Meeting Jamie Ford

Jamie Ford is the author of "On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" . I discovered him a few years ago from the McCracken County Library.  You see, I do choose books by their covers...and I saw the cover of the book and immediately checked it out from the library.  I instantly fell in love with the book.  As a matter of fact, I got on google to see if Jamie Ford had written anything else. Nope, this was his first novel. First novel?  Wow!  What an accomplishment.  I followed him on Twitter and his blog.  I discovered that he was indeed about to have a second novel published.  So I waited.  During the wait, my friend DiAnna told me that there was a scheduled event in March of 2014 to meet Jamie. I quickly added it to my calendar and countdown app (an app that featured my trip to Hawaii and a cruise).

Eventually, the release date was set and Jaime had an offer that if you bought the book from a presale (the written copy), he would send you a digital version.  No brainer there...sign me up. I received the digital book and thought it a wonderful accompaniment to Bitter and Sweet.  The wait ensued.


By reading Jamie's blog I learned that he prefers paper books to digital, so I was surprised he sent out a digital publication and decided to make a paper edition of his supplement.  My intention was to give it to him in March when I met him.  (I featured a tutorial on this book a while back....http://michelle-champion.blogspot.com/2014/03/saturday-afternoon-book-making.html).  Once the book was finished, I debated giving it to him.  I actually tossed the idea around for a while on would he care, would that be weird and all the other questions that weird fans would think of.

At last, the day came...actually the day before the event. Jamie had to cancel due to a stupid snow storm.  For those of you that know me to know that my husband is a meteorologist and this PROVES once and for all that husbands don't listen to their wives.  I begged and begged him to keep the storm away.  No such luck, the event was postponed.  I imagined I would never get to meet him.

But wait, last week Jamie posted on his blog that he was coming to KY. Not just KY, but Paducah.  This was it!  I was going to get to meet him and tell him how much I enjoyed his books.  Armed with a copy of Bitter and Sweet and Willow Frost, a copy of the digital publication and the book I made...I made my way to WKCTC.

I arrived early and there was a reception going on.  I saw him immediately.  I waited for a moment, texted my friend DiAnna that I was there and waited some more.  Then I decided to approach him.  I introduced myself and he was very familiar with who I was from my Twitter stalkings.  We chatted for a moment and a dude came up to him to get his books signed, the moment was gone to ask him about the book I had made.  I went inside the auditorium and got a seat in the front for both DiAnna and myself.  I saw him in the back of the room and grabbed my books and thought I would try again. We chatted again for another moment or two and he signed my books of Bitter and Sweet and Willow Frost.

DiAnna then arrived and the lecture began.  It was very informative.  Perfect for a book lover.  It was the first lecture I had ever attended on a book and it won't be my last.  During his talk, I learned he was not only a great author, but also witty and charming.  He has a lot of good stories in him.  I told my friend DiAnna his writings are so emotional that it is kind of rare for a guy to write like that where I am so moved by the words. I read LOTS of books.....most male authors (unless they write crime) cannot paint a picture with words.  He not only does so, but it's a lovely picture, even if the subject is unpleasant.  To me is astonishing that he only has two books under his belt.  He writes like a very seasoned author.  I'm excited to see how far he will go.  Oh, I got off topic, I just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed these books.














The lecture is over and he is going to sign books.  I got in the line to sign books and when it was my turn I laid down the book I had made.  He looked a bit surprised at what it was because it was something there is no way he could have seen because I am certain he does not follow my blog.  I explained that I knew he preferred paper books and when I got the digital book I felt it had to be in paper.  He said he had never seen it in paper.  I got a bit braver. I said, "I made it for you, but if you don't want it or are going to throw it away I want you to just sign it and I will keep it".  He said no he loved it and asked ME to SIGN it for him!  Then he told someone he wanted a photo of the two of us with the book that I had made for him.  What an honor!  I was so glad that I got the guts to give him the book.

What a wonderful evening it turned out to be.  And now that it is over I sit and wait for the next Jamie Ford novel.

Happy Reading!

Keurig k cup gift box

I saw this on the internet, but there were no directions.  Never fear, I can figure it out.  I am going to do the best I can with directions.  The problem will be that I do NOT like to measure things, I rarely do, so often measurements are an afterthought.  I apologize for that, I just would rather eyeball it (I'm pretty accurate there, then measure).









First I made my triangle base. I did this by placing six k-cups in a triangle shape and then drew around it.  The top line is about 8 inches, the side 8.5, I warned you.










Next, I flipped the kcups over (top side down) and placed them where I wanted them in the final product...I drew around the lid of each one.  I took scissors and cut a tad inside this line.   I made sure the kcup would fit each hole.  Once I had those like I wanted them, I used a compass and made the circles perfect (I did not have any die or punch the right size or I would have used that).  Then I made a bottom for the box using the same triangle on no holes.







I took a pizza box and cut some sides.  They started out at the 8.5 and 8 inch long that I "measured" before and were 2 inches tall. I wanted the sides 1.5 that is why I chose 2 inches. I took my scoring board and scored .25 inch on each side of the strip making a lip.  I glued the sides to the bottom part of the box.  I did not have to alter my 8.5x2 or 8x2 strips at all!

I mod podged a triangle to the bottom of the inside of the box.  Then I cut strips of paper slightly less than 1.5 inches and covered the inside sides of the box.

I covered the top of the box with a sheet of paper, leaving about .25 inch hanging off so I could tuck it under and make a nice finish.  I used mod podge to adhere paper.  Once that dried I cut slits in the circles so I could tuck the paper on the underside of each circle for a better finish. I did not take a photo of this as it was too messy.  Once the top side was dry I adhered it to the bottom with sides piece.

I then took strips of paper and mod podged them unto anywhere where raw cardboard  or a rough edge was showing.

This took me about 2 hours start to finish. 

A thing that makes me go hummmmmmm

I am an avid reader.  I mean,  I read all the time.  I read on a tablet, on my phone, and paper materials.  When you are constantly reading on an electronic device you use your battery (duh)....this will cause you to have to plug in your device to charge.  Now, I read while my device is charging...here's the part I don't understand.  Why does my iphone and my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab) have the charging port on the bottom?  When you read you hold the book in your lap, into your stomach, standing so you can see the page better....this is impossible is a charging cord is stuck in your belly.  What happens to your cord from this?  Oh, the cord gets a short in it causing you to have to purchase a new one.

I get that they do this for the charging stations, but why can't the port be in the side and the device charge sideways?  All of them have rotating screens so you can still use it on the station. What did you say?  Why can't I read sideways? I can, but it messes up the book "page". Have you tried it?  It's all funky.

My solution to the problem is to always keep a paper book in my reading rotation so I can read paperwise while I am trying to charge.  

Just wondering and open to any of your opinions. 

Saturday afternoon book making

Tuesday night is a big evening for me.  Our local Community College is hosting an event where they are bringing in an author and letting him speak then sign autographs.  West Kentucky Community Technical College has done this before, but this is the first time I have longed to go.  It was almost a year ago that I read about the event and have counted down the days.

Who is coming to the little town of Paducah?  Why Jamie Ford.  You haven't heard of him?  Well, you need to google it right now.  Purchase the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet first and you will be hooked.  There is a second novel entitled Songs of Willow Frost that I also recommend.

I discovered Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet not long after it was published.  I read it, reread it....well, I keep rereading it.  I have the ebook, but once I found out Jamie was coming to Paducah, I bought a paper copy as well.  I pre-purchased Songs of Willow Frost from BAM! and it was delivered to my house the day the book was released.  If you pre-purchased Songs, Jamie would email you a little "supplement" type/companion book written about one of the characters in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  I read it when he emailed me, but decided that since I was going to meet him next week I would try to see if he would autograph my ebook too.

I printed the book in full form. It was rather large to bind, so I printed as a booklet.






I took a large sheet of mat board and cut me a couple of covers (8.5x6).  I covered each cover with one 12x12 scrapbook page (Bohemia by My Mind's Eye---the best paper pad EVER!!!).








 In the meantime I put together the booklet, scored the middle, and sewed the binding of the pages.  Once that was finished I inked the pages with Distress Ink by Tim Holtz (old paper and walnut stain).  I hot glued a ribbon to the "spine" of the booklet (gluing the booklet in the exact center of the ribbon).  Once the hot glue set up, I put a strip of hot glue on the inside edge of one of the covers and put the ribbon down on that side.  Once set I repeated the process with the other side of the ribbon and other cover.  The thickness of the book looks nice between the covers.  I mod podged the covers after adding some walnut stain ink to the edges.  I also mod podged the overleafs of the booklet to each cover giving it a finished look.

On the cover, I used Jamie's cover, but I ran out of color ink. I will reprint before Tuesday and mod podge the new photo onto the cover.

Not perfect but it's kind of like me...covered in flaws but handy.

Throw out 50 things part 2

Given all the snow and the fact that we are snowed in....we were able to work on the Throw out 50 things list.

We finished with the number 36 last time.  If you can't remember the post here is a link.


http://michelle-champion.blogspot.com/2013/12/throw-out-50-things.html


37.  Clothes the kids have outgrown

38.  My mother-in-law's comforter.  It is very nice, hardly used but it is a very old lady looking and white.  I hate white.  It is white with pink flowers if someone wants it before I take it to goodwill

39.  Bent rails from Trevor's bed.  Trevor's mattress was constantly falling through the bed because the rails were bent when we got the bed (it was used).  We are selling Grandma's house and we sold all the furniture inside it.  Well, most of the furniture.  For some reason, the auction company did not sell the bed.  I took the rails from that bed and brought them home.  They fit Trevor's bed....no more falling through the frame!!  I am tired of having crappy stuff that is falling apart in my home.  My goal is to get rid of it if it is falling apart.

40.  Old letters from my mother-in-law to my husband.  They are miserable.  Please remember to talk to your children nicely.  I burned these horrible letters!!!

41.  Sunshades from our Sebring that died...all our cars are now tinted.  I passed these on.

42.  Scraps of paper

43.  Pillows from my mother-in-law's house.  For some reason, we brought them home.  Trevor had 8 pillows on his bed, Hannah 6, we had 5.  Too many!!!  I got rid of 4 crappy pillows.  Thrown away.

44.  We only use cloth napkins in our house, but I threw out a bunch of napkins that had seen better days.

45.  An extension cord that had been scrapped and looking pretty unsafe

46.  Screwdrivers that were chipped and really worked to remove no screw

47.  Old school agendas

48.  Paint cans that looked like they were 20 years old (and they may be)

49.  Crappy paintbrushes

50.  Cassette tapes, I have no player why did I keep these?

I am going to keep going.  Streamlining my life. 

Day 3 of snowed in

Being poor on trapped in the house if wearing on me.  Cabin fever has set in.  Holy Moly!!  I have done all the dishes, all the laundry, all the sewing repairs, all the touch up of paint, all the cleaning, all the changing of sheets...good gravy you get the picture. I have made 32 cards, 2 canvas thingys, bunches of die cuts paper piecings, organizing of my drawing materials, the taxes, made a peanut butter pie, bit all my nails to the quick, and even got all the recyclables together.  This stupid ice must melt soon, I am not made to sit home all day!!!!

Here is what I created today:

Snowed in.

Here we are on our one millionth snow day of this winter.  Ok, so I exaggerated the number a bit, but you get the picture.  We have had lots of snow days.  I usually do home improvement projects on these type of days, but I was saving my money for our big vacation this year so no projects.  What I have done is touch up walls/cabinets that had chips or just needed to be refreshed (or where my son poked a hole in the living room wall playing basketball), I have done our taxes, perused the internet for a deal on cars, and today made a painting.

This painting started with die cuts that I made with my Cricut cartridge (thanks DiAnna) Art Nouveau.  I have wanted this one since the day it was released, and my friend bought it for me for Christmas.  I broke it out a few weeks ago and started to see what it could do.  Here are some photos of the die cuts I have made with the cartridge.





Today's project started as a blank 8x11 canvas that I painted an old fashioned mustard color.  I then used wood icing and a stencil that I bought at Ephemera Paducah and went to town.  What  a great stencil!!!!  It fits in great with the vibe I was going for with this canvas.  I then decided to make one of the girls the lady in the moon.  I made some cattails for the ground and a beautiful lady in purple for the foreground.

I am not sure that I am done with the painting, time will tell. I am however finished with it today.



Thanks for stopping by.

A new ride

In 2005 my husband went to Driver Motors in Mayfield while I was at work.  He brought home a 2004 Chrysler Sebring.  I fell in love instantly.  It drove like my Saturn SL2 that was totaled by a woman would did not follow the laws of a stop sign.  It was small like that car and drove wonderfully.  I had the dealer put on a keyless entry system and we signed the papers.  Over the years, she was a good car.  In the last couple of years we began to have computer problems with her.  The computer was telling the car that things were wrong and they were not.  The solution a new computer at $2500.  That wasn't going to happen because the car might be worth $1000.  So we drove on and continued to have issues with the check engine light and the emissions and really there were no problems it was all computer related. Back to the shop we go, the dealer called in a Chrysler expert and it rigged up the computer to stop sending out signals and we were on our way.  Our dreams were to get two more years out of the car.  This was last year.

 A couple of weeks ago, my daughter was driving to the other side of Paducah when my little Sebring decided to die.  I mean DIE!  So dead it had to be replaced.  John and I began a search for a cheap car with low miles.  Why?  We were planning on taking the trip of a lifetime in April, a trip to Hawaii.  This just didn't pan out.  A car with low miles and low price just wasn't to be found so we talked about it and decided 10 days in Hawaii would be great, but we could have this car for 10 years like we had the Sebring.  We upped the budget and cancelled the trip.

We looked high and low for the right fit.  I called a dealership in Madisonville because I wanted to look at a Ford Fusion they had on their lot.  The dude on the phone thought I said Nissan instead of Fusion.  It was fine, and turned out to be fate.  I had not looked at a Nissan.  John had mentioned it, but that's really as far as we got.  We drove the car and fell in love.  I loved the engine, loved the feel and loved the get up and go.  It is bigger than my Sebring, but I still can feel like I'm driving that little car.  Here are some pictures of the new member of the family.

I have not gotten possession yet.  There were a few things I wanted done before I  brought it home.  The car is still in Madisonville going through the Michelle approval process.  I got the call today that the car is ready and the dealer (Greg) will try to deliver tomorrow (barring the roads clear up enough for him to get here).  I am very excited to see her once again.  Wonder what we will name her?



















Here are some photos of the new member of the family.