Go Big!

Last week we celebrated the lovely Miss Holly's birthday with some southwestern fare in downtown Dallas and...

...iris folding!

Holly had requested an iris folded U.S. map several months ago with a special ask--she wanted it big! This took a little thinking on my part. I needed to find a frame the right size and then I needed to figure out how I was going to cut out a map that big.

How big, you ask? Well, if this is the size of the original iris fold map I did...

...THIS is the size of Holly's map.

I eventually ended up using my Silhouette Cameo to make the map out of two 12" x 12" pieces of cardstock and pieced them together.

Then came the fun part.

I used paper from two different atlases. 

This one...

...and this one.

And two different dictionaries, too. 

A mat and a frame later, and Holly got her big map.

Interested in a giant iris fold for your house? Give me a shout. I have lots of atlases waiting to be swirled.

May Showers Bring Brand New Flowers

You have already met my friend and personal Svengali for all things decorative, Barb. 

Guess what. She's gonna be a grandma! And today I went to a lovely shower and brunch for her daughter, Mandi. 

Festivities were at our friend, Sharon's. Sharon does not need a decorating Svengali. She has the same gene that Barb has. And a Pinterest account. Here was the gorgeous setting for the very tasty brunch.

And here is the bouquet I made for Mandi's nursery.

It came with zinnias...

(that's pink China from the Rand McNally Atlas)

...and mums (maybe part of the Sahara?)...

and some bright allium...

(courtesy of the Atlas and an RDCB)

All thrown together in an an English garden kind of way...

...if English gardens grew inside RDCBs.

Here is Mandi receiving her bouquet (and a chance to check out more of Sharon's decorations)...

...and here she is getting ready to take them home.

What a beautiful mama! Lucky kid!

Sneak Preview: Reading With Scissors Math

This atlas and its beautiful pages (that I told you about before)

plus this book (that I learned about on the All Things Paper blog)

equals these!

And I'm just getting started...

Who is Stealing the RDCBs of Houston?

The good news is my Etsy site has been going crazy recently! I've had more orders this month than ever before. Like books for...

...and...

I even got my first corporate gig. More about that at a later date.

But my supply of RDCBs is starting to dwindle, so this week I went into supply acquisition mode. I started at my local library where I picked up these two bags of solid covers. Green anyone? How about purple?

And while I was there I picked up this oversized atlas...

...which has these great maps that I think will be reincarnated into flowers before too long.

And I couldn't pass up this... 

...because......well just because. 

Then today was the neighborhood garage sale and I ran across... 

two boxes of RDCBs with patterned covers, like this golden beauty.

I did confirm, however, that I am the world's worst negotiator. When I saw an elementary dictionary, I asked, "Will you take a dollar for this?"
To which the lady answered, "Well, it's priced at 25 cents, but if you want to give us a dollar, then..."
And then to make me feel a little worse.
"We're all book lovers in this booth so we don't want to keep anyone from getting a good book because they can't afford it."
I think this was the point where I was supposed to confess that I was going to take the scissors to her 25 cent book and reimagine it...

...but I didn't.

But I'm sure she would have understood if I had. I mean look at that beautiful print.

Won't that make some gorgeous flowers?

And in other news, I also scored this great mid-century fondue pot!

Then I made one last stop at the library a little farther from my house. This has been my go-to library for RDCBs since I discovered they had a secret bookcase full of them behind a locked door. They usually have a couple of shelves full of them out front, too.

But today nothing. Nada. Nil.

Someone is taking all the RDCBs in Houston. This is war.