So I'm waiting for blogshares to come out of beta and go live. waiting. waiting. waiting. I have much I should be doing. Yes I do. And yet, I am drawn to rebuilding my virtual portfolio with the proceeds, all $12,000 dollars of it, from the two weeks I played the beta.
Now, you would think I'd just dig in and do my things that need doing and then feel great about playing guilt-free. Instead I am sitting here dreaming of the big stocks I'll snap up in my first five transactions and then my next 10. and thinking how if I could only roll my virtual blogshares into my iTunes Music Store account.... how sweet that would be.
I'll confess I was a skeptic about this whole Apple-downloading-music thing. But there was Steve Jobs up there on the big screen today, talking about iPods and iTunes and how ripping off music is all about bad karma. And of course, moments later we had iTunes 4 up and running and were listening to all the 30 second clips of music and stuff.
When you get four people standing in close proximity searching for and playing 30 second bits of music all at once, the results are rather interesting. Some would say, ecclectic even!
So I came home and updated my own 5G iPod and updated my iTunes and voila, I'm searching out my own ecclectic range of music. And what did I download (you knew I would, Steve...)?
Let the River Run -- Carly Simon
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be -- Carly Simon
Sweet Surrender -- John Denver
Lumberjack Song -- Monty Python
Hmmmm Guess I shouldn't have poked fun at Ron for downloading Phil Collins, eh?
Nice Sunday. Mom and I went to the Delmar quilt show. Walked around looking at quilts, and then we did the vendors (of course we did). I fell in love with a little quilt by Jo Diggs. Simply beautiful.
Came home via the grocery store. I made meatballs and a whole lotta sauce (known as red stuff around here) and baked not only the meatballs but a lot of that yummy chicken italian sausage I'd gotten. That was easy. Much easier than frying. Ron and I had the last of the lasagna tonight.
Then we did a quick photo session to get slides of the new quilt as well as the little Journal quilts. Didn't take long - amazing what the right equipment will get ya besides good slides!
Yesterday I spent the whole day making and sewing on bindings. Whatta deal! I'm actually getting pretty good at sewing on bindings completely by machine.
Quilting this week took a little detour to a little quilt that wasn't even thought of last week. Hey, that's what happens sometimes. Stay tuned for a photo. Interesting how that happens.
Sometimes working fast (as in - oh, look how quickly the deadline for that is rushing up!) isn't a good thing. There's a fine line balance between getting into the zone because there's a time limit and not having a lot of time to think things out. Sometimes everything works out great, sometimes you have second thoughts but it's too late. But, I guess if you don't try, you don't try. In the long run, it pays to get the idea sooner rather than later, if only so that it's been sitting developing in your head rather than being made up as you do it. At least that's my experience.
Now we're into the down-to-the-wire, chicken version of blogshares. May 1, all accounts are reset and you'll only carry the cash you have forward. No stocks, except 1000 of the stock you claimed. Here's my list of current or recently owned stocks. My total worth is around $4100. Not bad.... I'm shooting for $5K.Update: see next post for list of past and present stocks.
As I said earlier, I've been working on my pink and green quilt, an inch and a half at a time. I am about one third of the way done sewing the horizontal seams together so I'm more than half way done with sewing the top. I think this photos is a little off colorwise, but the color of the quilt varies a lot depending on the light source. It does give you an idea of the overall look of the quilt though. For more info on the process go here
Written at:
4/20/2003 12:45:00 PM
I have managed to do a little bit more on the pink and green quilt. 1.5 inches at a time. That's how it works. Closer and closer to done but it's slow going. I see a few places that I'll probably fuss with a bit to make the seams match a bit better. But overall, it's not as hard as I thought it would be. Probably because I'm not in a mood to go fast. Sometimes that's a good thing.
Because sometimes, you just need a reminder of what it's all about.In case you're wondering, the changing list of links at the bottom left reflects block stocks I'm currently holding. Yeah, it's silly, but it's fun.
I just had to share this ad that my co-worker Jacob shared with us today. I have enjoyed watching it several times. Sit back and enjoy the cog and then watch it again. thanks Jacob!
Meanwhile, my blogshare experience is now up over $2000. The race is on to make as much cash as possible in the next 12 days because when blogshares goes non-beta only one's cash holdings will remain.
Long long week with many tears and hard moments. We've been trying to be extra nice to the rest of the cats - a cat nip party, some treats, some extra scritches. Last night Gus jumped up on the bed and purred and purred and let me snuggle with him for a few minutes before he left again, still purring. I can say that Maggie's passing made all the other nonsense this week seem pretty small potatoes, which is probably a good thing.
Written at:
4/18/2003 10:41:00 PM
Tonight I was more than ready to fast forward a bit to tomorrow, just to say, TGIF!
I did another horizontal seam on the pink and green quilt. 11 more to go.
As I was sewing along tonight, 1.5 inches at a time (match point, sew to that, match seam, sew to that, match point, etc) I thought, it's not obvious if you haven't been doing this a long time so let me share this hint. You know I sewed all my "columns" of little blocks together first. And you may not know that I favor ironing seams open rather than pressing to one side or another. If you do this, be sure to open up your seam allowances ahead of where you're sewing. I normally open up the seams a foot or so ahead of the needle. What I mean by this is to use scissors or seam ripper to break the bit of thread in between the blocks. Why? That way I can put a pin from top to bottom to match whatever I have to match and see what I'm doing. AND you have to cut that thread anyway to iron the seam open. So do it now so it can help you!
The weather only adds to my confusion - it was summery this morning. It was early wintery this evening. Did I really hear them mention sleet in the forecast? I'm putting my non-blogshare stock in Spring though -- the daffodils took advantage of the warmth yesterday and today to color up and start popping open into flower. This morning and tonight I noticed that wonderful flush or should I say blush on the hills where the maples are budding out. Welcome spring!
I'm feeling like I'll walk up the stairs and find Maggie waiting for me. Last night as I waited in vain for sleep to come, I thought of all the nights she jumped up on the bed and walked up the length of me and waited patiently until I realized she was there and lifted the quilt for her to snuggle under. She would curl up and lick my hand, purring and purring into the night. She had a most distinctly un-melodic miaow and enjoyed talking with me if I'd miaow back at her. She probably wondered why I didn't actually say something meaningful, but she kept up her end of the conversation regardless. And she had the most wonderful, silky fur imaginable.
And for the rest of my gentle readers -- I would love to buy shares of YOUR blogs, but they're not indexed yet. Why? Probably because you haven't put the little blogshare logo on your site yet. C'mon already. I wanna own a piece o'you!
What the heck am I talking about, you're asking? Blogshares. As of right now, I'm 300 virtual dollars to the good. Do you need to have a blog to play? Nope. Just register and you get 500 virtual dollars to invest in MY blog. Yes you do. Now go. You're done here.
Written at:
4/13/2003 09:33:00 PM
For those who are following the pink and green quilt saga, I've added a link to it in the right column.
Another greyish day here in the NorthEast, but I've got lots to do so can't spend time moaning about it, LOL. Last night I finished the quilting on the January journal quilt. I seem to remember having a hard time with last January's quilt as well. So I've got January through April done now except for binding. I think I'll just put simple black bindings on them and call it good. I don't want anything to detract from the quilting. And I think I'll figure out a way for the sleeve to be sheer behind the March journal quilt so the holes look like openings. Photos at 11 as they say.
I will say I'm really pleased with them, after having such a hard time starting them this time around: no theme, no idea, no real enthusiasm.
The theme I came up with -- "It's the quilting stupid" -- really continues my thinking that if you want to call it a quilt, it better darn well have quilting that matters. Since these are by and large whole cloth quilts, the quilting is the main design feature.
Last year's journal quilts are on display at the show in Chicago this weekend. You can see my 2002 journal quilts here
Well the snow is finally gone. Not the huge mounds of snow in the mall parking lots, but the snow that was in our front yard and driveway. And someone must thing spring is coming. I've seen a lot of deer and turkeys out touring about in the fields and perhaps even more exciting, tonight, the voices of peepers met me when I got out of my car at home. Peepers can't be wrong, eh? I notice that the grasses really benefitted from that last snow. Late snow is often called "poor man's fertilizer" because it makes everything grassy really green. I couldn't help but think this morning that THIS is what the color "grass green" is all about! What a beautiful and welcome color.
Just a quick update from the sewing room -- I'm now two-thirds done with sewing the columns together. I took the remaining 7 columns off the design wall last night so tonight I'll be working on that again. Looks pretty good I think. Getting the points to match hasn't been as hard as I thought (not that they're all perfect). I would have had to work harder in the first two stages to make the points align better, but this is well within what I can tolerate. Must.keep.sewing.
I've thought about this poem a lot the past few days. I used to be able to recite it by heart and I said it aloud to myself before getting it ready for you, gentle readers.
The ice and freezing rain has stopped here, one last fling of winter. The daffodils are pushing up resolutely, going through or around the piled up leaves from last fall. The maples are well budded out and the willows have a new wash of gold on them. There's no knowing the precise date and hour that spring will arrive, only that it will, in the time-honored measure of the earth.
Photo of bushes near my house here and here and here.
When I came out of work there was a solid 1/4 inch of ice all over my car. And it's really coming down now!
Written at:
4/04/2003 09:25:00 PM
What a nice find this is. Perfect for a cold, rainy weekend of looking and reading. Beautiful paintings and wonderful criticism, often contemporary. Thanks Bornfamous for the link!
Not sure what it's doing in your part of the world, but it's icing (as in rain falling from sky, hits cold surface and becomes ice much to the suprise and detriment of many) here. Happy April!
And in other news, I have caught up with the 2003 Journal quilt project after a period of not having a clue and I've even come up with a theme to fall back on if needed: "It's about the quilting, stupid! Or, variations on whole cloth." I feel so much better. And last night I spent time again at the sewing machine, sewing the first four columns of pink and green blocks together. It's all good.
Written at:
4/04/2003 02:33:00 PM
First seen linked in Textism, this has popped up in other sites and now mine. Great read, covers all the bases and well, just explains ever so much about it all.
Somehow much of the coverage about the war in Iraq is giving me flashbacks to the 70's. Remember that little country - Viet nam?
Whooo hoooo cooking fans. Phone call today from Williams-Sonoma (in the mall where i work) to say "your KitchenAid...." yippppeeeee! Yes, my food grinder and pasta plates came. Not the cool pasta rollers like fortune elkins has. I decided I'd get more use out of a grinder for things like making the hash of my childhood. No no no - not making hash OF my childhood. OK, just stop. My mom made amazing hash of leftovers when we were growing up. I threw in the pasta plates for fun. I'd like to try egg noodles. Not tonight though.
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