I finally create a new jewelry studio tour video.
Now that I’m home more than I’m away, I’ve made some huge improvements to my jewelry studio, getting it better organized and cleaned up and adding a whole classroom area. And, in an effort to attract jewelry making students and other silversmiths to share this space with me, I’ve created a brand new Studio Tour video.
I catch the Traveler’s Notebook bug and make plans to dive in — with a homemade notebook and fillers.
I have a YouTube premium subscription and it is worth every freaking penny to get rid of the ads and actually enjoy what I’m watching. There is a ton of documentaries about all kinds of things and plenty of how-to videos that really teach. And all the late night comedians and SNL! Yes, I know theres also a lot of crap, but no one is forcing you to watch it. If you don’t like a channel, you can tell YouTube to stop recommending it and it does. The algorithm does a decent job of showing you content that might interest you. I use it nightly as a sleep aid on my iPad; I set it up next to my head and put on the most boring video that comes up. (Egyptology and art history really knock me out.) Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about something called the Midori Traveler’s Notebook. Originally made in Japan, it consists of a leather folder with elastic straps on the folded edge that you can stick accessories into. As you can imagine, there are lots of accessories, including all kinds of little notebooks — either blank or printed with lines, dots, grids, calendar days, etc. — folders, zippered pouches, credit/business card holders, etc., etc.
Here’s one of the marketing photos from the Traveler’s Company website.
I spend a few hours making decorative paper for bookbinding projects.
I don’t know if I mentioned it here, but I’ve taken up another hobby (as if I didn’t have enough): bookbinding. So far, I’m amusing myself by making little notebooks and the occasional hard covered book with a purpose. I made my friend Jason a Guest Book for his boat and am in the process of making another one for my boat. I’m taking baby steps now, working on easier projects and honing skills before I get more ambitious. It’s fun. I especially like the sewing — yes, all of my books are hand sewn.
Day 1 of my effort to keep off social media was a success. Here’s Day 2.
As I reported yesterday, I’ve decided to take a break from social media and put everything I would have posted on Mastodon in a blog post. I’ve come away with two conclusions:
I decided to take a break from social media and need someplace to put my posts. Here they are.
Yesterday, I realized that because of filtering on my preferred social media account (Mastodon), I was only seeing about 5% of the posts being shared by the people I follow. I’ve been using filters extensively to block out posts that mention most political and controversial topics, and those filters work pretty well. Every once in a while, I need to add a new name or phrase or hashtag, but, for the most part, I’m simply not seeing the “doomscrolling” crap that’s out there. And that’s fine with me.