Neat bag

I'm catching up with one or two things today and keep coming across things which I have been meaning to post about for a while. One of them is this delightful bag, given to me by Kathy, Swiss friend and supporter of Arbeit statt Almosen , a Fair Trade organisation working in developing countries.
My bag is beautifully made and a good deal of work and skill has gone into its manufacture. I love it - thank you Kathy!

Using my studio

This morning I have been working in my studio for the first time and I think it'll take some getting used to! Don't get me wrong, it's great and I am enjoying having so much room to work. But until I get everything settled in, know where stuff is and, perhaps most important, have the things I use most frequently to hand, it means a lot of walking around!

I made a couple of small books for friends. I can't show you them now, but in due course, I'll post pictures.

In the grand clearout which preceded the arrival of the builders, I came across this Xyron 500 adhesive "machine" - a bit like an old fashioned mangle. I'd forgotten about it and like so many gadgets, it had been relegated to the back of a cupboard. I remembered it to be a good way of achieving a good even coverage of glue and decided to use it for my books yesterday. Trouble is, I had to fit a refill - and the photograph above shows the empty cartridge which needs to be disposed of.

My conscience won't let me use something which creates such a huge amount of (?unrecyclable?) waste to stick two pieces of paper together. Bring back the Pritt stick!!

Incidentally, have you registered for the WI Carbon Challenge yet?