Of books and bikes

Had another idea in the book space the other day. Small daughter and I had a bookbinding afternoon and I taught her what I had learnt about making a text block, and then we covered them with paint swatches. Yep. Paint swatches - those little squares of paint colour printed on cards that people use when they're redecorating (used plenty of them for that purpose myself!). Re-purposed. They looked pretty neat actually.

Haven't made anything since this session with daughter, but am plotting a sushi-mat binding. I was digging around in our drawers looking for some kitchen implement the other day when I unearthed our sushi mats from hubby's several attempts at home-made sushi (usually very tasty but not exactly structural!) and I was struck by the idea that it should be possible to bind signatures directly onto the mat. If I cut the pages tall and thin it could make a cool book. Planning to try this sometime shortly. Definitely need to have another crack at case binding too, now I've found some hard, thick non-corrugated cardboard (this is surprisingly hard to find) and a slightly less stinky glue than PVA!

Am quite busy with work, and have recently joined the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce for networking opportunities. It was quite weird at the meeting on Tuesday night - I found myself thinking that I used to think it was only boring old farts that were members of things like the Chamber of Commerce, and here I am part of one! I hope that doesn't make me a boring old fart....

I am also spending a lot of time on the exercycle, and am considering getting myself a x-trail bike. Hubby and I went to have a look at bikes the other day and I found something I really liked - which is mildly scary because I haven't been on a proper bike in about 20 years! But most of Rotorua is really flat through the city, with wide streets, and surrounding us are some of NZ's best mountainbike trails. It seems silly not to take advantage of what our city offers! I could easily get to and from town on a bike based on the distances I'm getting on the exercycle each day, and I always loved going for a bikeride when I was younger - the freedom of it all, especially when I wasn't using it as a means of conveyance from A to B. Watch this space!