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!

“I lay down in a state of happy exhaustion, and not for the first or last time could hardly believe I was in Japan”

I bought this book (a first edition, no less) from a secondhand book shop near Forres when I was visiting my dad earlier this year. I like a good travelogue and it had some good photos that I thought might give me some inspiration in future.

The author Sacheverell Sitwell was the younger brother of Edith Sitwell the poet, and wrote several million books during his lifetime including such amazing titles as Old Fashioned Flowers, Poltergeists: An Introduction and Examination Followed By Chosen Instances, Look at Sowerby’s English Mushrooms and Fungi and many many more. Apparently they have “all stood as bastions of intelligence, taste and style against the Philistine”, or so it says in the flyleaf. He was also an art critic and extremely well-travelled.

Bridge of the Brocade Sash contains his observations of Japan in the 1950s when he and his wife spent three months or so travelling around and viewing as much culture as possible. He seems to have spent a great deal of his life studying and romanticising Japanese art, architecture and culture but only made it to Japan when he was around 60.

From what I can tell, he seems to have had no editor (or judging by that list of books he published, a very indulgent editor) who just seems to let him get on with things. This gives the whole book an air of rambling reminiscences as told by a kindly but slightly boring man after a couple of drinks.

Luckily, this is one of my favourite styles of writing. My two favourite authors are Frank Kuppner and Bill Drummond, both of whom enjoy writing down whatever comes to mind, not letting truth get in the way of a good story or sanity get in the way of a crazy idea, and talking directly to the reader as if to a good friend.

Thus it was easy to forgive Mr Sitwell his bumbling tales of utter confusion at the sight of unrecognisable foodstuffs or plants – he just gives us his best guess and moves on, leaving aside any pesky irritations as checking up facts on his return. Because of his elevated position and lifelong interest, he gains himself entry to all kinds of temples and private galleries and when he really wants to see something but doesn’t know how, he sends off the driver or hotel concierge to find him a local resident with a particular breed of dog or to wake up the priest to open a special temple area. It really is a stunning insight into the workings of the mind of the privileged.

A good forty years of romanticising Japan can only lead to one thing: disappointment. Even when he takes three pages to describe how wonderful something is, he inevitably finishes up by saying it was a bit disappointing, either compared to his imagined ideal or because it was raining or because a certain piece of art wasn’t on display that day or a myriad of other reasons.

I really enjoyed reading about his experiences of things I also did in Japan, fifty years later. The old places like Kyoto and Nara seem to have changed little but Tokyo, as he describes it, seems a backward drab metropolis with nothing going for it at all. Clearly, he never visited Kiddyland :)

I think the most interesting thing though, was a concept he comes back to a few times of people painting or writing about things they had never seen. In the temples there are many painted screens of tigers drawn by artists who had never seen a tiger, or even a picture of a tiger, just maybe a tiger skin. On visiting Ryuanji, a famous zen sand garden, he is so overwhelmed (and of course, disappointed) that he feels unable to write anything better than the long article he wrote about the garden years before he had seen it. The whole idea has set my mind running.

The only bad part of the book is near the end where he spends a couple of chapters pontificating on the history of Japanese art. I managed to toil my way through the chapter on Ukiyo-e artists but had to skim-read the following chapter where he tediously describes a set of kimono designs. I’m sure the kimonos were beautiful but there is a reason why people say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Anyway, they finish their trip with an epic and evocative train journey round the Inland Sea to Miyajima and Hiroshima and finally to the very Bridge of the Brocade Sash, one thing that doesn’t disappoint him. He describes so well that horrible feeling of loss knowing you have to leave a country before you’re quite done enjoying it and with so many things unseen. I suppose it was much worse for him, knowing he would probably never return.

If you ever see a copy of this, I’d recommend it. It’s out of print but there are a few second hand copies knocking around on Amazon for reasonable prices. I hope to pick up some more of Mr Sitwell’s books but apparently there are so many, no-one has been able to put together a definitive list!

A few exciting books have turned up in my house this week that I thought you might be interested in.

First up, the newest book by the adorable Aranzi Aronzo – Aranzi Cute Stuff. It’s a straight translation from a similar Japanese book and is full of, well, cute stuff! Inside are patterns for how to make cute purses, bags, tissue holders, bottle holders, book covers, hairbands and all other manner of cuteness featuring the whole range of Aranzi Aronzo characters. Look at this below – a ridiculously cute animal scarf! I may just have to make this…

As you can see, each project comes with clear instructions with illustrations to help you work it all out. There’s even a section at the beginning explaining what different sewing terms mean and how to do various techniques that turn up throughout the book. It’s very very easy and even if you do get stuck, White Bunny is around to ask all your stupid questions first, and Brown Bunny knows all the answers.

This would be a great gift for a kid who was interested in making crafty things but not sure where to start. And also a great gift for people who like cute Japanese things. Even if you never make anything from the book, it’s just lovely to look at. I’m full of plans though and can’t wait to try out a few things. My only complaint is that they’ve just copied the book exactly from the Japanese which means there’s a few little confusing things, like putting the applique on what would be the back of a western book. Sure, it’s easy enough to swap that over but for someone who doesn’t know Japanese books read the other way round, they may not realise their mistake until it’s too late. Other that that, it’s definitely easy AND lots of fun, as White Bunny says, and pretty cheap at the price if you get it off Amazon.

Read on for more books.

Next up is The Crafters Pattern Sourcebook, a book full of patterns from around the world. My mum found this and it looks very useful indeed. Basically, the author has looked at patterns in architecture, textiles, furniture, jewellery, furniture etc. and redrawn elements clearly in black and white outlines. You can then trace these images and use them as a base for your own pattern design or for stencilling, embroidery, knitting, decoupage etc. The book is nicely organised by region with a few pages for each country or era with single elements, borders and repeating patterns. Above are some medieval patterns.

The images are nicely detailed without being confusing and there are a few colour pages at the beginning of each section to show some real life examples. There’s a lot of floral and animal patterns but also lots of unexpected things so there should be something for everyone. Above are some cute Danish patterns. There is also a chapter showing some techniques such as embroidery, beading and applique and it even comes with an acetate grid to help you work out cross stitch or needlepoint patterns. All in all, it’s a great resource though maybe something I wouldn’t have gone looking for. I’ve already picked out a few patterns I like and will be messing around with them in Illustrator soon I’m sure. There are quite a few second hand copies on Amazon so worth keeping an eye out for. Your library may also have something similar.

And finally, something a little different. Not exactly crafty, but definitely creative. Face Food is a book about Japanese bento lunches. Actually charaben to be precise – character bentos – which feature various popular Japanese characters. I’ve been a fan of bento for a long time and used to make mine almost every day at my last job, though obviously with nothing close to the skills of these Japanese women (and one awesome dad). There are little interviews with each bento maker and a few colour photos of their designs. These are not made specially for the book, but are actual bentos that the parents make 2 or 3 times a week for their children. Some are cute and some are fantastically detailed but all are healthy and edible.

It’s much shorter than I expected but still a lovely little book to look at. There are a few ideas in the back of how to get started with your own charaben but to be honest, you’re best starting with simple bentos and working your way up to the cuteness. My favourite bento site is Just Bento which is full of great recipes and tips as well as insights into the techniques and equipment. Lunch in a Box is also good for those with kids.

Hope you enjoyed this little look into my library!

Gavin Lucas writes for Creative Review, my favourite design magazine, and I first heard about this book on their blog. I filed it away in my brain and then spotted a copy at the National Museum of Scotland months later when I was over for Gifted and had to buy it. As the name would suggest, Badge Button Pin is a book about badges (or buttons or pins, depending on your local lingo), those awesome accessories some us are seriously addicted to. I imagine quite a few people reading this have a tin full of random badges somewhere.

The book is split into a few sections covering badge designers, promotional badges and badges in art as well as a look at some special badges commissioned for the book. There’s little interviews with the designers and lots of colour photos which makes it really fun to leaf through. I’ve picked out a few of my favourite pages below but there’s everything from diy crafting through to high fashion, subversive art to witty design. It’s a real wealth of inspiration and has me planning lots of new projects, though that was after dashing a few previous plans which I discovered had already been executed to great effect in the book. I definitely recommend picking up a copy if you have any interest in badges or design.

Lots of the designers featured sell their badges through prickie. Beware though as it’s all too easy to buy a handful of badges.

Mark Pawson – the king of badgemaking. I have a set of his badges made from the insides of envelopes.

Cute character badges and brooches by Peskimo

Cross stitch badges by Neal Whittington

Consumer Choice badges by Wayne Daly – each badge costs the price of the price tag it’s made with!

Buy Badge / Button / Pin at Amazon >>

Buy my badge sets in the shop >>