World Book Day Sale

I'm part of the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team (BEST), and we are having a sale to celebrate World Book Day (April 23rd).

If you are a book lover and want to stock up on some lovely handmade books, check out the great sales at these stores:


ladyartisan: 15% off
lapaperie: 10% off
bluevalentinepress: free s&h + gift
subu: 10% off paper items
yellowcraftychick: 10% off
yatsu: free s&h
usefulbooks: 10% off
thisibexx: 10% off
myhandboundbooks: bogo 25% off
scodioli: free s&h
kristincrane: 10% off
kupokiley: 10% off
thecraftykitten: 10% off
flurrsprite: 15% off
uniquelycovered: 10% off
repaper: 10% off
moonbindery: 10% off selected items
artkitten: 20% off books + free s&h
bibliophile: 20% off


You can also see some lovely books BEST members have created to celebrate World Book Day here on the BEST blog: http://etsybooks.blogspot.com/

Celebrating Springtime and Shakespeare

The head cold is finally going away (after four weeks!), and I've been working on a new book, yay!





I belong to BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team), and members are taking part in a book challenge. The challenge is to create a book celebrating World Book Day (April 23rd), which is also the anniversary of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel Cervantes.



I decided to do a book called "Shakespeare's Flowers & Herbs" that celebrates books, springtime and Shakespeare. It's a book of quotes from Shakespeare's poems and plays, and all of them are about flowers and herbs (as you can tell from the title :).



I added some pictures from an old English herbal, and bound it with a coptic stitch. If you'd like to find out more about this book, you can see it here in my Etsy shop.

Charity Book Sold!

Yay! I donated this book to the BEST charity fund drive, and it has sold!

BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team) is a group of bookbinders on Etsy, and we recently donated books for a fundraiser for H.E.L.P. International. H.E.L.P. International is a registered charity dedicated to providing health care and education for children throughout the world who are orphaned, destitute or disabled.

There are still books to be had! If you'd like to see them, and support this great charity fundraiser, check out the BEST blog at http://etsybooks.blogspot.com/2008/02/test_17.html

The Best Laid Plans....

...don't always work out the way you think! At the end of the first week of my vacation, I got a MONSTER head cold, so instead of repainting and generally beautifying my work studio as I had planned, I've been laying on the couch, hacking and wheezing, and generally feeling sorry for myself.

However, I am determined to triumph over that vinyl wallpaper and old carpeting! I'll just have to carve out some time to do it in the next two weeks or so. Thanks to all of you who commented in my previous post, and shared info about your studios. I'll be sure to post some "after" pics of my studio once the work is done.

In the meantime, there is one small area of my studio that I'm already very happy with, which is the cabinet pictured here, where I keep my binder's board and text paper. I got this cabinet from Jysk, which for those of you who don't already know, is a Danish store that's sort of like a lower-budget Ikea.

I had to go through a monumental wrestling match with the pieces to get the thing together (it was one of those "you-assemble" things, and I am not a "you-assemble" kind of person), but the memories and scars from the assembly process are finally fading :)

The shelves are nice and deep, and I love the glass doors--keeps out the dust, and I can still see what's inside.