It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Just kidding- the sun is out and it’s 68 degrees here in KY. I have just about caught up on all fall custom orders and have a few openings left for Christmas custom orders. If you are wanting to have a custom order by Christmas, let me know by Nov 11. I will have two online shop updates to be announced (mid Nov and early Dec). I will also have a local in-person shopping option, which I will announce as soon as the date is set. If you are hoping to see a certain design available online, let me know!

Thanks for all the support this season. Wishing you much merriment and brightness!!

My love for old books most days tends towards re-purposing the ones that are being discarded into journals and sketchbooks.  However, I try to take time to play with them in a different way around the holidays.  I love old text blocks.  The pages themselves are enchanting and the uses for them are endless.  This year, I experimented with creating a paper garland for the Christmas tree.  It gives the tree a vintage feel, which I personally enjoy.  I just took the inside out of an old discarded book and cut the pages up in strips.  I lucked out with some of the pages having this nice red line on it, which was a nice touch.  I did discover that I liked the links a little bigger.  Initially, I made them small, but it quickly became more time-consuming than I wanted.  Once it was on the tree, I found that I actually prefer the aesthetic of the longer links.  You'll figure out what you like, too.  Happy holiday creating!

I'm excited to be included in Kentucky Monthly Magazine's 2013 Holiday Gift Guide!  You can see the whole gift guide here.

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Happy Holidays to all of you! May it be restful, fun, and full of peace!

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Confession:  I'm not entirely sure why but stockings have always been my favorite Christmas tradition.  I don't know if its because you have to get more creative with getting small gifts that fit in them or if it feels like a treasure hunt pulling small gifts from them, but I love them.  I think they are really fun-both the giving and receiving of stockings.  So, I enjoyed coming up with a unique, handmade stocking option.  These are created from repurposed coffee bags and have little bells on top.  I can even personalize them with hand-stitch names.  For those of you interested in decorating either with mostly handmade or eco-friendly items, this stocking is both!

When I was little, it was a Christmas tradition to pick out a new Christmas ornament every year.  I would have been so excited to find a tiny book ornament that I could actually have written in!  These little books just make me smile.  They have the most whimsical, swirly hook, making them extra fun.  These will make great gifts for any book lovers.  You can write a little message in them or suggest using them each year to record a Christmas memory.  Some customers are letting their kids draw or put their finger prints in them.  The possibilities are endless!