Book Tree

It's creative Christmas-time here in Brooklyn and this year, I hand stamped and sticker-ed a stack of holiday cards (with cute little sad penguins and sparkling hearts) and since transporting an actual tree home on the train isn't really an option, I decorated our apartment with a book tree. Yes, a book tree! I found the idea HERE.

The bottom layer consists of coffee-table style art books (Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist, Beautiful People with Beautiful Feelings, Nikki S. Lee: Projects); the middle tier contains picture books, spiritual guides, philosophy essays, poetry anthologies, novels, a text on neuroscience and an atlas (Airstream Living, The Spell of the Sensuous, There is Nothing Wrong With You, The Brain that Changes Itself, Actual Air); and for the topper we have my trusty, very used Thesaurus and a miniature log cabin incense holder which smokes a lovely, wintery, Balsam Fir scent from its tiny chimney. See Paine Products out of Maine to order your own. It's delightful!

Being so far away from Seattle is difficult, especially during the holidays. I suffer from severe homesickness. However, building this little nugget of joy not only brightened my mood (and my living room) but is built out of the words and pictures that inspire me. I love libraries- having shelves of books in my home has always been intrinsic but having a vertical library-shrine dedicated to holiday joy, decorated with shiny, sparkly objects? Yes, please.

I want to thank my boyfriend's wonderful mom for so generously contributing the lovely ornaments, stockings (hung from the guitar stand with care) and other embellishments which arrived this past week in a giant, goodie-filled box.  A second humble, sincere expression of gratitude is owed to my mother, father and sister for the other overwhelming package of gifts and good-luck charms. This project, nor the parcels underneath the "tree" would not have been possible without the love of family.

Happy Holidays!