I want to share some of the flowers I spotted in July in Waco.
These were taken at Magnolia. There were a lot of pretty flowers. It was hot, but it’s July in Texas, so it wasn’t surprising. Still, I admire all the people working on the flowers.
Homestead Heritage is the home to these wildflowers. One of my granddaughters braved the heat to explore with me. Then we headed into the coffee shop for icy cold drinks.
Emma Justice in Weeding Out Lies is a flower farmer who sells her flowers at the local farmers market. She grows some of the same flowers as I saw in Waco.
Thanks for sharing your time with me. I’d love to hear what your favorite flowers are. Or do you enjoy going to botanical gardens? Where do you get your flower fix?
The closet where we toss everything when preparing for company.
I have a new series coming out later this year, featuring a professional organizer. So, when somebody mentions an organizing project, my ears perk up.
Sherrinda Ketchersid told me last week that she and some other friends were going to clean up and organize their church closet. The Spirit of Unity is near Dallas, Texas. And we all know how hot it’s been in Texas this summer. The ladies assured me sweating was involved.
When there’s a community closet, lots of well-meaning people can stuff items into the closet. Using cabinets and shelves are a good way to organize spaces.
Goals for projects like this are DECLUTTER and ORGANIZE.
Remove all the items in the closet or storage unit. Clean the shelves then sort through the items you took out. Are they in good condition? Are they necessary? If not, throw or give them away.
Collect storage bins in appropriate sizes for your project.
Labeling clear containers helps the person who is putting items away, and it’s helpful to the person looking for an item.
Create a binder to list the items you’re storing.
Some items you may need for your church storage closet are:
Candles and supplies
First aid kit
Coffee and hospitality supplies
Sunday school supplies, name tags, and markers
An assortment of batteries, because we always need batteries
I feel like most churches with kitchens have food and cooking supplies in the kitchen.
Thanks to Sherrinda Ketchersid and her friends for sharing their experience of decluttering and organizing.
She’s the author of clean, fun medieval romances. Lord of her Heart, His to Keep, and Hers to Love can be found at some of your favorite online bookstores.
I just returned from family vacation in Waco, Texas. What an adventure. We had flights scheduled and went to be packed and ready to fly early the next morning.
INSTEAD, we received a message at 2:15 AM that our flights were canceled AND they couldn’t rebook because they’d canceled over 300 flights touching down in Atlanta. . So, we began looking at other airlines. But, what if they were canceled? I was getting more nervous by the minute. I looked at my husband and said, “We need to drive.” He agreed and by 3:00 we were in the car driving to Texas. Thank goodness there was an open gas station in town, because we had less than 1/4 of a tank.
It was foggy and rainy the first three hours of the trip, and when you leave the coast you have to take backroads for the first couple hours. We questioned our sanity, but this vacation was with our sons, daughters-in-law and grandkids. I didn’t want to miss a minute. So, we drove 1200 miles in 19 hours. We only stopped for gas and food, and we ate meals in the car, because again, I didn’t want to miss a minute of family time.
The week was amazing, and the trip home was another adventure. We began our trip early Sunday morning. In Mississippi, we stopped for lunch/dinner. We heard thunder rumbling. We finished our sandwiches and walked to the door to leave, and it poured down rain.
This doesn’t do justice to the storm. Ninety minutes later, it let up, and we walked to the car. There were accidents in both directions on the interstate, and we took a detour. Guess what? There was an accident there too. So, we felt blessed to have been in a dry place to wait out the storm.
As we approached the Georgia line, the car began shaking. We made it to the hotel. The next morning, we went to a tire place and learned BOTH tires on the drivers’ side were separating.
This chicken greeted us when we pulled up to the tire place. Her name is Chick-chick. That’s another story, but the people were so nice and they had our tires in stock. So, with two new tires, we were back on the road.
We feel blessed to have made it home safely. Will I drive to Texas again? You bet, but there is definitely less drama flying.
Next time I’ll share more about our trip to Texas.
There are many ups and downs in the life of an author. Some of the highs include: finishing a manuscript, placing in a contest, landing an agent, and getting your book published.
Weeding Out Lies is the first book in A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery series, and I’m just as excited as when the first book was published.
Flower farmer Emma Justice’s life is firmly rooted in Lutz, Texas where she has recently begun her new business. One morning while delivering flowers, she stumbles upon a prominent citizen. Dead. When a friend is accused of murder, Emma launches her own investigation. She’s used to separating weeds from flowers. Emma will dig for clues, weed out red herrings and cultivate a plan to find the killer.
In researching for this book, I learned a flower farm can be a backyard, smaller than an acre, or it can be a larger farm of many acres.
A flower farmer’s primary focus is growing flowers, unless she discovers a dead body.
I think we all understand the definition of freedom, so I won’t state it here. You’ve heard a picture is worth a thousand words, and today I’m going to share some pictures of how we celebrate freedom in my neck of the woods.
As you can tell, Tim and I enjoy celebrating our country. We appreciate all the sacrifices people have made for our freedom. Thank you!
I’d love for you to tag me on social media with ways you celebrate freedom.
I couldn’t help myself. Haha. I love the excitement in the air around July 4th. This year there are more people than ever at the beach, and I’m sure the fireworks will be amazing.
Today, I’d like to welcome my new friend Heather Kinder. She’s a professional organizer. Whether you need help organizing or it’s your passion, I think you’ll enjoy meeting her.
My name is Heather Kinder and I am a professional home organizer. I started a company called Creating Harmony to help do just that. We help people make room for the things they love by organizing, decluttering, and simplifying storage spaces.
The things that we own can be important and valuable. They can make life more comfortable, easier, and even more meaningful. Clothing, furniture, collectibles, family heirlooms, can all add value to your life. They can also overwhelm and distract you from focusing on your priorities.
Since I started organizing professionally, I’ve learned a few things. First, we tend to value all our belongings equally based on from who we acquired them, or how we acquired them. Grandmothers’ pearls might not hold the same value as her favorite spatula. It’s okay, let the spatula go. Or keep the spatula and give those family heirloom pearls to a daughter or niece. This is also true for items that we spent a lot of money on but now don’t use. The same goes for items we got for free. Regardless of the cost, let them go. They will find a good home and be put to good use by someone who needs them.
Secondly, I find people struggle with making decisions on what to keep and what to give away. I don’t ever presume to make decisions for my clients, I just try and make the decision as simple as possible. Step 1: I remove all items from the closet/drawer/room and place all like items together. Step 2: Move quickly through the items and divide them into 3 piles Keep/Give/I Don’t Know. Step 3: Put the Keep items back neatly (Use containers! I’ll save that discussion for another time.) Step 4: Donate or give away the Give items ASAP. Don’t put them back or give them a new home in your house. Step 5 Tackle the I Don’t Know pile.
The key is the I Don’t Know items. Often, we get stuck on an item because we don’t know what to do with it and we stop the whole organization process. It’s okay not to know, place it to the side and come back to it later. Most people know very quickly what to do with most of their items. Move quickly through the easy items and come back to the ones that take more thought. I think you’ll find that the I Don’t Know pile is much smaller and easier to tackle than it seemed at the beginning.
There is something so satisfying about being organized. You feel balanced, fresh, and ready for whatever comes next. You are free to focus on what really matters to you: family, career, hobbies, or just relaxing. Regardless of the state of organization in your house, let yourself off the hook. There should be no guilt or shame involved in how much stuff you have; you are not alone. Most of us have too much stuff and not enough room to store it. Take heart and start small. You can do it!
Heather, thanks so much with sharing these great tips.
Isn’t this a pretty transformation?
Don ‘t we all have a junk drawer? This looks so nice!
Here’s a link if you’d like to connect with Heather.
Malice Domestic is a fan conference for mystery readers. This was the third year I’ve attended, and it just gets better and better.
I enjoy meeting readers, and I like to make swag bags to leave in the hospitality room.
Then I was selected to participate in Malice Go Round, and I wanted to make additional swag bags for the participants of that event. Malice Go Round is like speed dating between readers and authors.
So I took on a project that was about more than I could handle. I decided to make beachy ornaments because of my beach setting. I’ll be honest. Some turned out better than others, but like every shell is unique so is every ornament.
And I have to thank Tim for helping me find and clean the shells and for dying the string.
Tim also went to Maryland with me and helped me transport all my stuff.
It was good to see my agent, Dawn Dowdle, and many friends. I also got to meet many mystery readers. Kate Jackson, Heather Weidner, Korina Moss, Ruth Hartman, Chris Romeril, TJ Krieg (beachbumbookworm) and Desiree DiFabio were just a few friends I connected with.
If you have an opportunity to attend Malice, I urge you to go. You won’t be disappointed.
This is the first book I’ve read by Kathleen Bridge, and it won’t be the last.
Meg Barrett is a set designer on a television show, Mr. and Mrs. Winslow. Meg begins an investigation into the murder of the show’s director, Brett. Meg whittles down her long list of suspects and quickly narrows it down until she knows who the killer is.
The characters are fun and interesting in this story. There are twists and turns that kept me reading. This is the seventh book in the Hampton Homes & Garden Mystery series, but I was able to read it as a stand alone without any problems.
I received a copy of The Perfect Staging for Murder from Netgalley. The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.
Jackie Layton 