The Snuggles Project

If you love animals and making things (crochet, knit, quilt or sew) then you will probably be interested in The Snuggles Project. It's making and donating blankets for animals that are in shelters, where the floor can be cement or other harsh, cold environments.
Check it out!http://www.snugglesproject.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Jeff Bridges waved to his wife at the SAG Awards.

There's a wonderful story about Jeff Bridges waving to his wife at the SAG awards and and their interesting parlay behind the scenes here.

The story makes the truthful point that in a world that has been focusing on Tiger Woods, John Edwards and slew of other men who have not been acting right (and certainly not been kind to their wives) that there are real and good stories of upright men doing the right and kind things.

Enjoy!

Still thinking about hobbies.

Even though I am experiencing irritable symptoms, and may I say I know that I am a Pill to live with (I am sorry, Hubby) I am also percolating thoughts on my hobbies and new things I want to get into.

I have been looking into heddle looms (as if I could afford one, but one can always dream:) because the thought of weaving has always interested me. I even watched the videos on YouTube about some specific one and how to operate it. So neat. Someday, I surely hope, I can do that.

I have been interested in weaving for a long time. Everything about it, from the fiber from the animal, to its roving and spinning it into thread, to knitting and crocheting (which I am now convinced is much cheaper to do than actually weaving cloth). But I would like to delve into everything.

Then there is doll making. The soft dolls made of fabric. I found some adorable dolls that my mom made me when I was little, complete with little outfits. We were both so thrilled that I found them and in such good condition.

Then I read about 'Doll Fashionistas' which comes with a DVD and teaches the newbie how to make fabulous dolls. Mom's willing to get it for Christmas! Oh Goody!

I found something beautiful on the web about Patrick Swayze.

"A relationship survives because of keeping the friendship alive and learning how to fall in love over and over again and never taking the other person for granted and seeing things in a new light with new eyes," Patrick said in 2007. "We're big believers in, arguments are okay as long as it's not about your ego, but it's about a mutual goal -- trying to create something special."


I found today, while reading about the fact that Mr. Swayze would not take painkillers in an effort to stay sharp, that he was incredibly and utterly in love with his wife, and she with him. I found this quote from him (above) and I think if you really read it you'll find that it rings so true.

I've said on another's blog that I was so glad Mr. Swayze did the movie 'Ghost' because it shows that love can transcend time that our loved ones wait for on the other side and sometimes can intercede for us. I think that is lovely and beautiful, too.

Top 5 Life Lessons

I read an article off MSN here that I am quoting:

"What a person learns and leaves is as individual as his fingerprints. But I found some heartening insights into common themes in this new research from Priceless Legacy, a company that turns interviews with older adults into life
stories in print or video format. An analysis of its projects shows that the top five life lessons shared by people ages 65 to 104 are:

1) The simple things matter most.
2) Humor and time cure most pains.
3) There's more satisfaction in giving than getting. Service to others is the most satisfying activity.
4) Choose your spouse carefully. It will be your most important decision.
5) Work hard and in a field or role that you enjoy."

Dolly article

In keeping up with my Dolly Parton fascination, see an article here .

What I love about this article is that Dolly is 63-years-old and has no plans for slowing down. As a matter of fact, she's got ALL KINDS of plans. As someone that is perhaps quite a bit younger than her (with bipolar lets not forget) that has been feeling like there's not much more left for me to do, that it's all over (I admit to feeling that way sometimes lately) I love her example that it's never over, that there's still so much more to do.

I love that she's 'real' and simply as an aside she is an example to me that you can have an enormously fulfilling life without ever having a child, which as I said is an aside, but it has meaning to me. Go Dolly!

ATCs - I am intrigued.

ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. Using what media you want to (collage, painting, clay, metal, drawing, scrapping) you create a card the size of a playing card (the dimensions are exact, I *think* 2.5 by 3.5) creating art and pictures on your card and you exchange them with other artists. No money is exchanged, they are not bought, they are traded. I think you can find other people to do it with over the internet. I am researching.

Then there is something called mail art. Mail as art, essentially. I guess decorating the mail you send out Is in fact considered art. How cool! I love to do that anyway, put rubber stamps, stickers and draw on envelopes. There's a whole world out there!:)

A resource for tatting/cro-tatting.

a picture of cro-tatting from the site 'MaryM's Original Daisy Boullion edging,' referenced in the website below.

You can Google this as easily as myself, but I found a great site that has pictures showing step-by-step how to cro-tat here.

Tatting uses a shuttle to create 'knots' and circles, or tiny picots, and when done over and over can create a beautiful lace that can look similar to a very fine crochet lace piece.

Cro-tat uses a small crochet hook to create the tatting, instead of the usual "shuttle" that tatters normally use.

Tatting is an art, one that you don't hear about as often as knit or crochet. My husband's aunt use to tat constantly, it was her special gift (her hands were always moving and working - constantly) and she made many special gifts for his family, until her death a few years ago when she was in her late 90's.

I would love to learn how to do it, and have noticed that my LYS (local yarn store) does sell shuttles. A few years ago I bought a VHS video on tatting called 'Tatting I - The Basics' by Mildred Clark, brought to you by Victorian Video Productions.

I also bought 'Tatting Beginner Tatting Kit Quick and Easy' (Item number 5050-K) from the Tatsy company, which includes a shuttle with instructions for making an Angel, Photo Frame, Flower, Book Mark, 2 Mini Flowers, 2 Butterflies.

I admit I haven't checked it out yet or haven't delved into the art yet, I have been holding onto it for 'one of these day' (I love needlework, stationary, and art supplies and have probably a lifetime amount of them as I have noticed that many others do as well out there, off my Amazon emails "What do you like to craft" that comes to me, but that is probably another post entirely! It's a SICKNESS! But such a fun one.) but maybe you can still get it on the web or Ebay, if you are interested in learning tatting.

Happiness.

From my online knitting calendar:

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”—Charles Kingsley

Forgive me, but sometimes so few things make me laugh...

The writer(s) at MSN talking about the 'Worst Dressed' at the Golden Globes admit to being 'grumpy' and even catty. Which they surely are, but nobody ever said that wasn't 'entertaining,' at least not me. I must share this, because well, it did make me laugh. This person's writing is a hoot. The picture is truly even funnier after you read the caption.

Golden Globes Undressed! The Worst
By Kat Giantis
Special to MSN Entertainment

Cathouse Call: There are many exclamations a star in haute couture hopes to hear as she arrives on the red carpet, but "Holy cats, has Renée Zellweger been rummaging around in Sharon Stone's medicine cabinet?" isn't one of them. That is, unless she was trying to look like Miss Kitty from "Gunsmoke" after she quietly branched out into the brothel business. The puckered-lipped Oscar winner suffers an epic failure in a crackpot outfit from her longtime go-to designer Carolina Herrara, who definitively proves that sheer black organza over one's unmentionables does not a top make (see Gwyneth "Granny Panties" Paltrow for additional evidence). While Zellweger's trumpet skirt might have been tolerable if paired with something (anything) other than a see-through overlay and a creepy, flesh-colored corset, there's nothing that can overcome her screwball corkscrew updo, which appears to have been styled with an industrial strength bottle of Super Glue and an electric cattle prod. (WireImage.com)

Bono's take on Frank Sinatra ~ from the NYT

See here for an article by Opinion editor Bono (of U2 and the advocacy group One fame) about Frank Sinatra.
The highlight of the article is:

'There’s a voice on the speakers that wakes everyone out of the moment: it’s Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.” His ode to defiance is four decades old this year and everyone sings along for a lifetime of reasons. I am struck by the one
quality his voice lacks: Sentimentality.

Is this knotted fist of a voice a clue to the next year? In the mist of uncertainty in your business life, your love life, your life life, why is Sinatra’s voice such a foghorn — such confidence in nervous times allowing you romance but knocking your rose-tinted glasses off your nose, if you get too carried away.

A call to believability.

A voice that says, “Don’t lie to me now.”

That says, “Baby, if there’s someone else, tell me now.”

Fabulous, not fabulist. Honesty to hang your hat on.'