There has been snow...there must be a quiz...

Take the Quiz here!

This was a fun and funny quiz, which Jane Austen character are you?? You really must...I am so excited that I got EB...she is my favorite (No, I didn't cheat.) Do take the quiz and comment on who you are, I am dying to know.

JMB

In a funk...or funky?

Ta-da....El Studio! OLE'

I have been having such a time getting out of the Christmas craft letdown funk...I have been diligently working on my swap quilt and when I finish it the red and green combos are going away...I need some bright springy colors to look at. Speaking of colors...it is crazy how they effect my mood. Last night I was really needing a mini vacation from reality. So I went to the "studio", intending to put some work in on the swap quilt...but I couldn't stand to look all that red and green anymore. I love a nice scarlet and olive couplet...but it has been sunny here the last few days and I am really jonesin' for some garden time, some flower power, and some new growth creatively. I started pulling out all of the wild prints that I have purchased in the last few years and throwing them around the room.


I immediately felt better and the cobwebs in my mind fell away a bit. Some of these pairings are, loud, my unique to my taste....but so fun to dream about. I like looking at fabric and I am going to find a way to have it in the front of the stash piles....for inspiration, for escape, for motivation.

I took a fabric pack for our guild's raffle quilt...the first time that I have participated. I think that this is the beginning of my third year as a member and slowly I am feeling like less of a quilting wannabe and more like a quilter and artist. I am excited that when this quilt is done that I will be able to say that I contributed to it's beauty. I think that is going to feel really nice.

My 100th post is just around the corner...I am thinking about a comment drawing to celebrate... seeing all of my stash spread everywhere sure feels like a party...stay tuned!

JMB

Swap me??

Here it is folks...some little peeks of my swap quilt project. I have to have it sent off by the 30th...so I am trying to get my quilting groove on. Let's just say I have been having a hard time...darkness, sluggishness, fighting creativity every step of the way. The other day I decided to just start cutting and sewing, attempting to quiet the "But, it might look ugly" voice. AND I am very pleased. I had a bunch of green and red strips that I had cut for another scrappy project...they are looking VERY nice and I am HAPPY!!! I also have used the rest of this white and red plaid(?) fat quarter....it is a great little design to add some crispness...I am going to look for some more (but I probably bought this A LONG TIME AGO, but maybe??)
Here is a glimpse of the big part....
Finally, a closer look at some of the ends....I bet you are excited aren't you?? I am....what will it be by next week?....finished, but who knows how???
JMB

Daily pictures...it may be all I can manage today...

Our "mousie" here is a borrowed friend from our library, one of the many great things that I like about the "new" library (I think that it is now like 4 years old...but I suffered with that old groos one for so long that this one will always be "new" to me!). Today, I finally remembered to bring my camera with us when we went for storytime AND it was WONDERFULLY SUNNY! It was a banner day also, because my oldest son, who has been a storytime junkie since the ripe old age of 18 months, got to be a HELPER today with a story during his little brother's storytime. He was just beaming that he got asked and then when it was his turn to stick his head through the hole in the book and oink like a pig... well, he squealed like a pro.

The following pictures are of the children's courtyard...I love this tile work. The first time I saw them I was so inspired to get back into a ceramics studio... I may yet. I will try to find the artist that did these, these pieces are just too great not to give someone credit. Enjoy!
A giant elephant that the kids like to walk the perimeter of...
To jump or not to jump...

Detail of the leaf tables
Part of the fish benches

Close-up of the frog reading a book
Someone having a delightful time on the froggy.
Someone else forgoing sustenance in favor of a bitty comic book.

I have some exciting swap quilt peeks....but I will save those for tomorrow!! Hee hee

JMB

Something interesting??

Hi friends...

My OTHER sister sent me this interesting link that she heard about...pertaining to things political.

She wrote...

"Hey Guys,
I heard about this on talk of the nation. Its a quiz to take to align your views with a presidential candidate. I thought it was kind of neat. Apparently all these callers were upset they kept getting Dennis Kucinich "

Here is the link to the quiz...I took it and found it interesting, I don't know if it changes my mind about anything, but I think that I am going to have to do more research...

A little more knowledge everyday...and a quiz, it is almost like I am 20 again and taking a quiz from Cosmo...hee hee.

JMB

Part of the Journey...

Well, my camera and my phone did "give up the ghost" as they say, and it is leaving me to feel like a technical pariah. I was never one to like cell phones...and I was REALLY far behind in the switch from film to digital...but now it has been so sad, like forlorn sad. Last night I was feeling really dramatic, like I just might die without my technology crutches. The cable Internet was on the fritz and my podcasts kept timing out....the list goes on and on.

AND we are at war, people!!!! I am freaking out about my inability to email/photograph/download/Internet surf and we ARE AT WAR!!! What is up with that?

I think that it is just my small, very human desire for control...something, within my small scope of the world...my electronic gizmos. To deny (kind of, if only momentarily) the greater ills of this world. I can rage about the inadequacies of Comcast's service because it is just not too horrible for me to think of...when I start to dwell and educate myself on what is going on in Iraq, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Kenya, Darfur...the list goes on and on, I kind of freak out. And what can I really do? What can WE really do? The only thing that I can come up with is to love our families, love ourselves and love our country enough to vote.

I am what some may call a conservative liberal...OR a liberal conservative...I don't care what you may want to call me but I think that we, EACH of us (transcending political parties), need to look how we are living, take responsibility for how we are living, and participate in the Process (VOTE!!). I am fully aware that we all ARE NOT going to agree, this is OK by me as long as people are AWAKE and participating. This is a presidential election year (VOTE!!). We need to let the candidates know what we want, where we want our country to go, how we want to be in the world as a country (VOTE!!). What I am advocating here is simply that "we the people" have an opinion (because I know that we all do, as diverse as they are.) and that we need to make that opinion known to our elected officials, rather than just sit and stew about it.

We can participate by involving ourselves in the election process, informing ourselves about the issues and MAYBE even informing the candidates about OUR issues.

WOW...that was a lot for me... something does have to be done. I need to fight the apathy in myself and I think that any movement forward counts! Please vote in your state's primary election and then please make the small effort and vote in November. It is worth it.
JMB

Creeping ever forward...

Impromptu Art Table
A Strawberry...

Specials things:
1) Finishing photo albums...up through December 2005...I know it is 2008, but I am FINALLY done with 2005!

2) Funny Asian Buffet dinners...where you can simultaneously watch one child inhale a California roll and the other gorge on a bacon wrapped hot dog (I gagged a bit just now, but he really thought that it was the bomb...just not the kind of bomb that I think.)

3) Watching classy movies like Knight's Tale... Heath Ledger, so young, leather pants...music by Queen...DIVINE!

4) Caring Husband who, not only buys me a new camera (it is vital to my life, you know) but also finds out about snazzy program that will replace my camera if anything goes wrong...all for only $55?? I hope that it works. (this last one lasted only 6 months...BUT I did take 5000 pictures...yikes...I think that I need to back it up...)

5) Dear friend writes that she will be returning stateside, maybe by summer.

Sometimes even in the dark of winter, there is a day of sunshine and life is Oh So Grand!
JMB

Wait and see...

A young photographer snaps a moment...
We are becoming Birders.
Getting SO BIG!
Racing, racing...
My funny wiggy hair and my silly, silly son.

A few of my favorite pictures from today. We lucked out for the most part and the times that we were outside actually the rain was not so bad, and thus we were cured of our cabin fever for the afternoon.

This winter for us has been seeming ESPECIALLY dark, grey, dark, and dark...did I mention dark? Well, as someone who flirts with S.A.D. it has been VERY DARK. I do need to remember that even getting outside for an hour helps immensely.

I have been diligently adding to my 365 diary project over here. BUT there may be a snafu in the works...I am sad to say that my water bottle leaked all over my purse...my purse containing my camera and my new cell phone. I am waiting until tomorrow to pronounce the final verdict...but it doesn't look good....they were pretty wet. My memory card did make it, so I was able to salvage the pictures from today and yesterday...but what a bummer. Just yesterday I had given up dissing (can we still use that word, or is it dissin'?) my little powershot and stopped my griping for an SLR and I have been having fun using a higher ISO and no flash and looking at movement and the like....but now, I guess we just have to wait. I am going to continue the series even if the camera is dead...maybe a sketch (kinda scary) or a small quilt block....I can make it work.

Speaking of "making it work" I have come late to the world of "Project Runway", but can I say that I LOVE IT! Super, a lot, LOVE IT. I think that Tim Gunn is just the cat's meow and what a fun show. I really want to start sewing for myself so that I can look really fab, but then I remember that gross purple blouse I tried to make 10 years ago and I think "YIKES sleeves!" Maybe I should take a class...

Well that is the end of this very scattery post...I have an idea for my word for the year...we will see.

I am going to say a little prayer for my camera.

JMB

Snow Business...

Today, a family day...the business of snow.

Maybe, I had wanted to be alone, lost with my own thoughts, working on my own projects.

Maybe, sometimes it is better to do that which can bring unexpected joy, like a short trip to the snow.

I am glad I went,

Glad, to see the glee on a little one's face when he decided that "icky 'now" was just fine to throw.

Glad, to hear peals of laughter as the other son was pelted by snowballs and fell in to the powder.

Very happy.

Glad, I took the risk.

JMB

Lego love.

"Look Mom, how my face is shining at the camera?"

This was the pick from my son. He liked this one the best.

I was looking for some pictures for a new project I am making, a 365 day photo diary. (I just realized that it is a leap year, so THAT will have to be amended to 366, but so it goes.) I will admit that the first two pictures were done by my husband, but I think that is OK...cleave to one another and all that. If you would like to take a look here I am going to continue to add a few days at a time. I think that this should be interesting (for me at least) I am interested in getting a new perspective in my pictures and distilling a day in to one photo is a intriguing idea to me. We can see where that goes.

As for the New Year, I am trying it out like a pair of new shoes...I really like the look of them but they still seem like they are a bit tight across the top...I am hoping that they will soon ease a bit and I will be walking confidently into the coming months. Maybe just not yet...

I am have also been auditioning new words for the year...My word last year was COMPLETE. I had started with CREATE but it just didn't fit. COMPLETE did and I really put to rest some issues that I had been having about following through with my projects and feeling like a complete person in my own self without extras and the wit and doing things for people....blah blah blah Well, I think that it was sometime, maybe this past summer that I realized that I am enough just me, and that is just great.

So, this year, yeah...I have been trying out words, but thus far, I have not found one that fits....maybe it will come around when these new shoes start feeling right?
JMB