Baby Journals

In my WOYWW post on Wednesday, I showed a photo of two pairs of covers for Baby Journals.  I had a commission to make one baby journal, but made two sets of covers, to give a choice for the customer and also spares for a second book.

I have finished both books.  The commissioned book went in the post yesterday morning and the other book was completed yesterday evening and is now up for sale.

This is the Commissioned Baby Journal:

Front Cover 

Back Cover 

Hard covers of Peter Rabbit paper, lined with turquoise blue art paper.  Pages are medium weight Bockingford watercolour paper, hand bound in eight sections, in Coptic stitch, with deep turquoise linen thread.  There is a label on the front cover, mounted on paper to match the cover linings. 

And the other book:

 Front Cover
 

Back Cover
 

Hard covers of Peter Rabbit paper, with same turquoise lining paper.  Pages are crisp, white laid-texture text paper.  Hand bound in eight sections, in Coptic and French stitch, with soft moss green linen thread.   Can be personalised with a label, similar to the commission book.

This would be lovely as a journal, or sketchbook, as well as a great Guest Book for a Christening, Baptism or Naming Day, or a book to record good wishes at a Baby Shower.  

The book is for sale here, if you would like it! 

Thanks for reading! 

Update Report: Lots More Books!

I haven't posted for weeks again!  It's been busy and I have neglected my blog, in favour of working on quite a few new books.  Here's a photo-summary of what I've been doing:

Firstly, another Business Card Case.  This time, it has a hand-painted design of flowers and birds.

It's lined with two colours of mulberry paper.  I quite like this one!

Then, here is what I did with the leather and dandelion-print paper that I showed in my previous post:

The dandelion paper is a lining for the covers of a new journal. 

The covers are a honey-beige coloured leather.  

There is a hand-made ceramic button and matching linen thread tie fastening.  

Sewn in longstitch, with aqua linen thread, to match the button.  

Pages of my favourite cream text paper.

Next, a Spring themed journal, in golden wool-felt, with purple suede lining and edge-trim, with a green satin ribbon trim and tie-fastening.

The cover is made of suede-leather and felt, so it looks and feels very rich and soft.

 The two sections of paper are stitched with a cross-stitch, in purple linen. 

Then a Sketchbook:

Blackcurrant leather sketchbook, with 30 pages of drawing paper and 10 pages of watercolour paper. Sewn with a decorative longstitch, in light grey linen thread. 

The sketchbook is lined with a deep pink paper, patterned with birds. 

I also made two more rainbow-themed hardcover journals. 

Pink Indian paper, with a gold-printed scalloped design, highlighed with purple glitter. 

There are ten page sections, each section having a different colour on the outside and white pages inside.  

This journal has a collage design paper on the covers... 

The pages are of the same Indian cotton-rag paper as the previous journal. 

Both books are sewn with a coptic style stitching, in bright hemp cord. 

I've also been working on several commission books and a very special commission of my own. There are so many books in this post already, that I think I'll post those next time!

 
Shameless Plug:
If you'd like any of these books, they're all for sale - you can visit my online Folksy shop here, or if you prefer, find my Etsy shop here. 

A Catching Up Post for January

Hello all and a Happy New Year to you!

It went quiet on my blog, after the Baby Album in Progress post.  There was a good reason... On December 9th, my mum fell down and broke her hip.  She was obviously carted off to hospital, where she had an operation to repair the hip.  She was in hospital for nine days, then sent home, with some support care in place, to help her recover.  However, I spent the greater part of her hospital stay dashing around between my home, hers and the hospital, and also making telephone calls.

When Mum came home, she wasn't fit enough to manage on her own, especially overnight, so I basically moved in with her for a while.  I stayed 18 days, after which we had some lovely ladies come in to sleep overnight, so that I could go home and sleep.  You don't sleep well when you're caring for someone.  Even if they are sleeping sweetly and have no problems, you still have one ear open for their call.  My mum had several problems after she got home - one infection after another, needing antibiotics or other medication, problems related to her lack of mobility etc.  It meant she needed support at night quite a bit, at least to begin with.  I was also doing a lot to help her during the day time.

The local Rehabilitation Team have been coming in three times a day to help.  They send in carers morning and evening, to assist with personal care and other tasks, to help my mum start the day and get back to bed at night.  Their remit is to help her get back to how she was before her accident, so they encourage her to try to do things for herself and show her techniques for coping with things that she was able to do before, but can't manage well now, because she can't bend down, or twist etc.  With rehab. in mind, they also send a helper during the morning, to help Mum do some exercises, to strengthen the damaged muscles in her leg. They don't alter existing arrangements, so I'm still making lunch and tea on four days of the week, with Sarah doing the same on her usual three days.

However, for the first couple of weeks, I was doing a great deal more than just lunch and tea.  I was running the house, doing the laundry, some of the cleaning (a cleaner comes in once a week anyway), nursing, cooking, shopping, generally running about... It was very exhausting.

Mum has tried very hard and made good progress. She is able to get about quite well now, with a little walking frame to support her (though she doesn't lean on it very hard, which is good).  She is doing small tasks for herself more now - making a drink or snack, making her breakfast etc - but there is still quite a way to go.   The Rehabilitation Team will come for almost three more weeks, after which she will need a referral to Social Services, if she isn't able to cope.

I'm hoping that by the end of the three weeks remaining, Mum will be managing a lot more for herself.  We're encouraging her and doing our best to help make it easier.  For example, we rearranged some kitchen cupboards, so she can reach all the stuff she uses regularly.  It's hard when you have a frame in the way, so you can't reach as far forward as usual and when you can't bend to reach in lower cupboards.  Everything for her breakfasts, snacks, drinks etc is now within reach, so she can tackle these things herself.

I'm home now, but going in to see her every morning, to tidy up, help with jobs, do things for her that she still finds hard; then I'm still there to make meals on four days of the week and for any other occasions I'm needed.  At least though, I have now been able to sleep in my own bed for the past six nights. That has been wonderful - I have been able to sleep all through the night.  I'm still very, very tired, but I'm getting over it!

So, that is where I disappeared to for the past month.  December and Christmas / New Year went by in a whirl.  I ate lunch at home on Christmas Day, as by then my mum was managing alone for an hour or so; we then took a lunch with us and went to my mum's for the afternoon, taking her gifts along too.  My mum-in-law stayed over New Year, but I hardly saw her.  Luckily, Dave was off work all over the period I was at my mum's so he coped with the household chores etc, with help from James.  And he was around to keep him mum company during her visit.

It is great to be living in my own little home again.  I missed home - and the boys - so very much.  It was really difficult to be at my mum's all that time. I felt very cut off and isolated.  That was made harder by the difficulty in arranging the overnight care, as everyone was on holiday over the Christmas / New Year period and finding help was really tricky.

So, now I am back!  Things are still difficult and my mum still needs much more help than before, but she's doing her best and I hope she will manage better every day (though she currently has a chest infection, so she's feeling a bit tired and is very bothered by her cough).  Keep your fingers crossed for us, everyone!

* * *

I did manage some "makes" during December.  While my mum was in hospital, I did have some spells of free time - mostly in the evenings, so I managed to finish my Christmas Orders for my books and also a hand made Christmas gift (which I'll show you in a different post!).

This is the finished Baby Christmas Album, which I was in the process of making when I last posted:

Baby Christmas Photo Album

Concertina album, which ties at the left side with red ribbon.  

A red felt star, with white felt owl, hides a little magnet, which fastens the book.  

When the fastenings are untied, the book opens out into a concertina - with every page a different colour of the rainbow.

Each pair of pages is decorated like this, with stamped snowmen and trees, coloured to match the pages.

The first page has a star-shaped label, mounted on green felt and embroidered, to match the star that fastens the book.  There's a rainbow snowman too, to follow the theme in the rest of the book.  

There was a delay in finishing and sending the book, so it went out a week later than first planned, but it still arrived before Christmas and the customer said she liked it very much; so all my hard work was worthwhile! 

I also sent out a number of notebooks and journals, some ready-made and others made-to-order.  They were all well-received and, most importantly, I managed to get all orders out in plenty of time for Christmas! 

* * * 

I'll post about the Other Thing I Made tomorrow.  I'm so pleased with it, that I want it to have a post all to itself. 

Anyway, if you've read all this, thanks (and congratulations).  Come back tomorrow for the next installment! 

 

Retro Vintage Style Notebooks

A quick post to show some work I've been doing. 

First of all, a commission book, which I finished today:

A Guestbook for a Baby Shower.  As you may have guessed, it's for twins!  The lady who ordered this had made beautiful invitations, with her own artwork, which she showed me when we were discussing the label for the cover.  I suggested that her work could be used to make the cover label too, as it was so nice.  So, the artwork here is all her own and I have just cut things out, mounted pieces on foam pads and matted the "Twins" label on the grey chevron paper.  I gave her a choice of several layouts and this was the one she chose. 

 

The kraft covers are lined with similar chevron-covered paper and the pages are a rainbow of different colours.  I think this will make the mummy-to-be very happy!

 

* * *

I've also been making some fun little notebooks for my online shop.  The paper covers are from a range called "Happy Days", by Papermania.  I found this during the week, when I was in town and immediately thought of these notebooks. 

I filled them with some lovely white "Three Candlesticks" writing paper (anyone had some of that? It's crisp and really nice, with a "laid" texture and a watermark that's very distinctive).

The main colours common to all papers, are the green and red, so I have used thin satin ribbons in those colours, as pretty tie closures for each book.

 

There are three pairs in the shop just now, with more on the way (see below!).   If Papermania have names for these designs, I don't know them, so I used my own names for my pairs of notebooks:

 

"Cherry Pie" - with a little cut-out can on the cherry paper cover, to make it a nice set.

"Hello You" - labels with little friendly messages, plus a very '50s style floral.

"Sew Lovely" - a design of sewing tools, dresses & machines, and the second cover has a design of paper dressmaking patterns.

 

These four are "in progress" just now - waiting to be hand-stitched with nice red linen thread and to have their ribbons added.

 

 

Incidentally, if you should want to buy any of these, they're available from my Folksy and Etsy shops....

If you buy from Etsy, you can use a Coupon Code "Blogfriends10" at checkout, for a 10% discount (which applies to all purchases, not just the notebooks).

If you prefer to buy via Folksy - or just direct from me - give me a shout and I will "reserve" items for you, with the discount set up on the reserved listing. (End of shameless plug!)

This pair are not in the shop.  I have made them as a gift - they'll be in the post on Monday morning!

The Holes in the Wall

On Wednesday evening, Jeff the Builder came to see us. 

He did this to the wall on our stairway:

A hole...

A larger hole...

 

... you can see the upstairs floorboards...

 

He was looking to see the structure of the wall and whether it was supporting the upstairs landing & other walls. 

Because, he wants to knock that wall down... but we'd rather the upstairs rooms didn't end up being downstairs rooms instead.

 

Soon, we will be starting a Project.  Quite a big Project too.  Plans have been drawn by the architect and Quotes are being agreed. 

 

Holes will be made all over the place - but, I'm glad to say, mainly in the garden.  Well, at least to begin with.

 

No doubt, more details will follow, once something interesting begins to happen... 

 

Watch this space - and remember, you heard it here first!

 

Thoughts from the Washing Line : Chronicle of A Typical Monday

[Source]

 

So, yesterday was a typical sort of Monday... and this morning, I was wondering how it is that I am so tired; then I remembered all that I did yesterday and of course, then it was obvious! 

 

I'm sure everyone has a busy day in their week and sometimes several; I know we all have extra-busy days sometimes.  So, I'm not writing this post as a way of moaning, or making it look as if my life is busier than anyone else's.  I just thought it would be an interesting exercise, to chronicle my day... 

 

Monday 28th April

5am:  Woke up feeling thirsty.  Got a drink.  Of course, I was now awake and it was getting light... but I wanted to be asleep.  Played a quick game of "patience" on my little ipod touch. Amazing how quickly that makes me sleepy... Remembered to turn off the ipod before I fell asleep again.

6am:  Mr LizzieMade got up and went for a shower.  Heard him pottering in the bathroom, but kind-of stayed asleep...zzzmmmzzzz...

6:45am : Woken by Mr LizzieMade getting his bag ready to go out, at the bottom of the stairs.  Time I was waking anyway - the alarm is due to go off.

7am: Downstairs (in my dressing gown!).  Feed the guinea pigs. Make breakfasts. Make J's packed lunch.  Start some laundry. 

7:25am: The Boy is still upstairs... Teenage faffing about, no doubt... Call up to him that he should be down now.  Boy appears, looking drowsy...  Feed the starving Teenager, who miraculously awakens as the food disappears!

7:30am: Sit down to eat my breakfast.  Chat with James until it's time for him to go out.  He goes to clean his teeth & get ready, while I tidy up our breakfast stuff.  (He usually helps with the jobs in the morning, but is running late today). 

7:45am: James trots off to get his bus.  Hug him and wish him a good day, then go to sort out some jobs.  Find the empty carrier bags from last week's shopping delivery.  Tidy and clean in the kitchen.

8am: Sort out the dishwasher.  The shopping delivery arrives just as I press the "On" button - good timing!  Delivery man leaves the shopping in the kitchen.  Unpack the shopping and put it away in the fridge, freezer & cupboards.  Re-pack the items that are for my mum.

8:30am:  Decide I really should get washed & dressed (!!).  Shower, clean teeth, get dressed, brush hair etc etc...  Find some spring shoes that I forgot I had (how can I forget from one year to the next?) and decide to wear them, but with trouser-socks, so my feet don't freeze. 

9am:  Pack up a parcel for the Post Office.  Check e-mails and have a sneaky peek at Facebook and my blog comments...   Read the nice comments about the prize draw I was running on my blog / Facebook page.  :-)

9:20am: Pack up the car with parcel and shopping, then head for the Post Office.  Sort out the parcel, then collect my mum's pension for this week - also for next Monday, as it's a bank holiday (she gets muddled if the routine is upset, so this way, she can still have the money on time next week). 

9:40am: Arrive at my mum's.  We are off to the dr's in a bit, so get started on the important jobs;  unload her shopping & put it away, hang out the wet washing in the garden.  Stop for a quick warm drink before we go out.

10:10am: Help mum with her coat, collect her bag, chair cushions etc and help her into the car.   Drive to town, as we have to visit the town branch of the practice today - the dr. we are seeing doesn't come over to my mum's village. 

10:30am: Arrive at the dr's.  Sort out some forms to register my mum for online prescription requests (to save me having to take a paper request form to the village practice, which is then sent to town the next day, for the pharmacy to collect on the 3rd day.... It should make the delivery a day quicker and save me remembering to deliver the slip - last week I forgot until Wednesday and had to drive to town to deliver it & sweet-talk them into treating it as urgent!). 

10:45am: Mum's appointment.  She sees a very nice lady doctor, who looks at the weird scab on her leg & decides to refer her to a dermatologist, just to make sure it's nothing more than a normal overactive area of skin....  Help shaken (shaking!) and anxious mother to the car, then explain that; Yes, the dr did say "Urgent", but that's because if she didn't ask for an urgent appointment, it would be over 6 months before my mum got seen.... No, it probably isn't anything serious, but the doctor wants a specialist dermatologist to see it, so they can be sure of what the problem is.... Yes, she is probably covered by her health insurance, which means she can be seen quickly at the little local hospital...  Phew!!! 
11:10am: Arrive back at my mum's.  As we are getting out of the car, we see a van that my mum thinks may belong to an engineer who's due (in the afternoon!), to repair her stair-lift.  Sure enough, sitting in the van is the engineer, who is writing her a note to say he's sorry to have missed her.  The engineer comes in with us and my mum sets about explaining the problem.

11:20am: Persuade my mum to have a sit-down and relax for a few minutes, while I make her a drink and a snack.  Make a drink for each of us and sit down too.  

11:25am: Sort out the list of items I had brought from the shopping; add up the total cost, which my mum gives me back.  Help mum sort out her weekly budget - money to be paid into the bank, for bills, rent etc, money to be saved up for other items - carer, cleaner, fish-man, hairdresser, bin-man, window cleaner, birthday presents, charity donations, essential new clothing etc etc... 
Also field queries form the repair man and help mum find the form from the recent service of the stair-lift.

11:40am:  The postman arrives and leaves some letters.  We go upstairs to sort out some jobs.  I re-make my mum's bed and take the old sheets downstairs, so they can go home with me for washing.  Stop to fuss the cat, who's sleeping on the bedroom chair...

11:50am: The repair man leaves, after telling us he has ordered parts to repair the stair-lift. Continue sorting out jobs in the house.  We have a bit of a sit-down to rest and start finding the information for the health insurance people, so my mum can phone them.

12:10pm: The Administrator arrives from the housing Trust.  My mother has some things to discuss with her, so I sit and listen, help with clarifying what she wants to say etc.  (Sometimes it is difficult for my mum to get the words to sort themselves out. I think it's a left-over from her stroke, combined with the neurological problem she already had. She has a stammer-type thing, which can be frustrating for her. Still, it doesn't stop her from getting on with things!). 

12:40pm:  The Administrator has left.  We call the health insurance company, to check the cover for the planned dermatology appointment. 

1:05pm: Lunch is late!  I go and put a piece of pie in the oven to warm up, then get potatoes & veg ready.  

1:25pm: Lunch is ready... but the pie turns out to be un-eatable.  It is very salty, my mum says (I tasted it when I got into the kitchen - she was right - what a waste!).  She can't go without a decent lunch, especially after such a busy and stressful morning.  Luckily there are plenty of frozen meals in the freezer (I make them up in batches, then we freeze them in individual portions, in margarine containers - how useful those are!).  So, she has chicken stew instead of pie and all is well.  There's a nice raspberry trifle in the fridge, because I bought it as a treat when I was in the local shop on Sunday.  Good idea for dessert!

1:50pm:  My mum has finished lunch and is looking more relaxed.   The washing is still out on the line, so I go and get it, then fold it and put it away in the airing cupboard.  Tidy the kitchen and check all is well. 

2pm: Phew! I can go home now... My mother says she will make her own tea, as she thinks I'm looking very tired (wonder why!).  I'm not sure, as she is more tired than me... still, she wants to try.  So she takes some ham out of the freezer to defrost and promises to call me, if she feels she won't be able to manage after all.

2:15pm: Arrive home... Head for the kitchen and find some food!  Make myself nice sandwiches and a cool drink, also some coffee.  Snacks for the guinea pigs too - they squeak in excitement whenever they hear a salad bag rustle!

2:30pm: Sit down to eat my lunch and read a book... While I'm eating, the doorbell rings.  It's the neighbour, to ask if I can take in a parcel on Wednesday morning (no, I have to take my mum to the nurse, then go to the osteopath...).   Finish my lunch and slouch a bit with the book...

3pm: Get out my laptop and start checking for shop messages & e-mails etc.  Answer a few e-mails, sort out some financial bits & bobs...

3:30pm: Feeling lazy... start sneaking around on the computer, looking at goodies on Etsy, Folksy and Facebook... 

3:45pm: The doorbell - it's James, home from school.  Chat about his day, then he goes up to change.  I offer to make him a snack, but he wants to do this himself.  He asks to use the computer for some homework and disappears upstairs again.

4pm: I'm tired. It's a while til dinner time and I don't have to go over to my mum's.  I decide to skive off my jobs and play a computer game ;-)

4:50pm: Phonecall.  My poor mum has spilt a glass of sticky juice on her sitting-room carpet.  She wonders if it'll be alright until Wednesday, when I could clean it for her?  She can't get down on her knees now, as she gets stuck - we discussed it only last week, so I know this.  I tell her I think I should come and help her now, as we don't want her carpet to be spoiled. 

4:55pm: Go upstairs to ask James if he'll start our dinner at 5:30 or so.  We have a visitor due in the evening, so we need to eat on time.

5pm: Drive off to mum's.  The spillage isn't too bad and my mum isn't upset, so all is well.  Mop up and clean the carpet, then drive home again.

5:30pm: James is making the dinner.  I make some drinks and help him to serve up the meal etc.  We put some aside for his dad, as Dave is due home at around 6.30pm.  We sit down to eat... nice dinner...

6pm: Phone call from Dave, to say he has only just got out of work and is on the way home; he will be late.

6:15pm: Phone call again... This time it's Jeff, our builder, who's due at 7pm for a meeting about the architect's drawings.  He is also running late and wonders if 7:30 would be ok, so he can eat some dinner?  That is fine with me (!), so he will be here at 7:30...

6:45pm: We finish our dinner and tidy up.  Put some coffee on to brew, tidy the table so we can use it for our meeting, find my laptop...

7pm: James is relaxing upstairs (painting models, no doubt!).  I sit down to play with my jigsaw puzzle... 

7:30pm: Jeff arrives and we chat while we get settled down.  He did the bedroom extension for us, in 2009, so we are glad to see him again.  Dave arrives home and eats his dinner, then we all get down to business.

9pm: Jeff goes home, after we've sorted out some of the details of the building work and set a provisional start date (May 16th !!!).

9:15pm: James goes up to bed.  Me & Dave sit down with the computer, to sort out some stuff for his business; he works for himself, but is now starting a Limited Company - we need a new bank account...

10:30pm: We are tired... bed seems like a welcome idea...

11pm: Falling asleep over my book... light off... zzzzzz

* * *

So, actually, I'm not surprised that I felt tired this morning...  That was a fairly typical Monday, though the evening meeting was a bit unusual.  Normally on a Monday evening, James has a trampoline club, but just now it's not running, as they are looking for a new coach.  At least the meeting was at home, instead of at the sports club!

What does everyone else do on their busiest day?  I'm sure many people fit in loads more than I do - at least I managed a couple of slouching sessions!

A Rainbow Wedding Book

I have been working on a commission order, for a Wedding Guest Book.  The customer's wedding has a rainbow theme and she wanted a book that would fit this theme.  She liked the rainbow paper in some of my notebooks, but wanted a white or cream cover. 

After some discussion, we came up with a plan.  The book is now finished and this is it:

It's a hard-cover case-bound book (ie. a traditional "hard-back" style), with covers of white linen and silver-grey silk. 

Close-up of the silk & linen.

 

Rainbow pages and a hard cover, with a stiff spine.

 

Close-up view of the hand-stitched headband (that stripey bit at the top & bottom of the pages).

 

The end-papers are shiny silver. 

It's not exactly paper - more a shimmery thin plastic film, but it works really well.

The back of the end-papers has a matt finish. 

Red pages come first - each page has a punched, decorative edge.

Orange and yellow pages...

 

Turquoise and aqua - and you can see the other colours before & after these pages - there are ten colours in all, with a total of sixty pages.  

 

It's finished and the customer Loves it!

The only thing that I still have to do, is make and print a lino-cut label, with a rainbow and the Happy Couple's names & wedding date.  Work in progress...