Holiday Inspiration: Hobby Month
Project Name: Handbound book
Project Link: Another handbound book--this one is for me!
Project Description: I have soooo many hobbies and so little time. My lates hobby is bookbinding. I have bound several journals now, both for personal use as well as to give away. This is the first one of 2025. It’s the first time I’ve covered the book with something other than fabric, and I didn’t do a great job, but I still like it anyway 
Project Photos:
I love this, I’m on it…
Letter writing week begins tomorrow!
Who will you write to?
I’m planning to send a letter in response to a Christmas card/letter we just received, plus little cards to send along with ATC swaps.
I’ll also be responding to some letters that I have been neglecting, from last year.
Holiday Inspiration: Houseplant Appreciation Day
Project Name: Jerry the Prickly Pear doesn’t want to freeze.
Project Link: This one’s only here…
Project Description: When we sold our house and moved into the converted school bus, I gave away most of my house plants. I kept a few but the only survivor of bus life is Jerry, a prickly pear that grew from one I took from a trailhead near our old house. He’s not really a houseplant, he will eventually be planted in the garden at our new property. So, he normally lives in the front window while the bus is stationary except that is closed off and not heated at night (heated by the sun during the day) but the temps have gotten REALLY cold lately so Jerry got to move into our main living space at night just in time for House Plant Appreciation Day. (Scarf for symbolism.)
Project Photos:
Oh my goodness, the little scarf!!! It’s so cute 
I would love to design my own house someday and live in a scholie while it’s being built
There are days I have to work really hard to remember why this was a good idea, but on the good days it feels like a dream come true.
No pressure, but I’d love to see pictures of your schoolie if you’re comfortable sharing 
Of course! I love sharing schoolie pics!
First, a drawing of it with our dog driving:
At a campground in the desert of southern California with the dog:
The day we parked it on property we own:
The inside is mostly empty with a few shelves and things built in and a couple divider walls. It started out with a tiny sleeping cabin and the rest was mobile bicycle repair shop. Then we moved the bike shop out and into a shed we built on our property, so now it has a bedroom and a living room/kitchen.
What a cute drawing! I love it And cute dog, too 
Thanks for sharing your photos and some more info.
A mobile bicycle repair shop sounds awesome. We lost our best bike mechanic to retirement this year and I still haven’t found someone else I trust as much. It’s also kind of a pain to transport some of our bicycles for repair.
We own a Bike Friday tandem, but there’s an issue with it that needs a part, and transporting that thing was a pain in the behind, only for it not to be fixed anyway, because no one carries that part in Canada. We reached out to Bike Friday but they never got back to us. Oh well.
Is that a solar panel on top of the schoolie? How do you find it?
Tandems are tough to get repaired for so many reasons! Oh geez.
The top has a large wooden deck. We have several flexible solar panels, some are attached to the metal roof in front of the deck and some are screwed onto the deck. The guy we bought the bus from built the deck I think for strapping gear to it or something. The bus was partially converted by a guy who was using it as a mobile snowmobile shop I think. I found it on Craigslist. He ran into some money problems and had to sell before he was finished building out the inside.
Holiday Inspiration: Letter Writing Week
Project Name: Postcards and envelopes from photo calendar
Project Link: Envelopes and oversized postcards from calendar pages
Project Description: I didn’t have the heart to throw out the 2024 photo calendar our friend made for us, so I upcycled the pages.
Project Photos:
I love this!
Holiday Inspiration: Soup Month
Project Name: Red Lentil Soup
Project Link: Latest soup batch post here and Red Lentil Soup Recipe here
Project Description: This is about the only meal I make that the whole family eats without alteration… fingers crossed it stays that way…
Project Photos:
What a cute little scarf, Jerry! (i know he can’t hear me haha)
I’m in!
Holiday Inspiration: hobby month
Project Name: Maroon Rose Charity Quilt
Project Link: N/A
Project Description: i only have a million hobbies, but quilting seems to be the biggest one. Except for reading, it’s about the only one I’ve worked on so far this year. I went to a quilting bee today and just finished this quilt top.
Project Photos (one partially done but right side up, one finished but I held it upside down lol)
Welcome! What a gorgeous quilt! Those colours work really well together, and I really like the placement of the blocks.
Tandems really can be tough to repair, especially for us inexperienced folk, lol. Having “imported” it adds a layer of complexity. But it allowed us to do amazing things, like travel 557 km with our kiddos (from Kingston, ON, to London, ON) back in 2016. Here’s a pic of us leaving for that trip
That’s amazing! I love the set up. How’d the kids like that?
I have a few tandem customers and they all have amazing stories. One is a guy with a full-grown developmentally delayed daughter who loves riding the tandem with him. Her handlebars are wrapped in pink. Another is a blind man and a couple friends. I just love how a tandem makes cycling possible in situations that seem unlikely.
Prize updateI’ve been working on the prize for this season, and I have about 50% of it complete. Once I finish it, I’ll post it. Remember, all you have to do to be eligible to win the handcrafted prize (by yours truly) is post 3 projects and comment on 3 projects by others. So don’t forget to post
The kids enjoyed the trip. I wouldn’t do the in-line trailer (the 2 seats one in front of the other for the little kids) again. It made our bike very long and it was somewhat unstable when we stopped. We fell over a couple of times, but no one was hurt.
