, but they decided that they were going to try really hard to be nice to him anyways, and then he would get saved. After a week or so of working on this story that shouldn't have even taken me that long, I started to get more and more ideas and the story just got longer and longer. One of the nice things about being homeschooled was that my wonderful teacher {a.k.a. "Mom"} told me that I could have as much time as I wanted to finish it because she saw that I was really putting a lot of effort into the story and not just trying to get out of doing the work! So, a few weeks turns into leaving it sit for the summer and then tackling it again my sophomore year. As I watched the story develop, I started to see something that wasn't sitting well with me. At that point I was calling my story "Because of the Faithful Four" and saw my characters thinking that by their actions they would be able to change Henry. So, I decided to bring them to a point where they realized they wouldn't be able to do it on their own. Only God can change a heart. At the same time, I really started to like the character of David, and I was following him more specifically. I can't really explain what has happened since that point, other than I can say without a doubt it was God. He gave me a vision for what HE wanted the book to be, and each time I sat down to write and prayed for His guidance, the words just came to me.

In Paths of Righteousness isn't anything like the little story that it started out to be. I am still amazed to see how God took the ramblings of my 15 year old brain and turned them into something big that He can use to touch others. What a privilege to serve such an awesome God, don't you think? 

Because of Him,
          Keri Nicole