At some point after I became self-employed, I starting thinking of daytime reading as an unacceptable indulgence, probably because I love reading and could happily do it all day every day. However, this does mean I don’t get as much reading done as I would like and my unread magazine pile is growing at an alarming rate*. I was waiting to meet Katy in West the other day and enjoyed my peppermint tea and book above so much that I am now allowing myself a reading outing at least once a week. I can go anywhere I like and have lunch and/or tea and/or cake and read whatever I like from my unread pile.

I realise it’s a bit sad that I have to resolve to spend more time doing fun things, but it is hard when you run your own business(es) in that there’s always something you could be doing. I’m posting them as an irregular series on I Like Zines, if you fancy keeping up with my reading and eating choices. That practically makes it a business expense…

*which is especially pathetic as I only buy 3 magazines regularly.

Bit quiet on the blog. I took 2 days off last week and then of course had to cram loads of work into the weekend instead. It was worth it though. On Monday, I went out to the country to admire Claire‘s new manor (it’s awesome), and then on Thursday I met up with Deth P. Sun and Marci Washington. I’ve posted about Deth’s work before – I have a lot of his zines and a few prints too. They seem really fun from their joint blog, so I offered to show them around Glasgow.

I’m really glad I did, as it turns out they were kindred spirits of a sort and top of their visit list was Voltaire & Rousseau and Mono. Hurray! They even made me look good – I only bought a book about The Prisoner, while they uncovered the world’s first picture encyclopedia in five amazing volumes for £5. Although, after lugging it back from the West End and visiting a post office, it turned out to cost an entire fortune to post to the US so I took it off their hands.It does weigh a ton but I defy anyone to spend 5 minutes with these books and not find something astounding.

I only owned them for 24 hours before I discovered the mini atlas at the back, and this beautiful set of Arctic Maps. That ‘unexplored’ area makes me very happy. I already scanned it and put it on my wall. Which means, inevitably, I have started a Tumblr and will share all the fun things I find.

You can read about their trip here. Oban is still looking beautiful, I see.

(photo of Marci and mar-c by Deth)

State of Craft is a new book of crafty projects edited by Victoria Woodcock and I was very happy to receive a copy to review. I hardly ever buy crafting books because I like to do things my own way, rather than follow instructions, but this is a good read and worth a purchase.

It’s split into how-to’s, projects and maker interviews. The how-to section has beginner guides to knitting, French knitting, pom-poms, sewing, cross stitch and crochet, with lots of clear instructions and diagrams, and some lovely illustrations too.

The projects make up the bulk of the book, broken up with interesting interviews with some of the featured makers. The projects are all fairly easy and include everything from brooches and scarves to decoupage and shoemaking, all with lovely photos and clear diagrams. While some of the projects are a bit too kooky for my tastes, there are definitely a few things I would make here, including with perfect timing, a needlepoint project by Felicity Hall. I may well give this a go before I tackle my own ideas. There are plenty well-known crafters featured, including Tatty Devine, Custom Made and Wooden Tree, and it’s especially lovely to see Hello Sandwich in here too, with some gift wrapping ideas.

Overall, it’s a really well designed book with some fun projects and great for anyone looking to dabble in some new crafts. You can have a look at the book contents at Cicada Books, and it’s available to buy right now from Amazon and your favourite crafty bookshops.

If you were to dissect my spending patterns, I guess the main part would be secondhand books, zines, dresses and citrus flavoured things. We’re talking personal spending here – my overall spending would be swayed towards cellophane bags in 500 sizes, envelopes and promotional postcards. Anyway, the point of this rambling is, I bought some nice things recently and thought I would show you.

I’m supposed to be on a fabric shopping ban, but I have been coveting these for months so when I found them at affordable prices in a UK shop (Fabric Rehab – yes, the irony is not lost on me), I had to get some small pieces. The boats is from the V&A collection and the others are by Heather Moore for Cloud9 and are apparently selling out fast.

At the top of this post is just some of my recent book buying (and mooching), mostly from Up North. My mum’s shop is right next door to an antiquarian bookshop, which had far too many amazing old travel books. I’m thinking of going to the Isle of  Wight next year, so what could be better than a completely out of date guide book? It does have beautiful fold out maps though and some lovely illustrations. I also have to say One Thousand Curiosities of Britain is definitely going to provide me with some fascinating facts to bore people with.

The other books are mostly from the bookshop at Logie Steading near Forres. If you are ever up that way, I definitely recommend it. The cafe is great, the art shop has some nice stuff and there looks to be some pretty gardens and a river walk, but it’s always either been raining, snowing or closed when we’ve visited. My collection of out of date astronomy books is growing slowly – what they lack in up to date discoveries they sure make up in illustrations. Plus you know, the stars aren’t exactly going anywhere.

Also from Logie Steading are these pretty cards by Gail Kelly. They are actually lino cuts printed on to linen, which gives them such an interesting look. I would very much like her Japanese garden print too, but she doesn’t have an online shop. Boooo.

I think that’s all (other than some bizarro lemon/lime chocolate I got from Brodie). I do have several billion zines to write about  sometime too.

Check it out! My book, Kawaii Japan, is now up for sale on Lulu. That’s my Author Spotlight page, which makes me feel a bit of a fraud as I am really no author. In fact, you may note that at no point in the book or promotion do I ever refer to myself as even a writer. I use made-up words, I over-use certain words and phrases. I mix up tenses and am never entirely certain if my grammar is correct. I CAN spell though.

Anyway, if you fancy a copy it’s right there with local regional shipping wherever you are. I should have a few copies for my own shop soon too. And if £16 is a bit much for your budget, don’t forget there’s a PDF version for just a fiver. The book is really nice though! You can read the first ten pages at Lulu if you want to try before you buy.

I’ll take some more photos of the actual book once I have some daylight at my disposal. I also have a post about the intricacies of self-publishing which I will finish soon.

But in the meantime, here is my favourite page – what I bought in Japan. Happy faces galore.

Look what I got in the post today? A book written by me! Before you get too excited, it’s a self-published book, so don’t expect to find it in your local Waterstones, but it’s still an actual real life book. It’s super cute too at just 7.5″ square.

See, it has loads and loads of pages – 67 in fact! All of which are full of writing, photographs and illustrations about my three Japan trips. If you’ve read my Ten Days in Tokyo zine, then you’ll know what to expect – I had planned to do a similar zine of my most recent trip but I wanted to include illustrations and they would lose half their appeal in photocopy. So instead, I made a book. I’ll write more about the process later but suffice to say, it was a massive and brain-melting task.

Want a peek inside? Here’s the mini shopping guide of all my favourite shops in Japan. It also has pages of tips and resources and drawings of things I wore and bought. Plus there’s loads of photos and it’s in full colour throughout with a lovely glossy cover!

Speaking of which, this is the back cover, which I love most of all. Check out the barcode – amazing. I need to make a few tweaks to the content and then it will be available to buy via Lulu (and I think eventually through Amazon too – imagine!). I’ll also release a PDF version as the actual book will be on the pricey side.

Hurray! I hope you like it!