I spent a good part of my weekend getting up early and reading before MiniMe got out of bed. She went to the midnight release for Breaking Dawn Friday night with friends. (That is another way to know your children are growing up, when they don’t want you to go with them to geeky book release parties anymore.) She stayed up almost all night Friday reading. Then on Saturday while I was here at the store working she’d randomly call me throughout the day just to say, “OMG!” in my ear as she continued to read. When I got home after 5:00 she was chomping at the bit to have someone to talk to about the book. None of her friends that also bought the book at midnight had stayed up as late to read so she was way ahead of them. We were having friends over Saturday night so we couldn’t read then.

I told her to leave the book outside her door and I’d get up and start reading Sunday morning. I got up around 7a.m. and had almost caught up to her by noon. I had at least gotten past the “OMG!” moments and was able to commiserate and discuss what the heck just happened in the middle of the story. We then traded off and on for the rest of the day. Monday morning I got up early again and snuck into her room to steal it back so I could try to finish before she got up.

I finished by noon. I won’t give any spoilers away but I will say that in my opinion, the first half of the book was better than the second. If I didn’t know someone was waiting for me to finish, I’m not sure I would’ve kept reading at full tilt.

Ironically, she still hasn’t finished the book. She found like I did that the second half isn’t all that compelling and she can pretty much tell where the story is going to go so she doesn’t really care anymore.

At least now we can move on with our lives.

Mini-me got me to read the first three books in the Twilight series sometime last year while waiting for the last Harry Potter book to come out. (The family that reads together, gets into book series theory debates together, or something like that.) Since that time they have become somewhat of a phenomenon in the world of teenage girls.

We pre-ordered our copy of the latest in the series, Breaking Dawn early in the summer and Mini-me has been waiting for the midnight release party ever since. The internet is awash in release party costume ideas and heated discussions about who will win Bella’s undying love (excuse the pun!)

We figured if the rest of the world was as or even more into this book as we were we’d might as well make a party of it! We’ve spent the past week brainstorming ideas for fun and original crafts that relate to the story and have come up with some great ones. I lucked into finding a fabulous jewelry company at CHA that has fabulous pewter pendants ready to be personalized and embellished. We’re also making red satin book thongs, bottle cap pins and decorating canvas tote bags.

If you already have plans for the midnight release join us beforehand for pizza, crafts and fun, we’ll be finished up in plenty of time for you to still make it to your local bookstore to pick up your copy well before the break of dawn!

   
   
Getting new books is like my birthday, Christmas and Halloween all wrapped up in one for me. Why Halloween? Because is is my favorite holiday and it involves candy. Duh. Anyway, I love ordering and getting new crafty books. There are so many great ones being published right now. If I had nothing else to do all day I’d just grab a random stack of them and sit out on the front porch and get inspired.

Once I have a chance to really dive into these a little more I’ll type up some reviews. I’ve flipped through Alternacrafts and Subversive Seamstress and there are some really cool projects in both of them. Doodlestitching looks to have some really cute embroidery ideas. There is a lot of creative eye candy in all three of the Artist Trading Card (ATC) books too.