Left Hand, Right Hand!

A year or so ago, a friend was cleaning out her attic.  She found something left over from a previous dweller and she sent this something to me.

I opened the package and inside was a book.  An old orange hardcover book.  Orange happens to be my favorite color, and old books are some of my favorite things, so I was very excited to get this book.  But, it gets better...

The spine reads, "The Sociology of the Future".  What a great title!  But it gets better still...

I opened the book, and instead of loose flippable pages I found the pages glued together with a carefully carved hole in the middle.

This book was not only old, orange and had a great title.. it was a handmade secret hiding space!  I love this book.  I should probably mention here that I love secrets as much as I love old orange hardcover books!  It was a perfect present for me, and I'm still grateful that she picked me to send it to.

Flashforward to today...

My husband was sick, so I stayed home with him.  I had all this unplanned free time and wasn't quite sure how to fill it.  I can't quite remember how I got on this track, but I ended up sitting on my couch with the Dictionary of Symbols and a notebook on my lap.  I slowly went through all 500+ pages and wrote down symbols.. ancient symbols, symbols for alchemy and early chemistry.. then I started to organize them in ways I could use them.. oils and salts, waxes and alcohols.. I just didn't have enough, so I modified some and made up a few more to cover butters and essential oils and different herbs..

I blended up a new language of symbols and began to rewrite formulas for Wunder Budder, creating my own personal book of Wunder Budder secret code!

As I was writing in my scribbly falling apart notebook, I started thinking about what this secret code would become.. an amazing book full of symbols that only I would understand, dried flower bits and other pieces that fit into the future history of Wunder Budder.

I needed a book with blank pages.  I needed an old orange hardcover book like the one my friend had sent me, but I needed it to be full of blank pages just waiting to filled with the secret codes of Wunder Budder...

I remembered a small handmade book I used to have and searched our apartment, but I had no luck.  Our apartment is full of other really cool things, but the little book was nowhere to be found.

I came back to my seat on the couch, picked up my computer and took my chances searching Etsy.. I was hoping for a handmade book.. maybe one of handmade recycled fiber pages.. maybe one with a tree on the front.. maybe one with a spiral binding.. I didn't know.. I really wanted the twin of my old orange hardcover book, but one with pages I could write on.

That's when I saw Left Hand, Right Hand!  That's the acual title.. with an excalmation point.  It not only says Left Hand, Right Hand, it's excited about saying it!  If you haven't noticed already, I also love exclamation points!

Left Hand, Right Hand! is an old orange hardcover book, with an amazing title.  Just about the same size as my book with the secret hole.. its twin!  Only inside this new book are pages.. blank pages carefully put together and inserted into an old orange hardcover with an amazing title.

I bought it without a second thought.  When the creator sent me an email soon after, expressing her curiousity of what I would use her amazing book for, I was happy to tell her this story... a shortened version.. and then I just had to tell it again to all of you.

Thanks to my sick husband (he'll be fine by the way), my insomnia, and the creative mind of the Etsy seller, I will soon begin to scribe Wunder Budder formulas, in secret code, inside of an old orange hardcover book.

Left Hand, Right Hand!  I couldn't ask for a better name.

Today was a good day.