Special delivery

When I called my husband from work to see if I had received any mail today, he said that a big envelope had arrived! (Joy!) I was so excited to get home and see what goodness had been delivered. (Little did I know what kind of glorious treat I was in for!)



The package was AMAZING! It was for the Super Quick Swap I had signed up for through Swap-Bot. There were beautiful pieces of vintage fabric, oodles of ephemera (including lovely clippings, a black and white photograph & other darling antiquities), envelopes with adorable food characters, a recipe for chickpea cutlets that sounds delicious, and a gorgeous Taschen book of Pin-Ups (I've wanted this for ages! How did you know?!)! There was also a lovely handwritten letter enclosed telling me about my wonderful and cool partner.

If you are reading this, dear swap partner, a million thank yous for your amazing package! If I never swap again, I will be satisfied having received your superb melange of ephemeral goodness... (Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to staring at all of my wonderful treasures...Ohhhh... Ahhhh...)

Coptic Binding

Last Saturday, I went to an all-day workshop on Coptic Binding offered by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. It was such a great experience! I didn't realize that it would be so labour-intensive!

We began from scratch and started with two pieces of wood, three huge sheets of paper, binding thread and an apron full of bookbinding supplies. Louise Granahan taught the workshop and took us through all of the intracacies of coptic binding. We began by shaping the wood through grating and sanding it. We then learned how to make signatures with the sheets of paper. This involved folding the papers, splitting them carefully and then, keeping them together in folded groups known as signatures. From there, there was drilling (we needed to put holes through the wood to accomodate the stitching), puncturing (we needed to create a template and then, puncture holes into the signatures) and lots and lots of sewing. Louise provided a tutorial for each stitch to get us on our way.

Of course, there were many more steps in-between that I haven't touched on. Luckily, Louise provided us with handouts at the end of class to guide us through the process once we got home. In the end, we all came away with beautiful little books!

Below are some pictures taken at the workshop:





And here is my little creation:

Ta da! Not too shabby - if I do say so myself! :)

Guess who's seeing Stevland Judkins tonight?

J & I are taking the little person to see Stevie Wonder tonight!!! (J thought it was important for the little person to see the legend at least once in this lifetime). I can't believe we're going! Tonight is the only Canadian stop on his tour!

In honor of the festivities tonight, I'll leave you with this amazing footage of Stevie live on Sesame Street: