The Season of Giving (and taking, too)

Hello, friends! Before I wish you all a Happy Christmas, I must address the white elephant in the room because, unfortunately, I have a spot of bad news. Well, "news" might not be the appropriate term since this happened about a month ago— but it's part of the reason it's been quiet on the blog and I think it'd be a disservice to gloss over things.

Since my last post, I have been extremely busy. I have taken more bookbinding workshops, seen friends from NY & DC, gone to Pennsylvania and back for Thanksgiving, made about a zillion marshmallows for the holiday season, met another blogger from across the country (Hi, Kayla!), and celebrated my partner's birthday.

So those were all awesome things that kept my schedule full lately. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this happiness, some royal Grinch decided to break into our home and steal our things. We were not home, Olive the cat is okay, and we are doing fine.

But honestly, for awhile, it was a bit melancholy around the Kitty Cat Stevens' house. I kept trying to convince myself that "things could be worse"— because technically it was true. Our back door was busted down, we were now missing a tv, computer, and vintage crocheted blanket (I know, right? I think the thief wrapped the tv with it...) but we were alive. Plus, we still had the things they didn't take: my camera, sewing machine, guitars, bikes, etc.


A terrible bitterness set in. But it wasn't because of what was or was not taken. It was because coming home from work after a long day and seeing your couch cushions rifled through, your bedside end tables wide open, your jewelry box disheveled, crown molding splintered on the ground, fingerprint dust hovering in the air, and a cop in your house is just basically an optimistic introvert's nightmare.

Nick and I are both pretty positive people. Well, full disclosure— we can both actually be a bit abrasive since we are each super realistic with a mostly dry sense of humor. But at the end of the day, we still tend to have a practical, enthusiastic approach to life and thus generally accept "lessons" and adjust our sails according to the wind.

But what was there to learn from this? That our renter's insurance was not very good? That kicking down a door is pretty easy? That even though you have tracking programs on your laptop you probably won't get it back? Ugh. We sank into a lazy, pizza-filled abyss for awhile.

All the pictures I had for posts and ideas for future blog posts just seemed so contrived and inappropriate. I keep my blog positive, but I wasn't feeling positive— so I stayed away. I didn't wanna act like nothing happened but I also didn't wanna make some huge deal about it. I try to stay transparent here, so I figured I'd want to talk about it eventually. I just filled my time with other things until I found some clarity on the topic.


I got really absorbed in work (which wasn't hard to do seeing as people really love candy during the holidays), I started a new blog design for next year, I took on a few book commissions, I re-organized my studio and created a timeline with goals for starting my business, and I made my first angel food cake!

Nick's dad travels for work a lot, so he used his frequent flier miles to get Nick a new tv for his birthday. We got our door fixed and we upgraded our renter's insurance policy, so that was that. Honestly, we still haven't found a "silver lining" about the whole thing, but if I've learned anything from The Lion King, it's that sometimes you just gotta put the past behind ya.

So that's about it. We are both currently on vacation in Pennsylvania, wrapping presents for others, watching the snow fall, eating lots of cookies, and making plans for what we want to make happen in 2014. For me, that means getting my business license, making lots of books, learning calligraphy, sewing more projects, and blogging here about it all.

I finally feel like we are on the upswing— things are slowing down and feeling normal again. I even managed to bring some bookmaking supplies to Pennsylvania and make this set of three miniature book + paper ornaments for Nick's parents for Christmas. I'm pretty proud of them! I learned to make two of them in a workshop (I'll save the details for another post!) and I sort of just made the little tree one up as I went.


I have a few more books to make for people and some past ones that I plan to share here soon, so hopefully y'all aren't tired of seeing them because I'm really excited to show them off ;) Lastly, thanks to every single one of you that reads my blog— I hope you've had a better month than I have. I seriously have missed interacting with everyone via comments and reading your blogs, but I am super appreciative for everyone that emailed, texted, and tweeted to check in with me. You are all amazing and I wish you all a wonderful Festivus/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year/awesome Tuesday <3 jenna