I should have written this post last night when my rampaging mind wouldn't let me sleep. It was my fault because I broke my rule of not drinking coffee after 12 noon, and, because I rarely drink coffee anymore (my bones need all the calcium they can scrounge), the effect was extra potent.

On Saturday I drove by a house/shop I have driven by almost daily for 2 1/2 years, Rose City Stamps, when something clicked in my brain that it was a rubber stamping store. So I drove around the block, parked in front, and went inside. It is a small store chock-full of stamps, paper, and other stamping supplies. I had fun browsing for a while and ended up buying a gingko leaf stamp. (Note: their website is rather hokey and in need of a copy editor, but it is up-to-date.)

Sunday's afternoon browsing took place at my favorite used bookstore, where I found I book I'd seen before, Great Impressions: The Art & Technique of Rubber Stamping by Patricia Garner Berlin. Berlin carves her own stamps, mainly from erasers. I like the simplicity (and cost-effectiveness) of her ideas. I learned I can print a design with my laser printer and transfer the design to an eraser using nail polish remover.

A couple other books I looked through, but didn't buy, were on re-using "found" objects as artwork and house furnishings (about 1980) and on furnishing one- to two-room apartments inexpensively (1949).