New Leather

The cyber world has officially taken over the Monday after Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all of my sales yesterday. Giving a 25% off discount really works. Awesome!

After packaging up my orders late last night I finished 4 new leather journals. These have been sitting in my studio nearly finished for a few weeks as I waited for metal eyelets to arrive in the mail. I am adjusting to living in the country after living in St. Paul for a few years - there were so many art supplies stores within minutes before and now I need to plan ahead for a trip to the city or else figure out a way to get things online. I found these great metal eyelets in an Etsy shop. Did you know that Etsy has an entire category of art and craft supplies? It's a great way to find unique supplies as well as tried-and-true items.

Cyber Monday

SALE SALE SALE!

Save 25% in my shop on Cyber Monday when you use coupon code "cyber25" at the checkout!

WOOOOOOWEEEE!

This was the view outside our patio door Friday morning. It's not exactly the red and green holiday colors you associate with this time of year but they certainly were intense. The lake was glowing pink.

We enjoyed our "Black Friday" at home eating swedish pancakes, playing and working outside, organizing the barn, and feeling cozy inside our house with the early nightfall. It was great. No crowds around these parts.

Hopefully everyone participated in "Small Business Saturday" by supporting a favorite small business. It is wonderful to support local small businesses, but also those of us found on the web :). Etsy is great place for holiday shopping, so take some time to browse on "Cyber Monday."

I decided to offer a pretty drastic discount on Monday. I have about 20 new brag books in my shop and quite a few hardcover albums and journals.

Happy Shopping!

Zombie Award...Vote!

I entered one of my hand bound journals in the "BEST Zombie Award 2009" contest. Go to the link and vote for which journal you like best (mine!).

I used one of my prints to cover this book. The whimsy is carried out with an assortment of beads sewn to the front cover as I stitched the book together.

Thanks for voting!

Back to School

It's back to school season. The air is a little cooler in the morning and evening, yet there's still some humidity in the air that keeps us from getting the sweaters out. The big-box stores are full of students loading there carts high, buying those plastic cubes that stack on top of each other and waste baskets and other storage bins. I'm nearing 30 years old and we're back to that school schedule in our house, too. The summer was quick and I enjoyed the extra time I had with Peter around more often. I filled every minute I could with classes, book binding, and messing around with Adobe. That is, the time that I wasn't at the lake, helping with friends' farms and gardens, and playing in our yard (and park, and zoo...) with FGH. I didn't realize that I could still fill each day to the brim much like I did when we were on the farm.

Peter is already into his third week of his second year at Mitchell. He'll be in school for three years total and starts on-campus interviews already this week. He's has 6 or 7 firms with which he's interviewing. These are highly sought after positions, so he may or may not get one, and the position he gets if he does get one is for the summer only with the hopes that it may turn into a full time position after graduation. The interviewing process is like a crazy labyrinth; he has to make his way through all sorts of steps to get through the different levels. He even attended an informational session that tipped them off about what to order if you have a lunch interview among other things. Still, I like the idea that we could have an inkling of a slight clue about where we will end up. Minneapolis? St. Cloud? New Ulm? Winona? Stillwater? River Falls? So, good luck Peter!

Since Peter is up to his eyeballs in law right now, the schedule around the house is a little wonky. I am hoping we get into a routine soon because the last couple of weeks have been a little less than organized and FGH suffers from weird nap and meal schedules. Stockers, Busca. We did have a smashing time at the big State Fair yesterday, we have to squeeze it all in.

Swirling Tree is a little out of sorts too, with more going on than time allows. I have ADD tendencies and having too many pots cooking on the stove is my #1 problem.

A logo job has come my way and it's a lot of fun, yet, like all creative work, frustrating to do at the end of the day with little of my brain remaining awake at 10:30 PM. Then, we've got the BEST -Book binding Etsy Street Team Back to School Sale starting today. Click here to get to the BEST website where all vendors are listed. I was hoping to a get a few more books in the shop before the sale started and they may or may not find their way in during the week. My third big project as of late is my little elf persona, who needs a name by the way and I'll take suggestions. I sketched my little elf girl with vegetables and I think she'll make great 8x10 prints in a little girl's room and also great for little notecards. HOPEFULLY I get to a printer this week to she how she prints. I've got a black and white laser printer here that doesn't do her justice (obviously). So, busy. Yes.

I will leave you now with some photos of summer and my new projects. (The house is growing messier and more disorganized instead of the other way around, but I still hope to get some more house pics up this week too. ADD ADD ADD!!!)

The elf print didn't upload correctly. I got some crazy weird colors, so I'll try to get that figured out, too.

Back to School Sale on the Horizon

I have recently become a member of the "Bookbinding Etsy Street Team (BEST) and we are having a big Back to School sale September 1-7. Most vendors are offering free shipping, including me. Woo Hoo! I will be posting another link to the BEST website when the sale starts.