Handbound book

As soon as I saw this scrapbook paper at Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway maybe 3-4 weeks ago, I knew that I had to make a book with it. Interesting because I wouldn't necessarily consider it "my style " but something about it called to me. Anyway, I had gotten this idea of making a book using scrapbook paper, random art type papers, & chipboard. This is, I believe, a combination of a concertina with a pamphlet stitched book. The "back" of the book is an accordion. I hand stitched the three pamphlets into the back. I covered the chipboard with the scrapbook paper & then adhered the front and back parts of the concertina to the inside of the chipboard. I want to give either long stitch or coptic stitch a try soon.

Exploring!

Hello everyone!

Today the kid & I had a little adventure! We were tasked by her preschool teacher to go on a nature walk & collect leaves that had fallen to the ground to bring back to school on Thursday. As today my car's temperature gauge said it was 105 degrees, it was a tad toasty to go on a "real" nature walk. I was able to show her how to gently feel the leaves as she picked them up. I also showed her how the newly fallen leaves & the ones that have been on ground longer were so different. She probably would have kept on collecting leaves had it not been time to move on to another activitiy.

Our next stop continued our exploration mode. We hunted for buttons at our favorite button box (a bit of treasury box). She filled her tin & dumped it over & over. We talked with another lady as she was button hunting. We found some fabulous buttons, some of which might end up listed in my Etsy shop (TheWhimsicalMuse).

TheWhimsicalMuse on Etsy:
Newest additions:
1) A set of handstamped Christmas cards
2) baker's twine in 100 yard increments in black & white; red & white; brown & white; blue & white; and green & white

Items I've been cooking up for The Whimsical Muse
1) hand crafted items, including holiday tags
2) baker's twine offered in 50 yard increments (rather than it being a special order only item)

That's all for now :)
Pam

My life in a nutshell...keyword "busyness"

Things have been really busy around these parts:

1) We had a fantastic extended weekend trip to Durango, Colorado. A really nice place. Fun to visit my sister & her boyfriend (along with their 50 lb puppy & two cats who hid most of the time we were around. Yummy yummy food. My sister's boyfriend smoked chicken & ribs. The ribs were TDF...probably the best ribs I have ever eaten. My kid & my sister made pizza one night. Pretty amusing but fun with tasty results. We got out to restaurants, the hot springs, the local playground, more restaurants & more. Thank goodness for having the laptop with us...

2)...because sales on Etsy at The Whimsical Muse have been really great! Especially while we were on vacation. I don't know if it's Murphy's Law (or what) but I had an inkling that I would have a bunch of sales while we were on vacation & I did. A number of requests for custom cuts of bakery twine, along with a number of in stock, "on the (Etsy) shelf" items. I was up late the night we got packing orders & getting things ready for the week. I have been amazed at how quickly orders have gone from the local post office to their destination. Two days to get from San Diego, CA to the east coast.

3) The kid is back in preschool, absolutely adores her new class & wakes up every day asking, "do I get to go to preschool today?"

4) I finished a million flowers (okay, 28) for the flower swap at Scrapbook Club. We had SB Club tonight. Fun fun! I think people focused more on their swap items than on creating new things. The flowers...wow! Every person's flower creations were so different than the others but oh so fun. I love love love the creativity in this group! I will try to get a pic or two up eventually with all of the flowers. Crazy but I didn't end up doing anything (yet) with the kit from the last SB Club meeting. I guess I was busy :)

5) I just started singing again with a choir group I used to sing with :)

I think that summarizes the (happy) busy-ness in my life. Of course, the mundane is still there.

Scrapbook Club

Well, for the first time since starting back in January, I had to miss Scrapbook Club on Thursday night :( I knew about it well in advance but it was harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, I figured I would take the kid up to Pink Pineapple with me on Friday to get my class kit under the guise of her getting to play in the kids area at PP. Got my kit & it's full of yummy stuff for me to play with! Yay! I feel a little better now. When it came time to leave, it was harder to get my kid to go & I had to persuade her with a chocolate milk at Starbucks (cause that's "a mommy and me thing" as she says). Hehe... Quick stop at Michaels. Got a little something for my crafting (will tell in another post at another time) & a $1 coloring book for the kid.

Not the best pics but here is the kit:journaling pages & plastic gem things

Mixed Media Half Bracket Album from Fancy Pants
Fancy Pants paper



Maya Road Circles Translucent Sheet
Cute little chicky clip
I have no clue what I will do with my kit but I may be back with my results. I'm currently working on flowers for the class flower swap.

Wordle

Wordle word clouds.

Bakery twine delivery!

I got a yummy delivery of bakery twine tonight! Two huge spools of the goodness! One spool is wrapped with a pastel colored minty lime green & white twine and the other is wrapped in black & white. The green & white twine is very sweet & would be lovely with vintage style crafts & designs. The black has a very classic feel to me & would be nice in everything from vintage to modern designs. They are each now available in my Etsy shop The Whimsical Muse in 5 & 20 yard increments (in addition to red & white, blue & white and brown & white twine).

Baker's twine

I just got a delivery of some new baker's twine. Oh my! Two rather yummy new colors! I'll be back with pictures.