Show & Tell

Well I just thought I would give you an update on my progress in my MA study. So far I've gained a lot of respect for paper architects and had a lot of fun making interesting things.

Here is the front cover of my pop-up book structure...pretty in pink.

I decided to fill it with these coils for fun.

This little baby took me a very long time, and made my poor tiny brain very tired.

A box!

Turn the wheel and the little arm moves from here...

To here.

My New 100% Hybrid Lifestyle

Today I started my 100% hybrid lifestyle. What is that you ask? Well it's what happens when you purchase a pair of orange shoes that look like these:

They come in a box like this:

And they apparently keep my toes safe from the unexpected, keep my foot cradled in a metatomical footbed, the quindensity midsole allows free flex during "toe-off", they are made of all natural sustainable materials (and are recyclable) where you take shoes to be recycled I have no idea, and they are waterproof yet breathable.

I gotta say of all those awesome features my favorite is the use of the phrase "toe-off", not sure what it means but I fully intend on incorporating that word into my everyday life. Example 1: when leaving a party "ok guys, I'm gonna toe-off" Example 2: Used when angry "TOE-OFF!" Example 3: when describing your wicked dance moves "so I was gettin my toe-off, when...." see endless uses. Lets hope I enjoy my new kicks as much as the word toe-off.

The Anti-shoe....

Have you heard of these things? They're called MBT which stands for Masai Barefoot Technology. So they are these strange looking shoes which have a curved sole so you can rock back and forth on them or side to side. They are supposed to distribute the pressure of walking on your entire foot rather than the heel and ball of the foot. They also help your posture, tone your butt, thighs and calves as well as strengthen your lower back. All this for the low low price of $245! So I tried on a pair this weekend mainly because they have all these ads for them in the magazines I've been purchasing lately and they all say MBT "the anti-shoe" so that got me wondering what that meant not to mention that the magazine was mentioning them in several articles and I had no idea what they were which made reading the article a bit annoying.....put things in context for those of us not up to date on what I would consider to be mainstream orthopedic shoes. While I consider them to be one small step below the Crocs on the scale of ugly shoes, they were very comfortable and made walking little more fun, kind of like bobbing up and down and little bit. That said, if I'm gonna spend that kind of money on a pair of shoes they are gonna be prettier, higher and most likely look like these.

Two things I've been thinking about lately

I know that Annalise already wrote a post about the security efforts of Blogger, but everytime I see that little message box all I can see is the handicapped symbol. Does it mean that this is to help the handicapped? Are they implying that you would have to be handicapped to not be able to fill in the box?....and if that is the case how insulting to the handicapped and the non-handicapped. Does anyone know why it's there?

Second, I love Raisin Bran....and Raisin Bran Crunch....yummmmmmm! Anyway, here they have "Sultana Bran" and Raisin Bran, but they look and taste pretty much exactly the same. So my other question is what is a Sultana? I have surveyed many people and received a different answer from every person. I finally remembered to look it up on Wikipedia (a very reputable source) and found out that a sultana is, you will be happy to know that it is a white seedless grape from Turkey or Iran that is made into what I would call a raisin. So there you have it, just wanted to get those things out there so you would have a greater understanding of the ridiculous spiral of information swirling around inside my peas-sized brain.

Blast from the past

This weekend I visited Bodium Castle with Catherine and was taken back to the days of study abroad. In my mind this was the first day trip we took...whether that is correct or not I am not sure, but I do remember not being good friends with the usual crew yet so it must have been early on. It has changed a little since my last visit, there is now a tea room and a shop which I don't remember at all. There were also lots and lots of English people basking in the sun and having yummy looking picnics....I recall this place being completely dead when we arrived. Either way both visits were educational as well as entertaining. As far as castles go it's quite small and the inside is almost totally ruined, but you can climb a tall spiral staircase and see beautiful country views from the tops of the towers. Not too shabby for a Sunday afternoon.

Deadly

krizzle says:deadly

krizzle says:so i'm trying to integrate the word deadly into my vocabulary

Annalise says:indeed

krizzle says:(i know i'm a nerd)

Annalise says:haha, I thought it was an odd placement

krizzle says:when i was in dublin all of catherine's friends used the word deadly where i would say awesome

krizzle says:i was totally getting a buzz off it

Annalise says:okay you start the trend over there and I'll start it on this continent

Annalise says:that's awesome

Annalise says:er, I mean DEADLY

krizzle says:haha

krizzle says:nice

Annalise says:I bet it's funny

krizzle says:maybe you should try it out

Annalise says:I think I'm gonna

krizzle says:deadly

krizzle says:do it

krizzle says:this is a good blog topic

Annalise says:haha, yes it is, do it

Annalise says:I need to blog

krizzle says:me too

krizzle says:i am not deadly at blogging

krizzle says:haha

krizzle says:does not get old

More Pictures

Well I know I've been posting a lot of picture and refraining from writing as of late, but I was just looking through my pictures from my trip to see Jackie in Philly and realized that I never posted those, although maybe I did send an email with them in a gallery....not really sure honestly. Anyway, there are some fun ones so I thought I would post a few.

I decided to bring Jackie an awesome carmel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...i think she liked it.

Here's Jackie with her hero....the metal version of Rocky...nice.

I decided to go the other direction and live strong....sans wrist band.

Here we are with old liberty herself.

And finally with a classic city view before entering a museum...can't remember which, but it was good.

Isn't that one person me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Picture Time!

Well it's been a while since my last post, but I can't really think of anything to say....so rather than wrack my brain attempting to entertain you I decided to post some pictures from my trip to Amsterdam that Harm just sent me.

Here's Jenny, Catherine and I on Harm's couch

In front of The American Book Center.....in Holland


Here we are in front of a group of statues that depict a Rembrandt painting. It's hard to tell but I'm petting a dog, Catherine is becoming one with the group and Jenny is shaking a dude's hand.


And finally here is everyone having a coffee just before we left Holland.

Did someone say candy?

Jill sent me this picture of Alex and I just had to post it because I find it highly entertaining.

A Bit of Culture

This weekend Catherine and I partook in the Brighton Festival by attending a ballet called Bahok (no idea how to say that). From the start is was very interesting and all I could think was "Katy would love this". It was much more modern than any ballet I have seen and managed to incorporate all kinds of movement from tribal moves to traditional ballet. All in all it was a really good experience and I really enjoyed it. If you want to see a video of it go here.

The 5th of May

Well another cinco de mayo has come and gone and West Dean did this on up right. It was a party in the fashion of last year complete with awesome Mexican food (made by the Americans of course), lots of margaritas....and diet coke for me, dancing, and I'm told some streaking at one point. (luckily I missed that portion of the evening) I guess cinco de mayo is actually a celebration of a defeat over the French so we had a Frenchman pinata complete with beret and striped shirt. He received a good thrashing and was filled with lots of yummy candy. I will try to locate some pictures as my camera battery was dead at the time.

On Safari!

Well this weekend was a Bank Holiday weekend, as in long weekend for an unknown reason....works for me. Catherine came down to West Dean and we decided to go visit Longleat, a historic home near Stonehenge which serves as the primary residence to Lord and Lady Bath. The dude that lives in this place is a little bit crazy (strange artist type guy) and part of the estate has a Safari Park, which is featured weekly on a show called Animal Park. Well we had seen several episodes of this show and have been saying we were going to go for some time and this weekend we finally made it.

We got to see giraffes, camels, lions, tigers, buzzards, monkeys, wolves, deer, hippos, sea lions, and many other animals. This camel decided to go for a little walk in front of the car and even stuck out his back foot in a jaunty way. The other highlight has to be the monkey area where we had four monkeys climbing on the car and even witnessed one ripping parts off the car in front of us, needless to say they are cheeky little guys. It ended up being a really fun and adventurous day that was very enjoyable.

Bookie Open Evening No.2

Well we bookies had an open evening last week and I thought it would be nice for you all to see a group photo nearly everyone. Brannah decided to make this awesome banner in order to explain what we do exactly. The evening went really well and everyone seemed to have a nice time viewing everyones work and learning how to do a couple of the things we do. As you can see we went all out on the bread and even managed to serve drinks from giant beakers and graduated cylinders, not too shabby....although very nerdy.

Book a dentist appointment

Have you ever looked at someone and thought about what they would sound like before actually hearing them only to be completely shocked by what you actually hear? I was on the train from Chichester to Brighton on Friday and this nice looking girl in very conservative work wear got on the train. She looked like a nice enough girl maybe even a little sheepish. Well as soon as she got on the phone I was very rudely awakened. First of all she was one of those London girls who says "right" after every word, kind of like the American "like". She then went on to use probably the most foul language I had ever heard...in a PUBLIC train, where everyone could hear her. Then she started telling the person on the phone about how the phrase "I'm going to punch your teeth in" can be a very effective phrase and that the person on the phone on the phone should start using it. AND then she said this, "Tell her to book a dentist appointment now because come Monday she's gonna need one." I about lost it!.....and also made sure to not make any eye contact with this chick because she was clearly off her head. Just had to share that one.

One Sheet of Paper

Someone told me about this exhibition at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was the artist could only use one sheet of paper. You should check it out.

Something Surreal

Well the new term has started back up at West Dean and I have been given a very curious object. It is an exhibition catalogue from a Salvador Dali exhibition....and boy is it a strange one. As you can see it is a figure made of hair with a drawer coming out of her face. To make matters even more surreal they decided to make her breasts flip open and show off little images of the work in the exhibition. Needless to say it is an interesting project...to say the least.

Bookie-palooza 2008

Ok, so I know that is the most LAME title EVER, but that's all I could think of. So today Sonia and I head off for a little road trip to Loughborough (no idea where that is) to attend the annual Society of Bookbinders Conference. (I know I'm lame) Anyway, people are requesting posts and I figure I should deliver, no matter how boring and close to losing the will to live I push you guys to.

So the Society of Bookbinders operates under the acronym SoB....I realize I am about 11 years old, but how funny is that? I think when your acronym makes inappropriate three letter words or acronyms for other less than PG phrases, maybe it's time to set that idea aside and go by your full name. Just had to get that out there because apparently I have yet to move up to the 5th grade.

Needless to say I will be away for a couple days and nowhere near a computer, but I just wanted to get something out there for M and J who have been telling me I am missed lately....thank you very much, I miss you too.

Snow in Brighton

Well I am currently staying in Brighton with Catherine while writing my really really boring paper for the MA that is due on my first day back from Easter break. On Friday Catherine told me that there was an arctic chill heading to England and that it would snow this weekend. I did not believe her at all, just assumed she was pulling my leg. Well I woke up yesterday morning greeted with a blanket of snow on everything and continued snow fall until about 3pm. CRAZY! Snow! In Brighton! In April!

Anyway, I know I promised to "up the funny" and this is in now way shape or form even remotely entertaining, but it was so unbelievable that I couldn't resist posting about it.

Dear Jenny,

I so swear that I will start blogging more often. Consider your invitation to up the funny accepted.

Love,
Kristi

Things I want to know

1. Did anyone see Dan in Real Life?
2. Was it any good?
3. What movies have I missed since Christmas that are worth seeing?
4. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Well while it did in no way come close to being as great an extravaganza as last years St. Patrick's Day party, we did manage to have some fun. Jenny is in town so we have been filling all of our time with fun activities. On Saturday Catherine, Jenny, Sarah and myself decided to go out to dinner and bowling. Our first game we played a normal game and by the second round we needed to spice things up a bit. So, we opted to do crazy bowling/regular (to ensure we knocked down a few pins). So we did things like the "reverse Granny" where you look through your legs and lob the ball down the lane. We bowled with our opposite hands, did a run and slide bowl and even gave under the leg bowling a good college try. Needless to say it was a very entertaining game with VERY low scores. Catherine managed to win with a score in the low 50's.

Taggie taggersoned

1) Where I was 10 years ago:

A junior at Plano Senior High School. Most likely sitting in the back row of a choir rehearsal or taking part in some sort of shenanigans with Jackie and Megan.

2) 5 things on my “to do list” today (today is over, so I'm going for tomorrow):
1. Email Katy

2. Put leather corners of my rebound copy of Nicholas Nickleby

3. Make a survey to send out to pop-up book makers

4. Gather research for 1st MA paper

5. Sleep

3) Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
Buy a stately home in England, a vacation house in Belize, a yacht with full crew to haul my ass around the world in luxury (don't worry you're all invited), a couple thousand shares in the Nordstrom Corporation, a new wardrobe including shoes and accessories, all the kit for my own conservation studio, plus the space in a scenic South England location with full views of the South Downs. Ok, lets be frank, I could do this all day, but I'm gonna stop now.

4) 3 Of my Bad Habits:
1. Procrastinating

2. Listening to someone give me driving directions and pretending I understand when I have no idea what they are talking about

3. Texting far too much

5) 5 places I’ve lived:

1. Plano, Texas
2. Provo, UT
3. Pilot Point, TX
4. London, England
5. West Dean, England

6) 5 Jobs I’ve had:

1. Gravel sweeper for Steve Westberg
2. Baker for some random start-up company in Utah
3. Financial assistant for BYU
4. Graphic Designer for Sebo Marketing
5. Conservation intern at the Guildhall, London

7) Something Most People Don’t Know About Me:
Last week I conducted a single person parade to celebrate the completion of Sonia's big conservation project, complete with marching, singing, and flailing of arms.

I know this is boring, but.....

I thought you all might want to see some of the things I have made and repaired during my time at West Dean. I recently applied for an internship at the Library of Congress and had an interview that went really well. As a result they asked me to send images of my work and due to their large file size I was forced to set up a flickr account in order to be able to send them everything I wanted to show. So if you are REALLY bored and want to see some old and new books go here and take a look.

Lookie!

Well as I've told a couple of you Jackie and I learned how to knit over Christmas break from a random lady in a shop. Well a mere two months later I have made one hat that would only fit a small child or a pinhead AND this little baby.

My degree in pop-up books

Well, I'm sure you don't want to hear any more about my actual academic experience at West Dean, but the MA portion of my program started this week and I thought I would tell you what I'm getting an MA in. Pop-up books. That's right, I am getting a degree in the repair of pop-up books. Don't get me wrong there is a science to this stuff and I will be performing loads of tests on repair methods and what not, but I think it's hilarious that I'm focusing my degree on something so cool. So far I have visited a couple places with pop-up collections and I thought I would show you some of the cool stuff I have seen.

Lots of Books

Well my work placement has ended...sadly. To be honest I didn't even want to come back to West Dean, although now that I'm here it's not so bad. I spent six weeks working in the Guild Hall in London which means I was right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. Everyday I got up at 6am got ready and was at the train station in Brighton by 7am to take the train to London. It takes about 90 minutes to get there, but luckily that gave me lots of time to catch up on lots of reading. I managed to read the three Philip Pullman books The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, The Life of Pi, The Kite Runner, and Withering Heights. And all along I have been reading Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You). Needless to say a lot of reading was accomplished in my 3 hour a day commute.

I managed to get lots of work done while I was there, three books were conserved and about 40 pamphlets, so not too shabby. I think the best part about working there was the people, they were fantastic. Everyday Paul, Paul, Alberto and I would go across the street to Pret for a nice coffee and maybe a little snack and a nice chat. Everyone was really nice and friendly which always makes a job more enjoyable. Honestly I'm not really sure what to say about the placement that won't bore you all to tears, but I did have a great time and I am going to miss being there and being in London again. Ok, I'm done now, I will move on to more interesting things from here on out...promise.

Finally!

Well as you might have noticed I have been a little abscent from the blogging scene as of late. This is because I was doing a work placement at The Guild Hall in London. As my first trial by fire I was handed this lovely piece of work which had been severely eaten by mold. (Sorry if I'm boring you already) Anyway I had to repair the vellum and remove the cover from the old boards and make a new case for the manuscript. I t ended up looking like this:


Ok, I promise that's all I'll bore you with for now and I will fill everyone in on the actual placement and goings-on of my time there, but I just wanted to post a little bit to get the previous post off the top of my blog and appease Annalise who might die if it does not change soon. :)

Jammers and Windy Pops

If you recall this summer I told many of you stories about jam. It seemed to be a running theme at West Dean for a while that kept cropping up. I told Jill about "jammers" this summer and she immediately latched on to the idea and even came up with several new ways of using the word. Well since I've been home I have had the privilege of meeting Alex for the first time and got a real kick out of him being called "Tooters" by his mother. This is a very appropriate nickname......as in if you hold him you are destined to be tooted on more times than you ever have in your life. This made me think of my new favorite British phrase "windy pops", doesn't take much imagination to figure out what that means. I knew Jill would get a real kick out of that one and sure enough she has started to say things like it's "windy pops jammers".

Four Girls and a Baby

"sittin' in my office with a plate of grilled bacon"

I can NOT get that line of Michael Scott's traing video out of my head! Have I mentioned I've watched series three of The Office all the way through plus ALL the bonus features and commentaires at least 4 times since school started?! I clearly need to bring back more dvds.

Dear Readership,

It's been a while, but the good news is I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow!

Love,
Kristi

Maroon 5 Concert

Well last night I had a little night out in Brighton and finally got to cash in my Maroon 5 tickets! It was quite a different experience from the last time I saw them in the McKay Event Center in Provo, Utah where their show included a sizable banner and a couple lights. This round they had a huge light board behind them, a giant Maroon 5 logo that changed color, loads of lights, huge screens, smoke, some MAJOR amplification and much much more. I gotta say of all the guys in the band I have a new found love for the keyboard guy Jesse Carmichael who showed up wearing a pink button up and always seemed to be sitting at his keyboard playing one finger at a time but doing so VERY well. The concert went by far to quickly and after one oncore the house lights came up and immediatly people with hard hats swooped in to take down their kit. All in all a little too short for my taste, but a good concert none the less.

Mouldy Stuff

Well for the last week or so I have been trying to work up the strength to write a 3000 word essay about moisture and its effects on books. Needless to say I only have about 1200 words so far and am struggling to keep going. May the gods of bookbinding and mould give me the strength to keep going and finish this baby off.

Lookie lookie

Every year at West Dean the students in each department make a raffle prize in order to raise money for the Christmas party. This year each bookie made a photo album, and here is mine. Just thought you might want to see a little something I've done lately.

Somethine I love about England

When people here say the word "boogie" they pronounce it like this "boo--gie". As in they say boo and add gie to the end of the word, unlike us Americans who would make more of a U sound. Anyway, I woke up to the song "I found a place, where we can boogie. Boogie tonight" and the radio DJ kept saying "boo--gie" over and over again. Fantastic!

A Phone Call Between Catherine and I

Catherine: Well, Chicken, I'll talk to you later.
Me: Did you just call me a chicken?
Catherine: Ummm...yes.
Me: From now on you will be known as Turkey Leg

*Apparently in Ireland calling someone a "chicken" is a nice thing....interesting.

Fingerless gloves?

I made a purchase today, and that purchase was a pair of fingerless gloves. When I actually take the time to think this concept over I can't help but think that these things are the bastard children of a nice normal practical pair of ACTUAL gloves. I realize that it is the point of gloves to keep your hands warm, and that your fingers are the integral portion of your hands, so why would anyone need a pair of gloves sans fingers? The answer is I have no idea, and probably never will, however when I saw these a couple weeks ago a little virus entered my brain telling me I needed these babies, and today I gave in and bought a pair. After a day like the one I had yesterday fingerless gloves just seemed to be the only remedy...after chocolate and a nice viewing of The Blues Brothers.

Dear Kanye,

I'm sorry man.

Love,
Kristi

Birthday Report

Well, it's official, I'm 26. As of yesterday I lept over the hurdle that is 25 and began my progression towards the big 30. As Jackie put it I'm in my "late 20's" and am now quickly approaching the great dirt nap....and I am 10 months closer to that nap than Jackie. It was a good day filled with sweets, cards, phone calls and a fantastic Thai meal. I went out with Catherine, Sonia and Stephen and then drinks with a bunch of other people from West Dean. All in all it was an excellent day that could only had been made better if a few of you were there too.

My Pet Snail

Well since I moved back into my room this year there has been a little yellow snail slowly circulating around the panes of one of my windows. In true English tradition I have decided to share my space with him and embrace nature....if it were pretty much any other bug this would not be true, but oh well. Today when I opened my window he was stretched out further from his shell than normal and to my dismay he started heading for the other side of the window. After nearly 5 weeks of making his way around the window he decided to head out, I'm not gonna lie I was pretty sad. Luckily moments later he realized just how lucky he was to be my roommate and came crawling back to me.

Decorated Papers

Well last week was one of those full on jam packed weeks. All of the postgraduate students were on a decorated paper course which taught us all sorts of things, 0ne of which was that when I grow up I want to make decorated papers. We learned several techniques including suminagashi (bless you), traditional marbling, block printing, guilt papers, and paste paper. It ended up being a really good course that was very tiring as we worked from 9am to 10pm. Here are some of my favorite papers I produced.

My attempt at a traditional stone pattern

A fun paste paper

A form of marbling called Ebru where you make pictures with the marble

Suminagashi