Hold Dear

little book swap...

 

I have little books to show you! You may recall I recently hosted a Little Book Swap which was totally inspired by the super talented Julie Collings. I was also motivated by sweet Jessica Rodarte to host this swap after we did a side swap of Little Books. Both of these lovely ladies joined the swap along with some other wonderful creatives!

Oh my gosh...this swap was so much fun and it turned out so sweet!!! Thank you again to all the fabulous artists who particpated. Each and every book was magnificent! Truly! The care and attention to detail was wonderful and the packaging was spectacular and so inspiring! Here are all the books in one pile.

Yummy! Just look at the variety of the packaging! Breathtaking! There were so many handmade details. Here are the books in no particular order...please click on an image to see a full view of all three books.
 
Artists: L to R  Lynn Lebsack.....Terri Wilkerson....Rachel Rydel
 
 Artists: L to R  Maureen Kosewic.....Wendy Robrecht.....Lisa Hadja
   Artists: L to R  Terri Kolte.....Cassie Larson.....Ilene Harris
 
  Artists: L to R  Stevie Kauffman.....Karla Steele.....Stephanie Oyler
 
   Artists: L to R  Julie Baxley.....Jessica Rodarte....Cassondra Walters
 
    Artists: L to R  Heather Rowley.....Wanda Clark (she sent two books!!!)
 
    Artists: L to R  Hope Wallace Karney...Julie Collings...Catherine Aguilera
 
    Artists: L to R  Laurie Jackson.....Jill Sibbald... .Cristina Sequino

Pretty spectacular, right? I was amazed over and over again! And the goodies this group of lovely ladies sent as thank you/hostess gifts were incredible! Thank you again so much!

Marlene Haveron also participated; however, I think I overshared her books with the other participants and didn't have one for myself. I'll share a picture of the front of her cute book when a replacement is received.

I made two little books for the swap...

The one titled "A Useful Traveling Booklet" is the book I made to swap with everyone. I made each page using bits of this and that from my collection of mostly vintage Air Mail envelopes and labels. I also used a few Dennison labels for good measure. All the words I used were cut out from a 1970 reproduction of an 1903 Montgomery Ward catalog. If you followed that, you get a point! :-)

Here are all my little books in a big pile. I love these kinds of pictures!

 
All packaged up...I also love these kinds of pics!

 
 Here are the pages...

 
 
 
The back... 
Thanks for hanging out...and I hope you are swell!

a post repurposed...

Hi there...this is gonna be a very fast blog post. I need to do it this way. I need a win. I am completely out of the habit of blogging. I have started so many posts but never finish them. So. Many. Abandoned. Posts. I always start out motivated, full of great intentions and inspiration but then...SQUIRREL!...and I move on to something else that involves not blogging.

So in an effort to exercise the ol' blogging muscle (I've been blogging for over five years so there has to be some muscle memory, right?!), I am repurposing an unfinished post to making it new! I will give myself a break and just catch you up with a fabulous weekend I had a few weeks ago when my brother and his daughter visited Portland. I will probably someday regret not blogging about my amazing trip to Baltimore and Washington, DC back in April. But thankfully, Kari blogged about it and so I am cheating and linking to her post for posterity. :-)

Okay, so onto a little blogging...my niece is an Irish Dancing champion! Well, not the champion, but she's definitely moving up! She was in Portland so she could compete in the Oregon State Championship Feis. 

Before her four dances...

After her four dances...

Two third place medals and two first place medals! She's crazy good!!!

Also, while my brother and niece we in town, I took the opportunity to do lots of touristy stuff around Portland. My niece and I did the OHSU Aerial Tram, a little downtown tour and then went Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. Then the next day, Glen and I took them to Multnomah Falls. The weather was spectacular while they were here so we didn't do much that wasn't outside.

Here are a few pics from the aerial tram... 

 
 
And then a few others from along the way...

View of the Vista House in the Columbia Gorge from the Women's Forum Viewpoint. Spectacular.

 
Guess I'm into close ups of flowers lately. :-)

Okay...bam...that's it for now! Told you it would be quick! Next up will be pics from the Little Book Swap I hosted! SO MUCH WONDERFULNESS you would not believe!! Sneak peek of my little book...

 

xo

journaling with hope!

The ever fabulous Hope Wallace Karney has a new journaling e-course!

This looks so fun!!! Be sure to join early!