Spring...boring?!?

This spring is so boring.  Wow.  I'm used to being super busy this time of year.  The baby is taking huge naps during the daytime and I'm using that time to catch up on cleaning and organizing.  BOOOOOOOORRRRRRINGGGGGGGGG.  At least Busca-doo got into some shenanigans including sidewalk chalk and the side of our island while I was washing dishes.  I think it was his official first shenanigan.  That boy is really growing up. div>

In other news, I'm back in el studio.  I've fallen in love with Hollanders of Ann Arbor, MI (the website anyhow) and feel inspired to make some books.  They are a paper/book making supply store with a fantastic selection of both things.  This book I'm working on his going to be long-stitched-stitched on the outside of the hard spine.  I'm not sure if it will work but it will look cool if it does.  I glued the book cloth and lining paper onto the boards tonight and tomorrow I will try to figure out how to stab 24 tiny holes through thick board.  I may need to stop at my local Ace Hardware for a new awl.  
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Nerdiness

Are there any other fellow nerds out there that can hardly wait for the season finale of Heroes tonight?  I am one of them, indeed, it's embarrassing, but I love the sci fi, so there you have it.   I've even developed a crush on Sylar, the super villain.  I predict that Claire is going to convince Sylar to come work with the new "company" but we all know that it won't last.  He just can not be a good guy. 

Peter and I watched The Reader last night.  It was excellent though I would recommend viewing the deleted scenes which further explain the emotions  of the main character.  It was interesting to see a movie about the generation after Nazi Germany.  It's something I've never really learned about and I might have to read the book that the movie is based on to get a little more from it.  Kate Winslet is my new favorite for shizzle.

That's it for movie stuff.  Oh, we're now hooked on the HBO series Six Feet Under.    I can't wait to get the next disc in the mail...

Faux-Leather

I'm packing up all my books and display gear for a fun (and rainy) spring open house in Dassel, MN.  I think I finished about 12 books in the past couple of week.  These three are covered with some way-cool paper that looks a bit like leather but is actually derived from plants...bark is used in the two darker books, and the other one uses Thai paper.  The interior of the covers is covered in some beautiful papers that I recently acquired at Wet Paint just down Grand Ave.  I love them!

Here are a couple books that came out of the press looking very pleasant.  I'll be taking my books out of my etsy shop for the weekend, adding them back next week with some new ones.  Here's hoping for some sales in the rain.  (The farmers need the rain so I'm not complaining). 

Mas Accordion Books

I just finished assembling a big stack of little accordion books.  They are very charming.  I have some of the collaged butterflies in the mix as well as some funny owls and a couple little mini books which I think would make nice place cards.  I'm gearing up for my first art show next weekend at Levandowski Pottery.  I don't have a ton of books to bring, but I should be able to set up a tantalizing little corner in their pottery gallery.  There are so many things I want to get done lately between bookmaking, drawing, portfolio work but the weather is so blasted nice that I end up sitting at the park or in the backyard with FGH for extended periods of time.  It's just so WARM all of a sudden and it makes all of us so much happier.  

FGH Update

I've been slacking on baby news. Here's the boy...

...brushing the "hair" on Peter's old  Cabbage Patch Kid, Hector Quincy...
...learning to drink from a cup (who says you can't drink a carrot?)...
...fitting many things into his hand (usually pinecones when he's outside)...
...enjoying a Grandma June donut...
...discovering Easter eggs with Madeline...
...stealing Madeline's basket.

Back to School...Back to School...

Back to school, back to school, to show Daddy I'm not a fool...(Billy Madison)  I know, I'm OLD.

I've decided that I need to go back to school and now I just have to figure where, how, when, and for what.  I thought Graphic Design was a good idea, I like graphics, and design....hmmm.  The admissions counselor at MCAD thinks I have some work to do to even be CONSIDERED to take classes there.  What?  I have a Bachelor's Degree.  I've had my own business.  Criminitly.  I like fonts and I enjoy photoshop, so I figured the next step would be learning the other stuff necessary to land a job in the GD world.  I'm in the process of revamping my portfolio (due May 15) and adding other things that make it seem like I know what I'm doing.  If I do (or don't) make it into the program I "should really take some remedial courses" over the summer to get me ready to go to school to learn the same sorts of things that I will be learning over the summer.  I just want to learn and eventually work and make money so I can have my own house and a car with a functional trunk, hood, gas tank release button, and perhaps a muffler that doesn't fall off.  Here are some designed graphics that I may include in my portfolio. My hope is to make an alphabet book of flower names.  I didn't do b with a and c because I'd already drawn the s a few weeks ago not realizing that it would be an s.  It was just a doodle at that time.

Water

We watched Water last night, an Indian movie about a young girl who becomes a widow before she has met her husband and is doomed to live in mourning with other widows for her entire life.  She has to live with a shaved head and can only wear a humble white frock.  It was pretty good.  Heavy.  Sad.  A surge of mothering hormones came to surface at the end and I made Fredrik sleep snuggled next to us in bed afterwards.  I had the need to protect my offspring.  I would recommend it though the leading actor was pretty cheese ball.  We thought it might turn into a Bollywood movie for awhile.

Little Accordions

After a full moon cycle (or so) I've finally updated my etsy shop.  At last I've put some of the little accordion books in there.  I gave most of them away and I'm in the process of making eleven more.  I'm still obsessed with the accordion form.  People seem to be enjoying them and thinking of creative uses.  One thing is certain, one year olds like to play with them.  I'm thinking that I will put some pictures of cousins and grandparents in one for FGH.  I'm also making more of the collage-y butterfly books.

I also finished a few pocket journals.  They turned out really nice, I think.  They are covered completely with book cloth with a little teaser of the interior paper pasted into a little indented window on the cover.  My inspiration was a little vintage book of nature poems a friend gave me in college.  These turned out about the same size.

Quilt/Craft Retreat

Last weekend I enjoyed a leisure weekend of creative time, uninterrupted sleep, and gourmet food.  What beats that?  It was the fourth annual trip to Bonny's Quilting Haven in Hutchinson, MN.  I worked on my fourth quilting project.  I only quilt during this weekend so I'm still a beginner.  Next year I think I'll be ready to try something a little more complicated then this Amy Butler pattern, but the extreme gorgeousness of the fabrics I found made this quilt into a beautiful spring oasis complete with little bugs and toadstools.   I've decided to make the quilt top into a duvet cover.  I just feel like it should be fluffy and light.  I'm going to add a mustardy-yellow/green as a border to make it big enough for the queen-sized duvet I bought at IKEA and the back will be of the same cover.  I want to try to get it done soon so my mother-in-law can quilt (the top to a piece of muslin, not the entire duvet!) it with her new quilting machine.  I'm thinking flowers and swirls for the quilting. 

The quilt top

ants on a log fabric

lovely moda fabric full of bugs and flowers

Bonny's panna cotta with bluebery/rosemary/peppercorn/balsamic...sauce

Aunt B and Mom B working with some great fabric

Bev posting Grandma's recipes in a Swirling Tree journal

One of Amy's 20 scrapbooking pages that she completed over the weekend

Jewelry by Stacey Lynn just featured one of my books in her treasury "Gray and Lime Green."  Very nice collection!  Thanks, Stacey.