Big, juicy book giveaway at chroniclebooks.com

Has anyone ever called you a bookworm? How about craft geek or cookbook freak? I've been called all three (and a few other choice names too, but I digress). I do love new books *almost* as much as I love old ones. If you're a lover of books and awesome giveaways you'll LOVE this: Chronicle Books is giving away a mouth-wateringly generous $500 worth of books this holiday season to two extremely lucky winners. They will choose one blogger to receive their very own wishlist of hard and softbound goodness and one lucky reader/commenter from that blog will win them too!
Here's my wishlist for the haul-iday giveaway: books on quirky words,  daddy diy, crafting, family travel, urban farm cuisine, drawing journals and deep, dark chocolate; because of course, no list of mine is ever complete without the inclusion of chocolate.

They've got a unique selection for nearly every area of interest, including children's books, journals and stationery. So hop on over to Chronicle Books, check out their awesome selection and then pop back here and leave a comment. You know you want to.

A real page turner

Oak & Maple leaf garland made from repurposed vintage books

Page Turner paper sculptures made from repurposed vintage books

I have a thing for old books. I was at an estate auction this summer where I happened onto four boxes of castaway reads. This stack of lonely old books caught my attention. They clearly hadn't been touched in years. They were begging to be picked up, held tenderly and leafed through. And so I obliged. Perusing through them, I noticed these weren't particularly popular titles. They didn't contain noteworthy illustrations or interesting typography. The covers showed the scorch of sun damage and were quite dusty. I knew if they didn't sell they'd be carted off to the local dump. But these wouldn't draw much attention sitting on an antique store bookshelf I decided. So I made a deal with the whole lot: I'll buy all of you and take you home where I promise to handle each one of you to see what you contain from cover to cover. If I find anything particularly unique I'll put you up on etsy for adoption to a loving home; but if I don't, I promise to make you into something new - something that gets you noticed. Overwhelmed with emotion, the books remained quite silent which I of course took as a sign of humble agreement.

Wait a minute

Holiday projects are waiting to be conceived.

Wine, leftover from a recent dinner party, is waiting to be finished off.

Thrifted wool sweaters are waiting to be felted.

 

Good books and a comfy chair are waiting to be enjoyed.

It's all waiting on me. My attention. Oh how I wish I had the time to spend a full day at my sewing machine; plotting, stitching, making things happen. Time to photograph it all, blog about it, post it and hopefully, sell it! Or just some downtime, that would be sweet. Instead I am making other things happen. Helping a friend in need keep her business afloat while she recovers from some pretty serious surgeries. Stretching myself between everything and still trying to keep homeschooling our top priority. It's all good but it certainly is a different plan than I had for myself and for Liza Jane this fall. Someone told me once that man makes plans and God laughs. While I personally don't believe that God is cynical, I have experienced quite alot of derailment from my plans, especially lately. Seems to be the theme for 2010. My husband's motto is adapt and overcome. I'm trying. I remind myself that we are a homeschool family that works; not the other way around. Priorities in check it's about balancing today the best way we know how. Just like you do. Just like we all do. So tell me, what's waiting on you?