Daily photos: I’ve been taking them, but not necessarily sharing them. Or even getting them uploaded, but I’m caught up now. Those of you that visit via your RSS Reader won’t have noticed, but there’s a new link in my sidebar, at the top, that links to where I’m posting all of the Daily Photos. You can view them all, make comments, and subscribe to the feed if you so desire.
Nothing to write home about in these latest photos, partly because I’m taking some of them too late at night, which means the lighting is terrible, and everything’s been slightly out of focus.
Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for my life, too. The out of focus part, I mean.
If you’ve been here long enough you’ll know that I’ve written and self-published 2 books about machine quilting designs. I’ve been “writing” a 3rd book for the better part of a year. That’s in quotes because I go through spurts — if I’d stayed focused it would have been done long ago. I haven’t focused on it, though, for any number of reasons, many of which you can probably guess at if you’ve been reading long enough. New shop? Back to customer quilting? Knitting like crazy? Yeah, those have contributed, but there are other reasons, too.
I’ve been torn about whether or not to even try to put it out there, whether or not people will find it worthy of purchasing. I’ve been blocked mentally by how much I still have to do on it, even though I really have done quite a bit of work. Lots and lots of self-doubt. I’m my own worst critic.
Well, Saturday morning I was snoozing, and dreaming a bit about some designs that I need to work on for some classes I’m teaching in April. One thing led to another and suddenly I had a book-sized idea. The details are hazy, but the big picture is there.
Ironically that has meant that I’m suddenly UNblocked about the 3rd book. It has focused my thoughts on how I want to finish it, and how it might related to this new idea that I’ve had.
We’ll see what happens as I forge ahead. The rough draft of book 3 is on top, the binder full of tabs is waiting for me to scribble notes for book 4. I’m not making any promises, because I don’t want to eat my words.
Speaking of eating, I think I’d better go get some breakfast. And get my sleeves rolled up and get to work. I have a lot to do.
Suzanne
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In amongst everything else, I still have this book I’m trying to finish.
I still have a lot to do.
Today was the first day of registration for an online class that one of the MQResource members is going to be teaching “at” the MQR website. Color and Design for the Art Quilter. I’ve seen the first lesson (and pictures of Jean’s work). I think it is definitely going to be a great class. I’m still working on the first class I want to teach. It’s, um, based on that book I need to finish writing….sheesh.
The boys keep asking me “Can we paint our room this morning?” or “Can we paint the room tonight?”
As if all we have to do is whip open the paint cans and start painting. I should at least see if Mark can get the spackling done tonight, and I think we need to go visit the hardware store (again) for some blue tape so we can tape the woodwork. Such fun.
Back to work. Must get back to work.
Suzanne
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Just got home from the Library Brunch. Here’s a shot of our table, all decorated. There are also canisters of mini chocolate chip cookies and potato chips on the other side of the flowers.
You can’t tell from the picture, but the flowers are arranged in my spaghetti canister. I took the spaghetti out and washed it first. It’s one of those that has the lid that flips over and seals with a latch.
There were lots of very pretty tables, but I’m pretty sure ours was the most clever. If I do say so myself.
The speaker was a lot of fun. Carol Bodensteiner is the author of a book called Growing up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl. She spoke a little about her experience writing the book, and also read a few stories from her book. A fair amount of her audience were also Iowa Farm Girls, so there was lots of head-nodding and laughter at stories they recognized: Traumatic Chicken Experiences seemed to be a shared memory by many.
I was fascinated that she ended up self-publishing her book because she could not find a publisher to take it on. She was told that while it was well-written and interesting, there was no character in crisis. Nothing bad happened. Except maybe with chickens. Not enough sensationalism. Just the stories that she remembers from back when she was 8-12 years old on a dairy farm in Iowa. Too boring I guess.
One of the questions that she was asked was whether her sisters and Mom read the book and agreed with/remembered things the same way she did. She said that many of the things that she remembered were only remembered by her. And in some cases, she remembered things wrong: she thought they did laundry on Saturdays, but her Mom (and the audience today) said “Oh no, EVERYONE did their laundry on Mondays.” One of the audience members lived in town growing up, and said it was something of a point of pride as to how early on Monday morning you got your first load hung out to dry.
Speaking of remembering things: my Mom will probably correct me if I’m wrong, but the pancake recipe I mentioned yesterday is one that I think came with the brand-new set of really expensive pots and pans that my parents purchased sometime in the early 80s? Maybe it was earlier than that? They don’t make pots and pans like that anymore. Mom still uses most of them. I’ve ready to replace my cookware, and I’ve only had it for less than 10 years. Plus, everything is sticking in my electric skillet, which is why I burned myself yesterday, so I need to replace it, too.
Pancakes
2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. milk
2 eggs
2T oil or melted shortening
1. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. (Hmm. I never actually sift. Just stir them with a fork…)
2. Combine milk with beaten eggs; add dry ingredients.
3. Blend thoroughly, until lumps disappear. Add shortening or oil.
4. Pour batter into skillet, preheated at 400, and bake until bubbles break and edges are cooked, flip and cook until done, about 1 minute per side.
Serve immediately.
I don’t even know why I mentioned the burn yesterday. Maybe because it was so fresh and painful. I smeared some Solarcaine gel (that had aloe in it), and today, it doesn’t really hurt and you can barely tell I did anything. What a wimp.
Maybe this will week I’ll do a library brunch table retrospective. We’ve had some pretty clever ideas in the past, and they’ve always included a quilt of some sort.
Now, though, those log cabin blocks are calling my name. I must heed their siren call.
Suzanne
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I’m laughing so hard I’m crying.
I got those 20 books sorted out that I mentioned in my previous post.
I went to start binding the other 40 that I had printed earlier in the day.
They aren’t collated earlier.
Apparently I had never checked the "COLLATE" box today. No mystery. Just plain forgetfulness.
I’d probably better go to bed before I hurt myself. I’d go sew a few seams but I can only imagine what disaster that might lead to.
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A couple of days ago I posted about a really great way to waste time: forget to click "COLLATE" when printing multiple copies of my book. I’m sure a lot of you (some of you? one of you?) thought "Gee, that was dumb, I’ll bet she learned her lesson."
Umm.
Yeah.
You would think so.
Only this time: instead of discovering it right away, I actually let the printer print all 20 copies uncollated.
Oh yeah. I’m blonde.
Actually, I’m not really sure how it happened. My only guess is that I accidentally unclicked collate on my way to click print.
Dianne had asked why my children weren’t helping with the last collating job. Well, the last time I had them help collate it didn’t go so well. I had to "fix" a lot. Plus, they are in the doghouse this week, and my level of trust in their ability to act responsibly is almost nil.
(One of them WROTE on his shirt with marker today. "But it’s a washable marker, Mom." And this is but one example of a bad choice that has been made. Ugh.)
I had a different (funny and not whiny) post planned in my head for today, but maybe I’ll do that post tomorrow. After I run to Waterloo for the 2nd straight day because I’m apparently incapable of accurately predicting how much toner I need.
Can you tell I’m not having the best of weeks? I wish I could start over. I might choose not to get out of bed.
I feel guilty for not having very many pictures lately, so here’s some feathers on silk for your enjoyment:
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Time Waster #498: Print 30 copies of a 49 page book, but don’t verify that the "COLLATE" box is checked.
Thankfully I discovered my error before too much had gotten printed, and only have to hand-collate a few pages. (Well, the first 6 sheets times 30, plus put those together with the rest of it.)
By the way, how is it possible that today is March 30th? What happened to March? Wasn’t yesterday March 1st?
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Proofreading is such a fun job.
My book has been proofread by a number of very helpful souls, and the latest is my long-suffering husband.
I told him that he probably wouldn’t find much since so many people had already looked at it.
He had this funny look on his face and said "Oh, well maybe I’m finding too much then."
I accused him of trying to edit it to sound like one of his reports at work.
But — it turns out that he has found some funny stuff that hadn’t been caught be any of us yet. One error in particular was similar to the following:
I want some apples and
and some oranges
Oops.
In quilt related news: I did actually quilt something the other day. And this morning I finished the binding on Peppermint Ice Cream. It is pinned to my design wall drying out right at the moment. I never used to block quilts, but definitely learned the value last year. At least for wall quilts or quilts headed for a show. This quilt needs to be on its way tomorrow (it has to be in New Hampshire by the 3rd), so I hope it dries really really fast. (I have I mentioned that I occasionally procrastinate?).
I also thought about my March journal quilt but didn’t get much further than thinking.
Mostly the last few days have been caught up in website things (why does computer stuff always take 10 times longer than I expect it to do?) and book/class things. Only 13 more days until MQX!
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This is probably only interesting to…well…me….but, printing has begun:
(My trusty Photosmart 8250 printing front covers)
I’m still proofreading (mom found a few things, not the least of which is some punctuation issues…), and I still have photographs to add in. I took some samples outside (70 plus degrees today!) and had a photo shoot.
Look! It’s green out there!
And here, how about a sneak peek at one of the designs from the new book:
This one is called Hanging Hearts.
I’ve shown off the cover in a past post, but here’s a closeup of the picture that’s on the cover. This design is called Corkscrews.
The quilt itself is a pattern by my friends Miki and Diane who designed it just for me! As soon as I have pattern ordering information I’ll be sure to share!
In addition to finishing the book, I’m trying to spend time today getting things ready to take orders. I just love messing around with website stuff. Ugh. Everything takes twice as long as think it ought to, and I know just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be really efficient.
Well, time to eat something and then back to work. I may have to go change into a t-shirt (and shorts?)!
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I never did make it to the quilting machine on Wednesday or Thursday. I barely made it there last night, but did manage to get some quilting in after we went to see Charlotte’s Web. (Which we greatly enjoyed. I’m the only in my family that cried, though.)
I keep finding myself sucked into drawing and editing. More than a few times over the last days, I’ve intended to just check my e-mail, but then I start thinking, and start editing, and next thing I know, it’s been an hour, my rear end and back are sore, and my legs are losing feeling from sitting funny. Definitely time to get up and stretch at that point.
The obsession is paying off — I’ve gotten a lot done! The front cover is done, I think:
My first attempt used a picture of the quilt laying flat and it just didn’t work at all. (Lying flat? Why can’t I remember that rule?) I had a brainstorm yesterday — I draped it on the back of the couch, turned a light on behind it, and voila! I’m quite happy with it! I’ll post about the quilt in the picture in a future post. Some friends designed the pattern for me to use on the front cover, and they’ll be publishing it soon.
I have to get back to the quilting machine. I’m not even going to open CorelDraw right now….the quilt on the machine must get done this weekend. I’ve got Smallville in the DVD player to keep me "company" while I quilt today (I mostly listen to it, but occasionally look up for glimpses of Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum)
OK, enough messing around, back to work….
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My boys jar of life experiences is still pretty empty, but they now have something new to add to it. Dealing with a bully. Actually, I think bully might be too strong a word for the current situation, but I’m keeping my eye on things. Instead of bully, maybe "really annoying person" could be substituted? Today’s episode included calling the boys "the ugly twins." I think it kind of hurt Will’s feelings — enough that he actually told the teacher in charge of recess about it. Just this morning we had talked about the fact that just because this annoying person calls you stupid doesn’t actually mean you ARE stupid.
We talked about it some more for awhile after school. Later, at supper I said something about the boys being the CUTE TWINS. Will agreed that MOM was probably right and that this annoying person was WRONG.
I keep telling everybody, having twins was hard work that first year, but that was absolute CAKE compared to this kind of stuff. At least when they were babies I had complete control over everything.
Shortly after our after school conversation it was time for piano lessons. It’s cold here, but not freezing — it was maybe in the high 30s/low 40s at the time. If they were still babies they would have been bundled into heavy coats, hats, mittens, etc. Not anymore. Just sweatshirts. I had to make myself stop my instinct to force them to put their coats on. Pick your battles, right, Mom?
Speaking of growing up, guess who needs to grow up herself? Why do I keep having to learn the same lesson over and over again?
Here it is:
The dreaded task that you are just SURE is going to take HOURS and be incredibly painful, in actuality will only take about 5,10, 15 minutes TOPS. Plus, the relief in having the task done will far outweigh any tiny bit of pain you might feel doing it.
I have learned and RElearned this lesson countless times. And I’m only 34. Good grief. Maybe I should print the lesson and pin it on my wall where I can see it from my computer.
So now, on to more fun things:
Button weighing report: I own approximately 5 pounds of buttons. (Not counting the 6 new pounds I reported on yesterday). More than half of those, though, are buttons I got from an antique store in town last year. I haven’t really sorted through them, but I’m not sure most of those are worth much. Maybe later (when I need more task avoidance…), I’ll spend some time sorting.
So, I was half right — the buttons I’ve collected in small amounts on my own over the years add up to about 2.5 pounds. My goal is to not just collect buttons, though — I’d like to actually use them! Vicki made the mistake of mentioning eBay and buttons. And then she sent me an e-mail with a link to an auction in it. Oh my. I’m not sure if I should thank her or not.
(I only ended up bidding on one auction, and I won’t allow myself to put in a higher bid, no matter what. I just realized that the auction isn’t over until the end of the week, so I probably won’t get these. Oh well, it looks like there is plenty more…..)
Other ways to avoid tasks: discover cool new things in CorelDraw.
I’m using CorelDraw 12 to write/draw my quilting design book. I bought the software last spring when I did the first book, and it has worked great. I’ve been well aware that I’m just barely scratching the tiniest bit of the surface of its capabilities. I played with the calligraphy pen tool for a bit. I was going to do my blog header with the calligraphy pen, but it didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted. I did make the new header you see above in CorelDraw, but I don’t think I really had to figure anything new out to do it. Well, except maybe to make it so that it wasn’t HUGE, but I fixed that pretty quick.
I also discovered a really cool spray tool that can spray objects along the "line" that you draw
No, I don’t really know how this is actually going to be useful or helpful in my life, but isn’t it cool?
The other thing I did was to find this really cool art program called ArtRage
The drawing/painting tools actually act like the real objects — paintbrush, crayons, paint roller, pencils. There’s metallic paint and GLITTER. I was drawing a face earlier and was playing with layers and accidentally lost most of my drawing, so I was pretty bummed about that. I’ll try again later. I am using my Wacom tablet with it (I love mine…), and probably would be totally hopeless if I tried to use my mouse. I’m a terrible mouse-artist. That sounds really weird, but hopefully you know what I mean!
(Make sure you click on it to see the texture of the background. In the real thing, some of the blue lines of glitter actually sparkle….)
Despite all of this task avoidance, I did actually manage to get several drawings for my book done, so it was not a completely lost day. We’ll see what I can task avoiders I can find tomorrow. (VBG)
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