Today is the 9th Anniversary of Smart Bitches! We were founded 31 January 2005, and what a long, funky nine years it's been!
Thank you for being here to talk about romance and all the other things we love and enjoy and don our ragepants about. I'm so glad you're here.
To celebrate, I usually do a silly giveaway that's tied to the traditional or modern gifts for that year's anniversary. Last year, the traditional gift included linen and lace, so I gave away fichus. (Bitches love fichus).
This year? OH, THE TRICKERYNESS. Because sometimes, the traditional and modern anniversary gifts are completely difficult, like this year: pottery and china! Or willow!
Or LEATHER GOODS.
I have some leather goods for you right here:
No, I'm not giving away a leather-clad Fabio. I wouldn't know where to find him.
I could go with , or some shoes. A leather trench coast would be interesting, but if you had to hunt vampires or werewolves, it might endanger your life with all that creaking and noisy swooshing that leather makes, so that wouldn't work.
Or, I could get everyone some pot, but that's only legal in two states.
Hmmm.
But soft! What gift idea from yonder browser window breaks? There are a bunch of different and very cute bags named “Willow.”
AW YEAH.
For our 9th anniversary, I'm giving away bags. Willow bags – bags named “willow” – each perfect for carrying one's books and reading essentials. And each one comes with a $50 gift card to the bookstore of your choice.
Meet your Willows!
This is the Kipling Willow, a canvas bag, the right size for the essentials. It has a zipper closure, and is 7″ (17.8cm) high by 13″ (33cm) wide. It also has a set of double top handles with 7″ drop, plus an adjustable detachable long strap with 26″ drop.
Another Willow! This is the Sherpani Willow bag:
It's a little funky, a little different, but still a good size for a book and your essentials — and reviewers online say the front pocket is perfect for a Kindle. It's 10″ by 10″ (25cm x 25cm), with an adjusaible crossbody strap.
But wait! There's one more Willow! This one satisfies the leather AND the willow gifts:
This is the McKlein Leather Briefcase. It's 16.5″ x 11.5″ (41.9cm x 29.2cm), with a compartment for a small latop up to 15.4” in screen size.
Want to try to win a willow and a $50 bookstore gift card? Easy! Just leave a comment as to what book you'd put in your bag, either in paper or digital format. I'll select three winners at random. One comment enters you to win one of the three bags and gift cards.
Entries will close on Tuesday 4 February 2014 at noon eastern. I'll announce the winners shortly afterward. Standard disclaimers apply. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to read and rock a righteous bag to enter. By submitting an entry to the contest as set forth herein, each entrant does acknowledge and agree that, in the event such entrant is victorious, such entrant will perform a ceremony reasonably appropriate to such circumstance, including, without limitation, the Miposian Dance of Joy or, in the alternative, Gangnam Style.
Thank you for making 9 years of Smart Bitches so much fun. Happy anniversary!
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
I would carry my iPad mini with the kindle and iBooks apps. Must have all my Lois McMaster Bujold books.
Happy anniversary!! It would definitely be Nalini Singh on my kindle.
I would carry my ipad mini with the kindle and iBook apps. I always would have all my Lois McMaster Bujold books.
Congrats on nine years! I love your blog and look forward to your emails 🙂 Hmmm, I love to fill my bags with tons of things but most importantly I need my kindle and my iPod so I can read while listening to some good music. And right now I’m reading Affliction by Laurell K Hamilton but I’m pretty sure if I managed to fit that book in a bag, the straps might just break 🙂
Happy 9th Smart Bitches. Thanks for all the laughs and fantastic reviews/recommendations.
Choosing something to put in my bag? I just finally gave in and bought a Kindle. I still have a book in my briefcase, another in each car, one on the dining room table, etc. But now I can have an endless number at my fingertips in my bag.
Right now reading the Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead.
I would probably fill it with books…whatever I’m most interested in reading at the time. Right now I’m most excited about the third Deborah Harkness book, The Book of Life.
Happy anniversary! <3
Happy 9th Anniversary!
I’d love to put a copy of Julie James’ It Happened One Wedding in my new Willow bag. (I’ll have to wait a while since the book doesn’t come out until May, but I can do that!)
Congrats on the nine years and counting!
Cannot say I’ve been here since the beginning but certainly since finding this gem i haven’t left.
I would love to fit all my favourite books in any of those lovely bags however i think such an action would make my back cry. Thank goodness for ereaders which as much as I love reading a “real” book I also love being able to carry around many many books some that I love and some I have yet to read 🙂
I’d put in the new hollows book coming out soon. Looking forward to its release!
Happy anniversary!
Since I have no luck with lotteries or any give-aways of sorts, can I just have the leather jump suit instead? 🙂
Oh my – those bags are gorgeous. So – I would put in Passage to power by because I need to read it. But I’d also toss in books 8 and 9 of the Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Ann Long because I want to finish the series.
*bows down to the Bitches in charge*
Happy anniversary! <3
Those are some pretty awesome bags there. Which book would I put inside any of those lovely bags? The next Mercedes Thompson book Night Broken… once it’s out in March… of which Ms. Briggs just posted Chapter 1 on her website, and, dammit, I just had to go and read it just to to torture myself until the release date.
I would definitely stick a copy of One Good Earl Deserves a Lover in there because I just finished reading A Rogue By Any Other Name and am desperate to start reading the second book. 🙂
Happy 9th Anniversary,
In my Willow bag would go a million receipts, all for mints and knicknacks, but since I don’t so much as even look at the blasted clutter let alone read them, I’d have my kindle in there too with the Earth’s Children series: is that a club in your loincloth or are you just engorged with raging desire?!
Always the latter. Always.
Wow! I would put Tessa Dare’s “Romancing the Duke” in one of the beautiful willow bags.
With luck, I’d get it in time to carry Concealed in Death when it’s released mid-February.
Congrats on nine years and thanks for sticking around so long. I really enjoy visiting.
Happy ninth anniversary!! Here’s to another great nine years! I’m currently glomming Julie Anne Long’s Pennyroyal Green series that I downloaded ages ago. So I’d fit my nook with the first six in a (gorgeous) Willow bag and there’d probably be room to fit the paperback of book seven.
Into my Willow bag, I would put my Kindle loaded up with Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles as well as the paperback version of whichever book in the series I’m currently reading (at the moment it’s Pawn in Frankincense). These are longest, most elaborate, most beautifully written and wonderfully researched historical hurt/comfort story EVER and they are magnificent! (I’m on my third read of the entire series!)
And I churlishly forgot to say both happy Anniversary and tell you how much I enjoy this site and your Twitter account (though you’ve cost me a lot of money in sale book notifications, I must say!!)
Happy Anniversary and Congrats! I would put my Kindle in it so I’m never without a book.
Happy Anniversary!! Those are some seriously fantastic bags! Thanks so much for your continuing generosity and contributions to the world of romance & reading 🙂
As for me? I recently got the first 6 or 7 In Death books for 0.99 each at Amazon (sah-weeeet!), so am now rereading the series on Kindle.
Happy Anniversary and Congrats! I would put my Kindle in it so I’m never without a book.
Wow – the ability to join 2 of my favourite things- books and bags. Add in nail polish and shoes and it would be Lizzie heaven.
I’d put in the book I’m reading at the moment because I hate the thought of being caught anywhere without reading material.
Happy anniversary, and thanks for this awesome giveaway.
Happy anniversary!
What gorgeous bags. I would put my veggie gardening book (learning to garden, woot!) and Seanan McGuire’s Half Off Ragnarok (out in March). (Damn, I feel like I might be misspelling her name?)
Congratulations on nine years!
I have such a huge to-buy/TBR list that I don’t even know where I would start… I would definitely have to pick up Jim Butcher’s next Harry Dresden book, Skin Game, when it’s released, though!
Happy Anniversary! I would put my kindle paperwhite in the Willow and load it with some of this weeks new releases from Tessa Bailey, Jaci Burton, Tamara Morgan and Lorelei James.
I’d be packing the latest Elizabeth Hoyt. She’s the best historical writer out there today.
I would put my Kindle in the purse so that way I can read Styxx whenever I want to.
I would cram as many Jennifer Cruisie and Sarah MacLean books I could fit in there!! Thanks for being awesome.
Congratulations on your ninth anniversary, SB ladies! I’d put my Nook in the front cover with the preordered book that’s coming out tomorrow, All for You by Jessica Scott.
Almost a decade! Happy anniversary.
I always carry a paperback with me, so in my new bag I’d have one from my to-read stack.
This:
http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/12-284/Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer-Willow-and-Tara-TPB
Because Willow.
Also, congratulations and thanks. You’re still my first stop in the morning and will continue to be for as long as you keep doing this.
Happy Anniversary!!!!
I think I’d pick Smooth Talking Stranger. It’s my favorite comfort read.
Happy Anniversary!!!!
I’d have to choose Smooth Talking Stranger. It’s my favorite comfort read.
I would put my nook in it (currently reading Dollanganger Series) and I would also put in Diana Peterfreund’s Across a Star Swept Sea cause it’s next on the list 🙂
Miposian Dance of Joy
I knew there was a reason I liked you!!
I would carry my phone, which has my Kindle app and thus many books, the Jill Shalvis Animal Magnetism books I got for Christmas and haven’t dug into yet, and a shiny new notebook for my own writing notes. I think the hardest part here would be picking a bag. 🙂
Happy anniversary to yooooooooooooou!
Which book? Good question. I have about 20 paperbacks waiting to be read, so maybe I’ll need a bigger bag. Instead, I’ll just put my copy of “Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life” in the bag and figure out how to get through that stack of 20.
In the Bleak Midwinter