Saturday Snapshot

 Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home with Books. To participate in this meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
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I love to make things and had so many plans for Christmas. Of course I didn't get to everything that I wanted to make (yet) but I did get to the most important items. Since my ideas came from other sources I thought I would share a few of my results.

I have a friend who is bonkers for Harry Potter. I do love the books myself so it's a fun topic for us. She knows I like to be artistic and crafty when the mood strikes me so she asked me to paint a quote from a book on a switch plate (light switch cover). I had to take it farther than that, of course, and decided to surprise her with a few as well. Instead of painting the quotes I researched some favorite lines, designed the look I wanted then typed and printed them on different colors of scrapbook paper. After I cut them down I attached with Mod Podge and added a few coats on top. I even covered the screws. I sure learned a lot between the first one and the fourth one. What a difference! And she was surprised. Just wait until she sees what's next!

Close up view

Homemade light switch covers with Harry Potter quotes

It's a homemade Golden Snitch ornament! (For the same friend)

A different view on the tree

I made some other fun things too but of course I didn't get to everything I had planned. I made ornaments for my son's girlfriend and the grandkiddos but I forgot to take photos. I have more to make that involve clear glass ornaments and glitter. Pretty!

These are the ones I did remember to photograph - 

The Princess made these coozies for her mommy and daddy!

I saw this idea on Pinterest so I made my own version for grandkiddos and a few other kids.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and the happiest, healthiest New Year!

 

 

You know it's not good news when...

...you hear the x-ray technician say 'Oh, that's gonna need work." That's what we were told when my oldest son had to go to the ER after a fall on the ice. He had just arrived at work Tuesday morning, was crossing the parking lot and slipped on a small puddle of ice. The temperature has been so mild here for December that it was probably the first day we even had ice! Since it was a small puddle his foot slipped and then hit the edge of the dirt and stopped instantly. Having no where else to go, his ankle turned under and he folded to the ground. He had a broken fibula (smaller leg bone) so a fiberglass splint was put on in the ER, he was given crutches, pain pills and instructions for calling an orthopedist.

Later than afternoon an orthopedist called us after noticing the x-rays at the hospital. He told us there was  more damage than we knew about and my son needed to have surgery to repair it. The ligaments were torn on both sides of his ankle and that's why there was no support. (Thus, the flop to one side.) So we made the arrangements and he had surgery first thing Thursday morning, spent the day in the hospital and was able to go home after dinner. He's been in a lot of pain and it's hard to get comfortable but the surgery went well and the doctor said that because he's young he has a good chance of healing completely.

So that was our excitement this week. Christmas day was very nice and kind of quiet but it was wonderful to have little children here again. I'd almost forgotten how fun the season is when you have kids around! They are truly a blessing. I hope your Christmas was also filled with many blessings and you will have the happiest New Year.

My favorite gift this year!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

Christmas decorations made from (old) books

Repurposing Christmas Book Tree

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(With tutorial)

Christmas wreaths from book pages

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Fun Christmas trees!

These great ideas float around every year and I love checking them out, especially the ones that involve books. So clever!  Click the link below to see trees made from other interesting recycled products. 

Postcard, Magazine, Book and Shredded Paper Trees

(image credits: sparklette, MetalRiot)
These Christmas trees have been created from postcards, magazines, books and even shredded paper. The top gift tree was created by cutting and folding postcards into gift boxes and then layered to form a tree. Too many magazines on your hands? The middle tree was constructed from hundreds of magazine face cutouts, folded and then arranged in a tree shape. If you like white Christmas trees, make use of your shredded papers. Another way to use magazines and books when you are done is to fold them into Christmas tree shapes like on the bottom right.

Merry Christmas to all!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

In September 1897, Francis Pharcellus Church, a former Civil War correspondent and editor at the New York Sun, received a letter from the then 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. It bears repeating all these years later.
Original article
Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in the Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street
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Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".
4. Please avoid spoilers!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I won this book last year from The Shady Glade and I love it! The illustrations are half the fun and since I can't show them all here you'll just have to go get this book for yourself. It's so entertaining I had to include two teasers for your enjoyment. Happy holidays!

~page 26
Selecting a Tree -
Another alternative is to invest in a plastic tree, which can be stored during the year and, at holiday time, assembled in minutes. Though quite expensive initially ($65.00 and up) a plastic tree will last many years and can be passed on to the next generation, if they have no taste either.

~page 60
Wrapping It Up -
But some annual Christmas customs, exhaustion among them, are best let go. At 4:00 A.M. this coming Christmas morning, take a quick break from your traditional Search for the Scissors and jot on the October page of your next year's calendar: "Have all Christmas presents gift-wrapped by stores."

Christmastime by Sandra Boynton

Book Christmas Tree

I loved this feature last year on Shelf Awareness and I'm so glad they are doing it again! This is the Book Christmas Tree of the Day from Magers & Quinn Booksellers featuring a display from the University of San Francisco. Isn't it awesome?

Are you surprised? It's another tree!

I'm officially addicted to these trees! If you're sick of them just skip right over but I think they're so creative and very beautiful. This photo came from today's edition of Shelf Awareness 12/18/09. The tree was created by a library in South Australia and was made from used books, magazine pages for the stars and cassette tape for the tinsel. All of the materials came from old library stock left over from the last book sale. Now that's clever! How could I resist posting this one?

Gotta love these trees!

Are you tired of seeing these trees yet? I just can't help it! This image was on today's edition of Shelf Awareness and it's a photo of a window display of trees and a menorah made of books at Chiklit Books in Princeton, N.J. You can read more about it here.

So, I was just wondering…

It’s beginning to look, and feel, a lot more like Christmas around here. We live in western NY south of Buffalo so you can imagine what our winter weather is like. We’ve only recently started to have cold or snow so it didn’t feel very Christmasy until we got that white stuff on the ground. Since it didn’t feel much like the holidays I only recently started (Yes started. Why should this year be any different?) decorating and shopping. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

When the kids were little I decorated like crazy for every holiday. Now I’m not that ambitious or organized. In fact, I need to get rid of some of the older things that I don’t use and don’t even bother to unpack anymore. My favorite decorations are the lights. They are so beautiful and calming and sometimes after my family is in bed I’ll turn everything else off and will lay on the couch admiring the tree and the other lights, inside and out. I often take a different route coming home at night so I can see the displays at other peoples’ homes. I promised my 90 year-old grandmother and 87 year-old great-aunt that I would take them for a ride around our town so they could see all of the decorations. They don’t drive anymore and rarely get out after dark. It will be a treat for all of us and I really look forward to it.

This isn’t related to my usual posts about books and blogs but it is December and the holiday season. What are some of your favorite decorations and what do you do at your home?

Another kind of Christmas tree

I never quite warmed up to the whole Chia Pet thing but if you like them then this might be the holiday item for you. I have to say that I like the book trees better!

Unusual Christmas trees

I saw this photo on the Bonnie Hunt Show today and then here online
I decided to look for more Christmas trees made out of books.


I found this one here. It's a display at a library. My own library made something similar from red books last year and I wish I had taken a photo.

These are from shredded paper and folded pages of books, photos found here.
Aren't they clever? Look here for even more photos of beautiful trees created from recycled materials. Have you ever had your own tree made from something unusual?