sooner or later

The cover is a commercially printed fabric. I used fusable to attach the fabric to the bookboard. The index tabs are handy and they really don't stick out further than the cover. There are handmade paper pages between the calendar pages which are printed on cardstock. I almost forgot to glue the ribbons to the bookboards - I had temporarily glued them to the first and last signatures. I took some other shortcuts just to get this finished before March. Quicker is better than unfinished in this case.

This blank book is worth a fortune. A gift from a friend because when I saw it and admired it, she could tell from the gleam in my eye that I had already dreamed of what I would do with it. Of course, I had no firm plans, just dreams. She said she'd had the book for years and only used it to press wildflowers. It sat for a few months on my desk, too, waiting for me to begin.

A very thick, large scale book, at first I thought it called out for a big flamboyant gesture. But in reality, I want to use it as a everyday kind of a journal. It sits on the drop spot near the back door and my plan is to put every stray thing that crosses my path into the book. I will encourage my granddaughter to draw and glue into it as well. It will be layered with stuff and will take us a long time to fill.

The name of the book is a history of Potosi, a city in Bolivia. There is a saying in Spanish, valer un potosi which means to be worth a fortune. The highest city in the world, Potosi is located near a mountain of silver.

The 50th anniversary party was great fun. A family reunion of sorts. Great oldies band with a full dance floor including the honorees.

Amy & Clint can really cut a rug. I'm exhausted from the trip and I didn't even try to keep with the old geezers dancing the night away. Slept in a room with a snake - my nephew's - who was molting - the snake, not my nephew. Although the nephew was sporting a new shorter haircut, so you could say he had shed quite a bit of hair.
Caught up on all the news from near and far. Heard stories about relatives. My grand niece was married recently - didn't know, have to warp the loom for a gift.
I experimented with my new smaller camera. I like almost everything about it. I have to try more things and work out some lighting issues. It has very good menus. Took some unblurred photos through the car window as we raced along at breakneck speed. The only problem there was dirty windows.
On the end leg of my flight, I chatted with another happy grandma going to visit her newest grandson in Texas. She's a quilter and has a neighbor with a long arm machine. Her mother and her grandmother were weavers and so she has things from them. She crochets and I was working on a making a tiny ball and other things just to pass the time. That's how we starting talking. I recommended she go to The Painted Pony in LaPorte - my favorite quilting shop and that she needs to think about coming to the International Quilt Festival as an excuse to see the grandkids again.
It was good to pass the time quickly as the flight had left late and I was late getting home and then the grill king had been sick all weekend so he was in bed early and feeling miserable. He cooked for the kids on Saturday and evidently they had a good time as lots of things are in new places around the house, evidence of the defense against the ground level attack of the toddler.
I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns which is an excellent book by the author of The Kite Runner. I probably wouldn't have taken the time to read it if I hadn't had a plane flight. As it was, I was glad I also brought along a ball of crochet cotton because it led to a delightful chat with Nancy on the plane.

Can't believe I didn't already post this... done in April, I think. A book of inchies from a swap. I just stitched over two corners so I can still remove them and see who made each one.

The accordian book is stitched around a central core of a piece of a Sharpie pen cap. My husband turned it sideways and said it reminded him of a Rolodex of Art.

This was my goal today. Besides laundry, reading email and a nap, this is all I accomplished. Three books for the sale.



The one on top is the last one and it's the best sewn. Tightest. I used my curved needle and really pulled hard. My hands are tired. I'm going to bed.

Just waiting for the glue to dry on the covers so I can drill them and begin stitching. I think I am going to up all night stitching. Most of the day to make three books - not counting the handwoven, handdyed fabric covers. Ridiculous. It's good I'm not trying to pay the mortgage this way. I'm going to take a nap now. Drying is not exciting enough to keep me awake.

what I've been working on for too long.

Or is Hotmail down? Changed my email in all my groups to another service. Now I just have to figure out how to configure my Outlook to collect it properly. Why is everything such a production?

I'm having a great weekend - working on the book making project for the weavers' sale at the end of the month. So far, I am feeling good. The details are coming together. The only glitz will be in the measuring....

I really like the irridescent medium I bought. Puts some shine into any paint I mix with it. Gads, me and glitzy? Is this for real?

My first pamphlet stitched book. Written and illustrated when I was about eight or nine years old. I've scanned all the pages and I might put out a second edition with selected corrections and maybe some font changes but definitely with the original illustrations.

Spring is still with us. Cloudy today with a broken promise of rain. So I watered the front lawn. The pink thingies are doing well. In the garden by the fence, I planted some new stuff and pulled some old stuff out of pots and gave it all some new top soil. The bed seems to have turned into a clay dump since I last worked on it. The hydrangea is showing signs of life. It sits in a low spot and has plenty of water all the time. Let's hope for blossoms this year. If things perk up overnight, I might post a photo of this tiny bit of progress or not. The best news is that the parsley hasn't bloomed yet and so I may be able to freeze some after all. I live in hope that tomorrow will have more than just the usual 24 hours in it so that I can get some of these pesky things done that stay on my to-do list forever.
Lunch today was a visit to a Indian buffet. Not our favorite but one near the SuperTarget so we could combine lunch and get the weekly shopping done. I forgot something. I remembered what it was when I was unloading the bags and now I've forgotten it again. Must find to-do list.
Granddaughter read one of the books I just got from a friend who scouts the garage sales for everyone she knows. She read a Frog and Toad book. It had enough pictures and enough text to keep her interested. She reads with great voice inflections and she has a tiny lisp, possibly because of the missing teeth. Very cute to see her totally absorbed in reading out loud for her own enjoyment.
Tomorrow is mail day for the latest thing I signed up for. An altered book round robin. Friendship is my theme. I am using How to Win Friends and Influence People. It brags that there are 15 million in print so ripping pages out and painting over the rest will probably not cause anyone to write hateful comments about being a despoiler of books.
And tomorrow is water aerobics. Exercise is good for me. Penn and Teller are just wrong sometimes.