I went a little crazy today! Those of you that really enjoy creating stuff and teach classes on said "stuff" will totally get me today. Those of you that don't, probably wont get me at all and just think I am nuts. But I am willing to risk it and share my joy with you all.
This weekend was the Visiting Nurses Book sale at the Veteran's Coliseum (for those of you not familiar with this, it is a once a year HUGE used book sale. They earn TONS of money for charity with this sale each year and it is all run by volunteers). My Mom works the sale each year and always has the family make a book list of books we want and she tries to get them for us. She gets to buy her books at a pre-sale for the volunteers after they sort and organize all of the books. This year I asked for Little Golden Books and Lizzy and Darwin put in their orders for more highbrow classics. Mom was able to get most of the books we requested on Wednesday - I got 15 Little Golden Books and so I was thrilled! (in act I even have a sample almost completed for my April 27th class - stay tuned for the pictures later this week) Then I remembered that Kathie was also looking for Little Golden Books so I asked Mom if she could get some for Kathie on Saturday when she was actually working the sale. Being the kind woman she is she agreed. This morning as I was unloading Kathie's books I started thinking I would like to go check out the sale so I called my book-worm daughter, Lizzy to see if she wanted to go again (she was there yesterday while I was teaching). Of course she was up for another trip - after all, today all of the books were HALF OFF!!!
With only 2 hours til they closed the doors we raced downtown to get some treasures. I only planned to spend a few dollars - I just wanted a few books or a personal project I wanted to make. Most of the books here are only $1 - $5 so at half price I figured I would be good at spending under $20.
LOOK AT WHAT I CAME HOME WITH!!!!!
That's right, those are five BIG boxes of books sitting in my kitchen!I told you I went a little CRAZY!
So let me show you what all I got today. . .
This is all of my books out of the boxes - aren't they pretty! There are 91 books sitting there that I have to find a place to store tomorrow! The funny thing is I didn't buy one of these books to read. I started off in the children's book section looking for just the right size and shape for the project I had in mind. I didn't really find what I was looking for, but I found a few that I liked for other reasons. Then I headed over to classics and found a couple I liked, but still not exactly what I was looking for. So off to another section and there I found what I was looking for (those are the square books). Lizzy was still looking so I wandered over to the religion section and found some cool stuff there that I liked. Mind you I was not prepared to buy "a lot" of books so I am just carrying them in my arms and they are getting heavy and awkward. I set them on the floor while I was looking at the bibles, and added a couple more books to my stack. Here comes the fun part, squatting down to pick them all up and then standing back up with about 20 books in my arms. Let's just say it wasn't pretty! My books went EVERYWHERE!!! But two nice young men helped me gather them all back up. About that time a volunteer came along and gave me a cart to put them all in. This was an epic mistake! Now my arms were free to continue shopping!!!
I met back up with Lizzy and we decided to go check out the rare and unusual section. There was nothing there for us so we decided to get in line to check out. But WAIT! On our way to check out (with only 20 minutes left til they closed the door) Lizzy spots the "Collections" section. She wants to take a look and I go with here. That is where everything got really BAD (or GOOD, depending how you look at it). Since they were closing up, they had put the "Collections" section on sale for 75% off! Needless to say my cart would not hold all of my new "hardcover friends" so a volunteer (nice guy named Bill - you know who you are if you are reading this) came along with a dolly. He even helped us out to our car with all of our treasures.
So here is my first love that I found in the "Collections" section. It is a 14 volume set of BEAUTIFULLY covered, 1949 Compton's Pictured Encyclopedias! Can you just believe how gorgeous the embossing detail is on those covers? They are just a stunning matte black bonded leather with green text on the spine. And the images inside are to die for! Would you like to guess what I paid for this amazing set??? TEN DOLLARS!!!!!! That's less than .75 cents a book! I know exactly what I am doing with these - be on the look out.
Next I found this set - it is a 33 volume set of The 1987 World Book Encyclopedias with the bonus annual updates until 1993. I loved the simple burgundy covers with the gold foil embossed frames on them. How much for 33 books in PERFECT condition you ask??? Just TEN dollars again! Can we say .30cents a book!
I didn't take a separate photo of my last bargain in the "Collections" section so you will have to look up at the main photo - they are the ones titled as "Masterplots". It is a 15 volume set of 1949 Masterplots by Magill. They are digests of the worlds finest literature. They have super simple brown covers with gold embossed spines. They are going to be perfect for journals! This set was also a bargain at FIVE dollars for the whole set! I actually had not planned on buying this set but the volunteers and Lizzy all knew I needed it and brought it over to me when I was trying to leave.
They had asked me what I was using the books for. They asked if I was a school teacher. I hesitated when I told them what I was doing, some people don't take kindly to altering books. But they were actually excited when I told them what my plans were for them and that they would be used in a class. Lizzy even got her phone out and showed them some pictures of things I have done. Before I knew it cards had been passed out so they could read my blog and The Occassional Artist had been plugged.
These are my Bibles and religious books - the silver one there on the bottom left was my most expensive single book of the day - $2.
These are my Little Golden Books that Mom bought me on Wednesday
These are Kathie's Little Golden Books that Mom bought her on Saturday
And this is the weekend's BIG HAUL!!!!
Gotta warn you all that there is going to be a lot of altered book art coming out of my studio now! There is already one class in the works for April. So if this is something you like to do watch the classes tab for samples and dates.
On a little sadder note I would like to say Farewell to a beloved family friend today.
This is my Mom's dearest friend Jo. Jo has been a member of the VNSA for eons and is how my Mom got involved. Jo was not able to participate in the sale this year because of her health. While Lizzy and I were eating dinner after the book sale we got a text saying that Jo had passed away today.
Have a great week!
Till we meet again. . . .
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