Urban Folk Book Club

Urban Folk Book Club

Book Club – Urban Folk Style

Hey there! Today I want to talk a little bit about Urban Folk Style which is the tagline I made up a few years ago to describe the Blue Nickel vibe. I felt like I needed to define my style somehow, but all of the taglines I liked were being used by other designers. I came up with Urban Folk to cover my love of modern urban lines in design combined with my love of organic and wonky not-so-precise woodsy, folksy concepts. That’s all pretty ethereal, huh? Well that’s why I came up with Urban Folk, to combine those contrasting aesthetics into a concise phrase.

Okay, now with that definition of my overall aesthetic here at the Blue Nickel, let’s move on to the Book Club portion of this post!  I have three books that I want to share with you. One vintage and then two I picked up at my local Costco. These are the types of books that help inspire me within the Urban Folk Style mindset (in case you were wondering how they relate to that first spiel).

 

“Modern” Books!

First the Vintage book, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing, edited by Frances Blondin – 1946. It is packed with stuff that I will never use, but it is a fascinating look into life near the middle of the last century. WWII had just ended and people were still definitely MAKING their own stuff and not buying it somewhere else. So this book is packed with how to make your own clothes, curtains, kid’s clothes and toys, kitchen stuff, etc. All from scratch with NO pattern.  The folks back then were amazing people!! And I love how this is considered a Modern book. Whatever is current is modern. That is all I have to say about that!  🙂

Then there’s this one, Better Homes & Gardens, Decorating Book – Straight from 1961 – seriously. All the pictures and verbage are totally from 1961.  It was at my local Costco. The book is a complete reproduction. I love this one, not just for the novelty of it, but also for the inspiration of color and designs/lines you just don’t see nowadays. I think it is good to glean things from our past!

The color combinations and ideas about what looks great and modern and stylish make me laugh now, but some of you who are younger really like this aesthetic I would venture to guess.

 

I thought this third book would just be interesting.  I liked the title, Make Yourself at Home, (by Moorea Seal) as well as the tagline — Design Your Space to Discover Your True Self.  To be honest, I mainly bought for my middle son, who seems to like decorating a bit. The book seems definitely written to a predominately female audience, but I think it would make a good basic beginning book for Max to help him get a sense of himself through how he builds his home environment. To be honest that sounds very nebulous to me, but it also make sense, don’t you think? This will be in his Christmas stocking. Hoping it makes sense to him!

And a New Book-azine!

And then I wanted to share about a new magazine (that is more like a book really) that I have mentioned on Instagram before but not here on the blog yet.

Quiltfolk is incredible. I have the first four copies here. Now, I have barely actually READ much in them yet, but I have looked through them over and over again. I am hoping tomorrow morning on Thanksgiving Day to actually savor them before the big meal of the day. A Visual Breakfast so to speak. Just imagine your favorite Magazine that you love for the photography and paper. Now amp that up to include NO ADVERTISING and High Quality writing. That is Quiltfolk. Nothing short of amazing.

Each issue covers a FEW people and places in a single U.S. state (there is no way that they can cover everybody, and I love that they cover not just “sewlebrities” but real folk – Quilting Folk…just like they call the magazine) It is not an inexpensive magazine, but I declare, you DO get your money’s worth.  Check them out here.

As I was working on the photos for this post – I turned all four of them over.

These are the BACKS of these things – Aren’t they beautiful!?

+++++++++++

So that’s a wrap on today’s post.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I hope each of you get a moment or two or more to rejoice in your blessings, no matter how small and meager or large and abundant.

I am so thankful for you.

Be sure to stop by here at the Blue Nickel for the day after Thanksgiving for a special sale I am having in the Blue Nickel Shop.

For now though –

Keep Sewing, Keep Happy,

Scott