Hey lovelies! This week has gone by so fast for me. I've changed my eating habits. Yay me! Trust me I needed it. I started on Monday, and am down 7lbs and 2 3/8 inches around my waist already.  Water is my new best friend. So because I needed a way to track my food, I decided to use the altered composition book I started on and never quite finished as my food journal. It's working out great. The first page is my progress sheet. There is space for weight, chest, waist, and arms.

 

I know that many people track thigh, and abdomen and neck measurements, but I'm not worried about that. I just want to make sure I can see NSVs(non scale victory).

 

The next page is my daily food entries, and the macros (macronutrients) I am tracking. I'm trying to make this a WOE(way of eating) not just a "diet", so the first page, morphed into the second one below as I have continued altering this food journal for my personal needs. I am tracking Fat, Net Carbs, Protein, and Calories.  I am also tracking how much water I'm taking in, and want to make sure I get a minimum of 64 oz of water along with any other liquids I may consume. I also have a couple of boxes to track vitamins, I take a daily multi vitamin and sometimes a B supplement.

I also plan to start exercising regularly.  When I start this I'll also be able to track all of my activity time all in one handy dandy tracker. There is also an other space on the new sheets that I'm using to jot down ideas or how I felt etc.

 

I gave myself 15 weeks (105 pages) in this journal, and then I made tabs and attached them using regular scotch tape.

 

Then I went and wrote in the values of my foods.  I'm doing a Low Carb High Fat woe. But what ever you are doing and works for you is great.  This is how I'm doing mine.

 

 

I did some in red, some in black, just because I wanted to. There is no significance. I have many other colored pens so I'll probably do some of my recipes in purple and green (my favorite colors).  So this is how I did my food journal. Do you keep a food journal? If so how do you do yours? What do you keep track of?

 

Thanks again for visiting. Talk to you soon. Bye!!





Ebony Swan Journal, 5 hole pamphlet stitch, and new book store.

Hey lovelies! I know I 'm slow in getting my post up this week.  I did go to a new book store. I found some great deals. I got 3 bags of books that I can make into journals for like a buck! I also got a vintage music lesson book.
So to start off with the making of the Ebony Swan journal I removed the text block. I posted that in the previous post. The first embellishing I did was to glue down some lace on the front.   Next I took a paperback book and tore up the pages and used them to decoupage the inside of the book, even the spine.

 

Next I put together my signatures. Each signature consists of 14 pages each. I used the 5 hole pamphlet stitch to sew each signature one to a one inch wide piece of card stock.

 

 

I marked lines at 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 inch intervals and used this as a guide to place my signatures evenly.  I then used my template which you see behind my spine, to poke the holes as I did for my signatures. Then I did the 5 hole pamphlet stitch, but I start from the back side to hide my tie off points. Most people don't. Here is a video if you need it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvhTOzA-p9I 

First I get a length of waxed string (I make my own using bow wax and cotton embroidery thread) about three times the length of the signature. 

1. Then I start sewing from the back side of the spine. I go through the middle hole in the spine and then the middle hole in the signature while leaving about an inch and a half for tying off.





 2. Next I go through the hole on the right of the middle hole from the paper side down and out through the spine.

 

3. Next I go up through the next hole to the right from the spine side through to the signature.

 

4. The next stitch goes down through the stitch on the left. It will be the second time going through that stitch.



 

5. When you come out on the back side of the spine you will now move left again but will skip the middle stitch and instead go up through the second stitch from the left edge of the signature.

6.  After you come up through the whole signature you will go down through the very last hole on the left.

 

7. The next stitch is made by coming back to the second stitch from the left and going up through it. This hole has already been gone through, but this time we're going the opposite way, just like in step 4.

 

8.  The last stitch is made by coming back through the signature through the middle hole from paper to spine side. When you come through make sure that your needle pokes out of the hole on the other side of the long stitch. So that one end of the thread is on either side of the long stitch. You will then tie this stitch off with a square knot. (Cross right over left and tie, then left over right and tie.)





There you have it! One signature sewn into a glue in spine for your vintage book. I know that traditionally the tie off goes on the inside of the signature, but I do it this way to hide the knot since I'm gluing the spine into the book anyway. Repeat this for each signature you have, and you have a kind of text block for your journal.
When I get better light(it's nearly midnight), I'll take some more pictures of the journal as a whole. I just really wanted to get the method I use for putting the signatures in up before the weekend was over.



Thrifty Bits

Hey lovelies! This weekend didn't go as planned. I didn't get all of my laundry done that I wanted to get done, nor did we go to church, but we did go to some thrift stores. At one I found 2 vintage books. One is from the 1920's called Laughing Ann and Other Poems.

The other is this Buffalo Bill book from the American Adventure Series. I don't know why I bought the Buffalo Bill because we're now reading it as part of our homeschool. I don't know if I'll keep it as part of our home library or if I'll make it into a journal or what. As of right now I'm torn.

 

What would you do with it?  Please leave a comment below!

 

Well the baby is napping, the kids are having a recess. I think I'll start putting together my signatures for the Ebony Swan journal.

Journal from an old book Pt. 1

Hello Lovelies! I finally got around to posting again this week. Yay! I will start out by posting pictures of an already finished journal I've made. I didn't take pictures as I worked because honestly I wasn't sure it would work. It did though, and I'm glad. I love it!

 

 

 

I'm working on another journal made from an old book cover. This one I don't think I'll have to embellish on the outside at all. I think it's beautiful.

 

This isn't a great picture, but everything is in gold relief. The emblem on the front cover is a gold iris. The cover is slightly distressed but it won't take much to age it a bit more. The gold lettering and swan to me just add a bit of elegance. Much needed for shabby chic junk journals I think.

To get the cover off I used an X-Acto knife and a ruler and my hands. It's that easy.

 

First I lined up the ruler where I wanted to make my cut. If you look down the spine, you can get an idea of where the end pages attach the text block to the cover. What you want to do is cut very gently. Don't go too deep or you'll cut the spine right from the covers. I just scored lightly, then scored again. I just wanted to cut through the two layers of paper there. After you get through the paper there is a layer of backing material. It's usually a webbing type of material.

 You just keep going down both sides of the hinge until the entire text block is removed.

 

 

There you are! You have removed the guts of the book! You can now use the book pages for anything your heart desires, and you have a cover for  journal, or you make a book safe out of it to hide your valuables or your treasured trinkets.

 

Here I've measured the spine. You can tell where to measure because of the wear marks on the spine. You will almost always have a gap between the actual spine and the book boards on case binding. It allows for the hinge to do it's job and your book to open and close correctly.  I will be cutting a piece of card stock to use as a hidden spine to sew my signatures on to so I don't mess up this beautiful spine. You can however sew your signatures in anyway you see fit. There are long stitch methods that can be found all over the internet. Just use your Google Fu and let your fingers do the walking. Youtube has a ton of tutorials on signature sewing, and you can find the one that you like best.

That's all for now, next week I'll post the signature sewing and embellishing! See you then!



 



 

 

 

Hobby Lobby Haul

As all crafters know, it's really hard to craft without materials. We can make do, and creatively substitute items for other items. But, oh how nice it is though to have exactly what you want, or the ability to purchase what you need without having to travel an hour one way.  I've recently gained that ability with the opening of our local Hobby Lobby.  It was so nice to be able to walk through the doors and take in all that crafty goodness. My husband, kids and I perused the aisles for well over an hour, and unfortunately there was so much inventory missing because the store was hit hard in the last 5 days. I talked to a manager who said they couldn't keep the merchandise on the shelves! Which is great since we are in a rural area. That means that Hobby Lobby has filled a niche that was grossly empty for a long time in our area.
We have aisles of papers, paints, and yarns, oh my! It's like Christmas!  Until April 16th 2016 they are having a major sale on paper crafts, I'm talking 1/2 off sale! My husband got me a gift card for an early birthday present. I bought a stamp set, inks pads, a bunch of vintage looking tags, a package of craft paper card stock, textured papers, faded papers, two large books of vintage papers, a paper cutter, and some paints all for 34 bucks!  My total savings was over 30 dollars! I don't know about you, but saving money on crafting supplies makes me very, very happy!

 

Pin the Nose on Olaf!

The birthday party went off pretty good. I made a pin the nose on Olaf, and the kids went wild for it! My husband got better pictures of it then I did, but I had to be hostess and the baby wouldn't go to anyone else. I guess he got overwhelmed by all of the people in one room. Any who, to make my Olaf, I used a big piece of cardboard, the front was already white. You could do this with poster board or a trifold like they use for science projects.  I sketched Olaf out from a picture I found online. and then I laid a grid over him using half inch squares.

The original picture was 5 1/2 inches wide by 7 inches tall. I needed it 3 times this size, so I made each half inch square equal to 2 inches.  I then marked a 2X2 grid on the large sheet of white cardboard.  I know this next picture is light, but I had to lay the grid down lightly so I could erase after I inked it.  I have to use a grid for resizing my drawings, that's jus the way I taught myself. I have a hard time keeping things where they belong. LOL

 

I know the picture is a light. I just wanted to show you how lightly I had to draw in in order to be able to erase the grid after I inked in the outlines.

And here's our friendly snowman waving, sans nose of course. Speaking of noses, I winged it with the nose. I drew a few, and cut them out, held them over where Olaf's nose would normally go, and when I got the correct size, I made a dozen out of orange construction paper and cut them out. I used double sided tape to stick them on. After I twirled each child and sent them in the direction of Olaf, I prepped the next nose while the first child was placing their nose on Olaf. Our kids at the party had a blast. After the first go round we did another round and Olaf had extra noses, and some carrot toes, and even a carrot unicorn horn!

 

I know I said I was horrible at cake decorating, and it's true. My cupcake skills are slightly better. I was actually very proud of how these turned out!

 

Please share your favorite party themes or projects. I would love to hear from you!



Happy Birthday Banner

My middle child's birthday is in the middle of January. The poor thing might as well have been born on a leap year.  It's very hard to get people together with illness and bad weather during most Januarys.  This year we have decided we will have a proper party for her no matter what. Well this Saturday is the day! She finally, three days before the party, decided she wanted a Frozen themed party. I decided to make her banner for the cake table, and we're having simple chocolate and white cupcakes with white frosting and icy blue sprinkles.  We're having polar punch for drinks and serving pizza, so see, proper~ish party! Yay us! LOL

Okay so here goes for the banner, really simple. I bought a book for a quarter at a thrift store. I ripped 12 pages out of it and drew some fancy schmancy letters on them. One on each page spelling out Happy Birthday. I was going to glitter it up but having the time proved to be harder than I thought. Then I was glad that I didn't. If I hang something with glitter on it over the cakes, I'm asking for glitter to fall on them, and no one wants mica or plastic flakes on their food.

I colored in each letter with a highlighter marker. She wanted pink, and the pink paints I had had dried up. Necessity is the mother of invention. Well I didn't invent coloring on book pages, but you get what I mean.

 

I measured out 10 feet of neutral yarn and then measured 12 inches and placed my first letter. I continued on with the word HAPPY, spacing the letters 3 inches apart. I ended with another 12 inches of yarn on the other end. This gives me plenty of tying length.

I used clear tape to tape the yarn on the page, then folded the top of the page down and taped it down to the back of the page. Just like when making a casing for elastic on clothes.
To do the word BIRTHDAY I used my thumb as the length to put the pages apart. It measures a little over 2 inches.  This actually worked out perfect for the way I plan on hanging it. TA-DA!!