More examples of hand-bound books

One of my favorites: Exposed spine binding. Both decorative and practical!

 

 

 

This is an example of one of my students binding her own stories for a Christmas present for her grandparents:

A more traditionally bound hardback of Blessing Letters for a graduation book. I have made many and many of these for different families. It also includes printed photos for some of the pages.

This was a graduation gift for one of my Spanish class students a few years back, a blank, Coptic-stitch bound journal:

Teaching younger ones to make simple journals:

Watching them and their variety of choices is a delight!

 

 

 

Inspired, yet? I hope so!

 

Javamom

 

Planning for Christmas

I've made these before, and I am planning to make more this Christmas ~

 

Exposed spine binding blank journals

 

 

 

This Coptic stitch journal is a larger sketchbook size

 

 

 

Are you, kind reader, already working on your Christmas projects?

 

 

Javamom

 

 

Hubby's latest handcrafted Ukulele

This ukulele was commissioned by a long-time hs mom friend for her oldest daughter's graduation (with a Masters Degree) this past May. I am told the daughter is over-the-moon about her gift, including the case!

Enjoy a couple of shots of the beginning process of the build, and of the finished product. I need to add a close-up of the inlay "anchor" that Hubby made.

 

  

 

 

More later!

Javamom

The Lazy Blogger

I have been so bad at blogging this year! Especially during graduation season and these summer months. You would think with fewer kids in the house I would have more time, but no! It isn't so. We do a bit of low-key entertaining/hospitality here and there and cook a lot from scratch, so we don't have much time to sit around and describe everything from start to finish during this season with the last two graduates. That includes my birding hobby. Though I have kept up with photographing and noting new species, we have just been away from social media more than usual.

We've graduated our last son, hosted two more birthdays, enjoyed two family weddings, and hosted a big fourth-of-July party since my last post on Hubby's 50th celebration. That has also meant a lot of de-cluttering and simplifying of "stuff" along the way.

I will try to do better and post more. I promise!


Javamom

Props and Tablescapes

This is one of the tablescapes I set up for Hubby's 50th birthday Jeeves & Wooster/Downton Abbey Party. One of the games I planned was for guests to find as many nods to the books/shows as they could and write them down on a card. These are all things we already had, with the exception of the round cigar box, which was one of Hubby's presents.

There are artifacts from my husbands great-grandfather, which fit the time period perfectly, so I included them in the tablescapes. I could have gotten even more detailed, but I simply ran out of time and found that most people could just take in what I'd already set up! Lesson learned, there! Simplicity is a good thing! I think any show enthusiast would have loved spending extra time pouring over the possibilities. The globes and trunk are a nod to Jeeves & Wooster's trip to America (Season Three). The banjo, well, is the closest thing I could get to the banjolele, which makes its appearance in several J & W episodes.

 

We have the complete set of Jeeves & Wooster done by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. One Christmas, Hubby and I each got the other this set. Our own version of "The Gift of the Magi!" :-)

The toy car was Hubby's Grandfathers. The old photo is of Hubby's great grandfather.

Below, I included another family toy car and great grandfather's cufflinks, cufflink container, and compass. The "W" hanky is a nod to Bertie Wooster. No 1910-1920's British tablescape is complete without some vintage British tomes.

 

 

More: Around the Tea Table, Tennyson's complete works, and Charles Kingsley's Westward, Ho! (Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth)

 

 

Kiplings poems, Georg Eliot's Romola, two by Lamb, Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, Lord Byron, another Charles Kingsley, a book of minor Victorian poets, and a book of selected British essays. To the far right, you can see The Gentleman's Companion, which is a two-volume set for gentlemen about culinary arts and spirits.

 

 

It's a little dark, but I placed a copy of turn-of-the-century sheet music on an old music stand that belonged to hubby's Grandmother. It is a nod to the banjo-playing minstrels in some of the Jeeves & Wooster episodes.

  

 

 

 

 Here was another nod to the era and the costumes: Leslie Thrasher was a rival of Norman Rockwell, and this is in the collection titled The Rivals of (Norman) Rockwell. Interesting book!

 

 

In my next post, I'll show and explain some of the decorations that are nods to Downton Abbey.

I hope you have enjoyed our interpretation of the era for a very special birthday celebration!


Cheerio, Jeeves!

Javamom

A Jeeves & Wooster meets Downton Abbey Garden Birthday Party

We've been a bit busy. Not only have we entered that "end-of-schoolyear" craziness, BUT we also have multiple family birthdays to celebrate. This includes hubby's big 50th.

I decided to throw a Jeeves & Wooster meets Downton Abbey garden party. Both British shows overlap a historic time period AND some sets. Highclere castle is Downton Abbey and Totleigh Towers in Jeeves & Wooster. I love to see the differences in lighting choices between the two shows.

But, more about the party...

There had to be bunting/banners ~

I used my rotary cutter, jute twine, and some felt that I already had onhand from Christmas crafts.

 

 

 

My daughter and I wore dresses made by my mother in the early 80's. They were perfect for the party!

We also added ribbons and homemade felt flowers to attach to our hats.

 

 

 

 

 My shoes were from modcloth online. They shipped quickly, and I added soft insoles to help make them more comfy.

 

We made sure to serve finger sandwiches, both cucumber (added dill and left out the garlic) and chicken salad (basic recipe with chopped sweet onions added). We also served orange marmalade on artisan bread, fruit trifle, grapes, and British cheeses of farmhouse cheddar, apricot stilton, and some brie. No garden party menu is complete without tea and biscuits!

 

Notice the finer details of the table decor. The toy period car was Hubs's grandfather's toy. The phone was Hubs's grandmother's phone. Tea tins were used to hold toothpicks. You can also see a close-up of the felt flowers the girls and I made.

Helping Hubs cut the birthday cake. I made sure to use our good china at the serving table, along with our coffee/tea cups and saucers (how often do we do that, ladies and gents??) for this special occasion.

Outdoors ~

We set up a cricket court, bocce ball, and a coconut shy

Hubs made the bat himself, as well as the wickets.

 

 

The second birthday boy - our youngest is 18 now.

 

The Coconut Shy was a big hit!

 

 

 

 

Bocce ball

 

 

We took some time to get group shots

 

 

Old-timey fun

 

 

 

The family

The whole party group of "viewers" and Jeeves & Wooster or Downton Abbey folks

candids of our friends at the garden party

 

 

There were a few modern conveniences at the party ~ everyone was taking photos.

Hubs n me

 and a funny pose ~

 Lady Mary and Lady Lisa :-)

Our oldest two ~

The drinks table: plenty of peach tea, water, port and sherry, and coffee in a carafe.

 

 

I found "battenburg lace" vinyl tablecloths at our local grocery store for the outdoor tables. They worked great!

 

 

 

Taking time to read a good book

I am so glad my favorite author of the last decade is so prolific. Alexander McCall Smith has five or six ongoing series from which to choose.

I started with the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. Next came The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency Series. Then I began the Isabel Dalhousie Sunday Philosophy Club series. Lately, I jumped into the 44 Scotland Street books.

There are just some truly warming, light, fun moments in these books, but every series includes the best life philosophy quotes. I love the way the author looks at the world through the eyes of all his different characters: young and old, male and female.

Here is my latest underlined quote:

"How about some chocolate?" Nobody had ever said that to Bertie before. It was not a complex phrase, but its power, its sheer, overwhelming sense of gift and possibility filled Bertie with awe. Well might more of us say these words to others, and more frequently - how healing would that prove to be. "Look, we've had our differences, but how about some chocolate?" Or: "I'm so sorry, how about some chocolate?" Or simply: "Great to see you! How about some chocolate?" ~ from The Importance of Being Seven (pg. 244) by Alexander McCall Smith

Isn't that delightful?

I am a strong believer in daily reading that delights and feeds the soul. We should have other books going, yes. Books that challenge us and make us think. I like sharing with you all books that are light and warm that also happen to challenge and make us think, as well as warm our hearts.


What books are you reading as we wrap up winter and head toward Daylight Savings Time in just about a week?


Happy Spring! (Meteorological spring, anyway :-)

Javamom

late winter birding

American Goldfinch

These babies came back to our yard about a month ago, just in time for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We have 6-8 of them coming in regularly to feed.

I truly wish I had offered more entries on birding over the last year, but I find it more and more difficult to blog. It is so much easier to post photos to facebook and get more responses there! :::sigh::: to the changing face of social networking...


More later. I really do wish to write and publish more backyard birding confessions and photos. Maybe now that things have settled down somewhat. Well, with the exception of our last child's May graduation from high school and leap into more responsibililty.

Did any of my readers participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count?

Sincerely,

Javamom

Happy New Year! I bet some of you have been wondering if I'd ever blog again. This being my last year (well, my last semester, now) of homeschooling after some 21 years, I find myself as busy (in slightly different ways) as I used to be when all four children were still home and I was enjoying/juggling four levels of schooling at once, along with serving as our first and oldest secretary and e-mail communications lady for our local homeschool group. Those were busy times, indeed.


As I wind down my homeschooling years, I continue to participate in a local fine arts co-op and teach Spanish to other homeschoolers. This is how I am still pretty busy while homeschooling only one now.

In the spirit of those earlier years, I decided to mostly take off the whole month of December to prepare for Christmas. We did meet twice for Spanish, but that was necessary. Absence makes the brain forgetful when it comes to certain things!

I really desire to get back to sharing more of my backyard birding adventures this year. The time is coming when I should really be able to focus on the project a lot more. We have Hubby's 50th birthday party to plan and execute in April, and final son's graduation in May, but that shouldn't keep me off the blog too much.

I'd love to hear from you, readers, if you have a little time. What are you up to? How are your children? Have you observed any wonderful things in nature study, poetry, art, or literature since Thanksgiving? DO share!



p.s. What has blogger done to their photo uploads??

Sincerely,


Javamom

Beguiling and Beautiful Autumn this year

Backyard at the Cottage ~ at my favorite time of year

 

 The most beautiful setting for reading today

 

 

 

And plenty to distract me from grading and lesson planning. That is okay...I can do that after dark. After I photograph the moon

 

 

These are a few of the joys for which I am thankful during this season of thanksgiving!

 

Javamom