Today was an interesting day for me. Some of my extended in-law family came to visit and they all have this really great philosophy on life that is hard to explain but it's empowering to listen to them explain. Its something of a Jungian collective consciousness, quasi-religious, new age spiritual kind of thing. One of the core tenets of their belief is that life is what you make it and that with hard work and positive belief in yourself anything is possible. They also believe in the power of prayer and meditation and clearing the mind of all thought and allowing your heart to guide you in some of your most difficult decisions. They refer to somethings that I don't believe in but other things that they talk about I find myself shaking my head yes.

Then I went to SuziBlu's blog and read this entry. It's sort of like the world is telling me that anything is possible and that if there is something that I want I need to stop making excuses and go ahead and dot it.

So after leaving the beach with the inlaws I insisted on going back to the beach to do a sketch. It reminded me of why I go into making books in the first place and that is to create great sketchbooks. The fact is my first book was made because I needed a sketchbook with good paper and I couldn't' find that commercially, so I learned to do it myself. It happened to be something I was good at and came to easily. So I started to do it regularly. It makes me think of the things I'd also like to do more of. Sitting at the beach making the sketch, I realized my handling of the water and tress was getting better and better and that my regular painting of these beach scenes has made my handling of them that much better. It made me realize that I want to do that more.

So I'm going to do it. I"m going to go to the beach more often and paint more often. Maybe I'll even do a few larger watercolors. Who knows what can happen if I set my mind to it.

I think that in addition to making the books that I have been making I want to get back to making the sketchbooks- great books for artists to use and write in. I need to think of my designs and decide what I'm going to make.

Some times I read and think about things and talk to people and it sparks my mind in new and interesting ways.

WOW. It hit 99.1 degrees in my backyard and it's been incredibly humid. The last few days have been hotter in other towns in MA as we've had some nice Atlantic breezes but it's still been brutally hot. High 80s and low 90s for 3 days now. My poor northeastern blood can't take it. I fade out in the heat and I'm a total wimp I'm much more suited to dealing with -20 temps than the hot weather.

The humidity is the killer though. Not only does it make a lot of things unpleasant it makes book binding difficult, especially when gluing leather to paper or paper to leather. The paper is larger as it's absorb3ed moisture as is the leather, not a lot but enough that it shows. Apply any heat to it and you get cockles and waves. So, though I have a big project I'm ready to do, I'm not working on it. I demand a good product for this client and I know she won't want anything but my best… It also gives me a little more time to think of the binding. I'm in a linking sort of mood, so I could just do bands across the spine of links but I was thinking of a French linking style I saw online and I think it would make a nice pattern on this spine, red thread on a white leather… It will be eye catching to say the least.

So in the heat I've been spending time at work- it's hotter there as I work about 35 miles from my house and it's straight inland. I work in an older building so the AC is spotty and doesn't quite work right. That means by noon I'm damp with sweat. I keep a water bottle close by but when it hit 80 degrees in my office I tap out. It hit 80 in my office at 1pm Monday and around 2 yesterday.

I feel like I've been working half days- but I've been getting in at 6 am so not  quite. I have felt like I've had a lot of extra time in the afternoon. So I've been coming home getting a few chores done and then heading to the beach. Monday I took the dogs with me and it was too much to bring both of them so the next time I  do it I'll take one. But when I haven't taken the dogs I've taken my sketchbook and watercolors with me. I've posted my sketches here, click through to flickr to read more about them.

Last night was a particularly nice night the temp had dropped about 10 degrees and the waves made a gentle crashing sound. I waded out and got hit with a large wave to my waist I had expected the wave to only come to my knees. So I sat on the sand and painted in wet shorts. I think it cooled my core temp down and I felt almost instantly better, though my pants were wet.

Anyway, I'm thinking of talking to my boss and seeing if I can change my schedule to early days all summer. It will seem like one long vacation!