When I started my layout for this week, we were without an air conditioner. It figures…the first stretch of days when the temperature consistently breaks 90 and the AC lays down. Thankfully, it didn’t last long…the repair people were here the next day and the fix wasn’t major as those kind of things go. Needless to say, I was grateful for the return of cool air pumping into every corner of my abode and made it my blessing for the week.
The experience left me thinking about how modern conveniences have spoiled us and what was once a luxury we now think of as a necessity. I didn’t grow up in an air-conditioned house and managed just fine. Sure, we’d come in all hot and sweaty from playing outdoors and stand in front of the water cooler in the living room window and it seemed heavenly at the time. Such a system wouldn’t work in the South…our unit pulls moisture out of the air to make us feel cooler rather than adding it to the atmosphere. Turned off at night, that water cooler was the norm for the time; now I suspect there isn’t a house built without central air except perhaps in climates where summers are really mild. We’ve grown accustomed to the ability to easily control the temperature of our environment and don’t appreciate that until the control is out of our hands.
As I went looking for something to photograph to represent my renewed appreciation for air conditioning, I thought of the new fan we bought for the patio, both as a visual and as a blessing. This week it’s a two-fer as that little fan has allowed us to continue enjoying the patio despite the warmer temperatures. It’s surprising how pleasant it is there with the breeze the fan generates moving across us. We read last Sunday’s paper on the patio, against a backdrop of the cool blue water of the pool and the sounds of birds singing. And we’ve eaten our evening meals out there almost every night this week…something we’d abandoned due to the temperatures before the fan provided us with cooler air circulating around us.
Summer is here, and while I can’t control the heat, I can be grateful for the conveniences that put cool air at my disposal. After being without the primary one for a day and night, I’ll not be taking them for granted any time soon.
Here’s this week’s layout:
Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: Cloud 9 Design, Making Memories, Paper Loft
Punch: EK Success
Pens: EK Success and Staedtler Pigment Linder
Ink: ColorBox, Clearsnap
Font: Futura, Linotype
There’s a strong repetition of circles in the design that helps unite all the elements. Adding a solid color behind the photo keeps it from getting lost in all the patterns, and to tie that solid circle to the rest of the layout, I added the dotted border. If you cut a second, slightly smaller circle out of scrap paper and center it over the cardstock circle, you can use it as a guide to keep your dotted border even. I measured out the spacing for my dots because I’m obsessive like that but you could just eyeball it if you wanted.
As I’ve found time (which hasn’t been often enough), I’ve been adding filler pages of the blog entries. Here’s one I did for a blessing a few weeks back:
The journaling is in a little booklet that looks like this when it’s open:
To make the booklet, create two text boxes the same size. Format>Align>View Gridlines will add a grid overlay to your document that you can use to position these boxes so they align at the top, leaving about 1/2” between them. Repeat this process to create two more text boxes the same size as the first ones and aligned at the top. You’ll want to position these directly below the first two, leaving about 2” between the first and second rows. Starting in the upper left box, type your journaling, moving to the box in top right then lower left and finally the lower right. I only had enough to fill three boxes so I left the first one vacant, making my text start on a right-hand page like a book would. Print your page on regular computer paper. You could do it on cardstock but it’s more work getting it lined up.
Use a centering ruler to find the center of the space between the two horizontal boxes then score and fold on this line. Cut the two rows apart in roughly the center of the space between them. You don’t have to be precise but you don’t want to be real close to the text in one row and have lots of space on the other one. We’ll even it all out at the end. Since my fold wasn’t in the exact middle of the page, I cut away the excess on one side too but that’s optional.
Think of our two folded pieces as Row 1, Text Box A and B, and Row 2, Text Box A and B. We’re going to glue the back of Row 1 Box B to the back of Row 2 Box A. The only trick is we want our text to start and stop at the same place on both folded pieces, but that should be easy as we made the boxes all the same size. I usually just hold the two pieces up to the light to line them up…chances are one piece will have a little extra paper at the top and the other will have extra at the bottom since we didn’t measure before cutting the two rows apart. Using the light, I mark where I need to trim and cut them so both pieces are the same size and the text is aligned.
Glue them together, making sure the folds are match on both pieces so the book will lay open properly. Now you can trim the other three sides down to the size you want for your finished book.
Add a cover and any other decorative elements you want on the front of your booklet. This one Is small enough it stays closed on its own, but you could add a tied ribbon, string wound around two buttons or the thin BasicGrey magnets to hold it closed if you wanted. The book can be as large as you want by simply adding more rows of text boxes glued in the same manner.
This week just proves gratitude is cool…in more ways than one.
***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.