the quarter century

nicole is a year older than me, but our birthdays are exactly a week apart as well as smack-dab in the middle of our friends' birthday season. this was the first year since 2005 that we hadn't celebrated together so we put our faith in the USPS and some magical things happened. nicole was way more on top of her shit and the day before my twenty-fourth i received a wonderful package filled to the brim with wonderful hand-and-farm-made things. it was kind of like opening a miniature (min-ee-a-ture) treasure chest.

when it comes to nicole's birthday presents, she serves as a kind of guinea pig for my newest artistic endeavors and this year was no exception. a couple of months ago i'd stumbled upon a book at powell's that, besides having an awesome cover and adorable hand-drawn instructions, was all about book-making, a medium i had been curious about for some time but hadn't yet dove into. i promptly put esther k. smith's how to make books on hold at the library (my newest portland love) and was rewarded in no time with an e-mail telling me to come pick it up already!

long story short, the book was a letdown. yes, the cover was rad and the drawings cute and whimsical, but between the written instructions and the diagrams i could rarely make heads or tails of how to put together a book. one massive mistake and a couple of smaller fuck-ups later and i winged it in order to get it in the mail before nicole turned 26. it looks cool, and is functional, but i'm sure the frequency with which nicole journals and note-takes and draws this thing will start to get that worn-in look far before its time.


the cover


each signature has a little water-colored hang tag sewn onto it. they were part of a series i did at camp orkila the summer we met and had held onto somehow.

a cute ribbon bookmark sewed in was the finishing touch. we'll see what i come up with next year.