Books and Needlepoint: Kathy Cano-Murillo

Showing posts with label Kathy Cano-Murillo. Show all posts

Monday, March 7, 2011

BLOG TOUR: Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing by Kathy Cano-Murillo (Review and Giveaway!)

Shared by Kristi

Title: Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing
Author: Kathy Cano-Murillo
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Other books reviewed from this author: Waking Up in the Land of Glitter

Sometimes to find your life's true path, you have to stray outside the lines. . .

Scarlet Santana is never happier than when creating fabulous fashions for women of all shapes and sizes. Now, after years of hard work, she finally has the chance to live her dream and study under the hottest designer in New York. To raise money for her move, Scarlet opens an after-hours sewing school in a local record shop, teaching a type-A working mom whose rigid parenting style is causing her family to unravel and an enigmatic seamstress with a mysterious past.

But as stitches give way to secrets and class mates become friends, the women realize an important truth: There is no single pattern for a good life. Happiness is always a custom fit.

This was such a fun book to read and I devoured it in one evening! Scarlet's enthusiasm is contagious and her blog posts are very inspiring. I even went online to see what would happen when I went to http://www.daisyforever.com/. I wasn't surprised that it lead me to the author's website - Diary of a Crafty Chica. (Go check it out and enter the great contest going on there!)

Scarlet is 30 years old, and even with two degrees in engineering, she has decided to forego that career and pursue one in fashion. Her Nana Eleanor taught her to sew at a very young age and she makes all of her own clothes. I know I would love to have that kind of skill!

Daisy Forever is a tribute to her favorite designer - Daisy de la Flora from the 50's. Daisy was obsessed with Carmen Miranda and patterned many of her wild designs after Carmen's love of bright colors and sequins. She was also a recluse and her current designs at Casa de la Flora are handled by her newphew Johnny Scissors. He is known as the hottest designer in New York and is the one that Scarlet has won the opportunity to study under. Unfortunately, he is mediocre as a designer and is just in it for the money and fame.

Scarlet starts her Patternless Sewing class to raise money for the tuition for Johnny's class. Only five students are chosen every year and she feels very lucky to be one of them. Especially since it is the 50th anniversary of Casa de la Flora. She currently works for a designer in Phoenix, Arizona who seems to have a talent for leading her employees on and never following through. She promised Carly the use of the studio for her class and cancels on her a week before, telling her the liability insurance would be outrageous. Scarlet just knows that she has to come up with the down payment for Johnny's tuition and find a new location for her class, so she takes about 50 LP's from her eclectic collection and goes to her favorite record store - Vega's Vicious Vinyl. She thinks she might have a crush on the owner, Marco, but where she never stops talking, he hardly talks at all. (He secretly has a crush on her too though!) A disastrous incident smashes most of her records as she goes into Marco's store, but it opens the door for a "working" relationship between Marco and Scarlet. He shows her an usused back room that would be perfect for her sewing class!

After letting her students know about the class location switch - only five students remain - Mary Theresa, Olivia, Rosa, Stephanie and Jennifer. Mary Theresa is the type-A mom, and to tell you a little about her - she goes by Mary Theresa - not Mary or any alternative form whatsoever! She is also a workaholic and her husband is the one that stays home and takes care of their twins. She enrolls in the class as their therapist has recommend she take some sort of free-form art class to try to "lighten up" her outlook on life. Stephanie and Jennifer are sisters in high school. One is an athlete and is taking the class because her mother thinks she needs to diversify and the other is a fan of DaisyForever.com. Rosa is an elderly woman who came to Phoenix just to take Scarlet's class. She is terminally ill and is keeping that secret from the class as well as the real reason she is taking Scarlet's class. Olivia rounds out the class as a divorced, single mom of one.

In Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing you mainly learn about Scarlet, Rosa and Mary Theresa and how these women overcome their fears and bond to each other as close as family. They encourage each other and lean on one another. Scarlet, as she deals with a blooming relationship with Marco and a disintegrating relationship with her family - whom she doesn't feel supports her. Mary Theresa as she deals with her husband leaving her to go back to work in another town and a demotion at work cutting her hours and relocating her to work from home. And Rosa, who keeps her secrets close to her heart in order to make her dreams live on.

So I will say it again - Fun book! Great Read! Made me want to unbury my sewing machine from my own craft room and get creative!

FOR THE GIVEAWAY: The package includes one copy of Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing and one copy of her previous book - Waking Up in the Land of Glitter.

This giveaway is open to US/Canada only - no PO boxes. It will end at midnight, CST on my DH's birthday - March 28! Just leave a comment with your email address to enter.

Additional entries available:
- Follow my blog - just tell me how (up to 2 ways for 2 entries)
- Twitter - leave me the link
- Blog post - leave me the link

A total of five entries are available, but please leave each in a separate comment.

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Friday, March 26, 2010

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo (Book Review)

Shared by Kristi

Title: Waking Up in the Land of Glitter
Author: Kathy Cano-Murillo
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

About the book: With glue guns, glitter, twigs, or yarn, the ordinary can become extraordinary. . .especially at La Pachanga. Owned by Estrella "Star" Esteban's family, the restaurant has a rep for two things: good food and great art. La Pachanga brings people together -- even when it looks like they couldn't be further apart.

One ill-fated evening, Star jeopardizes her family's business, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her future career. To redeem herself , she agrees to participate in a national craft competition, teaming up with her best friend, Ofelia -- a secretly troubled mother whose love for crafting borders on obsession; and local celebrity Chloe Chavez -- a determined television personality with more than one skeleton in her professional closet. If these unlikely allies can set aside their differences, they'll find strength they never knew they had, and learn that friendship, like crafting, is truly an art form.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this book - and not just because it combined two of my favorite things - reading and crafts. Star is very much a free spirit. She lives at home and works at her family's restaurant, doing press releases for the art shows they host. Her life isn't very demanding, and she doesn't really have a lot of tough decisions to make, so when she suspects Theo, her best friend, is about to propose - it kind of causes her to lose a little control. She ends up getting drunk with her cousin Maria Juana (I laughed too) and doing some things that she is not too proud of. These things cause her to lose Theo and for her parents to lose their faith/trust in her. Her dad basically tells her she has 6 months to get her act together - working somewhere other than La Pachanga.

Star gets involved with the Craft Olympics, as La Pachanga is in charge of the center pieces for the tables - 200 of them. . . Olfie jumps right in to help, but her ideas are not very attractive. No one is willing to tell Olfie that her crafts and awful, as she tends to melt down. Olfie has been struggling with being a good enough wife and mother her entire marriage. It doesn't help that her mother-in-law is always there to help out, and does things much better than she ever hopes too. Her husband and daughter both love her unconditionally though, and do not discourage her crafting.

Chloe Chavez and Star did not get off to a good start the first time they met. When they discover they are both going to be making the centerpieces together, you think that sparks are going to fly. But together with Benecio, a teenager, who with his passion for fashion hopes to score a booth at the craft olympics, they come up with an idea and begin the process of making centerpieces. Unfortunately, their individual lives are each spiralling out of control and they each have to make some tough decisions before they can begin the process of starting over.

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter
Publisher/Publication Date: Grand Central Publishing, March 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-50924-4
336 pages

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Teaser Tuesday: 3-16-2010

Shared by Kristi

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you have given!
Please avoid spoilers!

From the brown paper gift bag from Ofie, Chloe pulled out a set of black Converse sneakers Ofie had decorated using a bleach pen. One shoe had a neat series of dots and dashes, but the other was smeared beyond recognition. (p160, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo)