Rainbow of vintage paperback books

Project for today: vintage paperback books.  Back in the day books commonly had dyed edges.  Getting a collection of them together makes for an unexpected little rainbow.

Sunday: Pie Day

After a couple of summers in the pacific northwest, the season starts to mean an abundance of luscious fruit, which naturally led us to the realm of pie-baking.

This Sunday evolved into a pie making day.  Gradually, we learn the right proportions of sugar, thickener (corn starch and minute tapioca) and secret spices (okay, so they're just lemon and cinnamon). One of these days, I will figure out how to make a crust from scratch!

This strawberry rhubarb pie came out a bit too watery, so I just savored the taste instead.  Yum!

History of Typography

This I had to share, especially as I'm trying to design this new blog. Enjoy (and LEARN)!

The History of Typography - Animated Short from Ben Barrett-Forrest on Vimeo.

Business Lesson of the Day: social networking

image memburn.com

Formally signed up for Google+ yesterday, and am trying to figure it out.  It's like a take off of Facebook, with posts and likes and shares and the nebulous "circles".  Why does it feel like high school all over again? I'm not at all a fan of FB, but since I already use quite a few Google products (gmail, blogger, maps and, naturally, searches) I am less suspicious of Google+.  Now if only I can figure it out....

Having this same issue with Pinterest.  I like Pinterest a lot, with it's visual overload, but still find it a bit hard to get used to.  When would I find time to sift through millions of photos to Pin and Like?  Slowly, like everything else in small business, it's a long slow growth to mastery.

Now Twitter I get, and was a big fan and active Tweeter (Twitterer?) when it first started getting popular in 2009.  I've recently opened a twitter account for my business, but haven't really gotten my "personality" into it yet - just posts and reposts of Etsy Treasuries.  Boring for anyone who follows me. Hope that will evolve too someday.

What makes up your social networking tool bag?  Which ones do you like and not?

Jumbo Jamboree children's books, 1949

Starting with my current project:  I'm scanning in prints from this huge vintage picture book for kids, "Jumbo Jamboree".

From 1949, it was a compilation of nursery rhymes and illustrations from "famous artists" of that time, the likes of Leonard Weisgard, Einar Nerman, Jane Flory.  The spine cover had been dislodged and repaired with clear thick tape - not so sellable as a book, but the remaining prints and illustrations are fantastic.  They're up on my vintage prints shop.  I think they would look fabulous in a frame!

Alphabet Print, 1949 

like this alphabet print

Little Boy Blue, 1949

or Little Boy Blue.

Super cute!

Blog Post Number One

If you're like me, you often stumble upon a blog whose latest post is like dropping in on a movie about 30 minutes in - mid-story, and you really don't know what is going on.  "Who what when where?" are these people talking about?  And if you're so motivated, like me, you reach deep into the archives to the very first post, to the beginning - no, not to read the whole story from the beginning, but just to get a sense of who this blog author is.  

So in this spirit, it's obvious the first post to this blog should be at least the who and what.  Being lazy (or efficient), I copied and pasted my About blurb from the Etsy store profile.  Here it is....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anemone Reads Vintage cookbooks, children's books, vintage paperback book. 

~ anemonereadsvintage.etsy.com ~

Your typical story of girl meets book, girls loves book, girl decides to share cool books with the world!

I opened a used book shop a few years ago, and have sold over 12,000 books to people all over the globe. Despite the fun and success of the shop, I was sad that so many vintage and older books got left behind. How thrilled I was to find a venue on Etsy where vintage books could have the spotlight, either as proper books themselves, or to be upcycled in innumerable crafty ways!

I've traveled many working paths, but throughout it all, books have always been the #1 love, and it seemed inevitable that my life would one day be thoroughly infused by books.

Thanks for being on this journey with me, and I hope that you find something in my shop that delights you as much as it does me!

We've just opened our second shop, Anemone Reads Paperie, for vintage book prints and other upcycled goodies salvaged from damaged books that were beyond repair. Check it out here: anemonereadspaperie.etsy.com