book love

Oh my goodness I am dying over these hand embroidered book covers...

Gorgeous. My hand is cramping just looking at all those tiny details.

Have you noticed how Penguin keeps bringing back oldies with irresistible new covers? I want to buy them all, I'd have the most beautiful book collection around!

My dad had a copy of Black Beauty that he turned into a safe- for his squirt gun. I wonder if it's still around?

(found)

book sculpture

Brian Dettmer is the amazing artist of these sculptures. He cuts out the books- nothing is added.

Incredible.

The degree of detail is stunning.

His ability to see what can be created is so unique. I admire his talent SO much! I want one for my very own!

Growing up we totally had an old dictionary that looked like this- I remember having to thumb through it to do homework. Man, things have changed!

speaking of libraries,

How cozy is this one? I love bookstores like this. I can spend hours just gazing at all the books, running my hand across the titles, imagining all of the lovely stories and characters.

(found)

no card needed

By the time we have a house that has a library, I will have enough books to fill it up.

(found)

I love books...

...especially children's books. I already have a collection of them- I say they're for our future children, but really- they are for me.

So when I became the book buyer for my last job- it was like a dream come true. And after awhile, I realized that I had some inside hook-ups on finding out-of-print books.

My favorite book as a child was "Mouse House". We would go to the library all the time, and I would always get it. My mom told me that while staying at my grandma's while something was being done to our house, she got that book for me so that I would be entertained long enough so that she could leave me & loo-loo so she could run an errand.

Neither of us could find it, even with my hook-ups. Do you know how many kids books are titled "Mouse House"? Lots. So I gave up.

A few weeks ago I was searching the Wee Wonderfuls website looking for a photo of a doll she had made that I wanted to show my mom. She is always buying old books and going to the library and blogging about her great finds. In looking through her archives- I found this post, about the illustrator Adrienne Adams. Click it!

Okay- there it is! My favorite childhood book! I screamed "MOM! I FOUND IT!" Of course she thought I meant the doll, and was confused as to why I was so excited. The she came over and saw what I had found. I clicked on the photo so I could see who the author was. I googled it, and found an old library copy on Alibris. A week later, I had my fav book back in my hands, back in my life.

I climbed into bed that night to read the book. It was a lot longer than I remembered- no wonder my mom picked that one to keep me busy!

The book is about a little girl that receives a red brick mouse house, complete with Mr. & Mrs. Mouse- but becomes bored with it because the toy mice don't move or play. Then a real baby mouse from her pantry goes looking for a new house for his family because the broken flower pot they live in is too small for family. It's very cute, very old fashioned, and published in 1953.

Now I really want to make a mouse house play set for me. Every detail is covered by the amazing illustrations- it would definitely be a project.

Worth every minute though...