One Thousand Posts! (And a 1000+1 Things giveaway!)

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

This is my 1000th post here on Books. Lists. Life!  That is a shockingly huge number, no? In October I'll have been blogging here for 6 years. I've made so many great friends here, people who I consider my "real" friends, not just online acquaintances, and I wish I could meet you all for a cup of coffee. I had big plans to write up a long post of all the highlights of the last 6 years, but as always, my life gets in the way. 

To celebrate, I decided to give away a few things as a thank you. There are two giveaways. The first is for ONE THOUSAND THINGS. Ok, so they are just pennies, but still! 1000 Pennies!  Ok, so really it's a $10 gift certificate to your favorite online bookstore. You get to pick, so long as I can buy the gift certificate from the comfort of my dining room chair.

The second thing is your very own handmade e-reader cover. I've made several of them now and am confident in my sizing for Nook Color, Nook Simple Touch, Kindle and Kindle Fire. If you win this you get to tell me what colors you like and I'll put together a cover just for you. Don't have an e-reader? I could probably be convinced to make you a crayon roll or a zipper pouch or something.  Your reader is something different? I can make it work. (If you want a cover and don't win, just drop me a line or check out the shop- I'll be adding a batch there later this week!)


How do you enter? Simply comment on this post, being sure to leave me a way to contact you. If there isn't an email address in your profile or your comment I'll have to draw another name. You don't have to follow me on twitter or like the shop of facebook or blog about it anywhere, just leave a comment. The giveaway is open until July 22nd and I'll pick my winners randomly.

Good Luck! And Thank You!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, with bonus giveaway!

What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.

Wait, that's a different story about young people with cancer falling in love.

So, The Fault in Our Stars. When I first heard that the newest John Green was about kids was cancer, I was pretty uninterested. I mean, really? Someone is gonna fall in love, someone is gonna die, I will cry. The main characters are all going to be wordy, insightful geeks. Then I read Amanda's review and I admit, she hooked me. I stalked the library, who still hasn't seen fit to get a copy. Then one day right after we got our tax return I saw a signed copy on the shelf at the local Wal-marts. With the Wal-mart discount, it was something like $12.  I brought it home. (Mine is signed in blue ink, I see mention of the color of ink, but I have no idea why it matters. Someone tell me?) And it should be noted that I read this in one very long sitting on Friday while I was recovering from my turn with the Horrible Horkfest of 2012 and spent the entire day on the couch, so I read much of it in a fever haze.

Hazel has terminal cancer. Augustus had cancer. They meet in Support Group, where they both enjoy a little bit of intelligent conversation and ever so gently making fun of the other people. In a surprisingly short time, they are spending all their time together, but Hazel is determined not to fall in love with him. Of course.  How can you fall in love at all when it is a given that one of you is not going to make it? How can you be alive, with all that entails, and at the same time very definitely dying? Sounds horribly depressing, right? But if you've read Green, you know it's not. It's definitely sad, and I did cry, but the book itself is pretty good. It managed to somehow both laugh at cancer and respect it, which seems to be an awfully thin line to walk, but saved the book from being a sappy mess or outright cruel.

Ok, so giveaway. Do you know what that opening quote is from? Leave the answer in the comments and I'll pick a winner on Friday. Honor system here, don't cheat and google it and don't look at the other answers first. The prize? No idea! Something fun though.

Sending out Christmas cards (and giveaway)

Every year I have the best of intentions to send out Christmas cards. Most years I manage to squeak in just under the wire, when I remember my cards once those of my friends start coming in the mail. If you get my card on December 27th, it still counts, right? But last year something happened and I didn't send cards out at all. Perhaps you remember- I had a baby, then my husband moved out of town and I lived alone with three kids, and then we moved right before Christmas? Needless to say, I didn't send out birth announcements, let alone Christmas cards. This year I was contacted by the nice folks at Shutterfly and given the opportunity to try out their Christmas cards and to give away a few batches of my own. SWEET!

I'd love to say that in my more organized years I've always ordered cards from Shutterfly, but that would not be true. I have, however, ordered a couple of little photo books (these are terrific gifts, I try to do one annually for the grandparents. I missed that last year too.)  And I'd spent an inordinate amount of time looking at all the fun gifts (I am especially drawn to the notebooks.) For the Pirate's second birthday I ordered pirate invitations from Shutterfly, which I'd love to show you as they were adorable, but I don't have a clue where to find one. I see they have a Star Wars one now, my boys would DIE. I'll have to remember that for next year.

I'm not sure which design we're going to go with this year, a lot of it will depend on the picture I eventually use. (The one we haven't taken yet, better get on that!) I tend to lean towards fun cards, as opposed to elegant, but you can certainly get either from Shutterfly.  I'll probably start out looking for a card  that allows four photos. I'd fill in one of each child and one of the whole family. (This assumes, of course, that we get a good picture of the family!) 

I'm going to give away three sets of 25 cards to my lovely readers. To enter all you have to do is tell me your favorite gift ever*.  If you don't tell me your favorite, you will be disqualified.  The first winner will be chosen subjectively, by the answer I like best. The other two will be drawn using the Random Number generator. Giveaway ends on November 10th.

*edited: I orginally meant that you ever received, but I guess you could go the other way too.

My blog is five years old!

Guys, somehow Books. Lists. Life. had another birthday and turns five today! I thought we'd celebrate with a little giveaway!  I'm gonna give away two of these little owl coin purses. They are tiny and cute, only slightly bigger than a credit card.





The first winner will be chosen from everyone who comments on this post! That's it! Easy peasy! (Please don't just say "pick me!", say something witty, or tell me your favorite romantic movie or song or book, or tell me what's for dinner, ok?) Winner number one will get their choice of owl. At the time of this posting, there are three to chose from, but if they continue to multiple I'll happily give the winner one of the others.





The second winner will be chosen from the losers. (What?)








While credit cards will fit in the owls it is a tight squeeze. (Tho I'd imagine they will loosen up a tiny bit over time.) The black one does not have a key ring, the other two do.

If you'd like to be a fan of Made By Lisah on Facebook, you might win the third one. Just Saying.

Contest is open until October 14th. I'll announce the winner on October 15th. If you do not have an email address in your profile be sure to leave one, because I will not track you down! If you do not win, and you want an owl of your own, I'll be listing them in the shop soon! This giveaway is open internationally.