stitchalong — Page 7

My Blog Re-Design & Square #10

March 10, 2010 at 8:13 am by Claudia

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my newly designed blog!

A while back, I started enlarging my photos. I sought the advice of a few people, among them Cindy of My Romantic Home. Because of the limitations of the Blogger template I was using, I could only enlarge photos vertically (portrait.) That was fine for a while but sometimes I wanted to shoot horizontally (landscape) and in the course of cropping and trying to adjust the size for the template I would lose part of the photo. Frustrated by the same thing, Cindy recently redesigned her blog so that the width of the posting area is greater, allowing space for either size photo. She inspired me.

I loved the look of my blog. That was what held me back. (Change is hard sometimes, isn’t it?) But to be perfectly honest, though I loved the free background, I didn’t like running into it elsewhere in blogland. I wanted my-very-own-mine-only look. I also loved the sidebar labels, signature and blog button Mandy created for me. I wanted to keep them. I finally bit the bullet and asked Amber of Sprinkles on Top if she could design a new template, background and banner. She did. I am over-the-moon about this new look! Amber captured exactly what I was looking for. She is so good at what she does and is a joy to work with.

If you’re thinking of a re-design, visit Amber’s website. She is reasonably priced and has several different packages available. Amber has designed Cindy’s blog, Elyse’s blog and many, many others. Thank you, thank you, Amber!

Square #10:

(a landscape size photo)

Pardon any white dog hairs you might see. They are part of living with a white dog that has hair as silky and fine as a cat’s. I must admit that I was stumped for a while yesterday. It took a while for a bit of ‘square inspiration’ to hit me on the head. And I have 29 to go.

Have a great day.

Thoughts on Sleep, a Book, Square #9

March 9, 2010 at 9:29 am by Claudia

I found this little treasure the other day just sitting in a corner in one of our local antique shops. It’s in perfect condition for a book published in 1901. I love old books – such care was taken with the illustrations and design. “Lyrics of Love of Hearth & Home and Field and Garden” – sounds tailor-made for a nester like myself.

Sigh.

Square #9:

A picket fence covered with climbing roses. The outline is a bit wonky because I was racing to finish before Antiques Roadshow started. However, it never started because PBS had some other show on in its place. Bad PBS. We like our Monday night schedule of the Roadshow and 24. As it was, we sat on the sofa listening to a documentary about the Warner brothers (of movie studio fame) and fell asleep. At 9:05, I woke in a panic – “24!!! – Turn the channel!!” We made it in time.

This is when I fear we are getting old. Every evening lately we both doze off for a bit while watching the tube. Am I becoming my grandmother? How come I can sleep so easily in front of the television and then lie awake when it is time to actually sleep in my bed?

The weather has been so lovely the last few days – temperatures in the high 40’s and low 50’s and sun. Glorious sun. Everyone is infected with spring fever. I have to do some text work on Taming of the Shrewtoday. For those of you who asked, work on the dollhouse has been put on hold as I prepare for my work in San Diego which starts mid-April. I also have to ready the garden and do all sorts of things around the house as I will be leaving it in my husband’s care for 10 weeks. I love him, you understand, but he’s not me. I will have to leave detailed instructions for him. He will do his best. The rest is out of my control. Gulp.

McCoy Monday & Square #8

March 8, 2010 at 7:30 am by Claudia

Hello and welcome to my little Monday homage to McCoy Pottery. Today’s piece is a hanging planter. If you look closely at the left side of the pot, you’ll see a groove going all the way down the side. There are a total of 3 grooves on the planter. A chain or some other kind of holder fit snugly in the grooves and that’s how the planter was hung. I love the leaf pattern on this particular piece. I took a photo of the bottom to show you the McCoy mark. This is the only time I’ve seen it separated – with Mc on one side and Coy on the other.

You can also see where the 3 grooves meet. This little beauty resides on a little shelf in our sideboard – right by the front door – and we keep the key to our clock in it.