Paper, Misfits and a phone

 Yesterday was a good day for drying paper

So here's my yield. There's such a pleasure to lifting the pieces off the felts. It's a friendly material. 

I embedded some Japanese maple foliage from my tree, saved since last year in the freezer, and these paper pieces can be mounted on cardstock. The narrow one can be a bookmark, after I've leatherized it by painting white glue and letting it dry.

As you see, dye seeps out of the leaves on addition to the shapes they form.  Red maple is a good natural dye which I've used on fabric.  

One new idea I got from Magpie's link was to add cornstarch to the pulp, to strengthen the paper. Good idea, because newspaper is the cheapest formulation and very crumbly in use.  

This paper won't have the endless longevity of paper made from abaca or other plant fibers, because it's originally wood pulp, high acid content. But for my purposes, just a fun project. 

Misfits box arrived, and as usual I opened it outside, too heavy to lift.

You see the freezer blocks in the foil bag. I tossed them over to Gary's front path for him to collect and put in his outdoor freezer.

Then unloaded onto the counter where pasta for lunch was underway.

I used up the liquid from that recent tomato thing I made, drained from the can of whole tomatoes, plus butter, onions and tomato paste. Simple, good. 

And I have a new supply of yellow potatoes, apples and cilantro. I do love the scent of cilantro. There was a time when I really didn't, likewise privet and marigold. 

They smelled terrible to my younger nose. And now they're delicious. There's privet growing outside the library, and I no longer dash past it to escape the smell.

Have you experienced changes like that? 

Anyway shortly after I'd sorted and washed and put away the Misfits, Gary came dashing over, all excited. I can't TELL you how happy I am you tossed the freezer blocks over, practically dancing with excitement.

He explained he'd noticed them and gone out to put them away, opened his outdoor storage closet to put them in the freezer he keeps there. 

And finally found his phone, on the freezer. He'd been searching literally all morning, and had run out of places to look.

So he dashed off to catch up with his life now that he was reunited with his lifeline. Very happy guy.

Happy day everyone, try to remember where you put your phone. I wear mine in one of a collection of tiny crossbody purses, because I can't be trusted to remember anything.

Paper, yogurt, buds and self improvement

 Here's the paper recycling, where it's up to

Pulp to felts to drying, with inclusions of Japanese maple leaves. The leaves also make red dye. 

The last picture shows the output, tiny batch this time, still drying. Watch this space again for the great removal from the felts (those are the pieces of interfacing they're resting on). That was a nice little interlude.

While I was out I noticed flowers and buds. Gary's butterfly bush soaring above the trees, my little offshoot from it now budding, ready to host butterflies and moths, and my zinnias starting to bud, the morning glory climbing everywhere now

Bit too hot for me but they're all very happy.

Meanwhile I finally got a batch of yogurt done. 

It's simple but I tend to put it off, like bread making. I did a bit of figuring and find that from an approx 3 cup container, I end with 18 cups of yogurt. That's the original, minus a couple of tablespoons for starter, then three more batches of five cups, at which point it loses its strength. Not a bad return.

And I was about to embark on an interesting book about envy and how to manage it. The I decided once again, that self improvement is the enemy of self acceptance, and it's time I did that instead. 

So I'm good enough as I am, crabby old lady.  Also self improvement is a source of income, rather than a selfless offering by writers. So fine, good luck to them, they'll never lack an audience, but I think I'll be sewing and paper making and other things instead.

Happy day everyone, you're fine, I'm fine, we're all fine, everything's fine!