Another Batch

Many years ago my daughter-in-law made me a batch of aftershave for part of a Christmas present. I found that I really liked it. It doesn't have the strong heavily-perfumed presence of commercially made aftershaves. Many months later I needed a refill and she said it was easy to make and gave me the recipe. It was a recipe of rough proportions and left room for interpretation, but it worked!  Now it's what I use most of the time. 

I found that recipes vary a great deal in the liquids used, and the ratio of essence oils to the main liquids ranges all over the place. I kept with the pine needles and eucalyptus essence oils. So many to choose from. Maybe the next batch will have a change.

The use of rum intrigues me. It's in the shaving soap I just bought, too. It must be part of the heritage of men's toiletries. I don't really go for rum drinks. Rum and coke tasted good when I was in college but not so much now. So I don't have any emotional ties to the rum smell, but I do like it in shaving products. I may research that more.

Urban Sketchers KC February Sketch Crawl

Well, I actually missed this month's crawl due to the bookbinding class I was in. I'm not complaining, but I did want to go to the Roasterie Factory coffee shop and roasting factory. I've wanted to see their facility for years. So, when my class was over Saturday, before I drove the 60 miles home, I went there by myself and did my own sketch crawl. I love the plane on the roof but didn't feel like going outside in the cold to sketch it. A hot coffee and PB cookie sounded much better while I sketched.

I love the coffeehouse environment. Mid-afternoon Saturday they had quite a crowd. Retail shop with gift-type items. Factory that gives tours. Cafe.  I just wish they had a place to set and see the plane. The Roasterie sells coffee nationwide now. I've watched them grow over the years. Several restaurants in Topeka now use them. They do good work.

New Frontier

While in KC for the bookbinding class I decide to check out a new donut shop; Donutology. I ran into them on-line because they now sell coffee from The Roasterie, where the sketch crawl was this month. I had my donut and coffee before class and didn't have time to sketch. After class I just had to go back and sketch. Since I was there, I decided to finish the sketch inside while having coffee and another donut. That extra donut is a secret, though.Mum's the word.

In addition to the traditional pastry offerings they let you choose the donut/frosting/topping/sprinkle combination and have a creation that stuffs a donut cone with ice cream (I think I have that all right). They have individual glass-bottle milk, in flavors that include cotton candy. Very creative.

I had the good fortune to meet and talk with the man who put one of their donuts in space! I was familiar with the story from reading their website. They have a looped video that shows the story. A customer close to the display told me the man who did it was right there beside us, and introduced me. We had a nice chat. They thought the weather balloon would go up and come down within 10 miles of the launch site and they'd be done within an hour. Wrong! The weather balloon with the donuts and camera and GPS transceiver went to 97000 feet. The flight lasted three hours 47 minutes, and landed 273 miles away in another State. The jet stream had fun with it. The GPS froze up and didn't thaw out until it landed. Quite a story. I'll be back.

Another bookbinding class

I love bookbinding! I'm in the learning process, and every class I take has something to be learned. No two teachers do things the same way, and they each have their own take on the subject. So, when I recently found out Kansas City was holding a two-session weekend class, I signed up in a hurry. It was this weekend and well worth it!

The host organization is the Print League of KC, which is a recently-born community printing organization.They recently got their start with the help of crowd funding and have a nice facility with a few presses (don't ask me what, because I haven't learned printing yet).  They also offer classes to pass along the skills. The instructor for this class was Thayer Bray, a local artist who is an accomplished book binder.

We learned three book structures over the course of two 3-hour sessions. There's just something soothing about working with your hands and a few tools and some paper. We learned how to use a vintage paper cutting machine. Cuts such a clean edge. Intimidating, but once you understand how it works, it's an enjoyable tool to use. I love the atmosphere in their shop, too. Creative energy everywhere, and the aroma of printing ink and machines. Industrial meets art. Today we had a snowstorm hit while we were in class. Nice to watch, slick to drive in.



Here's a picture of the class projects, being inspected by our household's local feline, Cosmo.