I think today instead of ending with my thankful thought, I will start with it. Guess what - Kim from Today’s Creative Blog featured me yesterday! Isn’t that cool? I encourage you to go check out Kim’s blog. I’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’m thankful to be included in such a nifty “club.” Thanks, Kim!

And to all of you who have wandered over here from Today’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 Color Challenge… It’s a monthly event around here, each month based on a color. If you can craft something in brown, upload an image to flickr, and add it to our pool, then you can join us. The more the merrier, all media welcome! You can find out more here.

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’t notice when we did orange, olive, or aqua. Maybe “brown” is just too broad a color name. Perhaps I should have said “chestnut.” Heh. Anyway, my fault for not being specific enough, so I will accept anything from the brownish family. You’ve got a few more weeks to get your submissions in (where did November go already??).

It’s Friday, so you know what that means? Flickr favorites of course. Such a feast for the eyes, that flickr is, wouldn’t you say?

Will you look at what I played along with last night? I, who haven’t exercised in years. 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 something. 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 “active.” Wish me luck in de-pudging. I signed up with SparkPeople.com, who made the video. They have a few tools that might come in handy, and it’s free, so why not?

Anybody have any suggestions for some good family workout videos? I think I’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…)

Happy Weekend!

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As usual, I’m a little late coming to the party, but I read today about NaBloPoMo, which is short for National Blog Posting Month. The idea is to post once a day during the month of November. Well, heck, that’s not really a stretch for me, now is it? So, I’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.

If you’re up for it, join the party! And be sure to add me as a friend, because right now I look darn lonely sitting there advertising that “Lisa Clarke doesn’t have any friends on this social network yet.” I’m getting flashbacks to grade school - didn’t have any friends in that social network either. *sigh*

Anywho, I have a new tutorial to announce. Yay! My NJPCG buddy Dot has a nifty Scroll Cane tutorial she is sharing with us. I’m thinking of trying this in the Evolution of a Color Scheme colors when I finally get back to working on that. Which will be soon. I promise.

Back to NaBloPoMo for a moment - they have groups you can join there. I don’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. 30 Days of Thanks is pretty much just what it sounds like. So today I will end my post with one thing I am thankful for:

I’m thankful for many big, important things that I will touch on as the month progresses, but for today, let’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.

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As often happens, I was reading something this morning that gave me an idea, which gave me another idea, which kept me busy for a couple of hours. You see, social networking and I go way back. Maybe not as far back as some other people I know, but back nonetheless. I have always been fond of the message board thing and even ran a few myself. I’m well into the blog thing now, and while personal blogging is, for the most part a one man-or-woman show, I like to think that there’s plenty of room for community building within the confines of a personal blog. Most of these community-building opportunities are centered around comments.

I installed a few comment-related plugins today and tweaked a few others that I’ve had around for a while, and I thought I’d give you a mini-tour.

First on the list is a little Linky Love for my loyal commentators. I set up this customizable plugin to display the visitors who have left the most comments in the last 30 days. Their names are links to their blogs. (It only displays those visitors who chose to leave their URL.) I like the idea of helping to spread the word about those bloggers who help make this blog a friendly place, and basing it on comments is one great way to do that.

For the last few months I’ve been using a threaded comments plugin that I modified heavily to give it the look and feel that I wanted. I think threaded comments are the key to developing a community - the idea that you can direct your comments to each other in addition to me is very appealing. I’m frankly surprised that more blogs don’t do this. When you reply to someone else’s comment, they are notified of the reply so that they may return and keep the conversation going if they wish. Don’t worry - all email addresses are still kept private. The original plugin didn’t do this, but I thought it was important, so I modified the code. All notifications appear to come from me and not from the person who actually left the comments.

I used to have a plugin installed that let you subscribe to the comments. I removed it when I installed threaded comments because I figured it was unnecessary. I’ve rethought this strategy and added it again, with a few changes. For one thing, the subscription checkbox is now not checked by default. Additionally, there is an explanation of what you are actually subscribing to. And lastly, you can now subscribe to the comments even if you don’t plan to leave one yourself.

One other fun little thing I added: I found a plugin that will check your website, look for a feed, find the title of your latest post, and append it to the end of your comment. I haven’t actually seen this work yet, and I’m not sure if I will keep it or not - it really depends on how it looks and whether I feel it disrupts the flow of conversation by being there. In theory, though, I think it’s a nifty idea. I want you all to see what the others are writing about in their blogs. Promoting each other is a wonderful thing.

So, the moral to this story? I appreciate your visiting me here, leaving comments, and helping to build a friendly little community. And if I can show my appreciation by sending a few new visitors your way through a couple of fun plugins, all the better!

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I have these days where I know there is work to be done. Days where I have a glorious four hours of time alone. Time alone that could do serious damage to my to-do list. But something distracts me. Something makes me spend my four hours doing other things. Things that feel like fun at the time, but then later make me less-than-proud of my actions.

I’m not talking about anything sinister or sundry. No, it’s really just something that I’ve been prone to all of my adult life - doing “work” that doesn’t need to be done, simply because it’s fun, regardless of the important work that does need to be done. This morning I found a tool that would help me splice together three different feeds so that I could offer one single Polka Dot Radio feed that would let subscribers know when there is a new blog post as well as when there has been an update to the station’s playlist. Is that a cool thing to have? Oh, yeah! Could my radio station have lived without it for another few days, weeks, or months? Most certainly.

I didn’t spend my entire four hours playing around with radio-related things, but I did spend more than half of it that way. And when I skip my morning shower in favor of turning on my laptop, and when I get lured into blowing off a task list so that I can tinker with code, it sets a precedent for the day. No matter how many times I said to myself today that I would put down the computer after such-and-such a time and concentrate on other things, it was an uphill battle all the way. I did the bare minimum - straightened up the living room & dining room, processed new orders & payments, and finally took that shower. Other than that, there were feeds to play with, blogs to read, and Moo cards to order.

When I’ve had a productive day, but productive in an “I did what I wanted and shirked all other responsibilities” kind of way, it leaves me feeling like I somehow cheated my way through the day, and that I’ve probably missed some of the better moments having my nose buried in my laptop.

The day wasn’t a total loss. I did orchestrate a small treasure hunt for Aidan to do when he came home from school. At the end of the hunt was his favorite snack waiting for him. He loved that. And tonight the four of us sat on the boys’ beds daydreaming about a fun trip we could take this weekend. Aidan wants to stay in a hotel, and while that is probably a cost-prohibitive diversion, I think we can manage to replicate some of the great things about hotel-stays right here at home. Making plans has a way of pulling one out of their self-absorbed doldrums. It’s optimistic thinking infused with enthusiasm, and one can’t help but feel better in its wake.

The high lasted all of 5 minutes before I found myself sitting downstairs on the couch, one eye on the TV, the other on my laptop. I was reading some of my favorite crafty mom blogs, and while often I find them uplifting and inspirational, that is not the case when I’ve had a slacker kind of day. Seeing all of these women who make beautiful things and find creative and special moments with their children gave me this feeling of terrible inadequacy. I found myself wondering what I’ve missed with my nose in the computer so much. Why wasn’t I outside pushing the boys on the swing, or taking a walk in the crunchy leaves today? The winter will be here before I know it and I’ll wonder where the fall went. Where did it go? It left, while I was being picky about an irrelevant rss feed and reading about other people’s lives.

The final straw for me was reading about Stefani’s muffins. Her kids were enjoying homemade muffins for breakfast in a tee pee they’d made together in the yard. A stray thought crossed my mind: “how nice it would be to give the boys something homemade for breakfast instead of the usual pop tart.” I almost dismissed it like I’d lazily dismissed all other thoughts just like it today, until I paused. What, exactly, was I doing right now that was so important? Was I particularly interested in what was on TV? No. Could I really enjoy any more crafty mom blogs while I was in this dark place? No. Is 9:15 too late to start baking? Well, usually, but not tonight.

So now I blog as the smell of a recipe I’d never tried before wafts through the house. Awash in a sea of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger I feel more in balance right now than I have all day. Pumpkin Biscotti cooling on the counter, I’m ready to think ahead to a better day tomorrow. Tomorrow I will tackle that task list. Tomorrow I will be open to putting aside the laptop for a little real living. And tomorrow I will greet the boys with a smile and we will have cookies for breakfast.

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Is it flickr favorites time again, already? Where did that week go? I know I was insanely busy, but I really can’t pinpoint where I spent my time. I can see some autumn influences working their way into my favorites - a couple of photos featuring pumpkins, and a few more warm, orange tones are showing up. And yet again, I’ve managed to favorite two practically identical images from totally different places: the bagels and the yarn. Apparently I had a thing for stacked irregular ovals this week

I took a walk this morning, just me and my trusty mp3 player. It’s the kind of fall day I absolutely love - chilly enough for the air to feel “crisp” but not so cold that I can’t get away with leaving the jacket home. The leaves are just beginning to turn in the yard, and a mile or two down the road, at the entrance to the Great Swamp, the colors are already heading into brilliant territory. The leaves at the Swamp always turn faster than they do at the top of the hill where I live. I plan to take the boys over to have a look at the leaves and the critters shortly, and of course, we’ll be sure to bring the camera.

While I was walking, I listened to Sister Diane of the CraftyPod chat with Anna Torborg, author/editor of The Crafter’s Companion. I have had a copy of that book since June, and it was something I enjoyed reading in the backyard while the children splashed in the pool. Each chapter in the book is written by a different well-known crafty blogger whose task is to answer the questions: Why do you create? What inspires you? How do you work?  There are photographs of the blogger’s workspace and creations, and each blogger has also contributed a project.  The people featured in the book are at the helm of some very popular blogs, mostly sewing-related.  It seems to me, though, that discussions of creativity are relevant to all artsy types regardless of medium.

I haven’t done any of the projects in the book, but I have enjoyed reading the stories.  I love reading about what makes an artist “tick.”  This book reminds me in a lot of ways of Lindly Haunani & Pierette Brown-Ashcroft’s excellent Artists at Work: Polymer Clay Comes of Age.  There are no projects in that book, but loads of pictures of the artists’ work, interviews about their work habits, favorite tools & inspirations.  And it’s all done within the realm of polymer clay.  It’s a 10-year-old book, so you’re not going to hear from some of the “new” talent in the clay world, but the pioneers in the medium are well-represented.  I may need to dig my copy out and keep it handy so I can read through it again in my oodles of spare time

Ok, time to get away from the computer and go find some leaves to crunch underfoot!

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I’ve been seeing comments lately from readers who say they look forward to reading my posts as they sip their morning tea… that’s so very sweet! But now, knowing that I have a legion of fans counting on me, I can’t go to bed without saying something entertaining, can I? (Perhaps “legion” is a bit strong of a word ) At any rate, bedtime postponed, witty post commencing in 3.. 2.. 1

I came up with a new cane idea in the car today on the way to the njpcg meeting, inspired in part by the bold canes by heurebleue2 which I saw on flickr. I wanted to use colors from one of my existing color schemes (in this case, Country) and I wanted to put various sizes of the bold round canes together into a big square cane. I am ok with the way this came out, but I would have preferred it to look more random and less kaleidoscopic. I know where I went wrong, and if I get a chance to try this again any time soon, I will assemble it in quite a different way. And maybe, I’ll add more stripes and reduce/reassemble one less time so that the design is bigger and bolder.

I got to do some sewing this evening, and I took the opportunity to make the bag I’d promised Eamonn. He needs something to carry his show-and-tell, his change of clothes (in case of “accident”) or his lunch (on the one day a week he has Lunch Bunch). When given the choice between a simple backpack a la Lotta Jansdotter, or a messenger bag like the one I designed for myself, he chose the latter. He picked the birdseed fabric and chose which coordinating button he wanted, and I whipped it up, making it a bit smaller than mine, widening the strap, and adding the lining fabric to the strap. I wonder how long before Aidan wants one with an Ultraman lining? Hopefully he won’t think of that because frankly, it goes against all of my design sensibilities

For the last few years, I haven’t worn many handmade things that weren’t handmade by me, but I seem to have developed an addiction to blockpartypress jewelry… If you recally, she made me a special set of beads last month, and just the other day I took advantage of a sale and got myself these pretty earrings. They looked really nice today with my Built by Wendy shirt in the Denyse Schmidt fabric (Heh. Listen to me name-drop).

Ok, I haven’t been particularly witty tonight, but it’s bedtime, and I think I actually want to watch the last half of a Stargate:SG1 rerun before retiring for the night. I’m feeling a deep need to be entertained before I sleep, for some reason.

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Silly word, I know.  But tonight, as I was importing all of my old LiveJournal posts, so that everything would be in one place and easily searchable, I realized that my first blog post ever was on September 3, 2005.  I missed my 2-year Blogiversary by one day.   Wish I’d known - we could have had a gala event, with fabulous prizes.  Heh.  Or not.

At the moment, my eyeballs are killing me - I’ve got to wrap this  up and get to bed - but I wanted to mention what’s now here and what isn’t.  All of the posts from my old LJ blog are here, but none of the comments managed to copy over.  Everything also arrived “uncategorized” so  I spent the better part of an hour putting the correct tags on all 89 posts.  Some day in the future, when I am looking to procrastinate on some more important task, I am going to go through all of the posts and replace any links back to LJ posts with the correct, corresponding post links in this environment.   And I’m also going to see if there is some way to get the comments loaded up here.  It would be really great to have them.  For now, if you see a post before June of this year, and you just have to know what the responses were, you’ll have to go to LJ and look them up.

Oh, the eye strain!  I’ve got to go…  Have some fun wandering around the archives.  See how it all began.  Read about why I am a Sculpey junkie.  See what the bestsellers were for April 2006.   Don’t let my blurry vision be for naught!  

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It’s one of those days - Eamonn had a major meltdown over a Pop Tart at lunch time when Aidan ate the one he wanted. Nevermind that we had six more exactly like it. He wanted that one. Usually very reasonable about these things, he just couldn’t overcome his devastation at his brother’s inadvertent betrayal this time. I took the poor little bundle of emotion upstairs and cuddled with him for a while, during which time I ended up all weepy myself. I don’t know what it is today. I think we’re all a bit out-of-sorts. Maybe it’s impending school? Maybe it’s the fact that the house stinks of paint and the outdoors reeks of a dead animal, so there’s no place pleasant to go and just be?

The bug guy will be here any minute to figure out why we are still entertaining yellow jackets here at Casa Clarke after 8 days, and Neil is currently in the doctor’s waiting room, anticipating the answer to why a simple bruise now looks like a scary, hot, pulsating mound of doom. It’s just one of those days where things feel weird, I don’t think I really have much of a blog post in me, and I am looking forward to starting over with a brand new day tomorrow. One that feels productive and happy and normal.

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80%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
He Who Shall Remain Nameless emailed me the link to that quiz.  He claims I lied about how much time I spend reading blogs every day and that 80% is not enough

Speaking of  blogging… the  Nameless One  has commented (more than once ) about my ability to prattle on about many topics in one post.  He said, and I quote,”when the number of tags you have to use to describe the post takes up three lines, you’ve gone too far.”  Ok, maybe that’s just a paraphrase, but I got the message.

I’m still in the process of discovering my “blogging voice,” making little changes to see what works for me and what doesn’t.  I started out feeling like a once-daily post was the way to go, and if I had to talk about three different topics in the course of that post, then so be it.  I still feel that way to some extent, but it’s been suggested that I break those multi-subject posts into multiple posts, and I’m considering it.  There are benefits to the idea, not the least of which is that my tags will have more meaning.  For instance, if a post is tagged “books” then you’ll know it’s mostly about books, not just a paragraph about books and half a page about the three skirts I made on the way out the door to the farmer’s market…

What do you guys think?  Do you lose me 1/4 of the way into a long post?  Would you find multiple posts in a single day annoying?  I’m curious about your reading habits

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I wish I had something creative to share, like images of the beads from Dan Cormier’s class (back in JUNE!) that I’ve been planning to sand, but haven’t. Or the half-finished necklaces that I made to go with Alexander Henry’s Birdseed fabric, which can’t be completed until my jump rings get here from Fire Mountain Gems. Or the other two quilt tops I haven’t yet put together. Or an actual quilted piece. Or, heck, it might be nice to tell you all about the new issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry that arrived here yesterday and whose cover I have yet to scan.

But the truth of the matter is that I spent the morning food shopping and the afternoon staring at a computer screen while my kids watched The Santa Clause [yes, they know it’s August]. We had a brief walk outside when I started to feel like we hadn’t had any fresh air in days. It has been raining for almost a week. And when it’s not raining, it looks like it will at any moment. It’s starting to bug me.

And now I am putting off printing the paperwork that will direct my order-packing tonight. When I started posting, I was alone in this room, listening to my new Crowded House CD, feeling peaceful. Since then, both kids have come in here, and now one of them is playing a computer game and the other is acting out a scene from some show he made up. They’re competing with my music. And my peaceful feeling for that matter. Too many things happening at once in here! And I suppose that’s my cue to stop trying to write and start the brainless activity of printing and packing

Lisa

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, Q is for Questionable Judgment. For instance, tying my new anklet directly to my leg instead of making a clasp - it makes it tough to put on tights this way. Or, wearing tights with a cotton skirt - the friction between the two makes the skirt bunch up in such “attractive” ways. Just two of many “duh” moments I have on a regular basis. Ah well, at least I learn. Sometimes. Q is for Questionable Judgement.

Is anybody else getting tired of this A-Z meme? I’m not sure how inspired I am to do R-Z…

It’s a chilly day here in NJ by August standards. It’s been cloudy and hasn’t ventured much past 70 degrees. I feel like I should be listening to October Project or Crowded House and baking pumpkin bread.

Yesterday was more like summer, but still in a mid-September breezy and sunny kind of way. The menfolk around here decimated half a watermelon that I cut up for them. I don’t eat watermelon myself, but I love to look at it. Those colors!

Instead of chowing down on summer fruits yesterday, I geeked out over php code. I solved a problem with this blog that had been bugging me. I had disabled the plugin that let you subscribe to a post’s comments via email, because it was confusing people when they would get notification of everybody’s responses to the original post. I installed a threaded comments plugin so that we could reply directly to specific comments if we wanted to, but two things about it bugged me:

1. There was no email notification when someone replied to your comment.
2. It was ugly.

In researching the threaded comments plugin, I discovered that someone had written a hack that would accomplish the notification I desired. I spent a long time yesterday trying to get that to work, in a way that respected everybody’s privacy and was worded nicely, and I’m happy to report that I succeeded! So, now when you post a comment, if anyone would like to answer that comment directly, they may click on “respond to this comment” and do so. The response will be posted under the related comment, and the original comment’s author will be notified.

Besides the email issue, the thing that bothered me the most was how the plugin changed the formatting of my comments. I had liked it the way it was, but this new way just wasn’t pretty. So, I dug in my heels and waded through more of the plugin code until I figured out how to format it the way I wanted. Now it is pretty

I think the best part of all of this is the new understanding I have of how plugins work, and how easy it would be for me to change lots of little things in my blog. For instance, I could change the little blurb at the end of the post from

Posted in occasions, memes, chit chat | No Comments »

to

Lisa waxed eloquently today on the following topics: occasions, memes, chit chat | Nobody has bothered to respond yet »

I’m not going to do that, but it’s cool to know that I can!

Oh, I also tried to add a sidebar to the single post view, but that just broke more than it fixed.   For now, I’ll have to count on people in the single post view clicking on “Blog Home” to see the rest.

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!  I need to re-open the store tomorrow and then I’ll be too busy all week.  Ack.  I need to try and enjoy a little peace this evening if I can…

Lisa

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, K is for Kaleidoscope. I still remember the blue cardboard kaleidoscope I had as a child. I enjoyed turning the cylinder at the end, making the colorful little bits move, and creating beautiful repeating patterns of color. I have to admit I haven’t thought about that little kaleidoscope in many years, but recalling it now, I can see that my interest in patterns and color goes way back. Who knew?

I have been playing with polymer clay for over 11 years, experimenting with several styles before settling into a niche as a cane-maker. This is really where my love for the medium lies. I am not particularly fond of making canes that are meant to look like specific objects. I’m happier creating fabric-like repeating patterns (is it any wonder, then, that I should be drawn to sewing at this point? Given that I get the most joy out of my clay when it is mimicking a textile, it seems my fascination with real honest-to-goodness fabric was really inevitable. It was only a matter of time…). I hope to make more kaleidoscoping patterns in the near future - it’s fun, and produces such spectacular results.

If you are a kaleidoscope fan and a polymer clay enthusiast, I can’t gush about Sarah Shriver’s Intricate Kaleidoscope Caning enough. I’ve seen her work in person (bought a pair of earrings from her, actually) and it’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous. My things look nothing like hers - which is as it should be, really - but I learned a few things from this video, including some Skinner Blend tricks that never really occurred to me before. And before I start sounding too much like a commercial, I will say, K is for Kaleidoscope, and move on.

Speaking of fabric and sewing… you had to know I was going to have another show-and-tell, didn’t you? Yesterday I told you that I had made two skirts and a shirt for me, and a pair of shorts for each of the boys (I took in that bowling skirt tonight by the way, much better now - I’ll probably wear it tomorrow). What I didn’t mention was that I had this tote bag/messenger bag hybrid idea percolating in my mind, and that I was likely to sit back down and make the day even more prolific sewing-wise. Well, I did, and then I did.

I’ve been using some “clowny” bags lately, to borrow an adjective from my oh-so-fashionable 7-year-old. This is the boy who wears striped polo shirts with camouflage pants, but I digress… I really needed something plain to use when I wear my more “busy” skirts, plus I was interested in having something I could wear diagonally across my chest so I could go hands-free. I wanted a flap so it could close, and lastly, I wanted to add some pattern and color to it, but in a subtle way.

After a logistical nightmare of figuring out when I should put right sides together vs. wrong sides together, and just how I was going to do all of this without ending up with an inside-out bag that couldn’t be turned rightside-out, I finally figured it out. But woe to the husband or child who tried to interrupt me with an innocent story while I mulled over my stitching strategy. I need a sign: Do Not Disturb the Mommy Beast Whilst She Deduces and Ponders Logic. Seriously. I enjoy logic problems immensely, but leave me alone while I’m thinking or I’ll lose my place and get seriously crabby. Seriously.

So, a little credit where credit is due: I combined ideas from the Artsy Clutch project in Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing and the Simple Tote project in Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing. The lining fabric is from Michele D’Amore’s Bleeker Street collection, one other pattern of which I used on one of my favorite skirts. (I’m looking forward to using the leftover scraps in some project together sometime, somewhere…) The button is one of mine. It’s a Swamp Calico design, and there’s one more available in the shop, if you want to be just like me and have one of your very own (and really, who doesn’t?). Oh, and can you keep a secret? The button, while it is sewn on to the bag, is not actually functional in this case. Hidden behind the button is a snap closure. Just my way of avoiding learning how to make button holes

I really should just end this here, but I’m feeling chatty. You’re invited to keep reading. Unless you’re bored of me at this point, in which case you are invited to go read somebody else’s blog. Or take a nap and come back later when you can appreciate my witty prose

For the rest of you:  I was reading some more Artful Blogging tonight by the light of the citronella candles, amid the sounds of children splashing in the kiddie pool and a husband beheading the daylights out of some weeds that dared to grow up along our retaining wall. Perhaps those were odd activities for dusk, but I got tired of being in the house and thought maybe the kids would sleep better tonight if they had a chance to burn off some energy before bed. (I wish it had worked - they were still awake, an hour after we tucked them in, fighting over a stuffed cat named Pounce.) Regardless, it was nice to do something different after supper, and I got to read up on a few more crafty bloggers that I want to add to my Google Reader. Like I need that.

One thing that stuck with me was Artsy Mama’s tea party. A date was picked, an invitation was posted, and on the appointed day, people all around the world had a cup of tea and blogged about it, sharing images of their cups & saucers, of their tables set with shortbread cookies and other delights, and of their steaming kettles. It reminded me of my college days. We used to have a tea party every Friday in our suite. It was BYOM (bring your own mug) and anyone was welcome to attend. It was such a civilized little gathering, at a time of life when so many people would have been off preparing for that night’s keg party. I appreciated having friends who were more into sharing a little hot water, good music, and friendly conversation than they were into guzzling beer at 2am. Maybe it made us strange, but I liked it that way. So much so, that after I graduated, I continued the Friday afternoon tea at my desk job. I’d put on a little Tchaikovsky at Tea Time, put out some cookies or my famous Pumpkin Bread, and invite my coworkers to bring a mug and congregate at my desk for a 15 minute interlude. I miss those small social moments. If I could invite friends over these days for a Friday afternoon tea, I would. But my friends come with noisy little satellites bent on helping my own two asteroids wreak havoc on the universe that is our family room. There would really be nothing peaceful or civilized about tea time right now. Perhaps when their children are old enough to stay home, and mine are old enough to stay upstairs, wanting no part of Mom’s silly little girly party, I’ll give it a whirl. The online tea party, though… that is an idea that deserves mulling over. I find it appealing.

If my bottom weren’t so firmly entrenched in this couch cushion, I’d have gone upstairs to photograph my great-grandmother’s green glass tea cup, full of a steaming brew, and used it to illustrate that last paragraph. But hey, it’s late, and I’ve been posting this entry for at least an hour and a half now. It’s time to turn the chatty switch off, read a few of my favorite blogs, and turn into a pumpkin. And if you’ve read this far, kudos to you! Personally, I’d have stopped reading once the pictures stopped

Until tomorrow, my friends…

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

In the Encyclopedia of Me, B is for Borrowing Ideas. Last night I made this nifty skirt. It’s in Alexander Henry’s Birdseed fabric, using the trusty A-line elastic-waist skirt pattern I made from Sew What! Skirts:

I borrowed the idea from squid37, whose version I saw in the Sew, Mama, Sew flickr group:

Squid37 borrowed the idea from Green Kitchen, whose version she saw in the Sew, Mama, Sew blog:

B is for Borrowing Ideas.

And while I’m on the “borrowing ideas from people who borrow ideas” thing, I also made some shorts for son #2 last night. When he saw me cutting the fabric for the skirt, he got really into it and decided he wanted me to make something for him, too. Hence the shorts. A few weeks ago, I was reading Karyn from Trail Mix Designs’ nominations for “Rockin’ Girl Bloggers” and she mentioned The Sky is Pink, who was making shorts from a tutorial at Handy Home Projects which caught my eye [roundabout enough for you?] The tutorial explained how to use a pair of existing pants to make a pattern. I tried it with some of the boys’ Old Navy boxer shorts, and made them the Ultraman pants I posted about before. They really love those crazy pants, so last night while son #2 was sleeping I whipped up a pair of bird pants and left them on the end of his bed so they’d be there when he woke. After a brief stint of wearing them on his head, he put them on the right way and has been wearing them ever since.

It feels like I’ve got a thousand things to do today.  I am determined to get a HUGE batch of shipments out the door by Monday, plus I’ve got a NJPCG meeting to get ready for tomorrow, a picnic with friends to make a Summer Fruit Crisp and Pine Nut Salad for today, and dinner with my in-laws on Sunday.  Add to that some quality time with son #1, and all of the crafty things I was hoping to do, and my head is spinning.  I have to stop thinking of my sewing or my jewelry-creating as things to be accomplished for particular occasions.  If I could just plan to make “a necklace” instead of plan to make “a necklace to wear on Sunday,” that would be a big help.  It would certainly take off some of the pressure!  That kind of thinking just doesn’t work when there are a lot of other (more important) things on the to-do list.  It just stresses me out.

And now for this week’s flickr favorites:

You can click on the image to find out more about where the individual images come from. Seems like I was drawn to birds this week, both in flickr and in fabric. Two hummingbirds and a heron found their way into my favorites.  Maybe B is actually for Birds…

Happy Saturday!

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Raise your hand if you were thinking yesterday that I was completely out of control.

Oh, wow, look at the bevy of wildly waving arms out there. That must be the 86 people who call me a Flickr contact… I was an uploading machine yesterday! I am pretty sure I heard a collective moan each time I sent up a new set of photos: “Oh, not polkadotcreations again! What is it this time? Pictures from her high school graduation? Images of her household clutter? More shots of her feet??” No, no, that’s not what I was uploading! Well, ok, there was a picture of my feet in there, but the rest of it was wrong No, I was uploading things like my polymer clay cane color schemes, some various around-the-house and family shots from this weekend, and some digital scrapbooking I did a while back.

[Here is the spot where the blogging pauses and I read Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat to Thing Two. And now blogging may resume…]

Where was I? Oh, yes. Digital Scrapbooking. I’m not a scrapbooker for a few reasons:

1. I could never be so disciplined as to make a layout for all of the pictures I take, and I am just compulsive enough to know that if I can’t scrap ‘em all, I don’t want to scrap any of ‘em.
2. If I tried to find time for scrapbooking, I’d have to ditch something else, and really, I’m running out of people in my family to ignore.
3. I have no room for supplies. And trust me, I’d have to have a *lot* of the supplies, and papers (especially papers).
4. I’d make a mess all over my studio -er, dining room, every time I made a new layout, and cleaning up a crafty mess is such a bummer.

So when I discovered that there are at least two sites that offer free digital scrapbooking kits,

[Here is the spot where the blogging pauses and I play a guessing game with Thing One (which I sucked at, btw). And now blogging may resume…]

[Here I get up off my butt to see what “present” Thing Two has given me. (It was a black checker, btw). And now blogging may resume…]

[Oh, good grief, Thing One has another guessing game for me. (I sucked at this one, too, btw). And now blogging may resume. right? whew.]

As I was saying, I had a specific project in mind that I thought the freebie digital kits would be perfect for. I made a 2007 calendar, using images from the previous year. It was a perfect way for someone like me to get into scrapping. By making it a finite project, I eliminated objection #1 and #2. By making it digital, I eliminated objection #3 and #4. Perfect! I plan to make a 2008 calendar the same way.

I’ve also recently discovered that Shabby Princess has a free downloadable desktop wallpaper every month. The layout is already done, all you need to do is stick a few of your own pictures in it. I’ve been using them since May when I first found out about it. I really like that the left sides of the wallpapers are very simple - it lets me see my icons better.

[Now blogging pauses again and I play level three of Thing One’s guessing game. (Yep, sucked again). And now blogging may resume…]

Are you getting the idea that there are a lot of interruptions around here today? As I type, Thing One is wandering around here yapping about how yellow his pee will be when he gets in the bathroom (boys!) and I am trying not to pay attention. Seems to me once the kids are out of diapers, the color of their pee is no longer my concern. Unless it’s call-the-doctor-orange.

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, with thunder and all of the trimmings, and we’ve all pretty much entertained ourselves today. I spent some time claying, but I’m unhappy with the results. I want to do something different than my usual - something special that I can wear all of the time. I’ve been a bit emotionally fragile this weekend, thinking about things that happened earlier this year, and I thought it would nice if I made a small remembrance in the form of jewelry. I want the sybolism to be subtle - enough for me to know what it’s about but not advertise it to everyone else who may look at it. And I need the colors to be neutral enough not to clash with my clothes, and attractive enough that I will want to keep it on. I’ve tried to do this before - I made a pendant - but I just didn’t like it enough to wear more than once. I guess I need to mull it over a bit more before jumping in.

[Guessing game level four. I did better this time - he made it multiple choice.]

I think I’m going to make a decent dinner tonight, so I will sign off now. Hope you have had a nice weekend and that I didn’t drive you too mad with the Flickr invasion

[Guessing game level five, while I inserted all of the links into the post - just two more levels to go! And where is Thing Two? He’s much too quiet…]

Lisa

[edited to add: I forgot to mention Songbird Avenue. Every month they sell a digital scrapbooking kit with 100% off the proceeds going to a different charity. I bought their first one, but I can’t seem to find it on my hard drive at the moment