Published!

A while ago, someone gave me an article from central NJ newspaper (The Star-Ledger - my father used to work there) about an art retreat experience in Portland, OR, and it was written by Jeannine Stein. I have never met her before, but imagine my big surprise when I got an email from her, inviting me to submit my contributions for her new book, Re-Bound. So, I got myself to work on creating two books from discarded packages and children's board books. The first one below was created when I noticed that many food-related journal or recipe books out on the market were geared to only one specific purpose - recipe card storage, scrapbook, lined journal book for writing (no pockets), business cards from restaurants, or anything related to food. So I created a book with lots of pockets from food packaging, boxes, paper placemats and discards using duct tapes to store all kinds of food-related information and ephemera in one place.

I think it's a great book for me, a real foodie. I can put in all kinds of information about diners (NJ has the largest number of diners in the USA), restaurants, special recipes, food stores (Paramus, NJ now has four great food stores), and even my own edible garden. The other project involved recycling children's board book and it was not included in the new book. But I really like this wall hanging - it's foldable and collapsible for easy storage as a "book" which can be placed on a bookshelf instead of being put away in a box and placed out of sight somewhere in the house (probably either in attic or in basement). And you can easily either flip the whole thing around or take it down from the wall if you are expecting company (especially relatives or in-laws) that might not appreciate your personal taste.

I am sure that you can see the big grin on my face when I first saw my food journal in the new book up at Squam Lake in New Hampshire last week. The book will be coming out next month (July), but you can pre-order this book from Amazon.