Homemade Soup, Hand Carved Book Stamp, and WOYWW

So, I must admit it took longer than 15 minutes to make my Beef Mushroom Barley Soup yesterday, but I did get a lot of preparation done in the first 15 minutes and then momentum just took over. And, it was delish!! I decided on this kind because my daughter told me that it was her new favorite the last time I made it, and since I was spending the night last night, I took her a bowl to take to work for lunch today.

She rented the movie, It's Complicated, with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin - laugh out loud funny. I didn't sleep very well. It is much lighter at her house in town than at my house in the middle of nowhere, but the morning went surprisingly well - until the bitter end. Little Miss M was in good spirits eating breakfast, getting dressed, hair brushed, teeth brushed, and then decided she didn't want to go. This time there were no tears and I put her on the bus with her older sister and I am now home with a big mug of coffee.

Yesterday afternoon while the soup cooked and after sharing coffee with the hubster in the swings in the yard, I made another stamp. It is a book. I was prompted to try this because the Illustration Friday topic is Book. I really like how it turned out. This two page spread will be finished some day with several more layers over these stamped images.

I had a wonderful phone call yesterday afternoon from a woman in Maine who wanted to order a couple of my handmade books for doing Zentangles. She originally called about just one of them, but at $20 each, she decided maybe she would get two. I agreed to sell her two for $35. I'm afraid my stock is quickly dwindling and it may be time for me to make more. I miss making them and have lots of supplies. Now if I can just make room to work on them. I thought you might see my dilemma about space to work on books if I showed you my worktable this Wednesday. So for WOYWW, I submit the following.

I did go to yoga yesterday morning and was glad afterward that I did. I am not going to the conditioning class this morning as I have my hour of personal training this afternoon. I call it personal training even though there are usually 4 or 5 of us there. I get a really good workout and much of it is personalized to my fitness level.

What are you up to today? Does it include time to play in your art space? If so, do share....

xoxo