Inspirational Book Shopping

Of course i did some shopping during my weeks here in NY. I with held as much as possible, and told myself everything had to have a purpose for me to buy it. Was it a creative purpose or just the fact it was a bargain and screaming out to me and my life wouldn't be the same if i didn't. Or a design inspirational purpose. I'm a sucker for beautiful packaging and love to treat my eyes to something nice. Okay, so it's just that I've been convincing myself that there really are some things I'm allowed to buy for myself. Sometimes you got to spoil yourself. Plus i have a husband who exactly knows what i love and always tells me to buy it if i like it. Better yet, buy two!

So i made some pictures of my new purchases (again, not with my regular photo setup, so not the best of shots, but it must do for now). Stay tuned for some Shopping posts.
Ever since i've been coming to New York i'm in love with Strand Bookstore. It's such a great place and i always come out hours later, happy, and with great bargain bookfinds.

How about this great one? It's called "All Wrapped Up!" by Kevin Akers and is almost an overload of inspiration. Showing page after page of gorgeous gift wrap designs of the sixties. I can't stop flipping the pages!



I'm gonna read this one front to back, back to front and over again. There's so much i need to learn if i want to become serious about proceeding with my illustrations. "Inside the Business of Illustration" by Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman. Loads of transcripts of conversations between the authors (an illustrator and an artdirector), tips and interviews with established illustrators and art directors.








Okay, so i don't totally love the cover of this book. But the inside is terrific. "The Collectible 70's. A priceguide to the polyester decade" by Michael Jay Goldberg. I must say American memories of the 70's comes with different things like tv shows and stuff so i don't know about everything in the book, but there is so much to see and a lot of things are similar to the 70's in Europe too. (It's a small world)








Magazines! Another weakness of mine.

Adorn, a crafty girls guide to embellishing life. I had never seen it before, but it looked like fun. Later i noticed the cover announcement, "Premiere Issue" oh, that's why i never seen it before. It's a nice magazine i must say. Lots of cool projects to take inspiration from and it's good for me to catch up on my English craft lingo too.






I really wanted to buy an American sewing magazine since i haven't ever before. On all previous trips to NY i didn't have my sewing machine yet so there wasn't really a reason for it. I bought Cutting Edge magazine. I like the project ideas and advertisements inside, but i must say i'm missing real patterns. I know, nothing is for free right? But back home i'm used to when you buy a sewing magazine, all clothes showed inside can be found on the patternpages in the middle. Not here. Here, only the pattern numbers and brandnames are listed so you can go to the store to buy the patterns separately. Oops. Maybe there are other mags that do provide patterns, but i don't know about them. Then again, this gives more articles to read then the Dutch magazines. Anyway, i did like the mag. And there was this announcement inside of a jeans reconstruction contest where you could win a Singer embroidery machine. Too bad i didn't have my sewing machine here with me. Not that i'm thinking i would have a change to win but it would be nice to work on something like that. Sewing with a purpose. Ah well, never mind, i'm not sure what i'm trying to say here.

100+ F is just melting my brain away.