Hooray! A tag!

<--- (Lovely new mini! I'm practicing my case-binding. And I had this new chocolate linen. Yum.)

So... I love tag. Or I would if I was in better shape. Tag these days usually ends up with lots of shrieking and heavy breathing. And if I'm going to be shrieking and breathing heavily, I prefer horizontal activities. Owps. Too much info? Hahah... anyway! 

Kiley has tagged me! Alright, list 7 book facts about yourself and tag 7 people. Well, I don't think I have 7 people to tag at the end, but I'll see what I can do. 

So here goes. 

1. Apparently like Kiley, I'm terrible at keeping a journal, too! I have endless journals that I've started but never finished. I usually end up writing daily for a week or two, then being lazy and not writing for a month or so, then ripping out the pages I wrote when I finally come back to the journal. Meh, I just don't like my own writing! I know, terrible. 

2. My only bookshelf right now is a gorgeous white pine number that my father made for me. It has an overhang on the top shelf with a heart carved in it. I treasure it because he made it for me when I was about 10, and he carved that heart by hand. He always worked with hand tools and I love the unprofessional, handmade quality of it. Although the shelves are a little warped now, and it's overflowing with too many books, we refinished it last year with a satin clearcoat and now the wood gleams the way it did when he first gave it to me. He used such pretty dappled, knotted, wavy-grained wood. I wouldn't give it up for the world. 

3. Some of my very favorite books are stripper books. Candy Girl by Diablo Cody and especially Bare by Elisabeth Eaves are two standout titles. Lover Boy teases me about wanting to become a stripper, but really I don't. Their world just fascinates me. Plus, it seems that strippers who write memoirs tend to be smart, witty firecrackers and absolutely stellar writers. 

4. I absolutely despise book collectors who just buy up old books and put them in boxes or on shelves, never to be read again, who buy books just to HAVE them. I believe every book should be read until it falls apart, then repaired or rebound and read again. Those book collectors should be locked up in libary closets!

5. When I was much, much younger, I wrote stories. I still have tiny books I wrote in second, third, fourth grade (mom saved them ALL). I'd write on lined paper, scrap paper, receipts, notecards, anything, and fold it up, staple and make into a book. Little stories about dogs, spiders, little girls like me... I'm considering pulling a few out of storage and reproducing them for the Etsy shop. It would just be so fun to make big versions of them now. 

6. I never could get into using bookmarks. All my life I've just folded the corner of the book... awful for the book, but bookmarks always slide down and you lose them in the pages, or if they have string or dangly bits those get caught in something and yanked out of the book, or get in the way. I hear that Barbara at MoonBindery does the same... unite, page corner-turners! :)

7. I have a major addiction to pop-up books. I love the really fancy ones with pull-tabs, levers, doors, pop-ups and pop-outs and pop-downs. The whole book just comes alive. My mom has the same affliction, and I think it caught it from her. She has a fantastic pop-up book collection. 

Okay, I could go on talking about books forever. Like how much I LOVE when NPR does a story about books or interviews an author and you can hear the page turning over the radio. Nothing like the sound of a crisp page turning. Mmmm. 

Alright, I tag Sarah over at littlepaperbird, Kirstin at greentrikepress, Amy at NightJar Books, Dahlila at Snowflower Street (who doesn't make books but lots of wordy items, so perhaps she will participate?), um... Bibliophile! of course, and... can't think of any more that haven't already been tagged! That's five at least. 

And thanks for the tag, Kiley! 

So Long Away

But now I am back!

What have I been up to? The short list: 

1. Putting together a photo blog for my day job as a newspaper photographer: . 

2. Buying a new camera: 

More info about my new lovely available here. 

3. Settling my new Midnight Shubunkins into their home in my 120 gallon aquarium. 

4. Taking pictures of my fiance's great-aunt Claire's glove collection for the Eventual Invention shop: 

5. Buying the coolest waffle iron EVER: 

6. Of course, making new books! I'm making a bunch more today, too. A rare day off. 

I had such a wonderful holiday and I hope you all did, too. I see you've been busy blogging up a storm while my blog has been gathering dust. Hopefully I'll be getting to update it a bit more often now that things have settled down a bit! 

Whew.

Holidays are coming up and I am far too busy!! I can't imagine what it will be like as they close in on me. I'm feeling flustered lately... and drinking way too much tea and coffee. Curse it all!

On the bright side, I did manage to squeeze this little thing into my schedule today:

Economic Depression

Depression indeed, but fortunately ONLY economic. I've been in otherwise excellent spirits, driving my lovely miata around beneath positively stunning blue skies full of fluffy white clouds, cuddling with my sweetheart, pulling out my winter sweaters (i just love wearing knits), and drinking lots of coffee and tea.
I've recently developed a fondness for coffee - but what a coffee snob I am. I only like the Ethiopian Arabica beans from CB&TL, ground in small batches and immediately brewed, and only by French press. Add a bit of whole organic milk, and it's a marvelous after-supper drink. What an egotistical, liberal elitist I am! ... I rather hope not, and I hope that enjoying a bit of coffee made the simplest, most wonderful way possible doesn't automatically put me in that category. Pooh on conservatives for creating that stereotype, haha!
Anyway, on to the real good stuff. I was able to put a few things in the shop lately, but some have already been snapped up! I suppose it's the Holidays coming. I do need to get my ass in gear and start working on new pieces before Holiday shopping really begins.
So here's what I've been up to lately:



I put together this little pouch, on a whim because I haven't done any hand sewing in such a long time. I think I may do a bit more soon, I rather enjoyed it. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, too.



I also bound this up - slender little thing, as I'm running low on paper at the moment, but nicely pocket sized.

These are still in the shop, and I'm hoping someone will fall for them soon. It's not that I'm so greedy for the money - although it does help pay for paper at a time when my wallet is stretched thin, that's always nice - I'm so much more excited about finding them a new home. I want someone to open up the package and be thrilled at their new journal. I want them to fill the pages with stories and sketches, populate the blank paper with trees and faces and long strings of beautiful words. It's the potential that I'm excited about. The pregnant book-ness, the opportunity to capture thought and stories. What a romantic I am, eh? Joe is always harping on me about the shops... he doesn't think I'm considering them real businesses. I should be thinking about Marketing and Sales and Overhead. But who wants to think about all that. These are Books! They are Magical!
Ah, I am a romantic fool. Haha...

Well, anyway. Here's a new shop inhabitant, waiting for words:



A big bruiser of a book, Belgian binding and drawing paper inside. It was actually my first Belgian book, but these bindings really need waxed thread for stability and strength, and I didn't know that when I bound it. So I tore it apart this weekend and re-bound it, and now it's lovely and much more durable.



You may remember I mentioned these three a while back. I was thinking of stenciling something on their covers, or otherwise jazzing them up. But they've been sitting on my bookshelf and I can't bring myself to add anything to them, so they went into the shop unadorned. Simple and plain, but charming nonetheless.

Well, that's the news so far. Holidays coming up, and I think I will be making some new miniature books - I have lots of paper scraps waiting to be used, and there's a Stocking Stuffers showcase soon, so it's a good excuse to play with tiny books. :)

Fun Stuff.

I recently visited my old elementary school, and found a ceramic tile that was part of a school project. It's still there, mounted in the mural on the wall! How neat. It's funny how my young self portrayed my family members. My dad look sort of strong but stern, with those big yellow eyes, and my mom is almost ridiculously cheery and whimsical - big curls, big round eyes, flouncy dress. I don't know what the devil I'm wearing -flowers, stripes, blue, purple? I was kind of a fashion-confused child, so I guess it fits, hahaha.

I just put up a BUNCH of new items in both Eventual Invention and Pied Crow - and I already sold one of them! This little journal went home already:

And I finally put up those cairn pendants I mentioned a while back, like this one:




Clickables - they take you to the listing, where you can see more photos! Or you can check out all my new faux stone jewelry or the other new journal... :)

Progress, finally!

Well, I finally got all the unfinished books finished, put a few disconnected ideas together into books, and got everything photographed. It took me all day, but it's done! :) And anyway, a day spent bookmaking and Etsying is a pretty awesome day. 

This is what my desk looked like this morning: 

And here is one of the results:

 

It's so bright! I've been working with black so often that I wanted to do something fiercely bright. I wanted to do a little stenciling, and I wanted to use rich, deep colors. I also wanted to try using colored signature reinforcements. It came out so well, I'm definitely going to make more of this kind of journal. I had really missed using cotton fabric. It's so much easier to work with than leather. I'm particularly happy with this journal because I was able to avoid glue smudges anywhere. I am continually plagued by glue smudges.

Here are a couple other recent listings:

A black leather casebound with gold. This one has hand-sewn headbands, which I'm going to do a tutorial on soon. They're really satisfying to make. It's a really nice touch on any journal.



My little lizard minis, which you saw a few days ago:






A square coptic lizard skin mini:



Black leather coptic with lizard skin under windows. The windows were so hard to get right - the flaps of leather that curl to the inside are so small and hard to glue down. But it did come out nicely.

So there's what I've been so busy with lately. I have one more to list, but that can wait until tomorrow. As Lilli Von Schtupp might say, let's face it - I'm tired! :)

Books and bobs.

Two more journals will be leaving for a new home today. Which leaves both shops rather empty! Fortunately, I have lots of fabulous ideas for new books. Last night I only had a moment to work but I did make a couple of teeny weeny lizard skin longstitch journals. I think they will be listed as pendants. 

I like the mini journals that are so popular right now, I must admit I could make them all day long, they're so fun and easy. Something so small is nice for instant gratification. It only takes about twenty minutes from start to finish (if you work from start to finish, that is. I usually don't). However, I always end up wondering what in the world they're good for. They're nice for little teeny works of art, like this one from meowstro....

Perhaps as handy illustration portfolios, like this one from behappy... 

As earrings, if light and sweet enough, like these from KupoKiley... 

Or as thank-you gifts, or goodbye presents from coworkers or friends... 

Or as love letters, all wrapped up in one place... 

I always like my journals to be practical, not just interesting to make or look at. So I think their best use is for pendants in my case. Mine are a little bit bigger and heavier than Kiley's, and I'm not nearly as talented as behappy or meowstro. 

Anyway. So I have some bookmaking to do in the near future. Hooray! 

New projects, new materials. Very exciting!
I put up a lizard-skin journal in the Etsy shop the other day, and although it hasn't received too many views or any hearts for that matter, I'm just so excited about working with reptile skin. I just got a new pack in the mail. :D They're all by-product scraps, but many have really gorgeous patterning and I can't wait to make more journals with them.

First, however, I have two hardbound projects in linen to finish. One field journal with an integrated linen-covered box around it, and these tiny little triplets: Only two by two inches. Very cute. I have this idea to make a box for them, perhaps with an envelope-style closure like my green moss journal in the last post. I haven't thought of the right box for them yet. Hmm.