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The Nth Annual Bookmark Exchange - The Official Thread

J C
10 years ago

All right, here we go. How many years have we done this? I still have all my bookmarks and look at them regularly. They live in a shoebox on one of my bookcases. And of course they are used constantly.

Here is how it will work. First and most important - you must have a valid email address on file with this website, Glyphs. That is the only way I can contact you. Please email me through this website and let me know you would like to participate, and I will respond. Do not post your email address here on the RP Forum because hackers will get it.

So, if you want to give and receive bookmarks, please send me, through this website, your screen name here at RP and your real name and address. This information will be shared with the other participants. All are welcome, newbies, lurkers, come one, come all. Please contact me by November 15.

Anything that can be used as a bookmark is okay. Used bus tickets, postcards, expensive gold-plated crystal-inset plates, handmade anything. Be as creative or non-creative as you wish.

We have had as many as 25 or 26 participants, but it is more normal to have somewhere in the mid-teens.

As this exchange occurs around Christmas, a holiday card is often used to send the bookmark.

So that's it! Hope to hear from you!

Siobhan

Comments (81)

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    I have my bookmarks and my cards, but they are not together. Thanks for doing this for us again, Siobhan.

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    I'm working on my bookmarks right now with a cat in my lap. I will have a few left over and wanted to know if any of you who are not currently doing this bookmark exchange (Mary, Vee, etc?) would like one? I don't need anything back, just wanted to share my amazing homemade bookmarks (that is something of an oxymoron btw). If so, email me thru this site with your address.

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  • yoyobon_gw
    10 years ago

    Good idea Janalyn....

    I also have a surfeit of bookmarks which I enjoyed making so much I couldn't stop at 17 !!

    Let me know if you would like one, even though you're not officially in the exchange.
    As above, email me thru this site with your address .

    Yvonne

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    The first of my Christmas To Do List has been completed. I mailed all your amazing, original handcrafted bookmarks this morning. As always, when you receive them, remember it is the thought that counts. :) I would have sent them a week later but I have no faith in the efficacy of our Postal system and wanted to make sure Kath got hers before Easter. Also I am going to be really busy next week.

    I am so glad that our Thanksgiving is held the second Monday of October. South of the border, y'all are celebrating on the 28th, and I feel that is much much too close to Christmas. Isn't that really late for the States, and how do you figure when it is, since it changes every year.

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    The first of my Christmas To Do List has been completed. I mailed all your amazing, original handcrafted bookmarks this morning. As always, when you receive them, remember it is the thought that counts. :)
    I am so glad that our Thanksgiving is held the second Monday of October. South of the border, y'all are celebrating on the 28th, and I feel that is much much too close to Christmas. Isn't that really late for the States, and how do you figure when it is, since it changes every year.

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    sorry for the double post, the computer or this site is glitching on me...

  • yoyobon_gw
    10 years ago

    I'm guessing that Tday is traditionally the last Thursday in November each year.

    Was that the question?

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    Right, Yoyobon, and this year is as close to Christmas as it can get. We are committed to hosting a church dessert/gag-gift party (where everyone contributes) on Tuesday, December 10, which means I have to get the house decorated next week.

  • yoyobon_gw
    10 years ago

    Carolyn....

    That event struck me funny when I read it.....putting gag with dessert makes me want to bring my own pie !!

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    You'll fit right in!

  • J C
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Well, against all the odds my cards and bookmark are all addressed and ready to go. I have amazed myself! I hope you will all excuse my handwriting which is terrible. I'm going to send them next week.

  • rosefolly
    10 years ago

    Rouan and Rosefolly have officially launched the exchange. We are spending Thanksgiving weekend together, and on the day after the holiday (this morning) we gave each other our bookmarks. Rouan even included a card with hers. It is perhaps a bit of a cheat, because neither of us has addressed or mailed anything yet, so we will count the first we receive in the mail as the true first arrival.

    Rosefolly

  • sheriz6
    10 years ago

    I received my first bookmark in the mail today. Janalyn, it's brilliant, thank you!

    I finally purchased cards today, so mine will (I hope!) be finished and on their way shortly.

    Yay!

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    I got Janalyn's, too, and it is brilliant. Thanks!

  • frances_md
    10 years ago

    Just beautiful, Janalyn. I love it!

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    Well I owe Canada Post an apology...very efficient. And I am so happy you enjoyed the bookmarks, I loved making them all and thinking of each of you.

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    I received my first bookmark today. Thanks Janalyn. I love it. Beautiful and very creative! I will try to send mine soon.

  • rosefolly
    10 years ago

    I have Janalyn's too, a beautiful bookmark.

    I will be on the lookout for cards to fit bookmarks. I do have the bookmarks ready. I found the ones I was going to send last year but misplaced, so I will send those. And I have misplaced the ones I bought for this year, so I imagine those will go out next year.

    It all works out in the end.

    Rosefolly

  • donnamira
    10 years ago

    I received Janalyn's today too ... a memorable one! Thank you!

    I still need to pick up bookmarks for one of our recent missions ... the extras were still in shipment back from the launch site when I checked before the thanksgiving holiday,

  • frances_md
    10 years ago

    yoyo, very cute bookmark and the card is so true!

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    I got Yoyobon's, too. (Note to self: Must get busy on cards.)

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    Yoyobon, very cute. I definitely need my caffeine.

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    I got two today, Pam and Siobhan. You people are so clever.

  • rosefolly
    10 years ago

    Mine went into the mail today. So far I have received Janalyn's, Siobhan's, Yvonne's, and of course Rouan's which was hand delivered. I opened Janalyn's but decided to save the rest and open them all at the same time.

    Rosefolly

  • Kath
    10 years ago

    I have received Janalyn's - thank you so much, it's lovely.
    Sadly, I haven't done mine yet, so they may turn out to be New Year's bookmarks instead :(

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    I got Pam's, very nice. Love the word search. I finally finished mine and sent them out.

  • sheriz6
    10 years ago

    I'm pleased to say mine finally went out in the mail yesterday.

    Frances, the "books to the ceiling" bookmark is great, I used to have that as a print hanging in my office. Love it!

  • christine_a
    10 years ago

    Mine have been sent as well.

    For those that have sent bookmarks to me, Thank you! I am saving all of them and will open the cards on Christmas.

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    This is really fun. I have received Frances', Verinicae's, and Siobhan's. Everyone is so creative.

  • merryworld
    10 years ago

    I have sent mine out today. Really enjoying the exchange and all the wonderful bookmarks I've received.

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    Dropped mine off at the Post Office tonight.

  • phaedosia
    10 years ago

    I've been so excited to look in my mail box each day! Thanks everyone. Mine will go out on Monday. =-)

  • rouan
    10 years ago

    I'm running late this year but hope to get mine done and mailed Monday. I've received several already and am eagerly awaiting the next batch.

  • J C
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I have received many bookmarks and as I open each one it is my new favorite! They are all so nice and so much fun to open!

  • J C
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    And I just finished the Word Search, thank you PAM!

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    I have received so many nice bookmarks to add to my collection.

  • rouan
    10 years ago

    I have just finished addressing my cards. They will go out in tomorrow's mail. And I also have finished the word search. That was fun, thanks PAM.

  • janalyn
    10 years ago

    HO! HO! HO! Things will be getting very busy around here so I'm giving you my lengthy (what else would you expect? *grin) thank you now.

    In an age where almost everything is digital, twittered, instant and easy --- almost thoughtless sometimes... thank you for helping me remember what Christmas is all about. I know something about all of you through your posts and thoughts on this forum but I have never met you in person. So we actually are digital, electronic friends but still strangers; though I would love to meet all of you in person one day.

    I was lucky enough to have time this year to craft my bookmarks and enjoyed it so much I made some for each member of my real life book club too. Each of your cards has an ink and watercolor of a chickadee who happened to be at the feeder by my window while I was working on the bookmarks, so I included him too. But I made him a little more âÂÂChristmassyâ by adding holly. I had Christmas music playing in the background and was humming to myself and thought how appropriate the following was:

    âÂÂThen the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!âÂÂ
    â Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

    I havenâÂÂt sent out real Christmas cards to all my friends in several years: people just donâÂÂt seem to be doing it often anymore and if they do, they use those Christmas âÂÂcardâ emails you can personalize. Click, click, you are done. Sent. You read them and then delete them. But you inspired me. This year I spent some time tracking down friendsâ real addresses and then personalized each card, with a watercolor like your chickadee, and then a handwritten note. I had lost touch with my old university roommate and did one for her but included a handwritten letter, pages long. Yesterday, I got a card and a handwritten letter from her as well and the years appear to have evaporated. We decided to bring back this ancient tradition of letter writing, no computer allowed, and will be writing to one another just for the joy of it. I chose a favorite photograph of my dearly missed mom who died from cancer a couple of years ago and painted it as a watercolor, with a Christmas background to send to some close relatives. Her sister called me in tears when she received it, she was so touched.

    At the risk of sounding completely sappy, and I do dislike sappy novels as you know, there is a lot of joy in giving something of yourself. This is what we are all doing in this bookmark exchange. I delight in receiving your cards and bookmarks. ItâÂÂs uplifting to receive them especially when they happily outnumber the ads and bills in the mailbox. Your cards have been forming part of my Christmas decorations. I have been taping them to the frame of the French doors that lead to my living room and Christmas tree, I...

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    What a lovely post, Janalyn. Your bookmark put me to shame, and I am putting it into the envelopes of collectibles that I'm planning to take to a framer to have another set of rows of matted and framed bookmarks made. I had eight frames done several years and hung them down my stairway wall (about ten or twelve bookmarks per frame), and they created a lot of conversation. One I overheard was a friend of my 18-year-old grandson who asked if they represented one for each book I had read. GS quickly and dryly replied, "Oh, no."

    We have moved to a single-story house now, and it has a long hallway leading from the living area of the house to the bedrooms. I have hung the older frames on one wall and have another nice blank wall for future use.

    Thank you again for your very clever creation, and thanks to everyone else who has sent such neat and different bookmarks. It does make opening the mail much more interesting!

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    It has been fun opening the mail. I have never received so many Christmas cards. Making these bookmarks has gotten me to be creative again. I used watercolor painting to make the background, then I used Calligraphy to write the little quote. I hadn't used either in years and was surprised I still new how to write using Calligraphy.

  • twobigdogs
    10 years ago

    THANK YOU friends!

    When this bookmark exchange began three or four years ago, I bought an small wooden antique chest for my bookmarks. Each year, the collection grows. And every time I start a book, it begins with a search through the chest for the perfect bookmark.

    EACH one of you has sent me lovely gifts that represent YOU. Each one of you has bookmarks in that wooden chest that are treasured and used regularly.

    Thank you. Thank you one and all - for your thoughtfulness, your time, your creativity, and for being a part of my reading life.

    PAM

  • wolf_seeker
    10 years ago

    I'm so sorry haven't gotten my bookmarks out to all of you yet! I just got to go back to work yesterday, after being out sick (that stupid cold turned sinus infection/bronchitis is near impossilble to get rid of!) for almost two weeks.

    I promise, they will go out shortly! Thank you all for your beautiful bookmarks, and even more for the friendship they represent!

    I hope you all have the best Christmas Season you've ever had!

    Wolf_seeker (Helen)

  • sheriz6
    10 years ago

    This has been so much fun -- GOOD stuff in the mail for a change! All the bookmarks I've received have been wonderful.

    And no worries if bookmarks are late, I'm delighted to look forward to having more than after-Christmas bills in the mailbox.

    Merry Christmas!
    Sheri

  • yoyobon_gw
    10 years ago

    Thanks to everyone for all the great bookmarks !
    As always it was a treat to bring in the mail and find an envelope or two from places far away :0)

    Wishing you all a healthy new year filled with blessings.

    Yvonne

  • Kath
    10 years ago

    I'm very sorry to say that I only posted my bookmarks off yesterday.
    I have thus missed bringing you all Christmas cheer, but hope you will still enjoy getting something in the mail.
    Thanks so much for all the cards and bookmarks I have received. It is so much fun to open them all, and add to my collection.

  • J C
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Don't be sorry at all, I am so excited that another bookmark is on the way! I love the exchange and am always a little sad when it is over. But that is good, it means I am not taking it for granted. Can't wait!

  • carolyn_ky
    10 years ago

    Don't be sorry. It just adds to the fun.

  • sheriz6
    10 years ago

    Absolutely! I'm all for presents in the mail in January.

  • yoyobon_gw
    10 years ago

    Hey ......I still have my little tree up and will let it stand until I wake up one morning and say to myself " What the h*ll is that thing still doing up !?!!"

    Sometimes that's March.....depends on the snowfall.
    ( I hear scratching of heads !!!)

    Indulge me ....lol.

  • Artiste8
    10 years ago

    I just got yours Astrokath and don't worry, better late than never. I went to Paris too, actually I just got back.