Wanna win some free scrapbooking software?

I recently reviewed a bit of digital scrapbooking software, and now I get to give away a copy!  Go Here.
 

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Happy Blogiversary to me!

Books Lists Life is 3 years old today!

(sorry for the spacing, Blogger won't let me add paragraph breaks)

I had hoped to do a giveaway of a cute totebag or backpack for all you book carrying and diaper carrying folks, but October 6th came earlier than I expected. I've decided to do a anniversary giveaway on November 1st instead. The prize will be a handmade tote bag with a few goodies stuffed inside, and no, it won't be all my leftover Halloween candy (though that IS a good idea!)

Here's how to enter: for every comment you leave between September 1st and October 31st I will enter your name one time in the drawing. But Lisa, you say, September 1st was a month ago! You're RIGHT! I want to give my regular commenters a slight advantage. Sue me. I reserve to right to discard ANY comment that I decide is just there as filler space, so don't leave 20 comments on this post unless you actually have 20 things to say. And don't intentionally spread them out either! I don't have a problem with "Oh, that sounds great I want to read that!" or "Hey, what adorable children you have!" but a string of "me too" "pick me" "I have cooties!" won't cut it. (Ok, that last one might make me laugh and I'd probably leave it in.) This is completely subjective on my part, I realize that, but I think most of you understand what I'm getting at-- NO SPAM!

This is open to my international friends as well, unless you are the person commenting in Chinese (? like I know) on the August 17th Random Friday post. You are not eligible.

In the meantime, in honor of my anniversary (birthday?) I'd like to ask you a couple questions.

1. What is your best blogging TO DO tip?
2. What is your best blogging DON'T DO tip?
3. What do you like to see in someone's sidebar(s)?
4. What do you wish blogger swould NOT do?
5. Where do you find new to you blogs? Comments? Twitter? Google?

Don't feel obligated to answer them all, or even any of them, but I am curious. And don't answer them in four separate comments, k?

Winner of the TBR Contest!

Turnout for the TBR contest was a bit limited, even with a couple of weeks for you all to play along! I KNOW you all have piles of books, I think perhaps you're all too chicken to show them!

There were 7 entries. (Man, I hope I get the right pictures with the right person!)

First up was Jill at Fizzy Thoughts. Jill got new bookshelves so hers are all nice and pretty.

Then Blondierocket threw her hat in the ring, with a great tour of her TBR. She posted several pictures, but I'm only posting the top one because it starts with Gone with the Wind.

Ti showed up with a provocatively titled stack of books. Do not ask what she keeps in that basket!

Lori L played along, her double stacked shelves made me feel a little better about myself.

Fifth was Michelle, who claimed not to want to enter, but since she has kids who might like a banner, I entered her anyway. Michelle has kids the same age as mine, so I was not surprised to find her books living out of reach in the garage. This is one shelf.

Next came TRISH. Now you all know I lurve Trish. So I hope you won't hold it against me when I poke fun at her makeshift shelves. Oh, ok she has nice ones too.

Last up was Mercy's Maid, who was so excited about the contest she took the picture with her phone!

Now, I didn't want to use a boring random number generator. I wanted something fun and exciting to pick the winner. But I couldn't think of anything fun and exciting and I'm already a day late, so... I asked my friend Gina for some help...

Here's how the coversation went:

8:13 AM me: Can you do me a favor?

Gina: iyes

me: Pick a number between 1 and 7...

8:14 AM Gina: 6 oh wait...i wasn't supposed to tell you?

me: No, you just picked the winner of my contest.

Gina: ah I am the great random # picker no one ever picks 1

me: You know I'm gonna blog this conversation, right?

8:15 AM Gina: yeah

me: And I didn't set you up in advance, right?

8:16 AM Gina: right It was totally on the up and up.

8:17 AM me: Cause you picked TRISH !

Congratulations TRISH!

You win! Let me know if you want a banner for yourself, your sweet new niece, or your favorite team. OR if you'd like two books off my Paperbackswap shelves (or two credits).

Team Spirit Banners/ Contest Reminder

One of the things I've been making a lot of lately are Team Spirit Banners. I made a Minnesota Twins one to hang at our campsite.


I made a Go Bulldogs! one for my mother's classroom.

There's a Sturgis Scoopers one, which is a local high school team.



I'm in the process of making a War Eagle one for my friend to tailgate with this fall.

(You'll have to imagine this one, it's not quite assembled yet!)

You'd prefer one with a name on it? I can do that too...

What team do you cheer for? Could you use a custom banner to hang in your game room or at your tailgate party? There is still time to win one! Blog a picture of your TBR pile, or if you don't blog email me a picture and I'll post it for you. You have until August 31st to get your entry in! Be sure to leave me at link at the contest post. Don't have a TBR pile, but still want a banner? You can get your own at the Made by Lisah shop.

TSS: A guided tour of the TBR and a contest with prizes!

Last week I mentioned that I had a huge TBR in addition to the library stack. I thought I'd show it to you today. Now, this is only the "most urgent" of the TBR books. There are 163 of them. Plus probably another dozen scattered through the house either being read or having been carried off by Mike or the boys, so let's say 175 total. There are more in the living room and hundreds more in the basement. I am working on getting rid of some of them, and in fact I have 15 books taking up most of the chair I am sitting in making typing very uncomfortable. I will be listing them on Paperbackswap when I finish this post. At the end of the year there will be fewer books on those shelves, no matter what I have to do to get rid of them (read them or give them away.)

So. This is the full set of shelves. It's located in our bedroom and the top of it becomes a handy dumping ground for mail, keys, hairbrushes, etc. I cleaned that stuff off before taking the picture. AND I PUT IT ALL AWAY! And then I cleaned the rest of the room except Mike's nightstand and the top of my dresser! And then I vacuumed!! I know, right?

They are pretty well organized, but not strictly alphabetically, as some concessions were made for maximizing shelf space. On top you have Romances on the left, and paranormal on the right. You can see the remainder of the Weather Warden series, Harry Dresden, and the last two Kitty Norvilles, among others.
This first part of the top shelf is reserved for young adult fiction. This isn't all the YA in my TBR collection, as I have loaned some Laurie Halse Anderson and Sarah Dessen to a friend.


Then we have regular fiction, mostly alphabetically except for the hardbacks that are too tall for my shelves.

After that is non-fiction. The first stack are the short ones, and by that I mean physically top to bottom. This takes up less horizontal room in a stack. They are in no particular order. After that they are alphabetical, starting there with Armstrong. The bottom shelf is cockeyed, sorry about that. The shelves are at the end of my bed and hard to photograph well.



And at the very end, another stack of romance.

Now, the Contest. I dare you to show me your TBR. You don't have to show me all of them, just the most important ones to you. (And yes, these are the important ones to me.) Tell me how yours are organized. I know a lot of you have done this in the past, but I'm sure your stacks have changed. Leave me a link to your post and I'll draw a winner on September 1st.

The Prize: Any item of your choosing from the Made by Lisah shop including the custom name or team banners* OR any two books off my Paperbackswap shelf. I'll be adding more books to the shelf this week, but being PBS they may not be there on the 1st.

* please, no more than 12 or so letters if you choose this, or you won't get your banner until 2015!

Book Giveaway Carnival!- GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Bookroom Reviews is hosting another giveaway!

This time around I'm giving away two books courtesy of Hachette Books.

The first book is Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home: No-nonsense advice that will inspire you to CLEAN like the DICKENS!

The second is Throw Out Fifty Things.

I have review copies of both of these, and if you check back tomorrow you'll see exactly why I needed these books!

If you'd like to win one of them, please leave me a comment telling me which one you'd prefer. I'll draw a winner for each using Random.org on March 7th. This is open to US and Canada residents only and no P.O. Boxes.

Be sure to click on over to Bookroom Reviews to see all the other great giveaways!

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Giveaway Winners!

I had big plans to compile all your favorite songs and deserts and blogs into one awesome post full of links and stuff. I even had yesterday off work and NO CHILDREN. But then I had a tiny bout of food poisoning and spent my precious free time in bed instead. I don't want to put off choosing winners any longer, so I'm going to do a quick post of the winners and then later I'll do a post to at least list all the favorite blogs, k? Since I'm at work (shhhh!) and there is no Pirate here to draw names for me, I'm using Random.org.

In the Delurking giveaway there were 28 entries, the winner is #21, which if we skip Serena's second post (sorry, Serena!) gives us Eva!

In the 401st post giveaway we have 21 comments on the main post and another 12 over at madebylisah (skipping Gina's second post, which she posted to test something for me). Random.org says # 25- Heather at A High and Hidden Place (who has the best blog header picture ever, go take a look.)

Ladies, I have no idea what I'm going to send you, but drop me a note (email in my profile) and I'll think of something fabulous. (Or at least something.)

Thanks to everyone who commented!

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401st post GIVEAWAY!

Hey! I just noticed that my last post, for Delurking Day, was my 400th post! Since I missed the chance to do a big 400th post Giveaway! I've decided to do a 401st post Giveaway! (Handy how you can make your own rules with a blog, huh?) I have no idea what I'm going to give away, probably a mix of things that may or may not include: things I made, books, book marks, gift cards, candy... I'll be making it up once I see who wins!

So, how do you enter?

There are two ways!

First, leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite blog is- it can not be your own blog and (sadly) you can not kiss up and say mine is.

Second, head on over my my BRAND SPANKING NEW sewing blog made by lisah and leave a comment there. The new shop isn't quite off the ground yet (still needs to be filled with products) but the new blog is getting close. I still need to spruce up the layout a little, but the header is up and I've done a few little posts. I won't be posting at Sew What Bags any more, so if you're one of the three people who subscribe to it, be sure to move your link.

You are welcome to comment at each place, for a total of two entries. You can also enter the giveaway at the Delurker post (and you don't have to be a lurker to do that, you can be a regular) but you can NOT win BOTH prizes. I'll leave both giveaways open until Sunday, and then use Random.org to draw winners. Or I'll have the Pirate draw a name out of a hat, if it doesn't seem too daunting to write your names out.

And, Thanks everyone, for making me blog 401 times. Ya'll are great!

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Wanna win a quilt?

No, not one of mine. IT'S EVEN BETTER!

Dana, at Old Red Barn Co. is giving away THREE quilts this time. All of them are stunning and there are multiple ways to get your name in the hat. So stop by at this link, and sign up!

I wish that I were that talented!

Book Giveaway Carnival!

***THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED***

What?? ANOTHER carnival giveaway?? COOL.

This one is hosted by Bookroom reviews, and full details can be found here. Be sure to check that link, then scroll to where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER! for the link to Mr. Linky and a full list of participants. Contest starts TODAY, so check back often!

So, what am I giving away? A $15 gift card to the bookstore of your choice! That's right, Amazon, Books-A-Million, Borders, whatever you want. Starbucks. Oh, wait, that's not a bookstore... but if you can convince me it is, it's all yours! If it is NOT a store I have locally, I have to be able to buy the card online.

How do you enter?

For ONE entry, leave a comment telling me your favorite bookstore, and why it's your favorite. If you don't tell me, you don't qualify.

For a SECOND entry, subscribe to my reader, and leave me a second comment telling me you did so. If you are already subscribed, tell me that.

For a THIRD entry, post about this on your blog, and leave me a third comment with the link. Don't have a blog? Start one!

Ready? GO!

Bloggy Carnival Giveaways, part 2

I hope everyone who wanted in on the giveaway had a chance to throw their name in! The contest is now closed. There were 103 comments and I used Random.org to pick a winner. The winner is Dee of Two of a Kind, working on a full house.

Congrats Dee!! I'll be emailing you shortly to talk about the details.

For everyone else, if you'd like a bag like this let me know! I'd be happy to make one up for you and list it in my Etsy shop.

Bloggy Giveaways Carnival, part 1

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!!!

Have you participated in the Bloggy Giveaways before? I never have, but this time I have decided to give away TWO things!

The first thing is a custom jewelry bag. You get to pick a general color scheme from what I have in my stash and then I'll make it up just for you. Here's a few examples (sorry for the funky photo spacing, darn that blogger!):

Leave a comment, and be sure to leave a way to contact you so I can let you know you've won! Drawing will be held on Sunday, November 2nd.

Wanna win something else? Head back to Bloggy Giveaways !

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Halloween Bag Winner!

I had NO IDEA it would be so hard to get 31 comments! We ended up with 32 comments and two email entries*, so I headed over to Random.org and ran 1-34, pick 1.

And the winner of the bag is :

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11
Timestamp:
2008-10-23 20:58:05 UTC

Counting down the comments to.... Trish!!!


This one was a lot of fun, even if 31 turned out to be an impossibly high number of comments. No idea what I'll give away next week, so stay tuned!


* Apparently blogger wasn't allowing comments for a while? Anyway, I threw Sarah and Gina in the hat (er, random generator) again for 33 and 34, respectively.

Halloween giveaway, Part 2

Wanna win this bag?

This is a one of a kind bag, made from a Betty Boop T-shirt. It's a simple bag, no pockets, perfect for collecting CANDY. Or just use it as a purse or lunchbox until Halloween!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Posts will be moderated, and I won't be letting them through. Once I have 31 comments (Halloween is on the 31st) I will draw a name at random. (Or possibly more than 31, if a bunch of people comment while I'm at work or something.)

You may comment more than once, but there must be at least 1 hour between your comments. I don't mind you coming back to say "Now? Now are there 31?" but I don't want anyone spamming me to get there with back to back to back comments.

EDIT: AS OF 8PM MONDAY THE CONTEST IS STILL OPEN!

Ready? GO!

Halloween Giveaway, Part 1

Tomorrow, I am going to give this bag away. It will be a very short contest (I hope), so be sure to check often if you want a chance to win it!

Unless, of course, it sells overnight.

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The Sunday Salon #3

Morning all! Are all you Read-a-Thon readers crawling out of your beds yet? I REALLY wanted to participate, but life didn't let me. As it was, I just harassed Trish all night.

There once was a lady named Trish
Who did not look like a fish
All night she read
then took to her bed
T'would be my greatest wish.

Dude. Limericks are hard.

Trish posted pictures of her lovely kitty Maggie during the read-a-thon, so I thought it was Bijou's turn for the spotlight this morning.

Ahem. Anyway. On to the Sunday Salon! I am a single parent today, so I can't make big plans to do much of anything. I'm hoping to get a little reading done- I've started a Meg Cabot that is just right, light and fluffy. I'm carrying The Boy in the Striped Pajamas around in my bag. Harry Dresden is waiting by my bed. I'm in a super mushy romantic book mood, so I might have to scour the shelves for something else.

This week I read Cerulean Sins by Laurell K Hamilton. After being a bit put off by the book and a conversation with Gina, the person who knows my reading habits best in all the world (16 years of sharing books will do that to a friend) I have decided to trade off the rest of the series unread. I have too many good books waiting and if I can't bear it later I can find them at a library.

I know you're all waiting to hear who won the books this week! I wrote all the entries for the Cry Wolf on a piece of paper in random order. The Pirate closed his eyes and picked samantha.1020 from Sam's Book Blog as winner! Congrats sam! Email me at bookslistslife AT gmail with your mailing address! If you didn't win and this was your first visit to my blog, welcome! I hope you find something here to bring you back.

This week I'm gonna give away something different, but I'll announce it tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Giveaways!

First, a reminder that if you want to win Cry Wolf you need to click over to my review and post a comment! Open til Sunday.

Second, look at this gorgeous quilt! Can you believe that someone is gonna GIVE IT AWAY. Head on over to Pigtails and Snails (GREAT blog name!) and enter to win. You have until tomorrow. I'd have told you sooner, but I just found it today!

A quick giveaway...

A month or so ago I recieved a copy of A Nation of Wimps in order to participate in an online discussion. While I agree with the basic premise that the book puts forth, I had a hard time with the writing style and ultimately did not participate in the discussion. I felt the author was stretching a bit to make her point, and I didn't think that her examples held true nationwide. Because I got this book for free, I'd like to offer it to another blogger/reader who is willing to read and possibly review it for the author. If you are interested, leave me a comment on this post and I'll draw a name on Sunday.

Here's the full description:

From Publishers Weekly

Marano, editor-at-large at Psychology Today and author
(Why Doesn't Anybody Like Me? A Guide to Raising Socially Confident Kids), takes
a penetrating look at the growing trend of invasive parenting. Marano likens
many parents to hovering helicopters or snowplows trying to remove all
obstacles. The unfortunate result is that children become increasingly fragile,
unable to make decisions or cope with failure. Interspersing her text with
interviews from experts and cutting-edge research, Marano follows the trail from
heavily programmed preschoolers and overprotected grade school kids to stressed
out, overachieving high school students and dependent college kids caught in a
rising campus mental health crisis (thanks to cellphones, the new umbilical
cord, they carry their parents in their jeans pockets). Rather than helping
children to find success and happiness, the author argues, this over-involvement
has exploded into a generation of infantilized wimps who can't handle everyday
life. Instead, she advises, help your kids fail—more is learned from mistakes
than from success, including critical thinking skills. The book is chock-full of
fascinating information, some of it controversial, such as a suspected link
between a diagnosis of ADHD and insufficient free play in the early years.
Marano's dire warning to back off will hit a raw nerve with many parents, but
her message may come not a moment too soon for their kids.

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And the winners are....

I finally had a chance to choose the winners* of my giveaways. I had 73 entries for the books spread between 20 different people.

The first name chosen was : Gina of Bitty and the Boy.** Gina wins The Polysyllabic Spree. YAY GINA!

The second name chosen was: Amanda of Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker. YAY AMANDA! This was a new blog to me, go check it out if you haven't seen it. Unfortunately Amanda also wanted the Hornby book so we'll try to work something else out. ***

For the winner of my other contest, click over to Sew What Bags!

Congratulations Gina and Amanda!


*The way I chose my winners- I entered everybody on a google spreadsheet in random order. There were 73 entries. Then I asked my spouse to pick a number between 1-73. He does not often read my blog, let alone my comments, so I'm fairly sure he didn't try to pick a specific person. Why am I explaining this?

**Because Gina happens to be a close personal friend. She is the reason ya'll were in random order.

*** Amanda, I can't seem to find your email address. Will you email me at the address in my profile?



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On link love and coffee and camping.

Over at Bookfoolery and Babble we are having a rousing discussion (ok, rousing might be too strong) in the comments section of this post about having a blogroll on your blog. Obviously, I don't have one. I haven't in a long time because it got too dang hard to keep up with. I am subscribed to hundreds and hundreds of blogs! But, I am thinking of adding one. I thought I'd start with blogs that comment on MY blog and run from there. I'm going to start from the commentors on my contest and start adding. Want a little love? Leave me a comment! Show me who my REAL friends are! (And then make a wish and forward this to 827 people and your wish will come true in the next 10 minutes!) (Ok, so I might just start adding people too, but it would really help if you'd leave a comment. K?) I noticed that blogger lets you do a list that updates and puts people with new posts at the top, has anyone tried that?

I've been avoiding caffeine for several months now because the Bug doesn't sleep so well when I have caffeine. Every morning I have one little tiny cup of coffee and that's it. I *thought* I was drinking caffeinated coffee, but this morning I looked and it turns out it's decaf. I haven't been having any caffeine at all! The obvious response to this is to immediately run out and GET coffee. I had a small vanilla iced coffee from McDonalds. AND I AM WIRED. Can you tell?

We are taking the boys camping this weekend. Just one night in a campground with bathrooms and showers, but still camping. In a tent. On the ground. Should be a total blast. The Pirate is beyond thrilled. We're making smores and cooking hotdogs and burgers. Someone will bring a ton of cookies and snacks. Someone else will have the watermelon. We'll have beer. Anyone have any good suggestions for camping with kids and babies?

Did you enter my contest yet? What about this one? Go go, do it now!