Life of Lydia

Dear readers, I have a question for you. How do you mark your pages in books? There is a great deal of variety in how people accomplish this task. My father uses a Walmart receipt or anything else that is handy. My mother often leaves her book open or places her phone or even another book in between the pages. Many individuals, including myself chose to take a more conventional route and use a bookmark. Most bookmarks are mass produced in a factory in China and identical bookmarks may be owned by thousands of individuals. They may serve the purpose of marking a page, but they have no character or personality. I prefer to have bookmarks that are made especially for me.

Last fall when I read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, there was one quote that stood out to me above all the rest. It can be found near the end of the book when Edward Ferrars comes to visit the Dashwood women to share some important news, which makes him very nervous.

“He rose from his seat, and walked to the window, apparently from not knowing what to do; took up a pair of scissors that lay there; and, while spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke, said in a hurried voice,-“

There are not enough words in the English language to describe my deep love and adoration of the above quote. It is everything that could possibly be desired out of a quote. Think about it! Is it not amazing that a collection of letters on a piece of paper could be capable of bringing one such joy, bliss and delight, and make one’s life a thousand times more worth living!

Last December I schemed up a Christmas gift for myself that I knew I would love.

This was the gift of all gifts! Thank you, self! The front side of the bookmark features a paper cut-out illustration of Edward’s actions and the quote is reprinted on the back. You can imagine my delight when I pulled this charming item out of my christmas stocking.

I have enjoyed using my scissor-sheath bookmark so much, that I decided I wanted more custom bookmarks. This week I had a bit of extra time on my hands so I decided to satisfy the above stated wish.

The first two bookmarks that I made were both based on the same quote from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.“

This quote comes directly from the thoughts of Edmund Bertram, as he observed Mr. Rushworth. Edmund’s sister Maria had recently gotten engaged to Mr. Rushworth, who owned a large estate and had twelve thousand pounds per year. Sadly, his excessive wealth was not matched with excessive intellect.

I came up with two bookmark designs based on this quote. I couldn’t decide which one to make so I decided to do both.

The first bookmark depicts Mr. Rushworth’s annual income. He has already taken a few coins out of the bag to show Maria a small sampling of what she could someday share in.

The back of the bookmark.

The second bookmark takes a more abstract approach. It does not expressly depict Mr. Rushworth’s income, but it certainly gives the feeling of a large quantity of pounds.

The back of this bookmark contains the same quote.

I believe that Mr. Rushworth is an underdiscussed character. Many people may think he is unintelligent, but according to Edmunds logic (and Edmund always has perfectly sound logic) he gets a free pass from being stupid because he is rich! A great deal of people like to talk about how rich Mr. Darcy from Pride and Predudice is, but no one seems to have much to say about Mr. Rushworth! Like really guys, Mr. Rushworth has two thousand pounds more each year than Mr. Darcy does!

My third spring-break bookmark was inspired by Henry V by William Shakespeare.

In one of the first scenes in the play, a French ambassador comes to visit King Henry. The ambassador brings a box containing a “gift” from the dauphin of France. King Henry asks his uncle Exeter what the gift is. After opening the box, Exeter proclaims “Tennis balls, my liege.” This is the dauphin’s way of telling King Henry that he thinks he is immature and childlike. King Henry is super upset and gives a long speech about how mad he is and how he plans to go to war with France and win.

This bookmark shows three of the tennis balls that King Henry received. Totally worth going to war over.

The back.

All of the paper cut-outs used in the bookmarks were created using my Cricuit machine.

I created each design on the I-pad using images from Google.

Each bookmark was laminated using our family’s laminator.

I hope your all enjoyed reading about my crafing adventures!