- Anything that can be used as a bookmark is okay, ie. postcards, torn ticket stubs, laundry receipts, etc. Homemade bookmarks and creativity welcome but not necessary.

- Participants will be capped at 25, although I don't think this will be a problem.

- Send me an email with your name, address, and name used at RP. Here is my top secret addy - silence is golden 4 at hot mail dot com. I should also receive messages sent by clicking on my name here.

For the record, I am the first person in my village to display my holiday lights this year. Yes, I hung up colored lights today and plugged them in, toasting the occasion with a glass of wine. They will do for Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, and Valentines Day. Hey, this is Maine, it is DARK here.

So, let's go, hope to hear from you!

Count me in !

Yvonne

Carolyn

cheryl

I hate to be pedantic (well, actually, I quite enjoy it), but isn't this the third year running?

Sheri

Yes, it is the third year. I do wish we could edit our posts. And I would take the hyphen out of Christmastime. Not to mention that it really is a general holiday end-of-year thing. Oh well.

Thanks Siobhan for being our coordinator.

PAM

And yes, thanks to Siobhan for pulling this together.

liz

There are some houses in my area from which the lights are never removed. I guess the residents just pick a date and plug them in again.

Thank you, Siobhan.

I'm confuse-ed. :0)

You all are cracking me up with the stories about the Christmas lights. I think that as long as I live in Maine, I will have lights during the six month period between the equinoxes. If I have to turn the lights on in my living room, I might as well have decorations too. I am cheating, though, the lights are actually inside the window.

Oh yes, yoyo, I messed up the counting, see my post above ;)

BTW, I have no idea what I am going to send yet, but I have been collecting laundry receipts. (JOKING!)

I have received so many compliments on all of the beautiful bookmarks I've received from all of you. I'm the envy of my bookclub!

I'm looking forward to this!

Rosefolly

Let me know if you haven't received either of my emails. I will be away off and on for the new few days and mostly computerless, so don't worry if you don't hear from me right away.

Mine are going out in Christmas cards, and are sitting here waiting to be prepared. I had the foresight to purchase some cards of the proper length when I saw them in a sale bin last year, so I am all set.

So dust out your mailbox
and clear out the slot,
The time is a approaching
To see what you got !!!

Yvonne

Rosefolly

I'm planning on mailing mine around the second week in December, maybe the 10th or so. I volunteered at the library this morning and due to a very quiet shift I got them all ready. Woo-hoo.

I have the opposite situation, Rosefolly: while unpacking in my new home this fall I discovered cards and even stamps that I had misplaced last year. The bookmarks I have managed to keep track of even though I purchased them some time ago at a library fundraiser. It is nice to actually use some of this stuff that I have but never seem to be able to find when I need it.

Rosefolly

PAM

On we go -

Rosefolly

Rosefolly

'Grief is the tax we pay on our attachments.'

It's at times like this when I wish we could meet physically, not just virtually. I should like to give you a big, big hug. And in any case, I wish you - and everyone at R.P. - a wonderful Christmas. Mine won't be too bad: I'm going to my daughter and her family (2 grandchildren - Sam, 9, and Daisy, 6) for a week, then on to my sister in the wonderful city of Bath. Stan and I never celebrated Christmas very much, and last year we were both rather under-the-weather - just glad to be warm and at home, with some food and drink.

Dido/Diana

PAM

Thanks to Siobhan, Paula (rosefolly) and Veronica (veronicae) for the lovely bookmarks.

Pam, my workmates not only want to see what I get, but I have to give two of them one of mine for the year too :)

The past three months have been completely nuts at my house (our basement flooded in September and again last week when we were nearly done with repair/reconstruction) so getting presents in the mail is a huge pick-me-up!

I'm opening (and enjoying) each one as it arrives. They are in a tidy little stack on my cutting table. Eventually I will take them out and start to use them, but I'm not ready yet.

Rosefolly

The bad news is that either my email or someone else's has been hacked. I think I have nipped it in the bud but if you get a weird email that looks like it is from me, mark it appropriately to let your email provider know it is inappropriate.

The good news is that I have whole stack of envelopes waiting for me to open!

I'm sure everyone knows this, but do not open anything in these emails. Mark them as spam or phishing scams and delete.

Siobhan, I did get two emails from you and opened the first one after seeing the Boothbay. I won't do it again!

I have participated in three of the four bookmark exchanges we have held, two of the three that Siobhan coordinated, as well as the the very first one that Janalyn arranged some years back. I still have most of the bookmarks, and would love to know who sent them!

Rosefolly

As always, I love the diversity. Photos/paintings of places you live, libraries, hobbies, homemade, with quotes - I love them all!

I was all set to address and mail my cards when I realized that none of the bookmarks I had gathered (I wasn't going to make them this year due to my moving to a new place) would fit in the envelopes. So, my choice was either to buy new cards or go through the boxes to find my scrapbooking materials and make cards. In the end I decided to make them since I have so many boxes of cards I really don't need any more. Therefore my cards are being mailed out a little later than I had planned, tomorrow (12/19), with apologies in advance for those that don't receive them until after Christmas.

It's been fun receiving all the cards and bookmarks so even though this was a busy and stressful time I am glad I participated. :)

I still haven't opened my envelopes - they are piled on my Christmas display, tempting me. But I am glad I waited. I think I will open them Christmas Day. I have to work Christmas Eve night into Christmas Day, which pretty effectively kills any Christmas Day plans. I can't really stumble home at 7 AM, sleep for a couple of hours and then show up at a friend's house for dinner with any vestige of sociability. So I will sleep all day and then wake up to find that Santa has brought me a lot of cards with lovely bookmarks.

It is a mystery because the address and zip were correct.
They surmised that perhaps there was a substitute carrier on that day and he might have messed up.
????
Imagine how the postal service is going to limp along after March when all the cuts and closings begin.

So far I've seen really wonderful bookmarks that say something about the sender and that makes them so special. Thanks so much to everyone!

I"m looking forward to receiving it! It will help with the let down feeling I get after something long awaited and anticipated is over; now I have something still to look forwart to. :)

What a pleasure to open -- thank you all so much, they're delightful! I've received twelve so far, and they've put such a smile on my face.

I'm a bit slow off the mark in actually sending - it's just been an incredibly busy pre-Christmas. But, for the first time in several years, I have the time off between Christmas and New Year...SOOOO...please look out for your belated bookmarks early in the New Year.

Thanks to all!

I finally mailed mine this week - so apologies to those who will receive them late!

Cheryl

PAM

I'm going to follow suit and just thank everyone. What a delightful experience this has been.

Rosefolly

Or....you can do a bit more work and create a hollowed out book using this link and the directions shown.

In no particular order -

Vee - you are most welcome however you arrive - if you paddle across the Atlantic, I can promise a brass band on arrival!

Frances - I don't know whether to use it or frame it! Beautiful!

Wolfseeker - I think I will put both the card and the bookmark on my tree, I love it!

Donnamira - I'm a space fan from way back and I have just the book for this one.

Rosefolly - Beautiful colors and workmanship. I still see you in cashmere and diamonds working in your rose garden -

Yvonne - So imaginative and so true. I completely relate to the pig -

Veronica - I can just picture the quilt show with you and your friend - wish I could have been there. I love magnetic bookmarks, so very useful -

Back to opening -

Lemonhead - I adore the picture from Old Bear and the bookplates already have a home -

Sheri - Just when I think they can't get any nicer or more fun, I open yours - thank you!

Rouan - I am so glad you could participate even with your move - the bookmark is beautiful!

Carolyn - I did a double take when I opened this - central Kentucky looks a lot like Maine! And I am a member of the 'Green Team' at work - I think we need to make bookmarks...hmmm...

PAM - I just put New Grub Street on my Kindle (must figure out how to use bookmarks with Kindle)

Phaedosia - Does this little girl resemble yours? I notice it is from Owl Square Press, don't they have wonderful things?

Christine - Personalized and giftwrapped! This one went right on my tree, thank you!

And to think the mailbox will be holding a couple more in days to come - thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making this very special and rewarding. Best wishes for the rest of the holidays and for much good reading to come in 2012.

Anyway, belated Merry Christmas to all of you. I love all the bookmarks I've received. I think I may have one or two yet to arrive so am looking forward to that.

Yoyobon, I finally did receive yours; the post office had marked it as a second attempt, but it did show up!

Thank you all for your well wishes on my new home and life. I am so glad I participated in this exchange. :)

Every year of the exchange is better than the year before, although it doesn't seem possible.

I wish each of you and happy and healthy New Year with much joy and interesting reading! Who knows what 2012 holds!

Siobhan, Pam beat me to it, but do please put me down for the next year's exchange (the fifth in total, and the fourth annual one-- give yourself full credit for all the work you have done!).

Rosefolly

It has been really fun and a great highlight of the season for me.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly

Can I just join in the thanks to Siobhan and say that I will also be in next year - I had better start hunting for a good quote now *g*

R

Thanks to all of you for such beautiful and interesting bookmarks! I had some friends over the holidays and I was showing off my new bookmarks. Some of my friends were trying to stow my new treasures into their books! Well, as you could imagine, I had to put a stop to that!

It has been great fun to receive them all and also to brag just a smidge, about how wonderful my books will be marked throughout the year!

(Next year? This year! Tempus fugit and all that.)

I have not gone back to count, but I think that is the end. And we are already getting prepared for next year.

Rosefolly