(more) Recycled Denim

Watch Pocket Journal

Sara has been after me to make a new Letterboxing logbook for one of her boxing buddies, about to go back to it's owner. The logbook it came with is a page away from being full and she wanted me to make them a "cute" dog fabric covered logbook.

Nothing even remotely close seemed to be hiding in my stash. I did come across the 3rd Picnic Quilt while stash diving that I started earlier this summer and was fast on its way to becoming another guilt riddled UnFinished Object.

It's almost done and I pledge to work on it this week.
(putting it in bold font means I'm more likely to keep this promise?)

I had saved all of the leftover denim scraps - especially the pockets - hoping for an idea to use them later. Sunday morning inspiration struck and I've now made 2 logbooks using watch pockets as the covers.

The idea was to be able to stick the hand carved rubber stamp right inside the pocket - logbook & stamp all in one place. (Genius!)

The first one had a natural seam that made the stamp a tight fit and I was afraid it would get damaged if users were not extra careful. I thought I was all out of quality paper for making logbooks that could be used with ink, but came up with half a ream that had been put "some place safe where I'll find it" long ago.

I finally found it again!

Also pictured is the checkbook cover I made for myself months ago.
And my Fall Collection of Fabric Postcards & Artist Trading Cards.
Since the camera was out :)

Stand on the steps of the state capitol.

Head east to the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial? In Augusta.

Who knew? Not me! I still haven't found it.

My sweep around the State House and down into a nice little park across the street failed to turn up a Lincoln Memorial.

I played tourist with a camera around the surprisingly empty State House grounds and turned up a good number or other memorials & monuments I had never taken the time to see.

It could be a play on words I suppose.
Anyone know where Lincoln is? Anyone?

I had to drive to Augusta to attend a Board meeting on Saturday.

190+ miles round trip. YIKES!

It's not a solo journey I enjoy all that much. As editor of a quilting newsletter I had a couple of issues to face down. I suspect my ears would have been burning had I not been there to defend myself. Suffice it say I've ticked off one of the contributors to the newsletter enough that I suspect my name has been used in vain. Often!

Enough to convince me I needed to speak up. And see if I couldn't wrestle that editor voodoo doll away from her before she shoves another pin...some place uncomfortable. Judging by the X she made in her report because I got to go alphabetically ahead her with mine and diffused a half page of her talking points, it was a good thing I made the trip.

Except I totally wanted to show off a solo letterbox find and came up empty!
There's 4 new boxes in our area, hidden this week. We still haven't gotten out to look for them. How hard is it supposed to rain this afternoon?

Mother Nature looks to be messing with plans for the 2nd weekend in a row.
Or maybe someone's still jabbing pins in my likeness.

Did I mention it was a very blustery day?
Well it was!

At bottom is a statue of Samantha Smith.
I thought it was longer ago, but I must have been pregnant with Sara at the time her child's view of diplomatic HOPE took place.
By the time Stephani was born her mom was dealing with tragedy beyond belief.

In December 1982 Samantha Smith, a 10-year-old girl from Manchester, Me., wrote to Soviet President Yuri Andropov to ask if he was going to wage a nuclear war against the U.S. She toured the USSR at his invitation the following July and as a result, became first a media celebrity and then a television actress. Samantha died on a rainy August night in 1985 when the commercial plane she as in crashed killing all aboard.

Samantha Reed Smith

(June 29, 1972-August 25, 1985)

Field of Pumpkins

Things fall.

Like it or not.

Speak it again!

Memorized...
(found here)



Remember?
Come on, People!
Yes.We.Can.

Maiden Cliff trail

Letterboxing in Camden Hills State Park

I've never driven to the top of Mt. Battie in Camden.
I had never hiked any of it's trails.
Whenever we drive past the Mt. Battie autoroad we are either on another mission or the fee at the entrance gate overrules my wish to drive up.

I still want to drive up the autoroad (just once!) but Sara and I decided to spend Saturday hiking the Maiden Cliff trail on the back side of the park.

To look for Letterboxes, of course.

What a beautiful day! Fall colors have only just started changing here. We got kind of a late start and ended up in Camden after 12:30. Due to my navigational skills (or lack there of) we went past Rt 52 and down into the traffic congested center of Camden. I had it in my head the turn off for the trail was on the other side of town and Rt 52 must join Rt 1 for a bit. NOT!

We decided to eat at Subway before starting our trek so it worked out well in the end. We can declare "we meant to do that!" with sincerity. We were hungry and it was probably the safest/easiest bet for food in Camden at rush hour anyway. Still took forever to be waited on, but at least there was a real bathroom for one last stop before hiking.

Once we back-tracked through traffic and found Rt 52 again, it turns out there are 2 hiking trail parking lots very close together. As navigator, I had just suggested if we come to a fork in the road we should stay right as we kept an eye open for a brown trail hiker sign. Needless to say we parked at the first hiker sign, without ever coming to a fork in the road.

We set off up the trail to the first marker before realizing something wasn't adding up. This trail would not lead us to the Maiden Cliff cross or the 3 Letterboxes hidden somewhere along the way. Recent logged "finders" promised reasonable success.

For those actually hiking on the correct trail.

Back to the car for a drive further down the highway until we found the 2nd parking lot. It looked full and cars were parked along the road as well, but Sara drove in with innocent confidence there would be a space. A car started backing out to leave at that exact moment and she could not believe her luck.

Neither could the SUV who had driven past the space, who looked as it he felt the space was his. As he backed past us to leave, for the roadside parking no doubt, if looks could deflate - Sara would have had 4 flat tires!

We got out as if we owned the space - possession being 9/10ths law - is that the saying? - and never made eye contact again, for my part.

Our compass skills not being much better than my navigational skills, the first clue began: "Just before stepping onto the first of two wooden bridges to cross the stream bed, take a reading of 160 degrees. Follow your gaze to a twin-trunked hemlock seemingly growing out of rock." We probably could have worked it out just from the description but it was like grand central station. The place was crazy with hikers coming from every direction. We decided to catch this one on the way down.

Box 2 was among a pile of rocks following the clue - easily spotted because the plastic was showing. The trail was very wet due to all the recent rain and the hiding place may actually be getting stepped on as people try to avoid the mud. I put more rocks around the box to try keeping it hidden better but there's a pretty good chance hikers will come close enough to knock it out again.

Box 3 was down over the ledge holding a giant cross commemorating a young girl who fell to her death many years ago. I had seen the cross from the road years before, but how cool to stand from behind and read the dedication.

As for the box: Sara the Brave went down into the ravine and onto the ledge to look for it. I would probably have walked away although it turned out to be much wider than it looked at first glance. This box clue also had a compass reading so once she found the box Sara cross checked the reading.

LIGHT BULB GOES OFF!

We now understand how to hold & read the compass and once we were back at box 1 - with much less traffic - the direction was easily found without wandering around in a full circle looking for a tree growing out of a rock. YAY! I've been wandering around the house taking compass readings of everything in sight.

Following a beginners compass tutorial - which makes much more sense now - from the spot I'm sitting at using their example...there should be a letterbox in our old BBQ pit.

hmmm...

Your heart is not a stone

Here If You Need Me
a true story by Kate Braestrup

I picked up mom and headed off to town for Friday morning errands. Among other things on my to-do list, I wanted to pick up the book that I had been notified was waiting for me. Thanks to the library loan program less than a week would go by since first reading it's introduction and the time it would take to arrive at the Bangor Public library from the University of Maine Augusta library. From The Manharts blog:

Here if You Need Me: My favorite of the non-fiction. A story of a woman who went to seminary after her husband was tragically killed and then became the chaplain for the Maine Warden Service. For a spiritually searching girl like me, it was perfect. I am consciously stopping myself here from going on and on and on and on. Her voice is one the bravest, clearest, and (sometimes) funniest I've read in a while. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Shared by a friend Stephani now calls Emilie, but stubbornly remains Mrs in my mind. The wonderfully giving Creative writing/English teacher that helped my then 16 year old daughter through some very rough early high school daze.

I'm not sure why this book from a summer reading list jumped out at me as the one I would most like to read. For the last 7 years I have tended towards the "scary and alarming" government tell-all books our current administration has spawned with all too frequent necessity. Change can't come soon enough and I pray for our country's soul. Literally prayed on several occasions now. Even though I consider myself Spiritual rather than Religious.

On the way home from mornings errands, and having read a few pages in waiting, I questioned once again if praying for a presidential choice was proper use of spiritual aids. This time out loud and in front of mom as I was about to drop her off at home with her groceries & medications.

We discussed the Palin Effect and wondered if our gender would be so foolish as to vote this option simply because she would be woman. Not a woman who stands for nearly anything in this world I want for my daughters. Their future choices are their own.

Mom allowed that in these times, perhaps more than ever, a little prayer couldn't hurt. May in fact be needed.
I began reading after lunch with dedicated determination. On the deck in the warmth of a sunny afternoon. My eyes teared up almost from the beginning and at one point I put it down, wondering. Will this be too sad?

Another time it was put down to call the fire department. Is that smoke I smell again! A really bad fire was burning in Hermon and thankfully not a repeat of earlier this summer. Our local fire department volunteer drove around the block to check. Just to be sure.

The last page was turned at about 4 am.
I read About the Author. Again.
And closed the book.
And then lay my head in my arms on the kitchen table and sobbed a few of the tears that had been building within me through out the reading.

It is an amazing book. Come to me at perhaps the perfect time.
Searching for answers. Not always sure of the question.
In the 25 years without my sister I can usually tell when I'm in for a good cry. It builds up as if the tears are in my head and my heart and they will surely soon burst out for the cleansing of my spirit I've come to accept as good for me. I thought I might make it to the cemetery before the flood. But it was not to be.

Go ahead. Arrange and rearrange the stones on your beloved's grave. Keep arranging those stones for as long as it hurts to do it, then stop, just before you really want to.
Put the last stone on and walk away.
Then light your candles for the living. Say your prayers for the living. Give your flowers to the living. Leave the stones where they are, but take your heart with you. Your heart is not a stone.

Thank you, Emilie.

Letterboxing book 2

2nd book complete

Warning!

Yes.

There will be spoiler pictures of my library Letterbox creation.

Once I set it free, I may never see it again.
And it's my blog.
I can do what I want!

Purchased at Goodwill, Ponder This is my newest letterbox.

It originally contained some sort of poetry. Two like-themed verses per page, written from two different angles.
(I had started thinking of it Jekyll & Hyde poetry.)
One seller lists in his description: "simple short verses that note the positive side of adversities, or as author calls it, life's verities". Sort of a question & answer verse on the same subject.

I asked Steph if it was too good to glue together.
As our poetry expert in the house, perhaps I was misguided picking this book to alter. Err....no.

It was decided some books need to be glued shut and this was perhaps a perfect example. Sorry, Leonard.

Practice for carving my own stamps continues.
Most all of the images I've used so far start out from free clip art sites. We've used up quite a few 4X6" slabs of Speedball Speedy Carve. I'm also experimenting with an exacto knife along with gouges for the last few carves I've tried.

The "pink stuff" is not recommended for exacto carving?

Now you tell me.
You can't see where you've cut using the pink stuff.

The stamp for the book was originally going to be the bookworm stamped on the title page. I was going to put it in the Children's Room of the same library my other book was placed in.

After reworking clip art of the birds on a wire - I gave them tufts of hair and put both feet back on the wire for the upside down bird, I decided to change stamps that would go with this book.

If you Ponder This stamp - print it upside down and the image takes on a comical new meaning!

Everywhere I look

Letterboxing on the Brain

Signs on buildings

Is that rock garden hiding anything? Maybe if I just move a couple of rocks I'll find a hidden treasure stamp ...an overlooked mystery clue.
Eh...probably not. Leave it alone.

Belfast Tourist Day

We found one box by giving up. And then reading the clue an hour later and realizing we we looking on the wrong road before.

I am a NUMBER!

*Who left the lights on?

Today I went to the library to plant my first letterbox.

(I released 2 hitch hikers this weekend as well!)

I intended to spend a leisurely morning scouting out clues to coincide with numbers that would designate its location on a shelf. So I parked on the slanted hill in front of City Hall. At least an hour of free parking.

I had it in my head I would use a C for "enter the library through the Children's Entrance" or numbers like 3 (top floor the elevator will take you); 4 for the number of arched windows when you step off the elevator and turn left. In the end, I'm just using the number as the clue.
Maybe I'll make the next one harder!

Once I chose the book I wanted to place it next to, I went to the circulation desk and asked, "Please may I have a number... :) and could I possibly have one of those stickers so it will fit right next to this book (Cocoon Silk) on the shelf without looking out of place?"

She was SO helpful! And totally most likely to become the area's newest Letterboxer. Quote: "Oh, I'm so excited about this!"

She disappeared to a back room and came back (quite a while later) with a number all printed out. Asked me if I would like it on the outside binding or top front cover. (bottom binding!) Her co-worker standing next to her said she actually has The Letterboxers Companion book checked out right now. They were both very interested.

The book is currently resting in its assigned spot in a back corner of the library, snuggled between Cocoon Silk and I am Japan Raw Silk. Book binding how-to shelf just opposite. Plenty of empty shelf space nearby or a computer table on the back wall for stamping in out of sight.

Please don't make a mess stamping ink.
Don't forget to write!

* As I walked back to the Wrangler nearly ...eh hem...2 hours later I see headlights on the jeep. It was broad daylight. No way did I use lights! Perhaps I bumped it with my knee? Please let that be sun shining off the glass?

NO. Dead battery, indeed.

Story gets worse: Wrangler's from 1995 have locking front hoods.
The key to which is home on Tom's set - I have just the spare ignition key.
No hood key.
On a slanted hill. I've got booster cables and 3 men offering to help Distressed Woman. No hood key.
And a night-shift working husband sound asleep, through ringing phones and answering machine messages.

10th try was the charm.
And then his rescue trip took forever because Broadway was blocked off by police road blocks from hell.

I am so grounded the rest of the week.
But I have a NUMBER!

Totally shaking this off and remembering only the good part after I hit publish. Please be distracted by my Mama & Baby Moose pictures. We went camping last week and I didn't even take a picture of the tent to prove actual sleeping on ground occurred.
It did. Oh, my aching back!

This is your brain on HOPE...

Any questions?

Altered Book Letterbox complete

It's Done!

The page inserts explaining Letterboxing and the details of my project have been glued down to the altered book.

Magnets were sunk into the book edges to lock all of the parts in if picked up and moved by accident.

The page actually snaps shut once it comes near to the metal hiding between pages.

I've carved a few stamps this week, experimenting in positive and negetive space. This is the one I've chosen for my first plant. Plus a dream catcher will become my signature stamp.

At some point I want to set a dream catcher free as a Hitch Hiker along with a logbook with my woven dream catcher cover.

I've mixed the themes of detective mysteries, treasure hunt searches and games with a clip art from my Office program to come up with something to carve. I think it's an interesting enough stamp so that it would not be a disappointment to someone going out of their way to find it.
Well, I hope.

I stopped by the Library reference desk to see about getting permission. I was given the name of 2 directors and have emailed the adult division. No response yet, but my write-up doesn't commit this book to specific library. So I can shop for a different library if need be.

Altered Book Letterbox

Under Construction

Still practicing Coptic Binding, this time using 2 playing cards sewn together as the covers. The idea came to me after my trip to Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in search of Nancy Drew books to alter. I came across a couple of other books I thought had potential.

One is an Agatha Christie book with a padded hardcover. Very classy looking with a gold leaf image on front. Title is "Cards On The Table" - thus the playing card theme took hold.

My 1st Letterbox to plant in a library is being attempted.
Still have no earthly idea what to carve as the stamp. Leaning towards an image of the library it would be planted in.
Could you start sketching Steph?

Our order of the "Pink Stuff" from Stampeaz will be here next week.
Sorry, local scrapbook store.
Even with $5 shipping, buying 4 is like getting one free.
(or maybe it's more like buy 3, get one half price...math not my strong suit and Sara is asleep.)

1st efforts at Coptic Binding

That went pretty well

I searched and found both written & video tutorials for Coptic Binding.
It took a combination of the two for me to grasp the way this sewed binding was worked. Diagrams from several written tutorials helped make videos easier to follow.

Some of the videos I found were hard to listen to or had no sound.

It'll take a little more practice for me to get these to come out...
((oh, what's the word I'm looking for?))

Better. Okay...Perfect?
By perfect I mean using the correct techniques.
I'm still a little fuzzy on the kettle stitch that makes a crochet-like chain.
1st one is a little wonky.
(too loose even though I thought at the time I was really pulling the thread tight.)
2nd one is better, but still missing some of the chained columns.

Our Library is looking for a book I requested, but was not listed in the database we use. Non Adhesive Binding, Vol. 3: Exposed Spine Sewings. I hope they buy it! Looks very interesting.
(And that Lazy Susan in the photos was purchased at Goodwill for a $1. Thought it would help organize "things" on the table.
Turns out it just elevates the mess 2 inches higher :)

Letterboxing Logbooks

Exploring book binding

Letterboxing enthusiasm continues.
Still going off fishing in directions where Letterboxes are NOT, though. Need to work on that.

Couldn't even convince Steph to go look for the newest locally hidden treasure in Stillwater on Sunday morning.
Could have had something to do with a 15 hour round trip adventure to Quebec, I suppose.

Something about lack of proper shoes.
Signature stamp not yet hand carved.
(hey, I got mine. It may not be hand carved but it was specially ordered!*)
Uncertainty where Franklin Street was.
Um...too tired?

You drove to Quebec and back all in one day?
Are you out of your freaking minds?
I mean... Glad you're back safe and sound.
Sure. I'll drive to Orono at 8 am to pick you up.

Where was I?
Bookmaking techniques for Letterboxing logs have kept my attention diverted from our lack of actual trips looking for more Letterboxes this week.

Coming at this process from a Fabric Postcard/ Fabric ATC background, I'm using the same process for book covers for log books.

Now I want to explore different techniques.
I must say I'm totally amused by this recycled elastic from supermarket asparagus bunches idea. You can use any found object such as the tree branch to secure the elastic in place.
But you can easily take it apart and add or subtract pages.
Good for screwing up a stamp entry.
(video tutorial)
Website.
So cool.
((easily amused!))
Next experiment will be Coptic Binding.

First books I made were blank journals, to be stamped in & journaled upon successfully finding a Letterbox.
I've been printing out clues in sheets of possible locations for any given direction a trip might take one of us past.
Sheets of paper fresh from the printer are easily ruined.
((Or rolled up and used as a fan when clue has been deemed useless.))

This weekend I decided to try incorporating the clues in the logbook, leaving a place to stamp the image found on the same page. We'll see how it works out!

Dream Catcher tutorial I wrote for Fabric Postcards here!
And I wrote the current one, here :)

Someone is very bossy

Good thing we love her!

Because it needs to be said again

Oh. My. God.

Even my mother?
Uttering an Obama smear
over Sunday Scrabble.

"I heard it on the news..."

(I will not repeat actual insult.)

I am totally printing this picture designed for my brother after our Mother's Day ((doozie)) fight.

Postcard size so I can hand it out to stupid people. Or people who say stupid things.
Like it was truth.
When they should know better.

Our country may be beyond help.
I'm afraid for us all some days.

Just when I was thinking of giving up on the Kindergarten Letter People project.
How on earth will I make it through November (and beyond) without a mindless distraction?

Home Grown

GARDENING: I win.

All organically grown.
All picked fresh Sunday morning.

Woodchucks: -3
Deer: absent
Fingers crossed it stays that way... OR ELSE*
(*see woodchucks fate, mister)
Potato bugs, Japanese beetles, etc: Manual squashing continues

involving orange unbelievably gross, yucky fingers.
(okay...losing ground here. But determined to resist chemically dusting our food.)

Let there be zucchini bread.
PIE.
Home made ravioli!

I never did boast about my new found cooking adventure?
(Self confessed non cook)

I bought a Pasta Machine last year.
(hand crank kind)
And then Steph went off to Vermont to house sit before we tried it.
So it got shoved into the out of site...out of mind
too high to reach, let alone see into
cabinet over the fridge.

Because I was a little afraid of the thing.
And Steph wasn't here to assist.

Turns out she has ZERO patience for filling/folding raviolis.
But she willingly makes the fillings.
When asked.
When limited attention span can be channeled properly.

And also turns out I LOVE THE PROCESS.
Very relaxing & satisfying.
VERY time consuming meal.
BUT oh so good.
I am NEVER buying boxed pasta.
Ever again.

I don't care how long it takes to prepare a meal.
Or that an hour of "cooking" takes -10 minutes to eat.
Eventually I hope to actually time all the steps so things go smoother.
Or grow another set of hands?

compliment overheard: mmmm...
"restaurant quality"

Gee. I'm hungry.

And the little tree with it's growing pile of (oh, pretty!) rocks collected from fishing excursions this summer is my feeble attempt to start a bonsai from the wild. Tiny tree was growing in abandoned gravel pit/parking lot and carried home wrapped in wet fishing socks.

**Failed attempts: 4

**I'm still watering 1st efforts, but outlook is grim.
All the bonsai know-it-all authors can say I told you so.