project #24: kiboko the hippo

For Mother's Day my friend Matt had a brainstorm: he would write a book about a little hippo and his mom (hippos are his favorite animal). He would have his friend Isaac illustrate it, have me bind it into a book, and then give it to his mother for Mother's Day. Great idea! Too bad he came up with it about three days before Mother's Day. Needless to say, it was not ready in time. However, here we are almost a month later and it's done! Matt did all of the writing and formatting himself, though Issac and I both helped a bit with the editing. It's a pretty cute story about one hippo's journey home and his discoveries about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Here are some teaser pages to peak your interest:

I printed out three for Matt (one for his mom, him, and Issac) but I'm thinking about making some more and putting them in the shop. Thoughts?

project #16: map cards

I recently purchased an amazing traffic report stamp set on Etsy from seller WhitesHaven. I am in love with them! ("The Forbes Accident Report shows all the details plainly.") And, continuing with the map theme from yesterday, I stamped them on some cards I made out of pages from a tiny atlas Matt found at the dump for me. Yes. Fact.

I am a big fan of using natural features of found paper in the final product. I once made a journal for my dad using paper from a spiral bound sketchbook and instead of ripping the pages out and cutting off the rough edges, I unwound the plastic spiral and used the holes left over as a decorative feature. Keeping in that vein, I unhooked these pages from their plastic binding so that the rectangular holes left behind could be a decorative border along one edge.

On each card I picked a fairly long road and stamped the cars along it, making it look like maybe they are driving on that road on a journey full of adventure! There is a lovely arrow that points the way of their travel to parts unknown. I stamped both the front and back of the cards so that you can decide which side you want to be the front.

I also lined each card with graph paper (the maps were just too dark and dense to allow for writing on them directly) so you can decide if you want your card to open up and down, or side to side. Graph paper is one of my favorite types of lined paper and it never ceases to amaze me.

I made ten of these lovely little cards, but I've got plenty of pages left to make more. Now all I need to do is figure out what to do about envelopes...

message in a bottle

It's been raining a lot here recently. Today Matt and I went on a walk in the rain to the Passaic River which is right by his house. We walked along a trail for a while, commented on how high the banks of the river had risen—it covered some of the path it was so high—and explored the nearby woods for a while. In our explorations we found 3 glass bottles that we decided were destined to be reused, so we took them back to Matt's house and, after picking up Garrett at the high school after some kind of audition or something, went back to Matt's house and wrote letters to people unknown to put in the bottles which we planned to then throw back into the river to be carried away to who knows where. Granted, probably not the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but definitely fun. Who hasn't wanted to write a real message in a bottle at least once in their lives?

My bottle was the green one, Garrett's was the clear one (we found it in the mud still partially full of vodka—sorry hobo man who maybe lives under the bridge, but it was for the greater good!), and Matt's was the brown one. Also the tallest. Here are the notes we wrote, in the same order as above:

To: You.
Subj: Message in a bottle

This bottle was found on the banks of the Passaic River in Summit, NJ. Who knows how far it has already traveled in its journey to get to me, or how much further it will go before you find it. Perhaps the swollen river will carry it far out to sea where it will be lost among the waves and sea weed and never be read by human eyes, but instead eaten by a hungry sea creature where it will stay in its digestive system until its untimely death. Whatever its fate, I hope that by the time it reaches you, gentle reader, its life will have been a full one.

***

This is a message to any courageous adventurers who braved the elements to procure this message in a bottle. I have a tale to spin as long as a spider's web. This tale is of a young shrub named Larry. Larry loved to rock out on his Gibson his mom got for him, but all was for naught when he learned that his mother was eaten by flesh-eating monsters called zombies. Devastated by his realization about his mother's death he set out on a mission of glory and fame, but most of all, revenge on the zombies that killed his lovely mother. Using all of his powers of rock he is out there somewhere slaying zombies until his last chord.
*If you are a zombie you have been warned.

***

To Whom so ever comes upon this message,

Congratulations!

By doing a good deed, picking up litter, you have gained access to a secret. Passed down from generation to generation, only transmitted by mystical brown bottle, it is none other than the secret of all life. By gaining access to this secret you will become one of the twenty chosen of the sect of the wise, charged with guarding the wisdom of humanity for the rest of your life.

By the very fact that you found this bottle I know that you were predestined to discover this, and therefore I know that the wisdom is already within you. Nothing more needs to be said. Trust yourself, and go in peace.

***

We rolled the papers up and wrapped them in plastic wrap (to protect them from getting wet), then tied them with minty dental floss, stuck some corks in the tops of the bottles, and headed out. The three of us marched down the street, now in the growing darkness, and hiked down to the banks of the river, Matt and I for the second time that day, Garrett for the first. We each said a few profound words that I've forgotten now, and tossed our bottles into the rapidly running river, with only our hopes of them finding another soul to guide them.

On our way back to the house Matt said, "I really hope that like a ten year old kid finds mine. I bet it would make his week." We all nodded.

the magical number 23

So, on Monday I turned 23! Certain ages bring with them certain magical new abilities, like getting your license at 17 (in NJ), becoming a legal adult at 18, being able to legally buy and drink alcohol at 21, etc. With 23 comes the lovely event of being kicked off of my parent's insurance. Hooray for the privatization of health care! At the moment I'm flying uninsured, but soon enough I'll hopefully have my very own health care plan. (The contracts are in the mail or being processed, or something...)

Anyway, to celebrate my policylessness, today I threw myself a Do-It-Yourself birthday party! What does that mean exactly? It means people come over and we all make dinner and decorations together, then eat and enjoy them and each others' company. Afterwards we played picture telephone and flirted with the idea of playing our own version of Loaded Questions, but then people had to leave and we just sat and talked. It was really fun. I love all my friends,  it is true. Even those that couldn't make it because they were far away and thus not invited. You know.

Additionally, Matt wrote me an ode! For years and years I have been planting this idea in people's minds but people have just laughed at my heart-meant suggestion. But, happily, I can now say that at least one person has taken up my challenge and actually done it! The fabulous ode goes like this:

Cassandra, Cassandra, Queen of the day.

Invited us all to this delightful soiree.

With decorations and food, and lazy friends such as I

It must have been trying to put this together on the fly.

So if I, perchance, fail to honor her well

I can only expect her ire to swell.

So I speak these stanzas to celebrate her birth,

To stave off her anger, and fill the party with mirth.

Pretty cool, huh? Happy birthday to me!

cinco de mayo

Matt sent me this link about inventions and I think it's awesome.

My favorite is the dashboard toaster oven because I never have time to eat breakfast before I leave the house. Also the bicycle vest. Because people think I'm a hippie. And maybe they're a little right.

music matt will hate

My friends all like to both listen to and perform different kinds of music. And so do I. Sadly they don't usually agree with each other about what constitutes "good music," but neither do I all of the time. But sometimes I do. So here's some music I've recently found with a little help from my friends. I hope you enjoy the variety...

(from Billy)

(from other William)

(from Sydney)

(from Dave)

(from Jen)

(from Megan)

a nerd love story

This story was told to me by my friend Matt (via g-chat). I loved it so much I thought I would share:

amy has the cutest nerd story ever
so she was all nerdy and lonely cause she was away at college and nobody loved her
cause she was a big ole chemistry nerd
and she started to get depressed
but then...
she found this equation, which talked about colliding bodies, and how likely they are to combine
and they're very unlikely
but the coefficient in the equation is not zero
so eventually they will combine
so she realized that eventually she will find someone
if she keept trying
and she was slightly consoled
then right after she met her bf
charlie
who was also a chemist!
and they are in love!

Doesn't it make you want to be a scientist at least a little bit? Novels are not quite as consoling—everyone always dies in the end.