I made a book!

Two books, actually.

I followed the very good instructions from the Mindful Art Studio's Coptic Bound Journal workshop, and without much trouble made these two small sketchbooks.

The individual steps are not difficult, but they took time and care to ensure a nice finished product.  There was a lot of cutting, glueing, folding, and finally sewing to bring it all together.

The process starts with cutting the materials for your covers and the inner pages, called signatures.  I used watercolor paper for these, but any paper can be used depending on the purpose of the book.  The cover is made from chip board covered with decorative paper or fabric.

The paper cutter I bought a while back was a real life-saver.  This could all be done by hand, but that would take a long time.  It took a while as it was.  This is not a process to rush through!

The final step before sewing is to poke holes in the signatures and covers.  Again, having the correct tool really makes a difference!  When I made my first simple sketchbook a couple of months ago, I did not have an awl and improvised with a sharp screw Michael found in the garage.  It worked, but was slow and hurt my hand.  Because I enjoyed making the sketchbook and knew I would make more, I bought a beginner's bookbinding kit with the various tools needed to make different books.  I've used almost everything in the kit already.

Look at those neat and tidy holes!

The next step is sewing the pieces together.  As you can imagine, this is a bit awkward at first while trying to figure it all out.  I was really happy to have the curved needles from the bookbinding kit!  A straight needle can do the job, but requires a lot more fiddling around with the book which might lead to loose stitches.  Lots of sharp things involved in book making!

Once you have the hang of it, the sewing step is very enjoyable.

By the time I was finished with the second book (the blue one) I was feeling really good about the process.  I did learn one very important thing - make sure you have enough thread!  I barely squeaked by with just an inch or so to spare on the second book.  Not much more on the first one.

Here's a close up of the stitching.  I know with practice the stitches will be more uniform, but either way they look pretty nifty.

The books lay flat when open, which will make painting in them easy.  The other sketchbooks I've made don't do that, so the paint tries to pool in the middle.

I made a painted piece for the inside cover.  Next time I'll cut the inner pieces smaller so they don't have holes poked in them (and I'll make sure the outer cover paper is big enough to fold in further and cover the board better.

Now I've got these two great books to fill with art!  I know I'll be making more of these, and am really looking forward to visiting a craft store in person to pick out nice paper for the covers.

So many possibilities...

Time flies by

Five days to go and I will be fully vaccinated!  I got my second shot a week ago Friday, felt like garbage on Saturday, and it's all been great since then.  Other than my normal spring allergies, they can go away please.  Among other things, I noticed the Scotch Broom along the freeway is blooming now, yippee.

When Michael sweeps the porch this time of year the pollen creates quite a pile.  No wonder I have issues. 

It's worth it though.  Our yard looks great right now!

I spent some time in the garden today, cleaning up the bed next to the house on the north side.  It was great to be outside again after a few days of rain.  Rowland loves hanging out with me while I work.  I was weeding along the edge of the trailer and heard him fussing around.  I thought he had gotten into the trailer but no - he was under it!

I have a ridiculously busy week ahead at work.  I'm just going to have to power through.

There are things I want to write about but it's getting late and I had better be well rested tomorrow to start the hell week.  Waaaaaaay too much of my time will be spent on Zoom.  I don't know about you, but I'm really bloody sick of Zoom.  It's not done with us yet by any means though.

Mary Jo Salter has written some sonnets about life with Zoom.  Here's a sample.

Zoom Rooms

Nose-scratches broadcast, thoughts shrunk to an icon
or two (Clap, Thumbs Up), and if you leave your mic on
while others talk, your faintest sighing framed
in gold light like a vanity mirror? Named
on your little tile, you can’t slip out unseen.
Self-surveilled, your eye contact onscreen
seems off. Don’t look at people! Focus where
the tiny camera is that proves you’re there.

I'm not much into poetry, but these really hit home.  Via On the Commons.

Nearly there!

Last Wednesday Michael got his second vaccination, this time at the Arlington Municipal Airport drive-through site.  It was a beautiful day and I would say this is probably the most scenic mass vaccination site one could visit!  Hundreds of cars snaked through the older part of the airport, and it seemed like it was going to take forever.

What a view!  The Cascades were looking good that day.  This is Mount Pilchuck, the 5,324 ft. mountain we can easily see from our area.  It can be hard to remember which mountain is which, but this panorama photo from the Everett Herald can help figure out what you're looking at.

The entire week was lovely, with temperatures getting up into the 70s on a few days.  Sadly, the rainy, colder, typical spring weather has returned for a while.  The rain is good for the gardens though!

We finally made it to the tents where they were jabbing people in the arm, and then it we entered the video game portion of the experience.

So many cones!  It was kind of fun to drive through them.

Heck - it was just fun to be out driving!  We've barely done anything in over a year, and have probably driven less than 500 miles total with both of our cars combined.  Things should pick up soon though.  I'm due to get my second shot this Friday.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit blue, no particular reason why (pandemic).  I felt like now all I'm doing is WAITING for Friday to get here.  I will be so glad when I have my appointment settled, which right now means checking the website every few hours for updates and additional days added for the local sites.  It shouldn't be hard to get an appointment close to home - I notice that most of the sites have loads of time slots and they're not filling up as quickly.  Once I've got my shot and make through the two week waiting period (more waiting!) we'll be able to start doing more and getting out of the house a bit.

I really want to go to a thrift store, shop at Michael's for some odds & ends that are hard to buy without seeing them in person, and go see some scenery a little further from home!  I think we'll head over to Yakima first to see my parents.  We're not going to go too wild though - no eating inside restaurants!

For now I'm still wandering the neighborhoods close to home.  The trees are blooming and I'm enjoying watching each new variety burst forth.  So many gorgeous colors!  The lilacs and dogwoods are starting to bloom this week, but the cherries, apples, and plums are still looking good too.

I'm counting down the days until Friday - I hope they go by quickly!

Know your spiders!

Have you ever found yourself face to face with a spider and wondered whether it was going to harm you with it's bite as you gazed into its eyes?  Wonder no more!  Study this handy chart designed by Thomas Shahan, who has taken many a closeup photo of spiders so you don't have to.

Have a try at identifying this anxious arachnid...

Did you guess jumping spider?  That's correct!  This is an adult female Phidippus mystaceus Jumping Spider.  Her anxious expression is no doubt caused by her concentration as she calculates the length of jump onto your face.

If you prefer something other than closeups of spiders and other small creatures, Thomas also makes interesting art and takes nice non-macro photos, such as this mossy table somewhere in Oregon.

Ahhhhhhh... 

In other news, the "ink" experiment didn't amount to much other than pink water that barely tinted my paper strips.  I'll try again when I get the proper equipment and ingredients.

Adventures in ink making (sort of)

When one dabs colorful liquid on paper with a brush, it's only natural to begin to wonder what colors might be obtained from nearby plants, such as this red currant growing across the street.

I've been reading up on how to make inks from natural materials, and following the experiments of others.  It's not a difficult process, but I don't have quite everything I need at the moment.

No worries!  I decided to go ahead and try a very crude method today without fancy stuff like a dedicated pan for boiling things in (instead of one of Michael's cooking pans).  I also don't have gum arabic, or an essential oil to prevent mold.

First, I picked a lot of flowers off of that plant across the street.  In case you're wondering the stems are incredibly sticky.  I washed my hands with soap and that did not get rid of the stickiness!  I tried some hand sanitizer with alcohol in it and that did the trick.

The flowers have a nice fresh smell.  Not "flowery" at all - just fresh.  And they're so tiny!

I picked them off of the sticky stems, and filled up a salsa jar.

Then I smashed them with a stick!

Since I didn't have a pan to boil them in, I poured boiling water over them into the jar, then set it in the sun all afternoon to keep it warm as long as possible.

The water is taking on a pink hue, and I've tested it on a piece of watercolor paper - pretty pale!  The color shows up a bit better on a paper towel.  Tomorrow I will strain the flowers out, and let it sit in the sun again with the lid off so it can evaporate a bit.  For a first try and not following the directions closely, it's still turning out interesting!

I really miss being able to dash off to the thrift store - soon!  I'll get my hands on a dedicated plant boiling pan before long, as well as a few of the other vital ingredients to make proper ink.  In the meantime, I'll report back tomorrow after I've messed around with this batch some more.  I should have some decent marks on paper to share.  If nothing else, it's very pretty pink water!

Cheers!

Are you kidding me?

Oh for crying out loud!  No sooner did I switch over here and encourage you all to sign up to get notification for new posts in email than Google decides to go and do away with Feedburner, the service that sends you those emails.

Seriously?  Sigh.

The service goes away in June, so I'll work on finding a solution that keeps things easy for you, and keep you posted.

Good grief.

In other news - I took a very bold action this morning.  I subscribed to the Sunday Seattle Times.  It will now be delivered to my house - a real newspaper!  I can't remember when the last time was that I subscribed to an actual paper.  I'm looking forward to enjoying the paper while I drink my coffee.  I'm also amazed that every sentence in this paragraph starts with the letter I!

Today is the first day of a long weekend for me.  It coincides with what is turning out to be warm, sunny weather.  Good for sitting outside reading, making art, and poking around in the garden.

Here's somebody else's nice garden... much neater than mine.  The truck at that house had a Q sticker on it, but not long after the election the sticker disappeared.  Hmmm...

I love walking around the neighborhood this time of year, it's so colorful.  My own garden has been popping with hyacinths, which will require some digging up and moving around once they've died back.  They smell so good!

Later

Did I achieve all that I had hoped today?  Why yes, I most certainly did.  Today was the first day to top 70 degrees, and it was lovely.  I pulled a lot of weeds, read a little bit, sketched a few things in the garden, and later did some watercolor painting.  Other than my allergies which are quite annoying right now it was a pretty good day.

More of the same tomorrow!

C'mon in!

 I'm so glad you made it.

I'd offer you a beverage, but, well - pandemic.  I trust you've got something tasty and refreshing to drink right where you are.

Let me show you around a bit!

Over to the right, you can sign up to get a daily digest of new posts sent directly to your email.  You'll only get an email if I write something, and if I suddenly decide to go wild and post six times on the same day, you'll still get just the one email the following morning - no spamming your inbox!  When you sign up you'll get a confirmation email to complete the process.  Check your spam folder if you don't see it right away.  Super easy.  The new post notification emails very clearly say "Oh Schist!" so they're hard to miss.

You can read the posts in your email, but clicking to visit here on the blog will give you a better reading experience.  For example, if I share a video it might not show up in your email, and you could miss out on something really good.  Also - it's blue!  Who doesn't like the color blue?

You'll also see the spot where you can send me a private message.  Unlike the newsletter, you won't be able to reply to the notification emails to send a message to me.  I'd still love to hear from you, either via the contact box or by leaving a comment on the blog.

You'll also find links to my favorite newsletters, old posts on this blog, and a few other odds & ends.  I'll be adding more pages, but for now you can see all the books I've read so far this year. This section of the blog will change from time to time with new information.

Scroll down and you'll see a few recent posts.  It's not fancy, but I like it here and am enjoying a bit of good old-fashioned blogging.

Hmmm... now I'm hungry for an old-fashioned donut. I can't remember the last donut I had, it's been well over a year now.  There are so many things I haven't had in a long time.

Thanks to the hoards of maskless people out at the park today it will still probably be a while.  Cases are on the rise!  Huzzah.  We'll soon be angling for our second shots, so our biggest goal right now is to stay the heck away from everyone just like we've been doing for the entirety of the pandemic.  No sense in messing it up now after making it so long.

Anyhow - thanks for following me over here.  Make yourself at home, enjoy your visit, and I hope you come back soon!