Whenever I go to a bookstore I am always checking the clearance shelves for cheap books.  Tuesday loves book as much as I do and new ones (to her) are a special treat. I tend towards classics, beautifully illustrated books, and lovely prose. But I made an exception lately and got a book that makes noise.

Yes, yes, but I think it is a good exception to my no battery rule. This book was on clearance at Borders for $7.99 and I think the illustrations are great. What’s more when you pair a bird number to the speaker you get to hear just what it sounds like.

Tuesday is a big fan. I like it too and it got me thinking that we should start talking more about birds and checking out their features. So I picked up a few more bird books in the clearance section.

The Birding Essentials was only $1.99, a good companion to the song book I thought. And the coloring book was also inexpensive. It has simple illustrations with more information about various birds in North America.

And a coloring guide.

After Tuesday and I enjoyed the books for a few days the thought of winter holidays crept into my head and I decided to go back for a few more sets. My idea is to have some presents ready to go way before the holidays (or birthdays). We’ll see how well I do (I want to give these gifts to the intended recipients now!). I’ve made up little gift bags since I’m trying to stop using throw away wrapping.

I used a friend from quilt guild’s tutorial (you can find it here). It’s actually a reversible bag, with a nice enclosure for the cord.

I am super in love with the new cord my mom has in the shop (here it is). I love the bright colors, she even has neon! I found cord stops at the fabric store and it finishes them off nicely. I think these will be great for “wrapping” and for the kids to carry their book out in the yard or to a window to bird watch themselves.
I hope to update more regularly this week, but I still can’t seem to shake this darn cold! And when I went rummaging for medicine I realized just how long it’s been since I’ve been able to use the “good” stuff… everything was expired. Here’s hoping I don’t keep Bj up coughing another night!