Here's how it goes - each person sends a bookmark to everyone on the list and therefore will receive a bookmark from everyone as well. If you would like to participate, send me an email with your snail mail address and your name here at RP. The list will close on 15 September to allow everyone plenty of time to get things together. To keep things manageable, I will limit the list to 30 participants.

Any one bookmark is okay - anything from a handmade miracle to a freebee from the library.

So let's get started. My email is silence is golden 4 at hotmail dot com, and I am just plain Siobhan.

It was the greatest fun but I'm not up to it again just yet. And I'm still appreciating last year's gifts.

So, maybe in a couple of years, for me.

Apologies Siobhan, you don't need to know this! And I'd like all my bookmark senders to know that I DO use them, and have grizzly bears, opening times of libraries in Texas and Pennsylvania, pictures of Main St, bejewelled silks, Welsh reredos' and many many more in regular use and am always ringing the changes.

Don't worry about the spammer email - it happens!

Junek, here's my bookmark story - I get a lot of books out of the library and when returning them I flip through to ensure I haven't used something important as a bookmark. One day there was a postcard in a book so I pulled it out and put it in my purse thinking it was one of mine that I had used; when I came home and looked at it I discovered it was a postcard from Cape Cod mailed to someone here...in 1963! The address on it is very old, before postal codes were used here, and the note is written in another language so I have not been able to return it so far.

D.

I would love to be included again please.
Thanks
liz

Maybe this year I'll put them to more practical use, but I do love my bookmark collage hanging by the front door.

Nicole

I think I'll give it a shot again this year. I had fun making the bookmarks last year and really enjoyed receiving ones from all over the world.

My apologies.. I know I've been sporadic at best. (I got divorced so things have been quite stressful.) Will try to get back "home" to RP.

PAM

Last year's exchange was ssooo much fun, I'd like to be included again this year too, please. (I've sent you an e-mail, Siobhan). I haven't been able to post much, due to ongoing computer issues, but here's a quick update.

I'm still working at my local Barnes and Noble (I think I buy enough books and magazines to support the store all by myself!!) I got a Nook about a month ago, and I'm really loving it!! So now, I'm buying e-books as well as "real" books!! My nook is one of the best investments I've made in a very long time!!

I will try to post more in the future...

Helen

Welcome everyone, to the 2010 RP Bookmark Exchange! Thank you for your indulgence with my extreme tardiness. You are receiving this because you have told me that you would like to participate this year, either on RP or by sending me an email. I have everyone's information which I will be sending out in a couple of days. If you haven't sent me updated information, I am using last year's address, as most people participated last year, and I have received the addresses for the new additions. The grand total is 14 people, which I think is a nice manageable number. So - I am compiling the list and will send it out by the end of the week. If you want to withdraw (or if I am mistaken), please let me know. If you have changed your address since last year, please let me know. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

I hope this email finds everyone well and happy and looking forward to the holidays! Or, as we sometimes call it "The Eating Season." - Siobhan

I will send the list Friday - it is already compiled, I will hold off for any corrections.

Have fun!

Rosefolly

Chose mine in the hopes that whenever you look at them, you smile and think happy thoughts.

PAM

Mailing mine tomorrow.

The best bookmarks I have collected this year I can't send out. They are from the visit by the Archbishop to our parish to bless our new altar. one side is a commemoration of the facts, and would have passed, with an explanation of why they are so important to me. But the reverse side is a prayer, definitely not something I can send to people who's private lives I have no knowledge of. They are a perfect size and laminated. It would have been fun to share that day with all of you, but not at all appropriate.

As a side note about the bookmarks I sent, I supported a local artist who made the bookmarks I sent. What I've discovered about myself is that I'm NOT AT ALL crafty! After a minor trip to the doctor's because I suffered a burn with the hot glue gun, I decided to purchase my bookmarks instead!

But no injuries! Step away from the glue gun...step away...

For what it's worth, I would have liked very much to have received such a bookmark - and I'm a rock-solid atheist.

Sorry to hear about potential and real glue gun injuries - I know those things can be tricky to use.

I posted my bookmarks off today, and hope they arrive before Christmas. I love this idea and still use my previous bookmarks regularly. I am one of those people who chooses a particular bookmark to go with a particular book. For instance, I read a crime novel by an Icelandic author this year, and was thrilled to use Netla's from last year with a quote in Icelandic on it.

And found some new ones for next year at the library today!

So far, I've gotten four from you all and mailed mine Saturday. The clerk at the Post Office who stamped the foreign ones for me was quite interested in them.

Mine are going in the mail tomorrow - it was supposed to be today but I discovered I needed to buy more cards.

Late as usual, I have put mine in the post today. I had some last minute inspiration and am pleased to say I made my bookmarks - well, 'made' with the help of my computer and the print shop we use at work! In keeping with the spirit of Christmas, the print shop did not charge me - how nice is that?! I am going to treat them to some nice chocolates or some such. Please note I am afraid I was doing everything too fast today and may have sealed an envelope without putting the bookmarks in!! if anyone does receive an empty Christmas card, please let me know - I have extras I can send along!

Veronicae, I join the chorus in saying I would have loved that bookmark as well. I think this is also a way of getting to know each other better and so sharing something you enjoy, etc. is perfectly fine with me!

I take part in swaps/exchanges of fabric and quilted objects on two quilt forums. Each time we do a "seasonal" swap, the directions are quite specific. For example the Autumn swap - the rules are to avoid all Halloween related patterns as they may be offensive to people of certain beliefs." The opposite is the Ornament exchange, in which the participants are warned that as the ornaments are essentially for Christmas trees, that if they would prefer not to receive an ornament that is not secular, but has a religious theme to it, they should not participate.

So, that experience is what motivated me not to send them. I myself wouldn't be upset to receive any type of bookmark of this sort...I too think that it helps us learn a little more about each other. And a good sturdy bookmark of any kind is always welcome.

I should have known that people who read, whose minds are open to ideas, would have accepted the bookmarks in the spirit with which they were offered. And I apologize for doubting you.

Phaedosia, glad to hear you are on the mend, a burst appendix can't be a comfortable thing!

And veronicae, please don't worry about the bookmarks, we didn't mean to make you feel sorry for not sending them. Just letting you and each other know that we enjoy whatever bookmarks we receive :-)

I just posted mine today, so you *should* get them in the next few days... unless the sleigh gets stranded in the snow in the UK!

Thanks everyone so far!

I am about halfway through the new Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead, and am not liking it as much as the others. Anyone else feel this way, or does it pick up later?

Merry Christmas and happy holiday to everyone.
Yvonne

I had a final bookmark from my sister in my stocking yesterday morning. It said, "And then what happened? And then what happened? And THEN what happened?"

Christine

(And my sincerest apologies if my bookmarks were late... it seems to be the way I work these days. Next year, perhaps I should mail them on Halloween.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
PAM

I had fun making the bookmarks I sent, but had there been any more participants, I would probably have made paper bookmarks instead, and probably will for next year's exchange. I have got to the point of needing bifocals and crocheting with such fine thread is getting to be difficult.

Yvonne

ALL the bookmarks were very special, as all of us have been here at RP for some time and I feel I know all of you. As I look at each one, I remember a book that the sender recommended, or a joke someone told here - this is a unique community and I am happy to be part of it.

And to everyone in the exchange - thanks for making it such a fun time and for taking part in it. Also - thanks for Siobhan for organizing it...!

PAM

PAM

Yvonne