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Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve

The shepherds have no idea how their lives are going to be disturbed by an angelic visitation. You can see that we have several varieties of sheep to keep located and healthy. At least three of them are European imports, and one is made out of a real wool fuzz ball. Luckily the sheep dog can help gather them together on the commode behind the loveseat.

Tonight the child will arrive at the stable (after church), and I hope to remember to fly the angel over to the shepherds before we leave for St. Louis in the morning. Then they'll have to get along on their own until we return on Jan. 4. It will be a quick trip for the Magi at that point to get to the stable by Epiphany. Maybe we should start them in the morning as well!

Getting bladder infection diagnosed before we left town

No upsets iin the travel plans

DS and DDIL with us in church

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Arrival at Stable

In a crowded Bethlehem,
far from the airport,
Joseph has found a stable.
Looks like there is hay for a bed
and some friendly animals to warm the air.

Time to move in before Mary's time arrives.
Hope there is a midwife nearby;
he'll ask the innkeeper's wife.
Then he needs to go to the Tax Office to register.

And we think we've got a busy schedule!
I'm looking forward to a sermon about Joseph this morning, since we are in the lectionary year of Matthew. Matthew doesn't care about Mary. All those stories are in Luke. However, I still hope we will sing "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came".

I made the "THE" this afternoon. Decided it should be a little smaller, as a less significant word. Now they are both pinned up at the head of the bed. It would be nice to get "STAR" done before we leave for Costa Rica, but Christmas Eve may not be a good day for working on it. Then again, maybe it will be! With no one coming to visit, I can use my time however I want!
I am trying to imagine how to make the "A" for "STAR" look like a star. Since I am not certain, I don't feel like starting. Guess I'll go to work on the packing, which could make for more time tomorrow before the Christmas Eve service. Maybe I'll have a brainstorm by the morning.

Steps: 2831 (bad!)
Yes! We sang "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came".
FOUR candles lit on dining table.
Pasta with pesto for dinner.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Pieced words

This quilt top has been hanging at the head of our bed for the past year. (Photo is sideways. Top is to left.) My plan here was to make a Night Sky with lots of different stars in it, using my collection of blue fabric with stars/nebulae. I thought it was ready to quilt, in fact it is spray basted to the backing. But it hasn't felt "right" to go on to the next step. For one thing it is an odd size, about five feet square. And it doesn't feel focused.

Hooray, a possible solution has presented itself. I looked at Lazy Gal Quilting (Bonnie Hunter's friend Tonya) and she is encouraging a Winter Challenge on "Free Piecing" --something themed for Christmas or Winter. I remembered some of the stars on this quilt WERE free pieced, because I got bored with how unlike the stars in the sky the Regular star blocks looked. [In fact I sent one of these Odd Stars to Bonnie Hunter as part of a Congratulations shower from Stashbusters.] Then I realized that with Tonya's second area of fame (with me) I could add some piece WORDS to this quilt. This is a new technique for me! Maybe this will solve the quilt's problems.

Right away, I knew the words I wanted were "Follow the Star". We have a family game by that name we play every year only during the 12 days of Christmas.

Today I had time to work on it, starting with the easiest letter - "O". Here is the result. Only one word so far. It took a long time to make the "W". I made it her way, but wrongly. Then I corrected it. Then I made it the way I wanted it to look.

The word is now pinned to the star top, and Charlie is in the room getting ready for bed without any comment being made. It is right over his pillow!. Oh, well. He has his sermon written, and we are packing for St. Louis and then Costa Rica. So much to remember and imagine that the real physical world has little reality for him. He's not very "visual".

Exercise today: Walk to STOP sign, and shovelling
Steps: 3011

Walking with my trekking poles through the fog,
ice melted on driveway,
diabetic chocolate from my Secret Sister

Friday, December 21, 2007

Stable ready for visitors

A quiet day in Lake Wobegon.
I went to the pool and participated in the Swimercize class for 50 minutes.
I sat at the computer and read e-mails and blogs. Finished squaring-up the mystery blocks from Step 2.
Peter and Lynne came over for dinner, bringing three Chinese take-out boxes, and some gifts for us to take to St. Louis. Lynne picked a "sheep with a curly horn" for the shepherds' flock and Peter picked the goose for near the stable. [Note: two mice.] Then he took his baby quilt away with him.
The battery on the pedometer gave out, so I lost the count of steps for today.

Safe travel to all who are starting their trips today!

helpers at the bank and the tailor's
clean house
conversation with adult "kids"

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Peter's Baby Quilt

A FIND in the basement! Here is the quilt Charlie's mother bought for our son, Peter. I think she purchased it at some church sale. Each block has an embroidered animal. For instance, a snail! That's a bit unusual.
It also has Prairie points all around in blue and white.
I haven't seen anything like this is while, but they were very popular when I was a baby, I think. Not that I had one!

Time for me to stop storing this, out of sight, out of mind, and time to hand it over to Peter. Or should I save it for his 40th birthday next summer? No, I think I will probably have forgotten about it again by then, and it will end up stayingat my house. Better give it to him tomorrow. Then he can decide who to pass it on to.

And here are the finished 9-patches for Step 3 of Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Crossroads mystery. Didn't think it would take this long, but finally got them "squared up" this afternoon.

So that makes 100 rail fence blocks, 100 9-patches with an accent corner, and 80 9-patches like this. Plus 16 dark plain squares, and 25 neutral plain squares. For a grand Total (so far) of 321 blocks made. That's enough to make a finished pieced top of about 36" x 80". We were told at the beginning this quilt will be 80" x 80". So not yet half done, but getting close!

Off this evening to our SpoolSpinner bee's holiday party. That will include a potluck of appetizers, salads, and desserts, a concert by a Madrigal Choir, the revelation of Secret Sisters for the past year, sign up for Secret Sisters for next year, and an exchange of White elephants. I'm taking a UFO as a White Elephant that I am sure I will never get finished--or I certainly don't want to spend time on-- four 12.5" blocks from kits (all the same) and 2.3 yards of fabric that could be borders or backing. Fun to see if anyone wants to exchange for it!
LATER: Here at last is my Secret Sister, Bonnie Golder, looking happy to receive the Red and White 16-patch. She very nicely claimed that she loves RED.
She and I happened to be roommates on the Bee quilting retreat back in September, so she thought I had given her lint-rollers because I saw all the threads on her clothes. Really, ALL quilters have this problem.

Steps today: 8863
Lovely tins and diabetic candy from my Secret Sister, Timmy
A fun time with other quilters
Home again to a quiet house

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

"Healthy Habits" report for last 9 days

I exercised seven days of nine.
I did not eat ONLY healthy foods, but I did better than previously. Putting in a lots of time on the Secret Sister quilt has kept my hands busy and my thoughts away from food (even away from the Food Network).

I planned my snacks to the extent that I had the appropriate foods in the house, and NO CHIPS! I gave myself permission to have one piece of Christmas toffee a day.
My weight stayed the same. This report is due on Mondays, so I'm late too.

Monday I purchased walking poles, they're like ski poles, but meant for hiking or walking. I have hopes that these will help me stand up straighter while walking and therefore not get the backaches that have discouraged me. Also, I need to not only SURVIVE our jungle and mountain hikes in Costa Rica after Christmas, but keep up with my 10 year old grandson for whom it is a special time with Grandpa and Grandma. So I chose poles that can be shortened to fit into my suitcase--naturally the high end of the price-range. I hope that expense will encourage me to USE them, even this week at home as I add twice a week walks from home to my exercise plan. [Ruler against wall to show scale.]

Today I walked completely around the outside wall of Meijers, and the pedometer said it was 1000 steps. By the time I had done my shopping, unloaded at home and eaten lunch I was up to 5000. So I am happy with that, especially since most days I do less than 5000. Of course the GOAL is 10,000. "Getting there, one step at a time" is my mantra these days. I've burned and crashed too many times before.

Food challenges of this week:
1.) Parishioners are giving DH, their priest, lovely Christmas food gifts, such as fudge, fruitcake and cookies. They sit on the kitchen counter all day. Tonight I am going to tell him to take them back to his office as my will power is lowering.
2.) Two potluck dinners at parties. I will try to stand on the other side of the room from the goodies and keep my glass full of something non-caloric.
3.) We need to empty the refirgerator before our trip. Plan: I must THROW away food, not consume it.

The Secret Sister quilt is in the wash machine. When its dry I'll get a photo of the whole top. Maybe that quilt needs a better name. . . . what would be fitting? "Red & White 16-Patch" is pretty descriptive of the center.

Steps today: 7723

Reunion group Christmas tonight,

Helped a lady in Meijer's with my punch recipe,

Talked to Sue on the phone for a minute.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

White quilting

Exercise today: 40 min "walking" in the pool and 10 min swimming
Steps = 3197

Whew! By sitting down to it two different times, I got the white squares marked and quilted this afternoon. My test of this blue marker on a scrap of white fabric washed right out, so I trust these marks will all be gone after I spritz with water. This not an adventurous quilting pattern, however after much thought I felt more confident using a purchased template--and it was hearts, which was what I wanted.

HOORAY! This gift is done two whole days early! Now to discern which of the many White Elephants in my sewing room will be wrapped for the SpoolSpinner party gift exchange.

After dinner I worked some more on the 9-patches for Bonnie's Caroline Crossroads mystery quilt. I thought I had enough of the 3-patch strips to get the 80 blocks made, but I had miscalculated on the dark-light-dark ones by about 25 out of 160. Made those. Got 40 blocks all put together, pressed and squared-up. Bonnie sez she doesn't square-up, but I don't think my workmanship is a good as hers!

Suddenly agitated about clothing for the trip to Costa Rica, and shoes, and a JACKET!

Sensation of water on my body in the pool
Mouse (wood) in the creche stable
Laughing with Charlie

Monday, December 17, 2007

Red Thread

Exercise today: Strength & Stretch class,
steps 5582

Monday is "Change the Bed" day at our house. So here is the Christmas duvet cover on the bed. Nobody ever told me that you could make a quilt top and then turn it into a duvet cover, I just did it because we have a duvet for the winter. It is so snuggly and warm, without being too hot. The regular cover is about worn-out with creeping wear holes near our face, so perhaps another duvet cover would be a good use for a UFO?

Secret Sister quilt: Finished the quilting I had planned to do with Red Thread. So before I changed the machine over to white thread, I finished making the binding, the rod pocket, and the label. When I then applied the binding to the quilt, I caught down the rod pocket and the label. In this photo you can see the backing fabric which is a fairly heavy flannel. The fabric's pattern does a great job concealing my wobbly machine quilting, and I love the pattern.

So now I have my only hand sewing to do on any quilt: tack down the lower edge of the rod pocket, and the folded edge of the label triangle. Now I am fearing the quilting that needs to be done in the white spaces on the quilt--but I'll put that off until tomorrow.

Exercise class stretches
Birthday lunch for Jo
Gift eggrolls for dinner

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Third Week of Advent

The Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent started "Rejoice. . .", hence the name "Gaudete" Sunday. Today our Collect has changed, but we still light the rose candle, not quite so penitent as purple.

Our book discussion group is reading Toward Holy Ground, Spiritual Directions for the Second Half of Life, by Margaret Guenther. Today's chapter is entitled, "A Good Death".
The end of the year, the length of these dark nights, and my increasing bodily aches -- all make this a appropriate topic. She says that preparation for death is a life-long project! Hmmm, I've put this off for a many years. Her recommendations include a daily examen of conscience, acknowlegement of our pain and loss, holding onto hope. Old words, but difficult to follow. I guess one really does need long practice so the process becomes "natural".

Yesterday I did all the Stitch-in-The-Ditch quilting on the Secret Sister quilt. Today I "screwed my courage to the sticking point" and started free motion quilting the red and white fabric. It has a very concealing pattern, which I really need. Now that I've finished that part with loops, I am looking at the outer, red fabric and trying to imagine that it too will hide the vagaries of my stitching, Probably NOT. However, I am using red thread at this point, so it will be a little hidden. Since I want this quilt to be useable for Valentine's season as well as Xmas, I am conjuring Hearts for this border. But now the corners that I liked are causing a planning problem----anything the right size for the border will be too small for the corner. Need to "put on my thinking cap". [Shades of Brownie Scout Troop #556 in 1950!]

No trouble driving to church (snow)
Choir practice for Christmas Eve sounded good
Lunch with Kathie

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Hole in the Lake

Quiggle Lake has frozen in a strange shape this year. Usually our side of the lake is the last to freeze because the spring is near our shore and the lake is much deeper not too far off our dock. So far we have a skim of ice, who knows how thick, that goes wayout to the middle, and a round hole out there. The geese have been gathering in LARGE numbers, but seem to be gone this morning when I took this photo.

On the window ledge you can see Mary and Joseph under the care of the Angel marching on their way to Bethlehem. Only 9 days left in Advent and arrival at the creche stable.

We had a little supper party last night, which always throws me into a dither and almost complete exhaustion by the time the company arrives. Even when it is simply spaghetti and salad! I certainly am the complete Introvert, whose reaction to arriving at a party is to say, "How soon can we leave?" When the party is at your own house. . . . However, once I find the conversation interesting my mind gets into gear and I do enjoy the exchange of ideas.

Calmed down afterwards by working on Bonnie's latest clue for the Mystery quilt Carolina Crossroads, getting most of my strips of three patches sewn together while listening to jazz on the radio.

Since my kitchen counter is all cleaned off for the event lastnight, I will find it easy to get the Secret Sister quilt top layered and pinned with batting and backing for the real quilting work. Also will give me time to imagine the quilting design(s).

SHORT haircut for Costa Rica, clean house, quiet day

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Secret Sister quilt Top done!

Secret Sister quilt TOP finished today.
For the moment it is 43" x 37", which is odd, but the border can be cut down later. I have enough of the red border fabric to cover the whole back and make the binding, I think.

Took more time than I was expecting. Each step was fairly simple, but with pressing, and cutting and FIGURING. . . . here it is 10 PM. Saturday I can start layering it and thinking about how to quilt.

I like the corner cut in like this. Pretty easy with an on-point block plan, but I don't remember seeing it used much. Gives it a more "old fashioned" look.

My exercise today was the Strength and Stretch class Charlie and I attend for a hour. Today was our Holiday luncheon, but we did the full hour of exercise first. I even was quite responsible in what I ordered at the restaurant--and had no dessert. My pedomoter only reports 1100 steps. That hardly seems enough. Guess I'll have to do a Step Check walking on the driveway and counting my steps myself to see if it matches.

Freedom to work all afternoon on this top

Followed my plan

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

First day with pedometer

Exercise for today: walking for 10 minutes around the Meijers store before starting my grocery shopping. That was just one circuit of the outside walls of the mega-store. Then there was another 25 minutes in the store actually finding the things I meant to buy.
My pedometer reads 3520 for "steps" at 10:45 PM. That isn't very high. I will have to work on making more moves each day.

After I put away the groceries I sewed together some of the strips of blocks for my Secret Sister. Then I rinsed out a couple of new fabrics for the Mystery. I'm getting ready for new instructions tomorrow. Presuming that Bonnie can stay on her own schedule.

After dinner I took out the calf for the creche so that the ox has some company in the stable. My father made the stable from scraps of lumber for us, and included a small light inside the roof. This illuminates the interior and acts as a nightlight for the livingroom all through the season.
Mary, Joseph, the donkey and the angel are still on the window ledge, but moving along.

SUN for most of the day
friends sharing growing old
pleasant clerks at the store

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Secret Sister progress

Despite weather forecasts of bad driving, I got myself out of the house at about 8:20 to go to the "Swimercise" class, and I even got all the contents together for a package to St. Louis and carried them with me. I was about 5 minutes late for the class, but I give myself high marks for getting out the door in time at all--other weeks I would have excused myself. Thank you "Quiltercize" friends for making me accountable. As FlyLady says, "You have to do this for yourself. You deserve it!" But it helps to know that others are working on the same project--even if that isn't Bonnie's mystery.

Having done my exercise, and organized my package at the Post Office, I reward myself by working on the next rounds for my Secret Sister quilt. I sewed the 2.5 inch four-patches together with the red and white fabric as bigger four-patches. They are now added to the middle section, and as I was cutting the setting triangles, I made a cutting mistake. Or a thinking mistake. I had bought JUST what I thought I would need, so now I will need more of this fabric--about six inches! Well, I got it recently because I didn't have any red with this much white in my Stash. I hope there are 6 inches left on the bolt!
Outside this there will be a narrow white sashing, and then a dark red wider border.
I will need to have it quilted and bound by a week Thursday. Since I hear Bonnie is going to tie up my time this weekend with another of her clues, I better work on this now.
Off I go to the local Joanne's!

Found it! And enough of the "right" red for the outer border.

I also stopped at an outdoor-athletic store and bought a new pedometer, or STEP-ometer. This is the third or fourth I have bought, the first two fell off my waist and were lost. I think because the clip was not strong enough. So the last one was chosen specificly because it had a real spring in the clip, not just a piece of plastic. That one lasted a lot longer, but eventually also fell off--and BROKE into two pieces. That one only cost $12.

Today the only other one with a good, strong clip was $50. Here it is, tipped up so you can see the metal spring in the clip. Hmm, that's pretty pricey, but I decided I really wanted it for this Quilters-Exercize group ("Quiltercize"?). Need to be counting my steps so I know I need to move around more.

When Charlie got home this evening, he was delighted to find that his Christmas shopping for me was completed, and he was giving my present to me two weeks early! And he didn't even have to wrap it since I was eager to get it out of the box.

This machine claims it will even read my pulse, but it has taken me so long to calculate the length of my step in centimeters and get THAT entered, that I am not reading any more of the instruction manual tonight.

Slimfast to drink for lunch
Slush, not ice on driveway
Success in shopping for grands

Monday, December 10, 2007

Charlie and lobster

All I did that could be considered quilting today was "squaring up" the 9-patches from yesterday. At least that means I am ready whenever Bonnie tells us to sew some of the completed blocks together.

So I don't have a photo of quilting, instead I will share with you a pic of my Dear Husband having a delicious encounter with a lobster on a vacation in Maine. It's down the column on the right somewhere.

Today's exercise: One hour at Strength and Stretch class.

encouraging talk with a fellow diabetic
afternoon nap under the duvet
TV show "Little People"

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Cute nine-patches

I did indeed finish the 100 little nine-patches for the Carolina Crossroads Mystery quilt. Here's a basket full of them with a sample display of four.

I decided the light yellow that was my second fabric for the "accent" position was too light to read as a medium. This position is supposed to be closer to the dark plaids. Luckily I looked through my Yellow Bin and found a brownish-yellow there that will do a better job. But perhaps these two fabrics will not be enough for the whole mystery! I will have to wait and see, and meanwhile hold back from rushing wildly to the fabric store, my natural inclination. I am going to keep the nine-patches that were already put together with the light yellow. But I replaced all the three-piece-strips with that yellow that had NOT been turned into nine-patches yet. So now there are three yellows in use, but only two that will continue.

These patches are smaller than I usually use, and the blocks are rather cute! I had nearly decided to get rid of my little bin of 1.5' squares and strips, but Bonnie may have converted me. Nevertheless, this is no way to use up very much Stash. I think we have enough blocks so far to make a top of 30" x 60". The final top is going to be 80" x 80", so we have a way to go.

The next Clue will come on Thursday, perhaps. Therefore I will have to work on something else during my quilting time.

Today an offshoot group was formed from Stashbusters by women who need to have a REWARD in order to exercise. The founder proclaimed that she was going to only quilt AFTER exercising each day, and lots of us think this may work for us. After all, this makes more sense than rewarding oneself with food! Hence a new group.

I have joined and gave myself the following challenge, which I am calliing "Healthy Habits":

1) EXERCISE weekly six days: Strength and Stretch class with Charlie twice, Swimmercise at the community pool twice, and walk at least 20 minutes a day twice.

2) EAT healthy always, and plan my morning and afternoon snacks (so I don't indulge in "easy" pickings).

Then I went out to take my first walk in a long time--45 minutes was my plan, or at least two times around the meadow. Forget it! I went once around the meadow and was winded. Total time = 10 minutes. Guess I need to lower my expectations to 20 minutes, which may be divided into two separate walks. Better to be realistic about my expectations.

Tonight I took out the first shepherd figure for our creche.

Singing Advent hymn "At Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry"
Tuna pesto salad
Discovered three 'lost' evergreen trees in the snow

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Carolina Crossroads mystery Step 2

I now have all the three piece strips for Step #2 sewn together. This has taken a good deal of the last two days. Nine-patches take longer than Rail Fences! I found it necessary to cut more strips, and Bonnie's fabric estimates made me realize that I did not have enough of the yellow accent fabric. So I found another yellow and will begin using that as well as the original. Maybe I'll even need to add a third eventually!.

So here is what my sewing machine looks like at 5:30 pm on Saturday. Baskets of 99 strips each for the rest of the 9-patches, and one lonely completed block, just so I can see what the result will be. I may have time to sew a few more of these together tonight, but I really think the work will be done on Sunday afternoon.

quiet day with no interruptions for sewing
crunchy potato chips
e-mail from my daughter

Friday, December 7, 2007

Advent decorations

We are not having Christmas at our house for the first time in, oh, 38 years. We will rush out of here on Christmas morning heading for St. Louis and a trip with our grandson to Costa Rica for eight days. But we are having Advent, right through Christmas Eve church. So we are having our usual "celebration" for the first 24 days of December.

***We have the Advent wreath on the dining table and we eat dinner solely by the light of the candles lit each week. Dinner is pretty dark right now with only one candle.
***The quilt of an Advent wreath is hanging on the wall behind the kitchen eating bar. The flame and glow of each candle there is pinned onto the background as the weeks progress. I can also see this from outside the house as I drive in the driveway.
***The creche figures are coming out of the box one at a time. So far Mary and Joseph have each had a conversation with the Angel about an unexpected event. They have acquired a donkey, and all four of them are slowly making their way from Nazareth (table by the wing chair) all the way south (along the picture window ledge) to the stable in Bethlehem (table by the loveseat on the other side of the living room). In the days to come various animals will appear in the stable, and the flock of sheep and shepherds will increase on the commode. No children remain at home, yet this activity keeps us asking after dinner is cleaned up, "Did you get a figure out for tonight, or is it my night?"
Iris' birthday lunch
enjoyed cutting fabric
going to a play tonight

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Secret Sister

My quilting bee, SpoolSpinners, has a Secret Sister option, beginning each January. That means the "reveal" is at our December meeting. I am now trying to put the little four-patches I have been making as leaders and enders into a table topper for my Secret Sister. My thought is that Red and White are good for Christmas and also are good for Valentine's Day and even the Fourth of July. Therefore a "lasting" color combination.

I have put together these 16-patches and am planning on an on-point setting. Now I need to make some HSTs that white and red to set around what I have already. This will give the effect of an inner border.

This project has a due date before Christmas, whereas the Carolina Crossroads does not have a deadline. So I am working on this one (and doing a little cutting of fabrics for the mystery as well between times).

some sun between the clouds,
dinner out with my DH telling each other about our day
Red and White! Love it.

Dots and Dashes

These are the blocks I made for a special Stashbusters "exchange". Well, not an exchange, but taking a chance of winning. We can send in up to 10 blocks, and then some of us will win 20.
It is a very simple block and we could use any fabric at all along with the muslin, so I just grabbed these three fabrics off my pile of things that really should be put away. These all were left-over backing edges returned to me by my long-arm quilter. So really, really scrap!
If I should "win" I will have to make enough more blocks to put together a quilt for Pine Ridge. But then, that's what I spend most of my time doing anyway.

Quiggle Lake

This is the view from our dining room slider (and the living room)in winter and in fall. There are no houses on the opposite side of the lake, where there is now a golf course. Luckily the lake is so small that no one tries to put anything motorized on it.

We have a rowboat, which Charlie uses to survey the number of turtles basking on fallen logs around the lake, and we have the permanent loan of a parishioner's canoe, which doesn't get used as often, partly because Zeke's antics make it unstable.

The view is to the westsouthwest, so we get good views of the sunset, especially in the winter. Yes, we do have snow on the ground now. The plowing service has been here once already, missing the edge of the driveway in one place and scraping the lawn.
Feather duvet,
hot shower,
faster internet connection than yesterday.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Bonnie Hunter's Mystery

I mentioned that Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville ( ) has made her latest quilt into an as-she-goes mystery for her followers (of whom there are MANY). In two days she had over 600 quilters sign up to be in the group. She working on the second step while telling us about the first step!

"Carolina Crossroads" is the title.

Bonnie's first step was the creation of 100 Rail Fence blocks from 1.5" strips, two dark fabric rails and an accent color in the middle. These make 3.5" blocks. She wants us to make them from our stash of already purchased fabric. So that is the task we are all working on now.

I finished last night and here are the ten stacks of ten blocks I put together from dark plaids with a yellow/gold homespun check in the middle.

Now I can go back to working on the December present for my Bee Secret Sister. It's red and white so far. Need to decide about the inner and outer borders....will green make it too one seasonal? Maybe keep it red and white so it can be used all the way through February.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Zeke tries to eat sprinkler water

Amazingly, to me, I have already received a request about my blog! Lori wants to see my dog. He is really Charlie's dog more than mine, though we all live in the same house. And Zeke's cage is in my sewing room.

Here he was in the summer . After an initial attack each time the sprinkler starts, he settles down to try to get a drink out of it. This results in a VERY wet dog.

Zeke's back comes up to about my knee, so he is a mid-sized dog. We got him at the Humane Society, where they claimed he was a cocker spaniel. Doesn't look like one to us. He is very protective of our house and yard, not pleasant for visitors.

Lori, you will have to wait for a picture of the lake. Somehow I can't get Blogger to put more than one photo in each post.

Quilt at Auction

Here is the quilt as it was displayed at the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus auction. The size is 74" x 104", which is a double bed size, or a topper for a queen or king.

I made it from four "jelly rolls" of fabric. These are pre-cut strips of 2.5" x the width of the fabric are are usually a complete line of fabric. They included all the green, orange and red/purple. I added one strip of yellow and one strip of blue.
When I had it all together I took it to Mary Davis for machine quilting. Then it came home again for the binding--also machine sewn on both sides.

I found this to be enjoyable at almost all stages, and was SOoo delighted that it fetched a good price for the Chorus! I'll do another quilt next year.

I have started cutting strips for the quilt that Bonnie Hunter is leading as a Mystery right now over the next several months. I am attacking my box of plaids for the darks and the lights, and at the moment think I will use a yellow homespun for the Accent color. Or maybe I'll use red, my continual favorite.

GRWC Winter Concert

We, the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus, had our Winter concert last Saturday. I was pretty nervous about not yet knowing some of the music, like 3 out of 8 songs. We had commissioned a new piece this year and the composer came from Lansing to direct us. The title is "Salmon Run" and much of the music is an imitation of the sounds and feel of the river water as the salmon fights upstream to spawn and die. Since the water keeps doing much the same thing, it was hard to keep track of where we were in the repetitions! However, I don't think the audience was aware of our difficulties.

After the 45 minute performance we have a reception and Auction to raise money for our music (and pay our accompanist). I had donated a double bed sized quilt. Two previous years I had donated smaller quilts and they had each sold for $250. This bargello pattern got a lot of compliments from the crowd, and sold for $450! Hurray for the Chorus' music fund!


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Call us at 518-584-3255

Welcome to the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce

Haunts, History & The Arts

Saratoga kicks-off the month of October with the arts, horse racing history, tours, fall farm fun, spooky adventures and so much more.  Here are some highlighted events below.  For a complete schedule of Saratoga Happenings, go online to

ArtsFestFridays - Universal Preservation Hall Goes Avant Garde
Universal Preservation Hall
October 2, 2015
5:00 PM - 7:30 PM

For one night only, Universal Preservation Hall in downtown Saratoga Springs will become a vibrant vessel for creative, unconventional, and joyful music and movement. The evening – co-produced by SaratogaArtsFest and Spring Street Gallery – will showcase gospel songs, a musical mélange, an inventive and exploratory work featuring accomplished modern dancers, along with, eye-catching video effects and a participatory project with a painter in the lobby. Beer and wine tasting round out the night, and revelers can grab a gourmet goodie or apples and cider before heading out to enjoy Saratoga’s wonderful nightlife, or stay for an extended dance mix.

Double M Haunted Hayride
Double M Western, Malta
October 2-31, 2015
Select days, Reservations Required

Double M Haunted Hayrides is celebrating 25 years of fear! Ready to terrify those who are brave enough to venture into the eerie woods through the Haunted Hayride, The Stockyard, Salvage junkyard, the Last Inn and finally the Clown Carnevil. Don't forget the The Schadenfreude Circus, where you're certain to freak out.

The Hunt for History and Horses
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
October 3, 2015
8:00 AM to 12:30 PM

The Hunt for History and Horses event scheduled to take place at Saratoga Race Course has been moved to indoors at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.  Family fun while learning about the history of thoroughbred racing and its connection to Saratoga Springs. The event will now be a free event and admission to the Museum is free throughout the day. There will also be equine artists on hand selling their work, as well as raffles, food and movies throughout the day in the Hall of Fame.

Art in the Park
Saratoga National Historical Park
October 3, 2015
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Meet at the visitor center for basic historical background, then head onto the Battlefield to capture inspiring views in paint, pencil, pastel, or pixel! Let the rangers at the front desk know you are coming as an artist and they will give you a free day pass.  If you wish to allow the park to use your art, please provide your email address.

Saratoga Springs

One of America's Great Main Streets

Visit Saratoga County!

Everything but Ordinary!

Visit Saratoga County!

Discover this land, like never before! #ilovesaratoga

Saratoga Lip Dub

Dancing down Broadway brings people together.

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Headlines headlines
View news itemTrainees writing reports - specific conditions
Those writing reports in training should only be as part of their professional training and ...
View news itemJoint signing of diagnostic reports
If more than one assessor is involved in conducting assessments and producing the diagnostic report, ...
View news itemGuidelines on 4th renewal of APCs issued
SASC has revised guidelines for practitioners who have successfully renewed their APCs over an extended ...
View news itemART-2 is now approved by STEC
The Adult Reading Test, 2nd edition, has been approved by STEC. See further guidance below.
View news itemUPDATE: Reports submitted for APC renewal
Assessment reports submitted in support of APC renewal must have been written in the 18 ...

SASC news feed SASC news feed

  Course Details
Patoss Mentoring Scheme – Better Reports (12 Hours)
Course Level: Intermediate
Course Type: Distance
In-depth: in-depth
CPD Long Term:
CPD Credit Hours: Hours: 12 Minutes: 0
  Event Address

  Contact Details
Provider: Patoss
Course Manager: Mrs Lia Border
Email: lborder@patoss-dyslexia.org
Website: www.patoss-dyslexia.org
  Event Details
Dates: 15/08/2013 - 25/08/2017
Times: N/A - N/A
No. of Delegates: Unlimited
Delegate Price: GBP 495.00
SASC Ref.: PAT-2202 BR
   Course Summary
The Better Reports package is aimed at the newly-qualified specialist assessor, or indeed anyone wishing to improve their report-writing skills with the individualised support of a Professional Practice Mentor.
   Course Detail

Perhaps you are a newly qualified assessor and need a guiding steer – a second opinion for a profile not encountered during training or clarification of an assessment procedure that you may not have had the opportunity to use before. Alternatively, you may be an experienced assessor who simply wishes to check and reaffirm your practice, in line with current thinking.

This CPD package offers support for an extended period, which could be sufficient time to obtain feedback on a variety of profiles. You are in charge of how you use your time (with your mentor’s guidance of course!) but you could check an initial report to make sure you are ‘on the right lines’, or make sure that your report writing remains at the expected standard at a later stage of your career.

Included in the package:

·         Online access to a personal Professional Practice Mentor for an extended period of three months (equivalent to one hour per week); this is time to validate your practice, resolve any concerns you may have for any aspect of your work, and complete an individual or series of reports.

·         An opportunity to review at least one DAR with your Professional Practice Mentor, with feedback of strengths of the report, and issues that need addressing for the future. This is not compulsory but is recommended.

·         An annual subscription to the Patoss Professional Practice Community forum: one year’s continued support on the monitored forum.

   CPD Themes
  • Reviewing principles of psychometrics, statistics, assessment and underlying theory
  • SpLD testing methods, interpretation, report writing, feedback and test materials
  • Assessors
  • Qualification in SpLD Diagnostic Assessment
   Learning Outcomes
  • Enhance skills of assessment practice


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Saturday, November 21, 2009

HAPPY Saturday my SASSY Sistahs!!! How are you? Here we are again!! AND? Wait until you see what I have for you today!! I SO enjoy browsing the galleries and perusing the blogs!!! You all are SO talented!! Speaking of which, make sure to check out the SASSY DT CALL below!!
OK,......on with the show!! Haha! Todays creations are brought to you by, MANDY! You can visit her HERE!! You are going to want to do that, believe me!!! She has some SASSY talent to share!! For sure!!! I was SUPER excited when I visited her, she had SEVERAL sassy creations to share!! Thanks Mandy and make sure to shoot me an email at!! I will get your badges our to you!!

**Mandy's creation with, Baby it's Cold Outside!

**Mandy's Mrs. Claus creation!

**A Happy Thanksgiving creation, by Mandy! know you want a SASSY badge for yourself....right? Well? Don't you? Alrighty then, here's what you need to do! Create something, using SASSY STUDIOS images, and upload it to PCP and/or SCS. What are they, you might ask? They are Paper Craft Planet and Splitcoaststampers!!! You do know, that we have our own album now, over at Splitcoast??!! YEPPER, we sure do!! When you upload your creations? You will want to label them sassystudio, so we can find them!! Got it? Remember,......... Not ONLY will you be featured here? BUT? You will also be able to grab that SASSY SATURDAY badge I was talking about, for you to display on YOUR blog!! How SWEET is that? If you are NOT able to upload your pic? NO worries!! Just submit your creations to me, at're still here? What are you waiting for? Get creating!!! I can't wait to see what you come up with!! It was SO awesome to visit with you again, this Saturday!! Thanks SO much for stopping by! Can't wait 'till next week, so we can share again!! Have a FABULOUS week!!

1 comment:

  1. OMGosh! I am so grateful to you for featuring me on your blog. You have no idea how honored I am and how much that lightened my heart to see it.. I love your images and I can't wait to play more...thank you so much for making my year...


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Friday, October 29, 2010

Blockbuster Express Kiosk: Rent 1 Get 1 FREE Through Sunday

Stop by any Blockbuster Express kiosk and use promo code 2HLLWN through Sunday (10/31) to get a free one-night rental when you pay for any rental. Find your local Blockbuster express location.

Thanks, For the Mommas!

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segunda-feira, março 14, 2011

Algumas coisas em inglês têm mais sentido...

I can't stand it. Why do we always end up like this when we have to part?
We're just like little kids fighting over something that in the end doesn't have any meaning.
Why do we always try to have a nice time but somehow we keep messing everything?
Why tha hell do we always, but always keep the most important things to say hidden?
Why do we always say "It's nothing. We're not arguing. Everything's ok. We're fine this way."

I keep regretting all kinds of things that I say. But what pisses me off more is your attitude. The way you see things isn't clear to me. I hate that fact.
I wanna feel like I know everything about you. I sometimes guess that you only say things to test me. I do the same thing to you. But sometimes you just don't do what I was thinking you would.

Today I saw you're tired face.
I keep telling myself that I should have swallowed my pride and just hug you and stay silent 'cause I didn't know what to say.
Right now I know that the words wouldn't have come out.
Only tears.

"we're going to be apart for 15 days!"
I know that and do you think that I don't care?
Sometimes I feel like you don't really know me.
I can predict most of your actions and words, but you?
Sometimes I feel so hopeless.
But I promised not to try to change you 'cause it's the You that I LOVE.
The you that's stubborn and that waits for me to go to you when I'm around everyone and having a good time.
The you that says that there's nothing going on.
The you that always looks into the past and keeps hurting yourself because of that.
The you that tells me to go away because I'm going to be scolded by my parents.
The you that loves me in a way that I can't describe 'cause it's only you that can do it.

Right now my eyes are swollen. I can't stop thinking about the way we parted.
I keep remembering your disappointed face.
It hurts.
But the worst is knowing that I don't wanna hear your voice.
I don't wanna keep agonizing about this.
I don't want us to blame each other. To hurt each other with words we didn't want to say like we did.
I don't want to be apart from you.

Gosh I love you.
We're just s stupid couple with lots of stupid fights lately.
I keep thinking about that simple kiss. Just a simple touch. I didn't want that but I was so hurt that I just had to run home.
We were suppose to be together but we're both guilty because of our stubbornness.
I just can't write anymore.
I have to sleep.
I can't dream about you because if I will, I won't sleep.

Go away.
Dream about me.
Hold me.
Love me.

21 comentários:

ana moura disse...

obrigada! pois hoje em dia, temos tendência em esperar demasiado..
obrigada querida :)

łnn ۞ disse...

Lindo, quer dizer, Beautifull :)

joanarocha :) disse...

muito obrigada :)

Catarina disse...

obrigada, nao diria melhor.
Vou seguir tbm :)

Catarina disse...

nao tens que agradecer :)

hayley bellamy disse...

+adoro ingles

hayley bellamy disse...

de nada querida
adoro o cabeçalho, como é q o puseste assim?

béc's. disse...

muito obrigada minha querida, também gostei muito do teu cantinho :)*

Diana disse...

que amavel +.+

- o que quer que seja, vem de dentro. disse...

obrigada minha linda :)

Violet* disse...

Gostei muito do que li, é muito verdade, beijinho e bom fim de semana

Diogo Pires disse...

Também sigo :)

Catarina disse...

gostei imenso so teu blog, sigo-te! beijinhos

M. disse...

Pois é, concordo contigo :)
Obrigada :D Bom domingo!

M A R I S A ' disse...

Obrigada pela força e pelo apoio querida <3

simple writer disse...

gostei muito :)
claro, de todo o passado apesar de até termos sofrido algo devemos tirar o que é melhor para tirar.

-isabel ♥ disse...

Dommin disse...

adorei! estou a seguir :)*

Catarina disse...

Bruno Alves disse...

Obrigado* A palavra "Amo-te" é muito forte mesmo, devemos dizê-la às pessoas certas. Adoro os teus textos. Carregam imenso sentimento!

J. disse...

Oh meu deus, está perfeito linda *.*


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EARLIER EVENTS :: 2015 :: Workshops

The Science of Scientific Writing

Presented by Writing - research articles, grant proposals, reports, books - is the bread and butter of researchers. To succeed in academia, how effectively a researcher communicates her research is as important as the quality of her work. But when a student graduates and is catapulted into the real world, almost no one will care about how hard she worked on a piece of writing nor how much better a job she did compared to last time. In the working world, the one question that matters is: Did the reader actually get delivery of what the writer intended to send? If the answer is “yes”, the writing was good enough; if the answer is “no”, then no matter how brilliant her research may have been or how dazzling the writing might sound, it was not good enough. By treating writing as a craft, this workshop will seek to provide the tools required for a young researcher to become a better writer (see below for more information). If writing is treated as a craft, it means two things: one, most of us with a reasonable command over the English language can become better writers; two, writing is hard work. But with the tools provided at the workshop, a young researcher can embark on a journey towards becoming a skilled writer. Main aims and goals:Whether a piece of writing is “good” or “bad” depends entirely on the response it produces in the mind of the reader. The goal of this workshop is to take that which one already knows intuitively as a reader and make that knowledge available to her consciously as a writer. Target audience:Graduate Students (and anyone else interested in becoming a better writer). Workshop organisers:Karthik Ramaswamy


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Skip to content

Overview of Septic Tanks

Well designed, well-maintained septic tank systems use nature — bacteria and soil — to break down and filter the waste we flush and rinse away. They can be the safest, most cost-efficient way to treat wastewater.

Septic systems, like private wells, are the homeowner’s responsibility. An improperly used or maintained septic tank system can affect an entire community by causing one or more of the following problems: a breeding area for mosquitoes and other insects, undesirable odors, costly damage caused by sewage backing up inside the home, the spread of serious diseases, and pollution of groundwater, wells, rivers, and lakes.

South Carolina’s Challenge

Some septic systems fail to work properly, usually because of poor maintenance. Don’t let yours be one of them — learn how your septic system works and how to care for it.


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Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Thomas D. Ready, Martin F. Idzik, James E. Hakes, Stephen A. Seall, and Michael J. Schimberg.

Included in

Law Commons

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.


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Schools Training

5 Books to Boost Your Career Savvy in Auto Sales College

27 FEB 2012
Career Path : Automotive

Youâll learn a lot in auto sales college, but that shouldnât prevent you from doing some extra research of your own, to finesse your career and financial management skills before embarking on one of the most psychologically demanding auto careers: car sales.

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

âSilence is a source of great strengthâ

Lao Tzu

How to Win Friendsâ¦ has the distinction of being one of the first self-help books ever published, as well as being one of the best selling.

It contains one of the most important secrets of auto sales. College, although important, might not teach it.

What is this piece of advice that can help advance salespeople across the land?

How to listen.

The most important thing is listening, not talking, in auto sales. College classes teach scripts, How to Win Friends reminds us that it is the wise salesperson who knows when to keep silent. Being active, engaged listeners will help graduates of auto sales college truly advance their auto careers.

2. The Power of a Positive No by William Ury

âUncover your yes.â

This self-help book is by a Harvard specialist on negotiations who has helped mediate conflicts ranging from labour conflicts to civil wars around the world. It can help new graduates of auto sales college keep in mind what is important to them during difficult negotiations with potential clients.

Bonus: It may also help them negotiate a better starting salary as they embark on their auto careers. As an employee, you wonât be negotiating simply with your customers, but also with your employer.

3. The Wealthy Barber Returns by Dave Chilton

âAnnual income twenty pound, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.â

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1849

So youâve finished auto sales college and managed to negotiate your first job. You are happy with the terms of your contract, but one question remains: how do you plan to spend your hard-earned money? Canadian personal finance author Dave Chilton has advice on living within your means.

4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

This self-help book can give you tips for managing tricky situations that arise on the job after auto sales college.

5. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Ok, I admit it, Iâm throwing this one in just for fun. Because even hardworking students of auto sales college need a laugh some time.

Enjoy your time at auto sales college and best wishes for your auto careers!

Contact the Automotive Training Centre for more information on their Car Sales Training Programs.


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Voyager I: On the Solar System’s Exit Ramp

A new study reveals just how close humanity is to being an interstellar species

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This artist's concept shows NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath

Voyager 1 is the Barbra Streisand of spacecraft: the farewell tour is eternal, but it never actually leaves. Babs is very much still with us, as my colleague Joel Stein demonstrated when he and The Divine Miss S took a one-hour road trip from Malibu to Beverly Hills last year. Voyager 1 is very much still with us too, but it’s been on the road a little longer (more than 35 years now) and has put a few more clicks on the odometer—11.5 billion miles (18.5 billion km) so far.

(PHOTOS: Voyager, 11 Billion Miles Later: Photos from the Depths of Our Solar System)

It’s been a long time since Voyager 1 actually had a planet to look at—since 1980, when it reconnoitered Saturn,  then whipped up above the plane of the plane of the solar system and began heading into the void. Its companion ship, Voyager 2, flew on the flat until it passed Neptune in 1989, then it too headed into the true deep waters of space. It was at that point that the title of the Voyager program was changed from the Voyager Outer Planets Mission to the Voyager Interstellar Mission. One thing was certain, both spacecraft would eventually leave the solar system and indeed head into the realm of the stars, but what was unclear was when. The answer is: not just yet, but Voyager 1 is getting very, very close, as a new paper in Science has just revealed.

The boundary of the solar system is by no means defined by the orbit of the last planet or even the more remote Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, the vast swarm of icy bodies that lie at an even further remove. Rather, it’s defined by the heliosphere, the vast windstorm of charged particles that stream outward from the sun. The end of the helioshpere is known as the heliosheath—where the outward-streaming charged particles bump up ageainst the inward streaming particles of deep space and come to a stop, and where the lines of solar magnetism change their orientation to match those of interstellar space.

(MORE: The Great, Belching Black Hole)

As I reported in March, there was a brief dust-up in the astronomical community when the American Geophysical Union (AGU) announced that Elvis had at last left the building—that Voyager 1 had indeed punched through the heliosheath. But the AGU quickly had to pull back from the claim. NASA, which built, launched and has operated the Voyagers throughout their long lives, acknowledged that new data showed that the ship had entered a significant new region of the solar system where the outward-flowing particles effectively stopped and the ones flowing in from interstellar space had taken over. But the magnetic field lines had not yet made the necessary shift. Said Ed Stone, Voyager’s longtime project manager during that debate:

“The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system. It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space.”

That status hasn’t changed, but the new Science paper—actually a collection of three papers—better explains the ambiguous region in which Voyager 1 now finds itself. Reanalyzing data from last year, scientists determined that the spacecraft is now in a region it calls the heliosphere depletion region. The previously unidentified zone is characterized by a dramatic spike in cosmic rays—the exotic stuff that streams in from the stars—and an extreme decline in particles from the sun. So far, about what was expected—even if the measurements are better than ever.

(PHOTOS: Windows on Infinity: Pictures from Space)

Much more significantly, the magnetic field lines at last began to change significantly, with particles following the magnetic lines flowing out from the sun all but disappearing, meaning that solar magnetism was at last losing its influence and being overtaken by the interstellar magnetism. But the magnetic lines still did not change their direction, as they would have to if they were truly locking into the grid of deeper space. In a statement, Leonard Burlaga of  NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the lead author of one of the papers said:

“…the magnetic field suddenly [doubled],  becoming extraordinarily smooth. But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we’re still observing the field lines originating at the sun.”

Making things messier still, the spacecraft crossed into and out of the heliosphere depletion region no fewer than five times in 2012. Since the spacecraft can hardly turn or go in reverse, that means the region itself was changing; Voyager was traveling through it the way an airplane flies through a ragged storm front, passing through clear and turbulent areas intermittently.

So when will the depletion region truly deplete, fully giving way to cosmos beyond? Could be tomorrow — or could be a year or more from now. The answer, as it has been for 30 years, is no one knows. But it’s a certainty that the Voyagers will eventually cross the invisible boundary, and that day, humanity will at last become a species of the stars.

VIDEO: NASA’s Proposed Asteroid Capture Mission


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Monday, 23 September 2013

Juvenile Dinosaurs preserved in association in a lahar deposit as evidence for social behavior?

Dinosaurs underwent dramatic increases in size over a number of years during their growth, and are presumed to have played a number of different ecological roles during this growth period. Numerous examples of groups of juvenile Dinosaurs have been sited as evidence for such animals having some form of social structure when young, however it it difficult to connect post-mortem groupings of juvenile Dinosaurs with social behavior in life, as conditions which preserved Dinosaurs may also have caused their bodies to aggregate. In particular many Dinosaurs are found in fluvial deposits, where they may have been washed to the site of preservation, then buried at a site of deposition where other Dinosaurs were buried at different times.

In a forthcoming paper in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica available online since 15 May 2013, Qi Zhao of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol and the Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Michael Benton of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, Xing Xu of the Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates and Martin Sander of the Division of Paleontology at the Steinmann Institute at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, discuss the implications of a specimen showing a group of juvenile members of the Ceratopsid Dinosaur species Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, from a lahar deposit from the Early Cretaceous Lujiatun Beds from Liaoning Province, China.

Social behavior in Ceratopsid Dinosaurs has been proposed before, including for the species Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, though Zhao et al. doubt the reliability of this. In particular they note a previously described specimen comprising 34 juvenile animals described as hatchlings, accompanied by a larger animal described as an adult, which has been sited as demonstrating parental care in the species, but which has now been demonstrated to be a fake, with the juveniles being yearlings rather than hatchlings and the 'adult' a six-year-old pre-adult not thought to be old enough to reproduce.

The new specimen comprises six juvenile members of the species preserved in association on a single slab. The ages of these were determined by counting growth rings in the bone, revealing five of the specimens to be five years old at the time of death and one to be six. Zhao at al. suggest that this is evidence for social behavior including juvenile Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis of different sizes but similar ages, possibly for the purpose of feeding in a herd. They site the fact that the Dinosaurs were found in a lahar deposit as evidence for them having died at the same time, rather than being deposited at a site post-mortem over a number of years.

Cluster of six juvenile Psittacosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of Lujiatun, Liaoning Province, China. The specimen, illustrated as a photograph (A) and interpretive drawing (B), shows six aligned juvenile specimens, of which specimens 2-6 are estimated to have been two years old at death, and specimen 1 was three years old, based on bone histological analysis. Zhao et al. (2013).

 Lahars are ash-laden flash floods associated with volcanoes. They can be caused directly by volcanic eruptions, for example when hot lava encounters a glacial lake rapidly destroying an ice dam, but are also common in areas of high seasonal rainfall, where ash deposits from a volcano can build up during the dry season, creating dams on seasonal waterways, which temporarily halt the flow of water, then give way rapidly leading to dramatic flash floods.

The aftermath of a lahar from Mount Merapi on central Java that hit a number of villages and towns in 2010. Montserrat Volcano.

Lahars are considered by volcanologists to be one of the most dangerous phenomena that volcanoes produce. They superficially resemble floods of water, but are made up largely of highly viscous mud, flowing rapidly because of the weight of material behind it. This means that anything caught in a lahar is in a lot of trouble, as it is not possible to swim in the thick mud, and the pressure of the flow will rapidly sweep it away.

From a geological and palaeontological perspective lahar deposits are very interesting. Volcanic ash deposits of any kind have distinctive chemical signatures, and are amenable to several geochemical dating techniques, and the tendency of lahars to bury things rapidly and combined with the fine nature of the volcanic ash particles means that fossils preserved in lahar deposits (while rare) tend to be preserved in excellent detail.

However while fossils in lahar deposits can be preserved in exquisite detail, it is highly unlikely that they will be preserved in situ. Lahars are frequently observed to sweep away cars and buildings and uproot large trees; they do not typically simply burry things where they find them. A small Dinosaur caught in the path of such an event is highly unlikely to avoid such a fate. Furthermore the positioning of the Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis specimens, with their heads and bodies aligned parallel to one-another, suggests strongly that they have been positioned by the lahar event; all flash floods, no matter what their origin, will tend to sort objects in this way. It is difficult, therefore, to see the positioning of the specimens post-mortem within the lahar deposit as evidence that they were in close proximity before being caught by the lahar, and far less so that this can be taken as evidence that they were living as a social unit before the event.

Fallen trees deposited in parallel by a lahar following the 1980 eruption on Mount St. Helens in Washington State, USA. Lyn Topinka/USGS/Wikipedia.

See also A short-snouted Ceratopsid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern UtahA new species of Ceratopsid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern AlbertaTorosaurus and Triceratops; one dinosaur or two? New dinosaurs from old draws and Nesting behavior and parental care in an Ornithischian Dinosaur?

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These skins work with all of the expansion packs (on my computer at least) and will show up under light toned sims on the create a family screen.

Right click on the picture and choose 'Save target as' to download.

For the skin to show up you must also download the corresponding mesh. You do not need to download the same mesh more than once.

Poses are by Sim 41, Amazon sims and Get Skintight

Pale bases by Seraphine of Simsylvania.

Pale Girls:

Mesh and Skins information can be found here
Looking for the old pale skins? You can find them in the Archive


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Friday, November 22, 2013

Enjoy a short video from Taylor Lockwood, see link below

I have a new, short video you might like featuring bioluminescent mushrooms and quasi-classical music. It's a small taste from my upcoming North American tour next year.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

“Mushroom Matchmaker” at SCMS Meeting on Wednesday, November 13th

Wednesday, November 13th:
Membership meeting at 7:30 PM, Everett Housing Building, 1401 Poplar Street, Everett
Presentation: “Mushroom Matchmaker” by Dr. Ian Gibson from Victoria, B.C.

Come and listen to the presentation of “Mushroom Matchmaker”, a mushroom identification tool. Author will discuss workings of the tool and how to access and use it.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Christian Schwarz: Mycology into the 21st Century

Here is a very interesting talk about what  the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz is trying to document all the mushrooms growing in the county. There is lot more information in the talk that can pertain to other parts of the country and some fascinating data. It is almost an hour and a half long but if you want to know more about fungi and fungi projects that need to be done: Watch it! It might open your eyes.

Friday, October 18, 2013

All-Sound Foray Announcement

The Kitsap Peninsula Mycology Society cordially invites you to an All-Sound Foray on Saturday November 2nd, 9:30 AM - 5 PM, northwest of Shelton in the south Olympic National Forest.

We will be socializing with other clubs from around the Sound, and hunting 'shrooms! This will be great opportunity to both foray and mingle with other area mycotopiates.

Please register at:

This reserves your space, helps us greatly with coordination, and provides us with your email address for sending out further detailed information.

Please note that registration ends Thursday October 24th, 9PM.


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Wed Aug 10 12:58:25 2016

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Village Shop

The listings below are an automated feed from Ebay for the village "Scotterthorpe".
View more listed items with "Scotterthorpe" in the title. (Problem with any of these listings? Report it to us here).

Genealogy Postcard - Family History - Ross - Scotterthorpe - Scotter MB1371
End Date: Monday Oct-30-2017 11:32:53 GMT
Buy It Now for only: £3.49
Buy It Now | Add to watch list
Scotterthorpe near Scotter. Main Street.
End Date: Saturday Nov-4-2017 16:28:34 GMT
Buy It Now for only: £9.00
Buy It Now | Add to watch list
Looking for more items...

A call to local artists:
If you have created art or prints of a local village please contact us.
We are interested in:

  • Village Christmas Cards
  • Original Artwork of Village Landmarks

We will try and help you sell these items online
Or create your own personalised village store here.


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Waiting Lists for Scott Kleinman's Courses

Spring 2016

If SOLAR requires a permission number for you to enroll in one of my courses, the course is already full and/or the deadline for registration has passed. The University now operates a waiting list which allows students on the list to enroll automatically if a space becomes available. The University waiting list operates through the first week of the semester. I will not issue permission numbers prior to or during the first week of classes. Information on obtaining a place on the University wait list for a class is available here.

After the first week of the semester, I may add additional students at my discretion. For this, I maintain a separate wait list, and I will not add anyone who is not on my wait list. If you are interested in adding one of my courses and are unable to register without a permission number, please fill out the form below to add yourself to the waiting list.

Some important points to remember:

If you are currently on my waiting list, you need not take any action. If a space becomes available for you, I will contact you immediately with a permission number. If you do not hear from me by the end of the first four classes (or two classes for courses that meet once a week), it is unlikely that I will be able to add you to the course.

To place your name to the waiting list, please enter the following information:

1. Name:
2. Student ID number:
3. E-Mail Address:
4. Select the course you wish to add.
5. Additional Information
6. Please fill out the reCAPTCHA form:

Sat, 21 October, 2017


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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Free, Free, & Fabulous!

When you become a Close to my Heart Consultant during February and achieve Straight to the Top, you will receive a rebate of $129 on your New Consultant Kit, plus $100 in select product credit rewards. That's a total retail value of up to $491 in products and business supplies for FREE! Your kit's free, your select products are free- how fabulous!

If you love Close to My Heart and are placing orders totaling $100 in one quarter, ask me why becoming a consultant would benefit you!

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Friday, August 29

Monster mash Freebie kit

Good morning everyone.
Today I have an old PTU Halloween taggers kit
 now available free for you.
You can download this freebie here

Very much appreciated and won't cost you a penny.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles!!

I have teamed up with her Sister-in-law & CT Member, Manda Lane Scraps, and together we have created the ultimate travel and Boy kit!! It has bold primary colors and tons of super fun elements! And the best part is....you can pick it up for free this week only! Monday it will go into our stores. So look for my papers on Wednesday, my Elements on Thursday, and my Alpha on Friday!!
Here's My Part:
Here's Manda Lane Scraps Part:

Here's some eye candy from my CT members (I'll have more tomorrow):
Layout by Brandy

Layout by Dana:

Layout by Jessica:

Layout by Noelle:

The Link has expired....you can now find it in my store here.

  1. So cute! I have 2 boys that love anything with wheels and goes vroomm! Thank you for sharing!

  2. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 7 post on Aug. 25, 2010. Thanks again.

  3. So cute!! Thanks for sharing!!

    I had no idea that Amanda was your sister-in-law! How fun to work with her on this kit!


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small town street talk

So it's like this:

You hear them talking in the staff room, which makes you nervous. You go outside on your break and wander around the park in the centre of town for a bit. Not much to report. A girl is crying on the phone saying something incomprehensible. Three male ducks chase a female duck. For a second you consider staying around, willingly becoming a complacent voyeur of duck gang-rape. You think maybe you are a sick little fuck and need to get help because the idea excites you in an unexpected, intangible sort of way.

You think about whether that guy you met the other night is thinking about you. You briefly wonder if he is 'the one'. Of course you know your infatuation has now turned into fantasy because you can't remember his face or the tone of his voice but you are certain that you are still in love with him. This makes you giggle and the sick fuck concept slowly seeps back into your head. You have the curious urge to be pushed face down into the wet grass by the arms you imagine come from your lover.

In a funny sort of way, you can't imagine life without the ducks and the man you think you might be able to love, the ache in your stomach and the giggles behind the staff room door. Of course, you reassure yourself, pulling your damp ugly plastic jacket closer to you, they aren't necessarily laughing at me, are they? They aren't laughing at me? Perhaps they noticed earlier when I spat on the screen while reading a funny chain email from my friend Matt. Perhaps that's what they're laughing at. Perhaps they think this ungraceful action is symptomatic of a general sense of inelegance I possess - ugliness, stupidity maybe.

The angst is killing you so you go back to the fantasy of the guy pushing your face into the grass. You can smell the freshness of it and the pulpy solidity of the earth quite distinctly. By now you have resolved that everyone is secretly a sick little fuck and all the other people passing you in the narrow streets are probably thinking similar things about strangers they've met recently, work colleagues, animals in the park...

Work is awkward so the fantasy grows. It is impossible to say when it will end.

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Thursday, 25 Aug 2016

The JFK Airport Shooting that never happened

I somehow missed this story the other day, perhaps because it was caused by an event that never happened. David Wallace-Wells from New York Magazine, tells the story of how someone in the crowd at JFK Airport apparently mistook the sound of people cheering and clapping Usain Bolt’s 100 meter final for gunfire. In the security paranoid environment of an airport it didn’t take much to start a mass panic.

The applause sounded like gunfire, somehow, or to someone; really, it only takes one. According to some reports, one woman screamed that she saw a gun. The cascading effect was easier to figure: When people started running, a man I met later on the tarmac said, they plowed through the metal poles strung throughout the terminal to organize lines, and the metal clacking on the tile floors sounded like gunfire. Because the clacking was caused by the crowd, wherever you were and however far you’d run already, it was always right around you.

Hundreds of passengers take cover behind their baggage.

The airport was evacuated, planes were delayed, even emergency chutes were deployed on some, passengers ran onto the tarmac, it was pandemonium. Interestingly, the airport security appeared to be mostly ineffective in controlling the situation with reports of the security guards being just as panicked and confused as the passengers.

Guards were rushing back and forth, themselves panicked, and each time any one of them made a sudden movement, the rest of us seemed to swell up, too, and surge forward for the door. Guards and passengers kept screaming at each other; if the security had been armed, a shooting wouldn’t have just been possible but likely.

What a frightening situation, so glad it turned out to be a false alarm.

Via One Foot Tsunami.

Monday, 15 Aug 2016

Usain Bolt is still No. 1

As the king of sprinting and the biggest global star at the Rio Games, Usain Bolt of Jamaica held aloft his index finger, signaling that he was No. 1, during introductions Sunday night as a smitten crowd chanted his name.

Then Bolt proved it again, winning the 100 meters in 9.81 seconds, a coronation that secured his place as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the only man or woman to win the Olympic 100 three times, which he accomplished at three consecutive Games.

Usain Bolt wins Olympic gold in the 100 metres

Such a great ambassador for such a beautiful country – moments like this remind me of how proud I am of my Jamaican heritage.

No Fear

A great article on Alex Honnold, the man considered to be the world’s greatest free-solo climber (no ropes or protective gear) and how he manages to climb without giving in to the natural instinct of fear.

Alex Honnold in 2008 on the

Recently a group of scientists took MRI scans of Honnold’s brain while he viewed images intended to stimulate the amygdala, the part of the brain that is related to our fear response. What they found was that Honnold’s amygdala was largely inactive due to repeated exposure to and suppression of his sense of fear.

One by one, acts that had seemed outrageous to him began to seem not so crazy: soloing moves in which he hangs only by his fingers, for example, with his feet swinging in the open air, or, as he did in June on a notorious route called The Complete Scream, climbing ropeless up a pitch that he had never ascended before. In 12 years of free solos, Honnold has broken holds, had his feet slip, gotten off-route into unknown terrain, been surprised by animals like birds and ants, or just suffered “that fraying at the edges, you know, where you’ve just been up in the void too long.” But because he managed to deal with these problems, he gradually dampened his anxieties about them.

This is an interesting read about a remarkable person, especially the fact he was willing to be a guinea pig for these scientists to gain a better understanding of how our brains process and retain information.

Via NextDraft.

UPDATE: The first 30 seconds of this video is a perfect example of why people are curious about his lack of fear.

Thursday, 11 Aug 2016

Australia's GPS Navigation is Wrong

If you’re in Australia, you might have noticed a strange consistency in this imprecision—specifically, that everything is about 1.5 meters (just under 5 feet) off the mark.

No wonder I keep getting lost.

Tuesday, 26 Jul 2016

Yahoo 1996 - 2016

Yahoo has announced a $4.7 billion sale to Verizon ending a twenty year roller coaster ride of highs and (mostly) lows. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting timeline highlighting key moments of those twenty years.

Funny to think they rejected a $44.6 billion bid from Microsoft back in 2008, I think Microsoft dodged a bullet.

Tuesday, 28 Jun 2016

The Vikings from Iceland are taking over Euro 2016

Twenty-seven thousand Icelandic fans, or eight percent of of the country's population of 332,000, are at Euro 2016. This tiny country has captured the attention of every Soccer fan following the Euro 2016 championships, firstly by beating Austria last week 2-1 to make it to the final 16, then just this morning, by beating England 2-1 to make it through to the quarter finals. This video looks at how such a tiny cold country has risen from being ranked number 112 in the world to 23rd in just a few short years.

Also impressive is the fans' perfectly synchronised, Viking-like chant which is said to "terrify" rival fans and players.

UPDATE: While looking at YouTube clips of the fans chanting, I noticed this clip which appears to be recorded at the same moment as the clip linked above but from a fan about a dozen seats across sitting directly in front of the drummer. You can see the drummer and the person filming in the original clip.

Tuesday, 7 Jun 2016

DJ Khaled - Nail Salon

Apple's latest Apple Music ad features DJ Khaled and Ray Liotta in a nail salon. I don't pay much attention to Apple ads these days but this one I like.
...thousands and thousands and thousands of songs!
Love it.
Monday, 6 Jun 2016

Google Maps & Apple Maps Comparison

Justin O’Beirne has released Part 1 of a detailed analysis of the differences between Apple Maps and Google Maps. Part 1 goes into detail comparing the differences between the two at various zoom levels looking at differences in road labels, city labels, etc.

I’m a bit of a cartography nerd so enjoyed this a lot, O’Beirne makes some interesting observations. He seems puzzled however by some of the omissions made, such as how few cities are shown at various levels on Google maps.

What a difference! Apple is showing way more cities than Google. It’s not even close. (Here, Apple labels 44 cities, while Google labels just 10.)

I wonder why Google doesn’t label more cities here?

To me the answer is quite simple, Google maps (and perhaps to a lesser extent Apple Maps) is first and foremost a search tool. Most people using it will search for an address and then view that address on the map. The visual presentation at various zoom levels, particularly higher up, is secondary to their needs. They want an address, they type it in and they see it – search speed and visual clarity are top priority, visual detail less so.

Friday, 3 Jun 2016

Star Wars Episode IV in one picture

Swiss illustrator and graphic novelist, Martin Panchaud, has created an incredibly detailed visual representation of the entire first (episode IV) Star Wars movie.

SWANH.NET is an adaptation of Star Wars Episode IV in a style that was inspired by infographics. One story in one piece of 123 meters length.

It was created with Adobe Illustrator CC in 2016. Its exact measures are:
1024 x 465152 px / 27 x 12307 cm / 10.6 x 4845.3-inch

I first came up with the idea for this project in January 2015 and I started working on it beside my contract works (a selection is featured on All together it took me approximately 1000 hours and I finished it in May 2016.

Make sure you check out his Making Of page as well.

Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

How big is the VR nausea problem?

Quora contributor, Steve Baker, presents some sobering insights into how much of a problem VR related nausea and disorientation is for the future of VR headsets. He highlights two main issues that cause nausea, lack of focus depth perception and lack of momentum perception. Both of which are very difficult to overcome with current technology.

On focus depth perception:

So we’re continually estimating range using the tensions in two sets of muscles – one for focus, the other for convergence. When the brain gets the right signals, these two mechanisms agree perfectly.

But in a VR display, they don’t agree. The focussing system says “This image is all at the same range” – the convergence system says “This image is at a variety of different ranges”.

And momentum:

When you’re walking along, and suddenly stop, the mass of your body wants to continue to move forwards – and you have to apply muscular force to preventing your arms from swinging forwards and your head from tipping. This momentum has to be absorbed when you’re stopping in a car or even turning a corner.

Those forces are entirely absent in a VR rig…and your brain notices that.

He also highlights the even greater risk of disorientation when returning to the real world and performing tasks that rely on our natural senses to determine distance and speed such as driving a car or riding a bike. Its a serious enough issue that the US Navy recommends up to 24 hours break after using VR before driving a vehicle.


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Thursday, 10 March 2011

It’s two for one on ‘EPIC’ Sci-Fi Guff!

Get um while their hot, two for one, I’m not making anything on these – just gotta get them shifted, you couldn’t ask for a better deal!
With foreground or without foreground?
I’ve never done a painting like this before so dunno!
Where’s my Mooney, he’d know what was de rigueur.

Dad -   “Red sky at night…….”
Child - “Sheppard’s delight”
Dad - “Red Sky in the morning……”
Child - “Shepherds warning”
Dad -   “Minced lamb, mashed potato and peas……..”
Child - ‘the face’
Advanced Dad Joke No40 (deployed on seeing a red sky or when having Sheppard’s or cottage pie meal)

  1. Now your not telling me you did this on your iPhone!!!

    Absolutely love all the geometric shapes and the depth. The dark silhouettes definitely bring a lot more life and character than without. Looks like something from Painter rather than Photoshop.

    I don't care if you disagree I've never seen this style from you before!

  2. With foreground, I insist on it.

  3. is not the essence of a dad joke getting it wrong
    but in a way that conjures an alternative reality
    that amuses and confuses e.g. does the pope sh*t in
    the woods

  4. Wrongness is a delivery style. The selfless act of self-gratification is core. The individual must apply the texture and flavour to transform this base function into art. It is akin to pure kung-fu where situation and skill level determine the personal fighting style.

    Is this a test Dad?

    ‘Tits like coconuts – and fat balls!’

  5. Wheres my Mooney? IM HERE!! and yea, foreground element one is better.