Not to my satisfaction: handcrafted notebooks

I decided to try to do personal notebooks from printing paper. I am not satisfied with the result.  I should not have taken the duct tape for the binding part.  It give the back of the notebooks a feel that I don't like.  Next time, I will go with the traditional method of book binding.

I took the side that was the best looking, so don't freak out if they look being inversed.  It was intentional.  I am not satisfied with them but I wanted to have the best looking photo for them.

Interesting threads

I found some interesting yarn.  It must be a novelty yarn.  Never seen it before and I thought it look really cool:

It comes in three different shade of blue.  It feel soft.  Now, I  am tempted to do the scarf they have on the label.  I just feel unsure if my version will come up as they show.  I am not really good at reading knitting pattern.  I could go with the photo but I feel I may loose the correct way to do it.

It is a case where I could use the help of a teacher but I don't know where to take knitting classes.  Maybe it is time to takes a deep breath and do it step by step and see where it goes.  If and when I decide to dive into this project...

Heavy weight for heavy duty stability

I have bought two of this weight for my latch hook projects.  I think it will provide me with much stability in my bigger projects.  It is also the perfect size for my work station and the projects.

It is really neat looking.  I have to try if it is really what I needed.  I am a bit anxious to see if it will work as I intended.  My ideas often don't turn out as I expected.  Crossing my fingers!

Learning the Lenormand

I am ready to learn a new card system.  My goal is to get an alternative for inspiration.  Getting a larger palette of images is a good thing.  Well, it put more to the connection between images and mind.  My mind is working well with images.  So, the more, the merrier I am.  It only takes a moment and the right card to get inspiration that I didn't expected to have a few second earlier.

Here is the deck I have choosen to jump start my study:

It is the Gilded Reverie Lenormand by Ciro Marchetti.  I do have other Lenormand deck.  I could have decided to start with any one of them.  I choose that one because I have good experiences with his other tarot decks.  He also have made the Fin de Siècle Kipper cards.  I am not ready to go into the territory of the Kipper cards yet.

A pile of notes

I think I have accumulated too much notes on paper.  I think it is time to clean that up and put them on a computer file:

They are notes for various writing projects that I have.  Maybe I have too much of them right now...

Next step: to paint!

I have made those paper tubes:

Now, it is time to paint!  It will be the fun part, I am sure of it.  I like to paint for that kind of project.  It will improve that project.  It will be not the end of the project but a fun part.

Working on a design

I have a piece of wood that I want to do wood burning on.  I think I found a snag.  The stencils that I bought are not as strong than I thought, so it doesn't go as I wanted to.  It look decent on the wood but it is a pain to do:

So, I will have to work on that.  I don't know if I will erase what's on or go and carry on.  Big decision, not sure of myself and not fun at all.  So, a fail and a learning experience.  Now, I have to find a way to mend it.  It is not terrible, just in the first stage of creating.  I just have to learn what to do with a fail to make it a total satisfying success.  All in the correction of the unexpected result.

Twice the madness

I have entered the madness of embroidery again.  I think I wanted to makes more than I could do:

Yep, two piece of fabrics and two diffent projects with different colour palettes.  Total madness.  There is one where I go faster than the other.  No two projects goes equaly fast.  One always goes faster than the other.

Still stuck with you, earring

My latest earring creation:

Quick, simple and maybe lacking trill.  Well, I could go more on the elaborate side.  That is my problem.  Too bare and no sparkle.  Well, they are a start.  Maybe I will be do more with those components next time.  I saw those components turned into earrings.  Well, it will be a good excuse to work on colour next time because there is alway a next time when it come with jewelry making.  Beads are always there to play with in various manners.

A case of many meanings

Words can be ambiguous.  They can have many meanings, the meanings can evolve through time.  Some concepts can attach themselves to some words.  There can be some easy connection between words and some mental pictures.

Let's takes an example: Goth.  First image coming to mind: a Goth person all dressed in dark, dramatic makeup, a fancy hair style, maybe high boots and macabre jewelry.  This is only the first connection to be done.  There is the Gothic tribes that threatened the Roman Empire, the Gothic architecture that is known as a pejorative style, the Gothic litterature with it's famous representant like Dracula and Frankenstein and the Gothic movies like Rosemary's baby.  I may forget other tentacular Goth influence in the art and lives.  It is something popular to get into rebellion, be it short lived or for life.  I am amazed that the context can separate those various branch that lead to the word «Goth».  People mainly think of the generic Goth person.  The rest seems to be more hidden or swept in with the Goth person.

It is not the only word that is subtle.  It is even more fun to discover words with some double meaning or that have fun puns.  For example Rose: the flower and the act of getting up.  It is something fun to work with words.

Tree naming

I don't think I am a tree hugger.  I admit that I do have a interest in taking trees in picture.  I don't know if it is a good sign but there are some trees that seems to inspire names to them.  The above tree inspired me the name «the Baby Christmas Tree»

Here the Harpist tree, because the branches seems to play the harp:

Not easy to take the big picture and see the details all at the same time, but I tried.
Another tree deserve a name at that place: the head in the cloud tree:

Knowledge not expected

In the last few weeks, I have read To Ride Pegasus, Pegasus in Flight and Pegasus in Space.  It is by Anne McCaffrey.  It was not long ago that I learned that those three where a trilogy set before The Rowan, Damia, Damia's Children, Lyon Pride and The Tower and the Hive.  I have already read the latter mentionned books already, long ago.    I had stumbled on The Rowan and it was on discount.  I was curious and the cover was catchy.  I bought it and I was hooked.  I found the other books, little by little and read them along.

So, for the Pegasus trilogy, I was not sure, at first, that it was a prequel.  It was as I read that the confirmation came.  Ending that trilogy, I decided to have a look at the author.  I was curious to see if there was more to that particuliar serie.  I also wanted to know more about the other books she had written.  I am not familiar with the Pern world and I have seen various Acorna books in bookstores long ago.  I never bought any Acorna books nor Pern books.  I don't remember noticing it was written by Anne McCaffrey.  It was time to know more about her written world.

A nice surprise is that much of her written books are set in the Federated Sentient Planets Universe.  Interesting to learn because I don't remember any mention in the few books I have read.  Second item I have learned: there is various series.  There are the Dragonriders of Pern, Brain and Brawl ships, the Crystal serie, etc...  The books I have read are falling into the Talents universe.  The final thing that I just realized is: in this universe, there are The Barque Cats serie.  I forgot that there was a barque cat in The Rowan.  It was her compagnion from pretty much the beginning.  So, I have not read that part of the serie.  It is a must have in the serie now.  There is only two books, a quick read, thinking of it.

I didn't expected to learn all of that.  Of course, my next read will be the books on the barque cats.  After that, I may try the Accorna serie, out of curiosity and if I will like that.  I am not sure if I will be intesrested into the Pern serie but I will start with only one book to see if I like it.  I don't want to buy the whole serie to discover that I don't like it.  All this was not expected but it was nice to discover.  There is a organization there and I didn't saw that.  It have an impact on me because it had lead me to think.  There is a thread that link many of my story.  It also lead me to think the first building block of a genesis for my magical universe.  There still a lot of thinking and decision making.  I am waiting of the next discovery to further that thinking.

Always read the label

When I don't read the label, it end with having it in the home.  It was not the first time that I did this.  Not regretting it too much.  It will be useful but I am tempted to use it differently than the way explained in the instruction.