Paper, Misfits and a phone

 Yesterday was a good day for drying paper

So here's my yield. There's such a pleasure to lifting the pieces off the felts. It's a friendly material. 

I embedded some Japanese maple foliage from my tree, saved since last year in the freezer, and these paper pieces can be mounted on cardstock. The narrow one can be a bookmark, after I've leatherized it by painting white glue and letting it dry.

As you see, dye seeps out of the leaves on addition to the shapes they form.  Red maple is a good natural dye which I've used on fabric.  

One new idea I got from Magpie's link was to add cornstarch to the pulp, to strengthen the paper. Good idea, because newspaper is the cheapest formulation and very crumbly in use.  

This paper won't have the endless longevity of paper made from abaca or other plant fibers, because it's originally wood pulp, high acid content. But for my purposes, just a fun project. 

Misfits box arrived, and as usual I opened it outside, too heavy to lift.

You see the freezer blocks in the foil bag. I tossed them over to Gary's front path for him to collect and put in his outdoor freezer.

Then unloaded onto the counter where pasta for lunch was underway.

I used up the liquid from that recent tomato thing I made, drained from the can of whole tomatoes, plus butter, onions and tomato paste. Simple, good. 

And I have a new supply of yellow potatoes, apples and cilantro. I do love the scent of cilantro. There was a time when I really didn't, likewise privet and marigold. 

They smelled terrible to my younger nose. And now they're delicious. There's privet growing outside the library, and I no longer dash past it to escape the smell.

Have you experienced changes like that? 

Anyway shortly after I'd sorted and washed and put away the Misfits, Gary came dashing over, all excited. I can't TELL you how happy I am you tossed the freezer blocks over, practically dancing with excitement.

He explained he'd noticed them and gone out to put them away, opened his outdoor storage closet to put them in the freezer he keeps there. 

And finally found his phone, on the freezer. He'd been searching literally all morning, and had run out of places to look.

So he dashed off to catch up with his life now that he was reunited with his lifeline. Very happy guy.

Happy day everyone, try to remember where you put your phone. I wear mine in one of a collection of tiny crossbody purses, because I can't be trusted to remember anything.