Mini Vacation!

Spring break is drawing to a close and I don't feel like I've had much of a vacation as I've been working for almost all of it. My husband and I are going up to Portland this morning do spend today and tomorrow having a mini vacation before we start school again.
We have lots of shopping on the agenda, which includes a trip to Ikea! I'm hoping to find some fun fabric to make books with. The last time I was there I picked up the spirograph fabric.
There are also some good paper stores in Portland that I hope to get the chance to stop into. They carry my favorite end papers in colors that I can't get locally.
There are also several very tasty restaurants we like to frequent so I'm excited about eating lots of great food too.
We have a hotel that is on the Max line so hopefully we can leave the car parked most of the time we are there.
Ah vacation!

Back in business!

I have to start this post with a very large hats off and thank you to the Apple support teams! I have my baby back! I'm very impressed with their service and turn around time. I called in late Monday afternoon to the service center, by 10 am the next morning I had my return box and packed her up and dropped it off in time for afternoon pick up. Apple got my laptop early the next morning, had fixed it and sent back to me by the end of day yesterday. This morning my laptop was back in my hands by 10 am again. Serious kudos!

While my laptop was being fixed I decided to try my hand at fabric button hair accessories. Spring term starts Monday and my new schedule is a polar opposite of what I had before. I'll be going to the gym in the mornings before school and realized that I won't have access to a hair dryer at the gym. My bangs will be all over all the time without a hair dryer so I decided I needed to invest in some cute hair accessories to tame them. I really love the end product and might have found a new crafting hobby. I don't think I'll be selling them, but don't hold me to it. The batch above is made from some fabric scraps I had from making books. I love this fabric and really love the clipies! I think I'll be trying some of my Kimono fabrics next....

Incommunicado

I'm getting ready to pack my laptop into a box and send it out for service. She's got a small crack in her case that keeps getting worse and I can't let it go any longer. Hopefully she won't be gone for more than a week but I've got no promises from Apple.

I had a great day yesterday, made a lovely new book that I think is perfect for spring. It's another Celtic Weave featuring a Fabriano sketch weight paper. I love the inside paper almost as much as the outside! I also love the striking difference between the black and white thread in the weave pattern.

Yesterday also brought me my book from the second BEST swap! The books are slowly being revealed on the team blog, so hop on over there and take a look at all the great books! My swap book was the first shown so you'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.

The book I received I absolutely love! It is a long stitch with a really funky old laxative cover, the inside end sheets are from an old science magazine and are a hoot! The book comes to me from Jodi of Scodioli. She has more available in her store if you are interested one of your very own.

Well I think thats about it for a week or so! Have fun and if you need something to read please check out some of the blogs in the links section!

Big Makeover

Continuing the theme of not actually getting any rest over spring break I finally managed to overhaul my business cards and banners today. You might notice that things look a little different here today. I would show you the new card but for some reason blogger wants invert and distort all the colors but you can get a good idea of the style from the banner. I love the Kimono Book I got the inspiration from and have to admit that I'm surprised that it's still in my shop. I love this book so much that I made one for myself that I use for my chem lab notebook. Along those same lines I'm surprised that no one in class has ever asked me about it.

Anyways back on top here! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Today is actually my good friends birthday this evening and we will be headed to her house shortly for a wonderful dinner.

Spring (Not) Break

This is the official day of spring break for the Husband and I. I got up feeling ambitious today and wanted to redo and clean up the studio. This first picture is in mid-redoing. I had emptied out and removed two of my old shelves and I was backed into a corner when I took the first picture.
The lovely second picture is my new organized studio space! I moved from 5 bookshelves/desks to two bookshelves. Everything now has its own proper home. The new bookshelves are located where I took the first picture from. The other half of the room is now empty which is great because we have company and going for the next few weeks and it will be great to have a space to inflate the air mattress. It will also be great for laying out paper to unroll and general space for whatever I need.

My first burst of productivity came last night. I sat in front of the tv and watched a political speech being broadcast live from Mac Court (local basketball arena) and folded a small army of Blizzard Books. There are 7 in all, the 3 red are the smallest, the green trio is only slightly larger and each a slightly different size as they were made from scraps from other projects. The middle book is the largest with my new Ex Libris stamp on the cover. The other books all feature other various stamps on the covers as well. I've decided that these books will be going out with my next few orders as thank you books. So if you've been waiting for a good reason to pick up one of my books now is the time!

A bit late...

Yesterday turned out to be a crazy day and I got nothing accomplished that I wanted to. The good news is that my first two tasks for today are out the the way and I'm working on #3- sharing my plaquette! It's a dark blue leather that has a finish on it that makes it a bit shiny as you can see. Although some of the shine has to be blamed on my tool work. I'm totally in love with it and I have another piece of pared leather to make another plaquette with. For the workshop on Tuesday night we were instructed to do angular designs as they would be easier to start with and we would all finish sometime before midnight. I thought K was a fitting first attempt, and another girl took the same idea and did an A for hers. Each time I pick this piece up I smile, the picture doesn't do it much justice- I'm learning that leather is not as easy as paper to photograph.
I need to get back to work so I can make enough money to start to afford the tools and the quality of leather I need!

#60

This is my 60th blog post since starting this little adventure! I just got home from my monthly book arts meeting and I'm really really excited. Earlier this month we had a mini workshop on paring leather, tonight we had a meeting where we made leather covered plaquettes. For some reason working with leather makes me feel like a bonafide bookbinder.

Look for a picture of my masterpiece tomorrow.

I was going to tell you all about the adorable little sketchbook above but it sold tonight while I was playing in the leather! I just listed this lovely little number 5 days ago, and I have to admit I'm shocked it sold. Absolutely thrilled, but shocked. I've never had a book sell in less than a week before! The excitement of a sale has never lessened for me, I still do a little dance every time I sell something.
I'm off to try to fall asleep- probably won't happen as I'm still wound up from my excitement with the leather and the added excitement of a sale.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe how busy I have been this past week! Where to start... I last left you with the Blizzard book which I have had a blast playing around with. I took the business card holder to my local Etsy street team meeting and it was a huge hit.

I also have been fighting with the cold from a few posts back, the cold has gone but it left me with the lovely parting gift of a sinus infection and ear infections in both ears. I spent most of the weekend on the couch sipping milkshakes courtesy of my wonderful husband. I did however have my first adventure with the longstitch this weekend. As you can see I used some of the kimono remnant fabric I had around and I think all things considered it came out pretty well. I also recently attended a mini workshop on leather paring and I think I've decided that I'm ready to try leather for the first time. I think I'll start with a simple longstitch like this one and work my way up. I don't own the proper tools to start doing leather spines but it is something I am thinking seriously about investing in.

In between studying for my last test this week, and for my final next Monday I started work on a custom order that will match the photo album shown to the right. I am making a larger album to accompany this album. I also got a few other projects started using some wonderful Fabriano artist paper, look for more details on those books coming soon!

I also got new glasses and a very long overdue hair cut, if I get the time in the coming days I'll try to get a picture of myself up.

Blizzard Books

A few weeks ago Rhonda of My Handbound Books posted on her blog about a project she was working on involving the Blizzard and Crown Book Structures. I had never seen these structures before and needed to know more!

After some digging on her blog I found that Green Chair Press sells a kit to teach the binding.
The first little book in front is the one that came in my kit and the one in the back is a business card holder I made with the directions sent with the kit. The front book is tiny at 1.5" square! I can't wait to play with the dimensions and make some larger books!

Milestone!

I awoke this morning to a lovely milestone in my little etsy shop! I have sold 50 books! It was the perfect pick me up as I've had a cold all weekend and have done nothing but sit on the couch and play Endless Ocean, which is an amazing game to begin with- but is super awesome when you are sick.
The premise is you are a diver, you interact with fish, whales, you have dolphins for friends and you swim around. This weekend I've found a ship wreck, sunken ruins, and a whale graveyard. I could talk about this game for hours (as I've been playing it for hours) but I'll spare you. If you have a Wii at $30 this game is worth it!

Anyways back to the business at hand, my 50th sale was my Spirograph soft cover journal and I couldn't be more excited!
If I was feeling any better I think I would go out to dinner tonight to celebrate, but I think my green goodness juice will be all the celebration I have in me. Maybe later this week!

It's been a little over a year since I joined Etsy and I've enjoyed all of it. I'm glad these two little milestones came so close together. Thanks to everyone who has supported me over the last year!