Valentine's Day - Books with Love Giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day and thanks for stopping by to check out our Books with Love giveaway!  Be sure to check out the Books with Love blog hop links at the bottom of this post for a chance to enter lots of awesome bookish giveaways.  :)

Are you Team Jem or Team Will?

Because we love all things Victorian and steampunkish and because we can't resist a tantalizing love triangle, we are giving away a copy of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel as well as a hand-beaded Clockwork Angel-inspired bookthong from Stupid Shiny Designs' fabulous etsy shop!  

To see more gorgeous novel-inspired bookthongs, be sure to visit Stupid Shiny Designs' Etsy shop!

Contest details:

The prize:  Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel and a "Will" or "Jem" bookthong from Stupid Shiny Designs

Contest deadline:  February 16 at 11:59 pm PST.

How to Enter:  Fill out the form below to let us know which book thong you would like to win. *required* (This contest is INTERNATIONAL so long as The Book Depository ships to your location.)

Extra Entries:

+1 if you "Favorite" Stupid Shiny Designs on Etsy

+1 if you "Like" Stupid Shiny Designs' facebook page

Many thanks to Good Choice Reading and Once Upon a Twilight for organizing this fun Books with Love giveaway hop!  Be sure to check out the contest links below:

Winners!!

Thank you to everyone who entered our August giveaways!  Emails have been sent to both winners, and they will have three days to respond before new winners will be drawn.  :)

The winner of our Stupid Shiny Designs giveaway is: 

Michikit

The winner of our Vampire Academy giveaway is:

Elena

Flower Friday - Graham Thomas + Friday's Fab Five

'Graham Thomas' roses

This week's featured flowers are - 'Graham Thomas' roses!  These pretty yellow roses bloom in large, lovely clusters and smell wonderful.  This is the first time we've featured a flower that is not from our own yard, so I don't have any personal experience with growing this rose, but they happen to be in bloom at our favorite city park right now and I just couldn't resist snapping a couple photos of them while we were at the park this afternoon.  I am excited to learn more about them and am already trying to figure out if we could make space to fit 'Graham Thomas' into our yard.   To learn more about about 'Graham Thomas' roses, check out Dave's Garden's Graham Thomas page, Backyard Gardener's Graham Thomas page, or HelpMeFind's Graham Thomas page.

A few book and blogosphere updates:

1.  Our Stupid Shiny Designs contest ends on Tuesday (8/31), so be sure to stop by and enter if you haven't already!  Click here to enter.  Our Richelle Mead giveaway also ends Tuesday (8/31), so if you would like the chance to win a signed copy of Vampire Academy click here to enter that giveaway.

2.  Julie Kagawa shared an excerpt from The Iron Queen on Harlequin's Blog.  Click here to get a sneak peek of what Meghan and Ash are up to in The Iron Queen.  :-)

3.  Escape from Reality is giving away a copy of Sophie Jordan's Firelight.  The contest ends 8/31.  You can stop by to check out that contest here.

This fun meme is hosted by Froggarita's Bookcase.  Every Friday Froggarita asks five questions so we can all get to know each other better.  The only rule is that you can't use the same answer twice within your five!   Ready to play?  Leave your answers in the comments or leave us a link to your own Friday's Fab Five post. 

1. What is your favorite tree?

Jacaranda!  I absolutely love Jacaranda trees, but they won't survive the winters where we live.  We've tried planting and pampering them several times, but never with any success.  Eventually we settled for keeping a few baby Jacarandas inside (as bonsai-style houseplants).

2. What is your zodiac sign?

Pisces

3. How long does it take you to do your grocery shopping?

If the kids are with me, at least an hour.  If I am alone, about thirty minutes.

4. How often do you ride a bike?

Not very often.

5. Who is your role model?

My mom.  :-)

August Contest!! Stupid Shiny Designs!

Update (9/1):  Contest Closed

Winner:  Michikit

I am so excited to give away a book thong from my favorite Etsy shop - Stupid Shiny Designs!  My very talented friend Mandy began selling her beautiful hand-beaded book thongs on Etsy two years ago, and she has been busy making all sorts of lovely beaded goodies ever since.  How it all began:  "After reading the Twilight books, I wanted to make something special to go along with each book and to share with my friends. This little hobby soon became an obsession and in July of 2008, while on vacation in Forks, Washington, Stupid Shiny Designs was born."  

That trip to Forks was so much fun, and all of SSD's book thongs are gorgeous!  It is like finding beautiful jewelry to coordinate with each of your favorite books!  These lovely bookmarks are durable, lightweight, and so fun to play with while you read.  Plus, her custom orders are amazing!  Do you have a favorite book or character that you would love to see represented in her shop?  Perhaps you love a particular design but wonder if it can be made in another color?  All you have to do is ask, and she will work with you to personalize a book thong just for you.  How awesome is that?!  To see some of her previous custom orders click here.
   

Visit Stupid Shiny Designs on Etsy and facebook!

Take a look at a few of SSD's novel-inspired book thongs:

(click any image below to see larger photos in the SSD shop)

Contest details:

The prize:  a book thong of your choice from Stupid Shiny Designs

Contest deadline:  August 31st at 11:59 pm PST.

How to Enter:  Fill out the form below to let us know which book thong you would like to win. *required* (This contest is INTERNATIONAL!)

Extra Entries:

+1 if you "Heart" Stupid Shiny Designs on Etsy

+1 if you "Like" Stupid Shiny Designs' facebook page

+1 for every place you help spread the word about this contest (Up to +3)

+1 for tallying your total number of entries  *required*

Friday's Fab Five + Book Blogger Hop + Contest Poll

1. What book is in your purse/car?
My purse is too small to carry books, but Everlasting by Angie Frazier is in the bag I've been carrying back and forth to my daughters' classes all week.  We always have a stack of children's picture books in the car.

2. What book is in your bathroom?
The bathrooms are the only rooms in our house that do NOT have books in them.  Water + books = my nightmare.

3. What book is nearest to your favorite chair?
I don't have a favorite chair, but I often sit in one of our dining chairs to read aloud to my husband while he fixes dinner.  The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee is on our kitchen counter near where I was reading last night.

4. What book is nearest to your couch?
There is always a stack of books on the end table next to our couch (a combination of library books, recently-finished books, and books that are up next on my TBR list).  Right now that stack includes:  The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy, Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith, The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee, Swoon by Nina Malkin, and Willow by Julia Hoban.

5. What book is nearest to your bed?
I guess my laptop counts as the book nearest to my bed.  The book I have queued up in my Adobe reader right now is Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn.


This fun meme is hosted by Froggarita's Bookcase.  Every Friday Froggarita asks five questions so we can all get to know each other better.  The only rule is that you can't use the same answer twice within your five!   Ready to play?  Leave your answers in the comments or leave us a link to your own Friday's Fab Five post.  :)

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books, and it is a terrific way to connect with other book bloggers and readers.  You can join the Hop by clicking on the image to the left.  This week's question is:

Who is your favorite new-to-you author so far this year?

It's impossible to pick just one, but maybe I could narrow it down to five:  Richelle Mead, Kimberly Derting, Julie Kagawa, Leah Cypess, and Margaret Mahy.

Thanks for hopping by!  Stop by next week to enter our August contests!  We will be giving away a beautiful bookthong of your choice from Stupid Shiny Designs' awesome etsy shop!  Check out this fabulous Hunger Games one we absolutely love ---->>

We will also be attending a Richelle Mead book signing event in August & will be giving a signed book to one of our readers.  To help us choose which book to have signed for our contest, please let us know which Richelle Mead book you would most love to have signed: