Bronchitis, heat, and I have a new passion!

Between the bronchitis, which took over a month to get rid of, and then my complete LACK of energy, I haven't been doing much.

Well, actually, that's not true.  I have a new passion!  I'm making journals!  And, giving them away to family & friends because right now I need the experience of making them and learning from my mistakes!  Finally, it is a great way to spend my days INDOORS!   (It was 119 here this week and we have two days of 118 degree days coming up next week).

So, yes, I had that HORRIBLE bronchitis that was going around and I was basically so tired that I did NADA.  NADA.  I didn't even get up to visit my horses!  That's how tired I was.  I seem to be over it now and my energy level is back.

I discovered journals after trying canvas, fence boards, 12" square wood cuts, and decorating my photos.  I really wasn't happy with any of those things.  I don't remember how I came upon journals, but I've always loved writing!  My first poem was published in first grade!  I was a writing coach at my district for two years and the students in my class always had higher writing scores than the other teachers at my grade level...(snicker, snicker...).  My kids wrote EVERY DAY.  They learned to spell.  They learned to write a complete sentence (in 3rd grade, for crying out loud!).  Yes, they struggled, but they also succeeded.  Every year except my last two, I published their year long writing in a spiral bound book and sent it home with them.


...sigh...

So, somehow, I think on Facebook, I discovered junk journals.  That's when you just grab whatever you have and make it into a notebook/journal.  Of course, I ran around the house and quickly filled up 3 boxes of...junk.  Old mail, old writing paper, new writing paper, paper bags, magazines.  My husband thinks I'm NUTS!  I even went out into the garage and found a whole box full of stationery that I used at school which was left over.  I somehow hadn't gotten around to giving it to a thrift shop!  THANK GOODNESS!

I'm on a roll.  I made 2 Edgar Allan Poe journals using what is called the "altered book" method.  That's where you keep the book pages and glue stuff on top of them.  They were awful.  I wasn't happy with them.

However, not being an expert seamstress like my maternal grandmother, I couldn't sew ANYTHING!  So, the sewing machine went in for reburbishing and now I sew lace and other things onto papers!

I now find books for 50 cents, gut them (take out the pages) and then build them back up.  I decide which pages should go into them.  I've made 4 that way.  Two went to one of my colleagues who retired the same year I did.  One is my first one and I'll keep that one.  Another one I did for a friend and I'm already working on #5. I've learned to get over my fear of sewing, although I do still occasionally swear at my sewing machine!  I gesso my covers and add items to them.  It is a wonderful outlet for my "creative energy".

Hubby finally asked today, "When are you going to make some money off these?"  HA!  Probably NEVER, but I don't care.

Oh, and I CLOSED my ETSY shop.  They were charging me fees for stuff that NEVER SOLD and I had just HAD IT!  NO SUPPORT, NADA!  So, bye-bye!

I just sneak some of my grocery money into my purse each week and trek over to either Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or JoAnn's.

Here are some photos of journals #1, 2, and 3...I don't have any of #4 YET...

 This one is #1.  I didn't know how to stitch the spine yet, so I just used ribbon to hold it together.  I punched holes in EVERY paper and tied it with a blue ribbon.

 These are #2 and #3.  I gave away #1 and #3 yesterday.  The one with the owl was the first one I stitched.  I didn't get enough papers in it, unfortunately, and the cover doesn't sit straight...oh, well...live and learn!  I'll keep that one.  I put gesso on the cover to give it some texture.  My colleague wanted the purple cover on hers left intact, so I didn't do anything to it.

This is the spin and stitching on #2.  I somehow didn't get my pages lined up correctly on the inside, so they aren't even...sigh...lesson learned!  There is a learning curve here and I think I'm doing better, but on #4, I didn't make enough holes for the spine and paper, so I just double stitched EVERYTHING!!!  OY~

Oh, and with the HEAT WAVE, I'm stayin' INSIDE!!!!
Later!
~Cheers~
Cheryl Ann