Small Places

North Carolina friend Carol sent me an article about a 90 sq. ft. apartment in New York City.  The entire article with more pictures can be found here.

Obviously, there is a place for everything. And at $700/month rent, WOW!  Her back yard is Central Park.

But I am still impressed that one of my Scrabble friends in Calgary, CA has moved into a renovated loft above a 100 year old pub in a toney part of the city.  His apartment is a bit over 300 square feet.  (And cost is not a concern for him, as he is wealthy by most middle American class standards.) 

It is all in the mindset.  Now I need to go get rid of a few clothes.

After posting this, my friend The KnitNurd gave a further link to TumblewoodHouses, tiny houses that pack a wallop.  Wouldn't you LOVE to have one of these?

Artwork by Charles H. McCarroll

Brother Mac worked in commercial art for his entire vocational career.  He got his artistic bent from our mother.

Mac is also a Viet Nam veteran, a Marine, a husband and father.  Here is his brief service synopsis, as he relays in this collage:

And here are a couple of his recent paintings displayed in his and his sweet wife's home in Texas:

 Acrylic: 24" x 47" (CH McCarroll)

Acrylic: 16" x 16" (CH McCarroll)

Thanks, Mac, for letting me show these two pictures. Now go paint some more!

Official Website for Royal Wedding-Check it Out

Are you an anglophile?  I'll confess to it.  And the upcoming royal wedding holds great interest to almost everyone the world round, anglophile or not.

William and Kate have an official website dedicated to their upcoming nuptuals.  It is updated regularly and has information, naturally, about any and all things related to the wedding.  What I found especially interesting was the music that will be orchestrated, sung, trumpeted, and otherwise performed.  In part:

Two choirs, one orchestra and two fanfare teams will perform the music at the Wedding Service of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29th. These are:

• The Choir of Westminster Abbey
• The Chapel Royal Choir
• The London Chamber Orchestra
• The Fanfare Team from the Central Band of the Royal Air Force
• The State Trumpeters of The Household Cavalry

The choirs will be under the direction of Mr James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey. The Choir of Westminster Abbey is made up of 20 boys, all of whom attend the Abbey’s dedicated residential Choir School, and 12 professional adult singers, known as Lay Vicars. In addition...

Silkworms Made to Spin Fluorescent Colored Silk

...a reprint from CraftMagazine:

Silk worms that produce vibrantly coloured and luminescent silks have been created by scientists in Singapore. The resulting fibre offers a cheap way to circumvent the dying process and may even have medical applications.

By feeding silkworms a mulberry mixture containing fluorescent dye, Natalia's team was able to harvest brightly coloured silk that is structurally unaffected, but which also has luminescent, or glowing, properties. The dye molecules are ingrained within the silk filaments to create permanent colour.

The Favorite Spot

Nephew Jeremy McCarroll, avid camper, hiker, fisherman, father, worker, writer, and all around good person, has a favorite place.  That place is a good place to be and is detailed here on his blog.  If you don't go to the link and browse around, I'll make it easy on you:

The Spot and its rules:

1. The Spot is The Spot. It has always been The Spot, even before it was The Spot.

2. There is no way to The Spot. The Spot is the way.

3. You cannot find The Spot, but if you look for it in earnest, it will find you.

4. The Spot looks as good on a beautiful spring day as it does in the dead of winter. The rule is you can’t argue with that.

5. Respect The Spot and The Spot will respect you. Disrespect it and you may take the Walk of Shame.

6. Never disclose the location of The Spot to those who aren’t prepared to truly know The Spot.

7. There really aren’t any rules for The Spot.

(Jeremy and his daughter from his blog)

I love that he said of his weekend camping experience that he was not rushing to find the best camping spot with the most level tent ground and that he said in yesterday's post:

I guess what I’m getting at is I am passing on my spot, the best one, to the next person who gets there.

And so I thought about that for a bit. 

 

Here is my Spot that is:

• a place where I am alone (relatively) with thoughts
• a place where I can love and be loved
• a time apart when reflections relate to actions and consequences can be examined
• where I can be productive and where the end results might help someone else along the road

…generally, that spot is in my easy chair in my house, with knitting in my lap and large windows to look through and beyond.  But it often changes.

Where What is your Spot?

Be sure to check out Jeremy's Glossary of Camping Terms.  It is a hoot and oh, so accurate. ( I've been known to walk the Walk of Shame.)

The Human Web

I am still surprised the six degrees of separation theory among humans actually occurs.

Sunday morning I was breakfasting with a woman whom I had never before met.  We were both in Phoenix for a few days but, coincidentally, were both living in Colorado.

Not five minutes into chit chat, she mentioned she was from Castine, Maine but was staying in Colorado for a few months.  Hmm...I knew of that small town of Castine, Maine.  Why, ten years ago while on a cooking class vacation in Italy for a week, I had met a couple who were from Castine.

Hmm... the man's name was Harry and I had a recipe book he had compiled and sold in 2000.  And by golly, that cookbook was still on my kitchen counter. In fact, the book and Harry are mentioned in this post from almost year ago, along with one of my favorite recipes from his cookbook:

The woman across from me gasped.  Harry and his wife were her very good friends.

She wrote down the names of the recipes that were my favorites from the book and said she would be sure to tell Harry that we had met.

Six degrees of separation

(picture from Wikipedia)

It is a small world.

Crochet Sue and Ophrah

Do you crochet?

(from Craftzine)
Sue would be cool at my play station.

Friends Forever

First aired in 2009, with over 2 million hits, you might not have seen this...

Thursday's Thought

Thanks, Dottie.

Grace

Grace

is the force that infuses our lives and keeps letting us off the hook.

It is unearned love - the love that goes before, that greets us on the way.

It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you.

Grace is the light or electricity of juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace -- only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

by Anne Lamott

Sewing Notions: Necklace You Don't Want to be Without!

When knitting or sewing, it seems like embroidery scissors, a measuring device, pins, knitting bead markers, etc. never seem to be quite within easy reach. While browsing craft ideas, I came across a clever sewing caddy which could be made fairly quickly and inexpensively. When I saw the picture of this sewing caddy, along with a supply list and directions, I decided to make a similar one.

Here is what I found at the website Sewing:

Neck Ribbon Caddy Supplies:
1 1/8 yard (103cm), 1½” (3.8cm) wide blue plaid ribbon
1 1/8 yard (103cm), 1½” (3.8cm) wide blue grosgrain ribbon
½ yard (45.5cm) 3/8” (1cm) wide blue grosgrain ribbon
1 tape measure, 1 handful polyester stuffing, red felt scraps, embroidery scissors, thimble, sewing gauge

Directions:
1.Cut: Make a heart pattern. Cut one 1 1/8” x 4½” (2.8 x 11.5cm) pocket strip and 2 hearts from felt scraps. Cut 3/8” (1cm) wide grosgrain ribbon in 2 equal lengths. Cut tape measure off at 39½” (100.5 cm).

2. Assemble: Center and pin felt pocket strip to one end of plaid ribbon. Zigzag or use a decorative stitch along sides of felt pocket. Loop one narrow ribbon through scissors. Pin ribbon ends at raw edge of plaid ribbon and machine baste. Layer heart motifs together. Edge stitch, leaving 1¼” (3.2cm) top opening. Fold other narrow ribbon in half; center and tack fold to inside heart pocket. Center and machine baste ends to other plaid ribbon raw edge. Center tape measure on wide grosgrain ribbon. Edge stitch tape on all sides. With right sides together, stitch wide grosgrain to plaid ribbon with ¼” (6mm) seam across “heart” pocket end. Turn and press. With wrong sides together. Edge stitch ribbon sides.

3.Pin Cushion: Measure 4¼” (11cm) from open end, stitch across. Stuff tightly. Turn ¼” (6mm) raw edges inside and stitch closed.

I already had a small pincushion, so I did not need to make one. And instead of felt for the pocket, I had stashed pink flannel which I sewed on for a reading glasses pocket. The pink valentine heart bows were previously bought for my doggy, but she does NOT like to wear head ornaments. So I incorporated the bows as extra bling on the neck caddy.

The picture below shows supplies purchased for the project, and my resulting caddy is the bottom photo.

Now how neat is that?!

What Are Your Favorite Apps?

Here are mine, many that were free:

What are YOUR favorite apps?  Word-of-mouth is sometimes the best way to find new apps, so I'd appreciate your telling me which ones you find useful.

craigslist Flow Chart for Finding What You Need

For a while now, I've been meaning to check out craigslist.  There are a few household items I'd like to see up cycled or recycled or just plain old GET RID OF.

In comes a great little ditty about how to find that special item you've always wanted by using craigslist.

This handy chart, found on the blog Dude Craft, is an easy way to navigate what you are looking for:

(the design is from lunchbreath)

I'm off to check out listing my 20 year old green bamboo armoire, which is apparently Zen.

Chintz: Table Ware, Fabrics, Interior Decoration

Chintz has always held a slight fascination for me from the time I was a little girl.  I remember chintz wallpaper (cabbage roses) on our Texas farm bathroom walls.  Maybe my chintz (as opposed to "chintzy" as in "frugality") interest started there.

From Collecting Chintz:

Over the last few years, the price and popularity of this china have experienced unprecedented growth. Collectors worldwide seek this charming floral tableware which seems to attract more and more devotees with each passing day.

The term "chintz" has its origins in India (the Indian word was chintes) where colorful patterns including richly-hued flowers and brightly plumed birds were printed on cotton fabric and imported into England from the late seventeenth century.

Amazon has this book, Antiques Roadshow Collectibles, which gives this brief explanation of chintz ware (click to enlarge):

This is a cream and saucer chintz ware set my mother was given years ago, and which I sometimes use now:

Those tiny flowers have detail in their blooms and petals, and I love the contrasting colors and depths of shading in the chintz.  Just darn pretty!

But, wait.  Chintz is not only for the table.  It was very popular in fabric a while back.  Designer Laura Ashley brought back chintz fabric in the 80's.  Do you remember your Laura Ashley dresses for both children and ladies?  They were the cat's meow then.

Examples of some chintz fabrics from Schindler's Fabrics:

More about chintz from this post by Martha B. at Nibs:

(30 years ago)

Chintz is a cotton fabric that can be either a solid color or a beautifully printed floral or stripe. But what makes it desirable is the finish which allows it to be wiped clean. In the 1980’s everyone wanted the English Country look with rooms filled with it. Laura Ashley sold millions of dollars worth of the fabric! But like many good things, its appeal came to an end until now. It’s back... with restraint.

(now...updated with less fabric in the room)

Martha B. has a blog here and you can see lots of information about interior design there; nice pictures, too.

Now that the sewing machine is dusted off, maybe I'll make a few chintz blouses for the spring.

KKCO 11 News and Libby's Entre into Fame on Local TV

My husband is clever. Really.  He is clever.

A local television station here in Grand Junction, KKCO 11 News is having a contest that is all about barks.  Dog barks.  The station needs a spokesdog for their coupon advertisement with a dog as their mascot.

Our younger dog Libby (yeah, that same one that has so many links on both our blogs) gives Gene the WHAT FOR each time she comes in from a walk.  She barks for her treat after doing a good walk.

The husband recorded that bark for the contest of barking dogs on 11 News.  Wish Libby luck on being selected for the News11 Dog Bark.

Awkward Family Photos

Some of the best Awkward Family Photos can be found HERE.  You must, absolutely must, peruse this site for plenty of guffaws.  They are even having a "Best Family Photo Submission with Holiday Spirit" that is open for submissions until midnight December 22, 2010.

A few holiday favorites:

by Brad

Shhh..I'm just about to scare the crap out of this nice little girl

My submission the the 2010 Awkward Family Photo Contest (my daughter in 1971 on the lap of a boozy Santa):

Another priceless photo can be seen on my husband's blog found here.

We laughed for an hour over these photos. 

Merry Christmas !

Useful Dog Tricks

Thanks, Ronn!

A Christmas Angel from Nebraska

This is a Garrison Keillor writing appropriate for the season:

...My own Christmas vision appeared three days before Christmas, in a deli on 10th Avenue in New York, where a rather elegant young woman was managing a herd of eight teenaged boys, ordering their breakfasts from the lady behind the counter. The boys spoke Spanish, which the young woman translated into English for the counter lady. I'm standing there, waiting my turn, observing. The boys are docile, cautious, soft-spoken, and then it dawns on me that they are so because of brain damage, mild retardation, however you want to put it, and the young woman is their hired shepherd. A teacher's aide, perhaps. Probably minimum wage. She is lovely, green-eyed, dark hair spilling down on a puffy parka, red wool scarf, and her English sounds very Midwestern to me.

The boys want muffins for breakfast except one boy who earnestly desires a sesame bagel, toasted, with cream cheese, but the deli is all out of sesame, and this is a cruel disappointment to him. He really was counting on it. When you are 14 and so desperately vulnerable in the big city, you do pin your hopes on certain small pleasures. His face crumples and he is about to melt, and the elegant young green-eyed woman puts her head down next to his where he sits slumped on the deli stool. Her pale cheek against his cheek, she murmurs to him and a string of his enormous tears runs onto her face and she wipes it away and says something in Spanish that makes him laugh. And then I notice at the end of her red scarf, the word "Nebraska." Nobody would wear this in New York except a Nebraskan.

I might've asked her a few questions, but she had turned her street face toward me, and so I didn't bother her. A girl from the prairie using her Spanish to care for damaged boys in a callous world where, contrary to everything the Savior said, the poor and powerless get short shrift -- in the U.S. Senate and elsewhere — and she is sharing the tears of the sesame boy and making him laugh. She's my Christmas angel. I hope she gets to go to a party and sing and dance until 3 a.m.

Heifer International and a Podcast Drawing

Listening to Clothed in the Lamb on her recent podcast, subscribers learned that Janeen not only talked about her "fiber adventures," but also gave an incentive for those contributing to Heifer International.

Janeen says about this program:

What Heifer International does is they give animals to impoverished communities. They teach them all they need to know about how to raise the animals, breed them, and use and sell the products of the animals. I’m talking about goats, cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, bees, llamas, water buffalo, and of course sheep!

Here’s what they do with, say a sheep. They go into a community and choose a family to train about how to care for sheep. When the family is ready, they give them a healthy female sheep, making sure there is healthy breeding stock nearby. Through the next year, the sheep provides the family with wool which they can use to clothe themselves or which they can sell. In time, they breed their own sheep, and give one or more of the offspring to another family in need. This new family agrees to do the same, and so it continues. With the gift of one sheep, a whole community is helped.

The Recycled Lamb in Lakewood, Colorado is the sponsor for this yarny give away.  So how about helping out Heifer International and join in with a sense of community spirit?

All the details about the contest can be found here.

No Regrets

Janey Cutler - Britain's Got Talent 2010 - Auditions Week 4 @ Yahoo! Video

Let's all go out this way!

Four Million hits can't be wrong.