Pretty in Print: Haunted Gingerbread Houses

To go along with any fun Halloween read, we thought it would be fun to create a few haunted houses of our own.  Haunted gingerbread houses are such a fun activity to do during the month of Halloween

and they are the perfect craft to go along with Shirley Jackson's classic novel.

Pretty in Print: Incorporating books into your Thanksgiving Table Decor

The holidays are coming up and that means hosting lots dinner parties for families and friends!  I love

hosting dinners for my loved ones, and I love decorating the table for the occasion.

I hardly ever do a holiday tablescape without using my vintage books, they make decorating so 

easy and so fast.  They are great for creating different heights, and quickly give structure to all my table decorations.

I got all of my beautiful vintage books from one of our beautiful local used book stores called Pioneer Book.  They are located on Center Street in Provo and they have such a wonderful selection of 

classic, vintage books.  I would highly recommend stopping in their cute store to have a look at their vast collection. 

When I started thinking about what kind of tablescape I wanted to do for this post, I looked at my books and noticed I didn't have a ton of orange books to create a traditional,

fall thanksgiving table.  But I did have quite a few blue books and I love using blue and orange together, it is such a popular color combo right now.  So, I would suggest when you are thinking 

about how to dress up your table for the up coming holidays, think of mixing things up a little bit.  Choose surprising color combinations, go with something a little less traditional.  Your guests 

are bound to love what ever you come up with and will be impressed with your creativity.

Recreating this look would take you minutes, and wouldn't cost you very much either.  Use books you already have around the house, if you don't have any or enough books in the color 

combo you are wanting, take a  look at this tutorial I did on Book Wrapping.

If you don't have fake fall foliage and pumpkins, right now is the BEST time to stock up because all the stores have majorly discounted all of their fall decor to make room for Christmas.  I love to get faux fall foliage and pumpkins from Michaels and Hobby Lobby.  I also like to get a few stems from Pottery Barn, they have sales on their fall items around this time of year as well. 

I am obsessed with blue and white porcelain, thus it is frequently featured in my posts.  I find it to be 

so timeless and elegant.  Hobby Lobby has an excellent selection of pretty blue and white porcelain, I have purchased quite a few of their items.  You can also find amazing deals and unique pieces in antique stores, for those of you that love to go antiquing like me!

If you aren't into blue and white as much as I am, you could supplement your decor with beautiful 

hand folded books.  I did a tutorial on Book Folding a couple of months ago, check it out!  

These beauties would look great with any color combination or any seasonal decorations you already have!

For the place settings I used white wooden chargers from Pier One Imports and my mom's collection of Blue Willow China.  For place cards I wanted to tie back into the books and reading element of the decor, so, we created our own script of Thanks and Thank You and printed it off in the typewriter font and cut it into the individual cards  You could also use pages from old books.

For the centerpiece I wanted to create something that would be easy and affordable.  I didn't want to go out and buy any extra decorations that I would then have to find a place to store with no

guarantees that I would use it ever again.  So I simply used apples and oranges, mixed in a few fall leaves to break up the composition and threw in a couple of gold pumpkins that can easily be found when you are shopping for your faux fall leaves and pumpkins.  I arranged them all on a platter then used a cake stand to give it a little additional height.

I hope this post has inspired you to create something fun and unique for your Thanksgiving table this year. I would love to see a recreation on this blue and orange theme or any other creative decor you come up with using books.  

Post your pictures to instagram and, as always, make sure to tag @deliciousreads so I can see all of your gorgeous holiday decor! 

Thanks for reading

and happy decorating!

xoxo

Kate

Pretty in Print: Gone Reading

Photo source

That deliciously, tantalizing crispness is beginning to fill the air.

The leaves are starting to slowly change into their rich, fall colors.

The kids are headed back to school, and pumpkin 

flavored everything is hitting the shelves.

In my opinion,

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

With the change of the seasons our thoughts begin to turn to 

hosting and attending festive parities, school events and activities,

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and, of course, Christmas shopping!

With all those fun filled events that are filling up your calendar 

you will be looking for the perfect:

-Teacher appreciation gifts

-Hostess gifts

-Party decor

-Gifts for all those friends with fall birthdays

-Table settings

-Holiday decorations

-Christmas presents

Friends, I have discovered the most marvelous site that will make 

all of you upcoming fall and holiday plans so much easier and 

is sure to make every event you host all the more magical.

GoneReading.com

Has a huge variety of gifts, home decor, reading accessories and more.

But what sets them apart is their inspiring mission:

"To spread the magic of reading in the developing world.  That’s why we’ve pledged 100% of after-tax profits to fund reading related charities, especially the work of our good friends at Read Global and Ethiopia Reads."

Photo Source: Read Global

Photo Source : Ethiopian Reads

Click the links above to learn more about these amazing organizations.  Gone Reading

is such a great site with such a sweet and wonderful mission.  I love knowing that 

all of my purchases are helping to spread the magic of reading to those who will

love and cherish it.

Just to give you an idea of all the 

delightful things you can find on Gone Reading,

here are some of my favorite products 

you can find on their site. 

(Just as a side note, this entire article is something that I chose to write, I 

wanted to spread awareness about the good people at 

Gone Reading and the uplifting and fulfilling mission

they are out to accomplish.  I approached them

about writing an article about their purpose, and they

were nice enough to give us a coupon code.  This 

is in no way a sponsored or requested post from them, these

are all my own thoughts and opinions.) 

Book Text Posters

These beautiful posters are comprised of the actual text, 

 more than 18,000 words, from the books they

represent.  The two pictured below are 

Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.

Floating Bookshelves

Gone Reading has numerous items

to help make your home look and 

feel great.  I adore these floating bookshelves, 

but they also have a wide variety of candles and diffusers and

all sorts of reading accessories to make your favorite 

pastime all the more comfortable and relaxing.

Gift Collections

Gone Reading organized different gift collections

that make finding the perfect present 

so easy.  Some of their collections include:

-Book club gifts

-Jane Austin Gifts

-Librarian Gifts

-Edgar Allen Poe Gifts (Perfect for Halloween!)

-Shakespearean Gifts

-Gifts for Families and Kids

These are stunning postcards 

found in the Jane Austin gift collection

My all time favorite items that I have found 

thus far on Gone Reading are the 

Book Shaped Dishware

The tea cup and saucers are hand down my favorite

Just look at how charming they are!

Thank you so much to the wonderful staff at Gone Reading for all the 

good you are doing to spread the blessing of reading around the world. 

And thank you so much for our very special coupon code!

Thanks for reading and 

happy shopping!

xoxo

Kate

Pretty in Print: Book Folding

Hello dear readers!  

This is my last post in my book case styling series.  

My first post was on how to style your book cases, and I talked a little bit about

how to mix your books in with some fun and unique objects to add interest and variety to 

your shelves.  This week's post is for those of you that don't have any, or not enough,

items to mix in with your books.

Books with folded pages are eye catching and very unique. 

 They add fun visual interest to any space and are so easy and cheap to make.

And would make the perfect item to mix in with your stacked books.

Go to your local DI or thrift store and pick up a few hard back books.  

Look for a variety of sizes, get some big ones and get some little ones to 

mix and match.  A few of the books that I have are little dictionaries, and some are

novels.  If you are putting them in your book cases you won't be seeing the covers

and you, of course, won't be able to read the text, so any type of book works great.

Then put on your favorite movie and start folding!  

This is such an easy craft, but it is time consuming, so it's fun to have a movie playing

or have some friends over, and you can chat while folding.

Here are a couple of step by step instructions for 

a few different patterns:

Triangle and diamond shapes are the easiest 

It's just two simple folds per page

This is what the pattern looks like

First, fold the top part of the page in half, making sure the corner of the 

page reaches the spine of the book.  If you want the entire edge of the page

to line up with the spine, you will have a more pointed top.  If you just bring the

corner to the spine, as shown below, the top of your book will

be a little more flat.  Either way works great, it just depends

on the look you are going for.

Second, fold the bottom corner up to the top of 

the page just far enough to make a sharp point. 

Repeat this same pattern on all the pages

This is the pattern if you are wanting a

 more diamond looking shape

Fist fold up the bottom of the page, lining the edge of 

the paper with the spine

Second, fold the top part of the page until the edge meets the spine.  

Repeat this same pattern on all of the pages

This look is one of my favorites.  It's fairly simple 

as well, it just requires three easy folds per page.

This is what the pattern looks like

First, fold the page in half

Second, fold back the top and bottom corners

to create an arrow pointing towards the spine.

Repeat this same pattern on all the pages.

This double diamond look is the most difficult,

but only because you alternate the pattern slightly on 

every other page.  It's still only two folds per page.

Here is the pattern for half of the pages

First, fold the bottom corner up so the edge 

lines up with the spine.

Second, fold the top corner down until it forms a point.

On the next page, repeat the same pattern in reverse. 

Start by folding the top corner down, then fold the bottom

corner up to create a point.

These are just a few ideas, there are endless possibilities.  You can easily create

your own pattern, simply by opening up your book, folding the first page

in anyway you like and repeat it for the rest of the book and see 

what fun shape you end up with!

As always, I would LOVE to see how your folded 

books turn out!  Post pictures of your newly folded books

to instagram and make sure to tag @deliciousreads in the caption

so I can see all of your beautiful creations!

Thanks for reading 

and happy book folding!

xoxo

Kate