Write Right

26 Golden Rules for Writing Well cracked me up. Hope it makes you laugh, too.

I have misused every rule there at one time or another.  Sometimes I edit, edit, edit, and still leave in a glaring typo or gram-o.

Cute little pin cushion

 Don't Look Now has a cute little finger pin cushion how-to.  Here's mine.

 Hmmm...looks like I could use some hand lotion

It matches my quilt (since I only needed 1 little 3 1/2" square, and I had an extra), and only took about 10 minutes to put together.  I could have done it more quickly if I had not straightened up my sewing area last weekend and hidden my needle.

Lapquilt progress

I am at Week 3, though Randi is working on Week 5. 

6 strips down; 14 to go...

All the strips are done, and the top two strips are sewn together.

This is really a nice, easy quilt pattern.  Earthgirl asked me, "Mama, how many quilts have you made before?", and I had to admit I have never made a whole quilt.  I've made a little quilt hanging, which later became a chair back.  I've made quilt-top pillows, and I've worked on portions of quilts with my Mama, including a little hand-quilting with ladies from the community, but I have never made a whole quilt.  This is just a lapquilt, approximately 50" x 60", but is is a real quilt.  Very exciting for a crafty geek.

Filter out a few good ideas

This treasure trove of ideas comes from an email forwarded from my good friend.  I thought they were too good not to share.  Just this morning I took a few coffee filters and the trusty ol' Windex and took care of the front door and part of the sliding glass door (the part the kitty paws repeatedly to say, "Here I am!  Let me in!"  Since I still have about 100 left over from a now-defunct coffeepot, I have plenty of opportunity to try out some of these ideas. Pretty good suggestions! Better than paper towels and a lot less expensive...   Coffee filters .... Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.  1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.    2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling. 3.  Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish. 4.  Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust. 5.  Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.   6.  Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter 7.  Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.  8. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.  9.  Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.  10.  Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter. 11.  Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows?  Use strips of coffee filters. 12.  Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease..   13.  Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers." 14.   As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics. 15.  Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors. 16.  Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews. 17.  Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car. 18.  Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills. 19.  Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies. Saves on having extra bowls to wash. 20.  Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage. 21.  Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls. 22.  Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout. 23. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book...  24.  Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

Reflecting on a Blogging Year

When I first set out to blog, it was not without trepidation.  I think most people are a little uncomfortable putting themselves out there, and when you publish a public weblog, you are OUT THERE.  But I enjoyed reading others' blogs, and felt like I had a few words to contribute.  My friend Crispy encouraged me to blog - she actually said something about it in her blog!  But what would my blog, my very own place, look like?

I imagined what kind of conversations I might have with a friend. (Since I knew it was possible that the only 2 readers might be my reallife friends Crispy and Science Geek, it seemed reasonable).  What would I tell a friend?  I'd show her a few recent pictures, and maybe I would talk about what we are doing in our homeschool.  Maybe we'd share a new recipe or talk about what we are reading.  I'd say, "Oooo, I found this cool website..."  Or maybe she'd tell me about some cool book or craft, and I would say, "I've got to tell _____ about that."  Maybe we'd encourage each other with scripture.  Perhaps I would pull out my latest sewing project.  Maybe I would tell her a little about the place where I grew up. 

If we were in a public place, this friend and I, say, a homeschool get-together, among our children, near the husbands, in the foyer at the Library, how would I talk?  Would I want my husband to reveal my secrets or gripe about me with his friends?  Would my daughter want me to reveal her struggles or to embarrass her in front of our friends?  No.  I don't want this PUBLIC conversation to be a place that worries my family, a place where they fear I will embarrass them. I will protect my family's dignity.

Every post on this blog is one my daughter, now 9, may read.  Not all the posts are interesting to her (not like my Sm'Arties blog, which is all about children and art, and fun for her with lots of pictures of her with her friends), but all the posts are rated G.  I will not use language I don't want my daughter to hear, words that might offend, talk of adult-type topics.  I will protect her innocence, and your child's, too.

My guiding scripture, a snippet of which is in my blog title, continues to inform me as to how I write.  This will not be the place I whine or gripe or behave unbecomingly.  Often in the here and now, I might slip up, and say things I regret.  But here, I have opportunity to read, reread, and rewrite posts before I publish them.  I take that opportunity.  I will protect your eyes, dear reader friend, from unwholesome talk.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.             Ephesians 2:10

Now a whole year of blogging has gone by, and I have enjoyed it.  I hope you readers have enjoyed it, too.  If so. I'd love to hear from you.  Come, be part of my conversation.

Quilting Along

We're going to do it! We're quilting along with Randi.

      Her stack                                                                            

      My stack









Earthgirl wanted to make her own little quilt.  No, she does not want to work with me on one quilt.  No, she does not want to make a dolly bed-sized quilt.  She wants to do the real thing.  This will be a real learning experience. I am so looking forward to going through this with my little girl!

For the Boys

Nope, I don't have any boys.  Just that one little girlie girl.  And she has lots of little girlie girlfriends.

But she also has friends who are boys.  And I have friends who have boys, nephews (pretty much grown up now), and future boys will be coming along.

I just found these 2 blogs celebrating BOYS this month.  Made By Rae and Made are celebrating boys with their crafts all month.  So far, they and their guest bloggers lean more toward goodies more appropriate for preschool boys, but there is still a lot of month to go!

Now, why didn't I find all these cool craft-and-sewing blogs back when my husband and I were part of the young couples' Sunday School class, and I was going to baby showers every month?