Back From An Unintended But Unavoidable Break

My husband was gone for a week, during which time any progress on my own creative activities came to a screeching halt. Like anyone else with a full-time job, I mainly do my own projects at night and on weekends. When I'm the only parent responsible for three kids 24/7, my weekends disappear and by the time the kids are all in bed I'm too tired to be much good for anything. My husband arrived home Friday night, and Saturday I dove into some projects.

The first thing I did was work on finishing a book from the printmaking/bookbinding class. I had an idea that one of the ghost prints, which had some big, light spaces, might work with text. I wanted to try out transferring the text to a clear label and applying it to paper. I've only done this process with labels to glass, so I wasn't sure how it would work. Complicating things is that the ink we used in class kept rubbing off, so I wanted to try to seal it at the same time. I should have unfolded the book (it's another maze one) and applied the text and sealer while the whole thing was flat. Live and learn. This book has quite a few problems, but parts of it are quite nice, and it's a pretty little learning experience.

The print had a bit of an ocean thing going on--the sea star stamp, the bubble wrap, the wavy lines--so I decided the perfect text was maggie and milly and molly and may by e.e. cummings. I typed this out using Rough Typewriter font, made a photocopy, transferred the text to clear tape (using the process described in Print Workshop), and then arranged the text into the book.

It was all a good idea, and I know how to do it better next time. The cover sits a little too wonkily (is so a word), and I had glue issues. (Stupid glue issues, because I should know better by now.)

The next thing I did is cut out the Rainbow Girls and get them ready to be sewn onto their beanbag fronts.

I bought the swirly fabric a couple of years ago and only realized recently that I'd bought every color of the rainbow except for yellow. I was buying it for two cloth books for babies, and I was thinking about the individual book's color schemes. G and I agreed that while it would be nice if the yellow fabric matched, I don't have yellow swirly fabric and we're going to be happy with what we've got. So--beanbags. It's really nothing but beans in there? That seems like an awful lot of beans...

Finally, I made my daughter the embroidered wrist cuff she'd requested. I'd managed to doodle a butterfly, cut out fabric, and trace the butterfly earlier in the week, but Saturday night I sat down to embroider the butterfly and sew it all together. I accidentally made it too short for a snap, though, so I improvised by sewing on a button and elastic loop.

The girl was pleased.

It feels so good to make things!