"Reading" while crafting

My husband has always loved books on tape. That's how far back it goes.  He started listening to books when they were actually on cassette tapes!  Then Cd's and now he listens to audiobooks.

I have taken a lot longer to come around to this type of information and entertainment. I read traditional paper books until about 2 years ago when I bought a tablet.  I still like to read a book and I think it engages the mind in a different way than an audiobook.

However, an audiobook does engage my mind.  I can see now why he wears his headset everywhere listening to books on the go, while working, or walking.  I haven't gone that far but I have found one place I particularly love to have a good novel being read to me or listen to an author share their non-fiction book and that is my craft room.

When I'm cardmaking or cutting fabric or even practicing free motion quilting, I can listen at the same time and I love it.

We download books through our local library system; however, sometimes the wait is long and the selection more limited in audiobooks than ebooks so I went looking for another option.

I've been using Scribd for about a month now and I like it a lot. (see link below)  Books aren't unlimited as it does hold back some popular titles for another month; however, I found the book I most wanted to read.  Our next book club choice was Educated and the library wait was too long. I've listened to another non-fiction book, a popular novel and am now starting another book club selection that had a long library wait time.  Another advantage of Scribd is that you can download the book or you can just stream. I've streamed a few to decide whether I wanted to continue or not.  Mostly I download so I can listen from anywhere.

The main reason I like audiobooks now when I didn't like CD's before is that I can adjust the speed.  I often speed up the speaker to 1.2x and that little extra can make all the difference.  Some books have both male and female voices so it is more like listening to a play.

Now when I'm cutting quilt fabric or making cards, I'm usually 'reading' as well.  It's fun and informative.

If you like audiobooks or would like to give them a try, here is my Scribd link for 2 free months. Full disclosure, I get one additional free month for anyone who signs up. You can cancel at any time so you don't have to continue past the first 2 months if it isn't for you.  At $8.95 per month it is much cheaper than Audible.com and gives you far more books per month.

Scribd Free 2 Month Trial

Hope you are having a crafty fall!

Working with a collection

I've been cleaning out my craft room again.  This time it is to make way for more sewing things which means some papercrafting product must go.  This collection by Crate Paper is one of those that I loved the idea of it more than the practical application. I figured it had one more scrapbook page in there, so I found a photo of my cousins, my mom and me and did a page commemorating a day we spent together when one cousin traveled to NC for a visit.  The journaling captures snippets of our day together and provides memory triggers that I hope will still be working for me in years to come.  If I can't remember everything, I can always call my cousins. Good memory is a family trait.

The process video is here:


After completing this page, I did about 2 more cards and then put the rest in my donate bag.  It's cute stuff but I just couldn't make it work for most of my cards and scrapbooking.  It's hard for me to part with pretty paper but I have to realize I can only use so much.

Thanks for visiting today.