Today I thought I’d take some time to highlight one of our clients. Pam has been a close friend of ours for several years. Last summer she decided to take her love of photography and create a business. She came to Joel and I for business coaching, bought Joel’s book, The Commonsense Entrepreneur, and has made excellent progress.
We started having weekly coaching calls to help Pam define exactly what she wanted to do and how to accomplish that. We currently have a call every other week. When we decided to start our nomadic lifestyle, Pam generously provided note cards of her photographic art work for us to use as thank you cards as we traveled. People all over the country have one of Pam’s note cards that we’ve left behind to say thank you for allowing us to stay with them.
Pam also took some informal photographs at our daughter’s wedding last month. I specifically asked her to take photos of Joel, Fiona and I and here’s the favorite.
Please check out Pam’s work at her website, Get The Little Picture. I know you’ll enjoy her blog posts as well.
We’ll be house sitting for a couple in Longmont Colorado the week of April 5-12 2011. Our host sent us this list of things to do in the area. The items with an asterisk in front are things we definitely hope to do.
We’ll be going into Denver April 6 to visit Mrs. Parker’s Kindergarten class again. We may be meeting another traveling duo as well.
Dushanbe Teahouse – Rita says, “I’ve heard wonderful things about this place and can’t believe I haven’t been there yet!” http://www.boulderteahouse.com/
Pearl Street Pedestrian (only) mall – between 11th and 15th streets. Street performers, musicians, shops, art galleries, restaurants. The best (free) place to park is north of the mall on Pine St or a side street near Pine; 14th, 15th, 16th, etc.
Falafel King – our favorite place to eat on the mall. excellent gyros and falafel plates. be sure to get the hummus and baba ganoush. between 13th and 14th streets.
Boulder Creek Path – 7 mile concrete path that parellels Boulder Creek. Best place to park is on Arapahoe Ave south of Eben G Fine Park. Be sure to always walk on the right; bicyclists use this path also and some a bit too fast. Walking west will go along Canyon Blvd, under Canyon Blvd then along Boulder Creek. Walking east will take you to the library (nice exhibits) and beyond.
Flagstaff Mountain – views as far as you can see from 6850 feet. Best pullouts: Panorama Point and Realization Point. Take Baseline Rd west.
Having more time has made me ponder creative outlets besides my songwriting and business books. Needing a better way to track my projects and day-to-day tasks (my experiment with 3×5 cards was most enlightening) I tried my hand at hand stitching my own little notebook.
I need to work on the gluing techniques, and got myself a smaller drill bit for the stitching holes, but all in all, I’m happy with the result. I believe that I can make these for less than 50 cents each, and it’s very peaceful and relaxing stitching the signatures (groups of pages) inside.
I wanted to make something fast, unfussy, and cheap, so I’d be more inclined to use these things and not wait until I had thoughts worthy of enshrining in some leather-bound tome (for now.)
A single sheet of letter-size paper will yield three strips which, when folded in half, makes a 4 1/4″ x 3 5/8″ page. I laid 16 sheets down, measured the top sheet, then used a straight edge and tore the sheets rather than cutting them. I’ll need to work on the technique, but I don’t mind the raggedy edge; just don’t want it quite that raggedy.
If I could settle for two folded pages from each sheet, and live with a waste strip 1 1/2″ x 11″ from each, I could make journals the same size as a Moleskine, but the waste disturbs me. I might experiment with a tiny 2 3/4″ x 4 1/4″ journal which would require 12 sheets of letter-size paper to make a 192-page journal. Would that be big enough? Guess I need to find out.
The fabric glue I used is flexible even after it dries, but I didn’t get it thin enough. Spreading with a thin card instead of my finger would help.
I made a book press out of two 12″ x 3/4″ x 3/4″ pieces of birch wood and two carriage bolts with wing nuts. During the gluing process I realised I’ll need something wide enough to smash the whole journal, so it looks like I’ll need two more carriage bolts and two pieces of wood big enough to hold the largest journal I’m likely to make, a half-sheet 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ so that’s about 7″ x 10″ to leave room for drilling the bolt holes. Have to be careful of size, being nomads and all.
Eventually I’d like to settle on one or two sizes and have someone make a leather cover I can slip over the current journal, and reuse when the journal’s full. I’ll also have to answer the questions in my head about the textured cover I chose, the decorated end sheets, etc. They weren’t cheap, and there’s no reason I can’t do something both economical and beautiful, if I’m willing to invest time and effort into it.
Someday I plan to make a whole book by hand—write it all out on handmade paper and make a single unique book I’ve written; one of a kind.
For this cover I used some textured cover stock. Feels nice but has to be cut, not torn. Adds 8 cents per journal to the cost.
I used some fake maps from a craft store as decorative end sheets. Perhaps I’ll cut up some of the real maps we won’t need (extras, outdated, etc.)
The stitching inside the signatures. Not a very clear picture, white on off-white.
The spine is loose; not glued to the signature stitching, but so far it doesn’t seem to matter.
My first homemade journal (note the map endsheets)
Tuesday we visited schools in Denver. Fiona got to meet Mrs. Parker’s Kindergarten class at Yale Elementary School. The students have been following Fiona’s blog and were very excited to meet her in person. Everyone wanted to play with Fiona and sit by her. They took her outside to play on the playground for a few minutes before school ended.
Then we visited Renaissance Montessori Academy. Joel and I met with the Board to discuss some ways they can reach out to the community to let parents know what they offer at this school. While we talked, Fiona played with some of the learning tools they had available. If you are in the Parker Colorado area, we recommend you take them up on their offer of a free tour of the Academy.
Our last stop was meeting with members of the Board of Rhythm Vision. They work with local schools using music to educate students. We got to play on the drums they make! Roxy made us feel very welcome and we hope to come back and visit more.
We stayed with Sonja on October 2 and her two children. Sonja is an artist and painted this beautiful mural in her children’s room. Her daughter let Fiona borrow dress up clothes so Fiona felt like a princess. So we got these pictures to show off Fiona and the beautiful artwork of Sonja. Fiona is a Princess in New Mexico Perhaps she's a ballerina
