Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, it's that time of year again :)I always love logging on to Etsy and seeing that at the top!
Actually it's not yet my Birthday here in Oregon, t-minus one hour- however it is in Etsy Standard Time (NY) so I'll take it :)

I opened one of my birthday presents early this year because it got here and I knew what it was, it's a new teflon folder from Dennis Rudd, which I meant to take pictures to share with you today but by the time the hubster and I got the photography box built it was time to go to MECCA for the Object Afterlife Challenge reception. I arrived there to fantastic news that my piece had sold at the Eugene Celebration! Which is excellent pre-birthday news, I hope I get to meet the new owner at the Bring opening.

Tomorrow includes breakfast plans, a trip to the coast for some Agate hunting and puppy shenanigans. This will be her first trip to the coast so I expect a sandy happy puppy, lots of plenty towels will be packed :)
After we get home we'll be meeting up with friends for dinner and a few cocktails.

I promise to check back in later this week with lots of pictures for you! I just sent the first round of folio's to Nickel City Studio and I can't wait to share them with you. After a long day in the studio another 8 folio's are in the press as we speak, however it's currently raining so I think they'll have to stay until Monday just to be safe.

Celebration!

The Eugene Celebration is this weekend and while I don't think I'll make it this weekend (we have a vet visit Saturday) I will be there in spirit! I have a book in the first annual MECCA Object Afterlife Challenge which will be on display at the old MECCA location for the Celebration this weekend, after that it will be at the spiffy new MECCA location and then in October it moves to Bring! The opening of the show will be at Bring on October 10th if anyone local wants to stop by and chat with me.


This book was really a challenge for me, I don't often thing of my self as an artist and almost never put content in a book. The materials also really threw me for a loop for a long time, I received a large plastic burlap like bag, some plastic packaging, and a bunch of the tear off ends of tractor feed paper. I ended up using all but the tractor feed pieces, I wanted to use them to decorate the covers with but it made the book way to busy so I went with a wonder scrap of green Bugra paper and earth tones for the confetti.


The inside pages are the bag cut up and then I glued scraps of torn paper on to the pages in hopes that someone will use the book for an altered art journal. I'll be honest that while I'm intrigued by the idea I just don't have the time right now to start. Hopefully in a year when Penny grows up a bit, right now she's very demanding of all most all of mom's free time :)

Thanks for sticking around!

I would like to start by saying thank you for all the well wish about my poor thumb! I'm finally almost all the way healed, I have a nice new pink patch of skin that is about the size of a dime on my thumb and is still super sensitive!
I would also like to say thank you for sticking around! I haven't been a very active poster over the course of this summer but it's been a really busy summer!
We moved, I had my first book binding accident, I got called in for jury duty & assigned to a jury, I've started working for a second awesome local company, I've got some really awesome folio orders on the line, and I'm now training a dog on top of it all.

Let's start with the dog first, she's an adorable Red Heeler Jack Russell mix and her name is Penny.
She is about the cutest thing ever and we couldn't say no when we were asked to bring her into our life. We don't know why but we are her 4th family and are happy to give her a place to call home.

I'm having a great time working with 3 photographers right now designing folio's for them, the first and largest order is for Nickel City Studio. We chose a green color that isn't as bright green as their logo for the cloth and a fun white cloth for the spine that almost a wood grain pattern to it. The paper I found to coordinate with it couldn't have been a better match and so far I'm totally in love with it. It's a handmade hand silk screened Indian paper with what's called a basket weave pattern on it. I have a little teaser shot here to show you;

The picture isn't the greatest and I've realized that since moving I need to break down and build a light box. Our house has great windows that let in lots of light, just not in the right places or angles for photography. As much as I hated our old skinny kitchen I do miss the great lighting it had for photography. Also while that stack of paper looks big, it was bigger! I got about 30 of the pockets folded when I realized I should take a picture of the huge stack of paper.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be a lot better about posting on a regular basis again. Once I figure out some lighting in the house I promise to have a tutorial up on how to make Kumihimo cord so stick around for that!

Hey look, it's a book!

I'm feeling rather accomplished this evening, as I've managed to complete a book up to my standards without using my left thumb! As I'm left handed this started out as quite a challenge but after the first signature or two I was almost sewing at normal speed.
I really like this sketchbook-It's 8.5"x10.5" which I think is the largest leather book I've made to date. Secondly I love the buttons! They came from the customer & are vintage WW2 buttons, they come down the page in a wave with the natural curve fo the edge of the hide. It looks fantastic and sadly I don't have a good picture of it. I lost the fantastic lighting in my old kitchen & had I haven't gotten a light box built yet...

Thanks for all the well wishes about my poor thumb! I'm a slow healer but so far I'm only about a day behind schedule on the after care sheet they gave me so hopefully I'll be able to get my stitches out next week and get started on the tutorial I keep promising!

In other news this weekend I'll be at Sushi! Sake! Sumo! in PDX serving Coconut Bliss. I'm really excited about going, because well I don't like cancer! It's a really run fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and hopefully I'll have time to slip into a sumo suit!

Also going on this weekend is the Bookbinding Team's summer BBQ!

Summer is winding down in some places and a distant hope in others, but members of the Etsy Bookbinding Street Team are ready to celebrate the hottest season by hosting a Virtual BBQ Scavenger Hunt. Next weekend starting Saturday, August 1, through Monday, August 3, browse participating shops and locate hidden photos of items associated with the venerable tradition of the summer backyard barbecue. Not sure what that means? No worries! We'll provide a list of items so you'll know exactly what you're looking for. Find them all and enter to win a $30 gift certificate good at any participating shop. AND win bonus chances to win with each item purchased from participating shops during the hunt!

Stop by the BEST Blog Friday, July 31, for a list of participating shops and complete details. Just follow the smoke!

Another Quick Update

I have internet at home now but won't be up to much for the next week or so as I had my first bookbinding accident yesterday. I was cutting board on my mat cutter yesterday and somehow left thumb got in the way.... I'm left handed....

I've got 4 stitches, a cut nerve, and a lot of choice words- but with my dominant hand out of the action I'm not up to much. Which is a large disappointment because I have a very large order folio order that needs to be worked on, which is what I was doing when I tried to take my thumb off. Maybe in a day or two I can get a teaser shot of the cloth swatches and paper together, I can't believe how perfect of a match I got and how well I think it suits the photographers personality. However that will have to wait until I've got at least a semi functioning second opposable thumb :)

Quick Update

I just wanted to let everyone know I officially survived the move yesterday! We now have a cute little duplex & a yard!

We won't have internet access at the house for another week so I'll probably be silent for another week or so. Hopefully the lack of internet will motivate me to go unpack my studio and get back to work!

Officially on hiatus

Well it's official, I'm on hiatus. The last of my studio went into boxes last night and of course right after wards we got news that the duplex is behind schedule to be ready for us to move into. I'll now be without my studio for over a week!
To top off the bad news I messed up my foot quite badly today at work- well on the way to finding lunch. I was walking with a co-worker (the awesome Chris G) down to Friendly Street Market to get some accouterments for lunch and walked right into a huge pothole and did something awful to my foot. At the time it was just a little twinge, but by the time I left work my foot was huge and I could barely walk on it.
My ankle oddly enough is perfect, I messed up something in my arch and I'm hoping it's not something that's going to require a cast. Just a light sprain rather than something torn or worse. Either way my long holiday weekend has been shot and I'm on the R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compression, & elevation) plan along with some Chinese herbs for injuries of this type.
I am hoping to be mobile enough for planned trip to Portland this Sunday, it's a $2 Sunday at OMSI and I want to be able to walk around and explore!

As it doesn't feel right to leave my blog with such a somber post let's look at something cute and fuzzy!

That my friends is a 3 week old lion cub from the West Coast Game Park in Bandon, OR. We took a road trip down last weekend and it was fantastic! I held both Bella pictured above and her brother Simba. I also got to hold a 4 week old spotted leopard cub Bentley, but he was squirmy and is pretty blurry in most of my pictures. They have many more of other fantastic animals for petting and viewing but the cubs are a pretty special thing. I also held two Opossoms, two farrets, and something else I can't remember or find in my photos... out for petting was a baby fox, baby wallaby, a baby black skunk, and an adult golden skunk (both de-skunked) and a few other animals- plus the heard of deer and goats that run over small children to obtain food.

I'll leave you with another picture my husband and I with Bella. I am going to make my way towards bed and contemplate unpacking some of my tools.