December Shop Log

I know this post is a bit late, but with the sad weather and my exams it was hard to find the right time & lighting to make decent photos. I did a lot of gift shopping in December and while shopping for other people is fun, I can never stop myself from buying little bits and bops along the way for myself. So I wanted to let you guys see what I indulged myself with in December. I can already say this much: the printed word is a popular object during my shopping sprees.

THE BOOKS

I've skipped it a couple of times, but this year I went to the Boekenfestijn when it passed through Ghent. They used the big hall in Flanders Expo, which was very nice, and because I went on the last day it was also relatively calm. On the down side: I was quite disappointed with the lack of English books. One small table and almost no pockets. There were no classics to be found and no science fiction. The Dutch section was much larger, but as always there are way too much translations and way too little books by Dutch/Flemish authors. I did buy a couple of books:

• Asian Graphics Now! - Because I can always use a good reference book and I really love the way Asian design can be so clever and different from European design.
• The Last Unicorn (De Laatste Eenhoorn) by Peter S. Beagle - I actually bought a dutch translation of this book, because it was too cheap to leave it behind. One (or maybe two) of my favourite Booktubers mentioned this book a couple of times and I was intrigued.
• Tirol Inferno by Annelies Verbeke - This is a book about forty people that are stuck on a skilift. It's written in rhyme and has illustrations by the Belgian illustrator Kaas Verplancke. I knew nothing about this book when I bought it, I only bought it for the illustrations and it doesn't get very good reviews on Goodreads. I am planning on reading it though. Reading rhyme seems like a nice change of pace from the usual stuff I read.

I'm also a bit of a tote bag addict and I even bought two on one day! The first one was the wonderful dinosaur inspired tote bag by Studio Doeke I bought at the Hellen B pop-up shop. It has a dinosaur reference on it, so there was no way I could not buy this, even though it was quite pricey (€15). You can find it on the Studio Doeke website. The other one is a tote bag by Blossom Books, a Dutch publisher of Young Adult books. I saw the bag on their website and when I went shopping in Antwerp a couple of days weeks ago I saw two girls with one of the other Blossom Books tote bag designs. I didn't know where to find them until I suddenly found them at the most wonderful bookstore in Ghent: Het Paard van Troje. And for €3 it was a steal!

THE MAGAZINES

I might have mentioned this a couple of times, but I'm quite the magazine addict. It started in high school with Elle and ever since I'm always buying a couple of magazines each month. This month I bought:

• 101 Woonideeën - The last edition ever of this awesome magazine. I'll be reading VTWonen all of next year, but it will never be the same.
• VTWonen - January edition, because when you get a subscription starting in January this means you'll still have to buy the January edition in the shops. Who knew!
• VTWonen special DIY edition - I would love to make lots of homemade things for our house in the second part of 2015, so I bought some inspiration.
• Computer Arts - This is a graphic design magazine and normally I don't buy it because is so expensive! This time I splurged and as always it has some awesome content, varying from industry news and interviews to tutorials on typography and design.
• Flow for Paper Lovers II - Because a girl can never have enough pretty papers she'll probably never use because they're too pretty.

THE OTHER STUFF

• Copper HAY Scissors - this is something of a mini-tradtition, but last year I bought a pair of special HAY scissors and when I saw the copper ones they had this year I thought I just had to start a new cool collection. Scissors it is and they come in darn handy.
• Sea urchin skeletons for a little DIY project involving air plants (but I haven't located an air plant seller in Belgium yet)
• Copper Wire basket at Sissy Boy (not pictured, because it currently holds all of our liquor and I was to lazy to empty it for a picture. Sorry!)

So, did any of you splurged on anything in December? Or maybe in January already?