Decluttering Books

One reason we decided I needed an electronic book reader is because my doctor discovered I’m allergic to molds found in paper and books. It’s such a ridiculous and weird allergy with which to suffer. However, it is what it is and we’re taking steps to ease my chronic discomfort.

Source: Decalgirl

See this cute Kindle 2 skin? Thanks to Evylynn's suggestion to get one for additional protection, I ordered this style called Forest from Decalgirl.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Book Friends

I cannot give up all paper, there’s toilet paper, our files, daily mail, and so on. However, my beloved library has to go. I’ve gathered ideas to consider for my impending big book cleanse:

• Donate to the local library for their fund raisers
• Donate to a school
• Give to friends
• Host a garage sale
• Sell online at such places as at Amazon.com
• Donate to nursing homes/hospital libraries
• Sell to a local used-book store
• Register the books at BookCrossing.com and leave them in public places for other people (an activity I’ve been doing for years as it’s fun)

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Book Friends

The craft, sewing, and knitting books are a whole different thing. More pondering is required on the disposal of this collection, maybe scan targeted projects for archiving on my external hard drive and then purging the actual book.

Alas, goodbye dear book friends.

Making Camera Straps

My camera gets a lot of usage, not only for blogging purposes but also for camera club challenges and just plain fun. Over the weekend I decided it’s time for a new camera strap.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. 2007 Camera Strap

I’ve been using a strap bought on Etsy in 2007. Two new Nikons later, I’ve still been using this strap. It was starting to look tired and quite well-worn.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Old OpTech Camera Strap

This old OpTech strap has been stored in our closet for a few years. My husband has one, too. We like them because they have great stretchy, cushiony qualities easing neck strain. I sacrificed this comfort when deciding to use the pretty strap with the Amy Butler fabric in the first photo. My neck now requires I make a better choice, so I retrieved my old OpTech for a bit of revitalization.


© Dub Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. June's Revitalized OpTech Camera Strap

While there are numerous tutorials for making camera straps (see Resources), I simply measured the length and width of the OpTech strap, allowed for a ¼-inch seam, the stretch factor, and turning under the ends. I used leftover fabric to cut the resulting measurements. Next came sewing a seam, turning the resultant tube right-side out, and pressing it so the seam runs down the middle of one side. Just like magic, there I was with a new strap cover which slid over the OpTech strap. The ends are tucked into the clip thingies on each side. It can be removed for washing, if necessary. If I get tired of the fabric, a new strap can easily be made.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Dub's Revitalized OpTech Camera Strap

After seeing my new strap, my husband asked for one. I led him to the Sacred Stash Mountain and let him pick out fabric. He chose a blue batik leaf print and I made his new strap. It was kind of fun, the two of us taking pictures of each other’s camera.

Resources

The following blogs offer tutorials for making camera straps:

• Camera Strap Cover: Design Sponge
• Camera Strap Redo: Craft Leftovers
• Camera Strap Slipcover: Made by Petchy
• How to Make a Camera Strap: ikat bag
• How to Make a Crafty Camera Strap: Curbly

How to Find Free e-Books

I promised a few folks I would share free book resources discovered recently for the Kindle. While it’s easy to find e-books for sale, I’m seeking free books as much as possible to mitigate the expense of the Kindle 2.

After searching Amazon.com, the public library (Pima County, AZ) was the next source checked. I spoke with the librarian about the availability of e-books the library system. He said they do offer free book downloads but not in Kindle format—right now, but the format is coming. Click here for an article about libraries loaning out Kindles—maybe there’s a library near you offering a chance to check out a Kindle for free.

Authors are discovering the marketing power inherent in e-books. Some offer free copies of their new book, especially if it’s the first in a series. The point is to hook you on their first book and hopefully you’ll buy the next and so on. But you have to be quick as these are usually limited time offers. For example, Paranoia by Joseph Finder is free until Sept. 18.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Kindle 2

Available for free is a plethora of classics, urban fantasy, science fiction, and romance novels. As for the latter, I just cannot read a book citing “throbbing members and pulsating orbs” with any degree of seriousness. However, Harlequin is celebrating their 60th year by offering free PDF versions of a few romances until October, such as Price of Passion by Susan Napier.

Book offers are available in a number of different e-reader formats, such as the Mobipocket/Kindle, Sony Reader, Iliad, and PDF. You select which download version you prefer. For the Kindle 2, I either download via Amazon.com's magical Whispernet or directly to a “Kindle” folder created on my laptop. For the latter, I simply plug in my Kindle’s USB and copy the book over to my Kindle, easy.

Here are just a very few of the many free e-books available:

• Beautiful Red by M. Darusha Wehm (science fiction)
• Gone by Bryan W. Alaspa (horror)
• My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent (young adult fantasy)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (classic)
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (classic)
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (classic)

More free books will emerge as time goes on, books enter the public domain, and electronic readers become more prevalent. Of course, e-sales will increase as well.

Resources

The following are some free e-book resources; some are easier to navigate than others:

• Amazon.com's Kindle Store
• Blog Kindle also tracks Kindle news and information about other e-book readers
• Feedbooks
• Free Kindle Books (classics)
• Kindle Review
• Manybooks.net
• An extension of Manybooks, this link provides downloads directly to your Kindle (choose Mobipocket format)
• MobileRead is a forum for eReaders
• Munsey's for mobile browsing via Whispernet (choose Mobipocket format)
• Project Gutenberg
• World eBook Fair (free membership until August 4)

Blessings Friday: The Simple Gift

We’re in the midst of a rather mild monsoon season in Tucson. While the rain brings much-needed water to our desert environment, other blessings also ensue.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Double Rainbow

The rumble of thunder very late in the day yesterday drew us outside to see what the weather was promising. Alas, no rain at our house, but the simple gift of a double rainbow arched across the sky.

Magical Summer Days

I’m so relaxed and mellow I’m having a hard time getting kick-started into action. Today I’m working on a sewing project/tutorial I thought about on vacation. Hopefully I can finish and post about it tomorrow—although I’m not making a promise as I’m feeling totally blissed-out right now which underscores the whole point about vacations.

In the meantime, here are more photographs I took on our trip.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Dandelion Closeup

We were driving through Utah and saw humongous dandelions on the side of the road. A screeching halt ensued and I jumped out to get a photo. I’m working on improving my macro-photography skills which are nonexistent and thought this would be a good subject. No macro lens or extensions tubes were used, simply my basic camera set-up.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Field of Flowers

Exactly across the highway from the dandelions was this field of flowers with a house situated in the back. I love the serenity invoked by the whole scene and tried to capture the feeling with my camera.

Summer is my absolute favorite time of year; some of the many things I love about it include:

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved. Watermelon

• The sweet juiciness of a freshly-picked watermelon warm from the sun.
• The sound of a lawn mower in action along with its accompanying fragrance of fresh-mown grass.
• The drone of an airplane flying overhead taking passengers to some adventure or another.
• Laughing children with their constant refrain of “Marco” … “Polo” as they splash happily about in a pool.
• Water lapping at the ocean’s edge (I so miss this sound)
• The deliciousness of honeysuckles offering up their perfume.
• The buzz of fat lazy bees tasting one flower after another.
• Reading a book on a chaise lounge or hammock outside and falling asleep.
• The warmth of the sun on my face.
• Ensconcing myself on a blanket in the grass at night to watch for shooting stars.
• The brilliance of lightning during a monsoon storm.
• The clang of halyards hitting masts on boats at the docks (another sound I miss).

What summer magic enthralls you?

Summer Road Trip Overview

We’re back from our summer road trip, the laundry is done, and the stack of mail has been whittled down. We’ve given a first pass through our more than 4,000 photos, but I’ll only share a few.

Grand Canyon


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Grand Canyon

This is actually our fourth trip to the Grand Canyon. It impresses us each and every visit. We stayed at Maswik Lodge in a tiny cabin on the rim.

Glen Canyon Dam/Lake Powell


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Glen Canyon Dam

The Glen Canyon Dam and its reservoir Lake Powell (behind the dam) are part of the Colorado River Storage Project for the Upper Colorado Basin.

Antelope Canyon


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Antelope Canyon Light Beam

We took a pre-arranged photography tour led by a Navajo guide through Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. It is a Navajo Tribal Park. The famous light beams inside this slot canyon occur mid-day during April to September.

Bryce Canyon


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Bryce Amphitheater Vista Point

This is just one part of the Bryce Amphitheater view; the following Paiute Indian legend explains the rock formations here:

“Before there were any Indians, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place. There were many of them. They were of many kinds—birds, animals, lizards, and such things—but they looked like people…For some reason, the Legend People in that place were bad. Because they were bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now; all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding on to others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks…”

Red Rock Canyon


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon is in Utah's Dixie National Forest. There are also three Red Rock Canyons in Nevada, one being very near Las Vegas.

Zion National Park


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Majestic Zion

Originally named Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft in 1909, the name was later changed to Zion—an ancient Hebrew word meaning a place of refuge or sanctuary. This park truly fits its name.

Valley of Fire State Park


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: The Arch at Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire is Nevada's oldest state park and an unplanned detour we took on our drive to Las Vegas from Zion. The eroded sandstone formations and sand dunes are more than 150 million years old. In sunlight, the valley does look like it is on fire due to the rich red color of the rocks.

Las Vegas


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: View of Las Vegas from Paris’ Eiffel Tower

Las Vegas at night as viewed from the observation tower of the Eiffel Tower where we stayed at the Paris Casino Hotel for a couple of nights. You can go up to the observation deck day or at night—we opted for the latter.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Tubing the Lazy River

Here’s my sister Connie floating around Mandalay Bay Beach’s Lazy River which moves at 2½ miles per hour as it circumnavigates the beach/pool areas and through waterfalls. Connie and her husband met us in Las Vegas for this leg of our trip, arranging a Cabana Day experience for us on the Lazy River as well as a massage in our cabana as our anniversary gift. Total bliss!

Hoover Dam/Lake Mead


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam straddles the Nevada/Arizona border. Dub and I looked for the famous line painted across the road marking the border of Arizona/Nevada as seen in the movies, but it’s no longer there. We suspect it proved too much of a photo opportunity for visitors, thus impacting traffic flow.

London Bridge


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: London Bridge

London Bridge in Lake Havasu, AZ is #10 on the Travel Channel’s World’s Top 10 Bridges list. Built in the 1820s for walking and traveling by horse and buggy over the River Thames, the bridge became too small to accommodate London’s traffic so the city put it up for auction. It was bought for $2.5 million in 1968 by Robert McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu City. The bridge took three years to make its way, piece by piece, to Arizona.

Lake Havasu City


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Sunset at Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu offers the requisite summer experiences: camping, swimming, boating, jet skis, dinner/casino cruises (it’s very near the California border), charters, and other assorted water adventures. We ate lunch at Barley’s Brothers Grill and Brewery, a micro-brewery at one end of London Bridge. The afternoon was spent swimming and relaxing, and then we wandered around taking sunset photos.

Tucson’s Fourth of July Fireworks


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved: Tucson Fireworks

We planned our road trip to end July 3 as July 4 is our wedding anniversary and we wanted to celebrate it in Tucson for the first time (having always been off on some travel adventure elsewhere in previous years). We packed a picnic supper and ventured forth to watch the fireworks. My fireworks photos came out looking like abstract flowers which I think is fun.

Other Places Visited

• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Page, AZ and Big Water, UT
• Montezuma Castle National Monument, Camp Verde, AZ
• Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Page, AZ
• Navajo Bridge, Lee’s Ferry, AZ
• Marble Canyon, AZ
• Grand Canyon, North Rim
• Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Marble Canyon, AZ and Big Water, UT
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kanab and Big Water, UT
• Paria Canyon, UT
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boulder City, NV

If you’re still reading this vacation post, thank you so much for your patience.

Hitting the Road

My preparations are done, the car is packed, my GPS is primed and ready for action, and we’re heading out on our road trip.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Adventures enjoyed will be shared upon my return July 5. In the meantime, take care of yourselves.

Hugs!