wednesssssday

Do you remember being in first or second grade and learning how "Wednesday" was spelled and being BAFFLED and for a moment vowing to always pronounce it the way it is spelled because that is BETTER somehow, but then quickly realizing that was dumb?  Was that just me? 

You guys today was a really good day.  Working backwards, I just spent an hour downstairs with Susan making cous cous and eating it and her chicken soup for dinner and talking about life and plans and things and it was SO MUCH FUN.  Susan is so great!  She might take some conservation classes in the future and I hope she does and we end up in the same ones!

Alright.  Today...wow, looking back, I got a lot done today!  I made a new batch of paste paper because upon reflection I wasn't satisfied with any of the first batch to use for end papers for Book #1.  Nothing had quite the right spirit about it. SO, first thing in the morning I made new batch of paste and chose new colors and stumbled upon a new technique and I'm totally in love with it.   Then I got to work on Book #2.  It came out of the press and was all dry and ready, so I did the special opening-the-book ritual, pared and stuck on the hinges, and did all the crud you have to do to the cover before you put on the final pretty cover paper, and then I in fact put on the pretty cover paper!  I had a mini-crisis when I doubted my choice in cover papers and almost switched to something different, but in the end I listened to my heart and stuck with my first decision.  I STILL didn't tie Don down and get him to teach me the new headband method, so Book #3 still languishes in not-very-much-done-ness, but he promises to demo it for Susan and I in the morning so things should start banging away fairly quickly.  I already prepped as much as I could for his next few steps, so hopefully I can expedite. 

Right now, with two days left of class, I am in this tricky situation of trying to juggle the three books so they end up as finished as possible all at the right time.  It's weirdly tricky to figure out the best sequence of events I should aim for tomorrow, trying to take into account how long each step takes and what needs a big drying/pressing time after it and when to have that fall so that I can be working on a different book while that one is hanging out...and all of this so that I have enough done that I feel good but not so much done so quickly that I end up twiddling my thumbs on the last day!  Not that I think there's much chance of that, but just hypothetically... :)  I'm also trying to manage my book READING, deciding which books I'll finish in time to return to the free box and which are worthy to be Airplane/Airport books and so forth.  STRESSFUL, right??  :) I love that these are the things I get to fake worry about right now.  You guys, life is pretty awesome.

here's the new paste paper.  It looks kind of shizzy in this picture but it is better in real life, plus it will be cut down to go in the book so I think it'll be good.

Hey, here is Book #1!

And here is Book #2!  This was taken pretty early in the day, so it is not at all what it looks like NOWtimes.  Also it is laying flat open like that because I had just glued in a hinge and you have to let it dry a bit before you close it, or everything is horrifically ruined.  Or something.  I don't make the rules.

This was my table at the end of the day, wich Book #1 (right) and Book #2 (left) under some weights.  Book #2 needed the weight to get the cover paper stuck on there good, and #1 just needs all the time it can get to get used to being covered in leather.  It's just hanging out, basically.

and THIS was on the walk home.  I picked a good time of day and sunlight to walk home in, I think.

So...I think I will attempt to go in early tomorrow to get banging on #2 so that it can be pressing and drying again when I am doing headbands for #3, and then hopefully after that Don will demo how you do endpapers and then I will knock out #1 like, for REALSIES it will be completely FINISHED, and then I'll only have 2 things left to juggle.  My ambitious goal is to have #1 and #2 COMPLETELY DONE by the end of tomorrow.  Probably #3 concerns will get in the way and I won't get #2 totally finished, but that is ok.  I already have all the leather pared for #3 and different papers cut to size and whatnot, but it will undoubtedly take longer than I think to get him through the works.  Silly #3.  What a silly book.