A shortfall of Mojo, and a sidestep

Well, after finishing the landmate from my previous post, I continued on with the opposing force landmates, but during painting it sort of...petered out.
I couldn't really find the drive to finish them. Which sort of extended to painting something else, building minis or terrain as well.
I've had a few stressful weeks and somewhere along the line, my hobby mojo seems to have gone on a little holiday. I could think about doing stuff, and plan for it, but the spark to actually do it just wasn't there
So I decided to leave things rest for the time being and do other stuff (mainly faffing about on the 'net/'puter games, watch a few movies, the more passive downtime things. The things I usually don't have enough patience for to do for extended periods).

Not content to sit around waiting for my enthusiasm for wargame hobby stuff to return, this week I decided to take up another project and do a book. A coptic stitch this time. I like the look of it, and it can be done fairly quickly as it doesn't need as much glueing and other labour intensive steps as the few codex style bindings I've done so far.
I made it a bit hard for myself by using thread that was a bit to thick for the holes I had punched (I didn't have anything on hand to make bigger holes). This meant I had to use a bit more force, causing the parts to shift and end up a bit sloppy. Let's just say it adds to the "rustic" quality of the book. :)
It was also the first time doing Coptic stitch and I hadn't completely wrapped my head around the techniques yet, causing some mistakes and sloppiness. Oh, well, live and learn. All in all, it is actually quite a fun binding to do, and I can see myself doing a few more as quick one-day projects.
Here's the result:

I had originally planned to weave along the entire centre section of the spine, but had misjudged how taut the threads were (see above about using too much force...) and halfway I ran out of play to continue weaving. Nevertheless I like the look of it, and it's still a very nice notebook for personal use, even if not of "gift" quallity.  Maybe after a few more practices with this style of book, I'll make another like this in the quality it deserves. The covers are corduroy over furniture board by the way, and feel rather nice in the hand. Despite its flaws it's definitely a book that invites to touch and use.

 See you next time! (Whenever that is...)

Bound...

My lovely wife's birthday has passed, so now I can, at last, unveil the special birthday project.
But a little background first: My wife took up making her own perfumes sometime last year. Until now, she has been noting down her recipes in a simple office notebook.  I decided she needed something more special to keep and treasure her favorite mixtures. So I made her a handbound book for her recipes.
Mind you, I've never done any bookbinding before, nor do I own any of the  (expensive) specialised tools. So I had to improvise and jury rig some things along the way...
Here is the result of my journey into "ghetto bookbinding":

I'm quite pleased with the results, but much, much more importantly, so is my wife!
Some more pictures of the "book in progress" after the break...