If the saga of Top O' Hill Casino becoming Arlington Baptist College were written as fiction, readers would dismiss it as improbable and impossible. The story of a tearoom evolving into the gambling hot spot of North Central Texas that was then acquired by a fiery gospel preacher, who foretold its transformation into a Baptist seminary and ultimately an accredited Bible college, is stranger than fiction yet absolutely true. The rich and famous enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the mysterious and notoriously infamous, and if large amounts of money were involved, so much the better. Stir in fabulous racehorses, flashy stage and screen stars, singers, dancers, well-known bandleaders and bands, and the tale becomes enthralling.
Jera Brandvig’s signature quilt-as-you-go method is back with brand new techniques and ideas! Create pretty projects using small, manageable pieces of fabric that can be made into different shapes and sizes from a creative and fresh perspective. The follow up to best-sellers Quilt-as-you-go Made Modern and Quilt-as-you-go Made Vintage, this book introduces how to quilt individual circles, hexagons, and easy 3D quilt blocks. Also, learn to add extra creative flair with embellishments such as lace and ribbon to your quilt. Once you’ve created your treasured masterpiece, enjoy learning Jera’s tips for how to tastefully display quilts as elegant home decor. Create beginner and precut-friendly quilts in multiple styles and sizes Learn various techniques such as making reversible quilts with folded circles or hexagons, making 3-dimensional flower blocks, and embellishing with ribbons and lace Includes special chapter showing Jera’s ideas for using quilts as home decor
Love comes when you least expect it... Tressa Buckland likes her quiet life in Port Lowdy, with its cobbled streets and colourful terraced houses overlooking the sea. Her job at the local paper allows her to pursue her art in her free time, with no one but her tabby cat Ginger Pickles to mind her in Mermaid Terrace. But then the owner of the paper is called away on an emergency, and it's up to Tressa to run the paper for six months. Her first task: find a new part-time journalist. Dan Byrne is the angriest man in Ireland – or so the readers of his very successful column, 'Dan takes on the world', think. But after a story goes south and he loses his job in Dublin, Dan has no choice but to start afresh. When an opportunity comes up in sleepy Cornwall, Dan and his Golden Retriever Ritchie set off for a new adventure. For Tressa, Dan's arrival to Port Lowdy changes everything. Tressa tries not to look too deeply at her own life, but Dan sees a story to uncover in absolutely everyone – even her. The two of them couldn't be more different... yet, if they can find a way to work together, they may just breathe new life and joy into this sleepy seaside village. Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace is a heartwarming new village romance about the power of love and kindness, from the bestselling author of Starting Over at Acorn Cottage. Readers love Kate Forster! 'This beautifully descriptive and touching story about love and hope is fabulous sunshine reading.' Closer 'A lovely get-away-from-it-all read.' Red 'LOVED this book. From the cover you might assume it's a light read but this was so much more. Such meaningful characters surrounding a story of life, love, and starting over. Definitely a keeper!' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars 'This is a keeper and I wish I could give it 10 stars.' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars 'An uplifting, delightful story, this one is emotional, it'll have you laughing and crying, but the overall theme for me was hope, self forgiveness and love, you will be smiling at the end.' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars 'I didn't want the story to come to an end, because it was just so lovely. This is the perfect antidote to the world outside right now.' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars
Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the “Six Great Tea Mountains” of Yunnan Province, and in imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea’s noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse. Puer Tea traces the rise, climax, and crash of this phenomenon. With ethnographic attention to the spaces in which Puer tea is harvested, processed, traded, and consumed, anthropologist Jinghong Zhang constructs a vivid account of the transformation of a cottage handicraft into a major industry—with predictable risks and unexpected consequences. Watch the associated videos at https://archive.org/details/PUERTEADVD1.
