http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/ Dancing the Polymer Polka - LiveJournal.com Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:57:40 GMT LiveJournal / LiveJournal.com lisaclarke personal http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/69287231/6925465 http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/ 100 100 http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102729.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:57:40 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102729.html Hello, LiveJournal friends.&nbsp; As you probably know, I've been blogging on <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog">my own site</a> for about 6 months.&nbsp; If you use a feed reader outside of LJ, I encourage you to <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?feed=rss2">subscribe to that feed</a>.&nbsp; If you prefer to do your blog-reading through LJ, then you'll want to befriend the syndicated <span class='ljuser' lj:user='polkadotcreatio' style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://syndicated.livejournal.com/polkadotcreatio/profile'><img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif' alt='[info]' width='16' height='16' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='http://syndicated.livejournal.com/polkadotcreatio/'><b>polkadotcreatio</b></a></span> feed.&nbsp; I've decided to sever the connection to this <span class='ljuser' lj:user='lisaclarke' style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/'><b>lisaclarke</b></a></span> LJ account, and so my blog entries will <i>no longer </i>be automatically posted here, as of today.<br /><br />Let me know if there are any questions - hope you'll keep reading!<br /><br />Lisa http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102729.html public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102433.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:11:12 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102433.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907121/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907121/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/2046907121_48f1552040.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="500" width="416" /></a></p> <p>Did I speak too soon <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=342">yesterday</a>? Did I anger the weather gods? It snowed again this morning - still is snowing, in fact - and it&#8217;s decided to stick around.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2047696652/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2047696652/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2099/2047696652_8f8bc69813.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="500" width="344" /></a></p> <p>I can appreciate what a fun sight this is to a little person, I really can.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907399/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907399/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2022/2046907399_01d1ec421b.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="500" width="375" /></a></p> <p>And I can even enjoy this kind of thing myself. Particularly in my pajamas, curled up on the couch clutching a mug of something warm. Oh, yes, that kind of thing really hits the spot.</p> <p>But beautiful fall-meets-winter scenes like this one only really last until it&#8217;s time to head to school. And today, one boy had a delayed opening but the other didn&#8217;t. Which means I had to go out twice.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907953/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907953/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2373/2046907953_d7ee0fe2a4.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="392" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Two times to put the chill into my feet.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2047697904/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2047697904/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2316/2047697904_c0d204019e.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="375" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Two times to navigate the slushy roads.</p> <p>This unexpected November snowfall really put a crimp in my Monday morning agenda. The flakes are still falling lazily out my window, the trees are still a beauty to behold, and my toes are still cold from the last time I went out an hour and a half ago&#8230;</p> <p>I&#8217;ve had to abandon my plans to get my eyebrows waxed - guess I&#8217;ll just be shaggy for Thanksgiving. In all of the snowy excitement this morning, I forgot to start the crock pot with tonight&#8217;s dinner, so I&#8217;ll have to make whatever tomorrow&#8217;s meal was going to be instead. I haven&#8217;t yet tackled the work I planned to do on the kitchen sink, but I can handle doing that later this afternoon - and find a way for Eamonn to help me.</p> <p>Speaking of little helpers, I did accomplish one thing already today. In the hour Aidan and I had to ourselves after we dropped Eamonn off at school, he stripped his and his brother&#8217;s beds for me, helped me sort the dirty laundry, learned to fold his own clean shirts and learned to bundle his clean socks into pairs. I have to tap that 7-year-old energy more often&#8230; He&#8217;s not usually the one who wants to help, but he was ready and eager this morning, and for that I am <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/group/30daysofthanks" target="_blank">thankful</a>. Maybe there&#8217;s something about being home alone with me, without little brother underfoot that brings out this side of him.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046908431/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046908431/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2129/2046908431_1e8390db86.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="375" width="500" /></a></p> <p>In less than an hour, it will be time to go out again and pick up the little guy. It really is pretty out there. Forget about the treacherous driving, the inconvenience, the chilly feet.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907719/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2046907719/" title="Surprise snowfall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2163/2046907719_77d3139f57.jpg" alt="Surprise snowfall" height="500" width="375" /></a></p> <p>Focus on the beauty. Right?</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=343">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=343#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo domesticity parenthood public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102308.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:04:36 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102308.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2045866442/" title="Watching the season&#39;s first snow fall by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2039/2045866442_0321098102.jpg" alt="Watching the season&#39;s first snow fall" height="375" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> It didn&#8217;t stick, but it was pretty to watch, as it came down.  Aidan enjoyed a seat by the bay window, and imagined that one of the big flakes was really a camera in disguise, sent by the enemy to spy on us.  It&#8217;s pretty interesting to me how his imagination never takes a break.  When I look at big fluffy snowflakes, I don&#8217;t see hidden cameras.  I see snowflakes.  And maybe, if pressed to use my imagination, I might possibly see confetti or cotton balls.  Whatever I see, it&#8217;s not likely to have a sinister agenda.  It&#8217;s just falling, from the sky to the ground, ever so slowly, dancing on the wind.</p> <p>Today I am <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/group/30daysofthanks" target="_blank">thankful</a> that the snow we enjoyed was of the fleeting, non-accumulating type.  I&#8217;m just not ready for the onset of winter.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=342">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=342#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo chit chat public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102096.html Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:01:57 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/102096.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2040179171/" title="New shirt - before by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/2040179171_8d788af817.jpg" alt="New shirt - before" height="500" width="469" /></p> <p></a><br /> What do you do with a boring, too-big t-shirt with an unflattering unisex crew-neck? Usually I just keep it for a season out of guilt and then chuck it in the giveaway bag. Today I had a different idea.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2040973454/" title="New shirt - after by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2411/2040973454_c4c8ebfb14.jpg" alt="New shirt - after" height="486" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> How about <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2040975092/">re-doing the neckline</a> a la those <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/simplicity3835/">Built By Wendy tops</a> I was making this summer? And then cutting a few inches from the sleeves and hemming them? And finally taking it in an inch on each side? Yeeeees, I think that will do nicely.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2040179257/" title="New shirt - another option by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2171/2040179257_afded3b5b5.jpg" alt="New shirt - another option" height="500" width="481" /></p> <p></a><br /> Maybe I could even dress it up with a belt and a <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Tile%20Necklace.html">tile necklace</a>?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2040181829/" title="New shirt by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2341/2040181829_dcdcd2f3c6.jpg" alt="New shirt" height="499" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> Or some fun <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Umbrella%20Earrings.html">umbrella earrings</a>? Either way, it&#8217;s a BIG improvement I&#8217;d say.</p> <p>I spent yesterday evening mulling this idea over in my mind, and this morning putting it into action. And that, my friends, is why my kitchen is still a disaster area, there&#8217;s a laundry explosion in my bedroom, and the living room is overrun with jackets and shoes. Those are the things, I was planning to rectify this morning before I got sucked into repurposing my shirt.</p> <p>Now, if you will excuse me, I have a dishwasher to unload&#8230;</p> <p>Oh! Almost forgot <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/group/30daysofthanks" target="_blank">my thankful thing</a>. I&#8217;m thankful for <em>good health</em> - mine and that of my loved ones.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=341">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=341#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo sewing show and tell public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101690.html Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:35:54 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101690.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2039439514/" title="LBI Chicken by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2039439514/" title="LBI Chicken by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2039439514_53df113fce.jpg" title="LBI Chicken" alt="LBI Chicken" border="0" height="404" width="500" /></a></p> <p><strong>Ingredients</strong></p> <table border="0" cellspacing="3"> <tr> <td align="right">.<br /> 1<br /> 1/2 cup<br /> 1/2 pound<br /> .<br /> 1/4 pound</td> <td>Olive oil spray<br /> Bell pepper &#8212; orange<br /> Scallions &#8212; sliced, white parts only<br /> Chicken breast &#8212; cut into bite-sized pieces<br /> Pepper &#8212; to taste<br /> Spaghetti &#8212; uncooked</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top">1 cup<br /> 2 tablespoons<br /> 2 tablespoons<br /> .<br /> 1 tablespoon</td> <td valign="top">Chicken broth<br /> Soy sauce<br /> Marsala wine<br /> Pepper &#8212; to taste<br /> Flour &#8212; dissolved in 2 tablespoons water</td> </tr> </table> <p align="left"><strong>Directions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Start a pot of water boiling for the spaghetti.  Cut up the chicken &amp; vegetables and sprinkle chicken with pepper. Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, and marsala wine.  Sprinkle sauce mixture with pepper.</li> <li>Spray a large skillet with the olive oil spray, and cook the vegetables over high heat for about 1 minute. Add chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink. Add sauce, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered.</li> <li>Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes or according to package directions, while chicken mixture simmers. Aftter spaghetti has finished cooking, add flour &amp; water to chicken mixture in skillet, increase heat, and cook until sauce has thickened. Serve the chicken over the spaghetti.</li> </ol> <p>Recipe By :Lisa Clarke<br /> Weight Watchers Points: 9 for 1/2 of recipe</p> <p><strong>Notes</strong></p> <p>Here is the explanation I posted to my BBS (<a href="http://www.bbsmates.com/viewbbs.aspx?id=48486">The Polka Dot Cottage</a>) on August 4, 1996:</p> <blockquote><p>Friday night, at around 11:30, Neil and I packed a bag, hopped in the car, and went to his parents&#8217; Long Beach Island house. They weren&#8217;t going down until Saturday night, so we had a nice day to ourselves. Anyway, I decided I was in the mood to cook supper Saturday night for the 2 of us, so I took a quick trip to Shop Rite, and grabbed some chicken, an orange pepper (&#8217;cause it was cool-looking) and some scallions. Then I scrounged around the kitchen for the rest of the ingredients. I followed my usual chicken routine, but the flavors were quite different than usual - and very good! I will definitely be making this again sometime.</p></blockquote> <p>And I have. Many <em>many</em> times.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=340">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=340#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> recipes baking public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101624.html Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:54:14 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101624.html <p> <a href="http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/polka-dot-creations.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v674/ScrapToMyLu/TCBBlinkie.gif" align="left" border="0" hspace="10" vspace="5" /></a>I think today instead of ending with my thankful thought, I will start with it. Guess what - Kim from <a href="http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/">Today&#8217;s Creative Blog</a> featured me <a href="http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/polka-dot-creations.html">yesterday</a>! Isn&#8217;t that cool? I encourage you to go check out Kim&#8217;s blog. I&#8217;ve had it on my must-read list for some time now. She has a knack for finding some very interesting people working in various media, all of whom are making beautiful things. It makes me wish I had a million hours in the day so that I could keep up with all of the creative blogs I discover through her. I&#8217;m thankful to be included in such a nifty &#8220;club.&#8221; Thanks, Kim!</p> <p>And to all of you who have wandered over here from Today&#8217;s Creative Blog, welcome! Make yourself at home. And come to think of it, maybe some of you creative types would be interested in getting in on the <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?page_id=82">Color Challenge</a>&#8230; It&#8217;s a monthly event around here, each month based on a color. If you can craft something in brown, upload an image to <a href="http://www.flickr.com" target="_blank">flickr</a>, and add it to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/pdccolorchallenge/">our pool</a>, then you can join us. The more the merrier, all media welcome! You can find out more <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?page_id=82">here</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2038180550/" title="Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2038180550/" title="Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/2038180550_72d93045de.jpg" title="Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge" alt="Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge" border="0" height="375" width="500" /></a></p> <p>The pictured images are a few recent challenge submissions that I really like. These particular entries are polymer clay. Interesting how many different hues of brown have been showing up in the pool. I am noticing a really wide variety this time around that I didn&#8217;t notice when we did orange, olive, or aqua. Maybe &#8220;brown&#8221; is just too broad a color name. Perhaps I should have said &#8220;chestnut.&#8221; Heh. Anyway, my fault for not being specific enough, so I will accept anything from the brownish family. You&#8217;ve got a few more weeks to get your submissions in (where <em>did</em> November <em>go</em> already??).</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2038148974/" title="Favorites week of November 12 by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2038148974/" title="Favorites week of November 12 by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2038148974_79a1e9411b.jpg" title="Favorites week of November 12" alt="Favorites week of November 12" border="0" height="500" width="250" /></a></p> <p>It&#8217;s Friday, so you know what that means? Flickr favorites of course. Such a feast for the eyes, that flickr is, wouldn&#8217;t you say?</p> <p class="vstill"> <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=edUFqkWSve8"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/edUFqkWSve8/default.jpg" title="15-Minute Abs Workout" class="vimg" alt="15-Minute Abs Workout" align="left" border="0" hspace="10" vspace="5" /></a></p> <p>Will you look at <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=edUFqkWSve8" target="_blank">what I played along with last night</a>? I, who haven&#8217;t exercised in <em>years</em>. I, who have finally decided that I am ready to be serious about losing some weight. I have set a rather lofty goal of 25lbs, but to be honest, if I lose the 15 I gained during the Summer of Comfort Eating and Elastic-Waist Skirts, it will be enough to make me happy. I have to do <em>something</em>. My body is clearly complaining about the extra weight, every time I do anything the least bit active - and sadly, these days I consider moving from a seated position to a standing position to be &#8220;active.&#8221; Wish me luck in de-pudging. I signed up with <a href="http://sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=LCLARKE522">SparkPeople.com</a>, who made the video. They have a few tools that might come in handy, and it&#8217;s free, so why not?</p> <p>Anybody have any suggestions for some good family workout videos? I think I&#8217;d like to include the kids in this endeavor - particularly the little round one who is entirely too fond of his tv and computer time. (kinda like his mom&#8230;)</p> <p>Happy Weekend!</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=338">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=338#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo weight loss colorchallenge online fun blogging chit chat flickr self-improvement public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101129.html Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:12:42 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101129.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2034531676/" title="New napkins by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/2034531676_a29abb19e6.jpg" title="New napkins" alt="New napkins" border="0" height="376" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> Napkins. Easiest sewing project ever.</p> <p>Ok, well, they <em>can</em> be time consuming if you have a lot to make, but they really couldn&#8217;t be simpler. And if you only have five minutes to spare, you can sit down, make one napkin, and get back to the rest of your life. They are the perfect &#8220;squeeze them in when you can&#8221; kind of project. You never have to spend any time trying to regroup, hoping to remember where you left off. Nope. With napkin making, you have a &#8220;done&#8221; pile and a &#8220;not done&#8221; pile. You are never coming back to the table &#8220;in the middle&#8221; of a single napkin, because, really, if you don&#8217;t have time to make <em>one </em> complete napkin, then what are you doing at the sewing machine anyway??</p> <p>These are a gift for my MIL&#8217;s birthday, which is Monday. It is dangerous to admire something I have made unless you want one yourself. Case in point: back in August, my MIL complemented me on the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/855756160/">Elsie&#8217;s Kitchen napkins</a> I was using while serving <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1159442029/">Neil&#8217;s birthday cake</a>. I said &#8220;thank you&#8221; but really I was thinking &#8220;oh, good, now I know what to give her for her birthday in 3 months.&#8221;</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2034532710/" title="New table runner by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2034532710_f54efe336c.jpg" title="New table runner" alt="New table runner" border="0" height="488" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> After completing the final napkin last night, I glanced at the clock to see that I still had half an hour before I&#8217;d have to quit and put the boys to bed. Then I took a look at the scraps I had left from napkin-making and decided a table runner was in order. My MIL already has a table runner, and I really don&#8217;t know if she&#8217;ll have any use for this, but I just couldn&#8217;t help myself and <em>had</em> to whip it up.</p> <p>The fabric I used here was <a href="http://www.fatquartershop.com/Roman_Holiday_3_Sisters_for_Moda_Fabrics_Roman_Holiday_Fat_Quarter_Bundle_Charm_Pack_Jelly_Roll_Yardage.asp?Store_id=499&amp;T=1" target="_blank">3 Sisters&#8217; Roman Holiday</a>. I am as sure as I can be without having my MIL&#8217;s dining room set here with me that this yellow colorway of Roman Holiday goes perfectly with the upholstery on her chairs. And the large-motif flower pattern strikes me as something she would use. Hope she likes &#8216;em.</p> <p>Today I am thankful that I bit the bullet and <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=175">bought my sewing machine</a> back in May.  I have to say, I&#8217;m so excited by the gift-giving possibilities this season. I&#8217;ve always loved giving handmade items, and for the first few years after I got involved in polymer clay, everyone on my list got a claything. After a while, I felt like everyone had enough clay jewelry and pens, and I started filling the handmade criteria by bartering with other crafters or buying things outright when I could. This season, I have <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/sets/72157600287005407/">a new skill</a>, and it&#8217;s exciting to me to be able to use it to give gifts different than anything I&#8217;ve given before. I guess this means in 10 to 12 years when all of my giftees are all <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/napkins/">napkin</a>ed-out, completely be<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/scarves/">scarf</a>ed, and over-<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/aprons/">apron</a>ed I will need to take up yet another craft&#8230;</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=337">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=337#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo sewing show and tell public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101024.html Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:45:41 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/101024.html <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7875796"><img src="http://images.etsy.com/all_images/f/f11/761/il_430xN.14055078.jpg" border="0" height="430" width="430" /></a></p> <p>New buttons <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=10867&amp;section_id=5104750">on Etsy</a>.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/detail_bbut707.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/imglrg/bbut707.jpg" border="0" height="400" width="400" /></a></p> <p>And new buttons <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Decorative%20Button.html">at Polka Dot Creations</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2021668747/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2021668747/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/2021668747_7c91990ed5.jpg" title="Foggy morning" alt="Foggy morning" border="0" height="473" width="500" /></a></p> <p>And lots of fog out the window.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2022472086/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2022472086/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2263/2022472086_e973143b16.jpg" title="Foggy morning" alt="Foggy morning" border="0" height="360" width="500" /></a></p> <p>It&#8217;s been a day of catching up. I only got half of the orders out today (*sigh*) but the rest will definitely be done by tomorrow. Some batches just take longer than others. This particular one was about twice the size as usual, with a large percentage of international orders. Shipping globally is more time-consuming than shipping locally.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2022473270/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2022473270/" title="Foggy morning by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/2022473270_b09c01923c.jpg" title="Foggy morning" alt="Foggy morning" border="0" height="358" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Of course, the kicker is that once I get these out tomorrow, it will already be time to get the next batch ready to go, if I don&#8217;t want to fall behind again. And I don&#8217;t.</p> <p>Ah, it&#8217;s almost time for the school bus to get here and another evening to begin. Off I go to await my firstborn&#8217;s arrival home.</p> <p>Whoa, almost forgot my little bit for <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/groups/group/show?id=997435%3AGroup%3A5157" target="_blank">30 Days of Thankfulness</a>&#8230;  Today I am thankful not to be a deer.  The hunt is on this week at the <a href="http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/" target="_blank">Great Swamp</a>, and I woke up to the sound of shots being fired.  Just heard another one a few seconds ago, too.  So, I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m not a deer and that nobody is stalking me with a rifle at the moment.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=336">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=336#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo business polymer clay new arrivals public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100766.html Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:15:55 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100766.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005836558/" title="Hunting raccoons by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005836558/" title="Hunting raccoons by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2340/2005836558_1b41f58aeb.jpg" title="Hunting raccoons" alt="Hunting raccoons" border="0" height="375" width="500" /></a></p> <p>We&#8217;re huntin&#8217; wabbits!</p> <p>Actually, not rabbits. We were looking for a raccoon. We&#8217;d seen him sitting in the driveway, watching us walk down the path towards him on our way to the garage. As we got closer carrying our bags of garbage and recycling, he toddled off towards the back yard. I put the bags in the cans in the garage, ran inside to get my camera, gave Eamonn a little direction regarding appropriate behavior around wild raccoons, and set off to see if we could snap a picture of the big guy.</p> <p>We couldn&#8217;t. Never did find him again. But I got this lovely shot of the back of Eamonn&#8217;s head, and his nibble-worthy little neck, as we made our way back to the front door.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005041269/" title="Packing the orders by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005041269/" title="Packing the orders by polkadotcreations, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2238/2005041269_364c03676c.jpg" title="Packing the orders" alt="Packing the orders" border="0" height="373" width="500" /></a></p> <p>It&#8217;s been a busy day so far of observing <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005042863/">a flock of migrating blackbirds</a>, dropping Aidan off at school, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005834984/">locating a napkin basket</a>, finally <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/2005039651/">changing a hard-to-reach light bulb</a>, cleaning the kitchen, raccoon hunting, cleaning the living room, picking items to be shipped, sitting in on one of Aidan&#8217;s classes for <a href="http://www.nea.org/aew/index.html" target="_blank">American Education Week</a>, sharing lunch with Mom &amp; Eamonn, and picking the rest of the items to be shipped. Were it not for the school-related distraction in the middle of the day, I&#8217;d probably have gotten at least the Priority Mail packages on their way today. Unfortunately, though, I&#8217;ve missed the mail pickup at this point. Which is why I have time to be blogging right now. If there still existed a chance of getting these packages in the mail today, I&#8217;d be hunkering down, stuffing envelopes and boxes with wild abandon. I get a momentary reprieve, but I guess I know how I&#8217;ll be spending my night!</p> <p>Today I am thankful that I have a mother who is willing and able to come over and watch <em>Stuart Little</em> with Eamonn when I have &#8220;no younger siblings allowed&#8221; events to attend for Aidan. Thanks, Mom <img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" class="wp-smiley" /> </p> <p>[Edited to add: I forgot to mention what I did here last night.  I enabled <a href="http://site.gravatar.com/" target="_blank">gravatars</a> in the comments.  If you don&#8217;t have one, you are represented by a big pink dot.  If you don&#8217;t want to be a dot, <a href="http://site.gravatar.com/signup" target="_blank">get yourself a gravatar</a>.  They&#8217;ll work on any site that uses them.]</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=335">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=335#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo domesticity business chit chat public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100103.html Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:45:28 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100103.html <p>Or are you about ready to gouge your eyes out by now?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1966269449/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1966269449/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2386/1966269449_281e2e2e6c.jpg" title="New scarves" alt="New scarves" border="0" height="388" width="500" /></a></p> <p>These are for the boys. The one on the left goes with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1966267193/">Aidan&#8217;s orange vest</a>, and the one on the right goes with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1967095538/">Eamonn&#8217;s blue vest</a>. They&#8217;re both made in my usual way, with flannel backing, polymer clay buttons, and a few patches of a solid linen/cotton blend. The patterned fabric is from <a href="http://www.fatquartershop.com/Look-and-Learn-American-Jane-Moda-Fabrics-Quilt-Fabric-Fat-Quarter-Bundles.asp?Store_id=499&amp;Shopper_Id=662102965915662" target="_blank">American Jane&#8217;s Look and Learn</a> collection - I used a charm pack, which gave me one 4.5-inch square of each pattern in the collection. That worked out pretty well for these small scarves, except that I might have chosen different areas of some of the patterns had I cut them out myself. For instance, I would have focused on little boys playing instead of little girls in those patches on the left. So far A and E haven&#8217;t noticed, though, and I&#8217;m not saying anything!</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1968391332/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1968391332/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/1968391332_2c4a9892df.jpg" title="New scarf" alt="New scarf" border="0" height="417" width="500" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.dragonsglass.com/" target="_blank">Kathi</a> sent me the fabric to make this one for her. Good choices, Kathi, they go so nicely with the <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/cdetail_Blue.html">Blue</a> buttons! Now, I just need to get this in an envelope and on its way. Sometimes that task takes me longer than it takes me to make the darn things! If any of the rest of you like this blue/purple one, there will be several more similar to it (and yet delightfully different) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts.html">in my store</a> the next time I get a chance to do some stitching. They&#8217;re all cut out and ready to go&#8230;</p> <p>This might be a good opportunity to tell you about a few rss feeds that can help you keep track of my new creations for sale (just in case you&#8217;re waiting for a blue scarf, by chance). Subscribe to one or both of these in your favorite feed aggregator:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/PolkaDotCreations-RecentCreations">New Creations at Polka Dot Creations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.etsy.com/rss_shop.php?user_id=10867">New Creations at Etsy</a></li> </ul> <p>And as far as the three scarves I posted about today go, there are more views of all of them <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/scarves/">on flickr</a>, if you just can&#8217;t get enough. Heh.</p> <p>So, what am I thankful for today? I&#8217;m thankful that I managed to stay awake on a 45-minute drive this evening, even though I was sleepy. I picked one of my mix CD&#8217;s at random to listen to, and it was a very good choice - kept me singing the whole way home. It was quite an enjoyable ride, and not once did I feel too drowsy to get home. Whew.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=333">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=333#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo etsy sewing show and tell polymer clay new arrivals public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100047.html Sun, 11 Nov 2007 04:15:55 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/100047.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1958945802/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/1958945802_74fb2f524d.jpg" title="Scarf layouts" alt="Scarf layouts" border="0" height="500" width="461" /></p> <p></a><br /> I&#8217;m making scarves for the boys.  They&#8217;re going to be the two columns on the left, made to match their blue and orange vests.  The other three will go in <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">my etsy shop</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1958947180/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2241/1958947180_0debf3b284.jpg" title="New buttons" alt="New buttons" border="0" height="358" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> I had to make coordinating buttons, of course&#8230;</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1958945080/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2271/1958945080_b33c1f4763.jpg" title="Scarf layouts" alt="Scarf layouts" border="0" height="499" width="500" /></p> <p></a></p> <p>Here&#8217;s another series of scarves I&#8217;ll be working on.  The one on the left is <a href="http://www.dragonsglass.com/" target="_blank">Kathi</a>&#8217;s custom order, and the other four will make their way to my <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts.html">Polka Dot Creations (non-etsy) shop</a>.</p> <p>So that&#8217;s 10 scarves in the works.  After I took these pictures, I cut out the flannel backings and all of the linen pieces as well, so I have ten neat little piles, waiting for me to sew them when the opportunity arises.  Aside from the three that have definite recipients waiting for them, that could be in two days, two weeks or two months, depending on how successful I am at squelching the little voice in my head that says &#8220;who needs clean clothes, food in the fridge, and vacuumed floors? finishing crafty projects is of vital importance!&#8221;  It seems like a losing battle, but for the sake of my home and my family, I must fight the good fight <img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" class="wp-smiley" /> </p> <p>What am I thankful for today?  Well, at the risk of sounding exactly like <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=331">yesterday</a>, I&#8217;m thankful for an afternoon visiting with Michele.   Not quite like yesterday, though.  That was a visit with Michelle with two ll&#8217;s.  Today I visited Michele with one l.  Michele is my oldest friend, matron of honor at my wedding, and someone I rarely see anymore despite the fact that we only live about 30 minutes away from each other.  I&#8217;m thankful that she thought to email me last night when she realized she had a day with no plans, and I&#8217;m thankful that I was online at 11pm to receive the message in time.  And, after seeing our collective four boys doing a fine imitation of a jungle full of monkeys, I&#8217;m thankful that I only had to bring two of them back home with me.  Heh.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=332">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=332#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo sewing show and tell polymer clay public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99585.html Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:09:56 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99585.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1941033674/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1941033674/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2402/1941033674_3c07947484.jpg" title="Favorites week of November 5" alt="Favorites week of November 5" border="0" height="500" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Would you look at my flickr favorites? Clearly I am a little unbalanced when it comes to shoes. Strangely enough, I don&#8217;t have a huge shoe wardrobe myself. I have <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1745847960/">a black lace-up pair</a> I have had for 7 years and wear most of the time, <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2154/1826491093_b9e08d46aa_t.jpg">a brown pair of maryjanes</a> from eBay, and <a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1103/1172602809_6bb84744e9_t.jpg">a black pair of maryjanes</a> from eBay. Other than that there are a few other pairs laying around that I sometimes wear, but these are my main ones. In the summer, it&#8217;s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1642898695/">my black sandals</a> or flip-flips. So many fun &amp; funky shoes in my favorites, but I&#8217;m still playing it safe with black &amp; brown in Real Life.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1940484121/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1940484121/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2130/1940484121_17ef0581bf.jpg" title="Visiting" alt="Visiting" border="0" height="380" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Today I am thankful for time with friends. Time to share some conversation, a little lunch, some more conversation, a delicious cup of gingerbread coffee with pumpkin creamer, and just a bit more conversation. Thanks for a nice time, Michelle. Let&#8217;s not wait another 8.5 months before we do this again!</p> <p>And by the way, Michelle, what on earth has happened to our children? Remember these sweet babies?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1940486419/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/1940486419_30207e4f43_o.jpg" title="Babies" alt="Babies" border="0" height="251" width="283" /></p> <p></a></p> <p>When did they turn into <em>this</em>?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1941324648/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2060/1941324648_da01454c6a.jpg" title="Wierd kids" alt="Wierd kids" border="0" height="344" width="500" /></p> <p></a></p> <p>*sigh*</p> <p><img src="http://www.clarkesworld.com/m2km/winker.gif" border="0" /></p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=331">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=331#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo parenthood flickr public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99472.html Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:35:11 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99472.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1920079870/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1920079870/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/1920079870_4b1838fa5c.jpg" title="New skirt" alt="New skirt" border="0" height="500" width="447" /></a></p> <p>Some days when the boys are home from school, I get all domestic and get in the mood to take care of laundry, clean up the kitchen, maybe catch up on some business email.  This is not one of those days.  When it became clear to me that the guys were hunkering down for a long morning of imaginative play in their pajamas, I decided I wanted to play something myself.  So, I sat on my bed with a pile of fabric, cut out the pieces for my mother-in-law&#8217;s birthday present, and I cut out the fabric for a skirt.  I didn&#8217;t stitch up my MIL&#8217;s napkins, but I did make this skirt - my Thanksgiving skirt.  Yes, I realize these guys are roosters and not turkeys, but I couldn&#8217;t find turkeys.  Or pilgrims.  Or cornucopias.  Or depictions of Thanksgiving feasts.  So roosters it is, and I think they&#8217;re nifty.  Specifically, the fabric is Alexander Henry&#8217;s <a href="http://buyfabricsonline.com/catalog/default.php/cPath/26_457_465?osCsid=950ec73ec1d3c6a153a987afee160c4c" target="_blank">The Roost</a>.  The skirt itself was made without a pattern.  I just folded it selvage-to-selvage, stitched it into a tube, hemmed it, and made an elastic casing on the top.</p> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1920077760/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2258/1920077760_ac17641d0e_m.jpg" title="What I did this morning - BEFORE" alt="What I did this morning - BEFORE" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1919251825/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2197/1919251825_c720c6a6b2_m.jpg" title="What I did this morning - AFTER" alt="What I did this morning - AFTER" border="0" /></a></p> <p>I still felt like playing after that, so I colored my hair.   I spent this summer squirting peroxide here and there on my head, leading to streaks of lighter color.  I did have a plan, but I kind of lost interest in pursuing it at some point, and stopped bothering.  And it was starting to <em>look</em> like I stopped bothering.  So, I got my hands on a box of temporary 28-shampoo Chestnut Brown and went to town.  Now I look more like nature intended ;-)  At least for the next few weeks, anyway.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1919252477/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/1919252477_083e4962f3.jpg" title="Turkey Curry Meatball Soup" alt="Turkey Curry Meatball Soup" border="0" height="500" width="420" /></p> <p></a><br /> I didn&#8217;t make the soup this morning - I did that on Monday, but I did eat the leftovers for lunch yesterday, and that&#8217;s when I took this picture.  It&#8217;s <a href="http://funkyanddelightful.blogspot.com/2007/10/change-of-pace.html" target="_blank">Turkey Curry Meatball Soup</a>, and despite the fact that it&#8217;s full of vegetables, I really like it!  I even liked it for lunch a few days later, and I am <em>not</em> a leftovers fan, generally-speaking.  Good thing it was delicious, because the recipe made quite a bit.  As part of <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=323">my &#8220;get organized&#8221; initiative</a>, I&#8217;m planning our meals for the week, and giving each day a &#8220;theme.&#8221;  Mondays are to be &#8220;try something new&#8221; night and this soup was the first candidate.  I&#8217;m so glad we liked it, because I now have three containers of it frozen for future &#8220;grab something decent out of the freezer&#8221; nights.</p> <p>Day two and I&#8217;m already thinking of skipping <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=329">the NaBloPoMo festivities</a>.  Not that I won&#8217;t post every day, because I might, but I think I&#8217;ve lost interest in the idea of being part of <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/" target="_blank">the whole organized movement</a>.  Still, being thankful is always a good thing, so I&#8217;ll end this post with what I am thankful for today:  Days off from school that we can spend playing (together or on our own) and spontaneously visiting with family.</p> <p>And with that, I must go and straighten up the living room - my mother and nephews are coming over shortly to join us for lunch at Stewarts (see?  I meant it when I <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=325">told them</a> &#8220;maybe another day&#8221;) followed by a little play time.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=330">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=330#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> recipes sewing show and tell domesticity nablopomo baking chit chat self-improvement public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99296.html Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:15:07 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99296.html <p>As usual, I&#8217;m a little late coming to the party, but I read today about <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/profile/polkadotcreations">NaBloPoMo</a>, which is short for National Blog Posting Month. The idea is to post once a day during the month of November. Well, heck, that&#8217;s not really a stretch for me, now is it? So, I&#8217;m joining in despite having spent most of the first week of this month in a fog of taking care of other things online and not posting as much as usual.</p> <p>If you&#8217;re up for it, <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/main/index/join" target="_blank">join the party</a>! And be sure to <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/profile/polkadotcreations">add me as a friend</a>, because right now I look darn lonely sitting there advertising that &#8220;Lisa Clarke doesn&#8217;t have any friends on this social network yet.&#8221; I&#8217;m getting flashbacks to grade school - didn&#8217;t have any friends in that social network either. *sigh*</p> <p><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/article.php?id=pdcdh01"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imglrg/pdcdh01.jpg" title="Scroll Cane" alt="Scroll Cane" border="0" height="400" width="388" /></p> <p></a></p> <p>Anywho, I have a new tutorial to announce. Yay! My <a href="http://njpcg.org">NJPCG</a> buddy <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10033526@N07/" target="_blank">Dot</a> has a nifty <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/article.php?id=pdcdh01">Scroll Cane tutorial </a>she is sharing with us. I&#8217;m thinking of trying this in the <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?cat=59">Evolution of a Color Scheme</a> colors when I finally get back to working on that. Which will be soon. I promise.</p> <p>Back to NaBloPoMo for a moment - they have groups you can join there. I don&#8217;t for a moment think that I will have any time to really participate in these groups, but one of them struck me as a very simple thing to do as part of my regular post. <a href="http://nablopomo.ning.com/group/30daysofthanks" target="_blank">30 Days of Thanks</a> is pretty much just what it sounds like. So today I will end my post with one thing I am thankful for:</p> <p>I&#8217;m thankful for many big, important things that I will touch on as the month progresses, but for today, let&#8217;s just say that I am thankful for peaceful moments when children are at school and husband is at work, where I can sit and quietly type for a while. Soon one of the boys will be home, followed shortly by the other, and lastly by Neil, and I will be happy to welcome each of them back. But I do appreciate the quiet of this moment.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=329">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=329#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> nablopomo online fun blogging tutorials polymer clay techniques new arrivals public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99056.html Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:52:19 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/99056.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1896057091/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/1896057091_ae3008d994.jpg" title="Classic toys" alt="Classic toys" border="0" height="464" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> Eamonn had a Target gift card and chose to spend some of it on a set of alphabet blocks.  It doesn&#8217;t matter how many elaborate newfangled toys end up in our family room, it seems the most popular are always the classic toys.  They are particularly fond of anything with letters on it, as letters lend themselves to spelling silly words.  And silly words lead to giggles.  Lots of giggles.  This set of blocks is very cool because there is more than one of each letter, so they can actually spell their own names without having to employ creative spellings, or turning V&#8217;s into A&#8217;s and Z&#8217;s into N&#8217;s.</p> <p>At my suggestion, Eamonn also bought a clear tub to put the blocks in.  And yet, well, let&#8217;s just say maybe I should start a pool here on how many days it will be before the first block finds its painful way under my foot while I&#8217;m holding a heavy laundry basket on my way to the washing machine&#8230;  I&#8217;m going to have to come up with a good way to entice him to keep the blocks put away.  And if I&#8217;m successful with that, maybe I can branch into keeping the computer games in their cases and his socks off of the floor.  A mother can dream, right?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1896902716/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/1896902716_5e46497a71.jpg" title="Backyard visitor" alt="Backyard visitor" border="0" height="488" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> Look what was in our yard late this afternoon.  What a ruckus this little one was making!  I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve heard a full-size cat meow so loud, let alone a kitten.  He wasn&#8217;t the least bit afraid of letting me get close, either.   Yesterday there was a different kitten in the yard - all black - but he was super skittish.  I&#8217;m guessing they&#8217;re related.  Too bad Neil and Eamonn have bad physical reactions to cats, or I&#8217;d have put a bowl of something out for the fuzzy little guy.  The boys would both love to have a pet, and cats are at the top of their list.</p> <p>Anybody ever have bunnies?  I keep thinking a rabbit might be a nice pet, but I wonder what the &#8220;upkeep&#8221; is like.  At this point I don&#8217;t want a high-maintenance animal, but I could handle a pet that has similar requirements to cats.  Dog-level requirements would be too much for me.  If you&#8217;ve placed an order with me in the last few weeks, you&#8217;d agree that adding one more big distraction to my plate would be a <em>bad</em> idea!</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=328">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=328#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> domesticity parenthood chit chat public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98767.html Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:20:29 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98767.html <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4">Top 5 Sellers* for September, 2007 <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/PolkaDotCreations-MonthlyBestsellerList" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Other Readers" border="0" height="16" width="16" /></a> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> </font></p> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_do5309.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/do5309.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_hotp2166.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/hotp2166.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ad17d.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/ad17.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pc17.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/pc17.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pc11.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/pc11.jpg" border="0" /></a> </font>&lt;/p&gt; <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 1 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_do5309.html"> Project Book: Creative Canes </a><br /> 2 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_hotp2166.html"> Project Book: Clever Clay Creations </a><br /> 3 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ad17d.html"> DVD:Innovations Intricate Kaleidoscope Canes </a><br /> 4 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pc17.html"> Magazine:PolymerCAFE Winter 2006/07 </a><br /> 5 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pc11.html"> Magazine:PolymerCAFE Summer 2005 </a><br /> </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><em><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog//?cat=18">Bestsellers for previous months</a> <font size="1">(<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/lisaclarke/tag/bestsellers" target="_blank">Bestsellers prior to May, 2007</a>)</font></em></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Want to be notified instantly when this list changes? <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/rssfeed.html">Click here</a> to see how&#8230;</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">*Sales figures for this calculation are based on items <em>shipped</em>.</font></td> </tr> </table> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4">Top 5 Sellers* for October, 2007 <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/PolkaDotCreations-MonthlyBestsellerList" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Other Readers" border="0" height="16" width="16" /></a> </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> </font></p> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ps04.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/ps04.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_do5309.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/do5309.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ad17d.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/ad17.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_scbelj03.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/scbelj03.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pce15.html"><img src="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/imgsml/pce15.jpg" border="0" /></a> </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 1 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ps04.html"> DVD: Millefiori Story </a><br /> 2 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_do5309.html"> Project Book: Creative Canes </a><br /> 3 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_ad17d.html"> DVD:Innovations Intricate Kaleidoscope Canes </a><br /> 4 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_scbelj03.html"> Magazine:Belle Armoire Jewelry Volume 3 </a><br /> 5 ) <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_pce15.html"> DVD:ArtWay Studio Extruding Polymer Clay Canes </a><br /> </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><em><a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog//?cat=18">Bestsellers for previous months</a> <font size="1">(<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/lisaclarke/tag/bestsellers" target="_blank">Bestsellers prior to May, 2007</a>)</font></em></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Want to be notified instantly when this list changes? <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/rssfeed.html">Click here</a> to see how&#8230;</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">*Sales figures for this calculation are based on items <em>shipped</em>.</font></td> </tr> </table> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=327">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=327#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> project books magazines bestsellers dvds public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98359.html Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:59:25 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98359.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1859567392/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1859567392/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/1859567392_71791cc9b0.jpg" title="Butterscotch candy?" alt="Butterscotch candy?" border="0" height="500" width="341" /></a></p> <p>This morning I tried a new soap. One minute I was a 36-year-old woman taking a shower and the next I was five or six, in a movie theater with my grandparents watching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete&#39;s_Dragon" target="_blank"><em>Pete&#8217;s Dragon</em></a> and eating butterscotch candies from Granny&#8217;s pocketbook. That&#8217;s some powerful soap.</p> <p>Ahem. Anyway. I&#8217;ve decided we spend too much time staring at screens, be they computer monitors or televisions. This point was driven home to me this morning when I suggested to my little henchmen that we should have a few hours today with no TV and no computers. From the looks on their panic-stricken faces, you&#8217;d think I had put forth the idea that we spend the day organizing our underwear drawers and vacuuming.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858742541/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858742541/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/1858742541_bb6fcdbabd.jpg" title="Baking apple pie" alt="Baking apple pie" border="0" height="467" width="500" /></a></p> <p>At approximately 9:30am, after ample warning and time to play a few games, I turned off their computer monitors, closed the lid on my laptop, and set the timer in the kitchen for 2 hours. Then Eamonn and I set to work making a pie. I was under the impression that I had taken a glass pie plate from among my grandmother&#8217;s things (the other grandmother, not the one with the butterscotch candies) a few years ago. I thought it was part of the small collection of items I picked out when my parents were cleaning out Grandma &amp; Grandpa&#8217;s house in preparation to sell it. I suppose I could be wrong. Or maybe I put it somewhere weird. Either way, there was no pie plate to be found. Eamonn crawled into the cabinet for me to check the dark corner in the back, but he came up empty.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858742893/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858742893/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/1858742893_0c79daa7fd.jpg" title="Baking apple pie" alt="Baking apple pie" border="0" height="378" width="500" /></a></p> <p>So we improvised. Round, rectangular, what difference does it make? It all tastes the same, right?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1859568524/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1859568524/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2395/1859568524_7b1f24392d.jpg" title="Apple pie" alt="Apple pie" border="0" height="484" width="500" /></a></p> <p>And as far as that goes, it was good but not great. We used pre-made crusts and canned filling and you can tell. Don&#8217;t get me wrong - I still had a piece for lunch, and will probably have another slice or two before the day is up. But I think the next time I want to take the easy way out pie-wise, I&#8217;ll just do my usual thing of throwing a <a href="http://www.mrssmiths.com/" target="_blank">Mrs. Smith&#8217;s</a> Apple Pie into the oven. Those are delicious.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858907553/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1858907553/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/1858907553_11d9180528.jpg" title="Halloween clearance" alt="Halloween clearance" border="0" height="327" width="500" /></a></p> <p>When not baking, I flipped leisurely through <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/books/detail_0762430877.html">Sue Heaser&#8217;s new book</a>, and the boys tried on their <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=325">clearance costumes from yesterday</a>. The two hours ended when the oven timer beeped, the little people scurried off almost immediately to watch <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=325">their new Backyardigans DVD</a>, and I (who really am no better when it comes to screen time these days) flipped open the laptop, did a quick email check, and processed <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/archives/date-taken/2007/11/04/">my pie-making photos</a>. It&#8217;s probably pretty sad that we find ourselves twitching when the tv and computers are taken away, and I think for all of our sakes, I&#8217;m going to institute more of these screen-free times. I&#8217;d like to see more baskets of books in strategic places around the house. I&#8217;d love to find the boys engaged in a good story sometimes, instead of bathing in the blue glow of the computer screen. Aidan has been able to read since he was four years old, but he considers it more of a utilitarian skill than something that can bring him pleasure. Eamonn is learning to read now, too, and while it&#8217;s hard to deny the contribution that tv and computer games have made toward that goal, I think I&#8217;d like for his reading vocabulary to extend beyond <em>play</em>, <em>quit</em>, <em>bonus features</em>, and <em>scene selection</em>.</p> <p>It could be worse. Most of the games they play on the computer have significant educational value. When they watch TV, they are watching either PBS, or DVDs from our collection. And often (as is this case this very minute) the TV seems to just be there for background noise. A few minutes ago, they set the language to French (on purpose), quickly got bored because they couldn&#8217;t understand what anyone was saying, and proceeded to play some imaginative game completely unrelated to what the French Backyardigans were doing. This kind of thing happens a lot. So, they&#8217;re not playing shoot-em-up games all day or being barraged with harmful advertising, but they are missing things with their eyes on the screen so much. I need to think about ways to restructure our days and minimize the amount of time we spend being passively entertained, and now is a good time to do it, while I&#8217;m <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=323">working on tasks, calendars &amp; scheduling</a>.</p> <p>As for me, I have some business-related work to take care of this afternoon, but I am craving some more screen-free time. I&#8217;m going to drag the vacuum down to the family room, crank up some <a href="http://www.polkadotradio.com">Polka Dot Radio</a> nice and loud, and do something physical (not to mention useful) with my time! Actually, forget Polka Dot Radio for the moment - I have this strange desire for Christmas music suddenly. Maybe I&#8217;ll indulge in a little <a href="http://www.live365.com/stations/rob9874" target="_blank">Christmas Broadband</a> for a while.</p> <p>I hope you&#8217;ll pardon me now. There are halls to deck!</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=326">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=326#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> domesticity parenthood baking chit chat self-improvement public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98271.html Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:47:21 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/98271.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1847762525/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/1847762525_03c8c08fea.jpg" title="New scarf" alt="New scarf" border="0" height="395" width="500" /></a></p> <p>The boys and I braved 50-degree temperatures, squeaky car brakes and raging PMS for a quick trip to Wal-Mart today. I was in need of baby blue thread, and <a href="http://clarkesworld.livejournal.com/">Neil</a> not being home, I couldn&#8217;t just run out on my own. Waiting until Monday was out of the question because I really wanted all three of the last scarves completed and in <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">my Etsy shop</a> immediately. Patience is not my strong suit. So into the car we piled, amid <font color="#800080"><em>I don&#8217;t want to go out</em></font>&#8217;s and <em><font color="#800080">why can&#8217;t we stay in our pajamas all day</font></em>&#8217;s and <font color="#800080"><em>I think you should just go and let us stay home</em></font>&#8217;s and (my personal favorite) <em><font color="#800080">Hey! <u>I</u> wanted to get in first! <u>He</u> can&#8217;t get in the car first! <u>I</u> wanted to get in first</font>&#8216;</em>s.</p> <p>Since leaving the whiny people behind in the driveway to debate the merits of being seated first was not a viable option, I soldiered on, bringing them with me. A few minutes on the road softened them to the idea of shopping, and I had just started to let myself think that this wouldn&#8217;t be a terrible trip after all, when they saw it: Stewarts. The only place Mom lets them have ice cream and frozen root beer floats for lunch. <font color="#800080"><em>Can we go to Stewarts? Pleeeeeeease?</em></font> Had I responded with my gut, I&#8217;d have said &#8220;You have <em>got</em> to be kidding me! The last thing I need today while your father is out of town and I am dealing with the Period From Hell is the two of you hyperactive on a liquid sugar lunch!&#8221; My cooler head prevailed, however, and what came out of my mouth was more along the lines of &#8220;I don&#8217;t think so, Sweetie. Maybe another day.&#8221;</p> <p>There was a time, not so long ago, when &#8220;maybe another day&#8221; would have been greeted with a disappointed but understanding and accepting &#8220;ok, Mommy.&#8221; These days I am more likely to be barraged with a chorus of <em><font color="#800080">but why</font></em>&#8217;s and <font color="#800080"><em>I&#8217;m hungry <u>now</u></em></font>&#8217;s and <font color="#ff00cc"></font><font color="#800080"><em>why can&#8217;t we go to Stewarts today since Daddy</em></font> <font color="#ff00cc"><em><font color="#800080">isn&#8217;t here</font></em></font>&#8217;s.  [Daddy has smartly declared his dislike of Stewarts, and in so doing has managed to render himself an obstacle to eating there.]<font color="#ff00cc"> </font> It&#8217;s enough to make me tear my hair out. When did they suddenly decide that whining, arguing, and pestering me was a good plan? I have <em>never</em> given in to that. I have never given them reason to believe that persistence in this manner would pay off to their advantage. The only logical conclusion is that they enjoy seeing my head explode as I try (usually in vain) to keep my cool.</p> <p>But I was trying to tell you about my scarf, wasn&#8217;t I?</p> <p><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/1848588206_a086da207b.jpg" title="New scarf" alt="New scarf" border="0" height="500" width="427" /></a></p> <p>Wal-Mart itself was relatively uneventful. I got my thread, and the boys asked me if they could pool their Halloween money from Grandma and buy a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backyardigans" target="_blank">Backyardigans</a> DVD. I have to admit, I was completely won over by the idea of plopping them in front of the TV for two hours this afternoon, and I readily agreed. As we were skipping with glee to the checkout, we found ourselves in the Halloween clearance aisle. I thought about <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1820086132/">the dragon costume</a>, which has served us through three holidays now and a number of dress-up games in between, and it occurred to me it might be fun to pick up another costume or two. A few minutes later we were the proud owners of a $4 shark and a $5 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_Fett" target="_blank">Boba Fett</a>. Not a bad haul.</p> <p>Don&#8217;t worry. I am getting to the scarf. Really.</p> <p>Upon our arrival at home, we made ourselves some lunch, and sat down in front of the new DVD while we ate. I got sucked into the hour-long Secret Agent Backyardigans special episode, but I managed to tear myself away before the two regular half-hour episodes began. And that, my friends, is when I put together the new scarf.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759"><img src="http://images.etsy.com/all_images/5/5a6/55b/il_430xN.13493116.jpg" border="0" height="358" width="430" /></a></p> <p>This lovely scarf, made with prints from Amy Butler&#8217;s Lotus collection and a custom coordinating button by me, was to be an attractive 6&#215;60-inch scarf. But something went horribly wrong. Well, not <em>horribly</em> wrong. You can&#8217;t even tell by the picture. Let&#8217;s just say, when I measured the fabric last week, I somehow left off about 10 inches. So, ok. 50 inches long is still acceptable, right? Sure. But I also managed to cut the width so oddly that the scarf varies from 6 inches wide at some points to 5 inches wide at others. It&#8217;s kind of wavy, and it&#8217;s noticeable.</p> <p>Yes, it&#8217;s a misfit scarf, but it&#8217;s not without its charm. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the wonky part isn&#8217;t at all obvious when the scarf is being worn. It&#8217;s still got some pretty fabric, and it&#8217;s still backed by a nice, soft flannel. And of course, it still features that funky polymer clay button. So I&#8217;m going ahead and <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759">selling it anyway</a>. With a significant discount to make up for its shortcomings. I just couldn&#8217;t relegate the poor thing to the back of a drawer somewhere. Someone will buy it and shower it with the TLC it needs. Poor little misfit scarf.</p> <p>Whew. I sure said a lot for someone who initially wasn&#8217;t going to even bother posting. I thought all I had to say was &#8220;I added <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703353">three</a> <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703551">more</a> <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7703759">scarves</a> to Etsy&#8221; and that would have made for an awfully short, uninspired post. I guess sitting in my dark bedroom, lights off, in my bed, under the covers, <a href="http://www.live365.com/stations/catherdralguitar" target="_blank">10-String Guitar</a> emanating softly from the laptop speakers, I found my voice. I&#8217;d keep this peaceful music on all night while I sleep, except for the fact that once in a while a voice pops out of nowhere for a 10-second promo spot and scares the heck out of me. I don&#8217;t need that kind of stress.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=325">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=325#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> etsy sewing parenthood show and tell chit chat public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97924.html Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:55:48 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97924.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1827327544/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/1827327544_b798709f3a.jpg" title="New scarf" alt="New scarf" border="0" height="406" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> See? Told ya <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/cdetail_Swamp.html">my Swamp color scheme</a> and the <a href="http://www.marcusbrothers.com/cgi-bin/fabricgallery/gallery.cgi?Category=370" target="_blank">Bleeker Street fabric</a> belonged together! It practically looks like I custom-mixed those clay colors to match, doesn&#8217;t it? I think this combination is just yummy.  And what is interesting to note is that there is no actual aqua in the Swamp scheme.  The light blue and the yellowy green in such close proximity trick the eye into seeing aqua.  It&#8217;s<a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=287"> that principle I wrote about recently</a> in action.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1827327034/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2305/1827327034_072863868e.jpg" title="New scarf" alt="New scarf" border="0" height="497" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> I&#8217;m so glad there&#8217;s a nip in the air this morning, so I can wear it around on my errands.  If these colors make you swoon as much as they do to me, fear not. There&#8217;s another version of it headed to <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">Etsy</a> one of these days.</p> <p>The husband has <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/powershot_a610/" target="_blank">the good camera</a> with him at the moment, can you tell?  Blogging has turned me into a photo snob.  I&#8217;m no longer happy with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/kodak/dc3400_zoom/" target="_blank">the 2.1 megapixel old standby</a>, darn it.  If he&#8217;s going to make off with his decent camera all the time, then I think I need one of my own.  Any suggestions for a nice point-and-shoot that I can add to <a href="http://www.wists.com/lclarke522/">my Wists</a> (another name for &#8220;list of things I&#8217;d like but will probably never get, but that&#8217;s ok, I can live without them if I must or find some way to turn them into a business expense and just buy them myself&#8221;)?</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1827423636/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2257/1827423636_8107bb297c.jpg" title="Favorites week of October 29" alt="Favorites week of October 29" border="0" height="500" width="500" /></p> <p></a><br /> My <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/favorites/">flickr favorites</a> this week. As you can see, I haven&#8217;t spent much time &#8220;flicking&#8221; this week. Where <em>does</em> the time go?</p> <p>Speaking of time, I have roughly 2 hours left of child-free time this morning, and I need to spend it getting some orders the rest of the way out the door, and catching up on any number of other business tasks that fell by the wayside while I was experiencing technical difficulties this week.</p> <p>Oh! Guess what. I bought yellow clay. That means the last few installments of <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?cat=59">Evolution of a Color Scheme</a> can&#8217;t be far behind&#8230;  As long as Neil leaves me the better camera.</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=324">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=324#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> sewing show and tell online fun chit chat flickr polymer clay public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97755.html Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:31:38 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97755.html <p>Hi. Remember me? I used to blog here. I got on this &#8220;organizational tear&#8221; for the last two days that completely consumed me. I&#8217;ll save you the gory details, but in a nutshell, I finally found <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar" target="_blank">an alternate calendar</a> and <a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com" target="_blank">a task management system</a> to try so that I could stop using Outlook. I&#8217;ve been using <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/" target="_blank">Thunderbird</a> for my email for at least a year, and having to run two separate programs for my schedule and my email wasn&#8217;t cutting it. In fact, I was avoiding opening up Outlook altogether, and as such pretty much ignoring my schedule. That wasn&#8217;t really working for me lately&#8230;</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1820086668/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2328/1820086668_cdcb2cca2a.jpg" title="Halloween" alt="Halloween" border="0" height="500" width="299" /></p> <p></a><br /> Anyway, it took two days of trial-and-error, testing, setting up difference scenarios &amp; then changing my mind and trying something else, but I think I&#8217;m happy at this point. I&#8217;m ready to get uber-organized, and keep up with all of my responsibilities. The only thing I miss in my new setup is a way to sync with my Palm. That&#8217;s not as important as it used to be, though. I haven&#8217;t been carrying my Palm with me much these days. With luck, somebody will develop an appropriate hotsync conduit before too long. I should be able to wait.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1820086132/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2415/1820086132_eb753b41f0.jpg" title="Halloween" alt="Halloween" border="0" height="500" width="316" /></p> <p></a><br /> I made another scarf like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/tags/scarves/">the others</a> - spread out the work over the course of the week - and I really love it. I haven&#8217;t photographed it yet, but I will tomorrow, while I&#8217;m wearing it, since it&#8217;s for me. Heh. I have three more destined for <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">the shop</a>, that I hope to finish this weekend.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1819246101/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2316/1819246101_973b8e60fb.jpg" title="Halloween" alt="Halloween" border="0" height="500" width="373" /></p> <p></a><br /> Guess you noticed the gratuitous kid pictures? The pirate got his costume out of his aunt&#8217;s box of &#8220;things she got at theme nights at the club&#8221; (there were several pirates at school, but I bet the others didn&#8217;t have a flamboyant silver skull and crossbones on their hats. heh.). The dragon wore a costume that his brother wore for the two previous years. Never thought we&#8217;d get so much mileage out of a last-minute $10 Wal-Mart purchase.</p> <p>One more Halloween over,  three more bowls of candy to try and keep my hands out of&#8230;</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=323">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=323#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> occasions chit chat self-improvement public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97485.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:22:11 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97485.html <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1805429061/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1805429061/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2354/1805429061_5f0379cd32.jpg" title="My car" alt="My car" border="0" height="416" width="500" /></a></p> <p>So the lawn guys were here today cleaning up two weeks-worth of leaves. They did a great job on the lawn, the sidewalk and the driveway. And speaking of the driveway, guess where most of the driveway leaves got blown? Yeah, oh so conveniently onto the car. And up against the garage door. Neil was so amused he snapped a few pictures.</p> <p>Amusingly enough, the head of the lawn guys lives next door, and when he looked out the window and saw what our car looked like, he came over and fixed it. And probably had a &#8220;discussion&#8221; with one of his employees. Heh.</p> <p>I&#8217;ve got a bunch of new magazines in stock and covers to scan, but there&#8217;s a child sleeping in the same room as the scanner tonight - I had to separate the two little chatterboxes, or they&#8217;d <em>never</em> go to sleep. Guess I&#8217;ll just flip through the magazines and make note of the polymer clay articles for now and scan the covers another day.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794964560/" title="Photo Sharing"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2223/1794964560_8e993be891.jpg" title="New skirt" alt="New skirt" border="0" height="500" width="394" /></p> <p></a><br /> Tomorrow is going to be dominated by Halloween-related activities. Man, I wish I liked this holiday. At least I have a snazzy new skirt to wear. I think maybe I need a fun skirt like this for every holiday&#8230;</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=322">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=322#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> domesticity sewing business occasions show and tell chit chat public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97274.html Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:43:56 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/97274.html <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7635390"><img src="http://images.etsy.com/all_images/4/40b/dc7/il_430xN.13273074.jpg" border="0" height="529" width="430" /></a></p> <p>32 degrees to be exact.  It inspired me to get started on a line of scarves for <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">my Etsy shop</a>.  I finished <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7635390">the first</a> today and have the fabric cut up for five others (one of which I am keeping for myself).</p> <p>I used prints from Robyn Pandolph&#8217;s <a href="http://www.sewmamasew.com/ccp0-catshow/CLWOO.html" target="_blank">Empress Woo</a> collection on the front, along with a nice linen-cotton blend.  On the back is a continuous length of cream-colored flannel.  I love these fabrics.  The <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/968207558/">Empress Woo skirt</a> I made this summer is one of my favorites.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7635390"><img src="http://images.etsy.com/all_images/f/fa6/b8d/il_430xN.13273123.jpg" border="0" height="430" width="430" /></a></p> <p> I embellished the scarf with a polymer clay button.  I thought the colors in the <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/cdetail_Country.html">Country</a> color scheme went nicely with the Empress Woo colors, saving me from custom-mixing anything this time around.</p> <p>I plan to make one more Empress Woo scarf, with colors that tend more towards yellow than green.  After that, I&#8217;ve got one based on the pattern in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1159340095/">this skirt</a>, one based on the pattern in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/604973679/">this skirt</a>, and two based on the pattern in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/904979771/in/set-72157600287005407/">this skirt</a> (and one of those two will be mine - I can&#8217;t get enough of that <a href="http://store.besewhappy.com/servlet/-strse-1320/Bleeker-Street-Fat-Quarter/Detail" target="_blank">Bleeker Street fabric</a>!  It reminds me a lot of my <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/cdetail_Swamp.html">Swamp</a> color scheme, which is one of my favorites.)</p> <p>I&#8217;m looking forward to making my own.  Plus, I really think these will make some nice Christmas gifts.  Hopefully there will be a few <a href="http://polkadotcreations.etsy.com">Etsy</a> shoppers who agree with me&#8230;  And the best part of these scarves is that all of the prints are coming from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1468848172/">my stash</a>, which I have pledged not to add to until there&#8217;s more room in the box!</p> <p class="akst_link"><a href="../share-this-1.4/share-this/http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=&amp;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=321">Polka Dot Creations</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.polkadotcreations.com/blog/?p=321#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p> etsy sewing show and tell public http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/96771.html Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:43:26 GMT http://lisaclarke.livejournal.com/96771.html <p>They boys had requested a weekend at a hotel. We couldn&#8217;t swing that, so we asked them to make a list of their favorite memories from previous hotel visits and worked at checking them off.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795237998/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795237998/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2286/1795237998_1aa7e3aeab.jpg" title="Family game night" alt="Family game night" border="0" height="385" width="500" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.landolakes.com/products/CocoaCappuSales.cfm" target="_blank">Hot chocolate</a>. Check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794397795/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794397795/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/1794397795_47bc46f53d.jpg" title="Family game night" alt="Family game night" border="0" height="411" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Staying up late on Saturday night to play <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummikub" target="_blank">games</a>. Check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794397417/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794397417/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/1794397417_25f14c5d37.jpg" title="Family game night" alt="Family game night" border="0" height="333" width="500" /></a></p> <p>And check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795311312/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795311312/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2236/1795311312_bd1ac964ed.jpg" title="A day at the beach" alt="A day at the beach" border="0" height="484" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Finding <a href="http://www.oceangrovenj.com/" target="_blank">a shore town</a> to do a little shopping for jellybeans and other trinkets. Check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794473617/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1794473617/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/1794473617_5bdbbbd38b.jpg" title="A day at the beach" alt="A day at the beach" border="0" height="500" width="409" /></a></p> <p>Walking on a boardwalk. Check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795313426/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795313426/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2186/1795313426_e13d30edf5.jpg" title="A day at the beach" alt="A day at the beach" border="0" height="454" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Unexpectedly getting to play on the beach. Check.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795313716/" title="Photo Sharing"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/1795313716/" title="Pho