things people put in books

While having a quick tidy-up on Thursday afternoon, I found my stash of bookmarks.  I did consider photographing more and using it as my annual "accidental collections" blog post, but decided that would really just be an (excellent!) excuse to ditch the tidying up, so instead I decided to share just this one, one of my favourites.  I think we were given these at school in the '80s.  Quite ominous looking, I suppose, but I really like it.  I was quite ruthless and took about 75% of my bookmarks to the charity shop.  I was in a donating sort of a mood and I'm sure I won't miss them.  I didn't give away anything nearly so special as this one.

Beside my bookmarks was my small collection of things I've found in books, which I sometimes like to use as bookmarks too.  I blogged about that a long time ago (2008!) but I don't think I've added anything to the collection since then, so you should click on the link if you want to have a look.  

Later that afternoon, Abe Books sent me an email all about the strange and wonderful things their second-hand booksellers had found in books too!  Weird coincidence, huh?  The article makes for quite interesting reading.

accidental collection #2

Back in July I set up the "regular feature" on my blog of accidental collections.  Well, six months later, here is installment number two!  This would be my collection of notebooks.  I do love notebooks.  I love stationery in general, in fact, but notebooks are a bit special.  Not only are they lovely objects in their own right, but they are also full of potential.  What could I fill them with?  Will this be the notebook that enables me to write my Booker Prize winning novel?  Will this be the notebook where I develop a design for an amazing Gocco print?  Will I devise a fabulous new life via scribbling on these pages?

And this loveliness and inherent potential is what causes me a problem.  You see, none of these notebooks have been used.  It's just so hard to defile a notebook's virgin pages, I think.  What do you put in there?  It could be anything!  Pressure!  I have actually had a few notebooks over the years (I think there is one among this lot, actually) that have something written on the first page and then nothing else in them.  This is even worse than an empty notebook - a sad sight to behold.

There are 25 notebooks here.  I had a bit of a notebook clear-out a few months ago.  Some of these notebooks I bought for myself, some were acquired randomly, some were won in a giveaway and many were given to me as presents.  If you were ever thinking of getting me a notebook as a present, please don't let this confessional post put you off as I do genuinely love to receive them.

I should really start filling these bad boys up.  What shall I write in them?  Or draw?

accidental collection #1

Marceline recently wrote a blog post about blogging.  According to Marceline's guidelines, I am doing quite a number of things wrong, or should I say I could do quite a number of things better, so I decided to take her advice on board.  One piece of advice was something along the lines of not saying you're going to do something which you don't then deliver (I do that a lot and I'm just about to do it again now) but I can't change everything all at once now, can I?  So the piece of advice I am going to start following with immediate effect is to have some regular features and this is the first of those - accidental collections.  I'm sure I must have heaps of things lying around my house that I haven't really meant to collect, so there's probably enough blog material in this to keep me going for at least a year.  I'd love to say I was going to post about my accidental collections on a given day each and every week (maybe I'll get to that stage at some point) but that is not the way my life rolls at the moment, so you'll have to accept this half-arsed attempt, more of a semi-regular feature.  I have a couple of other feature ideas in mind too, some that I used to blog about that I'm planning to resurrect, as well as an idea I've had for a zine for years (again, Marceline's doing as I was meant to complete it for her Zine Challenge this year and last year, but failed on both counts) that I thought might be easier begun on my blog, in the hope I can zinefy it from there at a later date.  So watch this space, but not too closely.  (I always say that, don't I?  That's because I am a naughty blogger who repeatedly promises and blatantly fails to deliver.)

So without further ado, here follows accidental collection #1 - cross-stitched letters with old-fashioned girls on them.

The first cross-stitched letter I acquired was the L, my own initial, with the skipping girl.  I found this in a charity shop which is one of my favourites and also one with old-school prices of pretty much everything being under £1.  I probably paid about 50p for this.  It sat on the shelves in my now sadly demised craft room and made me quite happy.  Then, years later in 2012, I received the cross-stitched H in the advent calendar my sister gave me.  An advent calendar full of 24 gifts, mostly gleaned from charity shops or down the back of sofas, is a long-standing annual tradition between us.  I wasn't too sure what to do with a cross-stitched H really and that was the moment an annoying idea (I get these a lot, you might know them better as "a hare-brained scheme") was born.  I decided I had to get more cross-stitched letters, specifically an E, another L and an O.  My plan is to have a cross-stitched HELLO to hang, probably above my crafting desk (once that exists) as I doubt Graham will countenance its presence elsewhere.  I am also willing to consider following this plan without the letter O, so that I can have a cross-stitched HELL.  That just amuses me, but I would prefer HELLO if possible.  I thought this could be a very long-term challenge indeed, but I acquired the E just a few short months later.  I was at my mum's local recycling centre in May when my mum spotted the cross-stitched E in a box of frames and said, "Do you think we should get this for Elsie?" (Elsie is my youngest niece.)  There was no way Elsie was getting that letter!  I was given a bulk price for an armful of items that day, but I think we'd be talking 20-50p for this one.  

I wonder how long it will be before I find the other L and the O so I can hang these on my wall instead of just having them hanging around...?  I'm determined that they all have to be acquired by chance like these first three (though that doesn't mean I won't check eBay etc from time to time) and I am certainly not allowed to make/commission one.  That would be cheating and, besides, it would look funny in its newy-newness beside these slightly stained and sun-aged ones.

So that was the first of my many accidental collections.  I hope you enjoyed this insight into why my house is a disaster area :)