Robert Frost Journal and Baseball Journal

I've been busy lately adding more things to my Etsy store. It takes some time to make each journal, so I have to start early to be ready for the Christmas season. Mostly, I've been making journals that have a quote on the first page, like this one with a quote by Robert Frost:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost journal at Etsy.com

I try to use a range of quotes in my journals -- some on travel, others on love, inspiration, writing, and reading. Because I'm a bookworm myself, I also have journals with quotes by famous writers, including Charlotte Bronte, Jack Kerouac, Henry David Thoreau, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen and many others. 

When I started making journals with quotes back in 2004, I used to sell little notebooks with quotes at a local craft market. My first book had quotes by women, some serious, some funny. It was always fun to see women come by, pick up one of the quote books to read, and start laughing at one of the more amusing quotes.

In addition to the quote journals, I've recently added another baseball glove journal to my Etsy store. The covers are made from a well-loved and used Rawlings baseball glove:

Baseball journal at Etsy.com

I acquired the fabulous remains of an old leather document case a while back. It was one of those moments where I turned a corner in the store, and there it was, beckoning me from the recesses of a shelf.  There isn't much of it, so I've been hording it, but finally made my first journal with it.  It's deep, dark brown, but wonderfully worn, so it has loads of reddish scuff marks. Just listed in my Etsy store:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/274429568/rustic-leather-journal-one-of-a-kind?ref=shop_home_active_1

Earth Day Musings

(Edna St. Vincent Millay)

Ah, spring, lovely spring! The trees are a-blooming, and I just bought a pot of pansies, deep purple with little yellow centers. I put them just outside the front door so I could smell their fragrance and generally admire their velvety splendor whenever I leave the house. 

On the occasion of this Earth Day, I am reminded that it was nearly a year ago that I decided to change my approach to making my books, and use only reclaimed and remnant leather. Instead of making life more difficult, as idealistic enthusiasms sometimes do, I found that it opened up a new world for me creatively as I happily whipped up ever more odd and eccentric journals -- it turns out that worn, overlooked leather and I go together. So in my efforts to be kinder to our dear Mother Earth,  I benefited, as well. I'm sure there's a moral in there somewhere.

And now, a poem for the season by Emily Dickinson:

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene - 
this whole Experiment of Green - 
As if it were his own!

The New York Hat -- 1912 -- Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore

For your viewing pleasure, here is The New York Hat, a fine short film directed in 1912 by D.W. Griffith. This is a story in which Mary Pickford's character is given a tres chic hat which excites a great deal of comment.  Lionel Barrymore makes quite an impression (at least on me!) as the dashing vicar:

A New Old Look

I've been pondering tea lately. Not the kind in a cup, but the kind one uses to give an antique look to paper and fabric. There is a definite allure to tea-staining, but I've always steered clear of it because of the acid in the tea, which isn't so good for paper. Fortunately, I've discovered a way to neutralize the acid, and I've been tea dyeing everything in sight. What happiness!

A new coptic stitch journal, called "Evening in Paris," made of tea-stained pages, a woman's vintage red leather glove, and a French song, Envoi des Fleurs:

Evening in Paris

(Sold)

A guest book made with antique linen, reclaimed leather, and tea-antiqued pages:

Currently in residence at my Etsy store.

Puttin' On The Ritz

Last night, I dreamed I was Louise Brooks. I was on stage, wearing a really excellent flapper dress, and dancing to Puttin' On The Ritz. Hmmm....I wonder what that means. Anyway, it was fun!

Here is Clark Gable doing his version in the 1939 film Idiot's Delight. 

A Poem to Read Out Loud: "A Birthday", by Christina Rossetti

A good poem for February, methinks:

A Birthday

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow-shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these,

because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life is come,

My love is come to me.

~Christina Rossetti