Deborah Vogts's Blog, page 99

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions on Country at Heart Recipes. This weekend we will be visiting the Kansas State Fair where our daughters, The Vogts Sisters, will be performing on the free stages. If you're going to be at the fair, check out their performance schedule HERE. Enjoy your weekend! 
Chicken Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts
State Fair Corn Dogs
Featured Author Deborah Raney's Best Ever Granola

Clements Stone Arch Bridge

Here are some more photos from our May road trip to the Kansas Flint Hills. This time I wanted to share with you some photos we took at the Clements Stone Arch Bridge site. 

This is a place I'd heard about for years but had never visited. It's a gorgeous stone bridge and easy to find, just off Highway US 50, 1/2 mile south of Clements. 

Built from locally quarried stone, the Clements Bridge over the Cottonwood River has double 28' arches. 

The bridge is no longer passable, but you are welcome to walk over it. It was built in 1888 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

August Book Drawing Winner

Congratulations to Linda Thompson, the winner of my August Book Drawing! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. I really enjoyed reading about all the different places you went to this summer. Look for my September book drawing later this month.

Book Preview ~ Lock, Stock, and Over a Barrel

Lock, Stock, and Over a Barrel by Melody Carlson

With high hopes, Daphne Ballinger lands her dream job at The New York Times. But it's not long until writing about weddings becomes a painful reminder of her own failed romance, and her love of the city slowly sours as well. Is it time to give up the Big Apple for her small hometown of Appleton?

When her eccentric Aunt Dee passes away and leaves a sizeable estate to Daphne, going back home is an easy choice. What isn’t easy is coming to terms with the downright odd clauses written into the will.

Daphne only stands to inherit the estate if she agrees to her aunt's very specific posthumous terms -- personal and professional. And if she fails to comply, the sprawling old Victorian house shall be bequeathed to . . . Aunt Dee’s cats.

And if Daphne thinks that’s odd, wait until she finds out an array of secrets about Aunt Dee's life, and how imperfect circumstances can sometimes lead to God's perfect timing. Buy the book HERE.

Melody Carlson has written around 200 books for teens, women and children. That's a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a "storyteller." Her books range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. 
Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She's won a number of awards (including the Rita and Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at http://www.melodycarlson.com/

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions on Country at Heart Recipes. Enjoy your weekend! 
Layered Salad
Joan's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cheesy Squash Bake

Book Preview ~ Barefoot Summer

Barefoot Summer by Denise Hunter

Madison’s heart has been closed for years. But one summer can change everything.
In the years since her twin brother’s drowning, Madison McKinley has struggled to put it behind her. Despite the support of her close-knit family and her gratifying job as a veterinarian in their riverside town, the loss still haunts her.To find closure, Madison sets out to fulfill her brother’s dream of winning the town’s annual regatta. But first she has to learn to sail, and fast.Beckett O’Reilly knows Madison is out of his league, but someone neglected to tell his heart. Now she needs his help—and he’ll give it, because he owes her far more than she’ll ever know.
Madison will do anything—even work with the infamous Beckett O’Reilly—to reach her goal. And as much as she’d like to deny it, the chemistry between them is electrifying. As summer wanes, her feelings for him grow and a fledgling faith takes root in her heart.But Beckett harbors a secret that will test the limits of their new love. Can their romance survive summer’s challenges? And will achieving her brother’s dream give Madison the peace she desperately seeks? Buy the book HERE.
Denise Hunter is the nationally published bestselling author of The Convenient Groom and The Trouble with Cowboys. She has won The Holt Medallion Award, The Reader's Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist.

In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she's been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too! 

When Denise isn't writing she's busy raising three heroes-in-the making with her husband. You can learn more about Denise through her Website www.DeniseHunterBooks.com or by visiting her FaceBook page HERE.

August Book Drawing

As promised, here are the SIX books I'm giving away this month to one lucky winner. 

Click on the links below to learn more about the books:
Flora's Wish by Kathleen Y'BarboMountain Homecoming by Sandra RobbinsNo Safe Harbor by Elizabeth LudwigAlmost Amish by Kathryn CushmanSnow Melts in Spring by Deborah VogtsA Simple Change by Judith Miller
To enter your chance to win, leave a note in the comments below naming a Favorite Place You've Visited this Summer. Also include an email address where I can reach you if you WIN! A winner will be drawn on Saturday, August 31. That's just right around the corner, so don't waste time. Enter now! 
All of the books above have been recommended here as a Book Preview. Click on the links above to learn more about them. Thanks again for your friendship and support! 
  *Void where prohibited. Open only to US residents. Odds of winning depend on number  of entrants. Comments must be made on this blog. Social network comments are not valid.

This Week's Recipes

I am delighted to announce that I've been chosen as a Featured Member on Tasty Kitchen!

 This makes the second time, and I am so honored at the selection. Tasty Kitchen is a sister blog to The Pioneer Woman, and they have so many wonderful recipes over there. Be sure to check them out now and be sure to join this awesome community of cooks! 
 Here are this week's new additions on Country at Heart Recipes. Enjoy your weekend! 
Peanut Butter Cereal Bars
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Featured Author Judith Miller's Date-Chocolate Bit Cake
And a special treat - Back to School Tea Party Ideas

Babies and Birthdays

This past weekend, we celebrated our youngest daughter's 17th birthday. It's so hard to believe that my little baby is growing up into a beautiful young woman. 
It's also hard to believe that my little grand baby is almost six months old!
And growing like a weed! She's not yet eating baby food but will be soon! 
Giving her a bath the old fashioned way -- in grandma's sink!
Pulling Aunt Maggie's nose.
Our daughters singing a song together. 
It's such joy to have our family together for special celebrations like this. Until next time . . . 

Book Preview ~ Moonlight Masquerade

Moonlight Masquerade by Ruth Axtell


Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are the cat or the mouse.

Lady Céline Wexham seems the model British subject. French by birth but enjoying life in 1813 as a widowed English countess, she is in the unique position of being able to help those in need--or to spy for the notorious Napoleon Bonaparte.

When Rees Phillips of the British Foreign Office is sent to pose as the countess's butler and discover where her true loyalties lie, he is confident he will uncover the truth. But the longer he is in her fashionable townhouse in London's West End, the more his staunch loyalty to the Crown begins to waver as he falls under Lady Wexham's spell.

Will he find the proof he needs? And if she is a spy after all, what then will he do?

With sharp wit, fast-paced dialogue, and infectious intrigue, Ruth Axtell deftly creates a world where black and white burst into a confusion of colors--and no one is who they seem. Purchase the book HERE. About the AuthorRuth Axtell is the author of thirteen novels, including Wild Rose, one of Booklist's Top Ten in Christian Fiction. Currently a resident of Downeast Maine, Axtell has lived in the Canary Islands, Miami, and the Netherlands. Learn more about Ruth and her books HERE.