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.

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.