Parade

Since my recent sewing is completely unbloggable please instead enjoy watching our local 4th of July Parade (it's only about 4 min long).

Have a great week!

Love and Cinnamon

I've never really been a fan of Valentine's Day.  I could ramble on for pages about why but you didn't come here for that. And some of you have made it clear in the past that you don't respect my opinion on such things. Which means you probably won't like this post at all anyway. lol

Anyway, I know I've been bad about posting lately, but things have been really busy. Too busy even to sew! I know, that's just crazy!  But I've been thinking about you, my followers, wondering what wonderful and fun and amazing projects you have been working on, wondering if you are painting or sewing or generally making yourself into a better person (yeah, you know who you are). And I just wanted to let you know you're in my thoughts.

And since it is a special occasion I wanted to post something over from another blog that seems important for today.

Sarai over at the Coletterie has generously offered to donate all of the procedes from today's sales of her beautiful Cinnamon pattern:

Cinnamon Pattern

to benefit the important civil rights issue of our time: marriage equality.  

If you're disappointed this isn't a post about me trying the cinnamon challenge, well, at least you have this pretty slip dress to look at: (isn't it lovely!)

Cinnamon

So if you sew or know someone who sews this would be a great gift for yourself or someone else and the money goes for a good cause.

Hope your February is going great! 

PS: idk why some of the non-linked text is showing up underlined, but I'll try to get it fixed asap.

New Year's Eve 2012-2013

So for the new year... I made a video... sort of.

Hope your 2013 starts out happily and safely.

Candles for Hanukkah

Last night I celebrated the third night of Hanukkah with part of my husbands family, my mother, and some family friends. It was a fun and raucous affair filled with long discussions and my small nephews running about and giggling over everything.

from the 3rd night last year, hence the stockings in the background

Talk Nerdy To Me

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature ofScience, 1954

I'm having a birthday. A such I'm going to talk about whatever I want today. (As if that's different from any other day haha)

So these are some of the things I've been finding myself interested in lately:

In case I hadn't mentioned previously, I've been trying to further my education here at home via the internet.  Part of what I'm learning is new to me, and part of it is re-learning old things I've learned before. (I had the worst Calculus teacher ever in HS and since I learned it wrong then I struggled with it in college. At this point it's been long enough I don't have to un-learn before I can re-learn the concepts and, amazingly, I'm actually understanding it pretty well this time.)  I'm using a variety of resources for each of the topics I'm learning including textbooks, MIT and Stanford free online courses, and a really helpful site called Sophia. (Go check it out. No really, I'll wait. Go.)

Sophia.org

Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the United States today is a day of celebration where we spend time with family and friends, think of all we are thankful for, and eat waaaaaay more than we ought.

I am thankful for many people, many things. I am also very thankful for science; it enriches our lives and makes me feel more connected to the rest of the universe.  In that vein, here is a Thanksgiving-related video for your enjoyment.

Labor Day 2012

Sorry, no post today; it's a holiday here in the US and my husband and I actually have the day off together. I'll be back on Wednesday!

GenCon 2012 Photodump 1

Photos from the night before the first day of Gencon

Hanging at the RAM after picking up our badges at WillCall

Guest Post: MREs

Hi everybody! My husband wrote a post for the blog that was supposed to post yesterday, but being thoroughly exhausted by the physical and emotional demands of the week (not to mention the 100F/38C+ temperatures), I didn't have the energy to get it all formatted and uploaded for him until now. Sorry! 

Anyhow, enjoy this brief respite from my own ramblings to hear from the one I love the most <3

. . .

This is Peculiarly Pink’s husband taking the reins for a day. I have a holiday from work for the Fourth of July and so I am trying my hand at the blog to give her a day off.

Unfortunately I am significantly less crafty. I paint a little, but not up to blog standards and I cook but not very well. Still, Independence Day and I thought it might be interesting to share with you something I was lucky to try this morning  and at least tangentially connected to the day’s theme of patriotism. A friend from work gave me a pair of MREs.

 

Happy Passover!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a 

Happy Passover

or if you prefer

Happy Easter

or if you prefer

Happy Friday.

Which ever it is for you, make it a good one and take the time to tell your family and friends that you love them.

Painting the Redeemer Part I

In addition to a whole mound of sewing lately I've been working on several fun geekery projects. The first I'll share to day, the second (superexcitingspiffiness) i'll share with you next week.

 Last year one of the models my husband won was this fun Menoth Warjack.

Happy Leap Day 2012!

Hope you are having a happy day on the 'rarest' of days!

I have no sewing to show you today, so instead here is a pic of some gluten free doughnut holes I made last night. 

not bad but a little more 'cake doughnut'y than what i was hoping for

Did you know that even with the extra day this year (as we have every four) our calendar still isn't synched up perfectly to our revolutions about the sun?We still have to add a second every once in a while!

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) is adding a leap second to the calendar at midnight (UTC), June 30, 2012. That’s 5 p.m. PDT or 8 p.m. EDT, June 29, 2012.

For more info about Leap Year, Leap Day, and Leap Seconds, Earth Sky has a nice little post with some good info or you can check out the IERS homepage linked above. ^_^

Happy Leap Day!

Luna Scarves

A short post today due to the fact that I completely forgot to take pictures (/sigh...  really??!) of the scarves I made for my mother and stepmother-in-law for the holidays.

As usual I started with one pattern and then tweaked it a bit.  The pattern I used was the Luna Lovegood (a Harry Potter character for those of you not in the know) scarf pattern developed and graciously shared for free by pinkleo on crafster.

I really did try to make the pattern up as per the instructions at first.  I made up a small sample block to determine how wide the scarves would be and how many repeats I would need to get the length I wanted.

Three Snowflakes

My mother-in-law loves Christmas like nobody I've ever met.  So I wanted to make something special for her tree. My own favorite thing about winter is the beauty and intricate nature of snowflakes. So I made a set for her!

Snowman

Today I have a gift to show you from an area of sewing I only occasionally delve into these days, but thoroughly enjoy.

This was a gift for my grandmother. I used to make tiny ornaments for her tiny Christmas tree and wanted to continue with the idea of 'decorations.' However, she is trying to keep from collecting more things-that-take-up-space.  Then I remembered this cross stitch card decoration I have had for a while, just waiting for the right project and knew I had the perfect match.