It’s that time of year again… the National Stationery Show! This year, you can find us at booth 2537; please stop by, if you haven’t already. Our president, Christine Nusse, will be there, and I’ll swing by Wednesday morning.
If you don’t live close or don’t have a pass, don’t despair: I’ll post pictures later this week.
Hope to see you!
The Sketchbook Project was created by Steven Peterman and Shane Zucker in 2006 to collect and archive travelogues, photo logs, memoirs, and, of course, sketchbooks — more than 12,500 from 130 countries, according to a piece in Sunday’s New York Times. Participants pay $25 for a 32-page sketchbook, which they then fill and send back to add to the collection. For an extra $30, you can also add your book to the Project’s online digital library.
The physical collection was first housed in Atlanta, and has been in Brooklyn since 2009, though I somehow managed not to hear about it when it was in my neighborhood, Red Hook (it’s since moved to Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Art Library). The coolest part, in my view, is that each sketchbook is available for checkout, where it can inspire new work.
For those of you who don’t live in the area, there’s also a touring component.
Have you participated in the Sketchbook Project?
From my perspective in the US, I wouldn’t have guessed that Europeans think they live in a disposable culture… it seems so much worse here! With the exception of certain large cities (I’ve patronized repair specialists for umbrellas, microwaves, and vacuum cleaners in New York), it’s practically impossible to find people who can fix stuff and not just replace it.
There was an interesting piece in yesterday’s New York Times, though, about a Dutch foundation called Repair Cafe, which facilitates events at which volunteers come together to fix lamps, clothes, appliances, and whatever else comes their way.
Inspired by a design exhibit about the creative, cultural and economic benefits of repairing and recycling, [founder Martine Postma] decided that helping people fix things was a practical way to prevent unnecessary waste.
Very cool, no? Here’s a link to the foundation’s website for those of you who live in the Netherlands or are simply curious to see inspiring pictures of things being fixed.
We were up in Western Massachusetts to celebrate the Easter holiday. I took the opportunity to go to one of my favorite places on earth: Nash Dinoland.
Nash Dinoland is a family-owned and run museum and archaeological site. They opened in 1939. The wife of the owner is over 90. She was kind enough to keep the museum open a little past closing time so I could go out to the quarry in the woods to see the ancient tracks in the stone. The museum features plaster of paris representations of dinosaurs and of course, dinosaur tracks.
Here is a description of the discovery of the dinosaur tracks:
“In 1802, a young farm boy by the name of Pliny Moody was plowing a field in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He unearthed a stone slab that had strange markings on it that looked a lot like large bird tracks. He took the slab to the educated people of his day, who were mostly christian clergy, to get their opinion on what they were. They declared them to be the tracks of Noah’s raven. (Noah, when he was on the biblical ark, sent out a raven that never returned to the ark.) It was thought that the raven finally touched down in South Hadley and left its tracks in the mud. This is what the tracks were thought to be until the 1830′s.”
Since I had already eaten my chocolate bunny 
Lori gave me another treat for Easter – my own dinosaur track! I have checked, and looked and pondered, and I think it might be from a coelophysis or a close relative. The track is estimate to be 185-200 million years old. I traced the track with my fingers and crossed the distance in time to when this dinosaur track was made. Since the track was pretty clear, I don’t think the dinosaur was running, just walking in the mud, looking around – much like me. 
Anyone else been to Nash Dinoland or a museum like it?
I am an inveterate guest book lurker… I don’t often sign them myself, but I love looking through them at hotels and seeing, for example, where other visitors come from and what they thought about their stays.
In this era of large chains, however, they’re getting harder and harder to find, which is why I was so pleased to find one not just in the lobby of the bed and breakfast we stayed at on our trip to Tennessee, but in our room itself. I didn’t take a picture of it — somehow, that seemed antithetical to the spirit of the thing, depriving it of its geographical and experiential specificity — though I enjoyed reading other people’s comments.
Do you like to sign or read guest books?
It’s amazing how restorative even short trips can be… we left for the Smoky Mountains on Friday and spent the next two nights in Townsend, TN; during the day, we went for long hikes and scenic drives.
In many ways, though, the most memorable part of our stay was waking up to the mist-covered mountains that our bed-and-breakfast’s windows faced. It’s from these mists, apparently, that the Smokies got their name, and they are no less amazing to behold when you know you can expect them.
When I lived in Europe, it was a truth universally acknowledged — at least among people my age — that Easter was the perfect opportunity to hop on a train and take some sort of mini-vacation. Of course, it helped that Good Friday’s a holiday, and Monday, too, which left one with a nice amount of time; I went to Prague one year, Italy the next.
I haven’t traveled on Easter since I came back to the States, but earlier in the week, when we looked at our calendars and weighed our options, my husband and I realized we had room in our schedules, so we’re heading for the hills: the Smoky Mountains.
Are you going anywhere this weekend?
Clem, the Archer of “Rants of the Archer” just finished a review for J. Herbin’s Ambre de Birmanie ink. Please have a look here. 
Clem writes some of the most memorable ink reviews I have ever enjoyed. Because of her beautiful, flowing language and imagery, I’m convinced she was a poet in another life. Her reviews are always balanced, thorough and precise. She is one of the people I rely on for an expert opinion on notebooks and pens as well as different inks.
Besides our mutual affection for all things pen and paper, we both love lighthouses!
If you have published an ink review recently (all brand welcome), please include a link to your review in the comments section.
We’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, and we’ve read a lot lately about Pinterest, the shareable virtual pinboard. Stephanie is already a fan, and I’ve had a lot of fun looking through the absolutely amazing paper creations that others have pinned to their boards, though I haven’t taken the plunge yet personally.
Do you use Pinterest? Would you welcome it as another way for us to share all the awesome things people do with our products and/or post our design inspirations?
So, this is cool: to celebrate the release of its fifth edition, the American Heritage Dictionary created You Are Your Words, a site that enables you to create a self-portrait using your own words. Just go to the site, upload a picture or take one with your webcam, and choose which words you’d like to use — you can pull from your Facebook and Twitter feeds or cut and paste something you’ve written.
Above is a self-portrait I made recently with Lipsum.
Thanks to Murielle for tipping us off!
