Dots box book

Say that 3 times fast.  You don't have to. I had trouble.  Here is the book I finished a little bit ago and I'm wasting no time showing it.

Here it is.   I used five colors of bright computer paper.  Approximately 70 sheets folded in half.  I used the colors to reflect the fact that Dots come in colors except blue, I used the blue paper anyway.  There is blue on the box.

I like it, but the trimming of the paper was not nearly as easy at the video made it seem.  I even went to the hardware store for a utility blade as my xacto knife wasn't cutting it. (Oops,pun alert.)  Maybe it was my choice of blade or maybe it is just my technique.  It's a fun little book.  Lots of pages.

Look out it's poem time.

Today's the day I made a book.
The binding is glued just take a look.
The pages are colored and there are lots.
The cover was once a box of Dots.

I couldn't help myself.

 Here's the mess I made.

Do something fun today if you haven't already.

Oh no, not again

Yes, it's true.  I've been idling.  All week. Well, since I got home.  The first two days were all about the fire, unpacking from the trip, packing up things I might to take if evacuated, unpacking once the danger passed. Thank the Lord, I didn't need to evacuate.  Many did and many lost homes and property.  No lives lost.  Here is how the  fire started:  vehicle in dry vegetation.  How awful must that person feel to know his/her carelessness caused so much destruction.

The rest of the week I have no excuses.  I just idled like the idle rich.  Are the rich really idle?  The heat has been trying.  Vegging in front of a screen doing "whatever" with a fan and the air conditioner was all I could manage.  That is until I came to my senses.  Thursday evening.

Couch potato.  A person who leads a mostly sedentary lifestyle.  Originally meant watching TV and eating snacks, now this includes computer and video game playing.  I looked this up on Wikipedia and it wasn't pretty.  Very, I repeat VERY, hazardess to one's health.  I want to be healthy.  I think this is true of most people.

So I got back on the walking track I started the first of July. Going before or just at dawn makes it easier.  Here's the view August 2nd.

Then yesterday, Sunday, it was cloudy and the temperatures stayed in the 80's.  Here's the view from almost the same spot.

This a road near my home that is fairly level.  Good for me as I get dismayed if there are too many hills.  Once I've been walking regularly, the hills won't tire me so much.

My problem is almost all of my favorite things to do are sedentary. Sewing, knitting, reading, weaving, mixed media art, book binding.  But I also like gardening and dancing so there you go.

Wait. Did she just say bookbinding? 

Yes.  And I have mentioned it before.   See it here .  Only I called it "book making" which sounds vaguely illegal.

This is a binding called coptic stitch binding.  Just now I'm trying, for the first time, a glued binding.  I saw a great tutorial on YouTube using a Junior Mints box for the cover.  Watch it here. But look out for advertisements.

I'm writing this while the glue is drying, so I will show the finished product another day.  Now for some dancing.  Be thankful there are no photos of this.

Back home

Charles and I arrived home from our film school adventure last night. Unfortunately there was a fire burning  close to my home, maybe 10 miles away.  Fire is the natural disaster we in the foothills dread.  No flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes or earthquakes (thank you, Lord) but fire is a real threat in our dry summer months.  Fortunately, it is now out after burning 1300 acres and more. At least one home.  I haven't heard any news of it this morning.  The smoke has gone and there is no smell of it in the air.

We were about 80 miles away when a friend called to see if I was 'all right'.  Then told me about the fire.  I called my daughter who said she would drive the 48 miles to my home so she could find the cats and try to save photos and such if the fire was near.

This is a photo of the fire from 30 miles away.

 

I kept saying to Charles. "That's not a pretty sight."  Then I changed to saying, "That's so ugly."

When we got to my house, Charles' parents were waiting.  All was well, but we were still nervous if the wind would change and start toward us. It never did.  I am so thankful for our firefighters and the pilots in the planes who were also fighting it.

Filmed in my driveway.  Voices of my family and I. Please excuse the weird change of angle. This plane circled 2 times then flew directly into the smoke and didn't come back in view.  You can see the fire in the last part.  It was sunset so the smoke was pink tinged.

About the film school?   I will write a post soon with photos.  And sewing?  Even this afternoon, I'll be back at it with updates any day now.

UPDATE:  Adding this 2 hours later.  Fire is still burning, there is smoke at my house and all the way down into the valley.  The some firefighters are at the staging area about 1 mile from me.  I do not see planes.  Some residents have been evacuated to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.

The smoke settling over the valley. I'm in Shingle Springs looking west.

Off On An Adventure

I am leaving for another great Road Scholar program with my grandson, the fabulous Charles.  This is our third one.  It is called Intergenerational Hollywood Film School.  For five days we'll learn with other grands and kids what is involved in producing a film.  Our drive will take about 6 hours to Glendale, California.

Our first trip was also to southern California.  We went to Buena Park for a wonderful program about crime scene investigation which they don't seem to have any more.  Too bad it was fascinating.

Learning about fingerprinting.

 The crime scene being processed. Note body on the table. Grandparents could offer suggestions only.

                      The kids were making plaster casts of their foot.

Last summer we went to Oregon for photography.   I did write a post about this last year, but here are a couple more pics from that one.

              There's Charles with his tripod.  We did have a good time. 

Closing for now,  must pack and do a bunch of other things.  I'll be back.

"Too Darn Hot"

"It's too darn hot,
It's too darn hot,
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,
Refill the cup with my baby tonight.
I like to sup with my baby to night
Refill the cup with my baby tonight,
But  I ain't up to my baby tonight
'Cause it's too darn hot!"
Words and music by Cole Porter.
Watch this clip of Ann Miller singing and dancing to this song.  It'll make you even hotter. But she is a great dancer.   Sorry if there's an ad.
And now to cool you down.  A few photos of cold things.  I only took one the rest are from the internet.  Enjoy.

A glacier.

An iceberg

                                                     Rain

Shaved ice, especially blue

Snow at my house, this doesn't happen often

                                                  Ice cream cones

Try to keep cool. Yes?

Cabin in the Wood

Little cabin in the wood,

Little man at the window stood.

Saw a rabbit hopping by...













Okay,  I'll stop.   I was once a pre-school teacher and sometimes I just can't help it.   This came on me just now when I was thinking about my visit this past few days to a lovely cabin in the Plumas National Forest.  See photo above.

To protect the people to whom the cabin belongs, I won't show any more photos of the cabin.  I took a bunch because the inside was so nice and the views through the windows were beautiful.  Here are some I took on route and in the vicinity.

Lupines

A view off Highway 20 with clouds

Flowers growing wild along the road.

 

On route near Sierraville from the driver's seat.  Yikes.

Thanks to Lynne and Pam and the generous cabin owners for a very nice few days.

More sewing coming up. Ciao.

Sewing a little

Aha!  I finished the blue skirt.

Okay, if you look closely, you can tell I have not put the hem up yet.   Don't look.  But it fits me and I won't need to make much of a hem so I decided to post it now instead of later.

A close-up of a gore.  The fabric looks like tiny bubbles.  Oh, remember that song by Don Ho?




I've three current projects going besides hemming the blue skirt.

 #1 A blue jean bin project.

I must admit this photo doesn't tell you much.  A surprise awaits. Soon.


#2   A denim vest jacket for my sister.  No photos of any kind, but stay tuned there will be some.  I have the fabric and notions, but no picture.

#3      Two days ago I experienced serendipity.  Although I needed some deck seating,  I wasn't actively looking.  My old chairs had one by one torn the seats from the chair frames. Not one of the four is usable.  Serendipity.
I found a parking space in front of World Market though I had not planned to go there.   Out in front there were some colorful garden chairs.  I saw. I sat. I bought.

 

Red, green, yellow and orange.  They are comfortable as they are, but because they're metal I decided chair pads would be necessary.

           

    I made a pattern from pages from a Road Scholar brochure. No other     paper  was available.

I bought 1/2 inch foam.

                       And I found really nice fabric as colorful as my chairs.


Check back for the finished projects, but don't expect too much too soon.
I am only human.  I bet you knew that about me, didn't you?

 Bye for now.  I must sew.

Post Script.  When I made the link to YouTube for Don Ho there wasn't an ad, now there is. Aack, but it's short and he's worth the wait.