Thursday-9am

Good Morning!

We've had sunshine and some unusually warm days--almost 70 a couple times and almost 80 once! 

The snirt pile is gone and the busy crew is noisily working on the apartment building every day. 

Myself--I started on the other four journals.  Very slowly working around the leg thing.  

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One day I got all the cover paper glued on to the various cover boards...

 

...and book pressed them overnight.

Another day I trimmed all the paper down... 

...and cut the corners.  I still don't seem to have this down to where I can miter the corners accurately.  I think maybe I forgot to take the depth of the board into consideration.  I've never used davy board--so now I'll know.

Another day I glued the paper up around the edges.  I could only do one set of covers at a time.  My leg would start to feel numbish.  I'd wait a few hours and then do the next set.  

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So here they all are--at present--waiting for the next step in the assembly line--to trim out the inside papers.  Then glue all those on and the eight covers will be done! 

Meanwhile--on these nice warm breezy days (three in a row!!)--well, I couldn't find Miss Karma anywhere that first day.  It finally occurred to me that the ottoman wasn't turned upside-down on top of the porch chair under that cover because it's now in the apartment.  I just knew...so I grabbed the camera...

...and peeked under the chair cover--LOL! 

 Go away!--she told me... 

...and made it clear she didn't want to be disturbed in her new hiding place.  Humans!  So annoying!  ;)

I got a few beautiful belated birthday cards a little while ago... 

...that seemed to accompany my belated present to myself quite perfectly. 

The Cinch arrived yesterday!  Whoohoo!  But I haven't even taken it out of the box yet--for two reasons.  One--it doesn't come with "accessories" and none of the binding wires I ordered have arrived yet anyways.  Two--I promised myself I had to be good and finish the four journals before I start playing with my new toy.

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These did arrive with the Cinch, though.  I am not even sure what I will do with these adorable tiny file folders.

They're 4 X 6 inches--might make very tiny mixed media journals...or use them to help sort the stored handmade cards...or they could be incorporated into mixed media pages...or who knows!  They were inexpensive (100 in that little box) and just so darn cute I couldn't resist them.  I had no idea they made these that small!

This morning Karma was stretching in the sunshine. 

Which comes in at a whole new angle in the spring and summer. 

I guess it was too chilly outside for her (43 degrees) this morning after such unusually warm days.  Karma is easily spoiled, as I am sure you've already gathered--LOL!  We're back to our normal 50s and low 60s for highs.  Too chilly to have the place opened up until afternoon so she sunbathed and did some head rubbing on the carpeting.  (Karma likes to be self-sufficient.)  But even closed up... 

...we can still hear the geese as they travel north.  Karma always stops to see if she can catch a glimpse--because she dearly loves watching those big noisy birds pass across the wide blue sky.

I'll keep plugging away on the journals.  I have an appointment to see my rheumatologist on the 23rd so I can have him check out this wonky leg/hip thing.  When my normal snail's pace gets slowed down even further...time to see what's up, I guess, eh?  ;)

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Enjoy the change of season wherever you are.

May sunshine kiss your face and warm your heart!

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"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."

Buckminster Fuller

Saturday-4pm

Good afternoon!

This is one reason why I have to keep the ottoman tucked under the rolly chair.  I'm afraid Karma is going to fall out of her blue bed on her head--LOL!

I am so excited!  I watched a few videos on coptic stitch.  This one is my favorite.  Shows you how to make a journal from start to finish using a drawing pad and was the easiest for me to understand the stitching procedure.

As soon as I started sewing everything did kind of come back to me.  

But I was better able to pay attention to which side the thread was in relation to the needle and which direction to loop the needle around the previous stitch so that I could be consistent!  TaDa!! 

I needed to take a couple of breaks and during one of them I switched cat beds on the chair--but then Karma was afraid to take the leap up and over the taller (firmer) brown bed.  She sat pouting on the ottoman--so I lifted her up and put her inside.  She was so embarrassed.  And you know I embarrassed her further by giggling.  I couldn't help it--honest.  ;)

Anyways, I am sooo excited!  
I finished the giant journal!!

Lots of pictures!
I kept the stitches tight enough that this is all the gap there is between the signatures.

And I did it with one thread and one needle--so the thread runs all down the centers of the signatures.

That was one long waxed thread, let me tell you!  

I went slowly and carefully and never got a knot.

It was just a good bookbinding day...where everything went right.  ;)

I didn't double the thread, though.  Never have before, so I hope it holds together okay.

Seems sturdy enough.

And huge!

It's 11 X 15 inches--that's 22 X 15 for a double page spread!

I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Just keep looking at it--you know how you do when you are just tickled things went well.

I get to check off one of the (too) many things on my goal list for the year, too.  Make a large journal.  (And here I was thinking 9 X 12--pfftt!!)  
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Oh, and Karma's made it in and out of the brown bed on her own now twice...so her dignity has been restored.  ;)
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I've been a 99.5 % vegetarian for three years today.  Once or twice a year I've eaten chicken from a restaurant and I did buy some tuna one time last year when I'd been craving a tuna salad sandwich for weeks, so I do slip--but very infrequently.  :)  Dairy, on the other hand...well, I'll probably never do better than about 80% but that's a tremendous improvement for me.  :)
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I've still been working my way through the 21 Secrets workshops--watching videos and taking notes.  I only have four left to go!  So many fun things to try.  This is just exactly what I needed to help me be that looser woman--LOL!  ;)
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I watched Silver Linings Playbook today and loved it!  I was probably one of the few people who had no clue what it was about before I watched it.  I'll admit that I heard the movie was up for oscars, just stuck it in my Netflix queue, never even read the description when it arrived, and just popped it in the DVD player.  I thought it was a sports movie (therefore, I honestly wasn't expecting to like it--LOL!).  Well, there is kind of indirect sports stuff, but it's more about family, love, mental illness, and new beginnings.  Loved it!
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 My leg is feeling noticeably better today.  I slept normal hours last night.  Groceries came yesterday.  And...I ordered something really special as a kind of belated birthday present to myself.  I was too low on things like toilet paper, deodorant, and toothpaste to get much at actual birthday time--but I did manage to buy the gelli plate, right?  Well, this month I ordered The Cinch!!  I've wanted one for a long, long time and getting back into bookbinding just made the craving too strong to resist.  Now I will be able to also make my own spiral bound books!  Whoohoo!  I'll fill you all in when it arrives.  :) 
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Anyways, we hit 50 degrees this cloudy day and we're supposed to be in the 60s by tomorrow.  Now I am off to watch the first few episodes of Season One of Enlightened.  Hope you are having a crazy good weekend!!  :):)
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"Count your joys instead of your woes; Count your friends instead of your foes."
Irish saying

Thursday-4:30am

Well, Saturday it got up to 71 degrees!  We had a few days in a row of gorgeous spring weather with sunny skies and 60s.  People were running around in shorts...but then they did that when we hit the 40s--LOL!

But then Wednesday morning it was in the 30s, stayed chilly all day, and right now it is 26 degrees.  Springtime in the Upper Midwest--LOL!

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The Fargo Flood Watch--well, flooding is when the Red River gets over 18 feet, major flooding is over 30 feet, and we're at 33 feet right now.  Apparently this is around the cresting point--maybe 34 feet.  So it isn't as bad as they first predicted (which was closer to 40 feet) so that's something to be thankful for!

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It hasn't been the most productive week for me with the leg holding me back, but I did get the little end tables wiped down on the porch and brought the chair back out there.  (Karma's now using one of the rolly chairs from the craft table instead to hold her blue bed.)

I think she was wondering if I was going to boot her out of her spot, but I was sore and restless so I let her have the chair all day. 

She kept thinking she saw bugs because I had killed a couple flies out there, but I didn't see any more.  Wishful, spring-fever thinking on her part.  She loves to watch bugs. 

This was the snirt pile on Monday.  It was down to less than a foot yesterday, I think. 

Karma was thrilled that the porch doors were propped open for several days. 

I even switched her over to her "summer" wild, colorful, lightweight collar. 

Those darn stencils were bugging me, though.  The paint was hard as a rock on there.  I was tempted to try 409 and emailed Leah about picking some up.  I was desperate.  Well, Leah--obviously better friend of the environment than myself--googled how to remove acrylic paint in a less toxic manner and one of the suggestions was rubbing alcohol.  I had some of that, so... 

...I tried it on a corner and it worked like a charm! 

But I was going to need some more bottles and the cotton balls were catching on everything...and the foam brush started falling apart...and I hurt too much to stand there more than a couple minutes at a time so was getting nowhere fast.  (This clean corner was two very swift sessions--LOL!)  Leah and I were emailing back and forth--and came up with a possible solution (to follow).

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In the meantime, I did at least get the holes punched in the signatures for the giant journal. 

You can use a phone book as a cradle.  I clipped the template on, tipped it into the groove and punched...a couple at a time.  (Remember that movie What About Bob? and the "Baby Steps"--ROFL!) 

I still have to sew it together, but this gives you an idea of what it will look like. 

I picked out some waxed thread and am probably going to try using two needles--thread for each end's four holes at the same time.

We'll see.  I have to watch videos just to try to remember how to do the coptic stitch binding in the first place and then see if I can figure out from there how to do both of the ends separately and at the same time.  Probably sounds like that makes no sense, but it does--LOL!

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With this leg, I've basically been limited to doing only what I have to do--the usual things like laundry, cooking, being Karma's bug toy slave, etc.  The sciatica was improving--but then I did laundry Monday and that did set me back a bit.  So I have been going through the 21 Secrets workshops--watching the videos and taking notes.  I think I have nine left.  And I did get the signatures punched, so I am still accomplishing a little something, I guess.  ;) 

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Last night Dagan and Leah were here.  Leah brought her drill, screws & anchors, some more rubbing alcohol, and some cotton rounds.  (We were right--the rounds worked way better than cotton balls!)  Leah installed the two additional racks from Ikea for our punches (top and bottom ones are the new ones). 

Then Dagan and Leah cleaned the stencils for me!!  TaDa!!!

Leah remembered I had these two plastic trays and so they poured enough rubbing alcohol in one to cover a stencil, let it sit just briefly, and then with a toothbrush just swished most of the paint away!!  Was truly magical! 

Then they picked that stencil out, rinsed it under water to get the loose paint bits off, and used the cotton rounds & rubbing alcohol to do the final cleaning up on the second empty tray. 

Dagan was doing the toothbrush and Leah was doing the cotton rounds and they were done in a matter of minutes!  This is absolutely fantastic!!  We have a system now for cleaning stencils.  They look practically brand new again.  Ahhh!  Thrilled...I am positively thrilled!!  :):)

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And what was I doing up at 4:30 in the morning, you may ask?  Well, it's not only the sciatica.  It's true that my sleeping has been all off when the leg is more painful--and that comes and goes, it seems--but it's not all that bad tonight.  I just have things on my mind so that the burning leg annoyance was just enough so that I couldn't get comfortable and haven't slept at all tonight.  I don't like to say negative things about people, but one of those things is I'm just really bothered by somebody's words and actions concerning someone I loved dearly.  Enough said.  I was tossing and turning for a couple of hours--and telling myself that none of it really matters.   I know it is all moot in the larger scheme of things...but it still kept me awake...with some leg pain for good measure, of course--LOL!

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Funny how we do that sometimes in the dead of night.  Waste our time obsessing over things we have absolutely zero control over...and that really, when you think about the source, are not the least unexpected or surprising.  But it's like we have to mill it out of our system or something.    

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I shall work on releasing this.

I hate the negative weight.

 I do not want to carry it with me.  

It only hurts me.  

Makes not one whit of difference to the person I wasted this time over--LOL!

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See?  

How silly. 

You cannot change other people.

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But you do not have to like them.  ;)

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We all have those vulnerable heart spots.

I need to be stronger.

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"The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Mahatma Gandhi