here again

It seems to me that whenever I have a decision to make and I have to push myself that tiny little bit more I turn to procrastination.

Like today. I was happily multi-tasking away; whilst waiting for my silk screen to dry in between stages of printing I was gluing the spine of a book. Whilst the glue was drying I was taping up the screen ready to print. Then when the screen was drying again I was gluing on endpapers, trimming the edges. You get the idea...

But then I came to a tricky decision; what colour to print the legs? Yesterday I tried three different colours and they all looked rubbish (I feel I have no clue when it comes to colour, I find it very hard, and this is why I'm practicing...) Anyway, instead if deciding I went upstairs and fiddled about with the book for a bit until I discovered that I cut it a little off square.

Great.

Now, it would be so easy to just carry on at this moment. To think 'oh well, its only a little problem, it wont make that much difference' and just put it to the back of my mind. But I'm trying to stop my self doing this. Because I'm beginning to realise that its these little mistakes that accumulate and end up causing a bigger problem that spoils the whole book. I want to get better at book binding (and box making, and screen printing and the rest...) and I think the first step is recognising this feeling and putting whatever is wrong with the thing I'm making right. Now.

So. The book is a little bit off square. I cut the cover board and then get annoyed when it doesn't fit. I'm going down the wrong road there... but I can't seem to push myself to sort it out, I find myself at the computer. Procrastinating.

I did find this interesting essay though... structured procrastination

Hmmm.

book for chris & maxine

Some rather rubbish pictures of the photo album I made the other day...

I intended to take some better ones with my proper camera later on but.. your know how it goes...


buttonhole concertina spine, leaving lots of room to be filled with memories, and photos of course...



I do love a good spine shot :)

one friday

I wrote this on Friday, but it wouldn't post...

I work long hours in my job. Sometimes I feel like I've only just left and it's time to go back again, only time in the evenings to cook my tea and go to bed... In winter I thought it was bad because it was always dark when I arrived at work and when I left, but it didn't cross my mind that in summer I would feel like I was stuck inside, missing all the sun! (because, of course, I always want what what I don't have, don't we all...)

Anyway, days like today make it so so worth it. The time I spend in the evenings at work give me the whole of Friday off, a whole extra day to get things done or, in fact, just do nothing and let the world go by. Today has been a combination of both...

leisurely grass cutting (but not trimming the edges...)

making a book for my friends wedding tomorrow

eating toast and lemon curd (bad for the teeth, but yummy all the same)

hanging out washing in the sun

finding a thermometer for my worm bin* (it really does seem very hot in that black plastic bin, I hope they're ok!)

bit of reading, but slowly, because the ending is so sad :(

All in sloppy I'm-not-leaving-my-house-today clothes. Brilliant. So, if you hear me complaining about having to work late you would be correct to tell me to shut right up :)

*The worm bin arrived yesterday evening. I set it up in the rain. In the dark. You see I didn't want the worms to spend their first night here stuck in a bag. I nipped out to check on the worms before I went to bed (as you do) and found a load of them all over the outside of the bin; escaping! That's when I realized there is a massive chunk smashed out of one side of the lid, presumably done in transit, and the worms were out to explore... Torch in hand I collected them up and taped up the gap, then panicked they might get stuck to the tape on the inside, took off the lid to tape up the tape and realized that because it was dark a load more were climbing over the side and would be squished when I replaced the now worm proof lid. Aghh. no wonder they want to escape, I'm a liability! My goodness, worrying about the worms kept me awake last night, but I rushed out this morning to find them safe and sound, and I gave them some manky beetroot leaves as a house warming present. Hopefully they'll want to stay...

I couldn't resist...

 via Hazel and Ali...

it's better if you click on it to make it bigger...

1. Before the world was made… the innerlight of Sarah.K was!!! :))), 2. hmpf! what do you mean you don't have any bread?, 3. Calder Valley from Higher Moor, 4. Grey Morning, 5. simultaneousness…♫ little egrets - egretta garzetta - from bali ♫♫♫, 6. The Water Strider, 7. Pelican landing, 8. mango cheesecake, 9. friends 4ever...♫ well, don'cha?^o^ palm cockatoo from bali bird park ♫, 10. Making Things - Cardboard Racing Turtles, 11. Silly Saturday Centerfold, 12. My Little Gift, For You!

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search
b. Using only the first page, pick an image
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? (Sarah)
2. What is your favorite food? (bread)
3. What high school did you go to? (Calder High)
4. What is your favorite color? (grey)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (don't really have one)
6. Favorite drink? (water)
7. Dream vacation? (Galapagos)
8. Favorite dessert? (cheesecake)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (happy)
10. What do you love most in life? (making things)
11. One Word to describe you? (silly)
12. Your flickr name? (littlep paper bird)

What is it about these things that I find so intriguing?! Perhaps the fact that the photos all seem to fit together really well even though its pretty random (although I know I pick the pictures so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise I like them, but still...) Or is it just that I'm nosey and like seeing everyones answers...

What ever it is it's brilliant fun, go on and have a go, you know you want to... 

todays efforts...

birds

Curlews and a bittern. Positives I'm drawing for a screen print....

Experimenting with truegrain... (you can just about see the separate layers for the beak, legs and feathers at the right hand side)

Next, these will be exposed to a screen coated with uv sensitive emulsion to create a stencil, and then I need to decide on some colours...

a walk in the woods