I took this after work last Friday (I think). It was one of those days where i was just not in the mood to do my picture of the day. But then when I started taking pictures I started seeing all of these wonderful things that I could take pictures of. So snapped this one. And then I got chased away by a yellow-jacket.
-
-
Image via Wikipedia First of all, I am really happy to have learned that Obama didn’t give in to McCain trying to bow out of the first debate on the pretense that he feels the need to fix the economic problem. And I really like Obama’s answer to it:
“It’s going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”
Enough said, really. I mean, the debates take up a few hours of their time on a Friday evening. They can debate. Now is a good time to debate, with all that is happening! I want to know how they plan to fix it!
Okay, the next little tidbit. I ran across this newsy item earlier this week and found it really interesting. Jill Greenburg, the photographer who shot the cover of the current Atlantic Monthly, the one with John McCain on the cover, had a few outtakes that she shared on her website. Apparently she ask McCain to sit for a few more shots and lighted him in a menacing way, McCain not suspecting a thing.
While I kind of think the outtake photo is kind of funny (scroll down a little bit on that link), I do think that she was very wrong to do this. In the end it was really just in bad taste. Especially the Photoshopped images that she put on her blog (you can see them on this post here). I completely understand the whole concept of making a political statement via your art. But I really don’t think it is in good taste to do it on a client’s dime.
-
So last Saturday I woke up and as I laid there in bed I thought about (as I often do) crafting. Usually I think about my current project but not this time. This time I was thinking about a certain kit that had in my closet. A quilt kit that had been sitting in there for almost year and a half. My vintage cowgirls were calling to me.Then I thought about my sewing machine and how it has been sitting, collecting dust, for 3 months. It made me feel bad. It was high time I started on that quilt.
I think the thing that was keeping me from working on it was just sheer intimidation at the process. I have looked at the pattern book over and over again, yet I just felt totally overwhelmed by the whole thing. On Saturday I just decided to “just do it” as the cliche goes.
As I read through the directions and started working on it I decided to break the process down into do-able chunks. And the pattern kind of works out that way so it was very easy to do. The first step was to cut a each fat quarter into 5 two-inch strips. And it was really as easy as that. Cut a whole bunch of 2-inch strips and then sew them together. Then cut them again into 5 inch squares, which you then put back together into a pattern.
As I was doing this I thought about how awesome this is as a metaphor for accomplishing goals. The ones that seem big and overwhelming, like changing careers, or planning a wedding, or moving to another state, etc. Things are much less overwhelming when you break them down into smaller parts. Figure out what little things you need to do to get to that big thing and then just do them.
Live life in 2-inch strips.
I’ll be starting my new career as a motivational speaker in the near future (kidding!).
This past weekend (well, the one day of it) I was obsessed with sewing projects of a different kind. This has a bit of a back story.
For our Summer Reading Program each year I buy the t-shirt that goes with the theme of each year’s program. Our theme this year was “Catch the Reading Bug” and this is the shirt that was offered this year. I ended up with a large which looked ridiculously big on me and I hated wearing it all summer. I felt like a complete dork in it. So a couple of weeks ago I decided that I would cut it shorter so that I wouldn’t have to, at the very least, tuck it in (which I HATE doing with t-shirts). oops. I ended up cutting it too short, making it look even dorkier.
I had seen the book Generation T so I thought I would check it out and try some hacks on my “Reading Bug” shirt. Here is my creation, before and after:
This turned out way too tight and not suitable for work. But it was actually kind of cute! So I went to work on some other t-shirts. I made a hoodie and a really cute sleeveless t with ruched sides. I don’t have pictures of those but I will get some taken and show you. It was lots of fun. And now I’m kind of obsessed. I’m actually thinking that this would make a great teen program at the library… -
I took this last weekend on our walk. This cow was grazing with it’s calf and two other friends across the lake. I haven’t really used my telephoto for distance shots like this and am very happy with how well it works! I love how the cow was looking at us as we were looking at it.
Is anyone else kind of freaking out about the financial situation? It is starting to sound scary. How much more can Bush fuck up our country while he is still in office? Nevermind. I don’t want to know.
-
I had fun playing Bocci Ball with my family last Saturday. My team won! I rule!
