World Book Night - Such fun

Not sure how I missed this but I haven't come across it in Blogland. Saturday 5th March is World Book Night when 20000 volunteers will each give away 48 copies of their choice of 25 titles. The list includes authors such as Alan Bennett, Margaret Atwood and Mark Haddon.



I do have a Big Event happening next Saturday so it might have been difficult to be involved but it does sound like fun. Each book will be given its own identity nunber (presumably to prevent them all being put on eBay) and the idea is for them to be read and passed on and for their journey to be followed via "Book crossing". I love the idea of Book crossing (finding books in random places and then logging your find on the book crossing site, reading it and then leaving it for someone else to find and so on) but have never actually found any of the books.

As Miranda's mother would say "Such fun!"

I just wondered - are any of you involved?

Have a great weekend!

Got any old leather?

Today saw me at another workshop at the Welbeck Estate at the studio of Louise Presley of Hope and Elvis - this one being run by Cath Ray bookmaker.



I'd seen Cath at a couple of craft fairs so was familar with her work - recycling old leather into the covers of new books. These leathers include an old cream sofa, a leather jacket too squeaky to wear, leather from old car seats and old handbags.



We were to make two books today one with a soft back and another quarto bound. Cath had lots of lovely papes to use as end papers but I'm a fan of the marbled papes so used those on both books. Although we used new paper I love the idea of incorporating some vintage papers - the possibilities are endless.



I must admit I missed a trick when somebody spotted this vintage crepe paper wrapper among Louise's treasures and bought it to cover his book!



And so the day was spent measuring, folding, pricking, sticking, pressing and generally becoming more familiar with a set square than I have cared to be since leaving school. (Speaking of school - one of the attendees recognised me from being in the year below her at school 36 years ago!). This pile of blocks of wood and clamps is a book press to ensure that papers had bonded with leather.



It was great to see that something which I had envisaged would need a lot of expensive tools could in fact be undertaken with some very cheap tools using a bit of imagination.



The book on the left is the soft back lined with marbled paper with 6 "signatures" (bundles of papers) hand stitiched down the spine.



And the greeny one below is the one with hard back boards covered with marbled paper and with a leather spine taken from a suede jacket. If you look closely you can see the holes from the stitching which I decided to use as a feature rather than remove its history.



I think I might have a new hobby!

Love Wend

'Tis the season

for Quality Street,




Miniature Heroes ,

Roses,



etc, etc.

Tins of calorific indulgence cover "the desk at the end" from December 1st until mid January (people take in their unwanted chocs after xmas hoping others will eat them so they don't have to break their post Christmas diets.)

But take a moment to reflect on the packaging. Take a minute to read the recycling instructions on a box of Quality Street - as follows...

"Once you've enjoyed the sweets separate the coloured outer wrapper and recycle the foil as you would a drinks can.

You can put the coloured outer wrappers on your compost where they'll decompose. This is a much greener way of getting rid of them and it'll help your plants grow strong.

Remove the window from the empty carton and put the window bit in the bin The card can then be quickly and easdily recycled... By doing these thingsa you'll be doing your bit to help look after the planet, so why not treat yourself..."

This took the whole idea of of sneaking a quick bite of chocolate into a"whole"nother sphere - the team trying desperately to separate foil from cellophane, ripping windows from the cardboard and wondering whether the office can recycling bin men would respond favourably to lots of bits of Quality Street wrappers mixed into the "Cans only" bin. Such fun! (Hey - times are desperate in the Civil Service - we have to scavenge laughs where we can)

Why, I wonder, is there a cellophane window in the middle of the outer packaging? Given anyone over the age of 3 knows what QS look like I'm not sure there needs to be a hole over which they need to stick, (with glue), the cellophane, so that we can see the multi layered wrappers within. So in this age of austerity and in a bid to live a greener life if you must send me chocolate please do it in the form of



which succeed on both counts - non fattening centres and non wasteful wrappers! A box will do nicely but I can think of a variety of useful things to do with a bucket if you must send one!

Love Wend

My awakening conscience?

The Awakening Conscience by William Holman Hunt

I've been giving a lot of thought to Floss's challenge to herself (at Troc, broc and recup - see side bar) following Dottie Angel in drastically reducing the amount spent on new goods. I've wondered whether I could actually give up buying some of the bits and pieces we buy to give ourselves a lift - the odd magazine, a tin of paint or a tray of pansies for the garden. I mentioned it to my gorgeous girl who thought her mother finally needed collecting by men in white coats! I have actually been gradually reducing my expenditure on new goods for some time and I'm far more likely to be found at a car boot or a charity shop than going into the city centre to the department stores. Earlier in the year I did a post about my determination to not pay VAT where I can possibly avoid it which by and large means buying second hand where possible.

So I had been wondering what else I could do to reduce my carbon footprint and I have discovered Freecycle. Now I may be way behind the times here but I hadn't heard of it before and decided to give it a go. I've had my piano since I was 6 and I no longer have room for it nor the inclination to play (other than when I'm annoyed when I will bash out Beethoven until I've calmed down!) The gorgeous girl took a dislike to playing when she realised that practice meant more than turning up for the lesson itself. So the piano had become a glorified photo stand and it was time for her to go.

Freecycle is a site where you list what you no longer need and people can ask for said item. No money exchanges hands and the person wanting the item collects it. So I listed my beautiful piano and within minutes a graduate student e-mailed me to say she'd love it. I agreed she could have it but was amazed at how much interest there was in her -old peoples homes, families etc. Yesterday a pair of removal men came to escort her off my premises and take her to her new home. I have tonight received an e-mail from the lady who had her to say that she and her friends had a wonderful evening last night playing her and singing Christmas Carols! It was lovely to find this simple transaction had given such pleasure.

I also responded to somebody requesting on Freecycle a piece of IKEA furniture that I happened to have languishing in my garage for her little boy to store his toys in. She collected it this evening (with a boot half full of other items that had been gifted to her). She was thrilled that within minutes of her asking for this item I had responded.

Apparently sometimes things can go wrong but I have to say if you haven't tried it give it a go! I've just put my first request on for something I would like. I'll let you know if its successful! I'm still wondering about Floss and Dottie's challenge but this for me is another step in the right direction of reducing waste and landfill and letting others benefit from what we don't need.

Have any of you tried Freecycle and did it work for you?

Love Wend