Black Cat Cougar Digital Cutter

I have a little obsession with digital diecut machines. Not that big, I guess ... as I am reading recently in various forums about people that have several, and prior to this week, I just had the one itty-bitty one. Now I have a bigger one that will cut 13 inches wide rather than 8 inches) and can cut through a variety of thicker materials that the bitty one couldn't - a Black Cat Cougar "Cub".

Here's the Cougar with my cute little first generation Craft Robo. 

Project One is making a record of different kinds of papers and settings used ... cut the tags on the Cougar out of cardstock. Printed out labels to put on them and glued on a little sample of the paper.

Project Two is cutting labels for the drawers of the card catalog. Needed to be done, and I thought cut labels on a clear background would look more interesting visually than just printed ones. Kind of a "because I can" moment. I'm using an Arts and Crafts style font, Chelsea Studio.
After experimenting with paper, I discovered vinyl. How could I have not known about vinyl before now?! After cutting the labels in vinyl, it was easy to transfer that to a transparency and then trim the transparency to fit the drawer front.

Exploding the Codex: Theatre of the Book

EXPLODING THE CODEX from Douglas Sandberg on Vimeo.


Through Felt and Wire, a film and photographs by Douglas Sandberg Photography featuring artist's books from the collection of Mary Austin in a show entitled "Exploding the Codex: Theatre of the Book". I especially like "Inside Chance", a book using a form I've seen in several children's toys ... as it is a kinetic piece it's best to see it in the film, at about minute 3.

French Toast

It's been ages since I made French toast. I looked up the recipe in Joy of Cooking, and it says the first time I made them was in 1988. Somewhere along the way I stopped making them, but I've made up for it in the last few weeks.

This little gravy boat was part of my wedding china. We don't have gravy too often, but we use this all the time for maple syrup.

Back then I used honey in the egg mixture. This time around I used vanilla and cinnamon.

Bacon, strawberries, blueberries, and of course, maple syrup, round everything out nicely.

And it comes out here ...

Another beautiful day for the Summer Band Jam in the park.

I love the way the trees are reflected at the top of this instrument.