Finally!

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you all the
very best this holiday season and hope that you have been able to find time to enjoy the reasons that we celebrate at this time of the year!

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I have such a hard time keeping up with everything during this time of year! I always think there's more time than there is, and I always think I can make a bunch of those Christmas gifts!
I apologize for not keeping up with the blog postings. It is harder than it should be to stay on top of! I have to say though that it's easier to keep up if I know there are people looking. So send me your feedback, even if it's just to say, "Hey, you misspelled Caribbean!"
The new pics of all the books I did this year for the Boutique are up. It's quite a list to scroll through, but check them all out. I had more books this year than ever before, and I liked them all more than ever before, too! I had a really hard time letting some of them go!
Please let me know if you see something you'd like to see more of. There are a lot more pictures where these came from. Remember that paper comes and goes, so not everything is duplicatible (is that a word?) but there are always options when it comes to themes and color palettes.
I look forward to hearing from you all soon. My plan is to check frequently for any responses from you and to update the blog with at least a posting every month, if not new pictures. So keep checking back with me, I'm always working on something!

Unique Boutique

At long last, the Boutique has passed for another year. If you were there, I'd love to know what you thought about things. I am still reeling a bit and mostly just trying to catch up on a few things I've been neglecting around the house. Within the next day or so I'll have some new pics up of all the things I've been working on.

Thanks to everyone who supported me at the boutique. I truly wouldn't be able to do what I do without you!

Welcome! This is all new to me, but I am really excited about it! Special thanks to my good friend Marisa for hooking me up and showing me just how easy this really is! For a long time, I've intended to have a website for beka's basement and I haven't ever been able to figure that out. Instead, this is something I can do myself and if I can update regularly (that'll be the trick!), then I can really keep my books in the loop!

I hope everyone has seen my books in person. If not, you really need to call me and stop by sometime! I don't like to toot my own horn, but they are so much fun! Every time I get the opportunity to do something new, it's always a little bit of a challenge, but usually turns out better than the image in my head and I am grateful for the opportunity. I still show and tell people about the missionary book I did for a client whose brother was going to Japan. I was so excited about that book when it was finished! I'll be posting pictures here of the books I've done, but if you haven't seen the books in person and the pictures don't do it for you, call me. We'll get together because to get to touch and feel and experience the book is so much better. I simply cannot translate it into an image- which is one of the big reasons I wasn't ever comfortable with the website.

I have been doing Altered Books for a couple of years. I had recently taught myself how to put a paper-bag book together, and as I was looking for ideas for those, I ran across an idea book for "Altered Books". I brought it home and put it away and didn't think any more about it for a while. By the way, some of the ideas in this book are seriously some of the most hidoeus things you have ever seen! Really, altered books were meant to be canvases for artwork. Anyway, at Christmas time, I made my sisiter-in-law a paper-bag book and sent it off to Ohio. She thought it was great and decided to have me make an anniversary book for her husband. She intended it to be another paper-bag book, but I pulled out this idea book and put it to the test. It turned out great and I was really excited about the new "album" I had discovered!

That book inspired me that in order for me to do what I love, I needed to do it for other people. This way, I don't get bored and hopefully, make a buck or two to support my "habit"! Since then I have participated in the Unique Boutique Craft Show twice, and my books have shown great success. Basically what I love is creating an album that showcases a time or person and then having you love it as much as I loved creating it. I love ripping pages out of a book and then filling it up again, this time with ink and paper and the images of great memories.

I'm excited to get to share what I'm working on with you. I hope you'll tell me what you think and, I hope you'll tell your friends.