Today felt long. Holidays rarely feel long.
I slept in. When I got up I worked on a project which I will share at the end of this post.
When Nathan arrived home from football practice we spent about an hour deciding if we were going out for lunch and making something at home.
We went out.
Then we hit of Lowes for some things to fix the sprinkler system, a new hummingbird feeder, and some pre-emergent weed killer.
After that began the long, hot afternoon of yard work. I mowed the front while Nathan worked on bed cleanup. I blew off the back drive. Nathan finished mowing the back and then went to work on the sprinkler system. I came in to work on the coming school week.
Then we promised the boys ice cream so we headed out again.
None of those things would normally make today long. And yet, it was. Not a bad long. Maybe more of a lingering long. One long last day of summer long. Quiet, unhurried, hot.
Today’s joy…or noticing…or whatever this month ends up being, is about the time I took this morning to create. I love creating and often it is one of the first things that goes when my life is busy (and it has been busy for 11 years now!).
I started this project earlier this weekend. I carry a Traveler’s journal with different inserts and I am finding it fits my life and my needs better than anything else. Two weeks I was skipping around YouTube and found different tutorials on making your own inserts. That started me to thinking about making my own. Which then led to thinking that maybe I would start with making the boys assignment books for school, because what we are using now just isn’t working for us.
Right before the boys’ birthday party I ordered a book binding kit with plans to do this project last weekend. I should know better than to make any kinds of plans on birthday party weekend. Needless to say it didn’t happen.
Saturday morning I pulled out some watercolor paper and my paints. I did a three color wash in each of the boys’ favorite colors. I don’t have pictures of this.
As those dried I sat down and made some simple lined paper and printed it out double sided. Also no pictures.
I had plans to work on binding the books together yesterday, but the grocery store won out. This morning I was determined to bind and finish these books so I could write out their lessons for this school week.
I watched a bunch of different tutorials so I don’t have one specific one to reference here. If you want to make a Traveler’s Journal insert just search that out on YouTube. Specifically I wanted to sew my inserts.
The book binding kit I purchased on Amazon was about $10 I think and it worked great. Once again, I didn’t plan on making a tutorial so I didn’t take photos of my process. I clamped my cover and the inside pages together with some binding clips. I poked some holes along the spine with a really sharp poking tool. And then I sewed it all together. At the end I used my rotary cutter to trim up the sides to make lovely little books. I do have final products pictures. I am so excited and pleased with how they turned out. I am already dreaming up my next inserts and journals.
More Than Expected 