Okay I’m back on eBay! I’m excited. I’m starting off with some recycled notebooks, a large and a set of Jotters. I’ve also been looking at my back stock and I’m thinking of adding a leather journal or two to the offerings this week.

Here is the large recycled:

You can see it here!

And here is the set of 3 jotters:

You can bid on them and see more pictures here.

I have low starting bids on these and buy it now.

So next week I plan on reintroducing myself to eBay. I’ve got a few smaller journals and a few sets of jotters to auction off, as well as a few other items. Sunday I’ll post the listings and they’ll be active for a week, as per usual.

I spoke with my brother about making me new buttons, he sounds a lot happier now that he’s got a job and new friends who have similar interests. He’s got some plans for a web comic, and once he gets it set up I’ll post some links, even though its not the sort of things I’m interested in, he is my brother.

So I’ve firmed up about 50% of the “new” website and now I just need to wait on the buttons from my brother. Or course I also need to think about what I want for buttons and how I want to present the new set up. But all the old pages are down already and the new set up is starting to emerge from the ashes. I’m pretty excited.

I’ve also been making books again. A few hedgehogs, some jotters and getting paper ready for other endeavors. I also printed out my own copy of Walden, which I found at B&N for $8, minus my 10% discount…. Grgh. My copy will be an heirloom. I also found a copy of The Jungle for less than $10! (Given my recent reading of The Ominivore’s Dilemma it’s right in line with my reading interests right now.) However I’m going tolook online and see if I can get a copy used.

So I’ve taken more time off from binding than I had expected. I needed some time to relax, think about the direction of my website, what I wanted for my website, what I wanted with my art, and realistically look at what and where I was willing to go with it.

I’m really good at retail. I do a great job with it, but that doesn’t meant hat I want to spend all my free time selling journals and supplies that I have nothing to do with other than to order them. I have less free time now than ever and I don’t want to spend that time dealing with retail issues while I’m at home. While I want to create a great website with all those fine journals that I love; I don’t want to spend time ordering, filling orders etc. I see a huge opportunity out there for someone who has the time and energy to create a website fulfilling those needs for people. I think also I was going into it for the wrong reasons- I saw it as a way out of the world of retail hell and it was simply a different level of that hell for me. I think that if I were in a different place financially I would be able to make it work. I just wasn’t able to take out another loan and take a chance that it was going to pay off or not. That being said, when I am financially bale to make this work, I’ll be on top of it in a heartbeat.

So, what I will be doing is focusing on the last of the stock that I have, keeping a few hard to find journaling items- the pencil sharpeners, pencils etc… The main focus is now for me to concentrate on my bookbinding. I’ll have three areas of that: the leather premium journals, the recycled premium journals and the 100% recycled journals. Obviously the 3 lines are going to appeal to different people but I like all of them and that’s what I’m interested in making, so that’s where I’m going to go.

So over the next 2 weeks I’m going to focus on revamping the website, photographing some books, and resetting the crappy paypal shopping cart system. So I’ll set myself up with a schedule and then work on things according to that. I’ve already ripped down the links to moleskine, ciak, and all the other stuff I wanted to carry but didn’t. So We’ll see how things look and go. Hopefully it will be back to basics and better.

I’m taking the next 2 weeks off from listing things on eBay and I’ll leave my current etsy items up but won’t be adding anything new for a few weeks.

I’m also leaving the etsy items on sale!

Why you might ask? May and June are popular months for graduations, and as such we have been invited to a graduation party every weekend for the next month and a half. Yes my significant other has a large family.

In other news I’ve been spending some time in my garden and it’s coming along nicely. I havea ton of sprouts and they are looking great. Now if I could just keep the neighbors cat from using my garden as a litter box I’d be a lot happier.

I apologize for neglecting this blog. I decided to take a few days off from making books and work on my household chores. I’ve also been dealing with massive allergies. It’s been wonderful and miserable!

Summer is getting into full swing here, my yard is bright and green, lilies are poking their heads above the surface of the ground and my pear tree is in blossom. This is one of my favorite times of year- temps are perfect for being outside and sleeping is comfortable. Light spring breezes pas through the house and everything is sunny and great.

My brother is making more cradles and presses. I have a cradle and an awl on eBay ready to go. The press goes up tomorrow.

Anyway. I’m going to take it easy with books over the next few weeks and plant my garden.

Well the sun has come out here in the North East and tomorrow I”ll be enjoying the warm sun and all 60 degrees of fantastic weather.

So I’ll point out right now that I have 2 items ending tomorrow and 4 more ending Sunday. Tomorrows auctions are for journals/notebooks and Sundays ending auctions include a sewing cradle, an awl and journals. Everything is at super low bids right now and several items have no bids. So this is a chance to get some of my work at lower prices. Ebay here and Etsy here.

Also I think it bears mentioning that I have a sale on ALL of my items on etsy (you can see the pricing in the entry below.) I need to make room for more items that I’ll be making over the summer and fall. So take a look there are lots of jotters and recycled as well as a few hedge hogs.

I’ve been at work the last few evenings as well. I’ve folded up several bundles of hedgehog pages, both in large and small sizes and I’ve also managed to sew up a bunch of them. Tomorrow I’ll be gluing several of the blocks up.

I’m also making some notebooks for work. I’m on a local product team and I’m making some journals for the people on that team. They will all be recycled. I’ll post a few pics when I get the project finished.

I want to write something here poignant and deep about the shootings but cannot. My thoughts go back to tragic deaths which occurred while I was young, people I knew whose lives were ended early; and all I can think about is that raw overwhelming sense of numbness as your mind starts to process the tragedy which you are now forced to face and live with.

So for all of you who have had to suffer during this tragedy- you are in my thoughts, and that is all I can muster.

MY brother has been hard at work. He’s made a few more cradles and some more awls. He’s got them on his etsy site and I’ve listed one of each on eBay.

YOu can find the awl here.

And the cradle here.