Hi, my name is Jessica...

Hi,
My name is Jessica and I can't read a calendar. Somewhere in the last month I have lost a week. Have you seen it? It was the week of May 19th-25th. This is what happens to me when I try to do something as CRAZY as a contest (a.k.a. a Random Drawing). I looked at the calendar and thought "Hey, June 1st is a nice round number and it is this Sunday. That is a great day to end...I wonder what I should do for my mother's birthday..."

So it goes, apparently this is going to be the longest Random Drawing skill test in the history of blogs... and if that ain't a way to celebrate remaining afloat after 118 posts, I don't know what is. I am keeping it the way it is, I am sure that I am the only one that cares (or feels silly that I have a missing week.)

BUT to maybe interest you a wee bit here are some more podcasts that I have been listening to:

PRI:studio360... A good podcast of pop culture and the arts with a dash of the creative thinking. I like that it has a different theme (some times a VERY loose theme.) every week and that I learn about things that I may not learn about otherwise. I like the host, sometimes he comes off rather Fop-ish, (I think that is the word that I want to use.) but it is endearing rather than annoying.

Alternative Kitchen Garden... Out of the UK...love her voice and her devotion to her garden and compost is inspiring. I like the bit that she has about "What is happening in the Gro-Dome?" Where she goes out to her...well, Gro-Dome and checks on the happenings in there. It usually is short and sweet and she knows a lot about a lot of things that I don't know yet. LIKE A LOT of different vegetables that I haven't tried. (I feel like eating Swiss chard is pretty adventuresome for me.)

JMB

(the picture above is a plea for the bees to rally and not go extinct... we need good pollinators...and I think that they look cool.)

Before and after...

BEFORE,
AFTER!

Snow on April 18th and 19th, is not OK with me. I have a new pear tree, all in bloom...thank you very much. I am just trying to deal with the 85 degree weather LAST SATURDAY that caused all of my kale plants to bolt, and now this??!! Snow!

There are worse things than a bit of snow in April right now in the world, but for me at this moment, it is the most immediate. I guess I am lucky.

On another note, I have been catching up on my podcasts and I have found some new ones...

Within a Quarter Inch-- a podcast for quilter's by Alison Rosen...funny, funny gal...has toddler twins, a penchant for gadgets and a wonderful "Canadian in California" outlook on life.

Craftcast-- Allison Lee... I have tried this one out a few times, sometimes her brashness has been grating to my delicate sensibilities-- but I have chalked it up to a East Coast/West Coast feud and I have moved on. She is a practicing artist and does interviews based on seeking creativity in your life and the like. She gets a really good mix of people that work in different types of media. Quite a bit of flav.

Stitch it-- A spinning and knitting mommy with an infectious laugh...I really like a good laugh, so that might be why I continue to listen to this one!

The latest This American life (OK, just the last one, really the last two were just great...who am I kidding, they are all pretty great!)
166: Nobody's Family Is Going to Change and
353: The Audacity of Government.

The Audacity of Government was a really powerful episode, politically...I recommend a listen.

The kids beckon...I really don't like toys with batteries, the boys do...but I find them very high on the annoying list. (Enjoy them now boys, for they won't last long...)
Until the next thaw...
JMB

Do you need an international pick-me-up? Try taj tunes...

Sometimes I think that I just regurgitate every cool thing that I hear on a podcast... Oh well, so be it...

Somethings are just too cool not to share. I listened to a story yesterday about a new out-sourced business, Taj tunes. (This link is to my favorite song)

Outsourcing you say?? EVIL...Un-American (all too American if you ask me). But I digress....

This is a business idea thought up by this guy whose friend teased him about all of the business that his company was outsourcing to India (I think. Well, then she told him that he just better not outsource their friendship...ha ha...

Well, he thought that it would be funny to call one of the admin. people in India and get them to call his friend with a birthday greeting....the employee in India came up with a Jazzy song and sang it over the telephone. The friend was so charmed....and thus began a new business, Taj tunes. The tunes are simple and fun and who wouldn't enjoy an unexpected greeting on an otherwise boring day??

JMB

what am I doing??? I tried, but I could not stop listening...

I am out of control...who needs sleep right?? I am almost finished with something special...FINISHED, COMPLETED... Get it? This doesn't happen everyday, but by Friday, I am thinking....YES!

This is a little frog that I wanted to share. It was one of five, that friends and I made for a quilt for the 2nd born of a dear friend, the hipster ALITHA. It has been finished, completed if you will, and I was so proud of myself. The applique pieces were small (for me) and odd shaped. I like it, I think that it looks kinda arty.

The real reason for the post is this Frito story. I was sewing this evening, nay, morning and it was so funny to me. Not funny-mocking, but funny-charming. I loved to hear how Fritos were born. (and sometimes the lady saying Frito reminded me of the tour guide at the Alamo on Pee-wee's Big Adventure.)(which I just learned was directed by Tim Burton...I love that movie and now it seems a bit more clear to me why I love it so.)(WATCH IT.)

Buea-nas DEe-ASS... can you say that?...you have to see the movie...and learn about Fritos.
JMB

Small thought from Story Corps...

Episode 31: Life notes from a door man at the Plaza Hotel

From only my own memory:

'My father told me to be such a Man and live such a Life, so that if everyone lived like me this,

would be God's Paradise.'

So, maybe not verbatim...but the thought is there. It spoke to me last night, driving home, after dropping my sister off at her dorm.

Hey, I want that to be me...

Not the man part, but I think that Woman fits nicely in there as well.

JMB

Scan this...

So, yes ANOTHER exciting day for me....

1) I saw this X-cellent comic. Some people may not read the funnies, but I consider them a essential part of my day. I like Bizarro, because it is weird and I like weird.

2) I used my scanner for the first time!! Woohoo! I thought that it was going to be really hard so I have put off figuring it out since last Christmas... Well, my nice husband told me that there is this "magical" button, called "SCAN" and you simply press it and Voila!!! A scan!

So, excited about the possibilities... which is why I asked for this in the first place...

3) I am getting back in to my mommy groove...the kids have been getting colds, the daddy has been traveling, the sister has gone off to college... It is not seeming too overwhelming any more.

4)There was a really great podcast the other day, the Creative Mom Podcast #63 about being gentle with yourself. You should check this one out. (and others too, she has great music, inspiration, ideas about crafting with kids, and just accepting that you, yourself are an artist)

5)Speaking of podcasts I LOVE, LOVED the interview that Jennifer A-H did with SouleMama the other day on CraftSanity. Listen to it...
That SouleMama is really inspiring and after listening to her story I am feeling a bit sheepish about being critical (no, I think it is really envy or jealousy)because she is such a WONDERFUL blogger/Mother/Human...

She was just really honest about how she views her blog, and how it is really just a snapshot of a day and how she chooses to focus on those wonderful moments and let the rushing and crabbing parts of the day be left off.

Here, I thought that she was in denial of those moments and was feeling grumpy about it. I do need to take myself down a notch every now and then... yes, I do...need to keep it real.

6) Getting the craft back on...finished a HIDEOUS (i.e. Lovely) pink scarf...just need to figure out how to make it uncurl...also started my Estonian autumny shawl/scarf, very excited.

7)Be back with more trip pics soon...

JMB

Jimmy Carter and Amy Sedaris, wow (Podcast ALERT!).

Jimmy Carter sez:

Peace is more then just the absence of war. People everywhere seek an inner peace that comes from the human rights to voice their views, choose their leaders, feed their families and raise healthy children.

I read this on Ali Edwards site and it touched me. If "we" could just realize that this is a truth for everyone, it would be (for lack of more eloquent speech) cool.

What I had intended on posting about was Amy Sedaris and a panel of crafters. (that I am (right this second even) listening to) She is on this week's episode of Craftsanity podcast. She is so funny, sometimes a bit raw spoken....SO FUNNY. I was listening to it while I was watching my eldest play "Ernie's Space Adventures", which is amusing, but I was laughing out loud at Missy Sedaris and my guy....was just tickled that I found Ernie so hilarious. The podcast is actually a recording of a panel type discussion from a conference called BlogHer 2007. (I have to stop before I bore myself with a description...) But ANYWAY Crafsanity podcasts are well done and this will not disappoint...listen to it.

**ALERT, Vista update...

BORING, right...that is what I am thinking. I got a new computer and my sweet and lovable husband picked it out and now....WE GOT VISTA. Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate change. I fight it kicking and screaming. Deep down I know that it is good, but the transition period is THE WORST.

1. After looking and looking for all of the scattered components of what used to be my old computer....trying to reload the software... I am realizing that some of my Photo-phixing things (circa 1998?) are not compatible with this "new" Vista thing...PLEASE! The program is only 9 years old, I just figured out how to make it do the things that I want LAST year. (it is probably hundreds of years old in computer years.) (Why me?)


2. Then after skyping with my pseudo-Swedish friend for over an hour without my webcam (It is so distracting not being able to make faces and fix my hair when we skype) I found the camera only to try and install it and be told that it is not supported on Vista...how's them apples? NOT EVEN A YEAR OLD, well almost a year old. I guess that is how they GET you for being so cheap that you only spent $34.99 on the pie-snapper. GRRRR.


3. The last Vista gripe for tonight is this....I received a "super" printer from my in-laws for Christmas. Because I have two small boys and a propensity for piling on the computer desk, the new printer has been a footstool while I blog for 8 months now. I FINALLY found the install disk (after looking for an hour and several calls to my dear sweet husband)....I insert it into the maw of this beast with a great sigh of relief....AND IT DOESN'T WORK.... Since I had already been through all of the other "dinosaur" excavation and extermination this evening, with a small prayer in my heart I searched the HP website and HALLELUJAH there was a new driver. (which I don't really want to know what that is, I just know that I need it.)

So, for tonight, I think that I have done enough for the future of technology in our house. I feel pretty geeky, but only in the sexiest way.

--I won't even tell you how cruel HP is to give you 4 free trys at "Cake Mania", no, I won't even start on that!

JMB

More podcasts...

I just had to write another short entry on podcasts. My friend Emily turned me on to the Craftsanity podcast. LOVE IT, LOVE IT...

Then whilst I browsed for that one, I also found one called Annie Smith's Quilting Stash... This one is a bit folksier, but she is so enthusiastic, it is catching.

I listened to the most recent ones, where she interviews Susan Branch and they are a lot of fun. What really resonated in me was when Susan talked about the times in your life when you feel like you should be doing something creative. You know you want to create something, but you just don't know what and you kind of feel crappy about that.

Well, she called that time for her....the Foundation for Creation. I think that she talked about how it was her sub-conscious self was working out some of the kinks in a project before her conscious self could start it. I liked that. It gives me hope.

Right now, I am feeling a bit crappy about not being inspired. So, this morning I took out the applique stuff and decided just to bull through a project. I really want to master this new technique that I saw...and really is it going to get done if I am just brooding about it??

Onward and upward!

JMB

**note on quilt pictured above**

This my quilt guild's raffle quilt for this year. I think that it is just beautiful, it is king-sized and a hexagon-ish shape.

Podcasts...they are so great~!

First of all, look at this picture. Look at these great people celebrating a 50-year-old man's birthday on a Sunday morning in June.
Downtown Portland.
It looked like so much fun that I almost inserted myself in to the party and had a bite, but there was a quilt show to attend.
Hard choice

Podcasts...
Short note:

"This American Life" has perhaps the funniest David Sedaris story this week. You must go and listen, it is an oldie, but a goodie...story about American tourists in Paris....I am still smiling....Mr. Froggy Stinkpot.

It is Episode#173: Three Kinds of Deception 59:36 6/24/2007 A story of self-deception, a story about deceiving others, and a story about accidental deception. And how one type of deception can easily turn into another.

Also there are some craft ones that I have started subscribing to....so far Craftsanity seems good.

Listen to some, they are fun.

JMB