A good book.

No, not THE good book, but a good one nonetheless.

I have a recipe book. A huge one. It's actually a really messy three ring binder full of papers -- some in protective sleeves, some not. This book is so vitally important to what I do that I periodically retype all my handwritten notes and keep digital copies in multiple electronic locations in case a flood destroys my studio, my computer, and my external hard drive.

I am going to walk naked through the halls of my high school. What I really mean is that I am going to show you a "before" picture of the book.

But before I do, take a moment to remove your Evil Hat of Judgment and open your mind to the possibility that I am one of those creative types, and this sort of thing doesn't bother me. That much.

This is the book. My husband usually refers to it as "that giant white binder," a name which does not accurately reflect the value of what's contained therein.



Can you see how papers just get stuck in here? Everything IS in alphabetical order to make things easy to find.  What I mean is, everything is not in alphabetical order, which makes it hard to find things.



I shall now remove all the loose pages that need to be converted to an electronic format, printed, and inserted into a nice protective sleeve.

It's not so bad, right? RIGHT?




Fine. These pictures were just a tad horrifying. I usually don't go this long between book makeovers, but with the new studio, it's gotten put on the back burner.

I decided to spend the better part of an afternoon organizing. And putting copies in my fireproof safe that's installed behind a portrait of my great grandmother in the mezzanine level ballroom of my summer home. And storing copies in multiple digital formats, lest anything happen to my paper copies.

Here's the after:



Ah. That feels better. A little. I like that it's now alphabetized. But it lacks the creative flair of the "before" version.

A.A. Milne once said, "One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." I have that on a bookmark.
One more gratuitous parting shot:




By the way, do you like my vintage wallpaper? It's straight out of 1964. And I have six more rolls stored in the mezzanine level ballroom of my summer home basement.

Comments

[Francesca]

Love your wallpaper and your Big White Binder is reminicent (did I spell that half way correctly?) of my recipe binder (food of course as I do not even pretend yarn dying is in my future..ever!); only mine's blue and there hasn't been a cute nickname given to it by my darling husband. Maybe he realizes if he did, he'd have to cook. He's smarter than he looks sometimes! ;)

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