Bookgirl's Nightstand | When I'm not reading books, I'm making them.

Adventures in Bookbinding

iliana Nightstand April 23, 2008

Bowl of noodles anyone? Just kidding. That’s my bowl of vellum strips soaking up wheatpaste. This afternoon I didn’t work on my springback book because I wanted to get ahead in a new binding technique I’m learning which will hopefully result in a large journal to be used as a photo album.

The vellum strips will be used in the binding to give it a bit more flair. Why soak them in wheatpaste? Vellum is hard so I want the strips to soften up so I can sew them through the spine and be a part of the binding.

This will be a short post tonight because I need to go rest my arms – I couldn’t even make it to yoga tonight. I had to make 10 cutouts in the spine of the book, where the thread and vellum strips will go through, and this was particularly hard to do because I’m also using vellum on the spine. The spine is thick cardboard reinforced with vellum so it’s quite sturdy. Seriously, I could barely straighten my arms after holding on to scalpel and ruler while I made those precise cuts.

More book talk tomorrow!

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Current Books

iliana Nightstand April 22, 2008

My reading seems to be going very slowly lately but I am in the middle of some good books so I won’t complain.

First off to those of you who warned me about Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill – you weren’t kidding. This book is so creepy! I am at chapter 19 and it’s interesting because part of me wants to race to the end to figure out what will happen but at the same time, I’m a bit scared to find out what will happen! So far this is great.

My other read is Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. This story is charming. I thought it was going to be just a chick lit story but it’s a lot more than that. And, I already have Belong to Me, the sequel waiting on my nightstand.

Finally Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia is another read I’ve started but because the other books have really pulled me in, I’m still not very far into this story.

So all very good reads but wouldn’t you know it, today I got an email notice from my library that The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny is waiting for me to pick up. This is the third book in the Three Pines series by Penny. I’ve really enjoyed the first two books so I want to go pick this up ASAP. Maybe I’ll hold off until Thursday.

I’m off to pack my book bag for bookbinding class tomorrow.

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Catching Up

iliana Nightstand April 21, 2008

I had a wonderful day out with one of my girlfriends on Saturday. We shared lots of laughter, ate yummy food, did a bit of shopping and even got to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

I loved the book and the movie didn’t disappoint. It was so cute, and sure there were some notable differences between book and movie, but I think the film captured the spirit of the book. I highly recommend both book and film.

On the bookish front, I was gifted with a signed copy of Clare Dunkle’s latest book, The Sky Inside. Here’s a blurb on the book: Every year a new generation of genetically-engineered children is shipped out to meet their parents. Every spring the residents of his town take down the snow they’ve stuck to their windows and put up flowers. Every morning his family gathers around their television and votes, like everyone else, for whatever matter of national importance the president has on the table. Today, it is the color of his drapes. It’s business as usual under the protective dome of suburb HM1. And it’s all about to come crashing down.

That sounds good doesn’t it? I may have to include this one for my Once Upon a Time Challenge reads.

If that wasn’t enough, I also won a book from Joy! Thank you Joy.
So a lot of fun but now it’s back to work on my beaded journals. I spent quite a bit of time sewing today so now I think I’m going to go curl up with one of my books. I’m in the middle of a couple of great books but I’ll tell you more about those tomorrow.

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