It Is Time...
Brace yourself…because pumpkin everything is coming!
Brace yourself…because pumpkin everything is coming!
Fall is just around the corner and my excitement for my favorite season and one of my favorite holidays is mounting! So, I’ve decided to open my upcycled book pumpkin orders today! These are some of my bestselling products and I always end up with a bunch of orders in September, so I’m hoping to hopefully spread out some of that congestion with an earlier ordering option!
My pumpkins come in 4 different sizes and 4 different color options, so hopefully we’ll have something just right for your bookish fall/Halloween decor needs! I try to keep these orders open through Thanksgiving, but depending on how many orders I get, I may need to limit the number available later in the season. So I would suggest ordering some of these right away if you want to get them!
I will also slowly be adding my other fall and Halloween product listings between now and September, so be on the lookout for those soon!
In other news I am excited to announce that I’ll be a vendor at Coulee Con, a regional gaming celebration based in La Crosse, WI, over this coming weekend, Aug. 19-21! Online badge sales will end on Tuesday, Aug. 16, although you will be able to purchase badges at the event starting on Friday.
If you’ll be attending, be sure to stop by and say hi at our booth! This will be my first bigger event over an entire weekend, so I’m very excited and nervous all at once! We’ll have plenty of video game inspired items as well as general bookish, geeky and fantasy products as well. I’m even working on a few completely new products that will hopefully debut at this event! Anything left over afterwards will be added to the website, just in time for the holidays, so keep an eye out over the next few weeks.
Life Finds A Way...
It is officially summer now, which seems crazy to me…almost as crazy as the world lately, am I right? Not gonna lie, things have been rough, just in general, status of the world, type things and more personally as well. Everything just seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, and I’m sure that’s true for many of us…but as the title of the blog (which is quoting Jurassic Park) says, life finds a way. I’m sure that will prove true, but sometimes it really seems like that might be up in the air.
It is officially summer now, which seems crazy to me…almost as crazy as the world lately, am I right? Not gonna lie, things have been rough, just in general, status of the world, type things and more personally as well. Everything just seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, and I’m sure that’s true for many of us…but as the title of the blog (which is quoting Jurassic Park) says, life finds a way. I’m sure that will prove true, but sometimes it really seems like that might be up in the air.
On a less heavy topic - the new Jurassic World movie is out! I haven’t seen it, but I noticed that they brought back the original trio from the movies that came out back in the 90s, so I’m excited by that! I also just read the Jurassic Park novel for the first time and loved it! If you haven’t read the book - do it! I sat down to do a quick look for quotes to make some new products with the latest movie out and ended up just reading the whole thing in basically one sitting!
I did end up finding a ton of great quotes to use for products also - so those are up in the shop here now & I definitely have material to make more if there’s a high demand or if you’re looking for a specific quote!
Also on the topic of nostalgia and bringing back things from the 90s (and my childhood) - the Obi Wan show has been AH-MAY-ZING!!!! As a hardcore Star Wars prequels fan (I grew up with them and they were my Star Wars) who has always loved Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker - this show was made specifically for me and people like me! I’m absolutely loving every minute of it and can’t wait for the final episode coming up this Wednesday!
Due to the Obi Wan show basically taking over my life - I have been working on a bunch of Star Wars products lately as well and probably won’t be stopping any time soon, even if nobody is buying them (I’ll just keep them all for myself!) My favorite so far is a double-sided Han & Leia silhouette bookmark, but I’m also hoping to get an Obi Wan/Anakin one done before Wednesday’s finale.
Happy Star Wars Day!
May the 4th be with you on one of my favorite fandom holidays of the year! Star Wars is one of my absolute favorite fictional worlds and I am so excited to announce that our May the 4th drop featuring several exclusive items from some fantastic shops, in addition to my own Star Wars upcycled book products is live!
May the 4th be with you on one of my favorite fandom holidays of the year! Star Wars is one of my absolute favorite fictional worlds and I am so excited to announce that our May the 4th drop featuring several exclusive items from some fantastic shops, in addition to my own Star Wars upcycled book products is live!
When I started thinking about putting something together to commemorate May the 4th & the release of Kenobi later this month, I knew I wanted to include a few other shops besides my own, in order to give customers a variety of options - I also really just wanted each of the items that I commissioned!
We ended up with some insanely talented and lovely artists and shops featured in this drop - take a peek!
Keisha Caetano from YOUnique Designs covered a lot of the design work in this drop - including the Obi Wan shirt design and the original artwork for the puzzle! She is a multimedia artist and designer who has been creating personalized works of art since 2012. Keisha uses many different platforms and processes for art and design. She specializes in custom portraits on a variety of topics, including automotives, animals, houses, boats, and more. She also offers many graphic designs services, including photo editing, logo design, flyers, brochures, posters, etc. Keisha has an Etsy shop, but keeps her newest work on her website.
Jules from Spaced Out Design Co. created the lovely little Skywalker Women sticker for our May the 4th drop. Spaced Out Design Co. is a digital design shop for custom portraits, stickers, and illustrations. Jules specializes in pet portraits and nerdy stickers and is based out of Arizona where she is an HR generalist during the day who loves to read and watch movies.
Serpent & Flame owner, Amanda, came up with the scent blend for the I Don’t Like Sand candle with very little, mostly vague suggestions to “make it like what working with mechanical things on Tatooine” would smell like…and she knocked it out of the park! This candle scent is a blend of ozone, sandalwood and metal that just works so well for the image of Anakin as a little boy, working on machines and vehicles in Watto’s shop, all the while despising that awful, annoying sand.
Serpent & Flame specializes in making scents for the wayward, witchy & weird. You can find candles, lip balm, perfume, bath soaks and more in their shop. Themes range from books to fandom to witchy and snarky.
Then there’s little ol’ me: Tallitha from Repurposed Words By Reese. For this drop I’m offering the largest selection of character silhouette & quote bookmarks & prints that I’ve ever offered in a single listing - so you have lots of options to choose your favorite Start Wars character! The selected quotes will be random, but that just adds to the surprise, right?
For this drop, I have the stickers and candles on hand, so if you order those individually they will ship right away. For the bookmarks and prints I will be making them as orders come in, which shouldn’t be longer than a week or so, at most.
However, the shirts and puzzles will be coming from a print on demand drop shipping partner, so I’m tentatively planning to make one (possibly two) large orders towards the middle-ish and/or end of the month - hopefully in time to get you everything before the Kenobi show premiers (no promises though)!
So, if you order a puzzle or shirt by itself - those can be shipped directly to you, however if you order several things, I will put them all together to ship in one package.
I think that’s all - but please, if you have any questions about anything to do with this drop or the products, just send me a quick email or message me on social media and I will do my best to get back to you quickly!
Have a great Star Wars Day!
Rabbits in Children's Literature
Easter is almost here, and I’ve been thinking lately about how rabbits are such a common theme in so many children’s books - from the works of Beatrix Potter to The Velveteen Rabbit, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, The Runaway Bunny, Alice in Wonderland and beyond, it seems like there’s a surplus of fluffy bunny characters.
Easter is almost here, and I’ve been thinking lately about how rabbits are such a common theme in so many children’s books - from the works of Beatrix Potter to The Velveteen Rabbit, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, The Runaway Bunny, Alice in Wonderland and beyond, it seems like there’s a surplus of fluffy bunny characters.
The easy explanation to that would be that rabbits are small, fluffy, and cute, making them appealing to many children. Rabbits are also one of the most common animals in the world and live on every continent except one, so they would be a common, easily recognizable animal regardless of where young readers are from.
In this feature from The University of Cambridge, Dr. Zoe Jaques notes that the reason animals are often used in moral tales (think of Br’er Rabbit and The Tortoise and the Hare) and children’s literature in general is because of “the sense that there is a special closeness between children and animals that is lost in adulthood.” There’s this idea that growing up and abandoning childhood things (such as stories of anthropomorphic animals dressed in their own little clothes), establishes a firmer boundary between the fantastical world of childhood and that of serious adulthood.
Though Jaques points out that there are far less young adult and adult fictions that focus on animals, even some of the stories that technically are classified as children’s literature are quite memorable indeed and can be enjoyed by an older audience, including adults. The stories of Redwall and Watership Down for example, may strike a first impression as children’s stories, but they are definitely intended for an older audience than that of Peter Rabbit and The Runaway Bunny and they tackle much more mature concepts.
Rabbits are said to symbolize a variety of things, from sensitivity, gentleness, new beginnings, birth, new life and good luck, just to name a few. Many of those traits or aspects would seem to align well with childhood and young children as well.
So, needless to say, I don’t have much beyond conjecture and opinion for why rabbits are so common in children’s literature, but I have to admit that I do have a fondness for them, which is why I just had to make an upcycled book sculpture rabbit (as evidenced in the photo above). I had also planned to get some Velveteen Rabbit and Peter Rabbit products done in time for Easter, but that just didn’t happen this year…maybe in 2023…
Which rabbit from fiction is your favorite?