The Books and Beverages Shoppe is Open!!!

My blogging friend Jamie Lapeyrolerie, who blogs at Books and Beverages, has decided to share her love of books and blogging in a new way:  by opening an online shop.  Yes!  Today is the day Books and Beverages -- The Shoppe officially opens for business!

This all started when Jamie was searching for a planner to help her keep track of her blogging schedule.  She interviews authors and bloggers, reviews books, dissects Walking Dead episodes, shares Fun Finds for the Book Nerd, and hosts her Inklings Series about the books of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (not to be confused with Heidi's Inkling Explorations series -- totally different thing) -- her blog is one of the most content-rich blogs I follow because she posts nearly every day.  So she was having a hard time keeping track of when she needed to get different posts done, and started looking around for some kind of organizer or planner or notebook that was specifically suited to blogging.  And she couldn't find any.  Being full of shiny awesome as she is, Jamie created one.  Then she realized that if she needed such a planner, other people probably did too, and thus she decided to start a shop and sell them.  And once she decided to open a shop, she had lots of other cool ideas for book-lover-oriented products, too.

I have the pleasure of being part of her launch team :-)  Which means that she sent me a sampling of her Shoppe's products to use and scrutinize and test and generally have great fun with them.  Now I'm going to share them with you!

I'll begin with the planner, since that's what started her on this adventure:

First, the cover artwork is delightful, isn't it?  It pulls in the name of her blog and shop by featuring a stack of books and a cup of some sort of steaming, yummy beverage.  It's got a really nice texture too -- kind of a woven feel to it, and it's sturdy but also supple so you can cram it in your computer bag and know it will bend if necessary, but won't get ripped or crumpled.  Inside, it has six non-dated, non-named month calendars like this:

I filled the first one out for next month because I have a bunch of blogging stuff going on in January, though at the time I took these pictures, I'd only put the date for one down so far (my upcoming Shane read-along that I really need to officially announce).

Then it also has 28 weeks-worth of checklist and notes pages, which I think would be especially helpful for anyone who participates in an advance-reader book-reviewing program:

And then there are some more pages to record what books you've read and write down quotes.  I'm totally going to use that to help myself keep on task for reading one Anne book a month in 2016.

Besides the planner, Jamie is also offering a set of postcards that feature delicious book quotes.  The full set is here, and she sent me these two as part of my sample pack:

They're super sturdy, not flimsy like a touristy postcard, and they come with envelopes too in case you want to send it to a bookish friend and not have the picture get mussed up by the post office.  

I can't decide if I'm going to send these to people, or keep them... I'm kind of thinking of buying a set to hang up and inspire me, and then sending these ones to friends.

And there are stickers and bookmarks!!!  They're from her Inklings Collection and come in sets of five, featuring a quote from either Lewis or Tolkien with some cute artwork.  Jamie sent me two stickers (square corners) and one bookmark (rounded corners):

Once I'd taken this picture, I stuck both of my stickers in my current journal because that's what I do with supremely cool stickers I want to keep forever.  Jamie is also offering iPad Mini covers and iPad Air covers that feature those same designs from her Inklings Collection, so you can show off your love of Tolkien or Lewis if you happen to own such a device.  She's planning to offer more book-lover-oriented items in the future, and I can't wait to see what else she has up her stylish sleeves.

Jamie, thanks so much for selecting me to be part of your launch team and sending me free samples of your cool products!  I think this planner is going to be much better than scrawling blog events on my wall calendar, where they get lost amid the various doctor appointments and classes my kids take, etc.  I love having someplace dedicated to my blogging schedule, and already this planner has helped me become more organized with my plans for 2016.