i’m a sucker for crafting that doesn’t involve computers. so, prior to mary’s bridal shower, when my fellow cohosts and i were trying to think of a gift to give mary that could also be something she could keep and value, i volunteered to make a gift book.

we had to create our own books in one of the photography courses i took while i was working at the university of minnesota. it’s been a while so i felt a little rusty going in, but definitely excited.

luckily, i still have a tackle box full of crafting supplies for such an occasion! i used to need crafting supplies for several classes i took and would forget to bring certain items (surprise) so i ended up buying way more than i needed during those years. i have three of those cork-backed metal rulers.

but they seriously make cutting straight edges so much quicker and easier. i’ll never throw them away.

i’m lucky to have a resource like the minnesota center for book arts for supplies like book fasteners and pva glue. maybe other places sell these items but i also feel much more hip when shopping at the mcba.

after i got all of the pages cut out, including the pocket into which we placed mary’s theatre gift ticket…

i constructed a table card to make sure it would stand up properly. and success!

almost.

remember: confirm orientation twice, glue once. (i didn’t make this mistake again.)

table cards done! on to constructing the cover.

be patient when cutting book board. it will take several swipes with the knife!

this is the paper i chose for the covers. i thought it was funky and fun — attention-getting but not overwhelming. (for twin city residents who may be reading: the paper depot is a great resource with far too many awesome choices.)

i cut the ¼” gap in the cover so it can bend easily. not something that would’ve occurred to me, so it was a good thing someone told me in advance.

halfway glued and wrapped — looking good so far!

here is a close up of one of the covers finished. the first piece of paper gets wrapped around all edges of the bookboard, but the second piece of paper just has to fit around the “inside” of the uncovered side of the book, hiding the folds from the first piece of paper.

and then it was time for the industrial hole punch. i think i chose one size too big, but oh, well — as long as the holes aren’t too small that the book fasteners don’t fit or so big that the book fasteners fall out then it’s all good.

voilá! a musical book for mary is born!

from cutting to binding, i think the creation of this book took me about four hours in one evening. and can you believe i had so much fun doing it? of course you can.

i have a whole bunch of bookboard left, too. time to make more books!!

there are a lot of ducks and geese that hang out around my office building. when i left today, i encountered this guy at the back door:

do you hear me say “oh!” and fumble with the camera at the end? that is because i just looked around and up and realized there was another, angrier goose on the ledge RIGHT ABOVE ME. so that is when i panicked and ran away.

urban geese are not as friendly as urban turkeys, let me tell you.

for christmas, i gave jason two tickets to see the minnesota wild play the boston bruins. the game was a couple weeks ago, on a very special “hockey day in america.” our seats were right behind the penalty box. we recorded the game and recently reviewed the first period — my face (and my iphone) was broadcast on nbc across the country for about 5 seconds! so exciting.

this was our view.

those are bruins.

this was the first puck drop.

this was a photo i took to try to text-to-win something. (unfortunately i had almost no reception, so the text never went through. who knows what i could’ve had!)

these are regional college sports mascots that were goofing around during a break. (what do you call that time between periods? certainly it’s not halftime…)

this bulldog (from umn duluth, i think) was bowing down to jason’s bruins (last year’s stanley cup champs) hat.

this is the moment my iphone became famous on tv.

these are the nachos i ate during the second period.

this was a pretty gnarly fight in the third period. (jason later shook that bruins’ hand.)

we got a tip from one of the security folks at the xcel, so after the game we decided to wander around downtown st. paul for a while. also, we wanted to avoid a bit of the traffic.

we ended up at pazzaluna for a short happy hour. we ordered the fried gorgonzola gnocchi. it was pretty yum.

but i decided to take a picture of my napkin instead.

—

in unrelated news, i am having some issues on my little blog. it would seem that i’ve somehow been hacked (probably through a plug-in), so i’m not sure what i need to do next but i sure know that i need to do a back up! ugh.

because i’m terrible at keeping up, i am now, almost three weeks later, going to share the photos and videos i took with my iphone at this year’s saintly city cat show. MEOW!

my favorite judge, walter hutzler, was back again this year. maybe you want to watch a video that includes him? my friend, mary — who attended the cat show for the first time this year — shared this video with me. so great!

persian so fluffy she be lookin’ like a sausage.

i think the most common breeds at the show are usually rex kitties and persian kitties. total opposites, right?

honestly, i left my dslr at home this year because i thought i probably didn’t need to come home for the fourth year in a row with 200+ photos of cats that aren’t mine. there are oodles of kitties that i wanted to photograph (such as an american curl! i’ve never seen that breed before.) but i’m glad i had the iphone because it takes excellent video — which came in handy when the vulcans showed up!

first, vulcanus rex knighted the prince of replacement (cat show) judges.

then he knighted the people’s choice award winning kitty, an egyptian mau named mica. the most adorable moment happens at about 1:52.

i love hanging out with other crazy cat people. and cats. in fact, little miss sio kitty is taking up most of my lap right now — every night she tries to separate me from the computer but my arms are long and i can still reach the keyboard!

PURRS! (that one’s for you, vani!)

</crazy cat lady… for now>

i’ve been following along with jenni’s monthly updates on completing a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days, which has finally motivated me to begin my own.

yesterday i kicked off my own 101 in 1001 list by having lunch at the melting pot with my sister — #12: Visit 20 new-to-me restaurants in the Twin Cities.

the motivation behind going for lunch was actually because jason had purchased one of those online coupon things and it was going to expire before he could find time to use it. so… thanks, sweetie!

though we didn’t anticipate it being a two hour visit, it was a fun lunch! the booths are wide and tall, so it felt very much like we were dining privately. the food was all delicious, too!

i currently have 61 items on my list that should have 101 items. i’ve been trying to brainstorm, but i’m sure more ideas of things to get done will come along. do you have any suggestions? i think i could probably add some goals related to my professional life, fill out of the list of goals for home, and add some more twin city to do’s easily enough. what am i missing?