Here I share news, events, press, bits of my creative process, and the occasional snippet of adventure.
Show and tell time.
These are my family's new bookshelves:
Ahhhhhhh.
I LOVE them.
Please note all the picture book shelves. And the face-out picture book rack on the wall to the left of the shelves. I am a proud picture book hoarder. I feel that this is a very fine thing. I have a five-year-old afterall (or maybe, yes, that 's just an excuse...).
Also! These awesome bookshelves do not stand alone.
How about some bookshelves just for all our handmade journals and photo albums?
Are two shelves too many? How about three? How about one for the wall? Face out!
Or maybe four?
Aren't these shelves AWESOME?
They are like half-tables stacked on top of one another.
Dreamy!
Now, how about some handmade shelves by yours truly (and my crafty sister):
Patchwork bookshelves for the nook at the top of my stairs.
Because every crafty lady should try DECOUPAGE at some point.
Here's the shelves right after I hung them, before I filled them up. My son helped me. He loves helping mommy with projects.
As long as said projects don't involve trips to the craft store.
Is it embarrassing to realize that this little list does not include the bookshelves in my studio? Or my bedroom? or the one downstairs for cookbooks? I mean, is that too many? Too many bookshelves?
NO SUCH THING!
In fact, how about I just add pictures of those shelves too. Why not?
Studio shelves, complete with flying pig light
Cookbooks under the T.V. Wouldn't we rather be reading anyway?
This one houses journals I'm still filling.
BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!
"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
-Anna Quindlen (from an article in the NYT)
Alright. Enough already. Go read a book.
It feels appropriate to put pictures up because of the garden on front. I've been doing a lot of work in my yard on mommy days (as opposed to artist days when my kid is at daycare) while my two-year-old plays with his bike.
You aren't still writing in a journal with lines, are you? Lines are like horizontal prison bars. What do you do when you want to write big? Or write in spirals? or write sideways. If you are an artist especially -- I dare you. Step out of the box. Buy a journal without lines next time and destroy it with your crazy handwriting (no matter if it's ugly).
I love having patterned paper mixed in with regular (well colorful) plain paper. I normally weave text all around the images or glue stuff down over the patterns.
These pictures were taken last year when I did a big photo blitz and took photos of lots of my personal journals to eventually post here. So the pictures above show empty pages. But I assure you the pages are not empty. They are full of crazy ugly handwriting and cross-outs. And the whole thing is all the more precious because it's where I've let myself go and allowed myself to play.
I thought I'd put it up because I'm leaving for a big adventure in Spain soon. And adventure gives me life, so why not the Tree Of Life book.
Why? Because my son's been cooking up a storm in his new kitchen he got for Christmas.
Yesterday we made Banana Bread.
This book is even on sale. Regular price: $45, Sale price $25. Check out more pictures here.
My Fly-Away Journal is this week's book of the week in honor of the cool idea that Creative Kismet put on her blog. Many artists all over the internet partook in the "Birds Of Change Giveaway," including my friend, Kim who made an awesome bird with map wings. I was late in learning about it but maybe at a future date I'll give away one of my new Book Birds (click here for a picture of one in an old post).
A turtle journal is this week's handmade book of the week.
And he's learning how to share:
To see more photos, or to buy the book, click here.
I chose this week's book of the week because I had a sort of dripping-faucet week.
You know the kind. Nothing really goes that wrong. But a lot of little stuff does. And it feels a bit like a there's a dripping faucet in the background, conspiring to annoy you and trick you into thinking everything sucks when really nothing is that wrong.
Most especially when you compare a dripping faucet to -- literally -- crazy, horrible life-changing floods that are affecting people all around you. My county is badly FLOODED this week. Seriously. Really horribly flooded. Neighborhoods and parks are lakes, streets are rivers -- it's crazy. And my house is all good. As is most of my neighborhood. Whew.
So anyway, this book reminds me of a spa. A nice backrub. I calm walk in the woods. It's the sort of book with the sort of attitude you want when you've had a dripping faucet kind of week. It's the sort of book with the sort of attitude you want when you realize your dripping faucet isn't a flood. Probably the kind of book/attitude you'd want even if you did have a major flood.
A NEW SEWING MACHINE!
I'm not awesome at sewing by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted a sewing machine that I didn't have to spend hours adjusting the tension every time I used it so I could make crazy fun cloth journals and sew on paper. I tried it out last week on my very own new journal:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this journal! Let's call it this month's journaling inspiration of the month.
It was sew fun to make.
And true to it's promise, my new sewing machine (named by Singer: Confidence) adjusts the tension automatically.
I switched back and forth from thick fabric to paper without adjusting anything (although I probably should change the needle next time).
I've already filled many pages in my new journal. I'm thinking of it as a "soujourn-al," or maybe a "sew-journal."
I like the word "sojourn." Besides meaning "a temporary stay somwhere," I think of it as a retreat, a break, an excursion outside of the ordinary.
And my new sewing machine. Did I mention that my new sewing machine makes all sorts of fancy stitches? It's a dream come true. Thanks Bryceroni!
Sorry for the overload of pictures, but the different pages and colors are just too fun not to share.
Almost everytime I develop a new kind of journal to sell it comes from me playing around with my own personal journals first.
Yay for play.
I should really show off the insides of journals with a video instead of 10 pictures. I'll try that out next time.
It involves the big stack of holiday cards you've received from all your friends and family that you've got sitting around in a basket somewhere.
I love getting holiday cards from my friends and family. They are precious little glimpses into the lives of friends and loved ones who I don't often see.
I like to make my own holiday cards. Usually (this year included) I send out "Happy New Years" cards because I don't get around to making the cards until I'm relaxing for the Christmas break. In fact, guess what I made last week as part of my Christmas crafty craze? Yep. New Year's Cards:
So anyway, one year I made a Christmas album out of the holiday cards I received from friends and family.
Before I go farther I've got to give props to my sister -- like several of my personal albums/books, I started this project, but my sister helped to finish the book. While I came up with the idea for this book, she really should take the credit for this one -- she did most of the work.
The pages of the photo album are the holiday cards people sent me. The cover looks like an envelope.
I didn't write anything on any of the cards, but the signatures or notes others wrote show between the photos on many "pages."
You could make the same kind of book for a graduate or a birthday treat (I made something similar for my son's birthday last year).
My 20-month-old son points to the top of our Christmas tree. "Bee sta!" (Big Star) he exclaims.
This week's handmade book of the week is a tip-of-the-hat to all the inspiration I've had lately. I was inspired to make the design after reading THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan. I'm eager to read the rest of the series. Plus lightening bolts are pretty darn cool.
This handmade address book is this week's book of the week!
For more photos or to buy the book click here.
To celebrate the beginning of the Christmas and Holiday season, I'm making this week's handmade book of the week a flip-out book. I think these books make great little holiday albums or stocking stuffers. They look really cool when they are filled up:
I include directions with how to fill them (although of course you can fill them however you want). To see the directions or for more info on the flip-out books, check out my flip-out page on my website.
In honor of my drawing frenzy this month (that looks like it's going to stretch into next month too) I hereby make my pencil journal this week's book of the week.
I've had this book in my Etsy shop for awhile. But I'm posting it for this week's book of the week because I love it. For some reason I haven't sold this type of book via my website much, even though they are hugely popular at craft shows. I think it's the kind of book that's best held and looked through if you want to appreciate it's value.
This week's handmade book of the week is a dos-a-dos wine journal, meaning it’s two books in one. A dos-a-dos book includes two books that both share the same back cover – so they are sewn together into one. One side for red wine notes, one side for white wine notes. This is the perfect journal for a wine lover or someone who loves to go wine tasting.
Click here to see more photos or to buy the book.
I love this journal. I might keep it if it doesn't sell by Christmas. At the very least, I will eventually make myself another.