Fall chunky book

Used my Bind-it-all system for the first time to put the fall chunky pages together. This was the system I got with money from my Mom for my birthday. I have discovered I need more practice, especially with punching the holes. This system does a good job punching the holes on thicker pages but not so well on the thinner ones. Also found out it is really important to make sure you have the page seated squarely on the bottom to ensure the holes are in a straight line. Messed up on a few pages and had to fix them. My hat is off to all the hostesses that have sent me books bound up! I never realized what a pain punching the holes could be! So thanks to all of you!

I wasn't thinking when I sent my pages to Beth and didn't make one of my own to keep so I ended up making another one that uses an image of my maternal Grandma Koehler. I had these printed up for an ancestor swap just completed recently. This photo was taken by my Aunt Betty when my Grandma was out picking up hickory nuts. She was born to Irish/German parents and married my German grandfather, Gustav Koehler, so we have a lot of German in us. They were self-sufficient farmers for the most part raising everything they ate. Nuts from the trees on their farm were a gift and all were gathered to use. Nothing was wasted as my grandfather was a very frugal man. He actually kept a ledger(which my Mom still has) of every penny he ever spent. It is very interesting to read as there are notations about weather events like droughts and long periods of rain. Also visits by the doctor when the children were born are noted. It really is a chronology of their life.

Well, I have wandered down memory lane! Back to the present! The next to the bottom page is the inside of the back cover and then the bottom is the back of the cover I put together to finish up the booklet. I'm proud of myself for actually getting some pages put together and hope to move on to some previous swap pages I've never bound.