I have a travel journal!

The amazing Sharon Thompson of Beauty Bound Books sent me a super cute little travel journal, and I just want to give her a little mention because I loooove it!

'I love books - reading them, writing in them, thumbing the page edges... The first book I ever made was a raggedly sewn pamphlete titled "My Happy Book" in which I wrote all the things that made my 7-year-old self happy.
'Four years ago I established Beauty Bound Books, offering  handbound journals and photo albums, specialising in tartan and tweed covered books. We make a wide range of books, from our poplular leather satchel journals to traditional baby, wedding & family albums with prices starting from just £10. We love using British products like Harris Tweed and family tartans, as well as leather, marble paper, satin, silk and linen bookcloth. In addition to the designs we have listed for sale, we are are always happy to take bespoke orders and work closely with customers to make the book they want but haven't been able to find.
'Beauty Bound Books is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and thanks to our modern-day website www.beautyboundbooks.com and other sites such as Etsy and Folksy, we're able to keep the ancient tradition of bookbinding alive for customers all over the world from New York to Dubai to 'Down Under'. We've got it covered!'

Vintage-style travel journal, hand-bound using traditional bookbinding techniques
"The backpacking girl silhouette is a unique BBB design"

Hot-tooled leather panel, stamped with every want-to-be-travel-journalist's favourite word duo - "TRAVEL JOURNAL"

CD pocket, with a cute "vintage map" covering-layer

Satchel-style leather strap ft. my 'business card holder'


"After your book was covered and bound it was pressed overnight in an antique cast iron nipping press. And the next morning a book was born!"

The design of this journal is gorgeous - I love the cutout girl figure carrying a backpack with her hair flowing behind her, placed up on a part of Asian mappery. As I want to travel the world (you'd never guess by this journal, would you?), this is perfect for me, and the design is just *does the French hand-kissing thing* mwah!

One of the things that I adore about this journal is the fact that it has a CD holder and letter/ paper holder envelopey thing on the inside covers - perfect for carrying notes and receipts and business cards! When I went to Turkey a few weeks ago, I was picking up business cards for cute little restaurants 24/7, and this has the perfect spaces in it to hold them which is awesome! The CD holder is perfect for, well, CDs, but I'd use it to keep the backups of my camera photos safe and scratch-free.

Another thing that I love about this journal is the ribbon that sticks around from the inside binding of the book, as it's a great bookmark and you can't lose your page, even if you tip the book upside down (tried and tested, mostly on purpose)! 5 stars for conveniency, Sharon!

The binding of the book, along with it's overall appearance, is awe-inspiring - it has such a professional finish that you would expect it to be made from a machine, not the loving hands of a book crafter. Fabulous quality. Love it.

If any of you guys want to get your own hands on one of these awesome journals, you're quite smart and obviously have good taste in writing material, and you should jump right over to Sharon's store riiiight now. 
*Whispers* but comment on this faboo blog first ;)

~ This was not a sponsored post, but instead a few words of appreciation for Sharon, who sent me one of her AH-mazing journals. I'm not getting paid to feature Beauty Bound Books on The Blog Hermit, but was instead sent one of her gorgeous books :3 ~

guess who's in hospital

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a few centuries, but I've been admitted to hospital. Long story short, my stomach is trying to kill itself.

As I can't really put in the usual effort that I would with this post, I'm just going to leave you with an extract from my diary and a few photos. Sorry guys - I do love you, honestly.

"Had put numbing cream on at 7am, but when it was 8am and the anaesthetist was ready to open my veins to stick a tube in them, I could still feel everything. However, I felt pretty brave as he stabbed the needle into the back of my wrist and I bit back the pain. Apparently though, it was my fault that it had failed. So, he picked up another needle and stabbed it in my right hand. By this time I was feeling pretty lightheaded, especially as he was making comments like "oh wow look at all that blood", and then "oops, your vein just collapsed", before grabbing a plaster and applying a helluva lot of force to my sensitive, newly incredibly bruised hand. He picked up yet another needle, and tried it in my arm. I was feeling super sick and shaky and horrible and at that point, and the pain was brutal. "It isn't meant to hurt that much", he said, as he released the death machine from my arm. 
As he chose a vein on the SAME HAND, *winces*, he pushed the needle into my flesh, puncturing my blood carrier. At first it didn't hurt. But, then, he forced the needle in deeper and I had to hold my breath as my vein cried out in agony. Then, he said those three magic words - "it's all done". Of course it wasn't, as he still had to insert the plastic tube and attach a cannula, but hey, it's the thought that counts. They bandaged my hand up, complete with artificial vein, and needless to say, I'm even more afraid of needles than I was before."

In case you hadn't guessed - I'm petrified of needles.

La view from my hospital bed.

The sort of lunch that I'm eating for now, until I'm put on a liquid diet and a pipe is put up my nose. Ugh.

Karim Abridged replied to me on Instagram. Just saying just saying just saying!! Omg.

After the anaesthetic had been left on for four hours too long.. wasn't numb enough to not feel my hairs being ripped out of their beds.

Bandaged hand, covered in tiny pin pricks.

Riding on a wheelchair. Felt important.

My cannula.... hate it with a passion.

For awesome Snapchats like this, add itsamymush.

Yesterday alone was awful - I had an MRI scan, got drugged via my veins, and had five needles stabbed into my flesh. Feel sorry for me guys.

- Amy

*Sorry for the complaints!