Totally Random Chat Thread

A few years after we bought out house I had several nice flower beds. Husband wanted to try growing tomatoes. So he made a raised bed and planted his little seedlings from the nursery.

Once they started bearing fruit the squirrels had a party. They took a bite out of just about every tomato. We surrounded the bed with chicken wire about 4-ft high. They climbed over it to get to the tomatoes. We then covered the open top with more chicken wire. That stopped them from getting in, but also made it hard for us to get in as well.

That was the only time we had tomatoes, or any vegetables. I'm more into flowers, and other than cutting off the flower tops of sunflower plants, the squirrels left them alone. I had about a fourth of the yard in flower beds and they were real pretty. I enjoyed working in them and trying out new plants.

I've put most of them back into grass over the last few years - no longer able to keep up with the work involved. But still enjoy getting out and weeding and tidying up the yard.

Well, I finally got out the camera and took pictures of one of my boxes. The medallion on the top is done with paper quilling.

Yes. I started out making small artist books - mostly accordion with hard cover - painted pages, calligraphy, etc. I've been playing around with other binding methods such as making a pamphlet type book, stitched at the spine, and artistic covers or covered with handmade papers. I've also made some albums using decorative (scrapbook) papers. It's all lots of fun.

My current learning project is to make case-bound books. (The kind of hard cover books you find in libraries and bookstores.) I've just completed my first one (fought with errors and redos). It's a small journal with blank pages (which I cut and folded and stitched together), and I covered the hard cover boards with paste paper (starch paste with paint mixed into it - think fingerpaint) which has been a current experiment as well. If you go to Pinterest and key in "paste paper" you'll see just how lovely this kind of paper can be. It is an alternative to marbled paper which traditionally has been the end pages of quality case-bound books (the inside of the hard cover and the first page - which is glued to the block of pages).

All lots of fun if challenging. Making books does not allow for sloppy measurement and cutting. I'm getting better!