The Real Bibliophile

Today was a funny day at the fair. It seems that some people don’t care for books anymore, while others go so far as to dig them up from the garbage container :)

A treasure from a trip to Lisbon

Last week I went in a very short trip to Lisbon. The weather was awful but I was really excited by the trip as I wanted to buy bookbinding supplies (very hard to find otherwise) and to go to my favorite fair from Portugal: Feira da Ladra. That is the fair I went to every Saturday for almost three years, before moving to the north of Portugal.
Saturday was raining, at the fair people had everything covered in plastic foil and I was already getting disappointed that after walking up and down those streets several times I was still unable to find something nice. And then there it was: one of the most beautiful bags I ever found! The man who sold it to me even made me a deal on the price because it was raining, haha. I was so happy! So here it is. Beautiful!

Front Page

Today I made it to Etsy's Front Page! And that is a huge thing :)

I think I was really lucky lately, perhaps with the Christmas coming... I was featured in 4 gift guides and made it to the front page two times this month, thanks to the sweet Amy from Ponder & Stitch and now to Etsy. Thank you guys!

A day later: Update ... and in the Storque, where it sold immediately :)  

A tiny family

I just noticed what a cute family I put together: the father, the mother and their two sons with their wifes :)

And another book

Yesterday I finished one more book. This one is so dear to me. I made it for my Etsy shop but this is one of those books that are just so hard to let go :)

 

Keys, many little keys!

Since I started to make books I developed a passion for antique keys: to find them, buy them, use them! I think they go great together with my miniature books.

So last week I finally adventured on eBay, and found that it’s like a wonderful universe of everything your heart desires (yes, I know, I’m probably the last of my species that never shopped on eBay till now). I felt like I was going to the fair from my own home!

I’ve done some research from before to learn how to bid in the last minute, and after losing two times I finally won one! Then, under the shopping frenzy, I kept buying until I end up with more than 60 old little keys!

The first lot already arrived by post. They are beautiful!

Now, “all” I have left is to actually make the 60 journals… :)

The Magic Journal

Today I finally finished a journal that has been waiting in my studio for a looong time. I've been playing with ideas for it since a few months but I liked so much this leather that I wasn't quite sure how to get the best out of it. I think this might be the first journal I make that looks somehow romantic, doesn't it?

A Festa da Castanha

Yesterday was the Chestnut Fair here in Portugal. Traditionally, we cook chestnuts and drink 'jeropiga', which is a strong sort of wine. We cooked ours in the fireplace :)

 

They got a bit burned, I must say :)

Saturday's Fair Finds

Saturday is the most exciting day of the week for me: the day of the Flea Market!! In Portuguese, Feira da Vandoma, from Porto.

I love going there each time I can, it’s really like lottery! Look at my finds from yesterday:

A very vintage tool bag which I bought to use the leather for my next books but now I'm not sure anymore, it really looks great just the way it is.

An interesting agenda from 1914, it certainly smells like an oldy! It has mostly blank pages inside but also a few writings from different time periods, including some anachronistic entries, from which I suppose it was used by someone who randomly marked important events from his/her family history. The agenda starts with the sentence: “My son got divorced from his wife according to her wish”. There are other interesting entries, and this got me thinking, apropos of today’s blogs and information sharing… how would this person feel to know that his/her journal will be sold at the fair and read by anyone (like me), and how, on the contrary, most of us today are willingly keeping open journals and can’t wait others to read them :) It’s quite a change, isn’t it?

And finally, I got something else that is worth being shown. As my boyfriend said when he saw it, this is a Cobra-Zebra leather hide!! It is actually painted and I don’t know why I bought it, I will probably not use it for my books but I guess it is not something that you see every day :)