Cynthia D'Alba's Blog, page 6
June 9, 2017
LAST DAY FOR SALE & NAME MY BOOK
Today is my last day for blogging this week. I will TRY to do this more often but you know… life….
I hope you do follow me on Facebook
Facebook and Facebook Fan Page
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Not only is the last blog this week, this is the LAST 24 hours to get WHEN THINGS GET HOT IN TEXAS for a mire $0.99
Now, I’ll be honest… this book is WORTH $0.99. Heck, it’s worth the $2.99 that will be the price after today.
Here’s another secret I’ll let you in on… This book is only available for one month. After that, we’ll pull it down and each author will individually publish her own story. One difference is that I’ll put Texas Daze out in print in addition to digital.
I hope you all are also members of Western Romance Cafe over on Facebook. I’m posting over there today also and OF COURSE there are prizes! 
June 8, 2017
Snakes and Other Scary Things
Welcome to Thursday. I might not be around a lot today. I have a to-do list that’s a mile long! Tomorrow, I have high school girl friends coming over to spend the night. Yeah, I know. We are a bunch of old women, but when we get together, the years fall away and we’re in our teens again! In fact, one of our gang is getting MARRIED tonight night! Woot!
Today’s Prizes are:
A print copy of Texas Tango or Texas Lullaby or Texas Bossa Nova! Winner’s pick.
An Embroidered When Things Get Hot in Texas Decorative Towel
A Surprise package which will have at least one book and swag.
I’m going to be talking about Texas Daze, but before I start,[image error] take a peek at the cover!
Luscious, right?
In Texas Daze, my hero has a thing about horses. Now, no Alpha male wants to admit he’s afraid of ANYTHING, but horses? Those majestic animals?
Yep. Dr. Eli Boone and horses are oil and water. But fate is nothing if not a sneaky beeotch, so who does fate think is he’s match? A COWGIRL?? Are you kidding, fate? Eli is a smooth, socialite from New York City. A working cowgirl from Texas?? As our heroine (Marti) says, his hands are softer and smoother than hers!
What are you scared of? I confess. It’s snakes for me. I know it’s a phobia. I realize that not all snakes bite or are poisonous. Doesn’t matter.
I would wreck my car!!
I have a friend who freaks out when she sees a frog! So it’s different things for different people.
What scares you? Spiders? Snakes? Horses (like poor Eli)?
Hope you’ve taken advantage of the $0.99 sale price for this! Only 48 more hours!
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June 7, 2017
Giddy Up!!
How is everyone this morning? Hope you were able to join us last night at A Taste of Romance book club (hosted by the lovely Millie Swank!) to celebrate the release of
WHEN THINGS GOT HOT IN TEXAS
The time just FLEW by. After I write today’s post, I’ll head over there and pick my winners from last night. (Check back here in about an hour and I’ll list the winners.) Here’s out beautiful cover again!
WINNERS from last night – Pam Potter, Lori Meecham, and and Stacy Jordet
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You know how this game is played! Today’s Prizes..
Embroidered Beach Towel (looks like this)
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A PRINT copy of either Texas Tango or Texas Lullaby
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This DARLING Giddy Up Plate, perfect to hold jewelry!
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Today’s chat is about Texas Montgomery Mavericks! Last night, I mentioned that Texas
Daze is book NINE in the Whispering Springs, Texas Series. I know some of you were like.. WHAT??!!?? Where are the other EIGHT books in this series? How I did miss that?
I can explain! When I wrote Texas Two Step, I didn’t really know that it was the start of a series! Then Texas Tango was born, along with Texas Montgomery Mavericks. Tango was followed by Texas Fandango, Texas Twist, Texas Bossa Nova, Texas Hustle and closed with Texas Lullaby. I was sad.
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I LOVED my people. Loved their little town of interesting friends. AND I kept wondering how much trouble Delene and Tina would get into!
Then I wrote Saddles and Soot. In the SAME communities, but not a Montgomery family member and I thought… Hey! Let’s tell more stories in Whispering Springs, Texas. But to keep all the stories in the same “series”. I decided to RENAME Texas Montgomery Mavericks books to Whispering Springs, Texas to keep them grouped. Keeping the same series name (TTM) would not really convey to the readers that the book they were picking up wouldn’t actually have a Montgomery in it.
Then came Texas Daze. Same community (Whispering Springs, TX), Montgomerys show up and Delene ACTS UP! HAHA
Hold up your hand if you read Texas Hustle (Porchia and Darren’s story.) Do you remember that the Montgomery patriarchs (Lane and Clint) had a sister (Cora) who got made about inheritance issues and left town, never to be seen again? Well, I found her! AND she has two sons and one daughter. And get this, ONE of her sons actually lives in Whispering Springs and has been “watching” the Montgomerys for a few years! OMG! No kidding. The Montgomerys offspring have a COUSIN living in the same town and they don’t know!
Today’s questions for you to answer…
Have you read Texas Hustle? Do you remember Cora, the missing sister?
Do you have a PRINT copy of Lullaby or Tango, and if not, do you want one?
If you won the beach towel, would you keep it or give it away?
Have you bought When Things Got Hot in Texas yet?
Have you left a review for When Things Got Hot in Texas? (YAY if yes. PLEASE Do, if no!)
THANK YOU for coming by.
PLEASE share this post everywhere!!
June 6, 2017
Sticky Stuff and Prizes!!
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Do you have your copy? Have you told a friend to grab it while it’s on sale? I sure hope so!
Today’s Prizes:
Embroidered Beach Towel
Mystery package
A pair of Harlequin Socks & swag
Have you noticed the title to this post… “Sticky Things” What in the world could that mean?
Today’s topic is things you can’t eat without getting it all over you!
For me, it’s honey. I doesn’t matter how careful I am, what I use to “get” to the honey, I still end up with it in strange places, like my ELBOW! I mean.. My goodness! How did I get honey on my elbow? And my KNEE!
The other is Italian food… anything with a tomato base. Some piece will fall on my chest (Boobs really) I’m wondering if I should invest in an adult bib?
So what’s your spill?
THANK YOU for coming back today.
HELP me by sharing this post (and the book) with your friends and family and FB groups. The ladies and I would appreciate it!
OH!! Here are the buy links. You know what to do with them!
http://bit.ly/2BarnesNobleWTGHT
June 5, 2017
It’s HERE!!
Good Morning!! So glad you found your way here. Today starts five (5!) days of celebration! Why?
Because it’s my FIRST NEW BOOK in over six months!
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Isn’t she beautiful!!!
Growing up, all my family celebrations involved food. In fact, celebrations and deaths were all noted with food! Is your family like that? Food for any event?
But for celebrations, it must be cake and ice cream! If I were serving you cake and ice cream, what kind of cake? What kind of ice cream?
PRIZES:
A Beach Towel embroidered with your name!
A display kitchen towel… Embroidered design to be determined
Surprise package with book(s) and swag.
Leave a comment to be in the running. All contests will run all week. Winners announced next Monday!
psst… When Things Got Hot in Texas is OUT! Do you have your copy?
April 17, 2017
Fisherman Stories
It’s been a LONG time since I’ve written here. Sometimes I wonder…
Are blogs dead?
Are posts to Facebook the “new” blog post? I’d love to hear from you about that.
Am I crying into the vast void where no one hears me?
Fisherman Stories…
I’m married to a fisherman. Not a PROFESSIONAL fisherman. We don’t get money for his days on the lake. We don’t even get fish. This is his hobby and play (and as everyone knows… a boat is a black hole where you pour money)
My husband, Fisherman, is quite funny. He says I tell too much on Facebook but maybe it’s better to post stories about him HERE. Fewer people, fewer eyes (and probably not his brother’s! HAHA Fisherman will never find out!)
Yesterday, we were driving home after church and lunch with my parents. This is a honest-to-goodness conversation.
Me: You know what we should do? We should take about $50,000 and do some beautiful landscaping with a recirculating stream that flows down our hill and back into the lake. Sink a pump and use lake water. Wouldn’t that look great?
Note: we live on top of a high hill that drops down to the lake. See Pictures
Fisherman: We could do the same thing with the garden hose. Put it at the top and let water run down.
Me: “Rolls eyes” One puny stream?
Fisherman: Okay. Use three hoses. And we’ll set one up to spray in the air like a fountain.
Me: This is so going public.
So what’s the most you’ve ever invested in landscaping?
Oh.. and we don’t have $50,000 to do this. I was just seeing if I could!
August 20, 2016
It’s DONE!
Since December 2015, I’ve been fighting breast cancer at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences. I was extremely lucky in that we caught it early. While the type of cancer (Triple Negative Breast Cancer) can be the worst diagnosis because of its aggressive and invasive nature, for me, it wasn’t. It was very small when discovered (through a regular mammogram). Also in my favor, the cancer responded to the chemotherapy. At the start of chemo (on Dec. 31, 2015), the cancer was 1.4 cm. At the end of treatment (April, 2016), the cancer was 9mm. A very good response.
I had surgery in June to remove the “dead” lump in my breast. Just a simple lumpectomy and sentinel node resection. Both showed no live cancer, which was excellent. The cancer had been in one place of one breast and had not spread outside that area.
Still, my doctors felt breast radiation should be done “just in case” there was even a seed there. So for the past three weeks, I have had daily radiation on that breast. On Friday, (yesterday!) I had a last and final radiation treatment.
That means… I’M DONE! No more chemo. No more radiation. No more surgery.
I hesitate to use the word “cured” so for now, let’s say… there is NO evidence of cancer anywhere in my body! YAY
Now it’s time to get serious about getting back to writing. Don’t you agree?
March 8, 2016
Newsletter Announcement!
I’ve taken back over doing my own newsletter. Yes, yes, I know. Control freak! But I do enjoy the work!
I have a new newsletter coming out in twenty-four hours! You won’t want to miss it.
If you’ve been a newsletter subscriber in the past, you probably are still on the rolls. If you haven’t, then now is the time to jump in!
Head over to http://cynthiadalba.com/newsletter-sign-up and sign up today!
There might be an announcement about these…
Catch my news!
February 10, 2016
Saying Goodbye To Jill
January 2005-February 2016
Eleven years ago, my husband and I went to a kill shelter to look for a new family member. There, we found a tiny, 8-week old solid black puppy. Historically, black dogs have trouble being adopted, although for the life of me, I don’t know why!
My husband wanted a dog that would weight about 40 pounds. The pound staff said, “Yep. This dog will weight about 40 pounds.”
Hubby lifted the puppy’s HUGE paw and said, “There is no way this dog will weight 40 pounds.”
The puppy bounded out the cage, grabbed my husband’s pant leg, and began to tug and growl. How could I leave that puppy there?
Still, we took the puppy home on a “trial” basis.
We named her Jill, because you have to call a puppy something. And even if we decided to take her back, she needed a name.
Over the next eleven years, Jill traveled all the US with my husband and me. She lived in our house, had great food, never cold, never left out in the yard. One dog bed wasn’t enough. She had three piled on top of each other. (The Princess and The Pea!)
As you may can tell, she did weight 40 pounds as predicted…. 40 in the front and 40 in the back!
Yesterday, we had to let Jill go. Old age. Strokes. It was time. She was ready. We were not.
RIP Jill. You will be missed. And Loved forever.
January 12, 2016
How I Make Those Cute Boots!
My sister has asked me TWICE to explain how I make the cowboy boots I’ve been giving away. Like this one I made for me for Christmas
So I made one today step by step do my sister could “see” the process. Thought some of you might be interested also!
My machine is a Babylock Ellegante 3. It has a built-in computer that allows me to do editing on my projects right there rather than having to edit on my computer, save to a USB drive and open at the machine.
To start any project, I have to have a computerized / digitized design that is made for machine embroidery. In this case, I bought a cowboy boot that had four different designs. I pick the one I want to work with by selecting it on my machine LCD screen.
The final product will look different but that’s okay. I mostly want the boot design more than the upper leather design.
If you look to the right, you’ll see the list of colors to make this design. As I add other things to the boot, that list of colors will change. Once I set this as my design, I need to make some alterations. Specially, I want to add the date and a name. I can pull up numbers and letters and add to the design.
Here I’ve added 2016 from the picture above and added the name “Hannah”
I know I want to do something “different” on the calf of the boot rather than what is shown. I’m making this for a niece-in-law, so I’m thinking a pretty calla lily might be look good. I go through my machine embroidery designs until I find one I like. Then I lay it OVER the design on the boot calf. When those “swirls” and straight line come up to sew, I’ll simply skip them. Here it the boot with the calla lily.
I’m ready to sew!
I start by hooping a piece of tearaway stabilizer
Next, I cut a sheet of craft felt in half. One-half goes on top of the stabilizer and I hold on to the other half for later.
Here is early in the stitching. I’m sewing on the 1/2 of sheet of felt (which is white in this case.) I’ve done the heel, sole, toe design and the placemarkers for the material that will comprise the boot calf. Without those placemarkers, I couldn’t be sure that my material would be in the right place.
I decided that since I’m doing a pretty white calla lily, I’d make the boot calf a chocolate brown. But actually, the boot calf can be any material I might have on hand. Below, I’ve set the silk on the felt and sown down the upper and lower edges of the material. See all the extra hanging off? We have to get rid of that now.
There. A nice, clean edge that we’ll finish out later.
At this point, the machine wants me to do the “original” design. I simply skip those threads and embroidery the design I want.
If you look to the right, you’ll see what looks like a green arrow in the upper right corner of my LCD screen. Then look at where I’m sewing. I’m doing that green “arrow,” which is actually a leaf.
Here is the boot after I finished stitching the design. But we aren’t done yet!
Remember the other 1/2 of the felt sheet? Now I place it over where I’ve been working (like a lid) and stitch the outline of the boot. This gives me a “back” to the boot.
The project comes out of the hoop looking like this….
All that paper (around and inside) the boot has to be torn away, thus the rationale for using tearaway stabilizer. Easy to get off.
Once the stabilizer is gone, I trim around the boot. I don’t have to trim close to the outline stitch as this will all turn into the boot. When I first started making these, I would cut the outline stitch A LOT and then I realized it didn’t have to be sooooo exact!
This is the boot ready to be turned inside out…carefully!
And the final product.
So that’s how it’s done!
Questions? Want one?
Leave a comment here and I’ll choose one winner for their own boot!
