paul bunyan christmas boxes

You've already seen some of the things I packed into this year's Christmas boxes, including the Paul Bunyan Towel-endar . . .

. . . the saved mammoth sunflower seeds . . .

. . . and the woodsy snow globe ornaments.

So let's look at some of the other stuff that went in the boxes with these goodies. Here's some coconut candied peanuts. I packaged them in triangular treat bags and added gold ties and vintage-style labels. (I should have chosen tree nuts to stay on theme, but I had a momentary lapse)

And here are some bar coasters I printed with a log slice pattern (for fun, some also had a bark pattern on the backs).

These little Paul Bunyan books (Paul Bunyan Comes West, originally published 1928) were my favorite, though. I'll talk more about them in a future post, but here's a sneak peek at them after I bound  them but before they were wrapped and put into the boxes.

I packed everything into a treat box with a window on the top. You'll notice I also enclosed a box of packaged tea and a little parchment paper package of birch branch paper straws.

Then I added some colorful paper shreds I reused out of a Pijon Box delivery. They use a lot, so I had plenty for twelve boxes.

I tucked the Paul Bunyan towels in on top of everything . . .

. . . then sealed up the boxes (bought during last year's post-Christmas clearance) with the towel wrap showing through the window.

Finally, I used some recycled brown paper to print some wrapping paper using the same block I used for the coasters. I tied the packages shut with baker's twine and added more wood veneer tags on top. These ones say, "Paul Bunyan says, 'Merry X-Mas'" in gold pen.

Positive feedback from family and friends! I had a lot of fun, and some frustration, and a few late nights putting everything together this year. I even got boxes in the mail in time for Christmas for those I wouldn't be visiting. Now to start planning for next year . . .

p.s. make photos larger with a click!

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Open House at No Minimalist Here

thrift store finds: raspberry patch

I can't tell you much about Grace Paull, except that she was an extremely prolific children's author and illustrator. I found this book (Raspberry Patch) downtown at the Assistance League Thrift Shop for $1. 

The copyright date is 1941, and the illustrations alternate between b&w and color lithographs.

It tells the story of a bright, curious little girl and her mother who go to pick raspberries one July day, and discover various creatures (daddy long-legs, bee, butterfly, grasshopper, etc.) hiding in the bushes. 

I like it for a lot of reasons. The storytelling is sweet and nostalgic, all of the illustrations are nicely composed, and the limited color palette in the color lithographs is all about summer and light and discovery.

Copies are available reasonably priced on Alibris if you'd like a copy of your own. I'm hanging on to this one for now; it feels like a treasure so it must be one, a bit like the leaves and fir cones my kid keeps collecting.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that, clever you!

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The Cottage Market

Helene's Legacy 

two new spoonflower fabric designs

Spoonflower's hosted a couple of fabric design contests lately that were right up my alley. First up, designs inspired by a love of books.

Assuming there'd be a ton of bookshelf designs, book stacks, etc., I looked back over my history with books, a history that begins with a story my mom tells about tiny little me, in my crib, quietly looking at picture books. Now, I worked through most of my twenties (and the beginning of my thirties) in bookstores (and the past several years designing book covers), but as a kid, I was a pretty constant library patron.

When I got old enough to walk the eight or so blocks after school, we used to spend a couple of hours a day at the public library until our dad could pick us up. Hours we spent spinning the globe, looking up swear words in the dictionary, and, of course, reading. And during that time, I encountered thousands of these library checkout slips. And probably thousands more at the school library, too.

Click here for the full design, featuring four different YA library slips created in Illustrator and Photoshop, without the aid of scans. In fact, created without the aid of my drawing tablet, too, since I couldn't find the pen. Each of the kids' signatures were done using different Photoshop brushes and my mouse. And I think I used either three or four open typewriter-style fonts.

I placed 22nd out of 143, which is cool with me.

Next up was the "Sewing Celebration" contest. Again, I mined my happiest childhood memories. My kindergarten teacher had a shelf full of fun kits that kids could take home to make a little project or do a little activity. Among the dozens I must have taken home, I remember best a little felt bean bag I stitched together with red yarn.

The kit included chartreuse green felt, red yarn, pins, needles, and beans. And my stitches were so huge that the beans would sometimes slip out from between them. I've become a better sewist over the years (luckily, 'cause I was losing a whole lot of beans), and my five-year-old self could never have imagined something as fabulous as Spoonflower, but she would have loved it. And so would my kindergarten teacher.

Click here for the full design. I think you can even still vote, if you're interested, for a couple more hours. Contest results tba!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

bright red book racks go faster

We have a bit of a book storage issue around these parts. Not only do I still have some of my childhood books hanging around, but I've collected illustrated kids books since my late teens . . . and things went from bad to worse when I started working in bookstores when I was twenty-one (a bookstore discount is a dangerous thing). And then, when you add in the kiddo's books and my husband's collection, the place has been pretty packed.

I actually have culled things down quite a bit in the past year or so, getting rid of between 10 and 20 percent of my own book collection (not counting the illustrated books, which I've passed on to the little dude). But still. Books everywhere. Which I like, but I've been searching for new solutions. Pinterest abounds with ideas on book storage, and I've tried a few different ones (which I'll share in different posts coming up). Today, though, I want to share this one with you.

First, I found a beat up old magazine rack on 1/2-off day at St. Vincent dePaul's (actually, I found two. I'll share the second with you in another post).

I sanded it lightly and then wiped it down with a little deglosser.

I hit the bottom with some cherry red spray paint, the after it dried, put three light coats on the top and sides.

Because it was raining or humid all week, I left it outside to de-fume for three days, then brought it inside to cure for another three days before finally filling it with books.

Now it's prettier, and, as everyone knows, anything red is automatically faster. It also handily wrangles a dozen often-requested books face out, so they're easy to find.

Thanks for stopping in! If you've seen some other awesome book storage ideas, you can post them in the comments section and I'll add them to my book storage pin board.

(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


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once upon a time . . .

. . . I ran a bookstore. And I used to make elaborate displays with box cardboard and packing paper, and signs on chalkboards. I found these photos the other day, and wanted to share. These are all free-hand and took between one and three hours each.


From the last book of a Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket:










From a display of new summer books:




To advertise a book club discussion of Suite Francaise:




From the side of a magazine rack near the children's section:








To advertise pre-orders for the final Harry Potter book:






From an appearance by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk, to advertise her book Let's Have a Dog Party:




To celebrate our second anniversary at the store:




To advertise a shelf of books by our favorite publisher of quirky books:






To advertise our book club meeting for Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys:






To announce the party celebrating our store's closure after three years:




To make the chalk boards, I used a quart of chalkboard paint, painted over foam core board (in the large frame) and on repurposed bare wood shelving for the smaller board. In three years, it never chipped or flaked; good useful stuff! I'm hoping to use it again soon to put some chalkboards on the bebe's bedroom door.

Have you used chalkboard paint in any unusual applications? Share links in the comments section below.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


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design work

I threw together this interactive PDF portfolio of some of my graphic design work about a month ago. It includes cover and flier designs from my work at Wipf and Stock Publishers, where I still work part time from home. Enjoy!

Portfolio

Safe as Houses

I love our little house, and our green yard, and the art studio we've been building out back. I love the picket fence we put in the front and the privacy fence we put behind. I love the siding we're hanging over the old ugly ply board, and the new yellow color, and our plans for a red door. I love every little thing I've planted, everything we've built, and our work has transformed this place. Talking about leaving it is heart-breaking.

So I won't entertain those thoughts. For now we're here, safe as houses. And I'm planning on keeping it like that for some time to come.

Instead, I'll show you some cool stuff . . .

These are my next recycled book boards to be turned into ReBound handmade blank books. Some of these covers are over 100 years old, as you can see by the inside stamp on one: "Princeton Theological Seminary -- 1880".







I used to get sad thinking of these old books being taken apart, but it's really very democratic this way. They get scanned, reprinted, and sold to colleges, universities, seminaries, and churches all over the country. And now that I've found a use for some of the covers, I can sleep a little better.

Here are two I just finished. These are going up in the shop post haste. You can see they're not nearly as old as the upcoming batch, but they're still lovely, don't you think?




This first one is a sweet little thing. The binding came still attached at the spine, so I wrapped the case in this lovely vine-and-berries paper and gave a solid stab binding a bit of dressing up with some cross stitches.




And here's the second one. I used the same decorative paper for both of these, but the bindings are very different . . .




This is a coptic binding, something I'm getting better and better at not muffing up. Sometimes the stitches tear the paper, but my hands are becoming more sure of themselves, as you can begin to see. I think coptic bindings are rather elegant, and have the benefit of opening flat. It makes them perfect to use as sketchbooks or guest books.





And here is my last show-and-tell of the day: a skirt I made recently from some vintage fabric I found at the thrift store on half-price day. I think it looks rather 1950s, and I've been sewing enough recently that I was able to make it without using a pattern.




The buttons, which you can almost see here, are more bakelite, caramel colored coat buttons from that auction lot I picked up in Tennessee last spring. I'll edit in a close-up of the buttons later, as they're too lovely to ignore.





That's plenty for tonight. The two finished books I featured will be up on Etsy; but I'm keeping that skirt. ;)