BuZzeS: Announcing Bookful of Japanese Art Inspirations

Dear Everyone ~

Bookful of Japanese Art Inspirations is my sixteenth Bookful collaboration with artist, author & dear friend Cat Bennett. Our four-session workshop via Zoom will begin on Saturday, May 3. As we are Zooming, spring will be blooming & tea will be brewing!

Cat shares this encouragement whilst reminiscing about her early drawing practice …
 
“Many years ago, when I began working as an illustrator, I turned over and over again to Japanese art for inspiration. There was so much clarity in the art, such beautiful color and line. Even humor! I tried to do what Japanese artists like Hokusai did but my work looked wobbly in comparison. I soon learned it takes hours, even years, of practice to get strong ink lines and flat watercolor washes. Hokusai agreed! Still, Japanese art inspired me to work harder and to take some of its elements and incorporate them into my own work, however wobbly. We can never do what the Japanese artists did but I still like to borrow from them!”

 To record our explorations with style, students will make a set of three slim landscape-format Japanese-style books. They all measure 5" x 8" x ¼", each stitched with a different style of Japanese binding: Kangxi, Hemp Leaf, and Tortoise Shell. I personally find all three stitching styles mysteriously zen: when I finish one of these books, I’m totally in the rhythm and in the mood to make another. Students, however, tend to find these challenging at first, until they actually feel they “understand” the stitch. That is precisely why we will practice stitching on the templates that we make in the first workshop session.

Cat will begin workshop sessions #2, #3 & #4 with a curated slideshow of Japanese art inspirations. We’ll explore Japanese brush painting, ink line drawing, composition, color mixing, and collage as we create images that will make our books real treasures.

In Week 2 we’ll interpret haiku; in Week 3, we’ll make nature paintings—from gorgeous blossoms and plants to leaves and twigs! And in Week 4, we’ll illustrate a tea ceremony for our lives.

 The papers I’ve selected for this Bookful are vintage Japanese decorative sheets from the BZS archive. Each kit includes three styles of paper: Katazome, Kodai (uncrinkled), and Chiyogami. Five colours of waxed-linen thread wound on a piece of creamy white cardstock allow you to choose which colour best complements each of your covers. Your kit also includes tactile treats to inspire your musing & collaging: a 6" x 9" glassine full of vintage Japanese ledger and book pages & 20-ish assorted remnants from vintage cover papers. You may find yourself arranging your remnants into a celestial coverlet until you want to use them.

You may well know that I delight in mixing & matching colours and patterns. If a particular palette or combination of papers is whispering your name, please feel free to e me and I will do my best to accommodate your request. 

As a bonus and ode to our love of art supplies à la japonaise, we are offering a 20% discount on Sumi-e watercolour sets, Kuretake brush pens, Japanese glue sticks, and of course washi tape(!) for all Bookful sign-up’s (refunded after purchase).

As always, we like to emphasize, especially if you are a Bookful newcomer, that truly no drawing or bookbinding experience is necessary—all levels of artistic skill & interest are welcome. Our pace is slow & supportive, and the camaraderie is joyful. Plus, you will have four complete workshop videos (recorded in real time) to watch and rewatch at your leisure. We look forward to seeing you soonish via Zoom!

Bookful of Japanese Art Inspirations
 
Blooming & Zooming, Bari

BuZzeS: New season, new notebooks & other springy things

Dear Everyone ~

We are delighted to herald the arrival of a fresh crop of Season Paper notebooks from France. The covers are  serendipitously springy, with a built-in label in the upper right corner for inscribing or dedicating or titling. The beautiful ivory pages are delicately ruled. These truly are notebooks for all reasons: for dreaming, for doodling, for listing, for lounging.

Continuing the dreamy theme: Three freshly made (by me) buttonhole-stitch books have just made their way online. They are sweet & petite-ish, measuring 5" x 6" x 1⅜". Enchanting paper covers, one by artist Michelle Morin, and two by Kensington Paperie. The pages are Stonehenge—splendid for all manner of medium—with a deckle on the foredge. 

Also of note: Our favourite felines by Mary Feddon have returned. The pocket portfolio includes three each of two designs, Two Cats and Cat & Compass. Their companion envelopes (6) are crisp white, with a smooth finish.

Cambridge Imprint small labels (1¾" x 1¼") are back in stock. The set of 45 labels is presented in a glassine sleeve holding 1 sheet each of five fabulous palettes: Grade A Gray Shades, Sublime Maritime, Mixed Greens, Turkish Kitchen, and Valentinear. Let these labels inspire your addressing and titling. They will make you smile while you file every little thing!

And last but ne’er least: Last week we were down to our final few Hahnemühle Ultimate Palette pads. Fret not, as Ruby swiftly undertook counting, collating, and stacking luscious stripes of Hahnemühle hues for me to pad. After arriving at the studio this morning, I can confirm that the glued edges have cured, and the pristine pads are ready for your spring flinging.

BuZzeS: It’s the Pura palette parade!

Dear Everyone ~

Hold on to your hardcover hats! My first BZS workshop of 2025, Hardcover Accordion in a Boxy Portfolio via group Zoom, debuts Saturday, April 5. This workshop also showcases our newest selection of Italian patterned papers from Carta Pura. Bellissimi tutti! One enthusiastic student has ordered all three palettes, and four students have each ordered two palettes. It’s a palette-palooza!

Students will learn to make a pair of structures, a traditional accordion book with hardcovers (5" x 7" x ¾") and a ‘boxy’ portfolio with hardcovers (5¼" x 7¼" x 1") to present & protect the accordion. The portfolio is dressed up with three gusseted flaps lined with complementary Italian patterned papers from Carta Pura, and then finished with a vintage, limited-edition beribbonment.

Five international parcels sent out last week are now winging their way far & wide. A very tall stack of stateside parcels is ready to be scooped up by Will. 

Accordion to me, the accordion book is the most elegant, versatile & enticing of no-stitching, no-glueing, no-prior-experience-needed structures. The book that students will make in this workshop has five 5-page accordion panels, for a total of 36 serendipitous sides (38 if you include the front & back panels of the cover). The structure is uplifting (and upstanding!) as a book of collages, an album of photos, a multi-media travelogue, or a series of hand-folded envelopes for collecting whatever-have-you. And you can title your volume(s) via a slim recess on the spine!

I repeat with a smile: No previous bookbinding experience is necessary to enjoy the workshop and delight in your oeuvre. For the boxy portfolio, a little glueing experience is a plus but not essential. Our pace is focused but leisurely, with ample opportunity to ask questions whilst we work. As always, I will live record the workshop, and the full recording will be available to you later the same afternoon to watch and rewatch. The recording gives you optimal options: You can watch the workshop without actually making your structures… and then make them later. You can skip the workshop if you have a scheduling conflict. You can pause, or refresh, or even go get a snack if you are desperate. I’ll be there when you get back! 

If you have any questions now, please feel free to call or e me to discuss!

Hardcover Accordion in a Boxy Portfolio
 
Zooming toward spring, Bari

BuZzeS: Palatial paper patterns from Carta Pura

Dear Everyone ~

I’ve invited Alyson to share her reminiscences rekindled by our latest edition of fine papers from Carta Pura. Enjoy these musings from my Postal Muse, who also wrapped all the packages & hand-folded the envelopes for this post. Buon appetito!

“ Last month, Bari sent me photos of the new Carta Pura patterns, thinking I might like to help her name them. And then she sent me sample sheets, thinking I might like to experience them. And then she photo’d the sample boxy portfolio she’d made for her upcoming workshop, Hardcover Accordion Book in a Boxy Portfolio. And when I asked what ribbon she’d used for the closure… I had to share the story of Our Great Ribbon Caper in Oakland, Calif. almost 30 years ago!

I was living in San Francisco, working for Crane & Co., after a year at Paper Source’s flagship in Chicago. I had met Bari at the store, during the hottest summer in recorded history. We bonded in record time, and spent several magical afternoons at my apartment, hand-folding gorgeous envelopes from pages of the Martha Stewart Weddings issue, which was a hot commodity. Then, Bari went off to Italy with Zak to get married (and shop), and while they were gone, I was offered the job with Crane, whose corporate colors at the time were navy and kelly. Back in San Francisco, I read in the newspaper about Lacis, a store specializing in bridal fabrics and accoutrements, including beribbonments. I promptly went to investigate, returning with an entire spool (6" in diameter) of vintage navy-and-white stripe and ditto of kelly green-and-white stripe, for wrapping boxes of Crane samples… and more modest lengths of other colorways, including milk and dark chocolate.

Several months later, Bari was in Northern California, and Lacis was high on our papery itinerary. She swooned, she shopped… and she basically bought it all (after I had another turn). It’s true. And that’s how students in her workshop get to have this divine ribbon (while supplies last) to tie off their boxy portfolios.

Meanwhile, Bari had brought me back many wrapping & writing supplies from her honeymoon in Italy, including lengths of gorgeous passementerie that paired deluxely with decorative papers I’d brought home from Italy in the early ’70s, mostly classic Florentine florals, and a few little geometrics. Well, the Carta Pura patterns remind me (not surprisingly, as they are designed and printed in Italy) not only of my now 50-year-old papers from Florence but also of pitter-pattering around the Palazzo Pitti, in perfect papery proximity to venerable stationer Giulio Giannini. So, we felt bound to give each Carta Pura pattern an evocative Italianate name. Seen below are Piccolo Rosso & Piccolo Azzurro in envelope mode.

As for my vintage stash of Florentine papers: Eventually, I had no pieces large enough to wrap even a small gift. And then I had no pieces left with which to line even a little envelope. And then I had a bright idea: to commission Bari to cover butterfly clips in some of my scraps! And here they are, farfalle fiorentine that delight me every time I clip or unclip them—mostly in my kitchen cupboards. ”

Ruby has covered a flight of butterfly clips in Carta Pura papers. Students in my workshop will receive with each kit a glassine full of scraps for covering your own clips.

 And note Farfalle Fantasia in the dropdown below: an entire constellation (1 parent sheet each) of the nine Carta Pura patterns plus a big butterfly clip covered for you. Hearts may flutter!

We are also doubly delighted to herald the arrival of Cambridge Imprint’s latest labels, which are simply stellar. They measure 2 x 2¾, with a writable area of 1½ x 2¼. Each packet includes 2 each of 8 lovely hues: cherry, lavender, marron, mermaid, mustard, olive, pewter, turq., presented in a glassine sleeve, sealed with a teeny YKW!

BuZzeS: Kodai & Kikkō take a crinkly curtain call

Dear Everyone ~

The BZS paper cabinet is a constant inspiration to me: 20 shallow drawers measuring 26" x 40" x 2½" high. A handful of them get far-and-farther the most use. Japanese Yuzen has become my catch-all drawer for larger scraps of Cambridge Imprint, Wanderlust, hand-marbled papers—basically everything that’s been part of a recent project—in addition to full sheets of Chiyogami. This drawer is in a constant state of flux. Three more drawers are opened, perused, and closed almost every day: Japanese Crinkle, Katazome, and Vintage. Whenever I’m percolating about a workshop theme or a custom project, I delve into several drawers—knowing what is in them, but with a fresh intention, to see which patterns & textures spark an idea.

The most recent addition to our Japanese paper repertoire is a vintage Kikkō sheet measuring 14" x 20". It is truly luxe, not crinkled quite like the Kodai’s are, but when I glue them, I use the same technique. I’ve recorded a 15-minute video showing step-by-step, stroke-by-stroke how to glue Kodai papers, and I will share the video with you immediately upon purchase of the Crinkly Non-Kodai Kikkō. Three sumptuous tortoise shells (traditional Japanese hexagonal patterns): a ⅜-inch repeat in black & gold, a 1-inch repeat in red & gold, and a 1-inch repeat in black & gold. We have larger reserves of the large black & gold pattern than we do of the smaller black & gold and of the red & gold. Seeing as how the patterns mix & match rather elegantly, you could make two boxes with interchangeable lids, or even a petite pair of nesting boxes.

Also, as we combed through our Kodai scraps, Ruby was able to assemble eight more Crinkly Kodai Scrap Bundles. Eight pieces per bundle, ranging in size from 5 x 7-ish to 8 x 6-ish. They are perfect for making small books, wrapping gifts, or deluxe-ifying a collage. They behave a bit like fabric—supple yet sturdy, and sensuous to the touch. These are truly the last of the lot. (We won’t hold a lottery, but the early kestrel gets the Kodai.)

In other paper-related news, we are gleeful to report that mini bonefolders are back in stock. They measure ¾" x 4" and register high marks in adorability! They are also a model travel companion as they weigh next to naught and take up negligible room. Handy for smaller hands, hand-folding small envelopes, origami, and basically anything you’d want your standard size bonefolder for. To demonstrate its diminutiveness, we’ve snuggled it up against a mini Rivoli Rose enclosure envelope (2½" x 3¾"). You could even tuck it into an elegant evening bag.

BuZzeS: Our Wanderlust repertoire has just gotten more luscious

Dear Everyone ~

We are delighted to herald the arrival of two new wanderluscious patterns to our repertoire of Wanderlust Papers: Passion Flower and Ink Flora.

We held a Wanderlust-fest back in the spring of 2023, when we debuted Collector’s Album, a group workshop via Zoom. Students made their album using a septet of Wanderlust patterns: a different one for each of the seven envelope-pages, plus one of the patterns for the front & back hardcovers. In the process, students learned: 1) how to make what I call a paper-sandwich; 2) how to hand-fold an envelope without a template; 3) how to glue hardcovers; 4) and how to bind the envelopes together using the multi-needle Coptic-stitch binding. The workshop was a glorious success, and how!

Fast forward to earlier this month, when the Wanderlust parcel wandered into BZS. As Ruby and I were unfurling the papers, she decided to make her very own Collector’s Album using the two new patterns. She opted for Ink Flora for the front & back outside covers and Passion Flower for the interior panels, stitched with white (4-ply) waxed-linen thread. As soon as Ruby finished stitching her bewitching album, I decided to add this delightful duo as a fresh palette option for the Collector’s Album. (The workshop is available as a 2-part 8-ish hour recorded lesson.)

If you’ve already taken the workshop and would like to purchase the new kit, you can! You cannot accomplish this in the dropdown menu, however. Please just call or e me and I will be in touch extremely promptly.
 
Collector’s Album
Wanderluscious Papers
 
Wandering and collecting, Bari

BuZzeS: My Chatty Valentine

Dear Everyone ~

Last week, I received a lovely collection of thoughts in the mail from the kind heart and vintage typewriter of Kim Soo, a paper crafter & envelope folding enthusiast. Her letter begins “I compose this note of thanks to you on some lovely Cara Pura Zeichenblock paper supplied by your amazing shoppe.” Kim Soo goes on to say, “My 1940s Smith-Corona Silent (not so silent) typewriter requires and deserves nothing less than this cotton joy.”
 
The bookmark she enclosed is a scrap-happy tour de force. “You might,” she writes, “recognize its parts, ebulliently joined, from the Extremely Exquisite Scraps from November 2024’s Studio Sale. I could not bear to scrap the smallest scraps…”

I didn’t have time to reply to Kim Soo on the lyrical level I wanted to, but I shared photos of her oeuvre (letter, bookmark, envelope) with my Postal Muse, who offered to reach out and delve for details so I could share Kim Soo’s epistolary elegance & eloquence for this Valentines Day post. Alyson & Kim Soo had what I can only describe as a highly illustrated chat! Kim Soo has graciously agreed to let us share some tidbits herein.

Kim Soo grew up corresponding with her favorite cousin, Claire. They’ve been at it for over 40 years now. They occasionally communicate electronically… and their daughters “are besties and electronic correspondents (until further coached). And, our husbands are similarly connected. A large part of this strengthening community has been corresponding and keeping in touch over the miles and decades.”

Kim Soo is currently reveling in her copy of Syme’s Letter Writer, and when Alyson asked her for a photo of her creative space, Kim Soo spontaneously styled her own mise-en-scène in the spirit of this illustration from the book. The Underwood on Kim Soo’s desk is her “other typewriter,” named Francis; the Smith-Corona on which she typed her Valentine to me is named Tom.

 Kim Soo definitely doesn’t type on the drop-down “leaf” of her Deco-era desk, which has been in her life since the mid-’90s. To the right of Francis (the Underwood), Kim Soo placed her June 1977 letter from Claire, which concludes, “Please write back.” We say, Words to live and love by! The tour of her accessories and accoutrements continues: “My favorite fountain pen is on the left upper corner. The yellow pencil cup is actually a paper-covered can that another dear friend and Pen Pal sent me literally on its own through the mail in the 90’s—another inspiration to correspond that well-earned its place. His handwritten message to the postal worker still makes me smile. To the far right are little items I like to write upon/send.” As for the family photos, Kim Soo annotates: “Atop, you will see a photo of my grandfather, a WW2 U.S. Navy veteran who still inspires and warms my heart, and he is the common ancestor with my cousin, the little girl with bangs on the left.”

As you might imagine, Alyson plans to mail her first envelope (hand-folded, natch) to Kim Soo today, hand-cancelled “February 14.”

May your Valentine’s Day be filled with xoxtra love, Bari

BuZzeS: Accordion Book meets Boxy Portfolio

Dear Everyone ~

I am doubly delighted to debut my first group Zoom workshop of 2025: Hardcover Accordion Book in a Boxy Portfolio. My two inspirations for this workshop are… More is more and Why not?

This is a perfect pairing of two structures—one boxy and one bookish—that require no stitching.
Either structure is lovely & useful on its own. And we are taking this opportunity to showcase our new papers from Carta Pura, made in Italy. (Certamente, we have promptly given them Italianate names.)

The first structure students will make is a 5" x 7" x 1" portrait-format accordion book with hardcovers. The book has 20 Stonehenge panels (Here’s the accordion arithmetic: 5" wide x 20 panels = nearly 3 yards when open fully). The second structure is a boxy portfolio measuring 5¼" x 7¼" x 1¼" with three gusseted flaps reinforced with complementary Italian decorative papers. The portfolio’s closure is a length of vintage ribbon and the spine has a well defined recess, spacious enough for a title label of your choosing.

The materials I’ve selected for this workshop pair two bookbinding classics. A linen bookcloth—understated but elegant—that is delightful to glue and looks smart next to the Italian papers, whose patterns are wonderfully reminiscent of my early bookbinding days. Many bene: We have cut the papers in your kit to a size that allows you to decide which pattern to use for your portfolio and which to use for your accordion book covers. Ruby & I have mixed & matched three palettes, and Alyson named them appropriately: Siena (pairing Murano & Rosso Classico), Padova (pairing Galileo & Castello), and Verona (pairing Piccolo Rosso & Palazzo). Verona, of course, was the home of one of Shakespeare’s most famous pairings.

If this workshop is calling to you—whether in a whisper or an aria— but you're concerned about the glueing portion, may we suggest our Introduction to Glueing Happiness live-recorded lesson as a warm-up? You will (1) experience glueing five distinctive bookbinding materials; (2) learn to make a hinged book cover; (3) acquire the skill to wrap a perfect corner; (4) learn how grain direction impacts the glueing process; (5) practice ways to minimize glueing mishaps; and (6) last but nary least, learn to care for your glue brush. The recorded lesson is 3-ish hours, and you can absolutely watch-and-glue in installments, though tuning in for a “full-length performance” is the ideal.

 As always, I will record Hardcover Accordion Book in a Boxy Portfolio in real time, and it will be available to you later the same afternoon to watch and rewatch at your leisure. No previous bookbinding experience is necessary, though some glueing experience is a plus. You will have ample time during each step to ask questions while we work. If you have any questions now, please feel free to call or e me to discuss! 

Hardcover Accordion Book in a Boxy Portfolio
 
Boxy moxie, Bari

P.S.
Exceptionally, the shop will be closed this Thursday, February 13. Regular hours resume Friday at 12pm. And Ruby will be dispensing very last-minute valentinear inspirations and tiny origami hearts.
 
P.P.S.
The Italian patterned papers will be available individually as of March 1, after workshop students have had a suitable palette-perusing interlude.  

BuZzeS: Garden of gorgeous notebooks, gallery of great greetings

Dear Everyone ~

Everything’s coming up paper! For starts, we’ve brought in a big bouquet of notebooks from Kiran Ravilious. They are petite (4⅛ x 5¾), exactly the height of a LePen. The 24 unlined natural white pages are lightish in weight, toothy in texture, and well suited for any medium.

Crafty aside: The cover designs all extend across the back. The cover is robust enough that you can repurpose it—not as a hat, a brooch, or a pterodactyl—but as a notecard, a postcard, or a gift tag. A slip of a tip for removing the staples seamlessly: Open the notebook so it’s fairly flat and you are looking at the “center spread.” Slide the actual tip of your Shipping Clerk’s Knife under one of the prongs and lift, repeat on the other prong. Next, flip your notebook face down, so cover up, and slide the tip of your SCK under the staple and lift gently. Voilà! 

You can also make a charmola envelope (We suggest a true center seam, with a 2" top flap.) in which to present the notebook. It’s sure to find favour.

Paper Bird cards have been restocked, plus two new-to-us designs. Hang tags and pencils and tubes, O my! Scissors and stampers and birdies to boot! Hi-ho! 

Also from Paper Bird...  several beguiling landscapes by Janine Burrows

Notecards by nature artist James Winrow have finally arrived after a week-long birdseye tour of the Midwest. They’ve seen post offices in several cities, including Indianapolis, Oshkosh, and Oak Creek. They, and we, are delighted to confirm that they are now resettled and available individually, as well as in a set of six. 

Kiran Ravilious
Paper Bird
James Winrow

Note time like the present, Bari
 
P.S.
Perfectly square pencil shavings (PS x 2) cards are up to so good, from a sapphire sea to a candle’s glow, from a tile roof to a party hat….

P.P.S.
Enveloped with curiosity about the patterned paper I’ve made the notebook’s cozy from? Next week we will be debuting BZS’s first workshop of 2025!

BuZzeS: V is for Valentines and visits and vermilion

Dear Everyone ~

We hope you are feeling very Valentinear… and perhaps even in the pink. Herewith some additional inspiration & supplies, starting with a layer-by-layer look at the first valentine I’ve received this season.

I’m thrilled to report that after a fortnight in the mail stream, my ARK x 2 Valentine arrived this past Monday! My postal muse (a.k.a. ARK I) & I like to think it had been detoured for display in our imaginary Envelope Museum for a time, hence its delay. Fortunately, even fortuitously, it arrived in perfect shape, and Alyson & Audrey LOVE that I’ve asked to share all its parts here.

The Rivoli Rose outer envelope (6¼ x 9, a large envelope by USPS standards) was franked with a quartet of Mary Faulconer’s 20¢ LOVE stamps from 1982 and Jeanne Greco’s courtly stamps from 2009. Ms. Greco used images from eighteenth-century French playing cards as a reference, per a lovely press release from the National Postal Museum that also noted, The issuance of the King and Queen of Hearts, the latest stamps in the Love series, pays tribute to the world's favorite “game.” Touché! Reverting to Rivoli Rose, we are now stocking these perfectly pale pink envelopes in five sizes, from Presentation (9 x 12½) to Enclosure (2½ x 3¼). Think pink!

The inner envelope was hand-folded by Alyson with paper provided by Audrey. I love the idea of using a slightly larger presentation envelope to enclose another envelope, in this case a gorgeous hand-folded one. It’s like a gift inside a gift. 

Note that Alyson’s envelope flap performed a feat of seamless serendipity. This is one of the delights of hand-folding patterned papers, the moment when you have folded two parts of your envelope to meet each other… and discover that the back of your envelope is its own thing of beauty! Hand-folding without a template allows you to finesse & finagle these felicities. Our MORE Art of the Hand-folded Envelope kit provides inspirations, instructions—16 pages worth—and charming illustrations by our in-house watercolourist Janet Bouldin. And if you’d like a luscious sampler in seasonal hues, may we suggest Ruby & Rosy assorted sheets for folding & beholding?

Audrey’s note was particularly heartfelt. She wrote that Valentines is one of her favourite occasions to send mail because it reminds her of her mom. My mother also loved making Valentines. By the time my nieces arrived (so to speak), my mom’s Valentines had become works of art. My sister in-law has them stored safely away & Audrey’s note has reminded me to ask my sister-in-law for an audience with them so I may photo-document. And the heart sticker the ARKs used to seal their outer envelope flap was reminiscent of heart stickers my mom gifted me back in the day. Palm on my heart, ARKs!

Alyson & Audrey also enclosed a Valentine acronym they had collaborated on: Valentinear Accessories Luxe little Enclosures, Neatly Tucked In. Now it’s your turn! Embellish away! Spread the (heart sticker). They invite you to use their acronym in your valentines, to inspire your correspondents! Seen above is my version.

Last week, I received an in-shop visit from Denise, proprietress of the Letters Mingle Souls postcard sending service that I mentioned in my Amplitude of Gratitude blog post last autumn. She presented me with a bouquet of hyacinths and a charming handwritten note. I love the opportunity to [insert adjective of your choice]! Whilst she was visiting, Will—our beloved mail carrier—happened to stop by to deliver mail & pick up parcels. Denise recognized him and exclaimed, “You’re the mailman from the blog posts!” Will’s face lit up and he said, “That's me!”… and Denise told him that she had been in a previous BZS blog post as well. Heartwarming all ’round.

 Until February 14, Ruby is including a little love with every online and in-shop pick-up order, by attaching a petite Cambridge Imprint origami heart to the BZS postcard she writes. 

Rivoli Rose Envelopes
 
S.W.A.K, Bari
 
PS:
Last week, the Bird Valentine by PasteSF flew out of the shop in formation. More are flying in and we expect them to land early next week. The online shop is updated for pre-sales and we will ship them post haste.