Laurelsbooks

@laurelsbooks

Clambering onto the Bluesky life raft as Twitter sinks to the depths A maker of miniature books and large oatmeal cookies

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Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· 7d

Whoops, I forgot to add: buy the Glossary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Language so you can understand the gazillions of sex jokes, but it’s out of print anyway…

The cover of A Glossary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Language by Gordon Williams

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· 11d

“Someone is WRONG on the internet.”

The XKCD comic panel. A stick figure is seated at a desk, facing a monitor, typing furiously on a keyboard.
Offstage, a voice asks: Are you coming to bed yet?
Stick figure: I can’t. This is important.
Offstage voice: What?
Stick figure: Someone is WRONG on the internet.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jul 11

The Space Maker Method (both book & YouTube videos) are very helpful, too.

A screenshot of the self-help decluttering book “The mindful art of space making” by April Scott Tandy

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jul 10

Any number of swords is fine, but each sword has to be accompanied by a framed print or drawing of a cute costumed critter wielding a sword.

A Redwall book cover, featuring a rodent (not sure what kind, the ears aren’t visible) holding a sword aloft.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jul 9

Al Hirschfeld’s exuberant early work, done with a brush instead of the spidery crow-quill pen (I assume it was a crow-quill) he used later. (Picture is from Stephen Becker’s “Comic Art in America”.)

Al Hirschfeld’s caricature of vaudevillian Bobby Clark.
Clark is wearing a shaggy fur coat, a low-crowned hat, and a cigar. He looks like he’s enjoying life thoroughly.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jul 2

Sorry for the delay; I couldn’t find any of the 4 metric rulers in this apartment, and knocked a bunch of books & papers from a high shelf onto my head, trying. Anyway—the type is 2 mm high (the capital letters), or a font size of about 7.5.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jun 10

Now, Voyager ❤️

Movie poster featuring Bette Davis in a glamorous straw hat, on the deck of a cruise ship.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· May 25

A small grocery cart, I should have said.

A small wheeled cart with a plastic canvas body and plastic wheels

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· May 23

It’s okay to sit at the back and then stand once in a while. Or if there’s a surgical pharmacy nearby, there might be a gel cushion. Or if there’s a sporting goods store nearby, there might be a “stability & balance” cushion. Kinda undignified, but comfortable.

A round cushion, filled with air, meant to be stood on or sat on, during stretching.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Apr 22

Is this what you had in mind?

Book cover: “Reading in the Brain” by Stanislas Dehaene

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Apr 12

Bought this wood carving at a street fair 20 yrs ago. The artist is Hugo Rosas—his name is inside—but I don’t know anything else about it. Decluttering, have to give it up, but it would be nice to know more. Can’t find him on the internet. Anybody, do you know more about carvings in this style?

Carved wooden head of a dog, with very large ears (chihuahua, maybe?). The face is painted black, the whiskers white, the ears white edged in black. There are rust-colored accents on the top of the head and the throat.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Apr 4

They got lost within all the OTHER decluttering books

A stack of 17 other books about decluttering, by various authors

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Apr 4

For crying out loud… I have so many books on decluttering, I found TWO Julie Morgenstern books.

2 copies of “When Organizing Isn’t Enough”

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Apr 2

I vote Feral Hogs too (printed this exchange out, stuck it on fridge magnets):

Tweets on 8/5/2019, as homemade fridge magnets:

Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis): Tbh thank god for feral hog guy
We needed this

30-50feralhogs (@50feralhogs): We feel this does not give us enough credit

Linda Tirado: Fair. It was really the feral hogs we needed

30-50feralhogs: We thank you

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Mar 14

Corduroy jackets are great, btw: they double as bathrobes. You can sleep in them. The ones at Woman Within have pockets large enough to hold paperback books, too. 😊

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Mar 9

I want to mention that my cousin can’t digest milk. At other kids’ parties, she couldn’t eat pizza, ice cream or cake. Spontaneous treats w/ other kids weren’t usually possible. In her adulthood, Starbucks began offering so many options, she can have a spontaneous treat like everybody else. 💚

Washington Post headline: “Your salted caramel mocha latte is destroying society”

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Mar 1

In the chaos of packing, I discovered a corollary to April Scott Tandy’s brilliant Space Maker Method “Find the Floor”: Find the Tabletop! I can’t tell you the sense of calm that empty table gives me. I have to put stuff there shortly, but I’ll try to clear the table once a day after this.

A large square tabletop, mostly empty, holding only a sandwich on a blue plate and a box of vitamin bottles. Brown chairs are draped with a coat, bags, and a back brace. In the background are towers of boxes, a sofa, and how did a bed pillow get there?

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Feb 7

Good heavens, I didn’t realize that the copy of The Sword in the Stone I bought for 35¢ in the 1980’s was an original edition!

Hardcover book, with a blue cover. The spine has turned black with age.

The endpaper: a drawing by illustrator Robert Lawson, that includes all the characters in the book: Wart, Merlin, Robin Hood, a giant, a dragon, a snake, knights, squires, owls and other birds, the sword in an anvil, and a couple of castles.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jan 29

I am pushing 60, and TIL that people who tell you what car they’re picking you up in… …don’t expect you to recognize the whole car. They expect you to recognize the LOGO. This is great, because I could never tell one gray sedan from another, and always wondered how car enthusiasts did it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jan 17

This is extraordinary. I have 2 paperbacks of Judith Tarr’s novel The Golden Horn: one bought in 1987 or so, the other found at a recent book sale. (Don’t loan Tarr books; people NEVER want to return them.) I just opened the 2nd copy and found this:

A mass-market paperback, opened to the title page. Under the title and author’s name, a white label has been pasted. It says: “This is the LAST copy of this book. Do NOT, upon pain of death, remove it. If you must, do NOT take it far away, and do NOT fold, spindle, mutilate, or lose it. Thank you.”

2 copies of Judith Tarr’s novel The Golden Horn. They are from the first paperback printing. The picture on the cover is of a man and woman in a cellar. He is gray-haired, wearing a blue tunic, and his hands have rainbow auras. The woman is lying down, perhaps asleep. She is wearing chain mail. If you’re familiar with the book, you know that the characters are Alf and Thea, and that Alf is healing Thea after a battle.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jan 10

The link doesn’t show a picture (at least, not as far as I can see).

A cat carved out of wood, stained with red and green paint or wood varnish. The colors follow the rings of the wood: red, green, red, green.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Jan 3

Random stained-glass windows here and there. (This image is from glass-by-design.com.)

A stained glass panel of a flowering vine and blue birds against a blue sky

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Dec 14

Present for relatives who go to protests: - 2 TJMaxx bags, sewn together (so they can carry posters to/from a march without feeling like a mini-parade) - foam core & poster board - bottle of ink - paint brushes (99¢ store) - wrapping paper tube Cost = $25. Without foam core, it’s $18. Not bad!

2 TJ Maxx shopping bags, sewn together to make 1 long bag; a bottle of ink, a Sharpie, a package of brushes, and a cardboard tube

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Dec 8

You can buy a plain white pair and paint on them. Judging by the replies, it looks like there’s quite a market…

White canvas shoes with cartoon dinosaurs painted on them.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Dec 1

That said, I do have some items designed by @artofrob.bsky.social that I know will be received well: a journal for a creative, whimsical relative; a large mug for a tea-drinking Halloween enthusiast; cards for a gardener who appreciates people (and cats) who appreciate gardens.

A wire bound journal with a cover depicting a moon in a tree and a cat enjoying the moon’s company; a 15-oz mug decorated with a cartoon black cat, a moon that has a jack-o-lantern face, and a raven; and a set of greeting cards that depict a cat ecstatically sniffing flowers in a garden.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Nov 28

Happy Leftovers Day to those who recognize that cranberry sauce is the main dish and everything else is a condiment.

A chicken cutlet on a plate, with a pile of cranberry sauce (whole berries, not the canned jelly) of equal size. There is a fork on a cloth napkin and a cup of Pepsi as well.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Nov 25

Finally went to an urgent care place and got a prescription for a greasy ointment to combat my rash. I have gauze pads already, but I don’t have an ace bandage to keep a gauze pad stuck to my arm. Fortunately, I have ribbons in my box of craft supplies. 😁

A forearm well-wrapped in a blue cotton ribbon, fastened with a safety pin. It looks a bit rustic.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Nov 11

There are so many cute salt & pepper sets at Quail Ceramics (quailceramics.co.uk), I bet I could assemble a DIY Advent calendar out of them. (While I’m fantasizing, I may as well fantasize an end to the tariffs so they’ll ship to the States again.)

Salt and pepper shakers shaped like rabbits

Salt and pepper shakers shaped like guinea pigs

Salt and pepper shakers shaped like seals

Salt and pepper shakers shaped like tigers

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Oct 19

Okay, adding a picture didn't prevent a post for appearing. Maybe 3 pictures? and a link? (The link has nothing to do with the images, this is just an experiment, to see if a cluttered skeet will appear.) www.nypl.org

Shoes with cartoon dinosaurs painted on them.

Laurelsbooks@laurelsbooks· Oct 18

You need a third! I volunteer.