Brown Bag Book Swap
Each November our book club has a blind book swap and this is what I have created to put in my bag. We had some trees trimmed earlier in the fall so I chose a smaller branch, about 3 inches across, from our wood pile and made sure it did not have a natural split to ensure that I could cut it in half. I used the band saw for the cutting, chisels to carve the encasement for the book, a smidge of leftover well worn quilt for the book cover, and bit of leather and a stick for the closure. In the book, which is about an inch tall, I drew outlines of leaves that are indigenous to our southern mountains. On the next one I will try to attach the hinge so that the front of the casing will come to a better close. I need to place the wood slabs face to face when screwing on the hinge instead of trying to fit the wood edge tightly together. Other than that, this one worked up pretty much as I had hoped.
Today was shopping for Thanksgiving day. We have started the turkey thawing in the fridge and the ham is ready to cover in cloves, honey and cinnamon. The chex mix ingredients are gathered for the weekend cooking, as well as makings for cookies and pumpkin pie. I cook the sweet potato casserole, which is basically pie filling without the crust, but I classify it as a vegetable. Others bring what is important to their family traditions, so we have a nice array to choose from. We have a possible head count of 18 this year but that is still very fluid at this point. I greatly enjoy having a house full of friends and family laughing and sharing stories. It makes for a table, or 2, of love.
Even on a Friday it is way past my bed time, so sweet dreams to all!
Hilari
