Happy Halloween!

We made pumpkins!

Himself made a large and sporty one, of course:
And I made my little one:

And someone took the bowl that the candy was in (we were out) :( but it was a beat-up old metal mixing bowl, so no great loss.

Anyhow, happy halloween, all!

Family at home

Attic24's at home weekend sounds so nice to me. I'd love to have a house that neat, for one thing! My dream? For Himself to make enough (give it a few years) that I can stay home, have babies, and make things -- and make a nice and pleasant home. I'm terrified that, should that happen, my in-laws will feel that that's their cue to come over constantly to make sure I'm not "bored" (as if one could be bored in this wonderful world! But then again, they're retired and have no real hobbies except trying to run other people's lives...)... so perhaps that'll have to be put off for many more years.... oh, well. I can do what I can in my spare time, now!

Silver and Gold Metallic Sketchbooks

Here's a pair of fun ones. My little cousin has taken up sketching, so one of these will be for her. I'm putting both up for sale, so whichever one doesn't sell first!

I used lovely drawing paper for the signatures of these coptic-stitched books (the silver one 4"x5", and the gold one some smaller proportion -- forgot to measure. Possibly 2.5"x4"...), and burgundy #10 crochet thread for the sewing.

The lighting's terrible in these shots (the black background really absorbs light -- must go back to my shiny wood floor), but it's a slightly textured silver metallic paper on the left, and a smooth and very shiny gold paper on the right.

The insides were fun to choose (I love matching things, especially since it often entails seeing which of my small pieces of scrap will fit!)...

The silver book has a lovely swirly-textured ever-so-slightly-lilac silver feathery-looking paper, and the gold book has a faux-leather black cardstock that just seemed to suit it.

I'll be at the Book Fair at the Museum of Printing History on November 8, and both of these should be available then.

Tiny Sister Books

I didn't get much done with the power out (didn't feel like doing anything but reading by candlelight), but here are two little offerings, at least one of which is going to my sister.

(Little, in this instance, means 2 3/4" by 2".)

This little one is the longstitch-and-linkstitch concept used over a nice twotoned heavy handmade paper. I wish I knew how the twotoning works -- it's red on one side and purple on the other. We tried both directions, but it works best with the red out.

And here's my other, a very simple little blue-covered coptic blank book:
Hope you like them!

Before and after the storm

Hi all! Finally got the camera back together.

Here is the view from my balcony before the storm:
With my lovely kitchen garden with happy basil:
And the same after the storm -- yard not too happy (or extant):

And very wet basil:
Entertainingly, the basil actually liked the storm -- it grew about 3 inches in one day!

We didn't have all that much damage. A messy yard:
A leaky window:(and it's hard to tell if there's water damage in a wall when it's painted dark green, as the discoloration won't show.)

And a leaky door and subsequent floor:
Well, we were going to paint the room and tear out the carpet anyhow... just need to majorly fix the window and minorly fix the door and stained ceiling.

These are the little flowers that saw me through the storm (a little tea rose and a Hyacinth Bean, which grows delightfully):

I was worried that they wouldn't make it, but apparently I don't water my garden enough -- all my plants are thrilled still, although now only starting to wilt again, as it hasn't rained since Ike came through.