THIS is temporary seasonal unemployment.

The Penland Gallery closes for the winter months, and it felt like as soon as I really settled into my new job, this winter hiatus began. It is not a bad thing: I am visiting friends and family and getting away from the wintery mountains for a while...(although I do look forward to some snow when I get home...the novelty of real winter has not worn off for this California girl)(It probably will soon enough.)

(On a side note: yes, I will be returning to the gallery in the spring, and yes, I still like my job.)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I visited Kentucky, and Susie and I partied like a couple of sick little girls.

Books and Fevers.

Shortly thereafter, I packed up my cold-medicine and flew to Texas. It hurt my ears a lot. Don't fly when you're sick, if you can avoid it.

I'll be here a while longer, and then head further west with my big brother and my NEW CAMERA.

New CAMERA!? So why isn't this blog post full of pictures? Because I don't have it yet....I just submitted my order online, after talking and thinking about it for months and months.

I have been unhappy without a camera. And I haven't been blogging, or documenting anything, or posting work on Etsy, and I mostly blame this on the lack of a camera.

Some recent things:

• Replaced a watch battery that has been dead for a couple of years.
• Ordered film for my Polaroid land-camera. Three cheers for tangible photographs!
• Covered my parents' kitchen table with scraps of paper, spools of thread, and tiny books. I call this area of the house the "exploritorium," and they are supportive.
• Seasoned a cast iron dutch oven for my parents.
• Reconstituted some of my sourdough-starter for my parents.
• Shared the secrets of making sourdough bread with my parents. Their minds have been blown.
• Bought an $8 olive-green smith-corona typewriter on the first full day I was here, and carried it home on foot. In the rain.
• Participated in late-night Christmas eve "reindeer games" with my big brother. Much stifled hysterical laughter.
• Made "black sticky gingerbread" from a very pretty site my boss told me about.
• Won at Scrabble...a few times.
• Watched an embarrassing number of episodes of Law and Order...

Somewhere far away, he is watching water drip from the
faucet and wondering if he's able to jump on the ceiling fan... 

And since my blog is presently this boring, I'll go ahead and add that I miss this guy. Thank you (a million times) to my roomie for keeping him out of trouble while I'm away.....

From There to Here.

The GPS sabotaged my father and I every chance she got. We ended up on a LONG tiny road that delayed our leaving California by several hours.

Vive la France!


One of several nerve-wracking stops on our way across Texas. For the first leg of our trip we were towing my car behind the truck. The Uhaul folks initially attached my car to the tow-dolly wrong, so it kept coming loose, shifting out-of-whack, and causing much anxiety. (It took us a few days to figure out how to make it right.)

But O, such prettiness~





And the moon rolled along the horizon next to us...

Thanks, Austin.

Had a wonderful trip to Texas. It was too short, but I got to go swimming twice, met good people, ran around town with my brother, and even got to see my ma and pa.

I ate a surprising number of delicious tacos...




...while my big brother did complicated calculations for me.....

Lots of adventuring through antique stores...




Lots of photo-taking and hand-painted-sign admiration....



And one night my brother took my parents and me to an old Texas/German Biergarten in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome!


Details and pics from the fair in my next post. Stay tuned....

AUSTIN RENEGADE

I am getting ready for this weekend, exploring austin and obsessing over:

antiques, marbles, skinny satin ribbon, fentimans soda, tacos, more tacos, austin birds, brown craft paper, books, boxes, boxes-of-books, lumber, thread, ice cream, doctor who, bruxism, alaskan klee kais, toy stores, why my fingernails seem to be growing super fast, visiting my parents (and the hotel jacuzzi where they're staying) tonight, and where I'm going to get coffee tomorrow morning.

It's all good. Let's all move to Austin.

Texas things.

I am very pleased to share that I'll be participating in the 2nd Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Austin, Texas on May 21 & 22. I love Austin. My big brother lives there, (not sure I have ever mentioned that) and the brief times I've stayed with him in Austin have always been delightful: mini-golf, beer-drinking, ice-cream, picture-taking, antiquing, movie-watching. All at the same time.

So, this is exciting, and has set a good deadline for me in the foreseeable future. Focus. Yes. As handmade books begin to pile up, (and they are!) it's good to have an idea of where they are going...

This will be the first time I'll be traveling to do an event like this, and I'm a little spooked about logistics...fortunately it is an indoor venue, so I need not bother about a canopy. I'm sure I will work it all out. Anyone out there ever travel to do craft shows?

Speaking of Texas and bookbinding, my ol' Penland pal Loring Taoka has commissioned me to make a little all-white book to be used as a comment book for his MFA Thesis show at the University of North Texas. It will almost be like I'm there for his show. Aw...