“The healing comes in the making.” – Emily McDowell

My Interpretation: I do not need a spa day. I need a knife, thread, & paper. Because every time I stitch something together, I remember that I still can. That I still do. That I am not broken – I am rebuilding.

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Hardcover Heart: Thread by Thread

There is this idea out there that self-care means bath bombs & skincare routines.
Face masks. Journaling. The occasional pedicure.
Sure. That is part of it. But that should be baseline Girlhood.
Not the whole picture.

But for me?
I feel as if we should be allowed to have more than just self-hygiene.
If men get to have golf & beer?
Then this gets to be mine.
It looks a lot more like an X-Acto knife, a corner rounder, & a lot of time in Design Space & Canva.
It is the scent of glue & the weight of something I made with my own damn hands.

Bookbinding became a ritual before I even realized it was one.

I am about to start my first-ever rebind – taking a paperback & giving it the kind of glow-up that looks like it came from some fancy collector’s drop.
We are talking Goodwill paperbacks turned boujie gems –
like “wait, that is handmade?” kind of energy.

Why?
Because this fall, I am meeting Abby Jimenez –
& you better believe she is signing a book that I rebuilt myself.
Not just some mass-produced, slapped-together copy –
a book that I learned to rebind from scratch.
A book that holds stitches, effort, & proof that
I can do hard things with beautiful outcomes.

This is not just about making something pretty.
It is about reclaiming control.
About healing through creation.
About telling the story:
I made this.
With my own hands.
& it fucking held.

At first, I just wanted to save money.
Custom editions cost hundreds of dollars – & I thought
I could do that myself.
& I could.
So, I purchased all of the supplies, made the one-two List, started on the Canva Design & you get the first details about how this journey/ “life crisis” as I call them goes.

Because when everything else felt like it was falling apart –
this was something I could hold together.
Thread by thread.

There is something sacred about taking a paperback – bent, broken, maybe a little water-damaged –
& giving it new life.
Hard cover. Cloth wrap. Foil accents.
Like saying, You were always worth saving.
You were always worth more than what they put you through.

& yeah, it is cheaper.
$500 for a collector’s edition? I will spend $30 & make one better.
Because I know the spine will hold.
Because I made it hold.

Bookbinding is my new self-care.
It is the therapy no one talks about.
It is the kind of healing that leaves your hands sore but your soul quieter.

I do not wear makeup.
I do not do high-maintenance beauty.
But I will spend six hours in a storm of linen & thread
if it means I remember I can create something strong –
even when I feel weak as hell.

Xoxo ♡