Summer 2011 ♥ mini book

I think it's funny when people say "I carry a little notebook to write down my ideas so I won't forget them!"
Since my head, at any given time, is filled with thoughts like:
•How many people will be home for dinner tonight?
•Who has a game today, which uniform do they need, and is it clean?
•Have I had any vegetables or water today?
•Why are there Chewy bar wrappers in the wash? Why can't I teach them to empty their pockets?
And the like.  There's no room for ideas, much less the quantity or quality that would merit a dedicated notebook.  Oh, how I envy those who can look at freshly laundered Chewy bar wrappers and have an a-ha! moment.  I'm not one of them.

Soooo, you can only imagine how thrilled I am that I not only had an a-ha! moment but that I actually made it happen...even without the benefit of having written it down in a notebook.  Yay me!

A little back story:
I've been shooting a Nikon D300 for the last 3½ years and I've loved it, but in the last year or two I've been noticing these weird, oily looking spots appearing on pictures.  At first it was just one or two, and they weren't always there.  But as time went by the number of spots rose as did their size.  It got to the point that I couldn't ignore them or just quick-fix them in PhotoShop.  So I packed it up and sent it off for repair.  But repairs take forever, and it's summer.  So when I saw this cute little Fuji 7s that instantly spits out wallet size pictures, I decided that it could help me through the summer.

Not even a week into my new love affair with the Fuji Kerig and I went on a mini adventure that included a trip to Hollo's Paper in Brunswick.  Now, at the risk of offending the owners of Hollo's: this place is a dump.  However, it is the exact kind of dump that any papercrafter secretly enjoys.  It's like a giant garage sale of office and restaurant supplies, they have envelopes of all sizes and room full of the super inexpensive, good quality card stock in basic colors.  After my recent LOAD, I needed to restock my pile of white cardstock and $1.75 got me a stack that would have cost $15.99 at Archiver's: SCORE.  While there I came across these cute little coin envelopes (they may not be the exact same size), only sold individually for something crazy like 3¢ a piece.  Even I can afford 10 or 15 of those!  And it occurred to me that they were just the right size for the little wallet sized photos the Fuji makes.  Hmmm.  Wheels-a-turnin'!  I see a mini-book.  Another thing that caught my eye was a stack of old fashioned ledger paper.  I tried to find something like it to show you online, but apparently this has been sitting at Hollo's since roughly 1957 and they're the only ones who still have it.  At any rate: $1.50 for one hundred sheet? Yes, please!  Do I care if it's acid free?  Like I care if this shit holds up after I'm dead...   ;)  But maybe it is?  I would think that paper meant for accounting documents would be made to last.  Maybe.

After we went to Hollo's we headed to Fairlawn, where I got to shop at Archiver's.  As luck would have it, I am dating one of the few men who understands the notion of scrapbooking.  He's also very patient with me, because it's not like shopping for scrapbooking stuff is quick.  After probably an hour of hemming and hawing I headed to the register and we were on our way.

And the Fuji 7s + Hollo's envelopes and ledger paper + misc scrap supplies = Summer 2011 ♥ mini book.

See how perfectly sized these envelopes are to work with these photos?  Love it!  And the Fuji 7s has a little itty-bitty mirror on the ring around the lens, which is super wide - perfect for arms-length self portraits for two.  :)

Here is where I point out that the camera is not, by any means, perfect.  That is one very underexposed manfriend.  But the ice cream looks yummy, no?  ;)  Oh, and I'm going to roll my eyes at that flower every time I look at this page.  I had one that was green, blue and red plaid that really went with the colors, only I grabbed the wrong one.  Didn't notice my error until long after I had stuck it down with Magic Tape, and we all know that stuff doesn't just peel up for a quick change.  Oops.

Ok.  And this is where I confess that I was watching the mini-series "The Kennedys" on Netflix while I was doing this.  And I wasn't paying 100% attention to either.  Which is why the left page sports a little pocket. When I did the other side of this envelope (the picture of the ice cream), I didn't realize that I was adhering everything to an upside down envelope.  Oops.  So the pocket is two-fold: it serves to cover up my massive Oopsy! and it also holds this page's journaling.  Each page has a little note writen on that ledger paper I talked about tucked side the envelope.  That really doesn't work if it's going to fall out of the bottom every time it's picked up.  So yeah...major drop back and punt going on here.  And yet, if I didn't tell you my secret you'd just think I was shakin' things up a bit.  Maybe.

One of the interesting things that I found out about this camera is that it turns over-exposed parts of the picture black.  And that is SUPER weird, because standard film and digital just makes it white.  So my head is strategically placed in front of the sun, because the black circle that appeared for the sun in our first try was really disconcerting.

I think if I were to do this again, I would take more care in the whole placement for the rings.  I had to go through and cut a notch out so the envelopes can be opened. Doh.  Obviously attention to detail and thinking things all the way through are not my strong suits.  Oh well, live and learn.

And this is why the pockets need to be accessible. Each one contains some journaling, as well as extra pictures.  The ones that I used on the outside are all I need to tell the story, but at a $1 a pop, I'm not throwing the decent duds away. (The bad duds?  They get tossed.  But the others stayed)

I love the freedom of mini-books.  You pick some colors, you pick a shape, a theme and the rest is just barreling through and creative play.  I like that you can make things as fat as you want them because straining page protectors aren't an issue.  I love that journaling tucked in pockets can still be read without a major hoo-ha. I love that I can step away from my usual clean style and try something new.

And that's my visual supply list, minus the can of ancient American Craft plastic flowers I forgot to take out of my pocket for the picture.

I'm proud that:
•I had an idea and I actually made it happen.
•I used so much stuff from recent shopping trips.  with the exception of the envelopes, nothing was purchased with this (or for that matter, ANY) project in mind.
•I dug into my stash of old stuff and used things that I've had for years and years.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you read all of this: holy hell.  Sorry!  I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures!
☺ Caroline