A Short Pause

My laptop and I are going to be separated for what will hopefully be a few short days. My case has cracked in the exact same spot again and it's been leaving marks on my wrist so I decided it was finally time to send it in to be repaired. Sadly as I'll be mailing her off tomorrow I know she won't reach Apple until Friday so at the soonest I would have her back on Tuesday of next week. I'm expecting it to be more like Wednesday or Thursday in reality. The good news is that without the interwebs to distract me I am expecting some time next week to do some serious binding.
Next week you ask? Why not sooner? I have a graduation in Portland Friday evening, a reservation at the Grand Lodge Friday night, and an appointment with the tide pools in Cannon Beach on Saturday morning :)
The bad news, I can't imagine the number of post that are going to be in my reader that I'll need to catch up on!

In the mean time I'll leave you with a few photo's of the DVD folio's I've been working on. The first is a gold and chocolate 1 pocket. While you can't see the paper inside it's a sparkly chocolate paper that matches the ribbon and cloth perfectly. This photographer wanted an elegant simple folio and I think this works fantastically. I'm also working on a few new designs for her that hopefully will involve a flap.
The brown silk and ivory folio are also very elegant and simple. These are still in production but as I said the other day I was staring at the piles of materials and I had to see what one looked like finished.... and they are stunning! I love the flocked ivory damask fabric and the silk cloth, it's a wonderful combination and in retrospect I should have taken a photo of the inside for you to see as well!

Well with that it's time for Lost so I'll see you all when I get my laptop back!

Home Safe

Oahu was amazing and was exactly what I needed. I won't do too much rubbing it in, but I have to do a little :)
The picture of the Honu (Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle) I think is my favorite from the trip right now. We sat on the beach for awhile and watched them eat, then we dawned the snorkel gear and swam around with a few others that weren't sunning themselves.
All the snorkeling we did was awesome as the Oregon Coast is way too cold for getting in past your knees, let alone trying to snorkel. The water also isn't crystal blue so you probably wouldn't see to much anyways (I could be wrong as I've never stuck my head in the ocean here). I had a great time and didn't want to come home, but as they say all good things must come to an end.

Back on the home front I've been busy getting ready for a show we are doing locally this Friday in the lawn of the Oregon Community Credit Union on Chad Drive (next to Costco) so if you are local come on down and say hello! I'll be sharing a booth with Catherine of Bobcat Beads and lots of other local Etsy sellers will be on hand with lots of wonderful items for sale!
I've decided to try some chopstick notebooks for this show and they are a lot of fun to make. It's allowed me to use some of my smaller sheets of paper that I've collected, but I think I'll need a larger bead collection if I want to seriously get into making and selling these adorable little books.

I have one last thing to share before I get back to binding and prepping for Friday! I was over on Bev's Blog (La Paperie & Cozy) (yes I admit I was catching up on other blogs before getting to my own) and she has a great post up about what you can do with your own journal. If you needed any inspiration of what to fill a journal with stop by and read her post, it is filled with wonderful ideas!

Woooo!

I just received word that my introduction class has been approved and they want to schedule more advanced classes in the weeks that follow the first class. More details to follow after vacation!

Oahu Awaits

Do you see that ------>
I still can't believe that in 4 days that's where I'll be. Paradise....
The only coast I have ever know is the Oregon Coast, while it is absolutely breath taking it is not white sand beaches with water I can actually swim in.
I actually bought snorkel gear today. I'm going to have my head in the ocean and it freaks me out.
Maiko of Flurrsprite has been incredibly helpful in things to do and eat while I'm there and one of my clients from work lives in Maui- but her daughter lives on Oahu and she told me to call when I landed and she would have her daughter show us around, and to her fav shaved ice place. Which from the sounds of it might also be Maiko's favorite!

In crafty related news I've got panels cut for 7 new bags, two sets of bike covers screened for Celtic Weave books and two more sets of bike covers for little accordion books too. I made my first chopstick book this week and it was a lot of fun. Thanks again to Rhonda for the inspiration!
I have sent my first proposal in for teaching. Hopefully I will hear back soon as I am very anxious for feedback- and to start teaching. I submitted an outline for an introduction class this week and have a few ideas stewing for intermediate classes. I was in at MECCA today as they were having a large sale and over heard someone asking for large pieces of leather and the coordinator telling the woman they had set them aside for bookbinding classes so I guess I need to get started on a proposal for a long stitch class- which also means I need to learn the long stitch!

To end this I won't be back at my computer until the 12th, and will probably be too tired to post anything at all until the 13th. I promise to share some photo's and funny stories about our belated honeymoon (only a year late- and I am very exicted about having our first/sixth anniversary in Hawaii) when we return!

Summer Vacation!

I forgot how relaxing free time can be. This weekend all I did was things I wanted to do. My house is still totally trashed, my laundry still needs to be done, etc- but I did expose my first screen at home this weekend!
It took a few tries as I was using our newly found sunshine to develop the screen, but I had the time so I enjoyed the learning process. Eventually I will have to set up an indoor exposure for the 9 months of rain we get a year but for now I can use the energy mother nature provides. The lovely boards to the right are my first hybrid binding/screening project. I think I'm gonna have to screen two more because I wasn't thinking and if I bind these two together the bike on one of the covers will be along the spine, and I just don't think I like that. I also think I might screen a few of the pages that are going into the book too- because I can :D

I officially have started the ball rolling towards teaching classes in August. I need to write up the proposals for the classes and submit them for review. I think I want to teach one simple class with things like a pamphlet stitch with some variations like the dos a dos, the accordion fold, and maybe one other thing. I need to start looking into my books and see what I can find. I also want to teach a more advanced class with something like a case bound book but we'll see what they say about that as the resources are more complex.

I'll be working on that idea while I am in Minnesota this week. I've never been to Minnesota and it's where a large chunk of my husbands family lives, and where his parents summer. It's his dad's birthday this weekend so it seemed like the perfect weekend to take a trip- and the perfect time to write proposals about book binding!

All about me!

Today I was featured on the wonderful blog of Quirky'nBerkeley, it's a great quick read all about me and why I do what I do. Quirky'nBerkeley's has some great cards in her shop but my favorite item by far has to be her adorable origami boxes! (seen to the right)

In other exciting news I'll be in Seattle this weekend! While that may keep me away from my great paper stash that I got for Christmas, it will be a much needed vacation before school starts. It's been a crazy start to the new year at work and I could use some serious decompression time before school starts on Monday!

VACATION!

I'll be off for vacation for the next week and a half. It starts with a wedding for a long time friend, and his amazing wedding album can be to the left. After going to the wedding I will be headed back to this side of the state to spend the rest of my vacation in Lincoln City watching the winter coastal storms with my families. I am looking forward to a great vacation but I will miss being away from all of my book binding tools when I have the free time to use them!