Business Logo

Today I'm choosing my new business logo. It's not that I'm completely changing things too much. I'll have McLean Book Arts and my new project running in parallel. Unfortunately, I can't really see the book arts design and name (see right) working for my current ideas.

I have asked my wonderful sister in law to help me choose. I've whittled the choices down to five and I can't decide which would be the best one. Marion is the creative genius behind The Sword Engraver. She and my brother in law Ross produce original engraving with historical designs on all kind of armour and weaponry, mainly for historical weapons for re-enactment. Go and have a look, you'll love it.

I received more of my supplies yesterday, so I'm a very happy puppy. I'm really going to love working with this medium. I'll get some more work done tonight.

Have a wonderful day
talk soon
Angela xx

Nearly ready to go

Well, exciting times, I have a launch date and I'm nearly ready. Got flyers, posters and postcards done, my business cards are great. Tomorrow I have an appointment to see the bank about a business account. The bank appointment is making everything very real, not too scary though, I'm really excited. I have an appointment with my Business Mentor next week to finalise my brochure and go over the details of starting up, then I'm ready to send out the marketing materials. The items on my To Do list are gradually being ticked off.

I had lunch with my friend Adele today and told her all about my plans, I hadn't seen her for a while, so she didn't know about it. We used to work together. She was telling me all about her daughter, who is now two. She sounds like a real cutie. It was lovely to see her.

I've been doing some work this evening and now I've finished my blog.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

P.S. Just bank from the bank, a lovely lady at HSBC has given me a business account.

New Cover

I've been quite productive today. Managed to finish one of my secret bindings in A6 called "Queen of Hearts", it took a while, but I got there. Pity I can't describe it or post a photo, that has to wait for the launch. Also been working on " The Tree". Got the cover done, just need to attach it to a book block. I'll probably get that done tomorrow.

The printer is playing up. I can't seem to get the paper I want to use to go through. Total pain, I was trying for ages, even glued the paper to a sheet of printer paper, alas no luck. I wanted to have an idea about the brochure I had, ready for Tuesday. That's when I'm meeting up with my Mentor. I may have to think up something to get around the problem.

The thing I've discovered about working for myself, is that I can work when I want to. I've been working for 4 hours this evening while watching Indiana Jones and sipping wine. It's 21:30 now and I'm thinking about stopping when I've done this blog post. Well, that's it, I'm off.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Tuesday

I've not been awfully well, so I've avoided being creative and stuck with the manual task of sewing book blocks. It's something that a lot of binders hate, but I really like it. I find it to be quite therapeutic and it gives me something to do while watching TV or when I'm feeling restless. They need to be done at some point in the process, so I've now got a stock of them to keep me going. I've found paper that I really like, so I'm going to be doing all my future book blocks with it and I'll also use it for flyers and brochures. It will be good to use for brochures as it will let the person reading it actually see and feel the quality of the paper. I think that I might be starting to feel a wee bit better, because my ideas machine is ticking over again. It's quite hard to switch off, once it gets into gear. It's just a good job I can make notebooks. I love my laptop and I love my smart phone, but sometimes writing down an idea on paper seems to bring it to life a bit more that a gadget would.

I'll be having a meeting with my Mentor in a week's time, really looking forward to it and she's so supportive. I'll get going with a couple of ideas I had earlier and get a couple of draft items a bit more firmed up and printed off to take with me. I thought I'd take her to one of my favourite places in Leith, something different from Costa. I don't like their coffee coolers, but prefer a frappuccino from Starbucks, though their skinny cappuccino is fine. Talking of coffee, the best in Leith has to be from The Shore, it's fantastic.

It's 02:27 in Edinburgh and I should be in Z-land, but I couldn't sleep. I forgot to take my painkillers at the right time. I think I'll head to bed now though, I feel a yawn coming on.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Trip to Ikea

We had a trip to Ikea today to get a desk and chair for my studio/spare room. Got a great desk, the right size, along with a matching bookcase for £50, yay. The chair is great too, it's a lovely green one on wheels. We put the desk and chair together when we got home and we'll get around to the bookcase another day. I can now get all my tools and supplies sorted out in a permanent home.

I bought an online course yesterday, it will help me with my technique with the decorative parts of my bookbinding. It will be really quite unusual and it will add another string to my golden bow.

Off to sort some paper out.

Talk soon

love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Meeting my Mentor

I met my Mentor for the first time yesterday in a Costa cafe late am. What a brilliant meeting, it was buzzing. She is such a lovely person and full of ideas of what I can do with my projects. It's great to have such a knowledgeable person to help me with this, as I'm not sure I would have considered doing this on my own. She is going to be with me a quite a way through my journey, so I'm sure we'll get to know each other well. It will be a couple of weeks before I meet with her again, so I'd better get my head down and get on with the binding.

talk soon

love and hugs
Angela
xxx