Concord Free Press (Book of the Month)

This month’s Book of the Month is not just one book, it’s an entire publishing company. One more good thing about real paper and ink books – they support charity work.

Concord Free Press is a publisher of free books. That’s right, you can pick up one of their books absolutely free. In return, they ask that you donate as much as you see fit to any charity of your choice. You can pick up a book at a participating book store or have the publisher send you one free of charge. When you are done reading, you should report your contribution on the publisher’s website, sign the book with your name and location and pass it on to someone else, so people can keep giving. I just registered my copy of Gregory Maguire’s The Next Queen of Heaven.

This is what the publisher wrote on their website:

We’re here because we love books. And not just ours. We think books are worth even more than Wal-Mart could ever know. And we’re trying to revalue books, not devalue books. We like the smell of ink. And mailing beautiful books (for free) to people around the world. We like seeing people try to figure out the catch (hint: there isn’t one). But most importantly, we’d love to hear what you have to say. As long as it’s not rude or mean or about Internet pharmaceuticals. So do a little of this (we’re holding our hands up and pretending to type) and get your thoughts out to the growing Concord Free Press community.

Analogue

This is a small footwear and handbag collection I recently put together. It is inspired by the StyleSight Color Premiere Juniors Spring/Summer 2012 color guide in Analogue. I felt that the neutral palette with accents of bold color went well with elegant and practical accessory options with decorative features. I designed a print (inspired by decorative stitching on the sneakers), a plaid and pulled a scanned denim to go wit the color palette. You will recognize one of the handbags below from a previous post.

Dresses in Progress

I began working on this a while ago, but had to stop because I couldn’t find the right kind of boning for it. I recently was able to order some from my millinery supplier, so I am looking forward to resuming the work on this during the holidays. This is one of the two dresses I shared the design for in a previous post during the summer. I purchased a pattern that I felt was most similar to my design, but had to alter the bodice for a proper fit and am using the skirt from another pattern I already had (I will give credit to these with my finished dress later). Below are the bodice mockup, altered patterns for it and the semi-finished dress.

Work in Progress

Some work in progress sneak peaks of the fold-over tote and millinery, which will be complete in two weeks. The juxtaposition of the handbag and millinery photographs really look like a collection because of my color choices. I’ve been using a lot of green and black lately, trying to stay away from the extremely bright colors I usually go for to mix things up a bit and challenge myself.

Operation Santa Claus

Today I would like to share an amazing opportunity to remember the true meaning of Christmas with you. Yesterday a couple of my friends and I made our annual trip to the James Farley Post Office (located on 34th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan) to participate in Operation Santa Claus. The post office collects all the letters written to Santa during the year and allows volunteers to read them, pick one (or more) and send the child presents for Christmas. A lot of the letters come from low income families, children often ask for clothes instead of toys. The life stories some children share with Santa are heartbreaking, but the kids remain optimistic. You can pick a letter that speaks to you and help that child have a nice holiday. I think that this is a rewarding experience and encourage you to participate.

Operation Santa Claus in NYC serves only its five boroughs. There are other Operation Santa Claus posts through out the country, but I don’t have specific information about them. Contact your main post office branch for more details.

There are stricter guidelines for participation this year. You need a state or federal issued ID in order to read and sign out the letters. Once you pick the letters you want, you will be given ID numbers for each one of them. You will need to bring the gifts packaged for mailing back to the Main Post Office and provide the ID number for each package at which point an Operation Santa Claus Staff member will put the correct address on the box for you and tell you how much to pay for the postage.

P.S. I didn’t get to sew my bag yet, so I don’t have my in-progress shots, but they will be uploaded by Wednesday. I spent the whole day gluing the bag in preparation for sewing. If you ever throw away an old handbag, take it apart for curiosity’s sake and see how much glue and tape there is holding it together on the inside prior to stitching, it’s pretty amazing.