Book Lanterns

I go to visit my pregnant sister and her husband and we stop by his office. After we raid the samples closet for Aveno and Aquafor, we notice a weird looking book on the counter.

"What is that?" we ask.



It is a three-quarters of the way completed lantern, folded from a book. An elderly patient of my brother-in-law's apparently passes the time waiting for her doctor appointments by making them.

I, being more crafty than is good for me, unfold a couple of pages to see how it's done.

"Take it," brother-in-law says. "She said you could have it when I said my wife is crafty and would like it."

So I complete it. My sister doesn't want it, so I take it home, glue a ribbon into the binding, and now it hangs in my room.

But now I'm obsessed. I thought to myself, "I wonder how a little book would work?" and so I plucked a little book that someone gave me once upon a time off my shelf where it's been sitting since 10 minutes after whoever gave it to me. I begin to fold. It's color. It looks cool.

So I go to the dollar store and find mini books in abundance for only $.69. And now I have the most original Christmas ornaments ever made to give away to folks this holiday season.



Being crafty has its rewards. (Oh, and it also gets you some pretty weird looks on the T when you spend your commute folding little books into lanterns!)