The Friday 56 -- The Far Traveller

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog or (if you don't have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. * Post a link along with your post back to this blog. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

This week's book is The Far Traveller by Manning Coles. Most of what he wrote were mysteries (or "intrigues", as they were known at the time), bu this is one of a handful of fun -- and funny -- ghost stories he wrote. It was included in an edition of Doubleday Best in Books in the 50s, and I read it frequently growing up. Nearly 20 years I found a copy, complete with dust jacket (where that is now, I have no idea), for next to nothing at a used bookstore in Virginia while visiting my sister. (Yes, I visit bookstores on my vacation, don't you?) Anyway, here's the fifth sentence from page 56:

"Three marks and seventy-five pfennigs."

I have a new shop!

Last night I opened a new shop on Etsy.com to sell my destash items. In keeping with my ladybug theme, it's called Buggies Destash. Right now I just have cross stitch kits I'll never get to and doll dress panels, but I'll be adding excess yarn and fabric and other extraneous crafty things that are taking up space.

I listed one item last night, and three today. Then I went off to work. Imagine my glee when I came home to not one, but two sales! Both the doll panels I'd listed were bought by the same person. I hope she has a little girl who will enjoy them.

The Friday 56 -- Mountain Wild

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog or (if you don't have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. * Post a link along with your post back to this blog. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


This week's book is Mountain Wild by Stacey Kayne. It's a western historical romance I picked up at the library book sale for 50 cents. It was by the computer so I could list it on Bookmooch.

"With that, she took a bite."

Friday Morning

I took my camera when I went out to get the paper. Have a look.

There's a driveway in there somewhere, I swear.

You'd never guess that Dad beat all the snow off the oleander yesterday evening. And at the top of the photo is a live oak branch just waiting to fall into the street. I just hope it doesn't hit a car.

This is the street we generally use to get out of our neighborhood. Hope a lot of the snow has fallen off by this afternoon when I go to work.

Here's what left of a tree in my neighbor's front yard. Luckily the branches fell across the lawn, and not on our garage or their house.

See more snow pix on my flickrpage.

It's Snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We woke up this morning to a world of white. It was coming straight down, lightly but steadily. It thickened up for a while, but when I went out to take pictures it had lightened up a little. Even on the sidewalk it was still just snow, not ice, so walking was easy.

There was no one around -- in 15 minutes I saw exactly two cars go by. It was almost eerily quiet -- no dogs, no people, no traffic. The only thing I heard was a bird high up in a tree.

It's a winter wonderland.

Update: it's snowed for over 15 hours. We have about 6" of snow over the Metroplex, which shatters the old record for this date of 1"+. The streets haven't been too bad since there's been enough traffic to keep it slushy, but tomorrow morning will be a different story.

Our neighbors are trying to clear their driveway -- they couldn't get up the slope tonight. As I was watching Mac use a flat rake to scrape the icy bottom layer, a small branch fell off a tree across the street. My neighbor promptly moved both cars several yards down the street to a treeless spot.

It's Super Bowl Sunday . . . . and I don't care.

Millions of people across the country are preparing to hunker down in front of their tvs tonight to watch the Super Bowl. Some will be having big parties, some will watch with just their families, but all of them will be rooting for the Saints or the Colts, and groaning every time their team gets a penalty.

Me? I don't give a rat's ass about who wins some stupid football game. It was never my favorite sport, and after Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry, it lacked any appeal at all. Okay, if forced to choose I'd watch football over curling (which is about as exciting as watching paint dry), but only if I can turn the sound off.

So tonight while everyone's cheering and groaning and spilling food on the carpet, I'll be under a blanket working on an afghan and watching something from Netflix.

And counting the days until the Olympics.

Aggie Pride Meets a Kitty with a Camera

My latest commission involved a couple of quilt squares for a member of the Dallas County Aggie Moms. Due to various problems, she needed the squares tout de suite, as her contribution to a memory quilt was already late.

On one of the squares she wanted a pair of Aggie boots. She'd found a good photo on Wikipedia, but had no idea how to get them embroidered. I have a digitizing program that will convert artwork to embroidery designs, but no way to remove all the extraneous elements of the photo. My solution? I called on CameraforKitty!

Kitty's a friend of mine on Etsy who goes by many names there, and she's a wizard with Photoshop and a lot more. I sent her the photo of the boots, and she removed the background and the excess reflections with lightning-speed. Thanks to her, I was able to get the embroidery done quickly, and my customer loved the results!

Gig 'em Aggies!

Check out Kitty's other shops: The Jewelry :Ninja and The Plushie Foundry.

Addendum: Blogger is having issues, so I was unable to post pix of the squares. Here are the links to them on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladybuggz/4274100411/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladybuggz/4269626453/.