Secret Leaves paperworks: personal/travel

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Ghost Motel

Abandoned places, roadside attractions, cabin, motel, Yosemite, California

Two summers ago, my husband Michael and I visited Yosemite National Park in northern California. It was one of our best trips ever, and Yosemite proved to be one of our favorite national parks. On the drive between our cabin and the park, we passed this deserted and forsaken roadside motel. Since we share a love of abandoned places, we had to stop and poke around.

Vintage road sign for the Silver Tip Lodge beckons: Vacancy

Ghost Motel - abandoned roadside motel near Yosemite National Park, California

View from the porch of the abandoned roadside motel

The Silver Tip's rusted screens and desolate porch

Your room is ready.

Light filters through the crumbling ceilings and paints patterns on the walls and floor.

If walls could talk

Ghosts

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Closed chapters and fresh starts

Hello all. I want to let you know about some changes to Secret Leaves and to this blog. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but 8 months ago I took a full-time job. I am working in the Office of Public Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis (which also happens to be my alma mater) and I love it. The downside has been that I am finding it far more difficult that I anticipated to continue operating Secret Leaves as a business. I sent an email earlier this week to friends, customers and supporters to let them know I will no longer be selling wholesale and plan to limit the number of custom projects I take on as well.

I will, however, still be selling items in my Etsy shop and maintaining this blog. Until now, one of the main reasons for the blog, frankly, has been to promote Secret Leaves. But since Secret Leaves is no longer a business and is now more of a hobby and personal pleasure, I want to change the focus here.

In the coming months, I plan to feature more how-tos related to bookbinding and paper arts; useful resources; artists whose work I admire, and the people, places and things that provide inspiration to me and, hopefully, to you.

I hope you will come back often, become a follower if it suits you, and tell others if you think they might be interested. The images below are a preview of what you can expect to see moving forward.