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description=A place for everyday creativity + life-documenting. There ll be paper, stripes + plenty of tales. And if you laugh along the way then all the better.;

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Text of the page (random words):
themed stories i just asked james for an example of the typical things i say while watching spy films tv to which he s offered up who s that what s he doing i don t understand so yeah spy stories are not really my strong suit but this one was by denis johnson the writer of one of my favourite ever passages this from his 2012 novella train dreams i don t get my gears turning smooth til it s over a hundred i worked on a peak outside bisbee arizona where we were only eleven or twelve miles from the sun it was a hundred and sixteen degrees on the thermometer and every degree was a foot long and that was in the shade and there wasn t no shade and it s that charismatic tone the ability to instantly create atmosphere and his simply awe inspiring word wrangling that meant i unquestioningly gave the book a chance whatever else the story was going to turn out to be however else the plot might twist and turn and leave me standing i knew the quality of the writing would see me through i flipped to the opening lines just to check yep that ll do me i m in and the rest of the book didn t disappoint it s scattered with sparkling little moments of description and even the tiniest moments can thrill a word lover like me such this where he describes the character s nose as brief brief not small not short but brief delicious word choice matters to me and johnson chooses so very well and that line about not being able to describe michael s lips because you d have to follow him for days to get a look at his mouth in repose is just a delight even his renditions of scenes straight from hard boiled noir central casting had me smiling at their lightness of touch like this exchange between the protagonist nair and an interrogator prior to this one i d only read two of johnson s other novels train dreams as i ve mentioned which i actually started to read while on a train because i m that literal and 1991 s resusitation of a hanged man so it s not exactly that i ve been an avid fan champing at the bit for his new releases although i think i might now be leaning that way but i knew and enjoyed enough about his previous works to know i was in safe hands with the laughing monsters and it s had me thinking about who else can i say that about as i tend to read a lot of library books i find that more often than not i end up reading books i ve never heard of often by writers who are new to me it s the luxury gifted to us by public libraries having books available for free means there s no risk involved in choosing an unknown however there are several writers alongside denis johnson whose work i will give that additional chance currently of the top of my head that includes writers such as ali smith andrew miller alan hollinghurst sarah perry jane austen although there are probably more but now i d like to ask you the same question who in your reading world gets a free pass who are you likely to trust enough to give their next title or indeed one from way back in their back catalogue a chance without question whose style sits so easily in your head or whose stories keep you so gripped or whose characters come alive so vividly that you don t need to know anything more about the book than they were the one who wrote it do share your list in the comments it ll be interesting to see if any of the names crop up more than once among all our preferences meanwhile i ll be ploughing my way through to get a few library books finished so i can take them back and make a start on clearing the to be read shelf maybe unless another library book clings on to my ankle on my way out don t forget to share your favourites julie get in touch here any time instagram etsy facebook website posted by julie kirk at 10 39 13 comments labels reading book blogger denis johnson the laughing monsters favourite authors email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday 23 february 2017 vintage treasure edward cochrane s musical score scrapbook hey you how s things it won t surprise you to know i ve been treasure hunting again we spent a few hours in a market town last saturday and there s no better way to aid post lunch digestion than a good rummage among the racks shelves and boxes found in charity shops and yes of course a lot of the papery treasures i unearth eventually gets snipped into cut up upcycled recycled repurposed and re loved but some some find their way directly to the safety of my don t even think about cutting this up shelf and today s treasure is the latest to do just that come and have a look it s always a thrill always like finding grains of gold in a stream when you re really only looking for pebbles it s a glimmer of human connection an instant recognition an acknowledgement of something that s simultaneously entirely new to you and yet utterly familiar it s evidence a trace of a real human life it s finding pages of someone s handwriting in a box of printed books flipping through a box of old sheet music booklets i suddenly caught sight of his handwriting and i didn t need to look any further to know his book was coming home with me this is generally what happens with me once i ve spotted handwriting i know i m in for a treat i know i m going to hold and read something quite different to the remainder of the contents of the box i know i m going to meet someone across the years i know i m likely the first person in a long time perhaps the first person since the original owner to look at a tattered old written in book and think how special that s mine oh and the he that i connected with in a pile of vintage music books while crouched on the floor or a charity shop is edward cochrane from shotton colliery county durham pleased to meet you edward how d you do do i call you eddie shall i put the kettle on once i had a firm grip on edward s book you can t be too careful how do i know there isn t another avid paper ephemera collector watching over me while i rummage waiting to swoop in and steal my treasure if i show signs of weakness i opened the covers and found that on the first few pages he d stuck down some sheet music pamphlets it made me wonder if perhaps this journal with soft covers carefully covered with protective brown paper started life as edward s scrapbook where he intended to store the key pieces he needed for a performance but then those pre printed booklets come to an end and the remainder of the book is brace yourself because this made me go a bit dreamy the remainder of the book is handwritten so what happened did edward run out of funds for buying original scores did he instead turn to borrowing what he needed from friends colleagues band mates copying them and returning them and in a time before photocopying copying was no 20 second task it meant sitting and transferring each and every note by hand a task which judging by how meticulously this appears throughout the book was one edward took seriously as for what kind of tunes edward was collecting in his journal there s a handwritten list on the inside cover listing various quadrilles and there are references to a galop and various barn dances so it looks like he was involved in a musical group that accompanied dancing and i think it s not too fantastical to surmise that living in shotton colliery as he did in the heart of durham s coal mining country he must have been influenced by if not part of the tradition of colliery brass bands a quick search online for the address he s written in the front of the book reveals this photo which shows his street with a colliery working away in the background and now for the foreseeable future i m going to look after edward s old book of dances i m going to hang on to the pages that are falling out to the brown paper peeling away from the cover and to the handwriting the handwriting that says more than what it spells out the handwriting that says i was here i edward cochrane of shotton colliery county durham existed i lived in a town where everyone either was a coal miner or knew a coal miner and i wrote my initials on the cover of a book i carried around with me a book of music that i d carefully hand copied in pen and ink and then when i sat down opened my book and began to play people danced and there it is again finding handwriting is always a thrill always if you love using vintage music scores in your artwork crafts there are packs of genuinely vintage papers in my julie kirk etsy shop at least a few of the pages date from 1903 actual antiques they re nestling there amongst the usual vintage treasures in the shop including if you love handwriting as much as i do some gorgeous vintage german postcards which feature some amazing writing styles i can appreciate their style even if i can t understand a word they say and if you just want to leave a comment get in touch to squeal with excitement over edward s music journal then please do i think he d be tickled to know that however many years in the future his passion for music was still keeping people entertained julie x get in touch here instagram etsy facebook website posted by julie kirk at 15 55 7 comments labels vintage treasure vintage books handwriting social history confessionsofatreasureseeker email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday 7 february 2017 love marriage and handcuffs a snipped tales collage hello hello before i begin properly i m totally taking the opportunity to suggest my book of snipped tales as an alternative valentine s day gift if you order a copy soon and you re in the uk or europe then it should reach you in time for the 14th uk 1 2 days europe 3 5 and us 5 7 working days each copy comes gift wrapped with a one of a kind gift tag for the full book details visit here and for images of the book scroll to the bottom of this post and i m not bragging when i say giving the gift of a book of thoughtful funny and sometimes almost rude word collages certainly beats flammable red nylon underwear now there s a quote for the back of the book i made this collage which is not from the book a while ago i think it was in response to a philip larkin poetry collection i d read when i used to go to a book club if i remember rightly it wasn t particularly favourable to marriage women and i just wanted to tilt the balance against the old fashioned ball and chain notion and a closer look i m planning to put together paper packs of graph square ledger backgrounds i ll add them to my etsy shop once they re ready as they re one of my favourite backdrops to work on for collage and i m pretty sure that the handcuffed snippet originally came from the same children s story as the one i cut up for ties that bind one of the stories in my snipped tales book the story which led to kirsty neale illustrating a pair of handcuffs for me which i assume was the first time she d ever been asked to do that but hey what do i know and here s a closer look at names of the other stories which focus on love romance and slightly seductive sauciness to read more about and to buy the book visit here right then i ll see you back here soon and every day over on instagram withjuliekirk julie instagram etsy facebook website posted by julie kirk at 13 52 4 comments labels analog collage collage cut and paste snipped tales email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday 2 february 2017 how to create a retro party table fit for an 80s kid using vintage books and action figures srsly hello you when you cut up and plunder re purpose as many vintage books as i do you end up being left with an excess of something and no thank you it s not guilt what you re actually left with once you ve unguiltily torn out and re purposed the innards of many books is a glut of book covers so last year when i was in search of inspiration for a party table setting particularly table mats my mind turned to all those colourful covers sitting in a big basket on my shelf and suddenly i had a plan the table mats so it started by thinking the book covers from retro storybooks and annuals would make perfectly sized table mats and i set them out on top of a bright and cheerful 1980s table cloth that i already owned because yes that is just the kind of thing i already own it was a charity shop treasure in fact everything i used on the table was pulled together from the random crap we have in our house i didn t go out and buy anything especially for the party so after sorting out the table mats i turned to some smaller book covers to act as coasters please feel free to rest your drink on topsy tim but before we move on let me clarify this wasn t for a children s party but why should this kind of kitschy fun end when you hit 10 why why the place settings once i had the table mats in place i added individual place settings these consisted of self adhesive chalkboard vinyl die cut with various label dies mini glass bottles wrapped with the chalkboard labels a colourful paper drinking straw a lolly or a toffee chew and a colouring in sheet for after dinner activities i supplied the pencils and crayons and here they are in use the balloon modelling yes there was balloon modelling what i youtubed it someone had bought james a balloon modelling kit and if ever there was an appropriate occasion to put it to good use it was on a retro children s party themed table for adults obvs after some youtube tutorials a few bursting incidents and a little bit of deflation i managed to create a balloon flower a heart a few dogs and some erm some swords they re swords of course they re swords look here they are being swordly en garde the other characters who came to tea to create different levels and interesting nooks and crannies across the table i stacked up book covers and half hollowed books and even a tiny little wooden stool to stand various different plates on well plates plus a few little friends i d invited along to get people talking i trawled drawers and shelves collecting together a cast of characters to create little scenes such as harry potter practicing his flying car skills han solo dangling from a crane see the first and last photo of this post and even darth vader revealing his romantic side as i hoped people had fun playing with the dolls sorry should that be action figures i know some people are far too serious to play with dolls and creating new scenes of their own such as darth being mother and pouring the tea and harry testing out an alternative to the nimbus 2000 the finished table complete with the really important stuff the food proof that in amongst the hoard of old books and a cross over universe of characters we actually made room for food and it was normal grown up food too while the decoration may have harked back to a 1980s kid s party table there honestly wasn t a bacon flavour frazzle or an iced gem in sight now over to you what would your ideal childhood party style table include wagon wheels hot dogs lashings of ginger beer which characters would you invite to t...