a bit of a truthful blurb by Jess

There's something kind of magical about having a store.  I always hoped, when I was pie-in-the-sky daydreaming about having one someday, that it would be this absolutely amazing place that I wanted to spend all my time in.  And luckily, I was right.  

I had a tough time this past week, and spent a couple days away from the shop at home because I was having crazy amounts of anxiety about a wild variety of things and just needed to chill the hell out.  Because... even though having a shop is a magical, beautiful thing, it's stressful in ways that I didn't even know were possible and never could have anticipated.  You know how when people start working out and they say that their muscles hurt in places they didn't even know they had muscles?  Both Caiti and I are emotionally exhausted in places that we didn't even know we had emotions.  I mean, EXHAUSTED.  We feel all sorts of things, all the time.  It's crazy.

But despite all my stress and anxiety, I really, really missed being at the store, and I was so so happy to be back.  Both of us spent yesterday at the shop doing various things... I was taking pictures for Etsy, and Caiti was outside painting furniture.  We both stayed late, not because we had to, but because we were caught up in projects that we were excited about and because we WANTED to finish them.  The furniture was coming out adorable, and the light in the shop was SO perfect for photos... I mean, why would you want to leave that? 

It was a great day.

So basically, what I'm saying is... things are tough, but amazing.  And I'm truly, really happy even when it seems like I'm sad... which is kind of the greatest thing I've ever felt.  Knowing that I'm pursuing my dream is such a huge accomplishment, that even when I feel like a big fat failure and like everything is going wrong, there's still at least a glimmer of happiness deep inside of me, because I'M DOING IT.  And I hope that you, whoever you are reading this, have something in your life that you love so much that you're in love with it no matter how much you hate it sometimes.. and I hope that it makes you all shimmery inside, even when you've got a big cloud of gloom over your head.  It's kind of a great feeling, isn't it? 

truthfully yours,

Jess

rainy day books

It's kind of a dreadfully rainy day where we are.  It's cold and dreary.  And it's Memorial Day Weekend... which makes it feel sort of a super bummer. We had plans to have a yard sale but that got rained all over.  Basically all I want to do today is curl up with a book. There's not a whole lot that's better than the feeling I get when I'm all bundled up in a warm blanket, listening to the rain fall outside, and reading a book.  It doesn't matter that the weather isn't perfect... you can still make a perfectly lovely day out of it, I think.

With that in mind, I was browsing around the shop and looking at some of my favorite books we have, and I realized that not only do I have a love for imperfect days like today, but I absolutely am in love with slightly flawed books.  A lot of people seem to look for things, books especially, that are in mint condition.  But my favorite thing is books that have a bit of wear on them.  I feel like it's part of the story!

Like this beauty.  It's a zoology book from 1903 and we're in love.  I mean, I love it... I don't think the feeling is mutual.  But whatever, my heart will go on (Celine Dion style)

If I listed this book online I'd have to disclose it's "flaws", which would include this writing in the front cover.  But it made my heart flutter when I saw this! I love knowing it's from a high school..  I think about all the students learning from it.. or maybe rolling their eyes and hating the class the book was for...  and  also, as a local nerd thing, I love that it's spelled "Scarboro" instead of how it's actually spelled now, which is "Scarborough".

And it has a huge ink stain that goes through about 5 pages... which I love maybe even more than the umlauts on the cover.   I keep picturing a teacher grading papers and dropping their pen on the book as they fell asleep.  The corners of the pages are probably folded from where their hand jerked them awake.

And ALL of those have their own dings and dents... but I love them all the more for it.  Give me a pretty book with old pages, and a rainy day any time and I'm down :)

How do you feel about old books?  Do you have any other old collections that are maybe a little beat up that you love dearly?  

Drearily yours,

Jess (and Caiti!)

PS.  If you're down with old books... the Junior Deluxe Editions are actually for sale in our Etsy shop... as long as you don't mind a few flaws ;)