Having worked in retail for many years I know that having your stock sit anywhere for a long period of time is not only frustrating but it means it’s time for a sale. My books don’t go bad like bananas but I htink it’s time for s spring cleaning sale- I have a drawer fullof etsy items that I need to clean out to make room for new journals and notebooks- I need to have an empty storage area to be sparked to create new interesting items.

Those are some great deals. I’ll post links to the various etsy areas of my shop a little latter today- be patient I have a ton of stuff up there and it’s going to take me a few hours to edit everything!

I noticed that alot of the books I had listed on eBay were well, boring in color so I decided to list a few that were a little more exciting or had more going on than just blue.

Obviously the above journal is blue, but this one has a cool pattern on it- a fish-like pattern. I thought it was a little more interesting than just blue. the paper is 24lb and unlined. it’s on ebay now!

Okay so this one is boring too, it’s all white on the outside but it’s got some color inside, but I figured that the white would be perfect for decorating or for those of us who like to recycle but don’t want to advertise that fact. This is also unlined with 24lb off-white creamy paper. This one will be on eBay tomorrow afternoon!

Okay so this one is really not boring. I can’t take credit for the picture of cheese, olive and a pear, that was from an ad, but I thought it would make a cool picture on a journal. So I cut it out and did a little stitching and here’s a super cool notebook/journal. The paper is Wausau cream 24lb lined paper. It will be on eBay tomorrow night.

This is also a cool cover- a mottle orange and brown with some letters- perfect for someone with the initials of N and S?!? I also live the little detail on the back of a pineapple. The paper is Wausau cream 24lb lined paper. This one is on eBay now!

Phew it’s been quite the week. I’ve been unbelievably ill but in a way that makes me feel like a wimp for saying that I’m sick. What does that mean? I’ve had a nasty stomach flu that has been going around, I’ll leave it at that- you don’t want details. That being the case I’ve not done much in the way of listing things to eBay, until this weekend. I’ll also be updating my etsy site as well.

I’ve been working on a stack of book blocks and various book projects. I sadly had to turn down an order because of the size of the paper, they wanted a hedgehog 400 pages long but filled with heavy larger paper that I just don’t have access to. It’s a long convoluted story that I find frustrating. IN this case even iof I had bought the paper cutter I so desperately desire I would not be able to cut the paper to their desired size- yes it was that large. Anyway.

I also have been avoiding having my taxes done. Doing my taxes fills me with an anxiety I can’t quite describe, ever since I had to pay taxes into the state of Maine I’ve hated doing my taxes. So last year I went to H&R block to have mine done and it was much better, this year I did the same and I’m happy to say that I’m getting a wonderful return. Next year I will remember that as long as I have everything all together it only takes a half hour for them to enter everything in and it will not be bad and that I do not have to avoid it.

I had to drive into Cambridge 2 days in a row for the DayJob, I’ll tell you that I will avoid that if at all possible in the future. Morning traffic into the city is terrible and wears me down.

That being all well and good I”ll do another update with more pictures and details of the books I’ve listed.

I had a jam-packed day yesterday. Most of it related to housework, yard work and cleaning of both. I made a few recycled books but I also watched the UFC. I could go on forever about the fights but I won’t here. But I will say that I’m pretty bummed out about GSP losing. I’m a big GSP fan so to see him lose the match in the manner he did was a bummer.

Enough on that subject. Today I’m planning on folding up some paper for large sized hedgehogs and maybe getting the signatures partially sewn.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it, for those that don’t I hope that you are all enjoying the fantastic weather thus far in the day!

I forgot to mention that I have books and cradles and awls up on eBay and etsy….

Take a look here and here

I haven’t had a chance to post about it because I’ve been too busy with work, but I’ve been working on books. And wow books. I’ve made a ton of recycled covered books over the last few weeks, 24 to be exact. I landed some very cool signs from the store and I’ve managed to cut some nice covers from them.

I also made a stack of covers ahead of time. Half of them are lined and half are unlined. I’m pretty happy with the results. Now I’m just figuring out the aspect of money.

I’m having a hard time with it. I’m not sure why, but I am. I know the retail price of them but I’m not sure about it. I might re-price them. I’m so familiar with how the company does it’s pricing that I can’t step away from it. I want to give the people who would carry the books a fair price and make my money but I also want an item that will sell.

I’m looking for any ideas of pricing and wholesale info out there. Anyone have any good ideas or recommendations about heading into this?

I wrote earlier that Allen, my brother, had made a bunch of awls for bookbinding, but that he hadn’t taken pictures of them yet. Well, he took many pictures today and loaded them up to his Photobucket account- you can see them ehre BookWorks Photo Album I’m pretty happy with how mine turned out.

The sewing cradle is listed on eBay here and it has a low Buy it now. They’ve been selling pretty well.

I’ve got a load of lined paper (see previous post) and I’m going to fold some signatures tonight. Sometimes even when I don’t have time to make books its good to get in the groove and just do something linked to binding. So I’m going to veg in front of the TV and fold paper.

I can’t wait for things to totally even out at my DayJob so that I can devote some real time to binding. As of right now it’s blowing my mind how much there is too learn. I did bind myself a fat recycled notebook so that I can take notes as often as I would like. It’s come in pretty handy, especially with the pockets- I’ve stuffed those full of things. I also love how I can spill coffee all over it (my thermos leaked one afternoon and my book was covered in the last dregs of my coffee- sugary mess.) and then just wipe it clean with some spray on cleaner. (Method multi-surface for me.)

Anyway, time to veg.

Visiting my family was a 2-fold activity. Partially to unwind and partially to see all the awls and cradles my brother is making in person.

I’ve got to say that it’s pretty impressive to see 22 awls lined up, coated glossy with polyurethane, and ready to be sold. My brother has skills in woodworking that I would kill for, he has a certain mastery of the tools that I’ll never have. Something of taking woodshop while young and a proximity of tools that lends one skill you can’t learn later in life. In short the boy can turn wood into useful things, a skill I wish I had.

That being said the awls are Black walnut and maple laminated together and hand turned, each one is a little different, and thus he must take pictures of them, each one. Which he hasn’t done yet. When he does get pictured of them, we’ll list them up on my etsy and his etsy and ebay. He’s asking $12.99 each for them.

I’ll take some pictures of mine. I chose one with a medium flair on the top and a few grooves along the side. It feels really nice in my hands and I can see now how much of an improvement over mine it will be. Mine may have been easy to make but this one will be far easier to use.

Allen also has a bunch of cradles ready to go, as well as the parts for a few more ready to be put together. I put one up on eBay last night.

I have to go to the DayJob now, it’s what is paying the bills!

I’m in Maine visiting my family. Its significantly coder here than it is in Mass. But it’s nice.

I have several items ending on Bay tomorrow. Several recycled covered notebooks, jotters and a hedgehog. You can see them here.

I made a custom hedgehog for someone, pics below. The pictures aren’t very special but filled the inside with 100% cotton paper. I so used a different method for gluing it up than I normally us. I clamped the block with binder clips applied thick glue, removed the clamps and then pressed it until it dried. It made a very good binding. The spine is no thicker than the rest of the book block- binding perfection. It heads for England.

One of the many reasons I love the laser printer and initially the reason that we got one is that I use it to print lines for journals. I don’t do lined journals often, usually at request for a custom order. Since I may or may not whole sale the recycled journals I bought 3 reams of Wausau paper in cream. I thought I might make a few journal with lines.

Being myself I couldn’t just print 2 or 3 journals worth of lined pages. No, being me, I had to print a full ream of paper, 500 pages. It takes a long time to print 500 pages of lines. I’ve been chipping away at it all evening.

I also found that the printer didn’t like printing essentially 1000 sheets in one day.

From now on I vow to print fewer sheets per day. Besides printing 1000 sheets is boring.

Also if I can urge anyone to get a laser printer- even a black and white one I would do so. They are just as fast as an ink jet now, but the amount of sheets you get out of one cartridge is crazy, usually they rate the cartridges for 500 sheets less than what they will actually do. My cartridges are rated for 2500 sheets, but usually I get 3000+ out of them. The other fantastic thing with them is that they never clog up. THey are virtually maintenance free. Go laser you’ll be happier.