JUNK STORE HAUL

Today I stopped by a little second-hand store I've been meaning to investigate since it opened a year or so ago. What fun. I found some old books to repurpose, meaning I'm going to tear them apart and make new books and collages from them. I found a really neat little something. I'm not sure of what it really is, but in its new incarnation its going to be a bud vase for a single flower. You know how sometimes you're out looking at the flowers, and you find one whose head has lopped off and it has only about two inches of stem and a three inch head? Well, this little thing I found will be just perfect for that. I think it was meant to be a shot glass or something like that, but I'm repurposing it. I like that word. I've been seeing it a lot on Etsy lately, and even though it's something I've been doing for years when I've made something out of nothing or recycled one thing into something else, repurposing just sounds more sophisticated, like me, sorta, kinda - NOT!

The books I bought to repurpose (think - rip apart) are not valuable first editions or anything like that. I wouldn't purposely destroy a valuable old book. Many people think that just because a book is old, it's valuable, but that is not so. Water or sun damage, brittle decaying pages, chewed up corners, insect damage; all these decrease the useful life of a book. Generally, before tearing up an old book, I will research it on the Internet to see if it is a common book. I haven't found a valuable first edition yet, darn it! Anyway, my plan for the books I bought today is to use their gorgeous covers to make some journals to sell on Etsy. I specifically chose books today that had beautiful covers, and I will make my own pages and use my handy-dandy little Bind-it-All machine to make some gorgeous new books, thus saving these from certain death by landfill.

Anyway, I had fun browsing around, and the store was run by a church, so my money went to a worthwhile cause. A good afternoon, I think.