Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Best of British Mother's Day Gifts. 25 ideas for gifts made in The UK

The Make It British website champions manufacturing in the United Kingdom and they included our stencil classes in their Best of British guide to Mother's Day Gifts made in the United Kingdom.

They wrote

'Treat her to an experience you can enjoy together with a stencilling class from The Stencil Library. After a guided tour around The Stencilled Home, enjoy tea, cake and a stencilling session. Decorate and take home a cushion cover to remember the experience forever.'

They were recommending one of the classes and tours that we host at The Stencil Library. We have a few scheduled throughout the year and the next one is in May. However, private Tea and Stipples can be booked for up to four people at other times. 

So, thank you Make It British for our mention. My Mum and I enjoy excursions where we see and do things...especially when they involve tea and cake.

The following information is from the Tours and Classes section of our website. Contact and booking information is there too.

TEA AND STIPPLE

Tea, Tour, Make and Take (2pm to 6pm) - £47.00

Friday 19th May 2023

After a guided tour around The Stencilled Home, enjoy tea, cake and a stencilling session. Participants decorate and take home a cushion cover. Ideal for a treat to yourself or with friends. Allow 4 hours.

Private Tea and Stipple classes can be arranged on mutually acceptable dates. Price per group (up to four people) £170.00

Helen.

 

 

New Jaipur Panel stencil as seen in Homes & Gardens September 2019 issue

Stylist, designer and general interiors supremo Katrin Cargill has created some beautiful projects with our stencils over the years so it was lovely to design a stencil for her 'Indian Summer' featured in the September issue of Homes & Gardens magazine. So, let me introduce our new Jaipur Panel stencil.

The stencil is offered at 15.3/4 inches high (28cms) but like any of our other stencils can be scaled to fit your decorative scheme. Just email or phone us with the size that you need. The Jaipur Panel is a perfect fit for many cupboard and cabinet fronts. We have quite a few Indian style stencils in our India and China collection and there is a crossover in style with some of our Ottoman range too.

I sent ideas back and forth to Katrin and we decided to re-draw the OTT47 Panel no 1 from our Ottoman stencil collection and frame it with a simple coach-line border. The result can be ordered on this link or at stencil-library.co.uk. The UK site is much smaller than our usual one and houses the special designs that don't fit with the normal collection. Jaipur Panel is one of those. The UK site ships worldwide.

I used Cerulean Blue and Cobalt paint on the samples that I sent to Katrin and she stencilled hers with Arsenic by Farrow & Ball. 

The September issue should be on the shelves any day now...mine was a subscription copy.

Helen

It's a wrap. Stylish, stencilled gift wrap.

Personalise your holiday cards and gift wrap with stencils. The stylist, Catherine Woram stencilled this lovely gift wrapping with our HO6 Assorted Bauble Pack. There are three diferent baubles and a ribbon stencil so you can add variety to your custom gift wrap.  The red and green paint can be found in the acrylic paint section at The Stencil Library and there is a good selection of holiday themed stencils there too. Did you notice the pretty gift tag that she made from the bauble stencil?

Helen. 

 

 

 

Stencil a stylish, snowflake stocking.

Stencilling Christmas stockings and gift bags are easy creative projects for a wet winters day. Stylist and author Catherine Woram stencilled this fabric holiday stocking with the SS83-Snowflake stencil by The Stencil Library. It can be found in both the Budget selection and the Holiday section of The Stencil Library's online shop. Catherine is the author of many craft books and a recent post on DesignInspiration showed how she used the same stencil onto table mats.

Acrylic paint adheres very well to fabric and in most cases is machine washable. Follow the instructions for laundering on the product label. Liquitex acrylic and Lumiere metallic paints are two of the ones that I use a lot and throughout this blog, you will find many examples of my stencilling on fabric projects. There is a video clip on YouTube where I show how to stencil fabric. Both ranges of paints are stocked by The Stencil Library.

Helen. 

Photo credit. Catherine Woram.

 

 

 

 

A festive table setting with snow flake stencils.

Stencils of snowflakes can add an instant, minimal, festive charm to a winter-themed table setting. Stylist and author Catherine Woram used our SS83-Snowflake stencil to decorate MDF table mats. Look at charity shops and car boot fairs for dinner mats that you can recycle. After a thorough clean of the mats apply a paint that offers a good adherence to shiny surfaces.  Protect your handiwork with acrylic varnish if you want to keep them pristine. Alternatively, leave them unprotected and redecorate every time you want a new theme for your table decor. I recently made table runners and mats from a frayproof fabric that is used to make roller blinds. I bought my fabric from Surplus Stock at Prudhoe.

Similar table glasses can be ordered from RE-found Objects. Also, look at Nkuku, Rockett St George and Plumo for silver mercury glass. 

Catherine re-used the SS83-Snowflake stencil to decorate Christmas stockings. I will show you those in a day or two. This same snowflake stencil would be a good size for gift bags too....or window panes!

Photo Catherine Woram.

Helen.

 

 

 

 

 

Stencil It. Monogram gift box.

The season for gifts and gift wrap is upon us. This stencilled gift box combines both. Stylist, Catherine Woram used our ER40 stencil and white acrylic paint to stencil a gift box that any recipient would want to keep. The laurel garland stencil is code number ER40 from the Empire Style range by The Stencil Library. The garland stencil can be combined with any letter and can be ordered from our website. An alphabet stencil in a custom size might be a handy addition to your stencil collection, you will then have an arsenal of characters to use when needed. Also...The ER40 garland stencil is a perfect size to decorate cushion covers with!

Another suggestion for stencilling gifts and wrap is SS37 an Art Nouveau style monogram stencil seen here on a plywood box. I stencilled it with metallic gold paint. You can order the letter you want with the stencilled frame, again an alphabet would be handy so that you can use the same stencil for several gifts, along with other projects.  

Helen.

 

The Blue and White Dining Room at Stocksfield Hall, The Stencilled Home

The stencilled decoration in our dining room was inspired by eighteenth-century blue and white china, this part of the house dated from the 1700's so we tried to recreate the feel of Georgian simplicity but with a twist. A deliberately plain, glass topped table revealed the patterned floor below.  Stencils of plates, pots and teacups graced the walls in linear rows.

This is where my students ate lunch on our stencil courses and all family dinners were held.  It looked simple and homely by day and with the help of dimmer switches and dozens of candle lanterns, it was glamorous by night. I am writing in the past tense because this room no longer exists but I have snap shots and the stencils are still available. Some of the following text was adapted from my book The Stencilled Home.

Stencils with overlays were used in this room which give an appearance of hand painting.

Using multi-layers or overlays on stencils is similar to printing; you use a different stencil for each colour that you apply. The images become more elaborate as each layer of stencilled shapes are applied. A great deal of stencilled pattern in historic buildings is built up in this way. It is common to see this technique used on the walls and ceilings of churches.

The stencilled images of plates, cups, teapots and coffee pots have between two and five layers and are arranged formally on the walls within panels defined by a narrow band of mushroom-coloured paint. The stripe was made by positioning masking tape and painting along measured lines. A stencilled pattern was overlaid onto the stripe and it featured a simple oriental style border in copper paint. There are twelve different blue and white images and each is separated from its neighbour by a little honeysuckle motif, also used in the decoration of kitchen next door. A trellis and leaf effect border sits at the top of the walls on a dark blue background; the blue provides a perfect complement to the metallic copper and aqua paint. The designs were mainly based on eighteenth-century English porcelain patterns.

The sanded wooden floor was painted in the same dark-blue emulsion paint which is also found on the kitchen work tops in the room adjoining it. A square stencilled ‘carpet’ formed a centrepiece, flanked on all sides by the trellis which again was stencilled with copper and aqua then bordered each side by a narrow stripe of putty-coloured paint. A dinner plate design bearing pheasants and peonies appears in each corner.  A huge circle made up of four quadrants of ribboned flowers was applied around the centre of the floor and frames a larger pheasant plate 125cm (50in) in diameter. Everything was stencilled with large stencil brushes using emulsion and acrylic paint. We added generous amounts of a copper colour to give warmth.

The room is not overly cold or overlooked so curtains were never considered. A large fireplace with an oversized mantle dominates one wall – its tiles which were once brown have been given a facelift with tile primer, blue paint and then satin varnish.

I am hoping to redecorate this room again soon, at present it is stencilled in the arts and crafts style; the lights blew just before we hosted one of our tours around the house,  the ceiling may need surgery then repairing. However it is a perfect shape and height for decoration so a stencilled ceiling may feature in the next decorative phase of this room.

It just occured to me as I finish this post that all the pictures that show someone working feature my husband, all pictures that show someone loafing feature me...funny that. Photos from The Stencilled Home and OK Magazine(blue shirt) are by Colin Poole, photo from Ideal Home (green dress) is by Marianne Majerus

 

 

Amber Hampton's stencilled wall

A reader in the USA sent me a link to a feature that showed our MD35 Chrysanthemum stencil on the walls of Amber Hampton's Chicago home. He wanted to order the same stencil and I am not surprised; it looked fabulous on her walls and fits perfectly with the accessories and colours that furnish her loft.

Amber's photos of her house tour are lovely as you can see and I urge you to visit the post on DesignSponge. There are many more pictures, ideas and a nice story.  I have the same MD35 design in my own home. The stencil is available in four sizes both Amber and I used the large version MD35-L

the same design looks quite different in both the homes proving once again the versatility of the stencil tool. Top two photos by Amber Hampton and the third one is mine.

Helen Morris.

Vintage Lace stencil no 2

Vintage Lace stencil VN124 repeats in all directions to cover walls, floors, furniture and fabric. I used it to stencil this wall

and the October issue of Country Living magazine have shown it stencilled onto boxes.

They appear to have cut our lace stencil in half, but I can not see why. Maybe they had used it on an earlier project.

In my photograph I have stencilled black paint onto a light pink wall and Country Living have done theirs the opposite way, both work equally well.

Stencilled stair risers

We had a lovely mention Homes & Antiques magazine this month, they showed our staircase stencilled with BU2 small butterfly stencil and my husband's stencilled painting of The Girl With The Pearl Earring.

On another page they featured our stencil classes.

There are lots of exciting goodies to look at including a feature called Master Strokes; creative ways with paint which I am looking forward to reading. Thank you H&A.

Helen

Willow as contemporary, oriental style decoration.

This gorgeous wallpaper from De Gournay was shown at Decorex 2013, I sat on the green pouffe and ate my sandwiches under its handpainted branch of willow. Those wth less space or cash to enjoy such a feature in their home may like to stencil their own leafy arbour. The JA73 Willow  from The Stencil Library comprises several fronds that work together. Here are a few examples showing how it can look:

Combining the willow stencil with swallows and carp made a simple mural.

Minimal and simple stencil decor featured in Inside Out Magazine, Australia

and in Crown Paint Magazine, UK.

Copper and Teal combo, also by courtesy of Crown Paint UK.

and finally a privacy screen stencilled with black in a bedroom in my home.

Fancy branching into a new decorative project?

Here is how it works...

Apply a light mist of spray repositioning adhesive to the back of the JA73 willow stencil stencil or tape it into position. The stencil has many clumps of foliage that fit together to make varying lengths of willow.

I used a stencil brush and water based paint. Work off excess paint onto paper towel so that the paint is barely moist before applying it through the stencil.  

I liked this sparse arrangement and could have left the wall as it was..... but I added other colours and layers.

Another layer of willow is stencilled with a metallic, bronze, paint.   JA129 Carp nestles above the skirting board and the stencilled birds appear to fly through the foliage.

Finally I added a layer of green foliage on top of the other colours.  Some of the green leaves are embellished with a handpainted white stripe. This willow design can look beautiful when stencilled onto fabric. 

Helen.

 

Interiors, inspiration and three stencils to giveaway.

The March edition of World of Interiors features the late Jocasta Innes' home in Spitalfields and I was asked to stencil some borders in 'Jocasta-esque' colours for the Inspiration page of the magazine.

The editors selected DE1 Border No. 1 and now that the stencil has done its small but important task, I shall give it away. The recipient must pay the postage charges at cost (see below) so to make the parcel more exciting I am adding AR53 Railing No. 1  

 and AR51 Pierced Wall, both in the medium sizes from our Architectural stencil range . 

They too were stencilled for the magazine so have a little paint on them but all are in very good condition. 

The central section of the AR51 stencil is useful without the outer borders if a lighter style is preferred.

The brushes are in the photos to show scale and illustrate how many brushes and colours I used to achieve the effect shown in the magazine.

These are three fairly wide border stencils and could look fabulous top, bottom or mid wall. If stencilled onto fabric they could make a wonderful decorative accent at the base or edges of curtains.  Decorating bolster pillows or roller blinds would be another good use for the stencils. Follow the links to see the size of the stencils in metric and imperial measurements.

The DE1 border works well as a vertical stripe too. All these designs could look great stencilled onto floor boards. I was toying with the idea of using the DE1 onto a table top but that was before I decided to offer them to one of our readers. The combined retail price of these stencils if new would be 116.35 GBP ($190) so if you have projects for them they are a bargain. 

Post and pack charges to send the three stencils are as follows; UK 5.00 GBP,  EU countries 7.00 GBP, rest of world 10.00 GBP. Postage free if collecting from our premises. Right, how to request the stencils. We will take a name at random when we arrive the office on February 13th. Send a message through this blog post, our Facebook page or Twitter and put 'Jocasta Giveaway" in the message. 

The World Of Interiors will be in the shops any day now, it is a lovely issue and shows decorative paintwork in Istanbul as well as Spitalfields and Stocksfield.

Helen

Leopard print stairs

 

Here's one from the archives, a staircase stencilled with our leopard repeat stencil.

Purrrfect!

Helen

The Art of Decorating with Country Living, paint and stencils

Every month we look forward to our copy of Country Living magazine and were thrilled to see that the current issue features two of our stencils on its cover. They are MD33 and MD35 both can be found in the Modern Design collection at The Stencil Library.

The photo by is one of a selection from the feature titled 'The art of decorating' and was styled by home design editor Ben Kendrick with assistance from Rowan Fuggle and photography by Nassima Rothacker. All the paints in the feature are from Farrow and Ball.  Both of the stencils on the cover photo are made of dots which make them very hardwearing. The team at Country Living chose contrasting stencil patterns in complimentary shades of grey. The effect is altogether different when primary or neon colors are chosen.  More of our stencils appear in the pages of the magazine and so does a rather lovely ombre shaded wall along with scrumptious homes, gardens, recipes and lots of country related enjoyment. Country Living is for sale on UK new stands now and is available in many countries.

Helen. 

 

Cool coral decor at Coast Magazine

Ooh, I like the coral stencil.

Stylist Emma Clayton and photographer Joanna Henderson created nautical style rooms for the October issue of Coast magazine.

All of the pictures were lovely. Obviously  my favorite must be this one featuring our VN144 stencil of coral.  I like the dip dyed bench from Ercol, the sea washed floor boards and the other bits too.

The text reads 'Add a decorative touch to walls with an intricate coral stencil- a cool grey hue gives a modern touch'  which it does.

Blue and white, coral reds, bronze and taupe are all valid alternatives that would give a different feel to this setting. Do you have a favourite coastal colour combination?

Helen

 

Homemade With Love features gingham stencil

The October/November issue of Homemade with Love Magazine features our VN108 Vintage Gingham stencil and a host of interesting things to make.

Helen.

Ideas for living from Germany's Wohn Idee magazine

When a random issue of a home and lifestyle magazine arrives it is usually because The Stencil Library has been featured and the magazine have been kind enough to send us a copy.

Wohn Idee arrived from Germany, neither Racher nor I knew what was going to be in it and so we leafed through the pages.

Was it one of our dot stencils on the picture frames? It may have been our MD33 Printers Dots or perhaps the polka dot stencil in our budget collection? It could have been either of them...but wasn't.

Were they our stencil designs on the inspiration board?

No, but they are similar to some of our repeat patterns. I liked the monochrome collage idea and have stored it to memory.

Were our silhouette stencils part of this display?

No.  However I have been wanting to do something like this for ages. We have both stencils of silhouettes and stencils of frames.  Our Blenheim frames from the Print Room collection would be just the thing.

There were many projects featuring styles of lettering. Did they use typography stencils from our 'In Your Own Words' collection. No.

Did they stencil numbers on the cushions?

No, they are embroidered and the chequerboard floor is not stencilled either.

Did this floor feature a mixture of our modern design stencils?

No, it's definitely a rug but I am tempted to stencil a floor with a mosaic of left over stencils.

I had not yet found any evidence of our stencils in Wohn Idee but was gaining so much inspiration for using them in future projects.

There were so many more tempting and creative ideas but it is not fair to show any more, you'll have to get a copy of the magazine.

Finally, was it our stencil of Hokusai's The Great Wave decorating this wall?

Yes! I would love to know who to thank for featuring our wave border. I can find no credits for photographer and stylist. I like the combination of brown, blue and grey and the way that the wave blends into the colour of the wall.

If my language skills were better who knows what else I may have learned from this issue of Wohn Idee the magazine is stuffed with tips, news and accessible ideas for home decoration. 

Danke, Helen.

 

 

A big damask stencil on the floor

Our new, large, damask stencil appears in the September issue of Homes & Gardens magazine.

The damask pattern was stencilled with white paint onto pale floorboards so is very difficult to see in the photographs but I imagine that it looked stunning. Here is an illustration of the stencil from the Gothic section of our web site.

In addition to the stencilled floorboards we have repeating designs in both the Vintage and the Modern collection that give a similar graphic pattern to the rug featured in the same picture.

Stylist Claudia Bryant used Cornforth White floorpaint from Farrow and Ball to decorate the floor. The same damask stencil will give dramatic impact when stencilled onto walls even if a similar, white on white scheme is used.

Graded stipple colour can give a stronger, yet soft and muted effect . A strong contrast such as slate grey or indigo and white would look striking with a large pattern such as this.

I would like to see it stencilled in bright or neon colours...but then I am like that. 

Helen.

Stencilling...the big idea

 

'Supersize Me' shouted the headline from Easy Living Magazine when stylist Sophie Martell featured our GMT53 damask stencil in this photo by Mel Yates. The pattern is not usually as large as that but Sophie ordered a custom size. We thought the result was fab.

JA138 Cherry Blossom stencil was enlarged to create an unusual feature in this picture from Homes and Gardens magazine. See how it wraps around the wall and spills onto the bed head.

A similar concept has been employed with an oversized bird and blossom stencil. It is JA116 from our Japanese Style collection.

I stencilled this wall with iridescent paint which changes with the light.

Helen, 

Homemade with love, a new magazine

Homemade with love is a new, craft and style magazine.

It is full of tutorials and creative ideas and is on sale now at WHSmith and by subscription. They have a website, blog and all the usual channels. The April issue features a story about stencilling and includes some of our photographs and a nice mention for our Stencil It book.

I wrote a project for them in which I demonstrate how to create a vintage style kitchen with stencils.

They offer a 'how to' that shows how to make felt flowers.

I fancy trying huge ones as wall decor. I might combine them with one of our stencils of branches similar to this....

...only bigger. The picture shows our DR2 Cherry Blossom stencil, paper flowers were fixed over the stencilled branches. The picture is the cover from In Bloom by Alice Whately. 

Helen.

Contemporary gothic decoration.

A stencilled gothic pattern is given a contemporary twist by using stencil GMT53 with an unexpected colour combination instead of a traditional one.

A custom sized version of the same gothic stencil was used here by Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Raskl Furniture, Deco Home and a girl with a pearl earring

An email from the fab designers at Raskl reached me yesterday. It carried an attachment from Deco Home magazine in Germany asking where to buy the modern Girl with Pearl Earring painting in the photo. The press cutting and enquiry was a nice surprise, my husband Chips painted the picture though the page has nothing to do with him.  The text in February's Deco Home featured the aforementioned fab, Newcastle based Raskl Design. The picture shows their Agranda Bench which is telescopic...

Isn't that handsome?

The Raskl photo shoot was at the beautiful home of one of the North East's brightest artists. I am surprised that this home has not appeared in more shoots it is very lovely. The owner used to be an editor at Conde Nast, she is extremely stylish and creative and just happened to have bought one of my husband's dot paintings. You may remember me blogging about his progress and the sale of this piece when I visited the house to hang it.  So in a roundabout, abstract way. Chips has had a piece of international press exposure this month.

He is working on a collection of smaller paintings at the moment for Chippendale and Morris and I'll look forward to showing you, when he lets me. Now that Deco Home Magazine has details of the painting you never know he might make another sale.

www.facebook.com/decomagazin and www.decohome.de

Helen.

 

Opulence paint and a peacock feather stencil

Quick to create and pretty to look at.

Peacock feather stencilled with Pink Organza and Blue Lustre Pearl Shimmer over Midnight Blue Matt Emulsion from the Craig & Rose Opulence paint collection. Stencil CO19-L from The Stencil Library.

five, fabulous stencilled baths

 

 

Stencil DE67 from Arts & Crafts Collection at The Stencil Library. Via Housetohome

Stencil GR38 from Garden Room Collection at The Stencil Library via Housetohome

Stencil JA25 Carp no 2 from Japanese Collection at The Stencil Library via Housetohome

Stencil CS58R 8 point star From The Stencil Library. Furniture stencil BB1 Gothic. Floor stencil BB1 Gothic Border stencil at 200%.(special order) All from the Budget Collection at The Stencil Library.

Paisley stencils on fabric IN47 from the Indian Collection at The Stencil Library.

 

photo Period Living & Traditional Homes.

Last photo has two bonus baths! The pewter finish is by Annie Sloan. Maggie Colvin models her turquoise bath featuring monogram stencil and garland from The Stencil Library.  'Take the time to smell the roses' is one of the proverbs offered in the Lettering Collection from The Stencil Library.  The rose stencil is code CA14 stenciled with Liquitex acrylic paint. All these stencilled tubs are roll top baths. A boxed in bath with a paintable panel is even easier to decorate.

PS.  The bath with the roses kept toppling because the feet were not yet attached to it. The photographer's assistant was placed in the bath to weigh it down... I'm sitting on him.  The things that we do to get a good photo.

Helen. 

 

Adventures of an Elvis skirt

 

Before I went to Memphis. I told you that my husband had designed an Elvis stencil and suggested that we decorate a rock n roll skirt with it.

He wanted me to wear it when I read my speech at the IDAL convention because he thought it may make the audience laugh. He said if my speech was dull at least the outfit would not be.  The skirt was very full, actually, it was a complete circle cut from a king size bed sheet.  The local sewing club lent me advice and a sewing machine.

Chips and I took a Saturday afternoon between us to apply several stencilled Elvis heads each with six overlays.

We put the date and location of the convention around the base of the skirt and stencilled 'Helen has left the building' on the back of it.
 I had been joking with a journalist and photographer about Chip's idea."If you do make this skirt" the photographer said, "I'd like a picture for the paper".  Two newspapers featured it.

Tony Iley took pictures for The Hexham Courant and the business section of The Journal used Chip's photographs. After the speech, I wore the skirt for a television interview that I did along with fellow IDAL artists Susan Mathers and Cathy Napple.  We were there to publicise our decorative arts expo in Memphis. IDAL stands for International Decorative Artisans League. IDAL bought the clip and put it on youtube. Watch us here. The skirt did make people laugh and there were many pictures taken of it.....and it moved better than I did on the dance floor.

I think I may well be remembered as " Helen Morris??  Wasn't she the one with the orange hair and the big pink Elvis skirt".

'dancing' pics by Paige Lampson.

Helen

Martha does stencilling!

(cover photo Hugh Stewart)

We were so excited when we received the post this morning and in it was the September 2008 issue of the fabulous Martha Stewart Living magazine.  This month, they have produced a very large feature on stencilling.  According to the editor, Ms Stewart was so excited about the stencilling story that she wanted to appear on the cover along with the first stencilled logo.  She has always known a good thing when she sees it.  We are lucky enough to have a couple of our stencils featured.

This is our lace repeat pattern used effectively on a screen.  The lace repeat works in reverse.  You paint the surface the colour you want the lace to be and stencil the background colour back in.  Here is a closeup shot of it.

MSL also used our Designer Floral Display set of stencils.  There are three sheets of stencils which can be used seperately or together to create a floral arrangement in any configuration.  These stencils have been used to create an informal floral garland on a round table top.

(other photos Mikkel Vang)

The feature is full of great ways to use stencils and covers the multitude of surfaces that stencils can go onto.  I particularly like the dot pattern stencilled on top of wallpaper (being a massive fan of layering pattern on pattern myself), shown in the photo below the floral stencilled tabletop. For more information on the stencil feature, click here.

I always find MSL full of fantastic ideas.  The magazine is a joy to read.  They also have an excellent web-site and are fellow Typepad bloggers.  I recommend that you sign up for the newsletter on the web-site.  Martha Stewart Living magazine is sold worldwide (I am delighted that I can even pick up a copy in Stocksfield village's local newsagent!).  Look out for it hitting your shelves, buy a copy and indulge.  Rachel.