New Books:

These little books have covers that were salvaged from our weekly food market!

They were once tomato crates!

After the market ends...all of the crates are collected and thrown into huge garbage trucks - but - they are so beautiful and colorful - I thought that they would make great covers! So, with our peppers, potatoes and roasted chicken...we also left with some empty crates!

These journals could be used as foodie journals - to keep recipes - to write about your favorite markets - to keep notes of favorite restaurants!

I carefully hand cut and hand sand each board - interior white paper (hand torn and folded) - sewn with linen thread onto leather straps.

The closure is a wood bead that I have sanded and riveted onto the cover. The leather strap loop simply slips around the bead to close the journal.

I am excited to work on more of these journals -

so, it's off to the market tomorrow!

Here is the new finished journal that I posted about yesterday.

The leather is from the very bottom of a leather satchel - I carefully deconstruct each bag - clean all of the leather - and then recreate the pieces into *new* journals.

The interior is white paper - with vintage french map pages at the beginning and end - sewn onto linen tapes - the spine has been rounded - and adhered with pva glue into the leather cover.

The journal closes with thin pale rose leather straps - I have hand sewn the straps into the top and bottom of the journal through existing holes (from the original bag) - then tied a knot at the end of each side and added a brown wood bead - as a closure.

Other than that - we went to "Chez Robert et Louise" to eat today. We found it on Yelp with mostly good reviews - but, some not so good reviews. I guess Anthony Bourdain reviewed it on his television show a while back. Anyhow - we decided to give it a go. And - so glad we did! It was over in the 3rd arrondissement - it was a totally precious restaurant. A tiny little place - but - deceiving because it had an entire downstairs through the narrow stairs in the back! We thought that we were out of luck because the restaurant was full - but the hostess escorted us downstairs to our table! It was simple - stone walls - arched ceiling - a small bar - simple decor - We ordered the Cote de Boeuf for 2 people - that came with a small simple salad and a plate of sautéed potatoes.

It was delicious!

The steak was cooked to perfection - and more than enough food for the both of us. We would definitely recommend the restaurant. We were happy and full when we left! Not even enough room for dessert!

After we left we stopped into a great little book shop called "Bookbinders Design". The place is incredible - the entire store is filled with beautiful handmade books - journals - photo albums. The colors just pop off the walls which surround you! It's just delightful! We didn't get any books this trip - but we did get super cool chunky colored pencils - called "Color Giants" - made in Germany. They had every color in the rainbow plus a few more - I got a bright peachy orange and a sky-like teal. L got simple black! I can't wait to go back for more!

That's it for tonight. I'll fill the store with these new journals soon!