Our domain was migrated to a new server this morning and I hit a little snag trying to update Wordpress to the latest version this evening.

Everything should be working fine now. Here and over on the forum. Unfortunately we lost a few posts on the forum during the migration but thankfully that was all that went awry.

Thanks for your patience!

My hosting service is migrating to a new server and there seems to be some issue with the database and my posts.

Thanks!

Jackie

The first thing is that I do not know what happened to that last post. It seems to have diappeared off into the ether somewhere. I’m hoping it’s not the server as we had another outage on Sunday. Ack!

Good morning readers.The summer seems to be flying by pretty fast here in the burbs. I’ve been busy putting up bread and butter pickles, baking bread, preparing for upcoming classes, making books and Chameleons to send off to far away places, watching the chatter over on the forum and dreaming of an uncluttered studio.

A few things…

If you teach kids or have little ones of your own, here is a site that has lots of info and projects for making books with kids.

I’ve been adding and deleting blog addresses on my Google Reader site for alot of folks that have been jumping ship on their old blogs and starting up new ones. Billie of the Billie’s Craftroom blog is one such blogger. She’s got some nice little tutorials on her new blog. One is how to make leather look paper with the Ranger inks. It’s def. worth a look and a try.

If anyone is interested…I have a box full of old polaroid cameras that I’d like to find new homes for. They are the kind that take the peel apart film used in Polaroid transfers and emulsion lifts. I have some of the older ones that take special batteries that you have to order but one battery lasts forever. Shoot me an email if you’d like more info.

I hope everyone has a great day.

It’s kind of spooky…the original post here just disappeared.

If you tried to get on the site last night (6/9/08) and couldn’t, the reason was due to a faulty bandwidth counter on the server.

We’ve had this issue before. The counter is supposed to reset itself on the first of each month but it doesn’t.

Luckily the server owner is a friend of mine and I can get these issues resolved pretty quickly.

If you sent me any email last night please resend it. I’m not going anywhere so no worries about that.

Jackie

Wordpress Wordpress CMS

Good morning readers.

I’m in the process of mucking out the studio this week…amoung other things. It’s a mess and I was told I couldn’t migrate back out to the dining room with my book making stuff anymore.

Check out the new site feature…I’ll be sending out a bimonthly newsletter starting in June. It’ll be full of bookbinding goodness and possibly a free tutorial or two. If you’re interested in receiving it, click the link on the menu at the left and signup.

I am planning on participating in a small local craft show on July 5. I’ll be spending the next few weeks getting some books and chameleons made. I’m on a mission to try to use up alot of materials that I already have on hand. This week will be spent seeing what I have and how I can use it without buying more. I have lots of paper and fabric that can be used as cover material. The only thing I think I might need is some inside paper but I’ll know better by the end of next week. Wish me luck.

If you haven’t been to the forum lately check it out. We’ve got alot of new members and some good discussions going on.

I hope everyone has a great day.

PS…you can flip your own text here.

Good morning readers.

While I was in the DC area I stayed in the Alexandria area and visited Old Town Alexandria in the evenings. On Saturday evening I was lucky enough to find the Paper Source store still open. For a bookbinder and someone that loves paper it was like walking into heaven. I know I heard the angels singing as I walked in because to the right was a great wall of paper. Decorative papers floor to ceiling for at least 15 feet.

Of course I got some paper while I was there…did you even have to ask?

As I was on a budget I could only get about half dozen or so sheets but I got some lovely Italian and Japanese papers. I have been wanting to try the Bookbinding Guy’s technique and Jerry’s only has papers with large designs available so I was thinking that I would have to buy some nice decorative paper with small designs off of the Internet for making the books. It was kismet.

While I was there I got a nice traditional round glue brush. Someone noticed that I used the cheap flat paint brushes and said I needed a bookbinder’s brush. I’m a little nervous about it as it was expensive and my brushes always seem to get ruined after a time. That’s why I use the cheap ones.

I think I mentioned before that if you’ve bought Frankie’s video and are going to try his technique, you’ll want to make yourself a small book press.

Also, Dolphin Papers carries the paper that he uses for the pages (as well as other great bookmaking papers). Ed’s prices are comparable to Blicks and you get better discounts for buying larger quantities.

I’m doing a little spring cleaning and I have tons of leather scraps that I will be bagging up and offering for sale next week. The scraps are varying sizes. Mostly good for small projects. If you might be interested, shoot me an email and I’ll let you know when they are available.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Good morning readers.

I’ve been busy all week catching up after my two weekends away.

I’m pretty excited as I’ve finalized plans for a Flush Mount Album making workshop that will be held on September 17 & 18 here in Virginia Beach. The workshop is geared towards working photographers that want to learn how to make their own albums as well as binders looking to add a new product to their binderies. The class size is limited to 10 students and runs from 10-6 both days. It’s going to be a jammed packed two days.

For local readers, I’ve got a few classes coming up. I have a class this Saturday the 24th at Jerry’s Artarama from 1-4pm. We’ll be making small hardcover journals. I have a 2 part class at The Contemporary Art Center that starts next Thurs. and runs from 7-9:30 pm. The class will cover how to make a traditional style hardcover journal or scketchbook. I’ll also be teaching at the children’s summer camp at the CACV the week of August 11-15. The class will be focused on different styles of bookmaking. I’m teaching two classes. One for teens 12-16 and one for pre teens 9-11.

When I am not teaching classes this summer I will be working on getting ready for the fall art shows. So far I’m planning on participating in Jerry’s Fall Show as well as the Art Expo at Virginia Wesleyan College. (Side note…If I had the money this is where I would transfer to after graduating from TCC) I’ll probably be participating in one or two others but need to decide which ones will fit into my schedule before apply. There are a ton coming up.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Good morning readers.

I’m back from my birthday excursion to Washington DC and am exhausted from all the walking we did. I managed to see the National Women’s Museum, The Freer Gallery and do a walking tour of all the National monuments on the Mall. We also walked around Old Town Alexandria, Virginia and had some great food while we were there.

My friends that were with me organized a birthday scavenger hunt and had me ask for things such as denture cream, granny underwear and stool softeners from strangers throughout the weekend.

My dogs are also exhausted from all the fun and excitment they had at puppy camp. They are crashed out on the floor and occassionally one will twitch and ear or open an eyelid so I know that they are still alive.

After two weekends away I have alot of house cleaning and book work to catch up on but I just wanted to stop in to say hi.

I’ll have more to report later.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Good morning readers.

I don’t feel that old at all.

Over on the forum there are three of us that have a birthday today. (Happy Birthday Carol!) That’s pretty cool. I’ll be out the door shortly to have breakfast with my friend Holly who shares the same birthday as me.

I’m busy finishing up a few things before our weekend trip to Washington DC.

I’ve been working on new customizations for the Chameleon Notebook. I’ll be offering non-leather covers. I have a really nice one in the works that is a soft bomber jacket leather-like vinyl.  I’ll also be offering a notepad option in lieu of a flap pocket in the back.

I know I mentioned the DIY Planner site before for users of the chameleon Notebook but it’s definitely worth another mention as they have so many great templates that you can download and print to make customized inserts. Just go to the template area and do a search on the “classic” paper size. Most are PDF files but some of them are Word or Open Office files that can be downloaded and edited.

Another great tip for Chameleon owners (thanks T-na) is that the large Moleskine Cahier notebooks fit nicely in the notebook. So if you prefer not to make your own pamphlets or are looking for a nice lined paper booklet, these would work well.

I’m getting great comments about the Chameleon from people that have purchased them.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.