Weekends

A couple of weekends ago I spent a half a day learning a little more about the art of letterpress. I love how this type of printing creates a texture in the paper. I think it's had a bit or a resurgence in popularity, but it's not something that can really scale. Letterpress printers like this aren't made anymore, apparently. 

Furniture holding the printing elements in place.

Workshop leader Eric Johnson of Iota Press pulls the cover off of the press

The finished "book cover."

I didn't get a picture of it, but the last piece of equipment we used was a paper cutter, also purchased from the local museum. We took turns effortlessly slicing 1/8" strips from a phone book. That was surprisingly fun. 

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It was Don's birthday last weekend, so we headed up the coast to help celebrate. Lots of good food as always, and the company of good friends in the form of Caitlin, Sean, Mary, and Tom. 

I've had a bee in my creative bonnet to make some buttons and shawl pins for my knitted creations, so Mom helped me get the pieces started. I used some of my cookie and biscuit cutters for the basic shapes as well as some tools that Mom had. It was so nice so be in the studio with her, working on our respective projects. 

M and I took Rex to Alder Creek for a walk. On our way down, we met a guy coming up the road who had been trying to photography a brown shrike, which apparently is extremely rare in these parts. We observed how the road to the beach is becoming even more overgrown. The Velella were on the beach in abundance, in various states of colorful desiccation.

The picture before the official birthday portrait. 

Another creative thing I have been actively pursuing over the last few years: taking macro photos of flora. I've spared my Flickr feed, but I have started an album finally. I may have to start a separate one of Rex's nose and small flora. He hates having his picture taken, but when I point my camera at something on the ground, you can be sure he wants to sniff it.

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I've been putting off packing today, though I'm off early tomorrow for a conference in San Francisco which starts on Monday. (Mark will be coming - yay! A fun first for us sibs.) Instead, M and I started a project we had hoped to finish in just one day, a raised garden bed, made mostly of straw bales. We had seen this in a garden last year. Alas, we were thwarted by math - the soil sellers didn't calculate the amount we needed properly, so we weren't able to fill in the bed today. Despite that, we got pretty far along in the project, including getting herb and veggie starts. We'll focus on beans, zucchini, kale, a pepper and a pumpkin. Maybe fill in with some flowers if we have room.