My confession.

I am decidedly bad at blogging.  I try to frequently update, but I forget.  Maybe I'm just decidedly absent-minded...

So, Hollander's class number three, Advanced Book Repair, was fun.  We did a lot of spine repairs and I got to practice some of the repairs I learned in the Basic Book Repair class.  I actually feel like I made one of the books I worked on look almost as good as new!  I'll try to post pictures soon.  I really should have taken before and after pictures.  Oh well.

School has picked up and I'm knee deep in homework.  Luckily I only have one paper to work on next week while I'm in sunny California!  I have a few meetings with libraries out there, so here's to hoping I'll at least have the hopes of a job when we move.

On a more fun note, I've been knitting a lot more lately.  It all started when I was trying to think of ideas for my grant proposal and was searching for pictures of owls.  That landed me on the Kelbourne Woolens site and a pattern for these super cute owl mittens.

While at the store, I found some other patterns that I wanted to work on, and then I got on Ravelry, and now I have 45 projects in my queue.  There goes my free time!  I'll be either bookbinding, boxmaking, or knitting/crocheting!

I've written about half of my grant proposal for my grantwriting class.  I completely made up the program and it's something that might actually get off the ground somewhere in the future if I decide it's something I want to do.  It's for an after-school arts program and coffee shop that would function as a gallery and a continual funding source for the program.

I've also been trying to get into the professional literature more, but it's so hard with the amount of work I have to do for classes.  I have a few feeds on my Google Reader, but they don't necessarily always capture my interest.  Any suggestions out there for good blogs/feeds to read?

the Twitter version of books

As if we weren't already attention span deprived enough, FT Press is coming out with butchered versions of already published books, what the New York Times is calling "snack size," for e-readers.  My husband, Steve, calls them the Twitter version.

Can we really truly experience books in one to two thousand words?  I think not.  What we get is a sorry excuse for literature, be it fiction or non-fiction.  While the titles I've seen so far are on the business/self-help side (and goodness knows those tend to be verbose, anyway), if the current titles succeed, I can't imagine what will come next.  They might as well attempt to take over Cliffs Notes.

Read the whole article at the NYT.

As for myself, I'm very tempted to curl up with a novel and some hot cocoa on this cold, snowy day.  Maybe after a bit of homework...

Books and Boxes

So here they are!  I know you've all been waiting to see my handiwork.

Coptic binding

 

Secret Belgian Binding

 

Buttonhole Binding

Box with flanged lid

Box with hinged lid

Clamshell box with Flat Back book

Tear repair with Japanese Paper

Tear repair with only rice paste

Corner repair with Japanese Paper

Box Making, New Glasses, and Work, Work, Work!

The class last weekend at Hollander's was fantastic.  I made three boxes: clamshell, hinged, and flanged.  I'm hoping to take pictures today and post them.  I also got the instructions of how to make a flat-backed bound book to put in the clamshell box that I've been working on the past few weeks.  It's not perfect, but I'd say it's a pretty good attempt for a first try!  Next weekend I'll be at an advanced book repair class and then nothing again until February.  I would take more classes, but they are a bit pricey.  I'll just have to make a bunch of books and boxes in the mean time!


I also got new glasses.  They aren't that different in either look or prescription, but they're different enough for it to be fun!  No one noticed they were new, though, so that was a bit sad.


Other than that, nothing's really new.  I've been working, working, working.  Between classes and my two jobs, I'm fairly busy!  I got to help out with an outreach event regarding stroke in women at the Ann Arbor District Library this past week.  It was fun to do that kind of library work - I rarely get to interact with patrons anymore.  As a bonus, I picked up two books to read.  I'm usually rather picky about the books I choose, but this time I kind of randomly grabbed a couple off of the new book shelf:  Broken: A Novel by Daniel Clay and La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith.

On the class side of things, my team met with our contact at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum this past week, which was great.  If you've never been to the museum, you should go.  It's too much fun.  They have this set of stairs that plays a major scale as you walk up and down.  Like I said, too fun!

I've been working on a case study for my management class involving strategic and operational planning and I've kept chugging along on my grant.  Oh, the life of a student!

If you're not busy on Feb. 19th, you should come to East Hall Auditorium at 7pm for the SI Revue!  I'm singing, accompanied by the wonderful Richard Newman, a friend of mine from Hope College, and I'm accompanying Colleen Theisen and Elizabeth Everson.  Dr. Chuck is going to be the emcee.  Should be a fantastic night!