Book Arts

Sorry I haven't shared any new photos (or really really old photos for that matter) lately.  I know I've been slacking but I promise that I haven't totally been doing nothing.  Instead of editing photos lately I've been spending a fair amount of time working on a couple of artists books I've been making.  Ever since I started working at my current job about 8 years ago and learned how to make books I've been doing just that, making books.  But only blank ones, what you'd commonly refer to as journals.  I've sold some in the past, but mostly I've just either made them and kept them or made them and given them as gifts (the main recipient being my best friend, Amanda, who actively journals on the regular!).  Anyway, I'd never really made a book with any substance or content...until last year.

It's not that I never wanted to make a book with content, or an "artists' book" as it's commonly called, it's just I never really had a single idea.  Until last year, when for our student appreciation day we made carousel books (which I had never made before) in the lab, and for the first time ever I had an idea.  And so I made my first artist book and I was so excited about it that I entered it into Bookworks XVI (my book is pictured at the very end of the post!), a local collaborative book arts exhibit that's put together by the Cincinnati Book Arts Society (aka CBAS, pronounced like the fish, sea bass) and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Now, I had been trying to think up an idea for Bookworks for years, but nothing...until I made that first carousel book.  I really liked the structure and something about it just inspired me and before I knew it I had a handful of other ideas.  Which leads me to the pictures of the book below, my second ever artist book!  I worked on this book mainly over the holidays and just now finished up making a custom cloth-covered clamshell box for it, so I figured it was time to share it...

It's called "Cosmic Ocean".  It's another carousel book, but this time I used Arches 140lb watercolor paper and QoR watercolors! [Front cover]

[Side opening]

I used small, thin magnets to create clasps on either side of the book to keep it shut.

I also embedded magnets into the front and back cover boards so that the book would stay open for display.

Here's a gif/animation of the five pages, it starts with the Earth and ends with the red galaxy and the space ship.

This was a very fun book to work on and I felt I really pushed myself further on this second artist book.  It also, just the like the first, really inspired me and as I was working on it I started to come up with other ideas for other books!  I hope you enjoy it!  And if you're in the Cincinnati area, I do plan to submit it into the Bookworks XVII exhibit this year, which generally runs from June through August in the Main Branch of the Public Library, if you want to check it out in person.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I thought I'd share some of the pumpkins that Antoine and I carved this year seeing as how it's Halloween and all.  It's no secret that I love pumpkins!  I love picking them, I love carving them...everything about them just makes me happy!  Well, except for the fact that they rot, which means I can't keep them forever.  Though if they did last forevver I'd probably have several thousand pumpkins sitting in my front yard and that's no good.  Anyway, this year I went a little overboard on pumpkins!  I think we had eight in all that we carved (I carved six and Antoine carved two) and then a couple smaller ones that we painted, plus an assortment of gourds...

 These three are mine:  a vampire on the left, a kitty in the middle, and Jack Skellington on the right!

 These are two of our larger ones: the one of the left is Antoine's and the cyclops is mine!  Also, in the background is Antoine's other one...though for some reason he decided to rot faster than the others, so he'll likely wind up in the garbage this weekend.  [Insert sad, pathetic face]

A basset hound pumpkin seemed like a must this year [read: Antoine insisted that I do one]

For the kitty pumpkin I decided to carve the front and back (that's why there's so much flickering candlelight in the background of the gif).  This pumpkin is actually pretty small and when I got it I had no intention of carving it, I just liked that it was still mostly green.  But then, when we were carving, it just looked so cute it needed to become a kitty!

 A couple of our gourds.

Two of the pumpkins that we painted; the gold one is mine and the silly one is Antoine's...and I'm just crazy about it!  I also painted a pumpkin for work, which you can see here.

I'll share more on our pumpkin picking adventure later, once I get the photos edited.  Until then, happy Halloween everyone and have a fantastic weekend!

Cheesy gifs

I thought I'd share a couple cute, pointless Cheese gifs with you today since posting gifs on Friday has unintentionally become a thing with me.  Perhaps I should include a whole series called "Friday gifs" or "Friday Fun with gifs"?  If so, this will be number 7 in the series...enjoy!

Love that face!

Happy Friday everyone!  Any exciting plans this weekend?!  We're doing one of my most favorite things ever...picking pumpkins!  I can't wait!  I hope you all have a super fantastic weekend.

Campfire Magic

Since it's Friday and I've been slacking on posts lately (and I have a thing for posting gifs on Fridays) here's a couple gifs of the campfire from our recent camping trip in Mohican...

There's just something so magical about a campfire!  It's so warm and mesmerizing.  Though I only got to enjoy one campfire this summer, I'm hopeful that next summer will be filled with lots of camping adventures and campfires.

Happy Friday everyone!  Any awesome plans in the works this weekend?  A and I were hoping to go see Gone Girl, but I'm still working my way through the book so that'll have to wait.  Instead we might check out the Cincinnati Nature Center which I've never been to but have been hearing awesome things about for years.  Have a great weekend!

Guillermo

Lately I've been thinking that poor Guillermo tends to get a little forgotten here on the blog.  Cheese gets a fair amount of attention/pictures taken of him because he almost always goes with us to the park and whatnot.  Plus he's very photogenic!  Guillermo stays in the house and tends to hide from the camera.  So when I recently took a series of photos of him and created this gif, I thought it was the perfect time to dedicate a whole post to this furry guy.

Name: Guillermo (pronounced: gee-YAIR-mo)
Story behind the name: It means William in Spanish.  He was actually named after Guillermo Del Toro, I loved Pan's Labyrinth when it came out and thought Guillermo would be a super name for a big, fluffy cat!
Nicknames: Gui, Gui-baby, Furrball
Age:  5 years
Breed:  I'm pretty convinced he's got some Maine Coon in him.  He's 15 lbs, not because he's overweight, he just has a big frame.  He has the light-density coat that Maine Coon's are known for, which means he doesn't shed in the same way normal long-haired cats do because his fur is so fine.  He's got enormous paws with big tufts of fur between his toes (purpose: to keep their feet warm in the snow).

10 random facts about Guillermo:

1. He was the first pet that Antoine and I got as a couple.  After we bought our house we adopted him only a week or two after we moved in!  There were boxes all over the house and it was a mess, but we were so excited to bring this little fluff-ball home.  We loved him immediately!
2. Gui really isn't that interested in food (at least not like Cheese is).  I mean, he LOVES his spoonful of wet food he gets everyday, don't get me wrong, but he's really not into treats and I think his favorite part about feeding time is the attention from Antoine or me.  He's a total lover!
3. He's a talker!  Even though he didn't really meow until he was over a year old, he loves to talk to you now.  All you have to do is say his name and he starts talking.  And he almost always comes when you call him, actually he's better at that than Cheese.
4. Favorite place to get pet - under the chin, along his jaw!  That's his sweet spot.  But if you touch his stomach or his rear-end you are in trouble!
5. He has his own bed...does he lay in it?  Of course not!  His go to spots are either our bed, the guest bed (which we call "Gui's bed"), Cheese's bed, or Cheese's crate.  He's weirdo!
6. He's a horrible hunter when it comes to things I actually want him to hunt like insects and spiders.  But he's an excellent hunter of fake mice and my hair ties.  Seriously, he has hunted and destroyed about 90% of my hair ties and I have to hide them from him now, which doesn't always work.  [Speaking of hair tie murders...we recently got a new rug for our living room.  When we rolled up the old rug we found eight massacred hair ties under it!  Eight!!!]  
7. He's a total scaredy-cat!  He freaks out at the slightest unusual noise and has a sense for when other people enter the house...he runs and hides, usually behind the washer in the basement.
8. He's a total mama's boy.  If Antoine and I are one the couch watching tv Gui will almost always go for my lap...unless the dog is already there! 
9. Gui is horribly clumsy.  His jumping skills are pretty atrocious and he seems to not really like high places too much (probably because he's fallen so much).  He's kind of the anti-cat in that respect!
10. He loves to trip people, especially people he loves.  If you are walking anywhere in the house there's a good chance that he'll be under your feet, usually meowing!  If you're walking down the steps, forget about it...you better hold onto the railing and try to maneuver around him very carefully!  It's really surprising that in all the times I've fallen down the steps it's never been his fault...at least not yet!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into the oddity that is our fluffy cat, Guillermo.  And happy Friday!  I don't know about you but I am so ready for the weekend!  We're actually skipping out of work early and driving a couple hours north to go camping.  It's been a couple years since we've been camping and really I miss it!  And this time there's a group of us going (and Cheese) so that should be fun!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheese & the Hot Dog!

I woke up today and for a split second I genuinely thought it was Saturday.  Isn't that the worst ever?!  I also woke up in a fog like I have been most of this week...not so fun.  But the weekend is nearly here and I'm hoping for lots of time to veg with Antoine.

Since it's Friday and I have a knack for sharing gifs on Friday I thought I'd post this little gem; Cheese gingerly eating a hot dog!  See, when we went over to my sister house to grill out and relax in her newly finished backyard/patio-area Antoine had the brilliant idea to bring along the lone hot dog in our fridge for Cheesy.  You know, as a special, holiday treat!  After the humans ate their dinner, Antoine threw the hot dog on the grill for a minute or two and then I got my camera ready.  I expected Cheese to flip out, but he was ever so gentle and polite about receiving this delicious, July 4th snack....

What can I say, he's a class act!

I hope you Friday (and mine) goes by quickly and you have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday!

I'm still working my way through editing all our Hawaii photos, but I'm almost done!  I plan to finish next week.  In the meantime, since it's Friday I thought I'd share this silly gif of my sister and brother-in-law from our recent family reunion...

I love the look on my sisters face!

Any great weekend plans in the works?  I'm not entirely sure what we're up to but I'm hoping to get some baking and some photo editing done...and of course, take some photos!  Have a good weekend everyone!

Sea Turtles!!

Apparently I didn't get my fill of sea turtles in yesterday's post.  Plus I figured since it was Friday and I didn't want to jump into my Oahu photos just yet, here's some sea turtle gifs I created...

I mean, come on!  How awesome are sea turtles!?  I love them...maybe just a little too much!

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm so glad the weekend is nearly here.  Our weekends have been flying by lately, but now we're one weekend away from our long 4th of July weekend, which I am very excited about!  This weekend we've got a lot in the works (if the weather cooperates)...blueberry picking, cleaning, bike riding, baking, and possibly jam making!  It should be fun.  Anything exciting weekend plans in your future?

As a side note, here's what I'm hoping to make with all the blueberries we pick:

• The Novice Chef's blueberry lime cream cheese pound cake
• Pioneer Woman's cake-like blackberry cobbler (but with blueberries)
• These amazing looking blueberry donuts
• Perhaps a spiked version of this blueberry lemonade
• My favorite blueberry jam recipe from Marisa at Food in Jars
• I've been drooling over this recipe for vanilla custards with roasted blueberries from Smitten Kitchen for some time now!
• These blueberry oatmeal cookies from Lady and Pups
• And since I have Jeni Britton Bauer's book I've been wanting to make her lemon & blueberry frozen yogurt but haven't had a chance...yet!

Let's see if I can get to them all!

The Basset Hound and the Leaf

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm home sick with some nasty cold thing, but I thought I'd share some cute gifs of Cheese trying to eat a leaf.  He's so silly, I don't know why he thought the leaf was food?  Even after he got a hold of it the first time and realized it wasn't something delicious, he continued to go after it!  Oh, Cheese.

Cow Chewing Cud

Because my brain hurts today and I probably couldn't form full thoughts if I tried, here's a gif of a cow from the Texas State Fair, doing what they do...