WIP Wednesday and a portrait…

February 22, 2012August 16, 201428 Comments

I almost skipped today’s post, but I decided to give it to you anyway…

sigh…

First up, my table runner

My first time machine quilting

So, I’m cruising along… and I get to the last block…

How did I miss this? I didn’t see it till I made that last long loop down into the lower center!

I know what I have to do, but I am sorely tempted to just leave it and tell myself, “Live and learn.”

Now for the other table runner. Do you recall my chicken block? Well, I decided to make a basket of eggs to accompany it.

So I drafted my idea out and made notes about what I needed in the way of fabrics.

Feeling good so far.

So there are three things that are bothering me to distraction. The bottom of the basket is curved the wrong direction, the handle is crooked, and I am hoping that when I wash all the starch out that the burn through on the eggs will disappear.

Not holding my breath. 😉

OK, so that’s it for sewing. Now on to the portrait!

Can’t have a Farmlet post without a critter picture, now can we?

It’s my little dog Tucker!

We had just been playing with the rings and he was doing his doggie aerobatics, hanging on while I lift him off the ground, and growling so viciously. That’s when I got the idea, I could use my new tripod to take a picture of his antics! So I quickly brought it in and set it up…

He looks at me strangely and hops up onto the bed. No amount of coaxing would change his mind, that was it, game over. So I made the best of it and took a portrait picture of him! I mean, why not? Since he was posing so nicely!

~*~

February 12, 20124 Comments

The best blog give-a-way ever! (And I didn’t even win) What a talented dog!!!

The Kitchen's Garden

TonTon, stop posing. You are supposed to be choosing a winner. Three winners actually to win a package of farmy postcards. Pick a winner TonTon.

TonTon. Each folded comment has a name. Now take a wee paper out of the Pom Pom Hattie and bring it to me. Gimme TonTon. TonTon Gimme

TonTon this has to work you are supposed to be choosing the winners. (sigh) Get my hattie TonTon, Where’s My Hattie!Gimme TonTon, Gimme. No, the paper. TonTon. Gimme paper. You know what that means, we have been practicing.

oops.

Oh you brought my Hattie and dropped all the papers. Well. Hmm. Good Boy.

Thank you for my Hattie. Yes, I will put it on. No, we are not going outside now. Now Ton see where I am pointing. Try and act like a clever dog. Gimme Paper. Gimme paper. Good Boy

Now gimme. Good boy. Winner Number…

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To hold a book in your hand: off topic

February 4, 201210 Comments

This little film was found by my friend Cindy who is a school librarian in Canada. She often finds many wonderful creations made of books, but this time she had one about books.

There is a bit of controversy about the new book readers, and I do admit I use the free software from Amazon to help save money on the cost of owning books, and yet… sitting and reading at my computer will never supplant the feel of a book in my hands.

There is a certain mystique about the bound volumes. I believe for me it is the scent of old ink on yellowed and dog-eared pages that bring me back time and again to the old favorites on my own bookshelf.

Then there is the library. Oh how I love the vastness of a library, the stacks and the sheer volume of their contents, the perfume of ink and paper all bound in cloth or leather, and the quiet solitude in which to revere the old tomes.

Image: Library, El Escorial, Spain via APTM (click photo for source)

What a beauty! But perhaps too big?

Oh! Now this is just perfect! Image: Rodrigo’s library via Your Shelves (click photo for source)

When I taught, I used to tell my students to treat all books with care. I told them that books were like old friends that could tell you stories, and that any time you’d like you could go back and read the story again. I told them that through the pages of a book they could learn anything, go anywhere, and discover new ideas and information to make them smarter, more wise. Many listened and they soon discovered that a good book on a favorite topic could make you magically learn to read… or so it seemed to them. Suddenly reading wasn’t a chore, it was fun and it became a favorite pastime.

Somehow, I believe that no matter how many books you can cram into that little flat handheld screen, it can not replace the hunt through the stacks for an old favorite. Perhaps the one in which you discovered to read all by yourself, or the one you got for your birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. Or one a good friend gave to you because they knew you loved it so much. No, that is not the same at all.

~*~

The Fantastic Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

~*~

Thank you Cindy for providing the seed for my post today!

Communication then and now: “you’ve come a long way baby…”

December 27, 2011December 28, 201116 Comments

This post got started when a blog friend that I follow on The Simple Life of a Countryman’s Wife wrote about receiving a vintage, Brother, manual typewriter from her Mother-in-Law. Reading her post, that was written using the typewriter, caused me to remember when I learned to type on this!

This baby was introduced on July 31, 1961 and turned 50 this year! No one uses them anymore, but do click the picture for photo credit and more about the IBM Selectric.

Now, calling something from the 60s and 70s vintage just boggles my mind, but in the realm of communications the typewriter has “…come a long way baby…”

Of course, written communication is nothing new. Humans were recording their thoughts and history on cave walls, some say, as far back as 32,000 years. The Lascaux cave paintings discovered in 1940 are perhaps the most well-known of these.

(Please click for more photos and for credit)

You simply must go to the Lascaux site and see this interactive display: the Lascaux virtual tour

From painted murals for communication we then went to writing on clay tablets and stone.

(Click the photograph to link to the photo’s source.)

Remember the very famous Rosetta Stone?

Later, it was on to scrolls made of hides and papyrus, and of course, all handwritten! I do not think I would have enjoyed the life of a scribe, too exacting… but then in those days the job of scribe was a male dominated position!

(Click the photograph to link to the photo’s source.)

Dead Sea Scrolls

The invention of paper led to the creation of books. All were hand-made and very time-consuming to produce, and that led to the printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. This was a vast improvement and cut production costs. However, the most important thing about this invention was that it brought books, most notably the Bible, to the masses.

Now of course, by this time we were communicating via letter, but it was still a slow process.

Fast forward to the typewriter…

The first typewriter was invented in 1864. It is made of wood!

Please click the photo to follow the a link to the Peter Mitterhoffer Typewriter Museum, and there you will find a timeline on the invention typewriters! Very interesting I promise!

I won’t go into all the details of the typewriter’s evolution as Mr. Mitterhoffer’s museum site does a fine job of that. However I would like to share a little Youtube video about the IBM Selectric. When these hit the typing lab at Claremont High we all thought it was a revolution in typing, and it turns out we were right! It was the revolution that led to word processing!

Ah… that sound… It was thrilling in its day.

So today, unlike the Countryman’s Wife who enjoyed writing to us on her manual typewriter, I write to you on my new computer that Bob built for me. It is a wonder of modern technology, and beats heck out of my old laptop that was being held together with a rather large binder clip. 😉 It’s fast, sleek, and imagine, it has replaced all the functions of the aforementioned forms of communication!