Incredible, Edible Egg Book

April 1 has become known not only as April Fools Day, but also as the day various groups worldwide have been hosting edible book festivals. I belong to BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team), and this year we're having an online Edible Book Festival. Anyone can participate (children, as well as adults)--here are the rules:

1. All entries must be completely edible. They can be in the shape of a book, or "booklike" in some way, or inspired by a book title.

2. Upload photos of your creation to our BEST Edible Book Flickr group before midnight EDT on April 1st.

There will be awards! For more information, and photos of some edible books, check out the BEST blog.

Here is my entry, "Breakfast of Champions" :

I've made many, many books, but this was my first edible one.

-Cover: egg whites

-Pages: egg yokes

-Title: coffee beans

-spine: fruit leather

Custom Travel Journal

Life is good these days, as the sun is finally (!) shining, and the snow is melting, and I've been working on some interesting custom orders, including this little travel journal. The buyer (someone who lives here in my part of British Columbia), asked me to make this for her friend who is retiring, turning 60, going on a trip to Australia, and who likes to quilt and garden. So I thought a bit about how to combine all those things and came up with this little travel journal:

The plant illustration on the front represents gardening, and I added two antique map of Australia endpapers to represent her trip.

I used a coptic stitched binding to represent quilting stitches, and added a dedication on the first page (not pictured) wishing the friend a happy 60th birthday.

Just Spring...

To celebrate World Poetry Day and the first day of spring, here's a poem I wrote a few years back:

Spring

Stuff feet in plastic Wonder Bread bags, slide them into boots, the leaky red rubber ones. Walk home from school on the everyday dirt road. Stop to visit with a dog, the small,

ginger-coloured one whose tail was flattened by a passing truck. Tell him to speak, play dead. Feed him the meatloaf sandwich your mother packed for you this morning.

Splash through mud puddles, especially the clear ones, mixing water and muck like egg white and brown flour. Beat well with boots and move on, feet in Wonder bags slipping

like eels as water seeps in through cracks in boot heels. At the bottom of the big hill below your house, abandon puddles, jump into the shallow ditch alongside the road. Pick

up a willow branch in case there’s something to poke. Stomp uphill through ropy water rushing over dead grass, slackening into small pools. Stop to examine slimy frog’s-egg

bubbles. Try to step on some, feel bad, keep moving. Milky-green algae, air bubbles clinging to thin brown stems, buttercups blooming on the banks, tadpoles

black exclamation marks everywhere, bits of red bark and twigs rushing by. Where the ditch narrows, balance, one boot in front of the other, meltwater trickling, mud sucking.

Jump up and down, liquid breaking in through rips in your bread bags, feet slip-squishing, water rising, your toes like tiny salmon swimming toward home.

Easy on the Eyes Shakespeare

According to the Guardian, a portrait that has been mouldering away in a great house lo these many years has been determined to be an actual painting of Shakespeare done during his lifetime.

I don't know if the man in the portrait really is Shakespeare, but that doesn't matter--he LOOKS like Shakespeare should look. Dashing, but very intelligent. Nicely starched collar. More hair than one would imagine. In other words, very much a thinking woman's bit of crumpet. :)

Here he is. What do you think?

Celebrating Women: Jane Austen

In my previous post, I said that I'm celebrating International Women's Day by posting journals with quotes by women writers in my Etsy shop. Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers, so I couldn't celebrate women writers without including her. Here is the quote:

"I begin already to weigh my words & sentences more than I did, & am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration, or a metaphor in every corner of the room."
~Jane Austen



If you'd like to learn more about Jane Austen, you might want to check out Park Honan's book Jane Austen: Her Life. It's a very interesting read.

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day, which, according to the IWD website, " is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future." To celebrate IWD, this week I'm making journals for my Etsy shop with quotes by women writers only -- sorry, dead white male writers, you'll just have to wait your turn! :)

First up, a writer's journal/sketchbook, with a quote by Gloria Steinem. I'm still in vintage button mania mode, so I used a 1950s vintage button on the cover.

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else. "

~ Gloria Steinem

Books with Buttons

Just finished a couple of new little journal/sketchbook/notebook thingies. I'm playing around with some of my vintage buttons, and here are the results:

The swirly button on this green journal dates from the late 1930s - early 1940s, according to my button supplier.

I also made another lipstick red journal with a button that I think is from the 1960s (that's a guess) :