In The Right Place At The Right Time

So today was Carnival Day at my daughter's school. We weren't really committed to going, but then she decided she wanted to, so off we all went. On the spur of the moment, I decided to bring Release, the latest quilt, because a friend (Carol!) said she was interested in buying it, but she's never even seen it in person and I expected to see her there.

As soon as I walked onto campus, I was accosted by the woman who was organizing a quilt show for the carnival. I had no idea they were even having a quilt show. She hoped I had a quilt in that bag I was carrying, she said, and I did. But I wasn't planning on showing it, I assured her. I just brought it to show to Carol! Being taken off-guard, I argued a bit and then acquiesced and agreed to put it in the show.

I went and looked and my friend Marianne had entered two of her quilts, and that was all there was. So OK, I displayed my quilt and didn't think another thought about it.

Later, someone congratulated me on winning first place.



Isn't that a hoot?

And here's a picture I forgot I had in my camera of my daughter on her school's picture day. She's so gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

She had PE that day, or she never would have worn those shoes. And yes, my studio is a mess. That's why I cropped most of it out of the picture.

My Mornings

Well, after being diagnosed with kidney stones, I was further diagnosed with a staph infection in my urinary tract, so I have been mostly just convalescing for days and days now. Not much interesting to report about that, but I'm off my antibiotics and have been released to take caffeine again, so it would seem that whole episode is behind me. Funny thing about drinking so much water everyday: your body gets really used to it and you feel thirsty if you don't drink. My doctor didn't leave me with a prescription for how much water I should be drinking now, but 1 and a half to 2 liters a day feels about right, with at least 300 ml of that being tea! Woo hoo!

So, I thought I would talk about what I do every morning. I get up as soon as my husband gets in the shower, to iron his shirt. I actually lay in bed until I hear the water hitting his body before I get up - dragging it out, see? I know, I could iron his shirts the night before or during the day after he's gone to work, but I like having to get up that early because then I can see my daughter before she leaves for school, too.

After I iron the shirt, I sit down at the computer with my breakfast. Lately it's been blueberry yogurt. I have all my blogs open in tabs so I can just click one after the other, and that takes some time to load, so that's when I go to the kitchen and get breakfast. I take my yogurt to the computer, and usually all my sites are loaded. Here they are, in the order I look at them:


Fibermania: My sister's blog. We often communicate about what she or I have blogged for the day, altho I haven't left too many comments there lately.
Exuberant Color: This is a blog I just recently started visiting regularly, and I got to her from my sister's blog. They are friends, and I enjoy reading about what she's making and about the weather in northern Illinois.
Craftzine: This is one I find inspiration at regularly. Always has several posts for each day, usually something catches my interest.
Softies Central: This blog is a little less consistent since the author moved to Los Angeles and seems to hate her job there (poor thing) but when she's on, it's really good. I like soft sculpture.
The Needle: This is a site for softie makers to post their creations, and there's always something cute/interesting/disturbing to look at here.
Create!: This is the blog of a woman named Alicia Kachmar. I first found her site after a google search for amigurumi. Alicia is a crocheter, but her site is about all sorts of things.
From One Chick to Another: I came to this site after doing a search for silver seabright chickens. This is the type of chicken I want to own in some far away someday I dream about sometimes. This blog is created by a Christian woman in Canada, and she has chickens, ducks, goats, horses, pigs, and she takes great pictures. Funny how you can get hooked on reading the blog of a perfect stranger.
CraftyStylish: This is another collection of creative-types posting articles about various things, some of which I'm interested in. Jeffrey Rudell is a regular contributor that I really enjoy - he does amazing art with paper.
The Toy Society: This is a woman in Australia who started this site as a way to keep track of soft toys she's made and abandoned in various places in Australia, with a note saying Take Me Home I'm Yours and instructions for toy recipients to contact her to let her know they've found the toy. Almost as soon as she started the site, tons of people contacted her to ask if they could participate in their own towns, and she agreed. I was one of those people, and I have a toy all ready to be abandoned, but I've been sick and it's been really rainy in Singapore. Hopefully soon I will have something to post about this.
After these sites, I have two blogs done by friends, and I'm not sure they would want me to post a link here, so I wont.
Lastly, it's: Flickr SingPacer: My husband's flickr account. Since he often works on and posts his pictures while he's at work, I'm not always aware that there's something new to look at, so I just check it regularly.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also regularly visit Pixdaus, which is a site like Flickr, except it seems to be managed over on this side of the world as many of the photographs are from Asia and Eastern Europe.
And lately my obsession has been with this Free Rice site. Warning, highly addictive! It's a site created by a dad of a 15 year old boy who didn't want to study for his SATs. Apparently, the dad was a computer programmer or something like that, and he worked with charitable organizations. So he created this site to help high school students study for their SATs (I never took one, you know) and it has all these different categories. For every correct answer, they donate 20 grains of rice to someone who needs it. For every incorrect answer, they give you the correct answer and then they give you the question again, a little later, so you have the chance to learn it.
My favorite categories are English vocabulary, English grammar, Art, World Capitals (I suck at this, but I'm getting better), French, German and Spanish. I never go near the math or science stuff, but then I don't have to. Great site for those of you with high school students! Or not, like me.


Taking a look at all of this blogs/sites can take very little time, or it can tie me up for an hour. Especially Free Rice. But now that I'm feeling better, I plan on visiting one more site on a regular basis: the blogger create page. In other words, I plan to blog more frequently.

I'm back!