Casual Friday

Hello everyone,
It is a rainy Friday morning here at the Secret Leaves World Headquarters but it is lending to a creative atmosphere. We are having fun trying to find new ways to turn old paper into something beautiful. This has been a week of brainstorming and inspiration. Sometimes the ideas come fast and furious so when those times happen you have to drop everything else and ride with it.

Here's hoping we come up with a few viable ideas for future products. It looks promising.

More to come...

Ann

Hand Jive

Years ago I was house hunting. My (then) spouse and I had our eye on an eleven-room home that was on the market in my neighborhood. I told Sharon about it and she said she would love to tag along when we went to have a look. As it turned out, it was way too much house for us but touring through the empty rooms proved to be an interesting way to spend the afternoon. Whoever had been there before had left many things behind. One of these items was a stone hand that must have been broken off a statue. Where the rest of the body was one could only wonder. But this hand was very cool—a must-have item. Well, we could not leave it behind as its previous owners had done. As we walked back to my apartment, a bit of a squabble ensued as to who would get this interesting—albeit slightly macabre—keepsake. I seem to remember being the one who discovered it but Sharon has an altogether different recollection of the event. At any rate, I graciously let her have it and I must say it looked lovely displayed on the mantle in her home.

Fast-forward to the present time and here we are, business partners. And what comes around goes around as the hand has taken residence in our studio and we use it often as a prop in our photos. It has served us well and I get to see it every day now. And it is still very cool.



'The Hand' resides in this lovely book case in our studio.



As you can see, it makes an intriguing prop and fits in wonderfully with these time-worn books.



Hmm... something a bit creepy about it.

Ann

The Look of a Book

I imagine anyone stumbling across this blog is as in love with old books as we are.
I mean, just look at them. They are gorgeous.



We have a running joke that instead of just drooling over these volumes, maybe we should take the time to actually read some of them.



Here are some books from our collection we would like to share. Most of them are vintage treasures but I also threw in a few we have made. Let us know what you think.



Who says vintage has to be drab!



We have lots of fun searching for old children's books.



A lovely deboss.



The edges of books are quite beautiful all stacked together.



Again with the color.



OK, I had to throw in some of our creations. Sometimes the stitching alone can make a book a visual delight.



Here's one of our custom books. We like birds and we are noticing that many other people do too.



Our friends and families have become aware of our obsession and are now bringing us books. Thanks, Diane, for this set of encyclopedias.
Does anyone remember the old "Laugh-in" show? Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls.



Oops! These aren't books. But they sure are cool.

Ann