There was a lovely treat waiting in the mailbox this afternoon, lillie’s companion cookbook. The recipes in the cookbook are a compilation of favorites from the kitchens of her family and friends. She made these beautiful handmade books as holiday gifts, and it is such an honor to receive one. Now, once I get over how pretty it looks, I’ll pick out some delicious dishes to make. Thank you Lillie!

I spend an enormous amount of time combing through our photographs and making test prints. Sometimes a picture will seem like a good cover design, but when I actually fold it into the form of a journal, it doesn’t look right. It might be an image I like intially, but grow tired of looking at really quickly. Or it may stand alone perfectly but look odd next to other journals in the series (I have to think about how they’ll look as a group sitting on a shelf at one of my lovely retailers’). It’s during the long afternoons of test printing that some less-noticed pictures find their way to the top of the pile, to become cover designs that work perfectly for the journals.

I still have many favorites amongst the test prints that don’t make it into the final Five and a Half collection, and what good is a cover without pages to write and draw in, so I’ve made a bunch of saddle-stitched booklets using the test print covers and of course, sugarcane and recycled paper. The booklets (measuring a easily-pocketed size of 3 1/2 by 5 inches) come in a set of three, with 1 black and white and 2 full-color covers, and they’re now available in the store.

Drum roll please. I’d like to debut my collaboration with Photojojo: a video tutorial and two limited-edition, exclusively-for-Photojojo handmade journals.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves: click here to see the photo journal video tutorial (scroll to the middle of the page and click “play”), and here to see the exclusive edition handmade journals (if you like them, get your hands on them fast before they’re all gone!).

It’s been a long time in the making, with lots of hard work and preparation from everyone involved (i.e. they had to watch my video over and over to edit it nicely ~ while I can’t even bear to watch the final version once because seeing myself talking on screen feels weird) and they put so much time and energy into taking gorgeous product shots and writing up great specs. A a big round of applause and thank you to everyone at Photojojo!

Don’t ever drop your metal triangle on your foot. It hurts.

It’s really not that hard to consume less, waste less, and in general just be nicer to the planet we live on and the people we share it with: Tiny Gigantic’s  Replate: to place unwanted leftovers, typically in a doggie bag, on top of the nearest trash so they don’t go to waste, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Dawbis‘ Simple Acts of Green.

I’ve found that besides leaving a lighter environmental footprint, trying to be a little greener has a bunch of incentives, including a lower electricity bill, feeling healthier, keeping the glaciers frozen, and helping keep the polar bears happy. Here are some of the greeney household things I’ve been trying to do (no I’m not going to write the list in bullet points because I don’t like how that looks):

Be more conscious about the things I buy. When it was time to get new lightbulbs, we got the energy-saving, lower-wattage alternative. Instead of getting a wooden chopping board, we got a Bambu one (bamboo, hemp, and sugarcane are sustainable resources that, unlike trees, can be easily planted, harvested, and leave the land renewable). When we ran out of Tide and Bounce (that have chemicals which pollute groundwater ~ not to mention why on earth were we washing our clothes in harmful chemicals when we had the option not to), we picked up Seventh Generation detergent and Meyers’ lavendar sheets.

Be less wasteful. I always walk and use public transporation to get anywhere ~ that’s actually a no-brainer because I live in New York City and mass transit is so convenient. If I could, I’d also learn to bike. We’ve taken to unplugging chargers and power cords when we’re not using them at night (except the one for the fridge). We also try to buy all our food from the farmer’s market and local grocery shops (though I must admit I have had to order from Freshdirect twice during this far-too-long winter chill). Also, very few sheets of paper end up in the recycle pile without first being printed or written on, on both sides, or folded into little paper boxes that are perfect little tabletop trash containers for eraser shreds, paper scraps, and fruit seeds.

Be more resourceful. You know those great plastic containers that you get when you order take-out (I must confess we order-in about twice a week!)? I always clean those and keep them around to use in place of tupperware. It’s a nice way to give that hard-on-the-earth-plastic a bit more mileage before throwing it away. And I hold onto most of the glass bottles, jam jars that come my way ~ they are lovely to keep around to put things like dried pasta and condiments.

What are some of the greeney things you’ve been doing at home?

If you’ve spent some time visiting the crafty side of the internet, you’ve probably already heard of Dawbis, the talented lady who makes intricate, whimsical pieces of collage art and is the mastermind behind the paper quilt project. I am so excited and grateful that Dawbis is sharing her “tools of the trade” with us. Read on to find out what new project she’s working on and what materials she uses to create her inspiring pieces of art.

“I am a housewife with an ambition to save the world! I am currently working on a little project called “Paper Scrap Slogans,” which involves sewing paper scraps together and then scribbling short messages on them that I hope will encourage awareness for the environment.”

“I work with paper, all sorts of paper. I don’t think I could live without paper, ever. I also use micron pens, but all they do is give me trouble. I go through more micron pens than brushes! Most of the paper I own has been kindly given to me by blog buddies from all over the world. The last time I bought paper was about 4 months ago and before that it had been 5 months.”

“I have a stash of paper that I don’t use that is always in sight. It is simply there for inspiration; I am in love with all the colors, patterns and textures. Almost every paper I have ever come across is in there and I plan to add to it as more papers come my way.”

“I collect and keep all of my paper scraps in order to reuse them for other projects. If I don’t use what I have, I share them with others by giving them away, or I recycle what I can. I try to recycle or reuse materials as often as I can.”

“If I could get my hands on a few power tools and some reclaimed wood, I would make myself a custom desk to fit everything I need into it. I don’t need a lot of space, but I do need a place to put all of my materials. The dining room table just isn’t cutting it. If I could build my dream desk, I would be the happiest lady on earth!”

Everything outside is lit up with the crisp winter sunlight. It’s so pretty that I keep getting lured into writing up a list of errands to run, thinking it’ll be a good break from making books in the studio and I’ll be taking a nice walk in fresh air. On the contrary, the minute I step outdoors, my nose and ears are nipped by the sharp winter cold! Brrrr!

So with outdoor time kept to a minimum, I’m sitting here thinking about what other interesting things I could make with the supplies I have around me. There are so many fabulous tutorials floating about on the internet that I’ve bookmarked (I’ll put a few of those up in a separate post later on), and I’ll definitely give some of them a try.

Here’s one of my own that I’d like to share. Remember those photo journals that I made last season which completely sold out within just a few weeks? You could just as easily make one with your own photographs!

Click here, and have fun!

And, when you’re finished, if you’d like to show us what your photo journal looks like, put a link to your image in the comments section of this post!

The latest addition to our home is Humpty Dumpty, an adorable stuffed egg with with lanky limbs and a contagious smile. Humpty is made of (thoroughly cleaned) reclaimed fabrics by textile artist Judy Geagley.

We first “met” Humpty at the Greenjeans store, where Amy and Jae seem to always have a knack for finding the coolest handcrafted things. Now that their online shop is open, you don’t have to live in Brooklyn to get Humpty, or the many other goodies that you can find at Greenjeans!

(Note: we are also the proud owners of the little green elephant (made from a recycled sweater) pictured above.)

I spent a lot of time last year marching about the city (and neighboring states) collecting rescued papers to take back to the studio, chop up, and rearrange into pages of the handmade, recollected journals. From old architectural drafts to the aged contents of school art closets, I was trying to get my hands on all types of old papers. I enlisted the help of friends, family, even strangers, but still my supply of papers dwindled too quickly as I kept making them into journals for all the people who ordered them.

After lots and lots of thinking and researching, I brought in the sugarcane alternative papers. These papers are made from bagasse, the sugarcane stalk that remains after sugar has been extracted. Unlike trees, which take decades to grow (and minutes to chop down and evict the hundreds of little creatures that live in them), sugarcane is highly sustainable in large quantities, with bagasse simply being the residue of what already is an agricultural staple.

By using sugarcane papers in the new journals, I can keep making new books while showing that there is a practical alternative to traditional paper — we can still have new papers to write and draw on, without harming a single tree!

Beginning with one pet cat and a blog, they’ve since welcomed three more purring inhabitants into their home, created a line of stationery and accessories, and just this week, published their first book. The crafty, cat-friendly duo behind Catwork has gained quite a bit of attention in Taiwan for their handmade goods and love of cats, who inspire their work. 

Catwork was one of the participants in the recent 2006 Artists’ Exhibition in Taipei (the one that my husband and I unknowingly walked into and found ourselves standing in the center of). What drew me to their work was the simplicity of the subtely-quirky images screenprinted onto raw, untreated canvas.

I bought a little zipper bag for myself, and a large canvas bag for our cat-loving friends. I’m now trying to figure out how to get my hands on their new book!