A Slew of Books and a Few Critters

Hello Readers!

We will start off with books because there are a slew of them to show! The muse has books on the brain at the moment. She cares not that other projects need attention. Perhaps in the next post we will see something besides books.

Don't get me wrong, I love making books but I have quite a few books already made, I don't really need to make another boatload of them. But looking at the top of my desk, I see a dozen or more page blocks needing sewn into their covers. So more books are on the horizon apparently.

Enjoy the books but do stay tuned for the critters to come at the end of the post. The last one in the batch really gave me a great laugh!

The books are in no particular order. I don't remember in which order they were made.

 Copy paper pages. 2.5x2 inches. Sewn in long stitch with waxed hemp cord. Black leather cover with a metal button closure.

 I really like making these pudding box books. This one has some slick paper from a newspaper ad painted with waste paint covering the taped up pudding box. It measures 3.5x3 inches about an inch and half thick. It has copy paper pages sewn in the long stitch then the waxed hemp cord was woven along the spine. It has 120 pages counting both sides of the paper.

This one is a pudding box too. It has a few more pages in it than the yellow spined one. This one has painted newspaper covering the pudding box. The thread I used to sew this one is some thick beading thread. I ran out of thread before I was done weaving the spine. Looks great the way it ended up. I added one single wooden bead to the spine of this one.

 These two are cardstock presentation folders with painted newspaper. They measure about 3x3. I didn't measure when making these. I cut the presentation folders so the spine of the notepad didn't have to figured out later. The paper was cut the same time as the covers. Some of them have copy paper pages, others have green lined computer paper pages. All have a total of 20 pages.

 two more notepads made the same was as the previous two. Only difference with these two is they have pale orange writing paper pages.

 Three TINY inch by inch and a half leather covered books with copy paper pages. Fully functional little books. These will end up being key chains as soon as I locate the key chain attachements.

 Three more little books made from the presentation folders and painted newspaper. A few of these are more like wallets than notepads. Some of them have a pocket alongside the notepad paper. None of them measure more than 3 inches in any direction.

 presentation folder an painted newspaper

 Another just like the previous. This one needs to be trimmed it looks like. I sewed them with either embroidery thread or waxed hemp cord. Sewn in different stitches. Some with beaded spines, some without beads.

 This one is 3 x 3.5 inches. marker doodling on text weight paper from the Rooks County Free Fair book for 2015. The cover is from a corrugated cardboard box that once held a replacement ring for a light fixture. Sewn in pamphlet stitch with waxed hemp cord.

 Painted filter paper, embroidery and white pen on black paper. This one measures 5x7 inches. Sewn in the long stitch. I left tails. It has copy paper pages.

 Painted newspaper on presentation folder.

 And another ....

 This one is presentation folder with galaxy painted black paper (a failed experiment). It has copy paper pages. 4 inches tall, 2.5 inches wide.

 Candy box book. It has pale orange writing paper pages sewn with orange embroidery thread. It measures 3 inches wide by 7 inches tall.

 Another with painted newspaper on presenation folder cardstock with a beaded spine.

 Same as the above one but this one has a little pocket in addition to a notepad. Again, painted newspaper on cardstock.

 This one is made from packaging from some bathing products. It is 3 inches square sewn in japanese stab binding. It has copy paper pages. I forgot to glue some paper to it before I sewed it together. I think it will still get something to art it up a bit before I call it done. The reason I forgot to art it up is because I drilled the holes instead of using my crop o dile to make the holes. Got all caught up in doing something different it threw off the muse's mojo!

Another japanese stab binding. Presentation folder with painted newspaper. I didn't intentionally make the holes on this one all wonky but I do like the effect of it. One of my holes got out of line so I just made them all out of line. It is 3 x 2.5 inches with copy paper pages. Sewn with orange embroidery thread.

 And the last one....presentation folder with painted newspaper. Green lined computer paper pages sewn in pamphlet stitch.

If I counted right, there are 25 little books here. My muse has gone crazy with bookmaking! Part of that craziness comes from the 'need' I feel to use up all that painted newspaper I've acquired over the last few months.

I've been working on Annie's Kitty Book too. Nothing new to show with that unless you want to see a bunch of background paintings. I do one or two spreads in those books each day. One day I'll be donw with backgrounds and get busy on kitties again.

I've also got a couple of crocheting projects going on. I finished the green and purple tote bag. Forgot to take its picture. I'll show it to you all next post. 

I guess that's it for the art for now. Thanks for hanging in there. 

Now for some critters!

 Cows aren't really anything special in my neck of the woods. They're a dime a dozen as the saying goes. I like cows though. These cows were discovered on short jaunt through the countryside with Ma a few days ago. We went looking to see what all the sirens were doing heading east from the house. Four different vehicles, lights and sirens blaring, zoomed by in a short amount of time. It was a wreck about six miles down the highway between a piece of farm equipment and a Suburban. Looked as though they side swiped one another. The big sprayer had a flat tire and the Suburban was in the ditch with the passenger's side of the vehicle all scuffed up. Didn't appear to be anyone gravely injured. Probably one pissed off farmer and an unhappy Suburban driver, but didn't appear to be any blood involved. Ma and I found the cows on our way back home. Instead of driving past the wreck to get back home, we took the chalk roads around and back to the highway. 

We saw a big old herd of wild turkeys before we saw the cows. I got the phone out and turned on the camera after we saw the turkeys. Sorry there are no pictures of that big flock...must of been three dozen or so of them. (Most anything can come in a herd.)

 This picture will be a lot more interesting if you click on it and make it a lot bigger. The vultures have gathered atop the Co-op grain bins in the middle of town for the night. I didn't count how many were settled in already when I took the picture. I'm guessing close to 100 or so. There were still a dozen or more of them flying around and there's another tower to the left that you can't see that also has a few vultures perched on it for the night too. Won't be long and the vultures will be moving south to warmer parts for the winter. 

The vultures always make me laugh when I see them occupying the grain bins.

This next fella, though, he gave me a big ol' belly laugh before I shooed him out the back door. I was sitting here in front of my computer, reading, minding my own business when I hear someone rattling around in the kitchen. I had just come from the kitchen where I sat a half full bowl of hamburger gravy on the floor for Tommy cat to eat if he wanted it. He wanted it when it was sitting on the desk. I filled my coffee cup and came back to the deskroom. I didn't pay it much mind till I heard the bowl scooting across the floor. 

I really wish I had brought the camera with me to the kitchen when I went to investigate the noises from the kitchen. Cats are not, as a general rule, noisy eaters. 

I flipped the switch for the light above the sink as I walked into the kitchen. All I could see at the bowl of gravy was a dark colored long tail. My first thought was, "Good grief, Tippy! Are you that hungry?" As I took another step and could see the critter sitting there, I could clearly see it was not Tippy being the noisy eater!

Mr. Opossum slowly raised his head from the cat food bowl he was monching in. He'd already licked that gravy bowl clean! He looked at me and turned toward the laundry room in no big hurry.

He's nowhere as menacing as he looks.

I really don't want him coming in the house for kibble, but it was a great laugh to find him sitting there acting as though it were quite natural for him to have waltzed right in and help himself to some grub. 

He didn't come in the back door. That door was closed when he headed for the laundry room. He had to have  come in the front door. It was standing wide open at the time. He had to have come through the living room into the kitchen and around the corner. When I found him sitting at the cat food bowl I hightailed it back to the deskroom for the phone so I could take his picture. It worked out great. It was dark in the laundry room and I didn't trust him enough to get too close. I couldn't reach the light switch to see what the heck he was doing. The flash on the camera confused him enough he just pretty much stood there in a daze. He didn't freak out at all. I opened the door and he nonchalantly went down the back steps with his belly full of hamburger gravy and a bit of cat food for dessert.

I am rather partial to opossums. They are harmless little guys.They seldom become aggressive, they just pass out when they get rattled. Wonderful little characters. I want him in the yard! He eats tons of bugs! But not in the kitchen! I'm seriously hoping he is not the critter who helped itself to the avocado tomato salad leftovers I left sitting beside the sink a few nights ago. The tomatoes were still sitting on that plate the next day but there wasn't a trace of avocado to be found. Tommy may have a taste for avocado. He's not lived with me long enough to really know his eating habits. I know for fact, the other three felines wouldn't touch that avocado with a ten foot pole. Apparently none of these critters like tomatoes. It probably wasn't Mr. Opossum who ate the avocado. He'd have made enough noise to wake the dead climbing up on the counter and keeping that plate from hitting the floor. He chased that bowl of gravy a ways. I think he would have eaten the tomatoes as well as the avocado.

At any rate, I was elated to have a visit from Mr. Opossum. I'm guessing its a boy. I didn't get close enough to find out for certain. Now if he'll just stay outside where opossums belong, we shall get along famously! Yes, I know I probably shouldn't leave the door standing wide open if I don't want wildlife in the house. I've lived in this house for ten years and lived in the burned house for five and this is the first time I've found anything larger than a dead rat inside the house. And I know the dead rats aren't killed in the house. Those silly felines bring them to me as gifts! We are up to six dead rodents for the week that I know of. Yesterday it was a juvenile kangaroo rat and a half eaten field mouse. I really wish they wouldn't kill the kangaroo rats and show them to me. Those little things are so dang cute!

That's all the excitement I have for you today.

Remember....

Be good to one another!

 It matters!

Peace

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