Finally Framed

I've had this print for a very long time. My late pen pal, Anne, gave it to me, possibly 10 years ago now. I was cleaning last year and found the tube it was in.

It's an amazing print. If you can't read the legend, this is a map showing all the clans in Scotland during the reign of Robert the Bruce, 1314. It's a reproduction of a map in the National Archives of Scotland. My particular branch of Clan Thomson is not on here. As far as the Thomson name goes, we started at the lower right, the southern edge, of Scotland. We were part of the "reivers", the men from Scotland who rode into England to steal cattle. I have not traced back beyond 1768, and, at that time, we lived northeast of Edinburgh, which is on the Firth of Forth, the indentation on the right side of the map, just a bit southwest of that viking long boat, For people like my family, tracing our ancestors back past the 1700's is going to be difficult. We're not royalty and there was really no reason to establish and hold bloodlines.

The print was unrolled from its tube and placed on my ironing board. From mid-summer last year, through September of this year, the biggest books I could find rested on top of the print in an effort to flatten it further. When September rolled around, the print wasn't completely flat but the sale at JoAnn Fabrics for framing was too strong to resist.

I am thrilled with the result. I had them put plastic as the "glass" because this is going to sit on the Clan Thom(p)son table at Highland Games. I didn't want someone to be horrified if they accidentally bumped it and it hit the ground. Likewise, I didn't want to have to clean up glass and risk damage to the print since I have not seen this anywhere to replace it. The addition of the gold trim on the inside makes the print pop. I wouldn't have thought of that on my own. The gal who framed it suggested it. It was worth the extra money.

So, I need to clean the room where the litter boxes are, repaint the walls and hang this up. So much art that I'd love to have on the walls. This is too pretty to hide, but it's going to have to sit in the closet until I can get around to redoing that room. At least it can be appreciated by my clan at the next games.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Why Do I Have That? The Sewing Box Version

If you do any kind of crafting on a regular basis, you know the allure of stuff. Walk into a craft store and acres of stuff call your name, silently. "Buy me. I'm ever so pretty." "Buy me. I'll go with that one project you started in 1995 and never finished." You know the feeling.

"Can I help you with anything?"

No, thanks. I'll just take it all.

As I look ahead to the crafts and the sewing for Christmas, the temptation, when I find the pattern I need, is to buy everything listed to complete that project. That's how stashes are born. You can't remember if you have 1/2 inch snaps so you add a package only to find out you've done that, oh, 5 times in the past.

Once the curtains were finished and the next project appeared on the table, I took a look at what I needed. I needed fishing line. I have some. I just couldn't remember where it was. But then the thought comes over me, "maybe I used it all up". What harm would it be to run over to the hardware store, since I need garbage stickers anyway, and pick up another spool. The harm is that I'd have yet another spool of fishing line that I'll never use. I did find the spool, after thinking about where I usually keep it. It was right there. Waiting for the next project. I have a 3/4ths of a spool left, too; plenty for whatever projects lie ahead, or, if I really do want to go fishing.

But it got me thinking about my sewing box.

This is the top shelf. Yes, there are multiple spools of white thread. Quilt pins, which I use for rare occasions in pinning large or delicate hems, are strewn about, their container not on this level. I have sewing needles and metal bobbins for a sewing machine I don't own anymore. There are multiple scissors and I don't think the presser feet are for this sewing machine either. Need some jingle bells on a project? I have some. Ah, there's the seam ripper. Remind me when I can't find it. And I do need a pencil sharpener for my chalk pencils. I seem to have lost the one that was in here.

Hand sewing needles, packages and packages of hand sewing needles. Fasteners, including hooks and eyes and snaps of multiple sizes are here. The container for the quilting pins in the top level is here and I have some labels which read, "Hand made by " and my name. I used to put those in all the garments I made for friends and family. I don't have many left which causes the "Oh, I should get more" to rise up. Realistically, unless I'm really sewing a lot, I don't need any more than I have. I counted 8 cards of sewing needles. Seriously.

The bottom. Iron on patches and interfacing strips. Velcro in all sorts of sizes and colors. Elastic. Good heavens. You could probably bungee jump using all the elastic I have in this level. There's a button that plays a sad, tinny, "Jingle Bells". What was I going to use that for? The battery in it is dying. I should toss it. Zippers, a whole rubber banded collection of zippers. Lace and ribbon had found themselves at the bottom of the box. I'd move them to the trim box I have but that box is full, too.

If you sew, is your sewing box like this? Why is it so hard to get rid of things like a dying button that plays "Jingle Bells"? I bought this stuff because I thought I didn't have it for whatever project I was doing. I looked through the zippers and wondered what I had intended to make that probably never got done, hence the reason for a zipper in the bottom of my sewing box. As I head into the next batch of projects, I looked at what the patterns required for notions. I told myself, "No. You're not buying thread or bias tape. Use what you have."

I really need to sort and critically assess if I would be using pieces of iron on fabric for anything. It may be time to let go, to pat myself on the head when the inner voice says, "No, wait! I can totally make something out of this." Possibly I could, but probably not in this lifetime.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

Next Projects

The curtains are finished, folded and in the box with a few other things to be taken to Virginia. I'm feeling crafty again. I'm sure it's because it's fall and I just love these days. There's also the knowlege that there are less than 100 days to Christmas and I have all these gift ideas.

I finished a project I can't reveal, at the present time. That set me on a course for the next project. It involves a black pumpkin.

I got mine at JoAnn Fabrics. They are kind of expensive, I think, if you buy them at regular price. But when they are 60% off AND you have a coupon, they are a very good value. What this becomes will be the subject of a post over the weekend, assuming I'm not worn out from being in the city Wednesday through Friday. It's a multi-step process anyway. Got to let the glue dry, you know.

I will be sewing for Christmas. I'm a sucker for Iowa Hawkeyes fleece. There was this grand idea that I would make myself a fleece patched lap blanket out of all the pieces I had accumulated.

Yeah...not gonna happen. Even though I have large enough hunks that I could do that, I would look at the fabric and think, "What was I thinking?" But then it hit me. I have grand nieces and nephews. I should make them something Iowa Hawkeye.

See how much of this I have? I have 5 kids under the age of 8, who could get something out of these 3 pieces of fabric. In the same trip where I bought the pumpkin, I bought patterns and buttons. Everything else I had.

The cat material above is going to become a tote bag with copious amounts of pockets. I'm tired of not being able to find exactly what I want in a bag. So, I'm going to make what I want. I will need to buy interfacing for that because I don't have enough of the very stiff kind, but that's low on the priority list right now. The floral to the left is something Carole picked out years ago. It's finally going to be turned into its intended purpose.

Last year was the year of crocheting. This year is the year of sewing. It can take me a bit to get started but once I do, the momentum of completion fuels the next project.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

Dragging Myself into the 21st Century

As my daughter will attest to, I can be slow to adopt new technology. It's not that I fear it. It's more a case of information overload and what I need to unlearn in order to learn new. Plus, I have an innate fear of pushing the wrong button and, well, ...

So, I have danced around the issue of my TV not working for at least 6 months. If you would notice the intense red in the image to the right and then add some neon pink to that, it's what "white" people's skin had started looking like. Any darker skin tone went seriously close to black paint. And this was assuming the TV would come on at all. Right before I left for my May Virginia trip, I decided the TV had died and my idea of giving a new one to myself as a Christmas present became a bit unlikely.

See, we're in the fall season right now; the time of hot cider, warm butternut squash soup and Iowa Hawkeyes football on ABC. /sigh. When you can't get your TV to even turn on reliably, the idea that you're going to watch said Hawkeyes from the comfort of your recliner with a cat firmly ensconced in your lap becomes less likely. I need a new TV.

It took some saving and cutting back on other things, to have enough to buy a TV. But my technophobia was getting the best of me. I looked at deals online and they might as well be speaking Klingon for all that I understood. One of my guild mates, who lives southeast of me, offered to take me around and look at all my options, explaining what I needed to get set up and making suggestions on what would be a good TV. Plus, he'd set everything up so there would be no nuclear explosion because I connected the wrong wire.

Ta da.

Thirty-two inches of awesomeness.

Why didn't I go larger, you're wondering? Well, this is the original set up.

That's 25 inches of tube. To the right is my Play Station 2 which needed to be connected to the new TV. On the top shelf is my DvD player. I use it to play movies and CDs when I'm crafting in the living room. A new TV had to fit in this spot. Larger just wouldn't work.

You need to understand that I'm not a "typical" television consumer. I don't have cable or satellite. If I could pick and choose exactly which stations from cable I could have, I would sign up in a minute. But if I want the Big 10 network, which would give me all the Hawkeye football and basketball games, I have to have things I will never watch. Why should I pay for 85 channels when I only want 6? I am also blessed in the Chicagoland area that we have a plethora of free channels. If I want to watch MeTV, I have 3 channels from which to choose. PBS has 4 separate channels including a Spanish language one that tends to show travelogs when I'm channel surfing. Then it doesn't really matter what language comes through the speakers. The scenery is what matters.

After much discussion, I also got a Blu-Ray player. That is the new technology, although it will, ultimately, go away as content goes to online streaming. There wasn't an easy or cheap way to connect both the DvD player and the PS2 to the new TV. The player will play all my movies, and my non-Blu-Ray movies will look as good as Blu-Ray movies and I can still play my CDs from my nearly 200 CD jazz collection. (Some day, that all needs to be uploaded to the new computer, but I really dislike the new iTunes.)

Here's the new set up with Mission: Impossible on the TV.

What a difference. I had to get a new antenna but no more is the antenna duct taped to the east window in the hopes of picking up a signal. Clear and sharp, it was awesome. My friend also gave me my first Blu-Ray movie.

"Listen. Do you smell something?"

I was thrilled. The only down side was that the local primary stations weren't coming in. I couldn't, initially, get CBS, ABC, NBC or PBS. I got the FOX station, but football is carried on ABC. I needed to figure this out.

So, I resorted to (gasp) reading the instructions and discovered how to make the TV search for missing channels. Last night, for the first time in over 6 months, I watched the NBC Nightly News.

Wow. Skin colors that are actually the right color. There can still be an occasional degradation in signal which can be maddening when you're focused on a segment you feel is important, but it's less than it was when I had to run the signal through a converter box. I need to tuck the DDR pad behind the stand. The local news is, primarily, what I am usually watching on television. I missed that as my computer news feeds don't seem to reliably pull in local events.

It's quite the change. I am thrilled with this and so glad Jim could come along and help me. I took the empty box to Pam's on Sunday. My recycling can is full, at the moment, so the box would just sit around for another week until my can was emptied. Her recycling can was empty. I would have been really, really nervous about transporting the TV from Best Buy to my house in my Jeep.

It would have fit, but I would have worried. Jim drives a big Jeep so we could lie it down flat and anchor it so it would not slide.

I am now, dear reader, in the 21st Century. I watched part of "Ghostbusters" on Saturday. I want to try some of my other DvDs just to see how they look, and start up Final Fantasy X to see how it looks. I'm starting the next phase of crafting so "background" music will become, once again, a reality. The TV is going to Wheaton's electronics recycling event on Saturday. I've started accumulating the printers, cables and other electronic pieces that go. Pam and her hubby are coming to get the TV on Friday as it's a behemoth to move and they will bring the van for it. My other options were to find an neighbor to move it into the Jeep and pray that it fit in the front seat or roll it to the curb. The garbage company will take electronics but you have to sticker them.

Jim and I celebrated the purchase.

You can't go wrong with Portillo's. The whole day set me back less than $500, which is, to my mind, a real bargain. There is room behind the TV for a cat to sleep, but they have never been interested in resting on top of the TV so I don't know if someone will, eventually, figure out there's space back there. I guess we'll see.

So, bring on college football. I'm ready.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb