Tag: Embroidery

Seven Things I Love (2-14-2022)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

1. This Streaming Service – For me this is the best streaming service for one simple reason, your monthly “fee” is actually a donation to your LOCAL PBS station!

Simply download the PBS app on your smart TV or device – even if you don’t make the donation there is a lot you can watch for free but if you would like access to everything, including the newest Masterpiece programs, you are going to want PBS Passport, especially if you’ve cut the cable cord.

You can find out more here (scroll down.)

Currently I’ve been watching the new Around the World in Eighty Days .
It’s FANTASTIC!!! There is one more episode coming next week.

IBRAHIM KOMA as Passepartout, DAVID TENNANT as Phileas Fogg,
and LEONIE BENESCH as Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue

2. This Seven-Year-Old Girl – Isobel is going to go far in this world.

In case you don’t follow British politics, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, is in a bit of a sticky wicket. It was discovered that he had several social gatherings at No. 10 Downing Street during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns.

“Partygate,” as it has been dubbed, has led to calls for his resignation not only from members of other political parties but from members of his own Conservative Party. And now the POLICE are investigating it. Quite a different response to bad behavior/corruption from a politician than what happens in the U.S., where a sitting president can instigate an insurrection and nearly every member of his party will stand by him.

Well, Little Isobel wouldn’t have it so she sent the PM a withering note. After all, if she had to miss her birthday parties then he should have to do the same! As she says – “follow the rulse!”

Here’s the letter –

Family photo obtained from BBC news.

3. This Embroidered Brooch – I can’t even. This artist is located in Russia, which doesn’t surprise me. Whenever I find truly stunning pieces on Etsy they always seem to be from Russia or Romania or someplace in Eastern Europe – probably because they are still passing on the skills I imagine.

4. This Tweet by Adidas – I had to go post a few comments on this. I LOVED it so much. Seeing real boobs – if I could have seen things like this or ads with women that were not stick skinny when I was a teen I would probably be a hell of a lot thinner now (and I certainly wouldn’t be so ashamed of the way I look.)

5. These Samantha Bee Videos on Book Banning – Well said Samatha! I think what we are going to find is that as soon as mid-term elections are over both CRT and book banning are going to disappear {poof} and no longer be an issue, because right now Neo-conservatives are using these issues to get votes. Because they have no actual platforms or policies of their own that would make anyone want to vote for them, and they know that. The only way they can win is to demonize their opponents.

6. This Turkish Man Who Replanted a Forest – Hikmet Kaya started his career in forest management in 1979 in a town called Sinop. When he retired 19 years later, he and his team had brought in and planted 30 MILLION saplings! Over the past few decades he’s been able to see the results of their efforts. Incredible.

Unfortunately, as has been the case in so many places in the world, there has been a reduction in tree coverage in Turkey over the past twenty years or so – the major cause is deforestation. Hopefully the Turkish people can get that evil, autocratic president out so they have a chance at getting legislation passed that is best for the people of their country.

Hikmet Kaya shows a photo of what the landscape looked like over 40 years ago when he began working on the forestation project with the help of some colleagues and people from his village.

7. This Meme – Love every single one of them!

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Seven Things that I Love (1-31-22)

I’ve been on a decluttering binge the past few weeks so right now my FAVORITE thing is my HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 series, which has a kick-ass scanner. I’ve been scanning and recycling, scanning and recycling, scanning and recycling. It’s true what they say – decluttering your house does declutter your brain. Such a good feeling.

Coincidentally, one of my favorite illustrator/cartoonists posted this tonight…

Ran across these things recently…

1. This Website Where You Can Generate Your Own Song Lyric Hand Washing PostersWash Your Lyrics is the best way to make sure you wash your hands for that full 20 seconds. Google the lyrics to your favorite song, paste them into the text box on the website, hit the “generate” button, and either print your poster or save it as a graphic file.

My dentist has it in a small frame right above the sink in her office loo. I tape mine onto the mirror in my bathroom because I switch it a lot.

‘Feelin’ Good’ by Nina Simone

[Yet another cool thing found at my dentist’s office]

2. This Lion Who Lived in the Milwaukee Public Library – The building that is now the Milwaukee Public Library’s Central Library was built in 1895, but back then then it didn’t just house the library. The building was designed to be a shared facility that housed both the Milwaukee Public Library and the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The staffs from both the library and the museum often worked together and in 1928, a group from both the library and the museum made a cultural trip to Africa and to bring items back for the museum.

While there a local Maasai tribe gifted the group a rescued lion cub named Simba (Swahili for lion.) The group traveled with the lion cub and became attached to him so at the end of their trip they had him shipped home.

He lived for a while in the library/museum – even roaming free on occasion – until he got a such a bad tooth abscess that it required a veterinarian. At that point he was moved to the Milwaukee Zoo. Simba lived until he was 14 years old, which is not bad considering the lifespan for a lion in the wild is 10 to 15 years.
(Still, animals are always better off in their natural habitats than zoos.)

Samuel Barrett with Simba on the Milwaukee Public Museum Roof | Photo: Milwaukee Public Museum

3. This Dolly Party Cake Mix – I can’t tell you the last time I made a cake from a mix but I damn well will be buying some of this!

Unfortunately, they are already SOLD OUT but you can sign up here to be notified when they are back in stock. “Duncan Hines says the cake mixes and frostings will hit grocery stores and mass retailers starting in March and sell for about $2 each.”

[Found via Tom and Lorenzo – they are my gurus]

4. This Tweet that’s Simply Oozing with Sarcasm – who doesn’t love good satire?

The responses are equally as good – this one caught my eye for obvious reasons…

5. This Chess Set Ring – By Joe Turner, 2015. Both ridiculous and astonishing at the same time. I mean, who thinks to do this? Fossil ivory and ebony chessboard set in a silver ring. The pieces are cast in silver and fit snugly into a leather case inside a hinged compartment.

6. This Autograph – I posted this on Facebook but I’m putting it on here for those who aren’t my FB friend or who don’t look at FB anymore.

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Louie Anderson. I have been a fan for years. But actually, I really became more aware of him / a huge fan after he wrote his book ‘Dear Dad: Letters from an Adult Child.’ It’s about growing up the child of an abusive alcoholic father. The book is excellent. Neither of my parents were alcoholics or physically abusive but I still connected with the book.

Louie passed away ten days ago. He was only 68 years old. It felt like losing a friend I haven’t seen in a while. You know, the ones you feel guilty you haven’t tried calling or texting or emailing. That’s what it felt like.

I met Louie Anderson at a library conference. It was around 1990. He was signing copies of his book “Dear Dad” so I bought a copy and stood in line. When I finally got to the front of the line he looked at my name tag (it said Jennie) and asked if my name was pronounced “Jenny” or “Jeanie”. I told him it was “Jenny” and then told him the story of my name .

I explained that it had at one time been J-E-N-N-Y but that in 3rd grade I looked up Jenny in the dictionary and it said, “female jackass” so I promptly changed the spelling to J-E-N-N-I-E. I also told him that my Mom refused to accept the new spelling, despite this discovery, and always spelled it with a “y.” She’d say, “I gave birth to you, I can spell it whatever way I want.” He must have enjoyed this story because he signed my book with a very sweet message and he signed the promotional card for the event like this:

I had it framed and it has been hanging on my wall for, jeez, over 30 years. Pardon about the funky blemish on his photo – I couldn’t avoid the glare from the glass of the photo.

7. This Embroidered Tablecloth – Her other tablecloths are equally gorgeous and pretty much all sold out, despite being fantastically expensive.

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