What Little I Know . . .

. . . about blogging and uploading photos, I'm happy to share. Several of my newer blogging friends seem to be having trouble, so I thought I'd explain how I do it.

First of all, I'm a PC. I have a feeling my friend Gran is a Mac, so I'm not sure this will be of much help, but for what it's worth . . . .

The first step is to download photos from my camera into the photo files and folders on my computer. Then I can begin my post. Here's a picture of what the screen looks like when I start composing a blog post:

There are two folder tabs up near the top right that say "Edit HTML" and "Compose." I write most of my post in the "compose" screen. And I'll write much of the body of my post before I start uploading photos.

Once I'm ready to upload photos, I click the icon that's third from the right on the toolbar--it looks like a photo (yeah, imagine that!). I'll then get a screen that looks like this:

Up near the top left in blue it says "Add another image"--I click on that to add as many browse boxes as I have photos to upload--it will let me add up to five photos at a time. I usually leave my photo settings on "none" for layout and "large" for image size unless I have something particular in mind.

I click the browse button and that takes me to my computer--I then navigate my way to my photo files and find the photo I want to upload and click on it. The photo I select in the first box will be the last photo in line when they're uploaded to my blog post, so I try to plan accordingly. Once I've chosen photos to upload, I click the orange "upload image" button. (If I want to add more than five photos, I just repeat these steps until I've uploaded what I want.)

When the photos are uploaded to my post, I can click on each one with my mouse, holding down the right mouse button while dragging the photos to wherever I want in the text. When I've dragged a photo to the proper place in the text, I release the mouse button. Then I'll go get the next photo and drag it into position.

Once I have my text and photos where I want them, I'll edit my post--sometimes once the photos are in place, I might have more to say about them.

And once I have the text and the photos done, then I click on the "Edit HTML" tab to refine justification and paragraph spacing. In my next post, I'll talk a little about HTML codes--a VERY little because I don't know much and everything I know has been picked up through blogging trial and error!

Perhaps if you have a Mac and a blog, you can leave a comment about how uploading and moving photos is different from the way I do it. Or, if you have a different method of uploading photos, please explain in a comment. I'm sure there are lots of bloggers who would appreciate your help!

I'm Such a Thrift Store Junkie!

It seems like I'll go a couple weeks without any desire to hit a thrift store and then WHAM! All of a sudden, I'm Jonesing for a fix! This week, I've visited five, I think! Truth to tell, I had a vague idea of something I was looking for, and that's really never a good idea. In my experience, when you're looking for something, you never find it, and that's been true of my latest hunt.

Oh, that's not to say that I haven't found anything, though. Sheesh! I've found plenty--and then some! I'll show you a couple things.

The other night, I stopped by the Goodwill closest to my house, and in the "crafts gone wrong" aisle, I found a bunch of plastic bags, each containing five boxes of "Tri-Chem Liquid Embroidery Paint." And since I've renewed my interest in embroidery, I thought I'd buy a couple bags and see just what this stuff was. I examined the boxes and each contained a paint "pen."

I also did a little internet research, and discovered that these things are supposed to be pretty neat if I can get them working. Apparently it may take a little fussing with the tips and possibly the paint inside, but I'm game. So the next night, I went back and bought more, so I'd have a decent range of colors, and I also bought a bag that included a tin of solvent--solvent is necessary to get the tips working correctly. Now I just need to find time to play around with them! Have you ever tried these?

Tonight I went to another Goodwill store. I never really thought about it before, but do you know they have books on tape? With the television season coming to an end, I thought books on tape might be a great "noise" substitute while I quilt, so I picked up a few.

The Smoke Jumper? The book's been sitting on my bookshelf for years, waiting for me to read it, ever since I read The Horse Whisperer. Now I can! Well, sort of!

And while I was browsing the books, I found two quilt books--Gerry Kimmel Carr. Pretty cool, huh? The cashier asked me if I knew they were $2--I guess she didn't want me to get home, look at my receipt, and think I'd paid too much. Silly girl!

And here's the really exciting news: I read in the newspaper today that another Goodwill is going to go into a shopping center that has a large, vacant store about a half mile from Bearpaws and Hollyhocks quilt shop--right on my drive to and from Bearpaws, in fact! AND it's right near a Starbucks. AND it's kitty corner to a Michael's store. Heaven on Earth is what I'm thinking!

Anyway, I thought I'd celebrate by another little giveaway so you can share the joy too. Do you remember when I mentioned I'd gotten a book (at the thrift store) that had some great ideas for using vintage tablecloths as curtains? Click HERE if you'd like to refresh your memory, and then scroll down a bit. Well, I found another copy of the same book at the Goodwill this week. It was published in 1996, so some of the ideas are a little old, but it's still a terrific source for inspiration.

If you think this might be something you'd be interested in, please leave me a comment telling me you'd like a chance to win the book. I'll draw a name on Saturday night, so if you ask to be put in the drawing, check back on Sunday to see who won.

Bedtime for me--time to go to bed and dream thrifty fantasies!

Spike and the New Office

Spike's loving the new desk.

She can keep an eye on me while I "work."

She can watch for surprise attacks--from the ground and from the air.

It's a very convenient place to wait for any leftovers that may be abandoned.

She can explore "new" baskets--AHHHH! She just loves that thrift store smell!

And when I'm bugging her? She can get all up-close-and-personal. "Hey! You lookin at me?!"

Allergies

Do you have them? Local lore says that if you didn't have allergies before you moved to California's Central Valley, you will undoubtedly develop them. And for me, that's been quite true! I grew up in San Jose, which is closer to the coast, and I never had allergies until we moved to Sacramento. Over the years, they've gotten progressively worse, and some days I feel just like I have a cold. Ick!

It seems I suffer from them much of the year, but certainly some seasons--like spring--are much worse than others. And it's hard to take anything for them: non-drowsy allergy medications will keep me awake at night if I take them too late in the day, and "regular" allergy medications will put me to sleep if I take them at work. No win. Mostly, though, I just try to ignore them as best I can.

This news story from San Jose caught my eye tonight--

* * * * *

ROTTEN OFFICE FRIDGE CLEANUP SENDS 7 TO HOSPITAL

SAN JOSE, Calif. – An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in.

What they found was an unplugged refrigerator that had been crammed with moldy food.

Authorities said an enterprising office worker had decided to clean it out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess. The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea.

Authorities said the worker who cleaned the fridge didn't need treatment — she can't smell because of allergies.

* * * * *

Coincidentally, on Monday it was my turn to clean out the office refrigerator. I guess what I'm saying is that maybe allergies aren't always such a bad thing to have!

Show and Tell

I had a couple quilt tops I wanted to share tonight, so get the popcorn and sit back and enjoy the show. Okay, maybe not, since it won't be a very LONG show, but you know . . . maybe a donut would work. That's what I'm planning for breakfast!

It was back to work for me today, and I was a little restless and feeling penned up when the lunch hour came around--and besides, I always like to bring my Hey Ghoul Friends class a little "treat" each week, so of course I decided to go browse the thrift store and see what might turn up. And today I got lucky! I'll probably have a couple other things to show you later, but for now, I'll show you the quilt top I found:

Isn't it kind of cute? Nothing too special but whoever did the piecing did a nice job, and with a fairly quick all-over quilting design, it will make a cheerful tablecovering or small quilt for the holiday season. The only drawback? Someone who obviously had absolutely no clue wrote in what looks like ink "$3.00" on the sashing. I'll try getting it damp to see if it will wash out, but if not, I may need to add some quick applique to cover it. (If you click into the photo, you may be able to see a black splotch near the top center in the red sashing.)

Here's a close up of one of the sections--the quilt maker fussy cut many of the squares.

I've been working on the Jo's Little Women Club quilt called Holiday Inn--I mentioned the other day that I'd started appliqueing the center. Here it is so far, completed up through Part 3 with one more part to go:

Next I have to make 80 flying geese blocks and finish it with a plain outside border (I think the last border will be brown and the geese will be multi-colored).

Oh, I forgot to say! That thrift store quilt top? $2. There was another quilt top there, but I didn't like it as well and I already have plenty of quilt tops in my "to be quilted" basket, so I just came home with this one. (If anyone in the Sacramento area wants to go look and see what I may have missed, the Goodwill in question was the store on Arden.) I think I might just quilt this one and donate it to a children's hospital--wouldn't that be fun for the kids?

Happy quilting and keep on hunting for treasures! You never know when they may turn up!

Royal Treatment

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! I enjoyed sleeping in, quilting, napping, and reading. I talked to the Wild Child on the phone--she had to work and couldn't come down to Sacramento. Soccer Son arrived bearing the ingredients for a special dinner.

BBQ'd chicken tacos--YUM!

My vacation's over, and it's back to work in the morning, but I can't complain much after being treated to such a wonderful day!

Thanks for stopping by!

TA-DA!

Remember that iced latte in yesterday's post? I sure could use that now! I've just finished organizing the home office and I'm tired! I'd invite you all over to see it, but it's an awfully small house and I haven't baked a cake or anything, so I'll share a few photos instead.

A year or two ago, I was able to get two office chairs from my office. The upholstery was pretty tattered, but they were in otherwise great condition. I made reversible covers for one and have been using it in the Sweat Shop; the other lived in the garage until now. The other night, I cut up Hubby's old denim jeans and made a seat cover and a cover for the back rest. Boy were they tough! Just sewing the casing for the seat cover and running the elastic through it took three or four hours--no joke! I'm just glad I didn't know how hard it was going to be before I started! It turned out well, though, and I think it will be awhile before Hubby can wear through these covers.

Here's a view of where the computer and printer will go. I've opted to move those in the morning, because I really didn't want to try to take it down and put it up in iffy lighting conditions. As it is, I'm not sure I can promise I'll be back online tomorrow night! (Check out the pockets on the back of the chair cover.)

This photo looks kind of wonky. I was trying to get back far enough to take the photo and it's distorted the dimensions, but I think you get the idea. This is the other end of the desk, which runs the length of the room. The cutting mat isn't necessarily there for cutting although I'll use it for cutting kits for sale. Mostly, though, it's a nice surface to work on--soft but not too soft for writing.

This is the ugly corner of the room. That corner there ends up getting stuff stuck in it that doesn't belong anywhere else. The desk that spans the length of the room would be to the left of this photo, then there's the dresser and another small desk to the right--I think it makes a fairly decent work area with everything just about in reach.

And I took this last photo mostly for Gran--I wanted to show her that I have a bunch of stitchery and embroidery reference books. On a related subject, when I was cleaning everything out and reorganizing, I found a BUNCH of skeins of perle cotton. I had bought them for a non-stitchery project and forgot I had them!

Okay, now the name of the new pattern and the announcement of the winner. It really was hard to pick and I changed my mind a couple times. In the end, though, I decided to go with Quilting Fitzy's suggestion, "Fireworks!" I loved Nancy's suggestion of Betsy Gets Bold!--it was really the most clever and original suggestion, but I didn't know if everyone would "get" it. Cathy T's "Liberty Star" kept floating through my mind too. But in the end, I thought it looked most like a big burst of fireworks. I'd like to send each of you three ladies a copy of the pattern when it's published--please email me your mailing address, and I should get it in the mail in the next week or so. Thank you ALL for your suggestions--you really helped me to chose a name.

If Thelma and Louise Were Quilters . . . .

When I arrived at Bearpaws and Hollyhocks for Jo's Club Wednesday night, I ran into Gran, who was just leaving the shop. "Would you like to have lunch on Thursday?," she asked. "I'll email you," I replied. Yes, I know my response didn't seem overly enthusiastic, but you see, one of my major goals while I was on vacation this week was to get our home office all set up, and a HUGE part of that was cleaning out a closet and various drawers and finding places for some of the things that needed to be moved, reorganizing things that would be allowed to remain, and bringing in things from other parts of the house that belonged in the office. And, as of Wednesday night, I had dilly-dallied and procrastinated to the point where I had to sit myself down and say, "Kim, on Thursday you're going to spend the day working on the office!" So my hesitation at accepting Gran's invitation wasn't because I didn't WANT to have lunch with her but rather because Jimminy Cricket was sitting on my shoulder, telling me I really needed to do some WORK.

After a little thought, though, I decided it WAS my vacation after all, and I really OUGHT to do something fun, and besides, I could work on the office for an hour or two before I met Gran for lunch, and then I'd have the rest of the afternoon to work on the office some more. HA! As it turned out, Gran had other ideas. Yep, she had a little adventure in mind! And you know what? I'm pretty good at justifying to myself exactly why I should do what I want to do, so off we went!

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably know that every good adventure begins at Starbucks, and this was no exception!

So after a java stop, I arrived at Gran's house and we hit the road. Something you should know about Gran: She doesn't get out much. Seriously, I don't think I could live anywhere and not have been in every quilt shop in a 100-mile radius within the first few months, but not Gran. As I learned, there were actually quilt shops in the area she'd never visited, and two of them were in Cameron Park, so that's where we headed--up into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.

Our first stop was High Sierra Quilters which is located in a shopping center right off Highway 50. I'd been in this store a few times in the past, and sometimes I've found things I really needed and sometimes I haven't. Since I'd last visited, they'd moved the shop across to the other side of the shopping center and downsized a bit. And this was one of the times I found things I really needed to bring home.

Since I'm now taking an embroidery class (taught by Gran!), I was on the hunt for suitable background fabrics and I found several. I won't show you my purchases tonight, but I have a few photos of the shop I'll share.

Isn't it funny how quilters always run into other quilters we know? At High Sierra we ran into Mary, one of quilters in my Hey Ghoul Friend class, and her friend. (And I think they must have been listening in to our conversations or stalking us or something, because sure enough, they were at our NEXT quilt shop stop when we arrived!)

Since the whole premise and initial motivation behind Gran and I getting together today was LUNCH, and since we'd worked up quite an appetite fabric shopping, we asked at the shop for a restaurant recommendation and were promptly sent across the way to Taqueria Tepa. Seriously delicious stuff! Gran had a ginormous burrito and I had a carnitas super taco. Sitting here writing this and reminiscing about the day, I'm wishing I had another one NOW! Maybe I'll go back tomorrow. Maybe I'll work on the office. Decisions, decisions!

Before leaving the restaurant, we struck up a conversation with two older women who were both in motorized wheelchairs--sweet little ladies who were out on their own adventure! Both had house plants hanging from the backs of their wheelchairs and shopping bags containing knick knack treasures to decorate their apartments in a nearby senior community. One of the ladies, Holly, told us she has cancer, but her attitude is extraordinarily upbeat. As she explained, her doctor told her the cancer was terminal, but then isn't everyone terminal? We just don't know when our time will come. She told us her sister, who also has cancer, has been "terminal" for 11 years now, and Holly doesn't intend to dwell on it as long as she feels well enough to get around and enjoy herself. And she and her friend were doing just that!

Back at Gran's car, we loaded up and headed down the road to the next quilt shop, Shared Stitches. Shared Stitches is a fairly new shop and this was the first time I'd visited--but it certainly WON'T be the last! Everyone in the shop was extremely friendly and helpful and the shop was wonderful! I also have a few photos of this shop to share--the first two photos will probably give you a general idea of what the shop is like, although they show just a small part--the shop was surprisingly large.

Cute idea for pattern display, don't you think? We learned the owner had found it on eBay--a gal after my own heart! I can't imagine what shipping cost though!

I love these hangers--they had different ones all over the shop displaying aprons and other items.

While we were there, a man came in looking for quilting pins--his wife had sent him. Shouldn't every quilter have a spouse like him? He said he's good at running and getting things and paying for them too! Thelma and Louise may have found Brad Pitt on their travels, but I'm thinking I'd rather have this guy! (Okay, maybe not--there ARE a few other considerations, after all! Still this man had some VERY admirable qualities!)

The shopping day ended much as it began: While Gran was checking out, I walked a few doors down to a coffee shop for an iced mocha with whipped cream to go--a real treat as well as a late afternoon pick-me-up!

I'm so glad Gran invited me on this adventure! What could be better than a day spent with a friend, having fun, petting fabric, and running into interesting people? We already have some tentative ideas about our next adventure--but first I have things to do. Like getting the home office whipped into shape. And--are you wondering which name I've picked for the new quilt pattern? Well, so am I! You've given me so many great choices, I haven't been able to settle on just one. So tomorrow, while I'm cleaning and organizing, I'll and also ponder the names you've given me, and hopefully I'll be able to make up my mind. Or it might just explode from thinking too hard. Stop back by tomorrow to find out, okay?!

Betta Late Than Nevva

Tonight was our monthly meeting of the Bearpaws & Hollyhocks Jo's Little Women Club. I'm seriously behind on this project. How behind? Well, tonight we talked about part four--the final part of the quilt--and I hadn't even started. Yep, pretty far behind! And it's funny because this is a quilt I really like! Want to see what it looks like?

So when I got home tonight from club, I finally started it.

I didn't get very far, but then again, I figure it's not too bad for just a couple hours of hand applique.

My friend Pam joined Jo's Club this year, and when I heard she was joining, I told her the new members had to bring cookies to the meeting. And she DID! Well, that was some months ago, and sadly, she no longer believes me when I tell her she has to bring cookies. Nevertheless, I tried again today and she brought a bag of store-bought cookies. Do you think that counts? Yeah, I suppose we'll give her credit--she's a sweetie!

I was also behind in another monthly class I'm taking, Clues in the Calico. I got caught up on that one, though, last week. This project is a mystery of sorts--we find out month by month what we're supposed to add to the quilt.

The first month, we were supposed to make the broderie perse center star block (broderie perse is a method of cutting a printed motif from fabric and appliqueing it to a background). This month we were to add the half-square triangle blocks. I guess it probably wouldn't surprise anyone that I changed mine a bit. The original had the half-square triangles all going in the same direction around the quilt, but I liked them split in the middle and going toward the corners. I also had so much fun adding the broderie perse center that I added four more to the corners. For this quilt, I pulled some old Robyn Pandolph fabric from my stash and threw in a few other fabrics just to make it look a little more scrappy. It's fun to finally be using some of the fabrics I've been holding onto--I think this line is one of the first I "collected" in my first couple years of quilting!

Also something I finally got to--blog reading. This morning I went through my blog list and visited many of you. I guess I tend to be something of a lurker, though--I love to see what everyone's been up to, but unless I really have something to say, I don't always comment. It was a lot of fun visiting, though! There's so much going on out there! I still have a few more visits to make and I hope to stop by and "see" those bloggers in the next few days.

Finally tonight I wanted to thank you all for the name suggestions for the quilt. I can see it's going to be very hard to pick one as you're all so very good at naming quilts! I sure appreciate the help because my brain wasn't cooperating.

Until tomorrow . . . happy quilting!