Tangled Thursday: Daisy

Background by Heather @ Books & Quilts

Today is the kickoff of a new weekly feature created by Heather @ Books and Quilts.  Zentangling has become a favorite passtime for several bloggers, so Heather came up with the idea of a weekly "challenge" - not in a competitive way, but in an inspirational way.  We will take turns selecting the weekly theme.  Each member draws their own variation on the theme and we share by posting pictures on Thursday.  We will take turns selecting the theme for the next week.  If you are interested in joining us, please feel free.  Visit Heather's blog and leave her a comment so she can add you to the rotation.  

The theme for the inaugural week is "daisy".  My first thought was the "flower child" daisies of the 60's.  I used a Google image search to gather ideas and and here is my interpretation of daisies:

Pin It/Do It: Quilted Basket

Seaside Stitches

"Quick and simple" seems to be the theme for my October Pin It/Do It entries.  This adorable little basket was done in less than an hour.  The original pin has easy to follow instructions.  This would be a great project for beginners of any age.  I plan to make more as Christmas gifts - fill with snacks, lotions, note pads and pen . . . lots of ideas for teachers, neighbors, co-workers, etc.  

My little coral box is on my desk at work, holding sticky notes.

The Pin It/Do It Challenge is hosted by Trish @ Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.  Stop by and see what everyone is pinning and doing.  I signed up to do 8 pins this month, but I don't think I'm going to make it.  Only one evening left to craft and it will be spent completing my Halloween costume. The challenge may be over, but there will be plenty of crafting and sewing between now and Christmas.

Needlework Tuesday

The majority of my sewing this week was working on Halloween costumes.  I'll post pictures of them later in the week because they aren't quite complete, but here's a preview:  Some friends of ours are getting married . . . on Halloween . . . in costume.  Dave is performing the ceremony dressed as Alice Cooper.  Stop laughing, your tears are getting in the keyboard!  The bride loves Halloween, so this is her dream wedding.  I have "bedazzled" a tuxedo tailcoat and top hat for Dave.  I couldn't come up with a costume for me, so I decided to do the obvious and be "Mrs. Cooper".  I am making myself a red and black leather tail coat and gold brocade vest.  If they turn out to be wearable, I'll post pictures.  If not, I'll be scrambling for a backup costume.  I'll let you know on Friday.

In the mean time, the only other stitching I've done is to make a Pumpkin Pincushion that I posted about on Sunday.  But in sewing-related news, I have a new sewing machine. Make that a new, OLD sewing machine.  An early 20th century Montgomery Ward treadle machine.

We haven't been able to locate a serial or model number, but the machine was patented in 1886 and the cabinet mechanism in 1903.  I have a 1947 Singer machine and by that time machines had switched to electricity.  My amazing powers of deduction tell me that the treadle machine likely dates between 1903 and 1940.  All parts seem to be in working order, but the belt is missing.  A friend (a librarian, naturally) knew of a site to buy vintage parts, so we may get it functional, but it's really just for decoration.  My friend, Julie, described it as one of those things that just make you squeal when you see it.  *squeal*

Pin It/Do It: Pumpkin Pincushion

Things we know about me:

Original Pin from Fiskars.com

• I don't like Halloween.
• I really likes Christmas (Seriously, a Christmas blog theme in October?).
• I tend to skip over decorating or crafting for Autumn and go straight to Christmas.

But this little pumpkin pincushion was so cute, I had to try making one.  Turned out to be a very quick and simple project.

The instructions for curling the ribbon require starch, and I didn't have any, so I simply wound the ribbon around a pencil and steamed it several times with my iron, let it cool completely and slid off the pencil.  We'll see how long the curl holds.  Here's my version:

This project was under an hour - including time to dig through the scrap box for orange fabrics.  The original calls for two alternating prints, but I used four prints to use up some small scraps.  This is a great idea for a quick gift, or make them assembly-line style and whip up an entire pumpkin patch to use as table favors or craft fair items.  

Book Bummers

Blood, gore, demons, and demented characters . . .  These are themes that abound this time of year, but I am not a Halloween fan - in fact I pretty much skip the whole thing now that I don't have kids at home.  Thanks to two highly anticipated novels, I've had way more than my share this October, starting with Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall.  Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones. (from book cover)

The friend who recommended this series said "Prepare to be addicted."  I slogged through 27 cd's waiting for the addictive part, but all I found were throat slashings, stabbings, severed bodies and heads on spikes.  True, there were a lot of plots and counterplots, but none of them made me wonder "what's next"?  This series is now a hit TV show, which I haven't watched, but I can't image how it translates to TV.  Not a hit with me.

Next was Stephen King's Doctor Sleep.  I pre-ordered my copy months before it's release and, when that copy was back-ordered, bought the Nook version because I couldn't wait to start. I even joined a read-along group so I could discuss it with other readers.  

Stephen King returns to the character and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called the True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, the True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the steam that children with the shining produce when they are slowly tortured to death. (from book cover)

 I read Section I, just over 100 pages, and had to give up.  I'll admit, I read The Shining over 30 years ago, when it first came out, and maybe my memory isn't what it should be, but I recall it being psychological terror - the effects of isolation.  When this story involved kidnapping and torturing a child, I called it quits.  There is so much real-life horror in the world, I just can't fill any more time, space and energy with imagined carnage. 

Recovery from alcoholism also played a large part in at least the first section of this book.  I can't begin to get inside Mr. King's head (thank heaven) but I assume that writing about Dan's battle with alcohol was in some way therapeutic for his own struggle with alcohol.  One of my other favorite authors, Lawrence Block, attempted a similar catharsis through writing alcohol recovery into one of his popular series.  I couldn't finish that book either.  Somehow, one person's experience with AA and their inner demons doesn't translate to the page - or perhaps it just doesn't translate to me.  Either way, it translates into too much work to read.  I can't believe I put Stephen King in the DNF pile!

How to Shop a Library Sale, or You Can't Judge a Book By It's Cover

Dave and I stopped by the library during our lunch hour today and stumbled on a used book sale - $2/bag.  My eyes glazed over as I grabbed a bag and began digging.  Dave sifted through a couple tables and deemed them all "fuel for a giant book burning".   I'll agree, there were a lot of  less-than-bestsellers there, but there were also gems among the dross, if you dug deep enough.  Here's what I discovered on the Mystery table:

It's a mystery-lovers bonanza:  Gilman, Christie, Rinehart, Gardner, Stout - and that plain brown book underneath is Westlake.  Throw in a copy of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines and a collection of Christmas stories and it's a pretty good haul.  

C.S. Lewis once said, "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between."  I intend to try to follow that rule in the coming year.

I Can Do It Myself!

Dave and I have been car shopping.  We aren't car buying because we can't agree on the specifics of what we're shopping for.   This is the only vehicle we come close to agreeing on:

Nissan Juke

But I only want it if it's Cayenne Red with black leather interior . . . with the red stitching on the seats . . . and the red console . . . and costs less than we paid for our first house.  I don't think that's out of line, but car dealers seem to, so we're still searching.

 The search has confirmed something I've really known for years:  some of the standard features on new cars annoy me.  I'm tired of cars that think they know best. I am an adult, capable of making my own choices.  If I want my doors locked, I will lock them.  If I want my headlights on, I will turn them on.  If I want to wear a seat belt, I will put it on.   And - here's the biggie - I absolutely hate having the radio continue to run after the car is shut off.  I hate that moment when the car noise stops, but the radio continues to blare at what is now, in the absence of car and road noise, a jarring volume.  If I want to listen to the radio, I can do it myself! 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for luxury and pampering.  Heated seats are good.  Climate control heating/cooling is a must.  And those cool back-up cameras might have prevented the little fender-bender I had the other day.  But I want to choose when I use these features.  I don't want my car to be in charge. 

More and more, technology seems to be taking over life. I don't have proof, but my personal theory is that it started in the 1950's.

Electric stoves, refrigerators, toasters and kettles revolutionized the kitchen, and vacuum cleaners and washing machines shaved hours off time spent cleaning. Women could enjoy more leisure time while still creating a clean, comfortable home for their families.  - Skwirk.com

Of course, you can't stop progress  - or so they say - and the appliances that revolutionized the 1950's have continued to evolve.  Appliance manufacturers continually add features that promise to do more so we can do less.   A microwave - unheard of when we got married - is now a standard kitchen feature.  Dishwashers not only wash our plates and cups, but will now scrub our pots and pans.  Washers include cycles for even our most delicate items - no more hand washing.  But to what end?

Automation and technology are meant to make life easier; to free up more time -- time we can use to go to the gym because, since machines do our work, we aren't getting enough exercise.  We continually increase the physical and mental jobs we hand off to machines.  Calculators have replaced the need to know multiplication tables.  MP3's and iPods have freed us from having to stack records on the stereo or turn the pages of a book.  Cell phones have nearly made watches, calendars, and address books obsolete,  We don't even have to make the effort to remember our best friend's phone number. 

In our cars, automatic transmission makes it unnecessary to shift and clutch.  Radio seek and scan features free us from the strain of turning a knob.  Windows glide down, and out-of-reach rear doors lock with the push of one finger.  These are all convenient and/or helpful ways to make life just a little easier. 

However, we have become so accustomed to our automated lives that physical work seems daunting when we have to do it ourselves. Just suggest to a farmer that he bale his hay in hundreds of small square bales and stack them by hand, rather than in large round bales moved and stacked with a tractor.  Or ask a young lady who has always "Swiffered" her kitchen floor to scrub it on hands and knees.  Baking and sewing are no longer mandatory subjects for high school girls because everything they need is available on a Wal-Mart shelf.  These once-mandatory skills have been changed to "crafts" by the convenience of technology.

The features in new cars that annoy me, however, move beyond convenience.  They think for us - or at least the engineers who design them do.  Locked doors, buckled belts and blaring radios are no longer optional.  Someone, somewhere has decided that their preferences are right for everyone, and I can not be trusted to make my own choices.  I want to yell, "I can do it myself!"  I know, I know - it's just a car radio. It's not life and death.  And you're right - in the end, it probably won't stop me from trading cars.  

But these annoying features are a microcosm of bigger issues; of the growing list of opinions that are forced on me.  The message is clear: "These are the opinions you must hold in order to be an upstanding, clear-headed, politically correct citizen of this world.  All those who disagree are not only wrong, but obviously subordinate."  What about personal choice?  What about open-minded debate?  What about agreeing to disagree at times?  Those things are rare in the 2013 world - largely because our easy lives have made us lazy and apathetic.  Instead of putting out the effort to fight, we watch our glorious nation slide faster and faster down the slippery slope toward the attitudes and oppressions our ancestors have repeatedly gone to war to escape.

Overly dramatic?  I hope so.  But I'm afraid not. It's time to remember that "progress" is meant to make life better, not just less demanding.  It's time to stop accepting the "standard options" just because it's easier than taking a stand.  It's time to stop conforming just because we're too lackadaisical to protest.  It's time to stop taking the easy road and put our country back on the right road.  It's time to stop allowing the government to do for us and say "I can do it myself."