Happy Wednesday! lots going on, so much that I didn't have time (gasp!) for Tacky Tuesday - so it will be back next week!

The first HUGE news is that I've posted the photos of the Denver Art Museum Crazy Quilts. I'm going to be adding more and more background information on them, but that ended up in a couple of spots, so I'm hoping to add as I go along here. I really wanted you gals to have a chance to see them as soon as possible. I've added a handy tab at the top of my blog for "quick access" and also I loaded them at full size so you are able to click on the magnifying glass and zoom up on it and move it around.

I was SO excited to be able to get the Crazy Quilt International Group in to see these 5 quilts (and tea cozy) that normally live in the halls of the collection room at the Denver Art Museum. They were SO sweet there, pulling them out and letting us look at them for 2 hours! It was wonderful!

So, in case you haven't already left the post to go look at them, here are some previews:

From 5 Crazy Quilts at the Denver Art Museum

From 5 Crazy Quilts at the Denver Art Museum

Last night was our Stitch night for the RMCQ group and I'm not even tempted to put my photos of my stuff here with these gorgeous quilts!

Last - and the reason I told you to read to the end, is the LOVELY ladies of Posh Mama are blogging at the Martha Stewart show today! Yay! It's not on in my area until 6pm, but you should peek in at it! I'm sure it will be wonderful! I will totally admit I still love Martha - she's stuck it out through thick and thin and she's definately a survivor in the crafting world! If you haven't joined Posh Mama, I must urge you too...it's not just for "Mommies", it's for everyone and it's a spam free fun, supportive group of great gals!

Labels: Blogging, Crazy quilt, Denver, Posh Mama

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I've been nominated! Woo hoo! So, please please please (is that enough begging) go vote for me - the badge is in the sidebar or here:



Trust me, it's worth it. Actually Divine Caroline is a great site. Not just that I write for them, I also think they're a quality site with some wonderful content! Go check it out and vote for me!!!

Labels: Blogging

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This is a craft blog...sort of...it's also a "Mommy blog" (which is far more marketable I might add). But sometimes I talk about books I'm reading or even events I've attended...neither craft related. So, I don't fit into a tidy little description.

As the self professed expert in my neighborhood on blogging, I'm quite often asked if people should start a blog, why they should start a blog and who will read it (if anyone). My advice is always "blog about what matters to you" The most important thing about a blog is that it's constantly updated. My blog gets updated a lot because I use it to track and motivate my creative side. This is why it's "mostly" a craft blog. But I also vent about things that happen in my life and update family members (who are mostly all big readers) and friends on what's going on in my life.

There's a down side to writing about yourself and it's that you don't really fit a tidy category. I know I've bored the socks off my father-in-law (who thinks of crafting as a bit of female fluff). And I'm sure my crafty readers without kids have been bored stiff by my long diatribes on life with my children.

For a beginning blogger I think what you enjoy and blogging about you is what makes a great and fun blog. You'll enjoy updating it and you'll have readers. Look to family and friends to start the group and then you'll be amazed at where it goes from there. Don't worry about an "audience" they tend to grow as you write more and more. Don't forget to comment on other Blogs that interest you. Again, enjoying it and finding a community is what blogging is all about.

So, you may ask, why is a craft blogger better than a mommy blogger? Well, I guess I'm a Mom and I'll always be a Mom, but I don't have babies anymore and it's amazing how quickly they grow up. Some of the very most popular Mom bloggers are going to have to take a long hard look at their Blogs when the breastfeeding and the cute stories about their little kid's crazy toddler antics morph into an age where their kids are old enough to be dating, drinking and other things. Are their kids still going to love being immortalized on the pages of "Mommy's blog"? Will they still be cute enough to write about? Will they sue Mom when the latest stories appear?

Probably my largest objection to "Mommy Blogs" is how profane and shocking they attempt to be. I realize some people actually live crazy lives and are a bit "rough around the edges" - I have also been known to pull out a swear word occasionally, but are there really that many women like that? I think a lot of them over exaggerate to get attention and for good reading. I get tired of the stories of manic/depressive Moms who take Prozac to make it through their days and agonize over other parents and how they feel about them. Conflict and drama makes good TV, but does it make good blogging?

After reading a fairly scathing article in the New York Times about blogging, several craft bloggers responded. Wondering whether they were committing the same "sins" as bloggers who blog about themselves and their families. One of the most insightful articles was from Floresita who distinguishes between "TMI" (too much information) Blogs and craft Blogs. One of her points hit home for me and that was the positive spin that craft Blogs normally have so they don't rely on the shocking and the profane.

Craft bloggers range from college age (no kids) to Grandmother's (kids gone, although I've seen baby pictures of grandchildren!). They talk about their lives, but they have lives of their own. I guess I'm a little biased because my life doesn't revolve around my kids. I have a company I run, along with my creative life and I also have wonderful husband and kids. They all sort of create a package.

So, I really do enjoy craft bloggers more than Mommy Blogs. Sorry, maybe I'm a minority...however, what I really love is when bloggers appear to actually LOVE their Blogs and update it with their real lives. That makes the best blog of all.

Labels: Blogging

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This week has been all about adjustments. The kids went back to school. While I miss them, it's nice to return to a proper work day. That's "if" I could adjust to a proper work day. Instead I'm sort of lost. I realized in my last couple of posts that I'm uncharacteristically negative and bitter. I apologize. I really like having a blog because you can see trends like that in yourself! :)

I hate to say it, but I'm still recuperating from my negative French Exchange student issue this summer and so now it's time to move on.


First, I did a little work on this blog....check out my "about me" section. I redid my bio a bit and "fluffed" it up! :) (nothing like a little housecleaning). Then I tidied up my icons on the sidebar.

Oh, and I'm in process of taking back ownership of the Bloggers Who Embellish webring! Yay! So, if you're on that ring, look out for good stuff coming up!

This weekend is all about organizing - we took 200 CD's and about 100 DVD's and put them into nice tidy books on the shelves. It's amazing how much room all of that takes up. I "Googled" "how to recycle CD covers" and the only good lead I found was to get rid of them at the local library (they're always looking for new covers) so that was going to be my back up plan.

However, first, I posted them on Freecycle to see if I could get rid of them that way. A nice lady is picking up all of them tomorrow so her kids can organize and put away their CD's....isn't life nice? I love recycling!


We're off today to a the Rocky Mountain Quilt Show. This was kind of a last minute thing we heard about here, but it includes Christine Dabb's (who is one of my very favorite crazy quilters EVER and also our local favorite Cindy Brick.


We're also meeting up with some friends for lunch and then I'm meeting one of the RMCQ gals at the Show, so it's going to be a full day! I'm hoping I get some inspiration...there hasn't been much stitching here lately and I'm kinda stuck. I think it's all still a symptom of the transition and of my "funk".


However, it's time to get off my tushie and get moving! So, today is the day...now I'm really tempted to go crawl back in bed! :)

Labels: Blogging, Crazy quilt, inspiration, organization

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I'm not sure if you have read my post on "tacky or craft" or the follow up here but I thought it was about time to get some feedback on what people thought was tacky. I think the important thing with this is that it's your opinion...there is no wrong or right!

However, you have to admit that when flipping through the magazines of yesteryear, there were some crafts that were downright tacky! Like huge! So, I'm curious to see what everyone can dig up.

Here's my first find out of the November 1971 "Woman's Day" Magazine:


Now, that doesn't LOOK that bad, until you read the description:

24. Lint brushes are handy items to keep in entryway bedroom or car glove compartment. These are nylon net, plastic crochet rings, ribbon and plastic flowers. And you can turn them out by the dozen.

Well, let me tell you there are a bunch of things wrong with that. First, how do they work? I can't even picture it working (is my lint just smaller?). Yikes, they look like something that you would not have any idea what is and thus put in a garage sale. Which leads me to "turn them out by the dozen". So, did anyone get any of these as a gift?

I'm really looking forward to your submissions, so much so that I have created a flickr group and a badge!


Just put it on your blog and link back here. I'll highlight the best ones I see on the flickr group each week!

If you don't agree with someone's "tacky" then post your own! :) After all, someone's trash has always been another one's treasure!

Labels: Blogging, Tacky Craft Tuesday

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A friend of mine passed on these potentially scrumptious knitting books but I've vowed to never EVER knit, so I'm passing them onto you. I seem to get a few comments here on my blog, but never enough for my self involved personality, so I'm giving them to the 25th poster (postage included unless you live in Australia and then we'll have to chat! :-) ) - so comment away and I can't wait to see who gets them!


I can't wait to pass them along and see how many of you knitters regularly lurk on my blog! :-) And just so you know I do like to do "something" this is what I was busy working on last night:

**And Katrin is the winner - hooray! Nothing like 25 posts, but I was probably being too ambitious!

Labels: Blogging, embroidery, giveaway

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I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm now writing for Divine Caroline - I even get to be "featured":

Isn't that a lovely little box? Especially if you consider I have my 1950's houseblog...it makes me look SO much more sophisticated than I am!

Well, they're featuring me (and Louanne really) on the front page of their "fun" section - here. I rotate every 4 screen refreshes, but that's a crazy quilt block and I get to demonstrate how ruching. I think I might send them a better graphic...the typing illustration that Louanne did didn't really come across, but hey - better than nothing!

I have a couple more articles on there too. It's shaping up to be a lovely site, go check it out!

Labels: Blogging, Crazy quilt

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Then as a complete juxtaposition ("big fancy word of the day"...can you tell I have elementary school age kids!) is this LOVELY historical piece from Raciare's Embroidery and Needlework:

I have to say, I've seen things like this in museums, but the concept of CREATING it is amazing. Wow, can't really say much more. Humbling. Check out her website...even the most amazing embroiderer will be humbled.

So, I'm back to dig out my ever so humble stitching.

Labels: Blogging, embroidery, inspiration, knitting, quilting

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Have you ever had a day with 8000 things on your list? Of course you have!

I had one of those today (I'm NOT going to admit how many times that happens in my life) and that was ok. I got a few of them done....but really spent the day just thinking and net surfing and kind of having fun! I'm going through trying to figure out if I want to make one of those 100 things I want to do lists. Still not sure. I think it would be depressing if you don't finish any of them.

The kids and I played with their moonsand. Matey Moo can recite the entire commercial (he's an informercial junkie...it's weird) but the stuff is totally fun to play with. I'd be afraid if I had kids that ate things...but my kids are past that. Anyway, it's totally fun. The consistency of brown sugar and sparkly. A fabulous way to stretch the creativity!

On another note,among my surfing around for new fun ways to post my blog and I couldn't believe I didn't have a Technorati Profile. I'm always amazed when I go to those sites how often I already have signed up (ages ago and forgot about it) - however, this was one place I was not signed up.

Ok, more creative pictures soon....back to the moonsand!

Labels: Blogging, motherhood

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Robin from Beadlust posted this a while ago, and I can't take my eyes off of it. I love the colors, the items, the beading. SIGH....I love it:

Wow, I have only dreams that I could come up with something this creative. Sigh.....off to wishing I had more time! :-)

Labels: art, beading, Blogging, inspiration

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Not really! But we had fun! And a bunch of "dudes" showed up too (thus the direction of the site surfing)! :-) Here's a few of the sites we surfed:

Etsy -neat place to get handmade gifts and fabulous ideas!
Parent Hacks - the best site with parenting tips around
Cool Mom Picks - Holiday Gift Guide -for all your holiday shopping needs.
Dooce - great mom blog
Mothers Acting Up - what a totally cool site. Not for profit...go check it out.
Dadz.tv - UTube for parents...very cool
Dadz.com Directory - if you're a Dad, start here.
Blogfathers - I found this a while ago, group blog by cool dads

I'm sure there were more, but that's what I can think of next. It went so well, the hour flew by and people hung around for a bit after the hour! I'd love to do another one! Very fun!

Labels: Blogging, motherhood

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If I haven't sent you an invite, Me.dium is a recent discovery thanks to a friend of mine who works for the company in Boulder Colorado. It's actually a fairly hard to explain tool, but it's a side browser where you can see other people you know (or don't know) and what they are surfing.

The neat thing is that on Tuesday (at 11am mountain) I'm hosting a Mom's Minute! What's cool about this is that I can get a group of folks together and we can surf our favorite Mom's sites! :-)
It was a weird concept to me at first, but I sat in on their Rock.Me - which is basically an hour surfing with someone from a band. They went around Utube and looked at influences and music videos...along with other band's sites on My space. It's nifty and frankly my mind boggles at all the places it could go! :-)

The other neato new find is Pandora radio (if you've all heard of it, I'm probably a dinosaur! It's cool tho, you type in a song or an artist you like and it trys to match you with other compatible music. All commercial free, nifty new music! I have spent the last several days really really enjoying it.

Ok, enough geeky stuff! We had a fantastic TECH FREE Thanksgiving - we played games, read and looked through picture albums! It was a ton of fun! And so, I'll leave you with my daughter's best art from the holiday:

Labels: Blogging, kid art

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Well, I'm sure you all have noticed my heavy redesign? Thoughts? Concerns? I kind of like it..clean, yet obnoxious! :-) (sort of like me!).

Anyway, things perk along here. We've billed all of our customers, gotten the entire system into quickbooks and business is perking along. Tomorrow, I stitch! Hooray....you might say, but I still have pants to hem, two pillows to cover and a bedspread to make. Sigh.

On Sunday however, I'm headed to VAIL! Hooray! Sort of business, sort of pleasure. My friend is a Business Teacher at a High School in Vail and she has invited me to be a DECA judge! I think it's going to be a blast. Sunday we get to relax, so I'm taking stitching.

Anyway, more tomorrow....I hope to make some HUGE progress in my studio!

Labels: Blogging, family life

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Here are my two cherubs off to photo day:



This is Matey Moo's "Roddy St. James" outfit....I love it! He was a bit disappointed that he didn't have black shoes and a bow tie...we'll have to work on that! Missy C looks adorable in her fancy dress! I think these will be cute photos! My kids are hams. What can I say ( NO IDEA where they get that!)

And at the risk of not surprising my BOM swap partner, she said she liked black and white and red and wasn't opposed to crazy quilting. I HAVE to say I was ITCHING to embellish it! Can't you see a million possiblities! I may make another one for myself!

Things have not gotten quieter here at crazy house! I've also agreed to be the board moderator and ocassional blog poster at the Denver Post Mile High Moms (see sidebar). Sort of a fun group! We'll see where it all goes.

Labels: Blogging, Crazy quilt, family life, photography

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I've actually been here on my blog, although I know I may have not seemed like it! I've been housecleaning. I've moved my blog a couple of times...new domain, new picture host, etc, and never really cleaned up all the old picture links that didn't work, etc. So, I've been housecleaning.

Why now? You may ask....

Well, two things. First, my blog is now in it's 4th year (can you believe it?) - I started writing July 2004! So, many things have happened, pets sick and died, kids in the hospital, Mom in the hospital (all better), jobs have come and gone. So, many projects, all my embroidery, brazillian embroidery, learning to sew with a machine (I know a few of you have giggled at me there!) and tons of photos of all of these memories! Even I didn't realize how much I had recorded of my life here. It's amazing.

So, why...you may ask....is my second reason? Well, I'm joining a group of lovely (and one handsome) bloggers for the new "Mile Hi Mamas" combo blog and discussion board that's going to be part of our own Denver Post (newspaper in Denver) web site. We're starting to work on the posting boards and there will be a link to my blog and gosh, I feel honored to join some pretty heavy duty Mom/Dad bloggers out there:

Angela Klocke
Anniethology
Crazy Bloggin Canuck
Greeblemonkey
Mitch McDad (poor token Dad)
Mothergoosemouse
On the Banks of the Rio Grande

and me! :-)

So, this blog -while continuing to chronicle my art and craft life, will now expand to a mommy blog too (although I'm pretty much a mommy who does needlepoint, art, work and tons of other stuff and always have been). So, I'm not sure how much this will really change at all. So, stay tuned.....

Labels: Blogging, motherhood

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Labels: Blogging, family life

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Yesterday was great! Missy C and I met Spamantha and her little girl at the Denver Creative festival! The girls had a BLAST! They got to color a block, got lipgloss at a Mary Kay booth and oooed and ahhhed over every last thing at the festival (including some sparkly things that Sam and I have vowed to put on a t-shirts!).
I picked up some fabulous lace! He doesn't have his large stuff (in my picture) on the website, but he said I can scan then and ask for more. He had fabulous collars, etc. The best part was the large lace (the stuff I bought) was only $4 a yard! Whee! I tried to hold back a little!
Then Missy C and I had a bit of time to burn (the boys went to the movies) and so we went and had our nails done! I love the flowers the girl did on Missy C's nails! All in all a great day!

Hopefully later today I'll have an update on my hearts! They need to be done today!

Oh, and my friend Creative Claudia is going to be teaching classes at Fancy Tiger (I believe making children's clothing!). So, I'll post updates when I know more!

NOTE: (for Arlee!) If you want the Red lace, send my picture to the guy at the website (he said they try to get back in 24 hours) and he can send it to you. They don't have any of the big laces on the website, but he has a ton of stuff he's happy to send! I told him I was going to scan mine so I could reorder!

Labels: Blogging, family life, lace

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This is what it looked like this weekend. I know, I look like I'm posting the same pictures over and over, but I promised, they're all different!

I cannot believe that my horoscope said today: "If you've been thinking about starting a garden, this is a great day to do it, as anything relating to the land begun today is likely to thrive. " Ok, is the person who wrote this a complete moron (it is January after all)? Or are they just taunting me?

Anyway, I've been busy...nursing sick kids (lovely cold going around) and also launching a new site: Denver Parents. It includes...what else....a BLOG! Plus a bulletin board for parents to post all sorts of things! I think it's going to be a fun enterprise and hopefully less work than moderating a Yahoo group for parents (which is what this is born from).

Anyway, I finally have the craft room cleaned up, I went ahead and put fusing behind Tina's Wedding Quilt, so I'm hoping that cures my "issues" with that project. Maybe not today (I actually have "work" to do today) but tomorrrow I can get back to work on that and Alec's quilt. Wish me luck!

Labels: Blogging, Gardening, quilting

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Blogger upgraded me to their beta so I'm in progress of cleaning up a lot of blog things that should have been cleaned up a long time ago.
I'm finding reading old entries is like reading an old diary...very interesting! Wow, I was much more creative a year ago, I wonder what happened? Anyway, bear with me while I clean up here and get myself back to "normal" on the blog!

PS: Why didn't blogger add more new templates since they were doing all this work? Annoying.

Labels: Blogging

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