Warm your hearts with art on November 10 at the Franklin Arts Center holiday open house. Celebrate creativity and shop for unique gift items ... paintings, pottery, jewelry, glass, mobiles, sculpture, wood carvings, leather-craft, and various one-of-a-kind art wonders!

Guest Artists in studio 119: Bavelli Leather, Becky’s Bread, Carole Eliseuson, Kathleen Krueger, Tom Larson, Laura Paycer, Tuesday Artists (Carol Hanson, Mary Hendricks, Judy Kuusisto, Mona Warren), and John Wgeishofski.

Award-winning author Candace Simar visited with me about her fourth book in her Abercrombie Trail series, "Blooming Prairie." The journey starts with Evan Jacobson in "Abercrombie Trail", a Norwegian immigrant in the mid-1800's, who lands in Minnesota. He takes the job of stagecoach driver. Candace uses this as an excellent story-telling tool as Evan drives over the newly settled land from Fort Snelling to Fort Abercrombie, meeting and greeting settlers along the way, as well as befriending some of the Indians, while fearing for his life from others, Indians and settlers.

On my writer's blog this morning, I have a guest post by an author publishing under the name Sophia Stone. In her memoir, "Mormon Diaries," Stone examines her life, her relationships, and her faith. She writes with honesty and bravery as she dares to face and question what she once thought of as truth.

To read the interview with Sophia Stone, go to my writer's blog, Play off the Page, www.maryaalgaard.blogspot.com. If you're reading this at a later date, find the tab under my picture header for Book Reviews.

The first comment of this morning:

Bring your children to the Brainerd Public Library for an upcycling art project during their day off of school on Thursday, October 18. Happy Dancing Turtle will be at the Brainerd Public Library on Thursday, October 18th at 10am to work with children to use old fabric to create a new quilt. We will be reading "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback and then together we will create a design on a square of old fabric, which we will then make into a small quilt for display in the library. Registration is required by call the library at 829-5574.