Our 2016 in Review

It's that time of year to recap on all our 2016 Book Club Picks. We had such a great year and none of these books disappointed us. I have all the links below to each month. I hope your book club gets to read some of these books. I didn't realize this till I was going over everything but half of our books have been made into movies. I love seeing a book come to life on the big screen. Hopefully they decide to make some of the other books movies like The Nightingale, A Darker Shade of Magic and Illuminae. I'm crossing my fingers.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Book Club Ideas

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is my absolute favorite book in the Harry Potter series and I was thrilled when I received the opportunity to act as moderator. There are so many reasons that I love this particular book. Up until this point we have not learned much about Voldermort's past. Through the pensive and Dumbledore's memories we gain great insight into why and how Voldermort became the way he is. We are also introduced to a new character that is one of my favorites, Horace Slughorn. There are exciting spells and potions that are introduced (sectumsempra, felix felicies etc.), and of course the epic ending of the book where the beloved headmaster Dumbledore is killed by Severus Snape. 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Book Club Ideas

I feel so lucky to be apart of all the magic with this amazing Harry Potter book club party. I got to moderate book #5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 

There were so many different options to decide between for my decor item. I made the Prophecy Ords from this book for a fun DIY decoration. They were really easy and turned out pretty cool. They definitely look best in low.  

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Book Club Ideas

I chose to moderate Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because it is one of my favorites from the series! It always has been. 
We are introduced to dementors, transfiguration, Harry's godfather, Buckbeat, time-turners, and so many other things of the wizarding world! 

Dementors!

(Summer)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Book Club Ideas {FREE Printables}

Moderating Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) for Delicious Reads was EPIC. The whole weekend was perfection. Each moderator went all out with discussions, activities, decor, and costumes.

Start off with a Goblet of Fire and have each person put their name in. I created my own version of the Goblet of Fire. I just used wood glue to attach a large wooden candlestick to a ceramic popcorn bucket from DI (my local thrift store). Then I painted them a wood color. My plan was to use this recipe for blue fire. My brother also suggested getting blue cellophane, cutting it to look like fire, and putting a light and fan in the bottom of the cup, which I think is an excellent idea.

Harry Potter Book Club Costume Ideas

We had everyone pick a character to dress up as and made a list so that we wouldn't have any duplicates. Keep reading to see all the customer from the retreat.

Harry Potter Book Club Food Ideas

As always, food is really important to us but it was ESPECIALLY important for our 10 year Harry Potter retreat!
Our menu was based off food mentioned through out the books and prepared by Hogwarts house elves. We had two different menus. One for our dinner feast and one for our English style breakfast. And we had a HUGE dessert and sweet shop bar we could graze from during the evening!

 Dobby aka Erika, was in charge of our Food Committee and she did such a fabulous job. Thank you so much Erika and everyone who was on the food committee!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Book Club Ideas

After discussing books 1-6 in one night we decided we would discuss book 7 the next day and really spend some quality time on it. Our book club member, Erika, was in charge of book 7 and came up with an incredibly interactive and creative way for us to relive the book! We playing a game she made up herself that split us all into 4 teams going on a Horocrux hunt!
Guys... Erika put SO much time and energy into this game, it was amazing!

Lucky for you, she has agreed to make it available to anyone who's daring (or nerdy enough like us) to use it for their own personal use! 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Book Club Ideas

Hey Readers!

I'm Cami from Worthington Ave. and I'm stopping by Delicious Reads today to share about how I moderated Harry Potter Book One for the Delicious Reads Harry Potter Retreat.

I had a blast putting together fun things for this book, and I'm excited to share them with you!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Book Club Ideas

Hey guys welcome to Book Club Ideas for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I really liked this book and feel like we are introduced to many new "beasts" and this is where we hear about Tom Riddle's Diary (which later we know to become one of those things, I don't want to say in case you haven't read the whole series.) I moderated this book at our Harry Potter Retreat and there were so many things you could do for it. I had to choose which ones I would do because I couldn't do them all. Keep reading and find out all we did at our book club for this book.

DIY Harry Potter Cardboard "Mirror of Erised" Tutorial

Photo by: Summer Nicole Photography

If you know me at all, then you know I LOVE Harry Potter.

 I was thrilled when Marissa from Raegun Ramblings asked me to be a part of her Happy Harry Potter Blog Series this year and WOW, the creativity and talent from all the bloggers participating is mind blowing!

Our Top 10 Most Popular Posts

All of 2016 we are celebrating ten years as a book club (yay!) so each month I've decided to highlight some of our best moments, blog posts, photos, books and memories.
We found our top 10 most popular posts and compiled them all for your viewing pleasure.
First up...

"Blood Moon" {by Teri Harman} Book Club Ideas

Say hello to the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful witch in the West...

Author Teri Harman

(Photo credit for all pictures goes to Bethany Madison)

Isn't this cover gorgeous?! We couldn't have chosen a better book for our October book club!

If you are planning on hosting your own Blood Moon book club then you definitely need to request one of these awesome book club packages from Teri. Inside I found menu ideas, questions, moon information, signed book marks and more!
To request your own book club package then simply go HERE 

FOOD & DECORATIONS:

So, no pressure or anything, but when the author of  the book we're reading COMES to our book club, I tend to want everything to be perfect and step things up an extra five notches!

With that being the case, I did the smart thing and recruited one of my book club members who's creativity and talents have no boundaries...I called the beautiful Bethany and I definitely made the right decision!!

(Bethany and Chanel)

Just take a gander at the Blood Moon inspired decorations and food table Bethany whipped together...

I need to thank Robin for getting these stunning moon phase prints that we turned into vertical banners!

Witch Water and
Bartholomew's spell that requires an owls heart and eyes in the cauldron to work its dark magic.

Here's the menu from our meeting

 I think this might have been one of our most decadent and delicious book club feasts to date!

We had Rowans Risotto, Earthy Root Vegetables, Simon's Salad & SOOOO much more!

True Coven Caramel Apples and Rose infused whipped cream with fresh fruit

Doussantz....drool....
(If you want to try a dossantz {cousin to the cronut} then check out their website for more info!)

Dreamy Lavender Shortbread Cookies, Dossantz and Blood Moon Cake Pops!!

Butterbeer!!

If you want your taste buds to try something AMAZING then you need to try BUTTERBEER. And YES, I'm talking about the butterbeer from Harry Potter and YES, it's a real thing, and YES, you need to try it.

I labeled ours "Bartholomew's Butterbeer" and let me tell you, Brittanie did a great job creating the most perfect frothy, buttery goodness! YUM!
(And doesn't it look perfect in Bethany's cauldron punchbowl?)
Click HERE to download two different Butterbeer recipes if you want to make your mouth smile!

And look at these beauties that Angie made...food art right?
These delicate and scrumptious lavender flavored shortbread cookies not only looked dreamy but taste dreamy as well! I am in love with them!
You can find the recipe that Angie used HERE.

Now, if you like a good salad and I mean, a GOOOOOOOD salad, then you need to make this gourmet green salad that Karen made and whose recipe is ALWAYS requested when she makes it! You will crave it for days after you eat it, it's that tasty!

Download the secret recipe HERE!

Lastly, you HAVE to try Libby's Cinnamon Spiced Pepita's (pumpkin seeds) that are simply addictive!

The recipe is super simple and super delicious so what are you waiting for?

Download the recipe HERE.

Take a peek some of our resident witches...

Bethany, Teri and me

GAME, PRIZES & DISCUSSION:

I ordered this RAD spell book as part of the "Best Dressed" prize and I almost didn't give it away because I loved it so much! Every good witch needs this book in her collection.

I found this awesome moonstone pendant and made it into a necklace as part of the "Monthly Moon Names" prize along with an entire box of moon pies!(The quiz printable can be found at the bottom of this post)

Here are a few of the items I put in Teri's thank you gift:
A mint moonstone necklace and earrings, a fun owl ring (I knew that Teri liked owls.)
A Moon Spells book, an essential for any witch, and of course, a moon pie!

WINNERS!
Libby won the moon name quiz and Brooke won the drawing for Best Dressed!

Teri is explaining her inspiration behind why she wrote Blood Moon and showing us photos of the creepy old school house that started it all. Read more about her inspiration HERE!

We were all totally engrossed learning about Teri and asking her question after question about the book AND her next book, "Black Moon," due to come out fall of 2014.
To read more about our Q&A with Teri and our discussion then go HERE to read about our evening!

After our discussion, Teri was kind enough to sign everyone's books and take pictures.
Isn't her witch outfit perfect?! 

We want to give Teri a BIG THANK YOU for taking the time to come to Delicious Reads book club and making our evening forever memorable. 

PRINTABLES & FREEBIES!

If you are hosting your own Blood Moon book club meeting then you're in luck because I have TONS of great FREEBIES for you to use to make your evening extra witch-tacular! (See what I did there?)

Chanel had this fabulous idea to recreate a moment out of the book by using several fresh herbs out of her garden along with a kosher salt pentagram. She filled several red goblets with different herbs and I created these labels to identify each of them.
Click HERE to download the herb label set.

{Click on quiz image to download it along with the answer key}

If you want to learn about why each month's moon has a different name then you can read about them HERE in this word document I made.

I made and used these eerie tags for the quiz and best dressed winners.

Download them HERE

Here are some blank food labels that you can use to create your own witch inspired menu with.
Download them HERE

Don't forget to read the review from our fabulous evening with author Teri Harman HERE!