The Week

During the week I was sitting in the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith. It was miserable outside and nice and cozy inside, though the fires haven't been lit. It was fairly quiet, a few people having lunch and that's it. Perfect for me to sit and think, about notebook designs, my business, my life. Things are so much better these days, despite the pain getting worse. My thoughts are happy. It was a really an amazing feeling when I realised what was happening. Ricardo was busy studying for an exam, so I had to go out so he wouldn't get distracted. Hey, I didn't mind, I had a lovely dark Archerfield fine ale (4.7% a malted chestnut toned beer with notes of roasted barley and chocolate) and a wonderful Islay, very peaty cask strength whisky. Yuuummmmmm.

The cat fostering thingy fell through unfortunately. At the beginning they said they could take the cat back for a week when we were on holiday. Then a week later, they said they wouldn't. It's wasn't possible for us to proceed with this. Our lovely friends Noel & Gillian, who looked after Max and Tabitha, live too far away for us to ask them to do it, really out of their way, wasn't fair. They were so great for doing it though xxx. Since then I've contacted an emergency pet fostering service, who help primarily help older people who cannot for any reason (hospital stay, ill health) take care of their pet for a period of time.We are happy to take care of any pet, except for birds (I'm allergic) and large dogs (small flat). We'll see how that works out, I'm really looking forward to it.

Laptop

I need a cover for my Lenovo laptop. I've had a look in the place where I bought it. Nearly bought a pink cover with handles, but it didn't really grab me, it was a case of 'that's the best of what they have'. I would end up looking for another one. I'm thinking about needle felting one. I'd need thicker pre-felted merino wool as the base though, don't have any in my stock. What design to put on it? My instant thought would be to go for a tree design. Don't know if I want that. The new designs I have in mind for the notebooks would be really good, haven't seen anything like it so far online.

Now I've had my hair cut again, I need a new photo. I went along to Lia at Moda in Bernard Street in Leith with a photo on my phone of what I called a 'Sharon Stone haircut'. Lia did a wonderful job, I love it. The photo that I'm using for my blog etc. isn't really very good. It is a passport size photo that looks a bit pixelated when enlarged. Not sure how I'm going to go about this as Ricardo doesn't like taking photos. I'll think of something though.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

McLean Book Arts Website

If you like unusual hand crafted notebooks, go and have a look at the website at

McLean Book Arts

talk soon

Love & hugs

Angela

xxx

Monogram Notebook

I've just finished my first A6 notebook. It's the commissioned monogram notebook I mentioned. It feels a really nice size to put in a pocket. It has 9 signatures with different shades of blue crimped paper. It was really nice to do. I'll be doing a lots more A7 size notebooks in future.

The next set of books I'm going to do will be wrap around casebound books in A5 size. They will have a seasonal design and there will only be 4 books in total. The winter notebook design will also be used as the design for my business xmas card.

I have a new series of book in mind to make after the seasonal ones. They will have celt designs and be in various sizes and colours, these will be fun. I'll post photos when they are done.

Talk soon

Love & hugs

Angela xxx

New Notebooks

Now that I'm back from my lovely holiday in Marseille, I'm getting back into work mode now that I've recovered from delayed flights from Paris. I've been busy this week. Sorting out my schedule for the next few weeks for my own work and doing voluntary work (met my new match). A flat tyre that needed replaced and a leak from the flat upstairs again, not a bad one this time though. I've got some courses to do. A Pitman's social media course which includes an exam, a couple of webinars to catch up on about marketing on Twitter and a couple of networking meetups. There are also the Business Gateway courses that I need to go to, but not yet. I want to go out and have a few coffees too.

I finished the last (for a while anyway) of my coptic bound A6 dark tree notebooks and have put them on Etsy.  I use 120gsm white paper in all my books now (an exception will be the cigar book that I need to start) as I find it's good to work with and doesn't bleed with ink. I hate that some of the well known notebooks on the market have reduced the quality of their paper, one of the reasons that I started making my own books.

I'm starting a new series of A7 size notebooks (even though I have a "to do" list of books to make). The first is a commission with a monogram. It's will be in blue with black lettering. The spine is being done in shades of blue with a black cross stitched spine. I'll upload a photo when it's finished. I have an idea for displaying the smaller books. I can probably just do it, but I think I might go along to my favourite bindery to get a hands on box-making course instead of the hand tooling course that I was going to book on to.

I've got the blank A6 cards that I'd ordered to make the business xmas cards to send to clients. I had a trial print, but decided that they really need an insert for the text, so I've ordered some. I need to get on and do the needle felting for the front of the card, the inside and the back texts are ready to go.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Marseille

Just back from our holiday in Marseille. It was about 20ºC every day. Marseille is the 2013 City of Culture, it's a lovely place, but with a bit of a reputation unfortunately. The thing is, it's probably not much different from any other city, you wander into the wrong place, things happen.

We rented an appart-hotel for our stay. We like to get a feel what a place is like to live in. The room was small, but nice. The kitchen area was fully equipped, so we just had to buy food. The bed was really comfortable for me, but the pillows were a bit crap. Ricardo didn't sleep well and was glad to get home to his own bed.

There are some spectacular views from the top of the hill where there is the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica. From the Med at the left to the mountains to the right. Amazing place. There were quite a few stairs, which I climbed, not knowing that there was a lift for the disabled. I did manage them though, so I was pleased.

The basilica is really set up for visitors, a cafe (which was closed, as were the toilets), 2 gift shops and some drinks machines. I don't think I've been to a church like it, ok, most have gift shops.

We seemed to spend a lot of time at the Vieux Port. The old port seems to be the centre of things. There were always a lot of people around and there was a market on the Sunday.

It was a great holiday, the couple of the days that I wasn't able to get out, Ricardo went out for a wander himself and brought back food and wine.

It is on our list of places we'd like to retire to (along with Lyon), but we need to go a few times more to see how much we like it.

Anyway, back to business and courses, I'd better get on.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx