2014 Delicious Reads Book Club Retreat

Welcome to our first annual Delicious Reads Retreat!

This retreat has been in the works since the very beginning of the year. I have been fussing over it and worrying about all the details for the whole year because I wanted to spoil my members and kick off the holiday season with a BANG!

{Swag Bags}

I envisioned from the beginning of planning that I wanted to give each of our members a Swag Bag of goodies to take home with them and that's just what I did.

We came up with this tote that looks like a piece of paper. One of our members sewed them all and we will post a DIY for them very soon which I will link to!

Thank you to all the companies that donated items to put in our swag bags!

CENTS OF STYLE for the darling colored stud earrings

RUBY BLOOM BOUTIQUE for the gold chain necklaces

THE BEST IN UTAH for the gift bags full of LOTS of fun surprises

BELLE ROSE CONFECTIONS for the delicious "Hot Chocolate on a Stick"

I also want to thank the people who donated items for our raffle that went on all night long, awww yeah!

*THE BEYOUTY BUREAU for donating the awesome gift bag full of cosmetic goodies!

*UNFORGETTABLE JULES for the darling gold flamingo necklaces

*THE KINGS ENGLISH BOOKSHOP for donating a gift bag along with a $15 gift card

*PUREZA SALON & MEDI SPA for donating three gorgous Frankie Rose lipsticks and some   Kerastase hair product.

 DELICIOUS READS donated some Harney and Sons pumpkin spice tea (one of my favorites), some  library themed thank you cards, "Sense & Sensibility" book and a cute Jane Austin reading quote. {FREE PRINTABLE AT THE END OF THIS POST!}

*CLASSY COSMETICS for donating a coupon good for a 1 time makeup application.

*RUBY RIVER STEAKHOUSE for donating two $50.00 gift cards!

*PERSNICKETY PRINTS for the $25.00 gift certificate

AND a big Thank You to all of the Book Club Members who helped in getting donations!

Our newest book club member is sweet baby "Ryo" Summers son. He was in baby heaven being surrounded by so many women who wanted to hold and snuggle him!

 {Author Visit}

One of our favorite authors, Teri Harman, came up to our retreat to talk about her new book that we read for the month of October, "Black Moon"
See our review of Black Moon, our meeting details and photos with Teri HERE.

We had a delicious spread of food to devour (which we did no problem)

{Italian Soda Bar}

We had to have an Italian Soda Bar! If you're looking for Syrup check out the Holiday Syrup on Amazon: (2 Vanilla, Hazelnut, Peppermint, Gingerbread and Caramel) or you could go Traditional (with Caramel, French Vanilla, Vanilla, Raspberry, Peppermint and Hazelnut)

{Decorations}

We brought a few decorations to celebrate "Black Moon" the 2nd Book in The Moonlight Trilogy but we kept it simple since we were not having a typical meeting.

But, you should check out the over the top book party we threw for Teri's first book BLOOD MOON if you'd like ideas and inspiration!

 

{Birthday Wishes}

One of our members and blog contributors ROBIN had her actual birthday at the retreat so we wanted to make sure we celebrated it with her. She is so dedicated and we love her for spending her special day with us!

{Photo Booth Shenanigans}

You can't have a girly get together without a photo booth!

Find these free printable word bubbles for your photo booth HERE

We stayed up photo boothing, painting our nails, listening to dance music, and talking about anything and everything until the wee hours of the night. We went to bed so late, like 4:00 am late, but we had to get some sleep because we had the important task of picking out our books for 2015 in the morning!

Oh and I am so excited for all the books we choose to read!

All in all I think we had a FABULOUS retreat that we will continue to do year after year!

{FREE PRINTABLE}

To download just click on the image you prefer and save to your computer.
Each print was designed as a 5x7.
Enjoy!

CREDIT**All photos were taken by the talented Summer Nicole Photography 

Thanks again to Teri Harman for coming to our retreat,we always love having you!

DONATIONS:

CENTS OF STYLE 

RUBY BLOOM BOUTIQUE 

THE BEST IN UTAH

BELLE ROSE CONFECTIONS 

THE BEYOUTY BUREAU 

UNFORGETTABLE JULES 

THE KINGS ENGLISH BOOKSHOP 

PUREZA SALON & MEDI SPA 

CLASSY COSMETICS 

RUBY RIVER STEAKHOUSE 

PERSNICKETY PRINTS 

"Walt Disney: An American Original" Part II Book Club Ideas {by Bob Thomas}

Photo Source 

Let's continue with our Disney book club meeting by learning a little more about Walt shall we?

DID YOU KNOW...

That Walt was the original voice behind Mickey Mouse?

While mostly known for his skills as an animator, director and producer, Disney also tried his hand at voice acting. From Mickey’s inception in 1928, all the way to 1947, the mouse’s voice was provided by Disney before being turned over to English voice actor Jimmy MacDonald. Disney loved the character so much that he returned to the studio in 1955 to voice Mickey Mouse shorts for his company’s television show The Mickey Mouse Club.

Getting ready to discuss the book

Our members love any excuse to dress up and take photos so we set up a simple iPhone photo booth and props table to make everyone's selfie dreams come true! ;)

Angie was the PERFECT Snow White, she even had the dreamy fairytale princess look down!

Enjoy scrolling through some of our members photos and giggling along with us.

We tried to recreate how we felt when we saw Disneyland for the first time!
#nailedit

Thanks for sharing these super fun photos Kitch!

We couldn't STOP taking fun pictures! 

Photo by Kitch

Two Snow Whites and an adorable Peter Pan

I GUESS AT SOME POINT WE SHOULD DISCUSS THE BOOK RIGHT? (Hang on, let me take just one more picture...)

When we finally sat down to discuss the book Angie told us that she had a little surprise!

Keep reading...

Photo by Kitch

Angie handed out folded pieces of paper to everyone in the room and told us that she'd handmade four sets of adorable mickey ears, one for each land at Disney (Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland), and that the four random winners would each get a pair to wear and take home. 

Once all the papers we handed out we were told we could all open them to see who had won.

What happened next was priceless.

As each person opened their papers, people started yelling out with excited voices, "I WON, I WON!"

We quickly started to notice that there were more far more than four winners and that's right when Angie stood up and declared in grand "Oprah fashion," 

"YOU get a pair and YOU get a pair..." to each person in the room!

EVERYONE won a pair of the special Mickey ears!!

You can see Kitch modeling a pair of Adventureland ears below.

After each of us got our ears and put them on, we broke up into our different lands and were asked to each come up with 2-3 discussion questions based on different times of Walt's life.

Our group got the time of Walt's life that occurred during WWII.

DID YOU KNOW:

Not only did a young Disney attempt to help America on the field of battle, but he also helped several federal agencies throughout his career with animation. He created training films for the US military, propaganda films urging Americans to pay their taxes, and multiple anti-Hitler shorts meant to boost US morale at home. Disney also helped the State Department improve relations with South America by making a 1941 goodwill tour (featuring a specially made movie entitled Saludos Amigos), and later aided NASA by developing documentaries about the space program.

 

Walt received more Academy Awards and nominations than any other person in history!

Between 1932 and 1969, Disney won 22 Academy Awards and was nominated 59 times. Included amongst this trove of Oscars are three awards created specifically for him — one for creating Mickey Mouse, another recognizing his contribution of music in the field of animation, and a specially made prize honoring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that featured a traditional statuette, and seven miniature versions alongside of it.

Photo Source

After our lengthy discussion (because let's face it, who wouldn't want to talk about all things Disney related for hours?) Angie had one more surprise for us...

...A special toast to Walt.

"If visitors came to lunch, they were ushered into Walt's conference room at noon. He served them an aperitif of V-8 juice which surprised some of his international guests who expected something stronger. Walt's secretary often warned visitors that if Walt offered them a glass of "tomato juice" they had best accept it."

Angie with our V8 tomato juice shots for our special toast to Walt

Angie thanked Walt for his vision, his determination to follow his dreams and for being a kid at heart which has allowed millions of people around the world to do the same. Each of us raised our glasses to Walt and recalled our memories of Disneyland or our favorite Disney movie.

Thank you Walt for giving us all memories to last a lifetime and for a lifetime of memories for generations to come.

Sincerely, 

      Kelly

"The Diviners" {by Libba Bray} Book Club Ideas

MARCH 2013 BOOK CLUB 

We kept the decor simple with a few classic 1920's touches.

(Which involved LOTS of pearls and feathers)

Whenever we read a book that's set in a different era, we tend to use it as an excuse to play dress up.  ;)

We set up a photo booth in my front room where everyone could pile on the fur coats, feather boas, pearls and other props for a memorable 1920's portrait!

 Here's an example of Beth and I dancing the Charleston! 

To see all of our FABULOUS 1920's photos, check out the earlier post HERE

The evenings menu was themed after many popular 1920's food and drinks.

Refreshing virgin mint juleps
and of course,a tub full of"giggle water"

YUMMMMMM......
The mini pineapple upside-down cakes were UH-MAZING!
If you'd like to impress your friends and make your tummy happy, make your own mini cakes! You can grab the recipe from BIG MAMA'S HOME KITCHEN 
(the link will take you directly to the recipe)

IT ALL STARTED WITH A HARMLESS OUIJA BOARD...

The wilted girls spring up from their club chairs. “What’ve you got there? Is that a wee- gee board?” one of them asks.“Isn’t it darling? Mother bought it for me. It’s supposed to be haunted,” the hostess says and laughs. “Well, I don’t believe that, naturally.” The hostess places the heart- shaped planchette in the middle of the board. “Let’s conjure up some fun, shall we? 

“What is your name, o great spirit?” the hostess insists.The planchette moves quickly.N-A-U-G-H-T-Y-J-O-H-N“Why are you here, old sport?” George asks the board.The planchette moves so quickly they can barely keep up.I-H-O-L-D-T-H-E-K-E-Y-S-O-F-H-E-L-L-A-N-D-D-E-A-T-H. W-R-A-T-H-I-S-C-O-M-E-A-R-M-A-G-E-D-D-O-N-B-A-B-Y-LO-N-W-H-O-R-E.“Stop it this instant!” the hostess shouts."...Make it stop, make it stop!” one girl screeches, and even the jaded boys pale and move back.“Stop, spirit! I said stop!” the hostess shouts.

"Deep in the cellar of the dilapidated house, a furnace comes to life with a death rattle like the last bitter cough of a dying man laughing contemptuously at his fate. A faint glow emanates from that dark, foul- smelling earthen tomb. Yes, something moves again in the shadows. A harbinger of much greater evil to come. Naughty John has come home. And he has work to do." 

Wait... is that Naughty John hiding in the shadows?! CREEEEEPPPYYYY!

We all agreed that to date, this was one of the creepiest books we've read in our book club! 

That fact that we read this spooky book in February (the month of LOVE) instead of October only made matters worse. If we had picked The Diviners as our October "spooky book," maybe we could have mentally prepared ourselves better for the late night readings and nightmares that always followed! 

BUT...

I'll admit, I kind of love reading a book that made me look over my shoulder at the turn of every page...

...does that mean I have a secret dark side??

our moderator Kellie. started off the evening with a spunky quiz full of 1920's slang that we had to guess the meanings of! 

The oh so fabulously dressed Bethany won the prize!

Download the free quiz & answer key HERE!

Inside the grand prize was:

-A beautifully folded book page to display

-A CD full of jazzy tunes

-A rare white gnome taken from the museum of the creepy crawlies! ;)

Q: The Diviners is nothing short of spectacular. Could you tell us a little about how the idea was born?

Libba: The boring truth is that the idea for this came to me, as is usually the case at my house, over a longer stretch of time—no thunderclap moment. I have long been a fan of all things supernatural and horror. And I am particularly a fan of TV shows like “X-Files,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Dr. Who,” and “Firefly” in which there are spooky episodes atop longer, more political/existential story arcs. I really wanted to play in that sandbox. And so, about four years ago or so, I started thinking about all of the things I enjoy reading/watching and thought, well, hell’s bells, why not have fun and try my hand at that myself.  I am being incredibly selfish by making a big Cobb Salad of all of the things which interest me: history, politics, serial killers, New York City, religious/ethical quandaries, the American mythos, identity, class and race politics, the XL Creepy, literature, music, dancing, witty banter, and people wearing outrageous clothes, possibly adorned with feathers. But with ritual murder and ghosts and cornfields. You know, like you do.

So, #1 is that I’m selfish. #2 is that, apparently, there is a lot that interests me, most of it creepy. #3 is that I have always been fascinated by the 1920s—I started reading Dorothy Parker at an impressionable age and The Great Gatsby also made quite the impression on me as a teenager.

Q: How do you want to be remembered in 250 years time when bright, young, robotic-minds wander a museum of ancient 21st century books and stumble across one bearing your name?

Libba: As that author who was part of an international scandal involving Ryan Gosling, street mimes, and a drag queen musical featuring the songs of Burt Bacharach. 

{*I don't know if I could love Libba any more after reading this answer lol!!}

 Q: Can you give us any hints on what to expect from book two? I, for one, am dying to find out more about the Man in the Stovepipe Hat (who what is he?!) – can we expect answers?

Libba:   You can expect more pages. Probably odd punctuation. And “Diviners 2” somewhere on the title page.  I kid. I can tell you that there is a character, a Diviner, who makes a brief appearance in the first DIVINERS, and she takes a much more central role in the second book as does Henry. We learn a bit more about Project Buffalo and The Man in the Stovepipe Hat, or Mr. Fun Times, as I call him. Of course, this could all change and I could end up giving you an armadillo musical in the middle of the book. It could happen.

Below are a few of the questions we answered in our discussion.

To read our responses to all of the discussion questions check out our book review.

 FULL REVIEW HERE.

Kellie put together these adorable take home tins for each of us.

There were some fun and mysterious treasures hidden inside!

Thank you Libba for writing such a spunky, creepy, mysterious, fun, horrifying, jazzy book that will haunt me forever! 

Seriously, I can't get naughty Johns eerie song out of my head!!!

I've said it many times before but I'm saying it again, I LOVE our book club!

FREE DIVINERS PRINTABLE HERE

READ OUR BOOK REVIEW HERE