More BitterSweet Cards

New Signature

To be added to the new and wonderful AnneElser.com when it's finished. My brilliant partner in crime - the brains behind the machine is Kevin Scarbrough of ThinBlackGlasses.com

Bitter Sweet

Bitter Sweet is a new product I'm developing. Custom made stationary sets of 20 cards packaged in a telescoping box. These happen to be a set of offensive statements for that special someone.

Binders Holiday Gift Making Workshops

Learn how to make cool handmade gifts this Holiday Season in two weekend holiday gift making workshops this Fall at Binders!

Taught by Anne Elser, these workshops are fast, fun and very rewarding. Come join us!

COLLAPSABLE CONTAINER:

October Saturday 17th: 10am-5pm

October Sunday 18th: 11am-5pm

$140.00

This container, designed by Lisa Ellerin, has six sides and a hinged base that enables it to fold flat. It's sturdy and lightweight and is made of 2-ply chipboard ( or davey board) and covered in decorative Washi Paper. All the supplies you need to make this structure can be purchased at Binders right before the workshop. We'll meet in the morning and break for lunch each day. Our workshops are fun and fast! Make a big one to hold pens/pencils, brushes or paper scraps. Make a tiny one for q-tips or hairpins! Make a set of 3 or more and nest them together on your work surface to make a "hive" of sorting containers. We'll have 2 full days to create your project and time permitting, we'll create a circular paper ornament and a miniature origami holiday tree.

I look forward to meeting you!

~Anne Elser

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BUTTON CLOSURE KEEPSAKE BOX:

November Saturday 7th: 10am-5pm

November Sunday 8th: 11am-5pm

$140.00

This little box is perfect for a man or woman looking to hold their favorite trinkets, stationary items, craft supplies, card decks and scoring pads, buttons, jewelry or cufflinks. The button closure is optional, as are the inner dividers. Build little feet for the bottom of your box as high as you like and tie it closed with any kind of elastic, leather, clasp or button. This box is very versatile. All the supplies you need to make this structure can be purchased at Binders right before the workshop. We'll meet in the morning and break for lunch each day. Our workshops are fun and fast! We'll have 2 full days to create your project and time permitting, we'll create a circular paper ornament and a miniature origami holiday tree.

I look forward to meeting you,

~Anne Elser

Workshop Supply list:

Binders:
1. Lineco® medium-duty awl
2. Lineco® bone folder (sm or med)

3. Davy Board 1 sheet 30 x 41 or 2-ply chip board
4. Lineco® Neutral PH Adhesive (8 ounce bottle) or Sobo Glue
5. Washi paper: decocrative Japanese paper (used as cover paper and here's an example of one pattern I'm fond of: Cherry Blossom)

6. Mechanical pencil (makes the most precise marks)
7. Scissors, exacto knife and blades
8. Self-healing cutting mat (any size you like)
9. Flat Big Brush (stiff, cheap and springy!) (small or large: .5 to 1 inches wide) or a Lineco Glue Brush
10. Non-slip metal ruler (any size you’re comfortable with)

11. Waxed thread & binders needles.
Grocery Store:
12. Roll of wax paper
13. Ziploc container with lid: 2 cup (in which to put your glue mixture)
Bring from home:
14. Brick covered with paper (to weigh down your books as they dry flat)

Wee Dots

These little dots were left over from a project I'm working on.

Before I trashed them, I snapped some pictures. I think they're lovely just as they are.

Flapper

This wool will soon be turned into a new scarf called Flapper. It opens like horizontal blinds do and is from my new book of knitting patterns called Knitting New Scarves. Very excited about this one.

Get Dirty

Wonderful Poster and message!

The Purl Bee

Check out this darling knitting blog: The Purl Bee dot com.

Knitting New Scarves

This new book by Lynne Barr called Knitting New Scarves is AMAZING. What I love most is that the projects are so sculptural and use the most elemental stitches. They are a beautiful mixture of quirkiness and elegance and I'm really eager to begin one. I know this is an excellent book for me because I'm having trouble choosing my first project.

In my own work, when I "made a mistake" by over or under measuring for a book or box, there was always a way to work around the problem and solve it in a unique way. A way in which offered a new and distinctive innovation in my books, a different closing mechanism, a pocket to cover up bumps, a short sheet that became decorative on the spine, etc.

This knitter approaches her knitting classes the same way. Her students come with unique problems in their knitting and poof - she's got a solution for the problem which turns into a variation for another scarf pattern. I tell my students the same thing: "they weren't mistakes; they were opportunities."

And this new way of assessing mistakes, my friends, JUST happens to be part of the road to Enlightenment, too.

Impossible Taco Pie

Got this from my friend Donna and it's quick, easy and tasty. Anton loves it.

I can't wait to meet her.

Evan Rachael Wood as True Blood's Queen of Louisiana.

Where Is the 4th Bunny?

Another tape-bound book - really made for a purse. There are 3 bunnies on the front and a big number 4 on the back. I am currently looking for a fourth bunny to hide within the pages. This book is 2" x 5.5" and is great for little to-do lists. Will be for sale at my next event: the Peachtree Charter Middle School Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 3rd.

Let Him Go Again

Another beautiful coptic journal with alternating blank and lined pages for writing and sketching. This book is 4.25" x 11" and will be for sale the first weekend in October (on the 3rd) at the Peachtree Charter Middle School Fall Harvest Festival. I'll have a table there with other fun vendors.

I went to Peachtree High School back in the mid-80's when I was a mohawk-sporting and sullen teenager. I would love for Anton's high school experience to be more positive than mine was. So maybe this is the beginning? They've got a brand new building budding with creative energy, so I am hopeful.

The vintage paper came from a children's book at Atlanta Vintage Books and the imported washi paper at the bottom is from Washi Accents.

Harriet's Angel Scarf Completed

This beautiful scarf began early this summer as Debra announced a new presence in the room: a healing angel that I named Harriet. She and I knit together every morning at 5am after I'd brew a thick and foamy cup of coffee for myself and before the rest of the house woke up to take me. It was my time to heal. I'd knit in my cozy kitchen and every stitch was a gift. The yarn came from a generous gift certificate at Knitch that Tina (Anton's godmother and my close friend) gave to me after working on her daughter Sada's wedding calligraphy.

And it's AMAZING to wear. Feathery and lightweight but surprisingly warm.

Pattern details of Harriet's Angel scarf are:

• Cast on 100 - Knit in straight stitch with 6 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in colorway Glacier, double stranded

• Needles: Lantern Moon US7 Rosweood Destiny Circulars (I use circulars just cause I like them, this scarf is not knit in the round, so you can knit in straight needles if you like) and (holy shit these are AMAZING to knit with and make my hands feel so good - even the sound of them sounds like a kiss. Goodbye RSI, I've found healing needles because they rotate at the needle join)

• Crochet an edging of Artyarns Beaded Mohair & Sequins in colorway 1626 all the way around

The Enlightened Egg

This little book was made for Debra. The image of birds has shown up a lot in our sessions and the metaphor for their flight, beauty and grace has been really meaningful to me. I bought a cool sheet of wrapping paper with birds, nests and egg imagery and have been using it in a lot of work lately. This first book of the batch went to Debra.

The floating egg is enlightened, as she is and as I hope to be soon. Maybe it's a gradual process and I'm already hovering just above ground level? I hope so.

The little phrase at the bottom that says "each generation of children has to learn everything over again" came from a vintage hypnotism book cousin Meagan got me in Texas this summer. And the sheet of book cloth it rests on was made from a beautiful linen shirt I bought doug years ago that he stopped wearing. It's cut up in a million little pieces now and shows up in the work now and then. Fun!

Oh! And the sexy "feminine footwear" boots on the inside are from a vintage 1970's shoe catalogue. Debra's a shoe addict/expert, so I thought this book fit her well.

dada version

And here's the quote inspired by a BeDo assignment.

William Stafford

Amazing poem by William Stafford. Worth inking up a million times over. This is done in a new italic version I'm experimenting with. It's sharp and drippy. YUM.

"Your exact errors make a music that nobody hears.

Your straying feet find the great dance walking alone

and you live in a world where stumbling always leads home."

~William Stafford

More fun with green ink

And this wispy, thready green that reminds me of wet grass, squeeking under your feet.

You're With Me Now

Amazing Dream from Tommy I had this afternoon.

In my dream, I was back in New Mexico. I traveled around the city through the places I used to live. This time, I did not wince at the bad memories, I saw the growth instead and actually smiled as I drove.

I met Tommy at this really neat looking place. It was a house and a business and big but cozy. There were lots of people walking around with things to do. Good music and really fun products being developed. It was messy, but organized. Tommy took me to this great room that had a big table in the center. Tommy had an assignment and I was part of it. The documentation for the assignment was on this long table in a specific pile. He knew just where it was and I would have missed it had I been looking, because nothing was labeled. But there it was - like I said, it was messy, but organized.

Everyone was working, but it didn't feel like work. It was exciting. Good energy all around. The place looked very much like what you'd see when you walk into World Market. Every part of the world was represented there - a fun and eclectic mix of every culture. I looked up and even saw those cute little knitted sweaters you see as xmas ornaments - small enough for a mouse to wear. These were gifts and they were fun and silly but important. Something like the proceeds going to places that needed it most.

Tommy picked up the stack and said, "You and Peter are with me now and I'll be guiding you. Come on and I'll show you!"

"But what about Mom and Dad and home?" I asked.

"They're doing their part and sending tuition checks for both you and Peter. But you're moving out here and we're working together. You're with me now."

I was so excited to be free. To be on my way. To do good work. God's work. That's what was on that table in the great room full of fun stuff and ideas and movement. It was God's work. My work. Tommy's work.

And Tommy was my link to the now, not to the past. We were moving ahead to the future. Mom and Dad had let us go and were and had been supporting us the best way they knew how. They'd sent us to college, kept us safe while growing up - made the three of us, their children, and kept the family financially secure enough to launch us. They'd done their job and now it was my turn and man, was I excited.

I was just about to ask Tommy how he'd felt about this assignment and the small amount of fear I'd felt when I'd realized my parents were saying goodbye - or at least that they could not and would not come on this journey with me.

But at that moment, I woke up from my nap with Anton. Doug came home and was looking splendid. I told him so. "You look cute, honey. You look alive." And he smiled. And the three of us started our evening together this way.

I went downstairs to make a pot of coffee because tonight I'll be doing book and box work. I sat down to look at my calendar. Sure enough, today was the day Tommy took his life in '97. And this dream, he gave to me.

It reminded me that he didn't really die, he crossed over and is still available to me. The dream was a perfect metaphor for where I've been, where I am, the healing that's taken place and the possibilities ahead.

Today's also the day I finished my scarf I knitted with Harriett, my healing angel. My first journal is almost done, too - where I've chronicled the work I've done with Debra so far. We're soon to open the next one, which Tommy helped me make.

What a day. A beautiful, beautiful day.

So all of this is working out as it should. The pain is part of the process. I just went through a very painful two week depression about moving into a new understanding of God. That meant I really needed to let go of the old one and grieve that loss. I am on the other end of that first big step into the arms of the new God. Pain and being uncomfortable are part of it. It's a sign of movement - the chaos is okay and the structure of it is really hard to see when you're inside of it.

This grieving God had launched me into phase two and Tommy's dream and his book is the beginning.

I've got more work to do. God's work, My work. And I will carry on in joyful responsibility for myself, forgiving the past, loving the gift is was to me, letting it stay where it is, so I can move forward.

I forgive the past. I forgive myself.

I can move forward.

New Copperplate Calligraphy Class at Sam Flax

Hi friends,

Here's info on a new Copperplate Calligraphy class I'll be teaching for the first time at the Sam Flax location. The Italic class was a huge hit - their first time offering any calligraphy classes. Looking forward to round two and many more!

~Anne