Wreck This Journal (#2) {A Little of the Book Life}

Guys, I am loving Wreck This Journal. Seriously. So. Much. Fun. And it's great that Malissa is doing it as well. It's cool to see how we do things differently or the same. It really kinda tells me something about myself when I look at one of the pages and I think "Um... No. I don't think I can do that."(Here's the first post on the journal...)

Example

Uhhhhhhh............... We'll see how that one pans out... eventually. lol

Here are a few pics from this past week's adventures with the journal:

 

This one is going to take me a while. Mostly because I'm having fun with it and using it as a random doodling page. :)

 

I started with a glue stick. Then thought I'd have fun with a bottle of liquid glue. It took a while to dry, and it was hard as hell to actually draw with them, but the end result was cool.

 

I know the instructions say to basically do whatever you want. But I've always been a rule follower. So I tried to rip on the lines. That took a LOT of work. HAHA

 

I swear I closed my eyes!!!!  I sent the pic to Malissa and told her maybe I should do more things with my eyes closed. :)

                               Malissa has been having just as much fun with her journal! :)

 

Excited to see what other fun we can get up to. 

Have any of you done this? Share your experiences if you have!!!  :)

Smiles,
B

Wreck This Journal {A Little of the Book Life}

My friend Danielle got me this book for Christmas:

Here's the Amazon description:

The special limited edition red mesh cover of the international bestseller…

For anyone who's ever had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes this expanded edition of Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake and mess-making abilities and to fill the pages of the book (or destroy them). Through a series of creatively and quirkily illustrated prompts, acclaimed artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts--poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting pages with coffee, coloring outside the lines, and more--in order to experience the true creative process. With Smith's unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art and journal making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

Have you seen this? Like the inside of it? It's really pretty cool. And pretty scary.

The instructions are simple enough:

And the first page wasn't hard at all...

 

And then there was this, which was great for releasing some stress/aggression:

 

But shit got real when I looked at this one -

And what the what?!

Yep... I did it...

 

When I got this, Malissa mentioned how cool it would be to do together with someone. I sent her one. I agreed. And it's worked. We keep texting each other about it. Like this one, this morning, that I got from her:

"Pretty impressed with myself. I found six different fruit stickers for my journal at my house this morning!" 

And this pic from her:

I'll keep sharing. It's going to be fun!!!!  :)

Smiles,
B

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes & TOP TEN TUESDAY

There's going to be some changes around here. I decided, with my recent decline in reading (*gasp*), it's harder to keep up an actual book blog. I'll still be talking books on here, when I'm feeling it. I'm thinking broadening the scope of the blog will actually get me doing it more.

That being said, while the url remains the same, I've changed the actual name to "A Little of the * Life"... thus indicating I could be talking about anything. I hope you stick with me and don't go anywhere, but I'll understand if you abandon me.

Since it's Tuesday, I'll do a Top Ten Tuesday post, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. :)

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they provide a Top Ten topic for you to create your list, then you share it on their post so others can find you. :)

  ♥ Top 10 Authors I've Read the Most Of ♥

I don't know how fancy I'll get, but off I go to my Goodreads' page... which only goes back as far as the beginning of 2010, when I started using it. We'll see what we get. :)

I had a *lot* of ties. I decided to stick toward faves if there were ties, which left me with one spot by the time I got to authors I had read 3 books of... that one was hard to decide which one to go with. If you actually want, you can actually go check out the Goodreads list.

Anywho. Here they are, counting up to the most read itself... *drum roll*

    

    

    

    

    

What about you? What authors have you read the most of?

Smiles,
B

Books That Make You Go "Meh"

So I really just suck at this whole keeping up the blog thing. I think about it a lot. I want to write more. I want to talk more. I want to interact more. But, alas, it doesn't happen. Oh well.

Let's talk books, tho. Y'wanna? I *still* am having trouble getting into books lately. I finished AG Howard's Splintered series, and loved it. But other than that? It's hit and miss and a lot of 'meh's'. I haven't LOVED much past that. Maybe I'm expecting too much when I pick up a book? I want to be hooked, to love/hate the characters, to care what happens to them.

I started reading Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Replacements and The Space Between. Paper Valentine left me wanting, but I was REALLY hopeful for Fiendish. After 126 pages I've decided to reshelve it for later. The writing is still good. But I'm not connecting whatsoever to anyone in the story. And, it's not a spoiler since it happens right away, this girl is locked in a cellar and is being overtaken by roots for ten years. At the age of seven. Gets out at the age of seventeen... and has no problem walking and talks as if she were seventeen... as if she'd lived her life normally. There's obvious magic at work with the entirety of the novel, but for some reason that just annoyed me.

It's like I'm having trouble connecting to anything I read. Hopefully that will change. Short of not reading at all, it can only get better, right?

A Little of the Storytime Life {Snow}

For more on what A Little of the Storytime Life is, here's the original post. :)

The books I chose to use for this week:

It Feels Like Snow by Nancy Cote
Cleo in the Snow by Caroline Mockford
Snow by Uri Shulevitz

There are an abundance of snow/winter books out there. Next week I'm doing snowmen, so this week I wanted to stick with books that weren't about snowmen.  

It Feels Like Snow is a bit longer than I usually go with for my storytime books, but it's cute. And we talk about the body parts - her toe throbs, nose tingles and her elbow clicks. And the snow gets ankle, knee, and waist deep. So it's a great way to introduce/practice body parts.  

Cleo in the Snow is awesome for the younger crowd. It doesn't have a great story to it, but I do love the contrasting colors against the white snow. It does rhyme, although it's spaced oddly throughout the pages so the first time I read it I actually didn't catch that it rhymed. There's a lot of talk about what's in the pictures and what's going on, since there's not much story to it.

Snow isn't one that I actually read this week. We had, fittingly, some snowfall and plummeting temps this week, so my storytimes were very sparse. While I enjoy the book, knowing the few kids that showed up it didn't seem like the book for them.

We made snowglobes out of construction paper and paint this week. The kids had a lot of fun doing it and, since there were so few, I was able to do it along with them each time. Here's a few of them...

 

As usual, I told the kids they could put the snowglobe together however they wanted - complete snowman, falling apart, however they chose. They had a great time gluing it together and then painting the snow.

Are there any snow/winter books for kids that you've come across and loved?  

Xoxo,

B

A Little of the Storytime Life

 

I'm not sure if I've ever really talked on here about what I do at work. I work at a library in the youth department. Aside from overseeing the department, collection development, and all that other "boring" admin parts of the job, I get to plan programs for kids. I do storytimes every week for ages birth to preschool and offer school age programming off and on throughout the year. I do at least six storytimes a week, sometimes more if I have special ones for daycares.

This was a special fire station open house storytime I did. :)

What I've decided to do is share some of that with you (um, obviously ignore if you don't care... haha). Each week I'll post about the storytime I did - the books I used, the craft we did, and how the kids responded. Sometimes I only have one kid in a storytime. Sometimes I've had 20+. We aren't a library of registrations, so it's a "come if you can" type thing. We're also not a library that sticks hard and fast to the age of the (storytime) program (school age programs we are a little; most of what we do would just frustrate a three year old... :)). While on the one hand I'd prefer that only babies come to the Baby Bookworms, I also understand reasons that may not happen. Siblings. I am not going to say you can't bring big bro' or bib sis' (or cousin/friend/whomever if you're a babysitter) to Baby Bookworms with your baby. As a parent that would annoy the crap out of me and I probably just wouldn't bother coming at all. I don't want to deter anyone from attending due to the multiple benefits they can get from attending storytimes. Also, sometimes I've had kids without baby brothers/sisters/etc come into Baby Bookworms. They enjoy coming so much and they can't make it any other time of the week (vacation, illnesses, school, whatever-the-case-may-be). Again... benefits. I gear whatever it is I'm doing to the age of the majority of the audience.

Anyway. So that's my plan. Starting this week (tomorrow, to be exact). :) 

Enjoy!

xoxo,
B

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, y'all!

What've you been reading? I recently finished Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Very interesting concept and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it continues. I'm hoping I enjoy the rest of the series as much. I just got Unwholly in today at work (library), so I'll try and start it this weekend. And, I've discovered recently that I kind of enjoy audio books, because I can listen while I'm working (at work or home). But I've only listened to re-reads, not anything new. I'm not sure my focus, or lack thereof, can handle something I'm not at all familiar with.

Been watching anything good, lately? I'm still quite obsessed with Supernatural. So much so I was nervous to start the season so I waited until it was five weeks in and then binge-watched it. *whew* Still loving The Blacklist, too, and Criminal Minds, NCIS, Chicago PD... my dvr is crazy busy, per usual. My reading typically slows down a bit in the fall due to that, but my laundry gets caught up more because I can fold and watch at the same time.

And... ONE WEEK UNTIL MOCKINGJAY (PART 1) COMES OUT!!!!!!!

♪ Santa Baby, Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight ♪ {A Top Ten Tuesday Post}

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they provide a Top Ten topic for you to create your list, then you share it on their post so others can find you. :)

  ♥ Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me ♥

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE! Or not, if you don't celebrate. Happy Hanukkah? Anyway. I love receiving books for Christmas. Who among us doesn't? I've already received some pretty awesome ones... I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert (signed!), Just One Day by Gayle Forman, and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. All of which I'm excited to read. That being said, here's some others at the top of my wishlist. :)  

Also Known As (Also Known As #1) by Robin Benway

 

Antigoddess (Goddess War #1) by Kendare Blake

 

The Diviners (Diviners #1) by Libba Bray

 

Girl of Fire and Thorns (Girl of Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson

 

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

 

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

 

Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

 

 

The Archived (Archived #1) by Victoria Schwab 

All Our Yesterdays (All Our Yesterdays #1) by Cristin Terrill

 

What about you? What's on your bookish Santa list?

Smiles,
B

 

It's A Birthday, Time to Party

Just like you, I get excited about upcoming releases. Authors I love, series I can't wait to see what happens, and debut authors as well. I rarely pre-order books, but I will buy them the day they are released. I was lucky enough for NetGalley to grant me a copy of one of these, so I'm already one ahead of the ten I'm going to list today. :) But that's only one of a few. And MANY more to be added as the year goes on and I learn about all those other books that've stayed under my radar.

Unhinged by AG Howard (Splintered #2) - January 7

   

This is the one I was lucky enough to get an eArc from NetGalley... and I can't wait to have a physical copy to sit alongside Splintered! :)

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson - January 7

  

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #3) - February 4

  

Panic by Lauren Oliver - March 4

  

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) - April 8

    

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - May 13

  

Landline by Rainbow Rowell - July 8

Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff - August 14

 

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (Anna #3) - 2014

   

Untitled by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #3) - 2014 

Coverless at the moment... :(  So here is the cover to The Raven Boys... :)

     

What are some books you're looking forward to in 2014?

Smiles,

B