Tonight Brian surprised me with a present - he'd put together a paper storage unit I bought at Costco earlier this week! It has 15 drawers for all my paper. I have an embarrassment of paper - it doesn't all fit in the drawers. Eek. My work area (I stole the dining room in our little apartment) now looks a bit neater and I feel better.
When I get my camera back from work on Monday, I can take a pic or two...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Hearts!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A monochromatic rainbow!
I've been waiting what seems like forever for a new order of supplies to come in. It was weird, because the item that was *backordered* came yesterday and my regular order appeared today. I was down to my last bits of some materials and was getting a bit nervous. Still, the picture doesn't do my excitement justice. My supplies are monochromatic, but my heart is multi-colored. So there.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
My Life, The Universe and Everything
For the past couple of days I've been working on two large orders of beads. I'd show pictures of them drying, but you might as well look at a previous post. Little rows of beads all lined up to dry looks the same no matter what's written on them.
Tonight I let myself have a half hour to make this. Fun!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Minor Success!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Experiment of/with a Heart
I've been mulling over in my mind how to make a 3D heart ornament. After a couple of failed attempts (they look like the ball ornaments with goiter), I came up with this. Not bad. Now I just have to keep working with it until I can do it without globs of hot glue everywhere.
I love hot glue. It is my friend.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Math and Lavender
Math and lavender are an unlikely combination. But that's the combo of balls I made today. Today was my son's 2-year physical, so I got off work a bit early (it's been a great week for not working!) and my extra time was spent organizing my beads and making up a couple of ornaments. What the heck am I going to do with all of these?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Home Sick so I Make...
Comic books make fun ones, too. This says "Crypt of Shadows."
This is made of an foreign-language invoice sheet that came in a book. It reminds me of an apple.
This reminds me of the apple Eve ate.
Good night. I'm going to bed.
A Good Night to Read...

How About Orange's blog yesterday talked about the new movie Coraline coming out. I read that book several years ago and it hooked me so well that I STILL tell kids to check it out when they need a good book to read. I found it on our shelves yesterday and took it home along with the graphic novel version. That's the picture above. Graphic novels are good to read for those with limited time. It's kind of like Cliffs Notes for me...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Holiday earrings!
For several months now I've been trying to figure out how to do holiday earrings. I wanted to make some kind of set that could change for each holiday. I thought about making toggles on the earrings to change the holiday. The earrings were much too long. I then tried a necklace of the same. Eew.

Anyway, I then thought about simplifying it - a solution to most of the problems in my life. So, I made up a variety of earrings for the "happy" or "let's celebrate" or "remember" part of the holiday and then the names of the holidays themselves. That way, you can switch them around as you see fit. I think they turned out well. This batch is for my Mom for Christmas. Yep, I am late. I just like to draw out the suspense...

And a made another ball yesterday with a music theme. Can you guess who?
Anyway, I then thought about simplifying it - a solution to most of the problems in my life. So, I made up a variety of earrings for the "happy" or "let's celebrate" or "remember" part of the holiday and then the names of the holidays themselves. That way, you can switch them around as you see fit. I think they turned out well. This batch is for my Mom for Christmas. Yep, I am late. I just like to draw out the suspense...
And a made another ball yesterday with a music theme. Can you guess who?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Star Trek - the ornament generation!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Alas! NoTime for Crafting!
It was going to be *such* a good weekend for crafting.
Nope. Nothing makes God laugh as hard as when we make plans, eh? Still, I did get the living room rearranged, the Christmas decorations put away (I really ought to warn Brian about opening the storage unit door too quickly!), a little computer desk bought for the kids' room, and six loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. Except for the socks. I'm too tired!
Perhaps tomorrow there will be time to play. I really do need a day of rest!
Nope. Nothing makes God laugh as hard as when we make plans, eh? Still, I did get the living room rearranged, the Christmas decorations put away (I really ought to warn Brian about opening the storage unit door too quickly!), a little computer desk bought for the kids' room, and six loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. Except for the socks. I'm too tired!
Perhaps tomorrow there will be time to play. I really do need a day of rest!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Romancing the Book Cover
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Work Late Wednesday
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A Tree Grows in Bakersfield, Jackpot and a legion of beads...

I put up my Christmas tree in my office and hung my ornaments on it. All the little old ladies from the Friends of the Library oohed and aahed over them. They're so nice. And they give me money for my library. Love and money - what more could I want from a job?
But I was able to finish much of my special order beads. Hurray! It always feels good to finish big projects. I will be glad to start work on some other bead phrases I want to do. Many pirate things and book-related phrases, too. Tee hee.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sneak Peek at a Work in Progress
In other news, we got a great load of donated paperbacks at the library this afternoon. I found lots of books with good covers to turn into ornaments! Now I have to get permission to buy them from the Friends of the Library! Fortunately, they smile kindly at my requests for bizarre books (ones that they usually put in the recycling bin) and don't think too badly of me. I also asked them to start saving Readers Digest Condensed books again because I have a few ideas for some big projects that will require possibly hundreds of books. Hee hee. The Book Butcher will strike again!
Something secret and mysterious happened on Etsy tonight with my shop. I am not sure if I was on the front page or in a popular treasury, but I got six orders within 3 hours! OH MY GOSH!!! And a ton of people hearted me, too. I need to get up the courage to ask one of them how they found me, because someone needs a great big thank-you!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Green Paper Ornaments
The past couple of days have had me still playing around with Christmas ornaments. I have had these stashes of paper for YEARS that I'm finally getting to use! It's FABULOUS! I'm especially fond of these green ones. I love the beads on the bottoms. I never knew what I was going to do with them...
I have this outrageously bright marbled paper that I hate, but it was so expensive that I can't throw it away. (My things own me as much as I own them.) I like the use it's been put to with this ornament. I tried another one with different color stripes.
See how different it looks? I think I like this one better. It's perfect for my sister who likes orange. Act surprised when you open the package, Allyson, if you read this.
In addition to paper, I've been buying these old children's books for a while now. The illustrations are great, but I couldn't figure out how to use them. I like it better when I use pictures unaltered with strips of colored paper. The spread-out look was too creepy.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Look what happens...
Friday, January 2, 2009
Post-Christmas energy
I am in the mood to make Christmas decorations. It only happens after the REAL Christmas is over - all the stress and rush to go and do is over and I finally have time...
I found this wonderful idea over at Paper Forest that I couldn't wait to try. I love working with paper!
The first one I tried turned out like this. I followed the directions explicitly and found that I really needed a circle cutter.
My next ones were of book covers that I've been saving for a rainy day. Although the spread-out look is a little creepy, I think the idea has merit.
Look what happens when you don't put in any alternate color and just use a book cover!
I've bought a couple of old atlases at Friends of the Library booksales. I realized that I could make ornaments for all my family of the places they live. My brother and his wife live in Rexburg, ID.
Can't wait to do some more!!!
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