Beautiful Books!

 Cut Book Illustrations by Tomas Allen

I love a good book, especially a beautiful one. Here are some Tumblr inspired finds that all celebrate beautiful books! I  want  need one of the book shelves below that looks like the twisted branches of a tree. There is something simply magical about it...

 The Guardian's Beautiful Bookshelves article

 Gold picture frame book shelves

 Beautiful Book Covers

 Books and Roses

 Fairy Tale Window Books

15 Things That Make Me Smile

I love the internet, it is a world of endless amusement and things that make me smile! Here is a little snippet of some of the things that I have stumbled across that have put a smile on my face...

1. Book lovers - this is like me and Danny: I have at least ten books for every one of his! My front room will soon look a bit like this!

2. Miniature works of art from and A4 piece of paper

3. Pretty dress

4. Lovely little hideaway

5. Whale high-five!

6. Acrylic paint rainbow

7. Cinderella paper sculpture

8. Curled colourful paper hand

9. A bit of colour in a very grey world

10. Coffee cup guinea pigs

11. Ammonite spiral-shaped sink

12. A cosy little Kitten

13. 'Read' book of art

14. Queen made entirely out of paper!

15. Adorable (and very happy!) baby elephant

5 Things That Make Me Smile

Just a quick post to share a few things that I have found on the world wide web that have made me smile this week...

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Mugwump - Upcycled Bags - Books and Boardgames

I love finding something a little bit different, especially if it involves a bit of upcycling. I'm all for using things that would have otherwise have been thrown away and transforming them into something shiny and new! I came across Mugwump's website the other day and I love the idea of using old books and board games and turning them into bags!

Monopoly board game bag

Cluedo board game bag

Chutes and Ladders Board Game Bag

Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Bag

The Alphabet of Abbie - B is for... Books!

Books!

There is nothing I love more than to curl up on the sofa with a good book. I love books old and books new, and I read most genres too, if something is well written I can enjoy it no matter what the context is. I have a huge collection of books, I rarely like to get rid of them once I've read them, and I always have at least 5 books lined up ready to read at any given time. The trouble with my obsession with books is the storage... I have bookshelf upon bookshelf full to the brim, with boxes in the spare room and under the bed, so I really need some more book shelves to accomodate my collection. I love the bookcase staircase above. I think it would definitely solve my lack of book storage space issues... but I also found these sleeker and prettier bookcase designs as well...

Tangram Bookshelves

Ying and Yang bookshelf

Pink Lego-style bookcases

Swirl bookcase

Crooked Opus Bookshelf

Pacman Bookcase

Staircase Bookshelf unit

Beautiful Books from Anthropologie

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a bit of an obsession with books. I have too many to fit on all of my shelves, I have boxes under the bed and boxes in my parents house... and my collection keeps growing! I have a rather eclectic taste in books as well, I have everything from Spanish traditional stories to antique songbooks, and Harry Potter to Pride and Prejudice. My latest list of books for my increasingly large wish list are these delightful little books from Anthropologie.

I love love love these classic books with quirky covers - £12.99. For me, a book is not entirely about content (of course that is incredibly important though) but it is about the look and feel of the book too, and these books are just appealing in every way.

I adore the cover of this book, The Domino Book of Decorating. - £20

I am an avid baker and I am keen to add this little traditional baking recipe book to my collection of cook books - £15.99

Love this cute little guide to vintage! - £12.99

I really must make this book, The Doorbells of Florence, mine! It is so very unique... the book blurb says, "Ring into your imaginative side as Andrew Losowsky's alluring photographs of doorbell panels in Florence inspire stories of the lives of the people who may have dwelled at each address" - £11.99

And finally... I definitely need this for my summer! The lovely Italian recipes for the summer cook book - £24.95

I love old and antique books

One of my great passions is for books, I haven't got enough room in my house for all of my books and some are boxed up and stored here there and everywhere. But what I love more than anything are old and antique books. There is something wonderful about owning something that someone else has loved, like a little window into a past world.

I love how old books quite often have inscriptions and notes inside them like little clues into history. I bought the book above "Princess Ottilia" published in the 1890's from a little antique book shop in Rye and it sent me on a little quest... I spent ages trying to read the inscription and I took it to my mum, who is researching our family tree and has had more practise at reading the writing from the 1800's. After deciphering the writing and a little detective work, it turns out that I might even be related to the owner of the book! It was given to a young girl who lived on the outskirts of London in the 1890's. It was given as a prize at the local baptists church for a competition. There was only one girl living in that area of London at that time who it could possibly have been! Needless to say me and my mum were rather excited about it. What are the chances of wandering into a little bookshop a few towns along from where you live to stumble upon a book that was owned by one of your ancestors?

Another little beauty of a find; today I bought a book from the 20's called "the Weekend Book" for 50p. It is a lovely, and at times hilarious, window into the past. There are suggestions for the best poetry to recite to your family on the weekend, songs to sing together around the piano and parlour games. It also gives information about what birds will be singing in your garden, and star constellations that will be seen at different times of the year... even how to avoid "breaking the law" whilst walking in the countryside (bizarre). But my favourite section is the "food and drink" section with tips for the housewife to treat her family on the weekends and how to entertain guests.

"Weekend cookery should be either very quick, a good meal produced in half an hour, or very slow, put on before you go off to tennis or to lazing" (the second sounds more like my weekend!)

The section on using Tinned Foods is particularly amusing... "Use tinned foods, but disguise them. No one should ever suspect that they are tinned." and "remember to always add some fried cucumber cubes to your Heinz tomato soup" (how very bizarre...)

Sandwich suggestions... "When you go picnicking you will, if a pastry hand, take little pies full of good mixtures, but the average provider of picnic fare trusts to sandwiches, good drinks, salted almonds, nuts and perhaps raw steaks and bacon to be cooked over a camp fire on sticks. This is rather amusing because the food usually falls in and gets ruined. So be sure that the sandwiches are good!"

When attempting to supplement your diet from nature's larder... "DON'T cook and attempt to eat young bracken shoots because the Japanese do. What suits the hardy races of the extreme East may not suit you." (haha!)

So, my parting message to you all will be, go out and find yourself a good old book! As much as I love browsing the shelves of antique bookshops, often my best buys and favourite books have been hunted out in charity shops in Leeds and Sussex. So, you needn't pay a fortune... 50p will do it!