The Art of Creative Watercolour by Danielle Donaldson

Inspiration and techniques for imaginative drawing and painting

This is more of a practical kind of book and not a learn/step by step from start to finish of a painting. She lists out in the beginning of the book of what you will learn. She takes about supplies – both consumables like paper and paint and tools like brushes and palettes. There are some images throughout the book. Photographs of items and projects/studies. In the book there are three lessons – the first is organized practice. Talking about daily practice, handmade journals, reward yourself and others. Lesson two covers colour practice – she goes into washes, techniques and fixes and other information. Lesson three goes into composition practice, studies and do's and don'ts. At the end there is a metric conversion chart, to convert what to multiply by.

It is not a total beginner book, more an intermediate book. For those slowly moving going into being an intermediate or to be a more advanced painter. It does cover some basics, like another watercolour painting book I have looked at. Like the others, it would not fully help me because I am still at the beginning phase of learning watercolour. Some reader may feel overwhelmed with some of the projects.

Return to Wonderland (Looking Glass Saga #1) by Tanya Lisle

Fans of Alice in Wonderland may get a kick out of this. In a way, it remains me of Wicked, but this series the characters and world are of Alice. This is not a retelling of the book and is not like Wicked where the focus is not full of the happenings in those of Wonderland. Where Wicked shows the backstory and future interactions of people after Dorothy.

This is more of a modern take on Alice and her life when she has gotten back from Wonderland a few months back. And has promised not to bring Wonderland up again. We follow Alice Liddell going to Lucena Academy in grade seven. It is the same school where her sister went, and was supposed to go again, but was told went to London. Neither sister got to say goodbye to each other. She meets Evan Case when she enters, her roommate Adrianna and Miss Amanda the advisor for the floor.

Eventually, she meets the Cheshire Cat in human form and makes continuing appearances in her life there. The reason he is there, according to him is that Wonderland has changed. She later enters Wonderland, to find the Hatter and Doormouse and finds that the Hare has not been there for several months. Alice is told the Queen is now taking hearts instead of heads. Making her way through Wonderland Alice is taken by the Red Knight to have her heart taken. While in the cell she finds the White King is there as well, yet she soon gets out and finds Hare in the kitchen. More events happen after this and eventually gets pushed into a mirror and is back at the academy. The people she has come close to have a feeling of the book she has and the interactions she has had with Cat is something more, she does end up telling Adrianna and Cat wants to read the book.

This is where the book itself relatively ends, there are other books to continue on what has been started. In the book other than at the beginning we are not given anymore about her sister. So that would be tackled in the next or future books of the saga. The ending kind of pushes you to want to know what will happen to Alice, the Cat and about her sister.

A Cart Full of Magic by Ileana Abreav

Divided into four parts. The first part looks at everyday products for magical items. This is more of an introduction to a small variety of things she has decided to talk about. In part two, she goes into food, drinks and more. So it looks into stuff like vegetables, fruits, bread and more. Part three covers topics of the house, hygiene, beauty, and others. A few things mentioned are flowers, essential oils, and hardware. In the last part, it talks about enhancing magical work. Colour in magic, outside influences, and two other topics are talked about. There is a reflection as a closing.

It is mentioned that not everything has magical meaning but the essence of the product and how the items are used and produced. It does have some information and keywords associated with them. Some items will say: See (item or chapter). The book is not fully information based, so if that is what you wanted, you are not totally going to get it. There is some information about moon phases, days of the week, cleansing and blending energies. Throughout the book, there is information laid in it and a nice tool to have but not something I would fully rely on for something like kitchen witchcraft.

Make Space: a minimalist's guide to the good and the extraordinary by Regina Wong

She does give a little information about herself and her road to minimalism. Bringing in the concept and gives examples from her life. It is personable but so personable that you just want her to move to the next concept. I have mixed feelings when it comes to personal stories in books that are tended to inform people, and this book was okay for me. The examples could be related to a number of people. Makes a point that there will be challenges to being more minimal – like those close to you questioning your journey. There are activities placed throughout the book. When there is italics, those are quotes/statements from others. She makes points that there will be challenging and it will be hard, where others may downplay or overlook this part. Also stating that if you live with others it will be a process for them to and need to do it themselves or even resist this change. This book is not how to clean or organize better. It seems research into some of the things written. Not a long book, gets to the point. Not a step by step on how to do it, because everyone's experience with it will be different in the journey of minimalism or with less stuff then they do now.