Playing Catch Up

Hello Readers!

Been awhile since I posted the goings-on in my world. Figured I'd better get on top of it before it got away from me. Not that I've accomplished a great deal since the last time I was here but I may have a pickup on the arting. One never knows with that muse of mine, what she might decide needs to get done!

That, and I am fighting sleep again. With me it's either too much sleep or not enough sleep or I'm sleeping when the rest of the world is awake. I'm sleeping while the rest of the world is awake right now. Been this way for about a week now. The ONLY good thing about sleeping while the rest of the world is awake is that when I'm awake, everyone else is asleep and I know there will be no distractions. Well, other than laundry and dishes...but we all have to deal with the housework! And I do hope yours is going according to plan!

I have been busy making books. Sometimes I'll be doing nothing exciting and ideas will hit me. I was cleaning the kitchen a week ago or so when I picked up an orange juice container and said, "I bet I could make a book or two out of this!" Random thoughts! I washed out the carton, sat it in the drain rack and went on with my day. Later the same day I finished off another carton of orange juice and did the same thing with it.

I didn't drink a gallon of OJ in one day! The first carton was finished the day before and being the lazy person I am at times, that carton was still sitting on the cutting board on the counter. The other carton in the fridge was only about half full. I hadn't touched it in a few days and opened the new carton thinking the other one was the new carton. I'm not only lazy sometimes, I'm very spacey most times!

At any rate, some books did get made from the two OJ cartons!  Sometimes the muse is spot on!

This one is 2.5 inches wide and 6 inches tall, sewn in the japanese stab binding. It has about 30 pages of orange writing paper. The tablet they came from says it is bond paper. I sewed it with orange embroidery thread.

This one came from the Minute Maid carton. It is 4 x 4 inches with orange and white writing paper. The two colors are stacked every other page. There are about 40 pages. Sewn in japanese stab binding with orange embroidery thread.

This one is from a Shurfine OJ carton (the cheap stuff---still quite tasty!). It's 3 x 4 inches, again with orange and white writing paper. This time the there are three segments of paper. Orange all stacked in the middle. It is sewn with orange embroidery thread in the japanese stab binding.

This one is 2.5 x 3.5 inches with about 50 pages of white writing paper. This is my least favorite of the four OJ books. Again it's sewn with orange embroidery thread in the japanese stab binding.

I like how the OJ carton books turned out. They feel good when in the hand. That waxed paperboard is easy to cut on the guillotine cutter, it bends nicely to accommodate the binding method and I still have some remnants of carton left to make some tiny books.

I did say I have been busy making books.

I needed to make some things out of maps for the gift shop in Lucas so I dragged out a map of Kansas and covered some cereal box chipboard in them. 

Kansas City

I thought I would get more than six covers from one road map. And I would have if I would have put words on the inside of the covers instead of the blue paper I put there instead. 

Wichita

The back covers of each of these books is more map of other towns in Kansas.

This one shows my part of Kansas.  Where the four red lines meet is Stockton, where I live. Lots of open space in my part of the state! 

All three of the books are 5 x 6 inches with white computer paper pages. There are sewn in the coptic stitch with embroidery thread. I was really pleased with the stitching on the orange. I used variegated thread and it all lined up beautifully! Unlike the green ones which were also sewn with variegated thread. There are five signatures of 8 sheets of paper in each. 

I have a whole basket full of road maps that need to be used! There will be more map books, I'm sure!

I showed you all one lone ball like these in a post previously. These are smaller than that lone ball. There are nine balls hanging there. All made with 1 1/8 inch circles. They are about 3 inches across. These, along with the map books are headed to the gift shop in Lucas.

A book in progress. This one gave me trouble so I abandoned it for the time beings! I have only made two other books in this way. Neither of them were totally successful. This one isn't either! Matter of fact, I made two page blocks for this pink poodle cover and neither of them fit properly. And I'm having trouble with how the damn thing goes together! I've watched a couple different videos about making this type of book but more study will need to be done before I finish this one. I'm also thinking that pink poodle cover might become something totally different than a book. I just don't, at this time, know what will happen here. You'll just have to stay tuned till it happens.

Another embroidered ball. 

Same ball, different shot.

Again, same ball, different shot.

I really like these swirl patterns on this ball. I think the next one done with this design will be done in shades of one color. Blue perhaps. 

I finished a couple of bowls. Terrible shot of the bowl! Sorry bout that. (My laziness showing! :) ) This is one of the bowls that needed a makeover after my having stored them improperly. I did an experiment for the inside of this bowl. My sister gave me some terribly smelly stuff that one generally puts onto the backside of an aquarium. It makes a frosted pattern on glass when it dries. My bowl isn't made of glass. (I'm not one to always follow the rules either!) My bowl is paper mache painted with wall paint and varnished with paint that was specifically made for glass. Different than the stuff I got from my sister. I decided to just go for it. It'd either work or it wouldn't. 

I really should have taken heed to the advice given, to go outside to work with the aquarium stuff. I think even the cats and the dog were a bit stoned after this experiment! I actually put the bowl on the front porch for the next two days! The kitchen (where my painting table is) stank to high heaven for a few hours even after I put the door open for half hour or so. It was cold outside! Couldn't let the house air properly. 

And as you can see, it didn't really work like I had hoped it would! 

I still like what it did do though. 

This bowl is cereal bowl sized. I really don't know the dimensions of it. I know it's cereal bowl sized though because I used one of the bowls I usually eat cereal out of for the mold! 

I have four different colors of this aquarium stuff to experiment with. I know that it does what it is supposed to do on acetate, clear plastic. My sister did that experiment. 

I also finished the little words bowl. paper mache again. This one is little, only about three inches across and couple inches deep. It is painted red inside and out. Outside is solid red, no words showing through. I painted the very top of the rim with gunmetal gray paint.

I still haven't located the bag of shredded money so the other three bowls that need some help are sitting on the shelf, waiting patiently. 

I got a new size Q crochet hook. This basket is about 7 inches across, three inches deep, crocheted with the Q hook. I used 1/2 inch red elastic for the 'yarn'. It is stretchy...somewhat. The basket is from the left over elastic after I finished  

this rug. 

Someone brought me a big box of elastic sometime back. I think it was my mother who brought it but I really don't remember. The elastic was in long lengths on plastic spools. A few were on cardboard spools. Lots of different colors! More of some colors than others. This rug is about 26 inches across. I used the Q hook on it too. 

Most of the elastic came from the 1960s and 70s. I called it underwear elastic. That's what it reminded me of! It was certainly of no use as elastic at this late hour of the game. All this elastic has been taking up a whole drawer in my cabinet for a couple summers! I'll be keeping this rug. Fred dog has already claimed it as his. He sleeps on it. It is on the carpet in the bedroom because if it is to go on linoleum, it has to have a rubber mat underneath it. 

Now I have to figure out what the heck to fill that drawer with!

The drapery basket is getting taller! I thought about tearing this all out and beginning again with the Q hook but changed my mind when I realized how crazy that was! I'm using a J hook to do this basket and it really is a tight squeeze with the drapery material. I'm going to keep plugging along with this one and eventually it will be done...or I'll run out of drapery material and it will still be done!

I have made two embroidered balls since the last post. The other one I showed you earlier was started on the 20th of Feb. I know this because I took it to my sister's house for my brother's birthday party. I was sewing the cover on it then. It was probably done in the next two days. That means that 

this one was probably started on the 22nd.

Same ball....

Same ball. My oldest sister wants to see some finished balls. She's only seen the covers being sewn on! She's moving into a new house and she's sure she needs one or two of these (sight unseen) to sit in a bowl somewhere. I'm sure she needs a lot more than one or two of them! 

Apparently books are still on the radar! I cut some book pages earlier today. This is only about half of the ones I cut. The other half are white computer paper. I thought that box of computer paper was all white paper. I was surprised and somewhat pleased to find this green paper in the bottom three inches of the box! 

I'll be keeping most of these pages for a book I'm making for myself. I need a new day book. The one I'm using at the moment isn't working. I haven't written in it for a couple of weeks. I need to get back into the habit of writing in it every single day!

play Wednesday big love Thursday be all

I noticed those are the words on the wall behind that stack of papers in the picture above. They are spelling words my grandson needed to learn when he was a first grader! He's now a 7th grader! 

Play big, love, be all!

Thanks for hanging in there to the end!

Remember....

be good to one another!

It matters!

Play big!

Love all!

Peace

831