To the Max
So, what have I been doing besides neglecting my blog? Everything from the extremely scary (being evaluated for bone cancer–I don’t have it) to the mundane (yeah, laundry, cleaning, blah). Not a lot of art in between, though, and I’d all but completely abandoned my blog (hey, it’s only been about a month and half). I currently have three posts I want/need to write but am just jumping in right now with a few quick updates.
A refillable, personalized leather notepad I made
BEST, our Etsy bookbinding team, had a swap that ended early this month so I got my first non-commission book completed in a long time. The theme was “fits in an envelope.” Technically, mine fit but it was a small padded envelop (it was going overseas so I felt better about padding it). The “font” on the cover was self-designed, covers are leather, hand dyed and carved, covers are sewn with linen thread and the pages inside are scrap paper and refillable (I use brads to hold the paper in the notepad).
Small leather notepad that can be refilled easily. It's personalized with a hand-carved initial in the leather cover.
You can find pictures and info on the various swap books on our Bookbinding Team blog.
I’ve decided to aim for having at least 50 items listed in my Etsy book shop and am trying to list about three a day. Of course, since I don’t have time to make tons of new books, I’m posting several custom options for people (including the new notepad). Two of the new custom options are for Steampunk books (I might have to do a third option for a medium, mid-price book, too). Take a gander at my shop if you’re looking for a custom/personalized book for yourself or a gift (Dad my find one useful).
Various design ideas for my new custom Steampunk books.
And, finally, the whole reason for the title. We’ve apparently adopted a stray (well, he’s staying with us for the moment, at least). He’s a beautiful gray schnauzer and we’ve decided to call him Max. I don’t have any pics of him yet but will try to get some done and posted soon. He’s incredibly sweet, likes to snuggle and is pretty quiet. We’ve checked the local vet, neighbors, and animal control and had no luck yet with finding his owners (he’s not chipped and didn’t have a collar on). I’ll probably post a “found” ad in Craigslist here and check with our local Humane Society to see if anyone’s contacted them, but we may end up with an extra family member.
Tags: custom, journal, Lady Artisan, leather, notebook, notepad, personalized, refillable notepad, schnauzer, sketchbook, Steampunk
First, so happy for you that you do NOT have bone cancer – what a huge worry! I’m sure that you are floating on a cloud of relief.
Your Etsy plans/book designs sound great (and with your health worries gone, I’m sure you feel pretty invigoriated about it).
Congrats on the potential new member of your family (hope you get to keep him)
Sue:)
Thanks, Sue! I’m thrilled someone’s actually still reading my blog here after I neglected it for so long %P Yes, the bone cancer thing was unbelievably stressful and worrying. I found myself crying a number of times which isn’t really normal for me. So definitely a relief not having to deal with that.
As for books, I finally decided to just figure out some way to fill my shop and people do love being able to customize things so it was a pretty easy step to take.
Thanks again for commenting! We are getting to keep him (unless he has some really serious health problems–then we’ll contact the local schnauzer rescue organization) because he was apparently abandoned, probably by a military family that got relocated. We live right near a base and it seems that quite a few of the military families will dump their pets around here because they figure someone will take them in (I think everyone on my street has two or three dogs each, at least).