I love writing. I love the feel of a pen (preferably a decent fountain pen in a colour other than plain blue) on actual paper.
Yes, the keyboard is faster … but there’s something lovely about written words.
And recently, I’ve become enamoured of the idea of … well, it’s not quite scrapbooking, not quite art journalling … I’m sure there’s a word for it, but I’ll just call it Writing With Ephemera: keeping bits and bobs from your life and putting them into the journal book you use, not just words, then, but small objects and images from your life and travels.
Of course, preparation for the upcoming Big Trip come fall is where this all bega
n. I have spent a lot of time looking at fabulous images on Google of people’s journals, art journals, upcycled books, and scrapbook pages. I made what I think is an improved version of a travel journal today – more pages, more variety in the pages, room to expand, sewn segments, and a custom binding with room to attach dangling charms and such.
Each section of pages is made by folding paper in half and making a booklet. The booklet is then sewn – on the sewing machine, with really long plain stitches – down the centre fold and voila, a stitched booklet. The spine of the cover has strings that run from top to bottom and each booklet is threaded under a string to hold it in place. (In a lot of books this is done with an elastic, but I had a lot of hemp cord and no elastic, so … cord it is.) I left the string loose enough to slide booklets in and out, and the strings are tied at the bottom with sufficient bits leftover to braid into a bookmark.
Here you can see the variety of papers, some random paper clips and a pocket that’s actually stitched onto the backing page. The front and back covers are made of portfolio covers (for some reason I have boxes of these things here) that have built in pockets for holding stuff. There’s even a little organza bag looped to the spine for holding small treasures.
The cover has a bunch of images of Ireland that I cut out of travel booklets and it’s been 
One of the little booklets inside (made from a cut down presentation folder) can be taken out for the day of travelling – it’s got a pocket for things collected during the day and some blank postcard sized pieces of cardstock (something else I seem to have in plenty) for writing notes or gathering signatures / comments from people met during the day and so forth. I’ll also add some plain paper for doing rubbings: I think some of the old monuments and so forth would be really great captured with crayon rubbings. That way you can leave the big book somewhere safe and just carry the little portable folder on your adventures.
I expect I’ll do some more decorating on this before we go on our trip, it’s quite fun to work with!
The other project is what people call a fauxdori – a false Midori Traveller’s Notebook. This design originated with a company in Japan, and I can see why they are so popular. They are flexible: the key feature is the elastic loops that hold various booklets or inserts rather than rings and holes like in many traditional planners. You can purchase (or make) inserts for calendars, or to do lists, or anything you can think of – for me, the idea of having multiple “kinds” of journal spaces all in one (much loved) book really appeals to me. I need to write things down – as I’m so absent minded, I 
need to make lists and check them often, and as a knitter I often need to jot notes as I am designing or modifying something, and as a writer I just need to write sometimes. But I don’t like to do all of that in one place, because some of the information ends up being good for nothing but starting the next fire (to do lists, for instance, or knitting notes that eventually got transcribed into something that makes sense) and some of it is stuff I want to keep (like my actual journal entries). This way, I can still reach for just one book – but have several sub-books inside it.
The cover I am using is from a lovely leather journal that the Small People got me as a gift. I’ve been writing in it, but not as much as I would like because it was reserved for “the good writing”. I wanted to be able to use it more, and to move to a less linear style of journal writing so I disassembled it (it was intended to be refillable) and made some Midori-style inserts. 
Each insert is made from a piece of presentation folder (I told you I have lots of them here) surrounding folded sheets of paper. Rather than stitching each booklet then looping the segments under a cord as I did with the travel journal, these are punched through holes along the spine and threaded directly to the book cover. I have four strings and four segments: three filled with paper, one for more of a catch-all. The leather cover already had holes at these locations along the spine, so I opted to just go with that rather than trying to make an elastic type of system … though I might do that in the future. The strings are firmly attached at the top of the spine and then two strands are tied together (around a bead) at the bottom in a knot that can be unpicked fairly easily when I’m ready to replace that section of paper, so it’s still flexible that way.
The last section of the book has a small folded piece of pseudo-laminated cardstock that holds sticky notes and is sturdy enough to have things paperclipped to it without wobbling. There’s also a business card / photo holder that I repurposed from my old Seven Habits daytimer, and I created a pen loop by stapling a short piece of elastic to the laminated page. This one is not threaded directly with the string: because it is shorter, it loops under the last strand of string and can be removed … but more importantly, things can be slipped under the string, like the little packet of stamps that’s in there now (you can just see the red and white backing paper peeking out).
I’m working on getting this set up to be my Book of All Things: long ago, I used my Seven Habits Daytimer for that, as I carried it everywhere and kept notes for absolutely everything in the various sections. A full blown daytimer is too much for me these days, though: I need the beeping reminders the phone gives me (without an alarm I may forget to go to an appointment, even if I had remembered earlier that day) so keeping a paper calendar isn’t as helpful as it used to be. Bes
ides, it’'s way too big.
A small and portable book with the bare minimum for categorization and organization is more my speed right now. This book is nice and manageable: each piece of paper is 1/4 of a regular sheet (which also makes creating booklets for it very easy). I’ve added envelopes and blank cards and sticky notes in assorted places, and I’m transcribing information that I’d like to have handy – phone numbers that I don’t know by heart but would need if I didn’t have my phone for some reason, knitting needle size conversions, prayers I like to read over and over, the mailing addresses I need frequently … all those things are being written onto cards that tuck into the various pockets.
The leather tie that it came with was too short once I got all of this packed inside, so I added a Celtic knotwork button and a long cord with a spoon charm on the end to tie everything closed (and remind me to count my spoons).
I love it.
I’ve had such fun making these books … I think I’ll go look at more pictures on Google and see what other ideas I can find!
Today’s adventure was reworking some old hardcover books into multi purpose journal and scrap books.
The Reluctant Farmer and I have some travel plans for the fall (more on that later), and I wanted a travel journal that could contain things like ticket stubs and postcards and notes about what we saw and did, something more creative and personalized than a photo book created after the fact … I wanted something that would help me to be mindful *during* the trip, not focused just on “getting a good picture” but on having a good time and enjoying the moments as they come, then taking some time in the evenings to digest and document the adventure.
So I pondered the ideal travel journal.
I decided it needed to be expandable along the spine, because when you start pasting in bits of paper and ephemera, it gets thicker than just plain paper. It needs some pockets for little bits and bobs that you don’t want to glue down, but want to keep with everything else. It needs a good sturdy cover, as it’ll be hauled about. It needs to call to me, to feel like my words and additions to the page are essential to it’s purpose.
I looked at a lot of neat images on Google: try searching for “art journal” or “upcycled book journal”, lots of clever ideas are out there. Then I decided to just get out my materials and see what happened.
I have a big box of assorted papers downstairs, lots of different coloured pages, fancy printer paper, card stock, all kinds of things. I found some old children’s books that have been outgrown at this house and were in fairly sad shape. I dug up some white glue, a paintbrush, some adhesive dot things (which are amazingly cool!), some ribbon, some beads, and some brown paper bags.
Then I got to playing.
I removed the pages from the books, then used white glue and assorted bits of paper to decoupage over the covers, which were quite sorry looking.
As those dried, I folded paper: with a bit of experimentation I found that I could create little ‘booklets’ that would fit inside the book covers, and with a hole punch and ribbon, I could thread them together to make a sort of codex. I intentionally used a variety of paper sizes, weights, and styles so that the book encourages “non-linear composition” … you might make a sort of title page on the little narrow piece, or attach something to the larger portion at the back of a section. Every few pages there’s an envelope glued to the page, to hold assorted little things.
The whole assembly was then put together: one book had the spine removed, so I created a sort of spine from reinforced card stock and covered the entire thing with clear packing tape to both reinforce and protect the paper design. The other book had the spine still, though it needed some Gorilla Tape to reinforce it: I poked holes through the spine and threaded the ribbons through them, using beads to secure the knots on the outside of the book.
I’ve started practicing with the brightly coloured one – I began by writing about the yard redesign I’ve been working on so much this summer. What an enjoyable way to write about things! You don’t feel like you have to tell a story in any particular order, you can just write things down as they come to you, in whatever direction you feel like writing!
I think I’m really going to enjoy this. What a fun project!
It’s official … the next book has reached the final draft and we are ready to move into production!
Because this book is available not just as a single, standalone book but also as part of a kit, the up front costs are a bit higher than with my previous projects, putting it a little beyond “oh, just put it on the credit card and we’ll pay it off as orders come in”.
As a result, we are using Kickstarter to accept preorders of the book (as well as other forms of sponsorship, all of which come with some kind of tangible reward, from a small download to an e-book up to and including a full kit and having your name on the acknowledgements page!).
What’s the book about? Well, here’s a look at the back cover:
You can find out more by following the link to Kickstarter and watching the video there, there’s also a full explanation of all the various ways you can support the project (and get your copy reserved!).
If you are interested in the one-day workshop based on this book, let me know! I’ll be ready to offer those by early summer. Just leave a comment below, ping me on Ravelry, or send me an email!
Yesterday, I attended another fantastic yoga and journal writing workshop with Angela Weins of Yoga Inner Spirit.
Today, I am working on my next book – More Beautiful Than Before, an exploration of fibre arts and journalling for self-expression and emotional healing.
Because you see, at the workshop, as I anticipated, things got shaken loose … and I am inspired to work and to write.
Here is a small excerpt from the writing I did … and which will be in the next book, too, apparently.
~
Openness, the card says.
As I began today, I prayed “Show me. Show me what it is that needs to come up to the surface, whatever it is that is lying behind the locked door of memory and fear.”
Openness.
One must open the door.
Allow the memories to surface – allow the feelings their expression. Openness. Not the slamming, closing door, the angry burst of sound as the door hits the frame. Openness is the wind blowing the door open, letting the crystal snowflakes drift across the floor.
Openness is being willing. Being willing to see where things go – to open your arms and embrace the sky. To open your heart and embrace your life. Even if your life is not the way you had envisioned it. When you are open, you allow the Universe to bring change to your world … and what Has Been … it’s uncomfortable. Constrained. Unhealthy.
Openness. Let the wind blow open the door of your soul and deliver tiny crystalline gifts to your heart.
Today I attended a yoga and journalling workshop run by a friend of mine. It was, apparently, exactly what I needed.
I realize that I’ve been fighting against the call to move forward in my healing journey. I’ve been resisting taking the steps I know I need to take. Today helped me move forward a little further on that healing road.
Below you will find some of what I wrote today. For those readers who are deeply religious, please do not be startled when I refer to the Divine in terms of the feminine … our Creator is both Mother and Father, and I speak to and of God in either fashion. I don’t think our human minds can easily encompass all that is God with just one mental image, and so I move rather fluidly between various ways of thinking of God.
That said, here is what I found in my heart today…
~
I have issues with control.
There, I said it.
I realize that control is an illusion … but it’s an illusion I don’t want to let go of. I want to believe that I can do it all. I want to just try harder to make my mind behave, to make my body live up to my expectations … but this isn’t a problem stemming from a lack of effort. More effort isn’t going to make things better. More effort is how I got here, for heaven’s sake!
I spent years and years holding down the trauma effects by sheer force of will, squashing my feelings, ignoring all the warning signs, just working harder so I didn’t have to think about what happened, didn’t have to face my guilt, my shame, my complicity, my sins.
But the truth will not stay hidden. When eventually I did look at all that I had been avoiding, when I finally told my story, I saw that the girl who lived through that mess deserved compassion and forgiveness … and things improved. I did the work, faced up to my past, changed the way I thought about my story and said, “whew, the hard work is done and now life can get back to normal and it will be all better.”
Only the injury was deeper than that, and the healing journey nowhere near done.
And I got mad.
I don’t want to do any more work. I don’t want to cry any more. I don’t want to learn how to manage my life so that I can live fully and make the most of my gifts while staying within my limits.
It’s frustrating having to pay so much damned attention. I want the ease of autopilot, the simplicity of routine.
Except that the life I had before was dishonest. And I wasn’t the kind of mother or spouse or friend or co-worker or human being I want to be.
So I need to find another road.
And the first step on that other road – the light only has to shine on the next step, after all – the next step is
surrender.
It’s okay not to be able to wrestle it all into submission by applying the not-insignificant power of my will.
My will, in this case, is entirely the wrong tool.
The divine, Ordol says, cannot fill anything but an empty vessel. When we are full of our own will, there is no room for the divine within us. We must make room in our souls, move aside so that Powers greater than we are have space to work.
I kneel before the Mother of Summer, the great Healer, and I say, “I can’t do this.”
And the Mother says, “You don’t have to,” and enfolds me in her loving arms.
~
I have been fighting for so long, and I’m tired.
I see now that I don’t have to keep fighting. I can choose to lay down my weapons and stand unarmed and vulnerable before the world.
They can, after all, kill me but once.
And I am, always, held in the hands of God … and I am perfectly, utterly safe.
It is my own weapons that convince me I am surrounded by danger. I am carrying a semiautomatic with me everywhere, cinching tight the buckles on my Kevlar and bracing every moment for the incoming barrage. But it is my staggering display of weaponry that prompts everyone else to bristle, makes them draw their own guns and train them on me – just in case, you know – because that bitch looks like she means business.
What if, instead, I walked up to them with my arms wide open, wearing my colourful silks and singing of summer and sunshine and love?
What if I were to say, here, have a cup of tea?
What if I were to listen, instead of shouting?
What if I were to trust the Mother of Summer to heal my wounds, to relax into her embrace, and allow the old injuries to be tended by the only Power great enough to heal them?
What if I were to fall asleep under my God’s loving eyes, and allow my soul to recover?
Then,
I would never need to pick up my weapons again
and my soul would be filled with song.
I tweaked the blog post I wrote about ‘A Girl Firefighter’ and submitted it to our local newspaper.
Admittedly, they will print pretty much anything one submits, I think, but still, it’s cool to see my name on the byline.
Hopefully a few more people will read it in print, and maybe the local fire services will see a few new faces as folks learn a bit more about what it takes to volunteer. Maybe a few more people will find that they’ve got something to offer and decide to give it a shot.
And, most of all, maybe “the girls” will get some more respect from the community … they have earned it!
I am, as you can probably imagine, a big fan of the independent publishing movement. The digital era has made it easy for people to get their story out where others can easily find it, through blogs, websites, and eBooks. This means that there is a lot of content to wade through, and you really can’t be sure of what you are getting, but then again, I’ve read some ‘traditionally published’ stuff that was utter drivel. Just because something has a big name imprint on the spine doesn’t guarantee that what is inside the covers is worth your time, anymore than the fact that a writer has taken matters into their own hands indicates that the work isn’t worth a read. (Of course, I’m biased in that regard. Oh well.)
The truth of the matter is that barriers to entry are lower in the electronic publishing world: the up front costs are minimal, and if you can do all the formatting yourself, with a service like Smashwords, the entire adventure is free.
Still, the technological barriers are real impediments for some people. Getting the formatting just so, putting hyperlinks in so that they work in the electronic world, testing the files out on the various software platforms available to see if the book will work in all the different readers … this takes the proper tools, the skill to use them, and some time.
It’s work I happen to enjoy, though: I have the tools, I have the skill to use them, I have the time. I like tweaking Word documents and running the file through the conversion process to see it transmogrify into six different types of documents, all with the push of one button. It’s cool. I like being able to get words up where people can get to them quickly and easily.
If you are a writer and are looking for help publishing your work electronically, I’m available to help. Look here for more details.
Looking for something to read with that new gadget of yours?
Well, let me help you!
The story of our first year or so at Apple Jack Creek – including the adventures of installing a massive crossbeam on the house in the dark, living in a shed with no heat and no plumbing, and doing electrical work when you’re really not trained for that sort of thing – is available for free right here.
Also, my friend Risa Bear has a book titled Viewing Jasper Mountain, which has just been published in electronic format by Apple Jack Creek Books. Risa is a fascinating individual: she lives on one acre in Oregon, has chickens who live in an actual chicken moat around the big garden, cooks on a wood stove as often as she can, and writes about her life. If you like reading about real people genuinely living “the good life”, you’ll enjoy her book. It’s available here – and until January 12, you can use the coupon code NY49T to get it at half price, so just $1.50. Take some time to browse the Smashwords site – there’s a lot of interesting self-published works there, some of them free, none of them very expensive.
Oh, and if you didn’t get an eReader and want to read the stories anyway … go right ahead. You can download the text as PDF, or you can get a (free) copy of Adobe Digital Editions or the Kindle reader to work on your computer.
For free books, see if your local library has electronic books available for signout. Ours does – just log in to your library website and look for electronic books. They may have audiobooks, too, which are wonderful to listen to while you are doing other things (like, say, knitting!).
If you enjoy audiobooks, consider an Audible membership – when I had the long commute every day, I listened to audiobooks while driving and the monthly subscription is a really good deal. An excellent combination with your iPod or smartphone!
Books are great.
I intend to publish Just Keep Knitting as an electronic book at the same time it comes out in print, so I’ve been doing some research into the best way to convert a text document intended for paper into pixels that will work on a variety of reading devices.
I have found a workable solution in Smashwords: this allows me to upload the book once and have it available pretty much everywhere (the Amazon store is bringing Smashwords content online this month, and they already distribute to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and the Apple store).
However, the book’s not ready for the big time yet, and I needed to do a test run, so I took the blog postings from the first year or so of our adventures at Apple Jack Creek and consolidated them into an eBook. An evening’s work doing copy and paste and cleanup, and voila, there’s a book!
If you have an eReader of some kind and would like to indulge in some nostalgia looking back on the crazy early days of our life out here, you can download a copy of the book here … and it’s free!
If you run into any technical issues, please let me know: this is a test run to see if I’ve figured out the necessary rules for formatting and so on. I did have to do several uploads before I was satisfied with the basic look of things, but as I do not have an eReader of my own (well, besides the iPod touch which I do use on occasion) I must content myself with testing in simulated environments. There are a lot of pictures, so it’s not ideal for a small screen, but I’m curious to know what you think, if you do have a look.
And if you stumbled across the book on Smashwords and have subsequently found your way here to the blog … well then, welcome! Do say hello, I’d love to meet you.
All these books were waiting for me at the ‘take it or leave it’ spot at the dump today:
Do you think it’s a sign?
