Photos from the Alaska State Fair

I didn't take a lot of photos, but I hope you'll enjoy the ones that I picked to share. Click on the images for larger versions. The larger versions are at 50%.

The drive out to the Valley, as I've said before, is gorgeous. Last time we went out, we saw bald eagles. This time, we saw swans!

They are a bit far out, but I wanted you to see that view. That's in the direction of Anchorage, we were going the other way.

See? Swans!

The Alaska State Fair is held in Palmer. All the years that I've entered art in the fair and won ribbons, I never went. Now that I'm not entering any more, we've started going. One thing I always wanted to do was get a portrait of my kids. I have one done of myself in pastels from when I was a kid. The lines are usually quite long. This time, there wasn't one so we finally did get one done. This is the portrait in progress.

I was just thrilled with how it turned out, but after careful consideration and more than a few moments of "But I want it!" we decided to give it to their grandfather. Who was thrilled by the way. 

And of course, there are the rides. Because at that point I needed a break, they got tickets and we didn't see them again until they came back for us to hold on to some stuffed animals they won, then they were off on the rides again. So since I don't have photos of them on the rides, I took these of a couple of the rides against the back drop of the mountains.

Then we ate. Since none of us are huge fans of deep fried everything on a stick, we went to a booth run by a local farm and had Alaskan grown veggies and stew. We did a little more shopping and browsing, then it was time to head back to town.

On the way back, there is a spot you can see Mount Susitna aka The Sleeping Lady from, but you can't really pull off the road to take a photo. She took my breath away, all shrouded in clouds. I pointed it out to Michael, and said "Maybe when we get back to Anchorage, we should go to the Captain Cook Memorial and see she still looks like that to take a picture?"

Today we took it easy mostly. I worked out a template for a box to hold 2 Oreos, and now I need to decorate it, and I made a pillow box from a photo of a rose that I took. I'll post that later.

Michael is grilling locally grown potatoes and steak right now, even though it's getting dark, and we have a vague plan to possibly go to Thunderbird Falls either tomorrow or Monday. I hope your weekend is going fabulously.

Book Review- At Home with Handmade Books

I love making books. Mostly blank books that I use for keeping notes, but sometimes little volumes for friends.
Having lots of books on bookbinding, they are separated by type, old-fashioned bookbinding that uses signatures bound together to create handmade hard cover volumes, and art and craft books that use a variety of binding methods like stab binding and accordion books.
Erin Zamrzla's  At Home with Handmade Books : 28 Extraordinary Bookbinding Projects Made from Ordinary and Repurposed Materials is an arts and crafts volume, and fits all my personal criteria for a good one. If you're a scrapbooker looking for ways to make your own small books for personal use or gifts, this will have ideas in it. If you're a crafter or artist who is just developing an interest in bookbinding, this has fantastic instructions. If you're someone who loves recycled craft ideas for gifts or personal use, this is full of them.

My favorite project in the book is the booklet bookmark. To be honest, that's one that I wish very much that I'd thought of. More than just a corner note, it's a great way to keep notes while reading. I also love the 2 or 3 view picture, it is a folded book that stands on the folds. Depending on where you are in relation to the design, you see a different image. Sort of like a paper version of the ribbed plastic moving pictures. I know a friend who will love one for her birthday. The idea file made of small books is just perfect for my note taking habits. It also seems like a great way to journal things with your family. A few thoughts in each small book, marked with the day and who wrote them saved in a file would be a good way to remember for later if you enjoy making scrapbooks.

A lot of the projects can be made fairly quickly to use in place of cards to show a sentiment, or as gifts themselves.

The first part of the book is images of the projects, very nicely photographed. Each project has the page number you can find the instructions on. The instructions are very clear and well illustrated.

You can get this book directly from the publisher, Shambhala

You can get more information about my review policy here.

Printable Bookmark Booklet

I was reading At Home With Handmade Books which is full of very clever book ideas when I ran across one for a bookmark that was also an accordion folded booklet to keep notes in. It simply charmed me for it's simple practicality for studying or marking project ideas you'd like to do later. I decided to do a printable version.
Click on the image for the larger version. Print to fit a sheet of paper, this make 2 bookmarks. My example used a very pretty but a little heavy sheet from my stash of recycled paper. Regular printer/copy paper will work just fine for this. Accordion fold. The bigger blank space is intended for the title of the book, the smaller for the date. The blank pages are quarter ruled.

I'll post a review of the book when I get home from the fair, and possibly a drawing for this wonderful book (and I'll update this entry then).

It's a bit drizzly/rainy, but I'll be bringing my camera and looking for good photos!

Another Dolphin Coloring Page

Another dolphin coloring page just for fun. Click on the image for a larger version.

Looking at my traffic reports, crochet patterns are super popular so I guess that I should be counting my stitches more often. Other popular search terms include cookie box, pirate eye patch and peace symbol coloring pages. With my regular readers, I'm not sure what the most popular things are. I'd love some feedback.

If you have a moment and the inclination, can you vote on a Threadless slogan for me? The slogan is "Alliteration, almost always avoidable." you can vote on it here.