Thursday-8:30am

The workmen arrive at 7:30-8am and start pounding. Good thing I have been on days--hehe! No problem.

They are even replacing siding on the building--have two of these contraptions going now.

Mom and Dad arrived and we hung out all afternoon. Mom helped me with bookcards--folded paper for me. Dad played solitaire on the computer--one of his favorite pastimes.

Leah came over about 4pm. They followed her to the motel--dropped off Dad's car--and then went over to give them the tour of their new townhouse. When Dagan got home from work they all came back here. We ordered from Pita Pit for dinner. Was really good! (I had never had a pita before.) Here's Mom finishing hers--(she'll be 80 next February).

My dad--(he'll be 88 this November).

Dagan.

Leah. (Watching Dagan be silly--hehe!)

Leah snapped a picture of all of us.

Dagan and Leah dropped Grandma and Grandpa off at the motel and went to help Chuck and Michal unload furniture, etc, into a storage area. The day went fast and I was in bed early. Very sore today--took a pain pill yesterday and was at the table too long--but was worth it. Had a very nice day! :) Won't be long and my folks will be heading back down to Florida for the winter. Was nice to see them.

Wednesday-8am

Good Morning!

We have a mom in the building who always wears the long skirts to her ankles--usually denim like this one. She is such a good mom. She is one of the only moms who is actually out with her child at the playground. (It says in the rules for the complex that the children are supposed to be supervised.) She was out playing soccer/kickball with her son at 7am.

Another bright day. Supposed to be close to 90 degrees and very windy.

The workmen are moving their beeping machinery over so they can climb around and pound on the roof again today. They must have done an awfully poor job of putting this complex together if they have had to do all these repairs on buildings that are only about five years old now. They've had repairs off and on since I moved in back in 2005. Likely cut corners--and it is costing the construction company more in the long run--duh!

Have the windows open briefly--it's 67 degrees. Been so much cooler at night that I open the windows in the morning for a couple of hours.

My folks are coming this afternoon....got to get moving, I guess. :)

Have a great day!

Tuesday-7:30am

I had one more small watercolor journal that I had planned to make and had pre-cut the paper for. This one was going to be a regular, closed-spine book. A bit more complicated, so I saved it for last. (The other two were the coptic stitch--the green one and the red leather one--you've seen.)

I used my new cradle board and an awl for poking the holes. Worked like a charm! Sewed the signatures together--incorporating the three pieces of book tape.

I picked out paper for the cover, spine, and inside cover. Cut out the cover and spine pieces from some thin cardboard I had. (The Dahle cutter is amazing!)

Cut the spine strip and glued it in place--with my wonderful, non-gummy, new YES glue. The ends didn't quite meet, like I had planned, but they get covered up, anyways. I am not sure if they are supposed to cover the whole spine or not? I wasn't using a video or a book--just looked at the little book I had made years ago in that short class at Concordia and tried to remember. (You can see it standing up by the lamp.)

I had to let the spine dry...

...and yet bend it back and forth so it would be able to move properly.

Used the new Dahle cutter--(love it!)--to also cut the pieces for the cover and inside cover.

Glued the cover pieces on the front sides.

Let them dry a bit and turned them over.

Trimmed the corners.

Glued all the flaps down. They didn't meet and corner perfectly--oh well.

Starting to get an idea of what the book will look like.

I clamped down all the edges and let them dry.

Then I glued down the tapes and let them dry.

Finally glued on the inside covers. They are one piece that goes along the inside cover and up the first page--and they cover the tapes. I had to do some trimming first, because they were a little long.

I did another clamping job--hehe! Let it dry well.

And here is the finished watercolor journal!! TaDa!!!

Took all day--lots of drying time. I am pretty happy with it.

Meanwhile--been catching up with letters still and finally got some Netflix DVDs again yesterday. Hadn't had any for almost a week--some glitch in the system--supposed to reduce our bills by 15%. ?? I'll let you know if they do. I am finally able to continue on with the last season of The Wire and the second season of The X Files. :)

Now tomorrow my folks are coming for a visit before they head back to Florida for the winter here pretty soon. Grandson, Dagan, and lovely wife, Leah, will come over after work. Supposed to be 90 degrees today and almost 90 and windy tomorrow. Not expected to rain, anyways. I should rest up today. :)

Monday-6:45am

Got the fourth mold of a mold done.

Waited until Karma asked to go outside (you know how cats are about being forced into something). Didn't want her touching or getting her nose in the plaster of Paris. Said on the tub that it gets hot and can leave burns on the skin that would require surgical repair! Karma did wonder what I was up to--hehe!

I used an old food container that I could throw away. (I have saved several for crafting purposes.) And used a popsicle stick I could also throw away to stir it up.

Wow! Does that stuff ever want to set up fast! I was stirring as I walked to the table and as I was pouring it into the molds it was forming chunks already! I did the best I could.

I was worried, but they turned out really well!! I am very happy with them.

Leah and I learned that they are more fragile than the original--when you press on them to remove the water from the paper pulp--so I think I will try to remember to lay them on a towel, so there is less chance of them cracking into pieces. :)

One dead plant I will still be collecting for papermaking--Karma's cat grass--hehe!

Miss Karma is still and always will be a sprawler. After seeing her baby pictures, I couldn't resist snapping this one last night--hehe!

I am loving being on days for the last week and a half! I feel much more productive on day hours, I think. So--what will I do today that's on that list in my head.....:)

Sunday-7:15am

Here's a picture of the mama swallow back in 2005--and my porch before I got the screen up.

The nest on top of the porch light. Amazing that five babies fit in that tiny nest!

And little Baby Karma!! The natural born sprawler! She spent her time by the porch door...

...or in the bedroom window. Watching the baby swallows being fed and listening to the babies cry--her favorite pastime!

Okay--yesterday. I spent the entire day sorting and organizing the "dead plant" box. The plastic bags are from Leah. It had gotten too full to put any more in there.

We have been saving dead plants for a couple of years to use in papermaking projects.

I did it in sections of the box. What a mess!

Had to use my angry, I-Mean-Business voice to keep Karma away from the table. She laid in her stroller and watched--and slept--hehe!


I sorted leaves into zip lock bags.


Had to get rid of all the stems and twigs. Found out they just float to the top of the pulp and just fall off when the paper is dry--and leave dents. Useless.

Doesn't look like much, but I was so thrilled when I was finally done!

We have plenty of dead house plant leaves now.

I'll have to email Leah and let her know we don't need to save house plants anymore. Except asparagus ferns (the tiny little fronds work so well in paper), but I don't think she has any of those right now. Mine died, too.

Unless she gets something new, of course--or something blooms! Flowers--we have very little flower petals. :) Now that they live by the river, maybe she can find things over there in the woods? I'd like to look one day, myself. :)

Needless to say--today is going to be an R&R day. :)

And supposed to be 90 degrees and sunny.

Stay cool!

Saturday-8am

My cat on drugs!

Karma is crazy for this fresh, homegrown catnip from Ruby. She hunkers down and protects it with a paw on either side--as if she expects to have to fight somebody for it? Who? Her imaginary friends? Me? ROFL!

She vocally races about the apartment--up and off the chairs--under and over her packaging toys--like a crazy woman!

Then....she sleeps it off.

I opened the cutter boxes up yesterday.

Here's the Dahle cutter.

Here's the Logan Compact 32" (301-S). comes with a straight edge and a beveled edge cutter. Has a video! I haven't watched it yet, but I will before I ever try to use it.

And--remember the pretty box Leah saved for me?

I took out the inside forms and threw a clean art rag in the bottom for now--just to keep things from sliding around. Seemed a good place for the cutting blades and the two spare packages of blades. I may change my mind later, but it seems to be a good fit. :)

Yesterday was a cooking and baking day for me. I made up some rice, a big vat of bean soup with ham, and even made a jello cake! Haven't had one of those for many, many years. :) Going to have a nice, cold slice today.

One of the fluorescent bulbs went out a couple days ago in the kitchen ceiling fixture. The other one had gotten so dim that it was pointless to even turn it on--even at night. I called the office yesterday and the maintenance man came and replaced both of them! Wow! Nice and bright in there now! I guess there are some advantages to apartment living, eh?

He told me he's waiting for the 40 foot ladder to come back over here (the company owns several apartment complexes)--probably Monday--so that he can get up into the dryer vent and dig out the nest again. He ordered a different kind of a cover this time. He had put a cover on last time--but the birds could push it aside or open somehow!! So, anyways, maybe we will keep them out this time? I love them, but not in the dryer vent.

The first spring I was here a pair of swallows built a nest on the porch light. (Another reason I put up the screen--hehe!) But I let them have the porch until the babies were grown and gone. (They would dive bomb you if you tried to go out on the porch.) After the young swallows weren't using my porch railing as a spot to wait to be fed and had gone off into the world--then I tore down the nest and cleaned up all the mess on the porch and the railings, etc. Poop everywhere! Took a long time and a lot of scrubbing--so I had to do it little by little, of course. But--I never thought to call and ask them to send the maintenance man to do it. I guess he has had to tear down a lot of nests on the porch lights. I would never have called--since it was my choice to let them stay. I was probably one of the few people who let them stay and make a really huge mess, too! hehe! They are so beautiful--delicate, yet strong and resilient. I love to watch them dancing and swooping in the wind outside the windows up here on third floor. I should see if I can find pictures of our porch nest--and of little Karma watching the swallows. (She was mesmerized, of course.) Maybe tomorrow....