Daily Crafting

Today is another one of those days where I have to cross things off my never-ending To Do list so I can feel a sense of accomplishment. Yesterday it was the dishes and dinner, and today it's spray painting our ghetto dining room chairs. 

No, really, they are. Thanks to some abandoned chairs (and yes, they truly were) around campus, I started our chair collection. Then just last month when my mom and sister were visiting, we dropped by the surplus sale they have every few months and found some matching chairs. So now I have a set of 4. Hooray! But now to clean them up and bring them out of 1978 (that's what the tag on the bottom said). 

Here's a bit of a product placement (non-sponsored, shucks), but I have to say that Rustoleum brand spray paint is the best in my opinion. Trust me, I've used my fair share of spray paint being an industrial designer. Whether it's been sprayed on polystyrene, bondo encrusted foam, metal, wood, or whatever random material, Rustoleum beats Krylon hands down. The stuff I'm using on these metal chair frames is the Hammered line that leaves a really neat finish and covers up any dinks that may be left behind from years of lovin'. It also doesn't require primer, which gives it an A+ in my book.

Next step in finishing the chairs

What to write?

I know it's been 2 months since I posted, but I'm always at a loss for what to write. I envy those bloggers that can post daily or even weekly with captivating and fascinating posts. That's probably why some of them get paid to do so...I'd pay them to read what they have to say most of the time. 

Since posting last, we've finished the semester and officially started summer. The weather had been very typical spring up until last week, with all the back-and-forth temperatures (rain, hot, cold and blustery, pleasant). This weekend it decided to be blistering. Welcome summer! And welcome A/C! :) 

This past weekend we were at the Provo Farmer's Market for their opening day. We had a booth and met a lot of really nice people. Many people stopped by our booth and said they had also taken a bookbinding class. Some even took it from the same teacher, and that was pretty cool. We were across from a booth name My Cutie Pies, that made mini cupcake-sized pies that were delicious. We were also just down the sidewalk from the neatest Swedish fiddle guy that made some really cool music. Even when we don't make any sales, I love being at the farmer's market to see the great skills and talents of local artists and later this summer, to get some amazingly fresh and affordable produce. 

If you haven't been to a farmer's market, you should go to one this summer. Most of them are at the end of week, sometimes Thursdays and Saturdays. And buy a snow cone. New favorite thing of mine. Yumm....

Birth of a Book

Absolutely beautiful video. I love book making. This shows the romanticism of the process (although this has a great deal of machinery involved, the handmade process is of course, very similar).

Branding

Just a little update on my current project. Working on notecards. Pretty boring stuff...okay, not boring, just part of the process.

Moderation

If you ever wonder why I get behind on adding posts, or wish I was more active on facebook, this video is probably the reason why. It really resonates with me and what I spend my time doing. In those moments where I realize that I'm wasting my time with things that are not truly fulfilling, or losing precious time with my daughter, I step away. And perhaps that's because I'm not too good at cutting down, but rather, need to completely eliminate and start over fresh. Whatever way it's done, I recommend it to anyone. Learn something new and start to be engaged in your own life.