Adventures in Making a Secret E-Reader Case Part 2

As you all may remember, I left off my harrowing tale of craftiness last week in my Adventure of the Great Kindle Case.  Not exactly what I called it, but you know what I mean.  Anyhow, I'd had an idea to turn an old book into a new Kindle case.  With some gluing and cutting I at last had a hollow book.  And then I took the weekend off.  So, Monday morning I had a sudden thought:  how in the world am I going to turn the thing on?  Because you see, my friends, the sad thing about technology is that it requires power and stuff, and the switch for my Kindle is on the bottom, which meant that I'd have to remove the Kindle from the book every time I wanted to switch it on.  I couldn't have that.

So, I decided I'd chop a hole in the bottom of the book where the power button is, so I could just poke the button through the opening.  Sounds like a good idea, but let me tell you, Elmer's Glue is a beast.  I don't know much about slang talk, and I'm not sure I used the word "beast" correctly, but seriously, that stuff works.  So I had to spend quite some time sawing before I got the hole the way I wanted it to be.  Exhibit A below shows my serrated kitchen knife standing of its own accord in the book.  Allow me to say: not the most fun part of this project.  I kept on stabbing the wrong part of the page, and it was just really inconvenient.  But anyhow, finally, I finished.

 So at this point I had a hole cut out for the Kindle, a hole cut out for easy access to the power button, and... not much else.  This was when I started to realize that, since the hole fit the Kindle and the Kindle Only, there would be no easy way for me to remove the Kindle once it was in.

I really think things through.

After some careful thought, and much pacing around the house, seeking out clever ideas, I finally decided that I would have to put something in the book

In our hallway with many bookcases my eyes lighted upon the sewing cabinet (yes, it makes SO much sense) and I thought that I could use a ribbon to put under the Kindle and thereby use it as leverage to get the Kindle out.  Much chopping later, both with my box cutter and kitchen knife, I had two cutsey holes in the which I was able to string the ribbon, as you can see below.
 

 

This was when I decided that much wear and tear would not be good for my Kindle if I were to keep taking it in and out with such alarming regularity, so I found an old t-shirt I was giving away and cut the back out, in order to use as lining.  No worries, it was a shirt I was never going to use anyhow.  I got it during my hooligan stage, and it said, "Smile.  It confuses people."  Obviously I have since repented of my ways and would no longer wear a shirt suggestion that smiling should only be done to confuse people.  My shirt of choice these days says "Rejoice.  Joy is a choice."  Ah, youth.  How I did you wrong.

Look!  I'm a shirt all cut up!  I feel so rejected.

 As you can see, I carefully made sure the shirt fit into the hole.  It did.

From there it was fairly simple.  I glued my shirt into the space, glued some more pages on top of what I'd been working on so as to make it look neat and fresh, let it dry, and then put the ribbon through my carefully cut holes.  As you can see, my work space just kept getting messier and messier.

When all was said and done I realized that not only does it look sweetly awesome, but, thanks to the hole in the bottom, I can plug in headphones (pictured here) or plug in the charger (not pictured here, but it's HILARIOUS to see a book "plugged in," let me say).  So actually, that worked out remarkably well.

Ooh, another cool thing was that the book came with a bookmark, which I preserved from being glued, and so now the first few pages (which I kept in the book un-glued, just for good measure) have a book mark.  It honestly looks just like a regular book, only, well, you know, there are headphones coming out of it in this picture!

 

And here I am, turning the page in my book-within-a-book.

Anyhow, I hope this didn't bore you guys, but I was so excited that it worked out, I just had to share.  It's always exciting to do projects that actually turn out.  Maybe you folks do better than I, but honestly, I usually have these dreams (I'm making a purse!  I'm fixing my quilt!) and then they sort of just... flop.  So it was very exciting to have this work.

So.  That's all.

Adventures in Making a Secret E-Reader Case Part 1

Some days ago, I got it into my head that I needed to make a really cool cover for my new Kindle.  I have a friend who makes purses out of old books, and I'm pretty much her dealer (I tend to find many free books), so I figured that I'd just find an old book I was going to give away anyhow, and use that for my Kindle cover. I looked up online for one of those tutorials, but it seemed pretty simple, so I just grabbed a book and started!

I picked this book because a) the cover was cool, b) it was free, and c) upon opening it I saw some naughty language, so I figured that if I was killing a book it might as well be this one.

I then got some glue (Elmer's!  I love the stuff!  How awesome is it that Elmer's Glue is so multi-purpose!) and mixed a little in a bowl with some water, just to thin it a bit, and then prepared the book.  That just meant tying plastic bags on the front and back covers so as to not glue the whole book together.

The stuff I had looked up online suggested using a glue brush, but that seemed like extra work, so I just used my finger to smear glue on, which worked perfectly.  Also, my fingers are easy to wash off.  Also, it didn't take much glue.  I was surprised at how little it took.

Next I brought it to the basement and clamped it for several hours.  Basically until I remembered about it and had time.  That made it dry without warping the pages, which was handy.

We had some issues with water coming in the basement, so all of our fans in storage for the winter ended up next to our work bench.  Since I didn't need to actually be there, except for the obvious tightening of the clamp thing, it didn't bother me.  But that's why there are two fans visible in this photo!

Once it was dry I measured the kindle on the book, only to discover that they were pretty much the same size.  Oops.  I figured, whatever, I'll just have skinny walls and no extra space.  As you can see, I was working on newspaper, because I was afraid that I'd cut our granite counter tops or something.  Spill glue.  Something to mess them up.  So I had newspaper-covered work area for myself.

Then I used a straight blade tool thing to cut out the innards.  It took... a lot of time.  I listened to much Adventures in Odyssey, and it passed rather enjoyably, but because I had to make sure that there would be enough space for my Kindle, it took a long time. Much chaotic cutting, then some measurements.  Well, not so much measurements as just taking my Kindle and sort of dropping it in the hole every once in a while.  It worked.

And then it was Saturday night and I had to go and I sort of left the project over the weekend.  But... tune in next time for the exciting second part.  Did I finish it?  Did I stop to think that the power button is on the bottom of the Kindle, thereby not exactly easy to turn on when the Kindle is tucked away in the book?  Did I stop to realize that if the Kindle was tightly in there it might be impossible to take out?

Seriously, tune in next time.  You don't want to miss the drama, my friends.  

Oh little town of Awesome

In our house we have a "winter snow village," kept on the buffet between the microwave and filing cabinets.  The little houses have lights in them, and on dark evenings it actually looks quite cozy.  It's a replica of the one of maternal grandparents had for years, and we have many fun times setting it up and admiring it from Thanksgiving through January and fondly remembering seeing the same snow village at their house in days gone by.  There are different designs, and when we were kids (also... now) we had it all worked out as to who had which house.  There's one that is for my parents, and each of us kids (and their respective families, whether or not they know it, haha) "have a house" so that we refer to it as theirs.  For instance, when a bulb goes out, it doesn't just go out in "the yellow house," but rather we say "Oh, the bulb burned out in Dad and Mom's house!" and we all know what we're talking about.  The village had been unchanged for years, until...

My mom was at CVS last year doing regular-type shopping, and happened to see some buildings that looked enough like the regular village to put with them.  They weren't just regular houses, though, one was a hotel thing (for our overflow company), and one was... my house.  As you can see from the picture, my mom got a library and now we just call it my house.  Fare thee well, houses with turrets and bridges.  My Christmas Village house is a Library.  Sweet!

Spice it up

What you are looking at is a picture of the back of my closet door, in addition to an over-stuffed closet.  I have pretty much everything I own shoved in my closet right now, due to some space wars in my sister's two closets.  It's all good, but now I have to go through and get rid of everything because I sort of have more clothes than I thought.  Just love me some closet cleaning!  Um, or mostly not.  : )

Anyhow, my library has a basket set out of free book covers.  They apparently worry that kids are going to chew on the paper covers, so they take them off and have only hardcover books.  Smart of them, and handy for me.  See, I really tend to like clutter.  Yes, 'tis true, I like to see stuff.  My walls are evidence of that.  I have a sister who lives like someone in a concentration camp, and her house is almost frightening, due to a lack of, you know, stuff.  But anyhow, all that to say, I take the book covers and tape them haphazardly on the back on my closet door, so that when I open my closet in the morning it's a bit more cheery.

I was realizing though that I really haven't read many of the books represented on my closet door.  Which I should remedy.  Or take down the book covers, I suppose.  Oh, the hard decisions in life!

Stop. No, seriously, stop.

Whilst I drive about my town-away-from-town (which is to say, where I go to babysit a lot and hence spend much time), I see this sign often and think: what prompted it?  Who first decided that they absolutely needed to specify that you must STOP HERE, by order of the POLICE?  Usually a simple Stop Bar or, you know, red light does the trick.  It makes me a little afraid of the intersection, actually.

So I thought I'd share the picture, so you guys can wonder as have I.

Start at Square 0

While in England, we went to the Prime Meridian.  Cool place, for people who like standing on Line Zero of the Lines of Longitude.  Personally, I like to stand on line zero.  Anyhow, we sort of raced through the park, and didn't pay to go to the museum (which was super sad, because I once read a fascinating book about John Harrison, who was a brilliant man who is apparently heavily featured in Greenwich attractions), but went to where the line was and stood about, taking photos.

Exhibit B.  Our feet.  Mine are the second ones back.  Running shoes are the only shoes for tourists (sorry, friend in front who took the time to pack cute purple boots.  I eschew cute shoes on vacation).  The end.  That or Nike flip-flops, which of course I could not wear.  But that's another story.  Anyhoo, sometimes I just like to think "remember that time I was in two hemispheres at once?  Good times.

Just realized: the shoes I wore?  Nike.  The flip-flops I love?  Nike.  I sometimes scare myself with all the unintentional brand loyalty I show.  Weird.

So, I made a cake...

We had a wedding shower recently, and I was voted Most Likely To Have Time to Make a Cake, as you can see evidenced in this photo.  I'd never had to do cake decoration before, and, well, as you can tell, my idea of decorating a cake is melting chocolate chips and using a sandwich bag as a icing squirter.  Anyhow, it tasted okay, I s'pose.  Can't go wrong with those boxed cakes!

Barber shop

I am not a professional hair cutter.  In fact, I don't think that it's even proper grammar to call one's self a hair cutter.  Barber?  Stylist?  Cosmetologist?  I have no idea.  However, I do cut my dad's hair, and my brother's.  My dad needed a haircut about two weeks ago, which I happily administered, and my brother decided on Monday that he needed one, too.  Legit.  He totally did.

So I cut his hair, and then gave my mom a trim, and then I cut my own bangs (sadly, nobody in my house is a hair cutter).  Three heads of hair in an evening.  Nice.  The following day my sister showed up from out of town and I cut her hair, too, and then my aunt came over and I cut her hair as well.

An awful picture of me attempting a haircut



It made me laugh to realize I'd cut so much hair in such a short amount of time.  Five heads?  For a girl who really doesn't have much experience with the cutting of hair?  Anyhow, everyone seemed marginally happy when all was said and done, so I was thinking maybe I'd open up a hair salon or something!  Just kidding.



Anyhow, as I was looking in my trashcan full of hair, I wouldn't help but consider Absalom.  I mean, seriously, what was he doing with all that hair?  HOW DID IT GROW SO FAST?  I could donate to Locks of Love all the time with hair like that!  Sigh.



Kindling a little fire

I am super blessed.  Which we already knew.  But a kindly gift for my birthday caused me to be the happy recipient of a Kindle Fire, which, may I dare say, is swell.  Turning pages in it is so fun... Is that a nerdy thing to say?  Yes, yes it is.  But anyhow, it does all sorts of fun things, and has many apps, and no, no, I have not downloaded Angry Birds onto it.  I find that game irksome.  I do have Bejeweled.  I could waste hours on that game.  Sometimes I do.

But that is all besides the point.  My real point is that it is lovely and wonderful and pretty. 

Dear Amazon,
Thou art brill.
The End.

Eshcol's Grapes

The other night at dinner we were reading Numbers 13, and it took us quite a while to read through the whole chapter.  We kept getting very distracted (nothing unusual) and eventually my dad pretty much fell asleep at the table.  That was when we decided we'd pretty much exhausted every possible avenue of discussion about the chapter.

First I had to remark that I thought it was weird that Moses just sort of renamed Joshua in verse 16.  Then my mother was a tad appalled because it was adding the word Jehovah to the name, which is a good thing, and not weird.  My poor parents.

Then in verse 22 there's a random addition regarding Hebron.  It goes, "(Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)"  So then we had to discuss for some time why exactly this was important.  I mean, Egypt is a picture of the world in the Bible, and seven is a much-loved number of perfection, but when you put those pieces together, does it mean something deep and important?  We didn't decide.

We took a break partway through dinner to use the dictionary to look up something about gifts, though I recall not what.



Then we got to verse 23, which is a verse about Eshcol's grapes, and we had to all share our story of when we first had the eureka moment as to what this hymn by Mary Bowley actually meant.  Pretty much when I was young I didn't get it, because, the line goes, "The manna and the springing well suffice for every need; and Eshcol's grapes the story tell of where Thy path doth lead," and as a kid that was not enough.  Because Eshcol's grapes were telling a story about where the path did lead, but let's be honest, unless you know the story of the grapes, that doesn't make the most sense ever.



My friend and I aren't eating Eshcol's Grapes,
but rather grapes in Romania one time.  Mmm.



Anyhow.  I just wrote a bunch of stuff about God's way being the best way etc. but then when I tried to add that nifty picture of my friend and I eating Romanian grapes it deleted my last paragraph.  So now I'm done.  But anyhow, pictures make a blog much more spruced, so I figure I should try to put pictures up from time to time.  At least enough so my blog isn't so blase...