UPDATE: The winner is…Becky Johnson Lowe!
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Here’s another puzzle-contest for you! Our fridge is still stuffed with leftovers, but today, we start weeding/tossing what hasn’t been eaten and what is surely past its expiration. The puzzle shows you what you might do with some of those leftovers! Looks yummy!

So, solve the puzzle then tell me your favorite way to use up those leftovers for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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I ran across this photo and thought…there’s a story! Bet you can figure out one to tell, too! So, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, study the photo then tell me a story! It doesn’t have to be long or even any good. Just have fun!

UPDATE: The winner is…Brenda Anderson!
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My art room (I’m not yet ready to call it a studio, because artists have studios, and I don’t feel like one quite yet!) is a work in progress. It’s very utilitarian—industrial tile on the floor, tables and work benches on each wall, a large table in the center, which is my workspace. When my mother, who was a true artist, passed, I inherited her multitudinous art supplies. When I tried to cram them into my room with everything I’d already accumulated, I couldn’t walk around the tables without standing sideways because there was so much “stuff.” It took a super-human effort, and the help of my daughter, to get it pared down so I had floor space. I’m not kidding. I could’ve been on the hoarders TV show. Over the nearly two years since then, I’ve donated and tossed items. I’ve also looked for good storage solutions. I’m making great progress, but until recently, working on my central art table was hard because even though it’s a banquet-sized table, it was covered with the art supplies I use most. I needed a solution so I could clear the table before considering working on larger pieces.

After scouring Pinterest and other artist’s organizational tips, I found this:

It’s an IKEA Raskog rolling cart. If you go onto Amazon they’re around $100. When I went straight to the IKEA site, I found it for just $35 plus $10 for shipping. And luckily, it is one of the items they do ship! When it arrived, my SIL assembled it—it’s super easy to assemble by the way—and I began to offload my many cups and bowls of supplies onto the cart. I’m giddy over how much space I have (I’m still clearing the table, so I’ll take a picture of the finished table another day.

If you’re wondering about what that pile of stuff to the upper right of the photo is, it’s tea bags I’m drying that I’ll cut open and empty, and then paint on. I know. My daughter thinks it’s super weird, but tea bag art is awesome for collaging. That wire thing tucked in the near corner of the top rack is a large, vintage flower “frog”—an Ebay find I thought would be perfect to gather all the scissors into one place. I need more scissors!

But look at this! Here are views of the second rack:

See that wooden compartmented box? It’s a $8 flea market find and fits perfectly! I know, me and my flea marketing… And there’s a little bit of space left to fill. 🙂

Here’s the bottom shelf:

Yes, I should find some containers that take up a bit less space to maximize what space I have in the cart, but all that crap was on top of my table, and now it’s not. I can roll that sucker next to my chair when I’m working and have everything I use the most right there.

I’m beyond thrilled.

My daughter loves the cart, too. She wants one for her bathroom to hold her multitudinous beauty supplies. I bought her a white one, and it’s coming on Wednesday.

So, I shared. Now, I’d love to hear about any organizational items you use or want, or tips for how to organize smarter. Include links if you can. One commenter will receive a $5 Amazon gift card!

It’s Sunday morning, and very, very early, which is nice because it’s quiet. On Sundays, I like to start my weekly plans update by pulling a card and asking how my week will go.

This is the card. Let’s talk about the artwork here, first.

I want to ask the guy on the card where he got the gown because my daughter would love it as a nightgown—the color’s perfect for her red hair, and she loves those empire-waisted nightgowns. The grapes suggest wine, the pentacle circles look like small kegs sitting on their sides. To me, just looking at this, I’m thinking Thanksgiving is going to be fun.

The 9 of Pentacles means you’re ready to enjoy the well-deserved fruits of your labor. It depicts Daedalus—you know, Icarus’s father?—the guy who made wax wings then flew too close to the sun…? Yeah, that guy. Well, daddy was a skilled craftsman. His son might be toast, but he’s earned a good life for himself. I’m down for that! 🙂

For those celebrating Thanksgiving—here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday!

Open Contest

1. Genevive Chamblee: Memory Keeping (Contest & Giveaway) — Contest ending SOON! Win a mystery stationary gift!
2. Saturday Puzzle Contest + Open Contests! — This ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Diana Cosby: Nature’s Beauty at Fall! (Contest) — This ends VERY SOON! Win a SIGNED book!
4. Another “Books Need Bookmarks” Contest! (Three Winners) — Win a hand-painted bookmark!
5. Flashback: Cochise (Contest–3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
6. Michal Scott: The Dream and the Hope of the Slave: Mary Eliza Mahoney 1845-1926 (Contest)  — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Word Search: Things to do with kids during the holidays… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Early Turkey Love (Puzzle-Contest) — Win a FREE book!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jule Harper!
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I’ll have a guest on my blog tomorrow, so I’m sharing a puzzle early. And since it’s the last jigsaw before Thanksgiving, I thought I’d go with a turkey theme.

Enjoy the puzzle. For a chance to win a download of your choice from my backlist, let me know whether you’ll be celebrating the holiday, and if you are, who with?

UPDATE: The winner is…Beverly!
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The holiday is approaching! It’s not just The Day I’m thinking about. The kids will be out of school next week, and we have to think about how to fill that time with memories.

We’ve got a few plans. A family bonfire is always fun. Movie nights, too. But how else will we fill all that time? I started a list.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then add some things to the list of things to do! And tell me, did you enjoy the puzzle?

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
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“I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

When I read this line penned in Maya Angelou’s poem, “And Still I Rise,” the inspirational example of a woman like Mary Eliza Mahoney comes to my mind.

Mary was born in the spring of 1845 in Boston Massachusetts to former slaves. They had moved to Boston from North Carolina in search of a better life for themselves and their children.

At age ten, Mary attended the Phillips School, one of the first integrated schools in Boston. By eighteen, she knew she wanted to be a nurse and began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. For fifteen years, she acted as janitor, cook, washerwoman, and finally as a nurse’s aide, where she got hands-on experience with the nursing profession. In 1878, at the age of thirty-three, Mary’s diligence and work ethic gained her admittance to the hospital’s professional graduate school for nursing, despite not meeting the age range criteria of being twenty-one to thirty-one. The program, which ran for sixteen months, offered lectures and first-hand experience in the hospital. Of the forty-two students that entered the program in 1878, Mary was one of four to graduate in 1879, making her the first African American in the US to earn a professional nursing license. Due to racial discrimination in the public sphere, Mary worked as a private care nurse, mostly, but not solely, for white wealthy families.

Because the nursing associations she was active in were not always welcoming to blacks, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908. The mission of the NACGN was to improve educational access for black women to nursing practices, raise their living standards, and change the poor perception society had of them. It existed until 1951 when it merged with the American Nurses Association.

In 1911, Mary became the director of the Howard Orphanage Asylum for black children in Kings Park, Long Island and served until 1912.

After forty years, she finally retired from nursing but not from advocacy. When the 19^th Amendment was ratified in August 1920, Mahoney was among the first women who registered to vote in Boston.

Mary lived until she was eighty and died of breast cancer on January 4, 1926. Ten years later her achievements were honored by having an award named after her to recognize individual nurses or groups of nurses who promote integration in the nursing field. One of those honorees campaigned to have a monument erected in her honor. In 1973, the monument was dedicated at her gravesite. In 1993, Mary was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

Many African-Americans, male and female—myself included—are the embodiments of the dreams and hopes of their enslaved ancestors. I’m glad to have learned of the dream and the hope that was Mary Eliza Mahoney.

For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your thoughts on Mary’s story or on anyone you can think of who paved the way for others. 

One Breath Away

Sentenced to hand for a crime she didn’t commit, former slave Mary Hamilton was exonerated at literally the last gasp. She returns to Safe Haven, broken and resigned to live alone. Never having been courted, cuddled or spooned, Mary now fears any kind of physical intimacy when arousal forces her to relive the asphyxiation of her hanging. But then the handsome stranger who saved her shows up, stealing her breath from across the room and promising so much more.

Wealthy freeborn-Black Eban Thurman followed Mary to Safe Haven, believing a relationship with Mary was foretold by the stars. He must marry her to reclaim his family farm. But first he must help her heal, and to do that means revealing his own predilection for edgier sex.

Then just as Eban begins to win Mary’s trust, an enemy from the past threatens to keep them one breath away from love…

Excerpt…

He shouldn’t have agreed to the marriage stipulation, but Judah wouldn’t return the land to a bachelor. At the time marrying hadn’t entered Eban’s mind. Without Nora, he had no desire to leave a legacy anyway. And after sampling women of many races, Eban accepted he’d never marry. Then the stars changed his mind.

He glanced at them now. They shimmered as they had the night of that fateful watch. According to the first mate who swore by astrology, he’d perceived a special celestial alignment for Eban. The stars foretold a coupling resulting from a rescue in which Eban would meet his wife. Having found Mary, Eban knew that prophecy would be fulfilled.

“How could ya have believed ya heritage held no worth for ya without Nora?”

Eban blenched, though he shouldn’t have been surprised his aunt knew where his thoughts had gone and had headed him off at the pass.

He clucked his teeth. “To tell the truth—”

His aunt snorted. “That’d be a nice change.”

Eban frowned, but ignored the barb and continued. “I came home, not to reclaim Heart’s Ease, but to assuage my curiosity. Secretly I’d hoped to find Nora as miserable as I was. Then I met Mary.” Mary. He chuckled. “After meeting her, I see how short-sighted—how Esau-like—I’ve been.”

He glanced up again. “She’ll marry me, Clem. It’s written right there in the sky, and the stars don’t lie.”

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