Various and Sundry Sunday

Our Internet connection at home slowly came back up over the course of the week. Hooray! We had one computer working early in the week, but the WiFi wasn’t completely up and running until Thursday. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to post this weekend, so I prepared posts through the weekend, so you wouldn’t feel sad and lonely. 😉 It is a good thing I am resourceful otherwise it would have been 2 weeks between blog post.

Welcome Magic Carpet Riders! If you would like to join the drawing, please leave a comment on the One World One Heart post. I hope you come back frequently and join our little community.

The Magic Carpet Ride/One World One Heart is interesting. I have gotten over 120 comments on the post mentioned above.  they aren’t coming as fast or as furiously as they were, but people are still wanting to sign up for the giveaway. Some people just say ‘enter me’ others stay for a minute and tell me where they are from. That is really nice. I have also visited a few of the blogs, sadly not anywhere near all. After leaving a few comments, I can see where typing a lot of info would get hard if you were intent on visiting all the blogs.

I have always liked the name Susanna. There is something about it that makes me smile. The name is what attracted me in the massive list Lisa keeps updating for OWOH. As I look at the list of all the blog participants, I find that I have no way to judge them except by name and that is what is turning out to attract or repel me.

I stopped by Susanna’s Sketchbook and left a note on her OWOH post so I could win. Then I looked around at some of her other posts. The tone is wonderful and she has a list of the Simple Things in Life, which is really nice. One item on her list, which caught my attention was “receiving the daily, 11am phone call from J“. I was reminded (after my rant about Internet access) that there are other things in life for which to be thankful

Another blog I liked was called Coral Seas. Actually, I liked the pendant she is giving away, but I also liked the banner image on her blog. She seems to have a variety of posts from birds to cooking.

Paper from the Heart is another blog I visited. She is giving away layered cards made from different paper designs. She has some interesting Valentine’s cards.

I do think that the people at the beginning of the list get the most comments. Some towards the bottom (700+) haven’t even made it to 100 comments yet. I would never ask Lisa to organize the list, but would love to know which are the sewing and quilt blogs, so I could look at them first. If you look through the list and see any, let me know.

Julie is blogging again! Hooray. She has put up a number of posts this week and it is a pleasure. A number of these pieces were at the retreat and I guess we had too much other stuff to talk about, because I didn’t ask about the stories.

Have you taken a look at SherriD’s blog lately? I really liked her procrastinating post. I am not sure how she can say she is procrastinating when she has so many projects in the works. She has completed another U is for Unicorn block. I am in awe of that project, because of the detail work involved. I like it that she talks about both hand and machine projects. My favorite part of this post was the view out her studio window. Lovely! Thanks, SherriD!

Have you seen the needlecase over at Quilt Rat’s blog? It is a gorgeous black and white piece. I am in awe of Jill, because she says that she just sat down and designed as she went along. Kathy over at Finishing Lines did this with the pencil roll she made, which was also fabulous. I want to be like these women!

Have you see the magazine Quilts & More? The magazine is pretty project oriented, but the projects are pretty good. They usually have a tote bag, which I love! The thing I like about this magazine is the color. Bright, cheerful, happy colors grace this magazine. As you have probably guessed I am not one for murky colors. To each her (or his) own, but they are not for me. Thus, I like Quilts and More.

I am friends with them on FB. Earlier this week they posted a link to their All People Quilt website with photo ideas for organizing your sewing room. Talk about happy colors! The ideas for organization are great, too. They make me a little depressed, because this person’s sewing room must be huge. Their buttons are gorgeous (and organized), they have way less fabric than I do, etc. Still, the colors are wonderful and if I can implement one of the ideas, I will be happy.

My friend, Kathy, of the Everyday Bliss project had an interesting post this week. In it she talks about getting started, about what is art, her own doubts, etc. She posts some interesting works. I think it would give you some food for thought. Go and take a look and leave her a comment. Let me know what you think.

Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust: I am reading it and really liking it. I wasn’t optimistic when I started it after reading the thin Ruth McDowell book. There are a very few elements of dumbing down, but many of the comments and exercises in the book are just fantastic and not complicated. I will definitely do a full review, but thought I would give you a little taste.

I have been listening to podcasts. One of the bad things about no Internet is that I cannot update my iPod. I was smart last time I updated it because I downloaded a lot of ancient episodes. I am getting sick of some of the podcasts, though. Sometimes I can only listen to a few of one and then I need to listen to another producer’s podcast. I haven’t been able to do that so I am just clenching my teeth and powering through. I suppose I could listen to some non-quilt/craft podcasts!

Zazzle

I came across a cool design in Zazzle. The design is screen printed tea cups and I first saw it on a OWOH blog. I like it so I went to look, never having heard of Zazzle before. It looks a little like Cafe Press, but seems to have cooler options on which to print. The purchaser, apparently has some options in the design of the card.  Sadly, one card was $4.50, which is a little out of my price range right now. I do have some rubber stamps, however. Perhaps I will get inspired?


I went to the Berkeley City Club on Tuesday night with my family to receive an award. Even though I lived in Berkeley for about 4 years and have been there zillions of times, I had never been to this building. It was designed my Julia Morgan, the architect of Hearst Castle and it is gorgeous! they have lots of meeting rooms, a garden courtyard, a pool, hotel type rooms and also people can live there. Perhaps I will live there when I am an old geezer?

And Now a Brief Aside

From Flickr's Roadside Pictures
From Flickr's Roadside Pictures

For some reason, I wasn’t able to link to this Flickr photo directly, which I much prefer to do. Go visit it and its siblings in their native habitat at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/244926428/

I’ll be honest this is a sign in Las Vegas for a strip club,. However, I like the idea of people celebrating librarians with a neon sign. Let’s just pretend all librarians are knock outs (not just in looks) and people cannot stay away from the library, ok?