Category Archives: Family & Friends

One of my e-buds is a librarian. Today, she sent me updates on her web-based projects. There is some great stuff here!

“For Veterans Looking for Work” from my “Newton’s Quick Job Search” Blog

http://jobsearchchatter.wordpress.com/

“Genealogy and Family History” (LibGuide)

http://guides.newtonfreelibrary.net/content.php?pid=209282&hs=a

“Finding Family Members Who Fought In World War II” (LibGuide)

http://guides.newtonfreelibrary.net/content.php?pid=324323&hs=a

“The Curious Genealogist” blog with a current posting about the above.

http://thecuriousgenealogist.wordpress.com/

I finished up another UFO! (Quilt speak for UnFinished Object.) I have about ten more to go, oy. But this one is a special cause for celebration, since it is my gift to Dearest for Everything 2012. Since I didn’t finish up Christmas until February, I am feeling Very Cocky about being all done with 3 holidays that haven’t even happened yet. Ha!

Click on graphic to embiggen.

Just to let everybody know; my computer crashed yesterday in the middle of doing the Grudge. My tech guy came over this afternoon and spent two hours struggling mightily to fix it. He has it working now,but he said the hard drive was wearing out since  the machine is so old. So if I disappear for awhile it will be because I’m trying to figure out how to pay for a new CPU. Until then,I’m holding my breath and crossing my fingers,which makes it damn hard to type.

I got this in my daily email from jewelrymakingdaily@interweave.com. It just tickled my fancy, so I thought I’d share.

This month I’ve officially been a southwest Louisiana resident for one year. What a year! The music, the food, the people, the environment–sometimes it feels like being in a different country, and I just love it. I’ve slowly picked up the vital terminology, such as “cher” for a term of endearment for a loved one, “sha” when you see something incredibly sweet or precious, the French “oh, mais non!” when something simply won’t do, and “lagniappe” for a little something extra.

The idea of lagniappe (pronounced LAN-yap) has been around for centuries. Mark Twain writes (hilariously, of course) about learning the “limber, expressive, handy word” lagniappe in his 1883 book Life on the Mississippi: “We picked up one excellent word-a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get. . . . We discovered it [in] a column [in] the Picayune the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth.”

Twain writes that when a child (or an adult, even) buys something in a shop, the typical response is “give me something for lagniappe,” to which the shopkeeper tosses in a little something extra–an extra piece of candy, or bread, or whatnot, “gratis, for good measure.”

Lagniappe isn’t just an extra thing, though; it can be added compliment, affection, or feeling. Twain continues, “When you are invited to drink, and this does occur now and then in New Orleans-and you say, ‘What, again?–no, I’ve had enough;’ the other party says, ‘But just this one time more–this is for lagniappe.’ When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high, and sees by the young lady’s countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts his ‘I beg pardon–no harm intended,’ into the briefer form of ‘Oh, that’s for lagniappe.'”

I’ve become so enamored by the sweet idea of lagniappe–especially during a time when everyone is cutting back instead of giving–that I try to carry it with me everywhere I go and expand the idea to every part of life. It even applies to jewelry design.

I might have lost you just then–but hang with me. Within a single jewelry design, sometimes it’s that little something extra–the small contrasting punch of color, a bit of sparkle, some soft fibers or ribbons–that brings a piece full circle and completes the design. It’s hard to describe it, but you’ve all felt that little click when your jewelry design just comes together. You know it when you see it.

When designing a piece of jewelry, sometimes it takes some experimenting to discover just what the lagniappe will be, but no piece is complete without it. It could be ribbon that softens a wire or beaded jewelry design, a shape that adds balance to the whole piece, or a pop of color that draws your eye into the details of the design. Even the simplest jewelry designs have it, and sometimes there’s more than one.

For me, the little extra touch that brings my jewelry designs together recently is color, and that is most often achieved by the addition of ribbon or other fibers. When I participated in the Bead Soup Blog Party last fall, my necklace had three lagniappe jewelry design elements in it: the addition of a short piece of ribbon knotted onto it, a surprising punch of red among all the green, gold, and blue hues; and the idea of four focal pieces that allowed the wearer to choose from “four fronts.”

Sometimes the lagniappe is the final element that you test in your design when you finally know it’s right, or it could be the element that a friend points out specifically when commenting on one of your jewelry designs–something like, “Oh cher, I like that necklace! I love the bit of blue ribbon,” or “Sha! Look at that cute little bird on your bracelet!” That’s how you know your jewelry design is finished, with lagniappe!

By Tammy Jones, editor of Jewelry Making Daily

The lagniappe on this piece was the brown glass leaf.

Chrissy Originals: http://www.chrissyoriginals.com/ooh_rah.html

Click on graphic to embiggen.

One of the ways I keep sane when my kids are in a war zone is making stuff to give them. These are the seasonal wall-hangings for the current denizens of places I don’t like to think about. They’re 2 feet by 4 feet more or less.

They decided to put their seasonal hangings in the dining room. They are terrific cooks and love to entertain. He is a whiz with the grill and made us the most moist and delicious Thanksgiving turkey I’ve ever eaten! She puts a lot of effort and creativity into making their home beautiful and welcoming. Her specialty is fresh fruit and vegetable “bouquets” … fancy-cut stuff on sticks arranged in pretty flower pots. They’re so fun AND delicious!

The two wall-hangings on the left began with pre-printed panels. Epiphany has less quilting, but lots of beading you can’t see very well. Spring has a lot of quilting, but no beading. I used to do stained glass back when I could still stand for long periods of time. I miss it, so this fabric panel just called out to me. I quilted all the black lines with a fancy zig-zagging stitch that caused a neat puckering you can’t see that imitated the texture of the glass I would have chosen if I had made this from glass.

Autumn is made of 4″ by 4″ scrappy patches, using fabrics left over from previous projects. I went with a kind of Amish thing with the stark black background and tried to suggest the change from harvest to first frost with the colors. The backing and binding fabric was a very special find. The background is his favorite team’s color and the overall line drawing is red roses, which she carried in their wedding. After it was all done, I quilted falling leaves on it with a variegated yellow-orange-red thread.

These are so much prettier in person. You can see some details if you zoom in, but mostly, photos just don’t capture the texture and dimensionality that makes quilts so beautiful.

Click on graphic to embiggen.

Click on graphics to embiggen.

One of my repeatable fun projects is quilted seasonal wall-hanging for the kids’ home decor. They’re hung on a curtain rod through a fabric sleeve, so are really easy to swap out. Each of the kids has her own size, which really had most to do with what size the first one I did for them turned out. But now that they have committed wall space slash curtain rod for that size, the repeats for each household match.

The latest is nearly done. It’s only the second for Casa Buzz. The first celebrated Mama Buzz’s visit to The Netherlands and is pictured @ http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2868441020056011884TAOdZP. The patches for the window and door of the windmill are photos I printed on fabric and sewed in. The window is a photo of Mama Buzz at the Keukenhof. The door is a photo she took there of the Muscari River, which is probably the most famous flower feature in the park.

Mama Buzz collects miniature snow globes and loves frogs and the 12 Days of Christmas song, so when I found Twelve Days of Christmas done in frogs and the first one had a snow globe, I HAD to get it for her! The tree etc. is all my design. You may recognize the froggy panels and … yes … I really have been working on this project since my earliest days at Hillbuzz. Sigh. People kept having BABIES that needed quilts! What could I do? LOL

Chrissy’s Site Bites: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2530058500056011884qSnTAA

The other fun project I want to brag on today is my 90-gallon fish tank rehab project. It took us months to get through all the steps, which are recounted in my album “Habitats for Piscinity” @ http://pets.webshots.com/album/580643604eipFTd, along with some of my past fish-keeping projects. I can’t do the hobby like I used to, but I just couldn’t bear to not have my pride and joy in the living room where I can lay on the couch and just mellow out with the fish.

Feeding is easy, but it’s been challenging to figure out how to manage the regular algae removal, water changes and filter cleaning since my heart attack. This latest decor made a big difference. It’s not as glamorous as the one I tried in 2005 @ http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2963684770056011884NzXIgf, but it’s a lot prettier AND easier to maintain than the minimalist one I tried next @ http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2132944310056011884sWRhqO.

Chrissy’s Site Bites: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2172993390056011884ZncnHw

I’ve been wanting to get Mr T sitting more securely than he was on my bogus temporary bunch of granite countertop scraps. He needs to be up off my desk for ventilation and to make his monitor more comfortable for my neck.

Also Dearest got me an external hard drive big enough to keep all of Mr. T’s data backed up. It needed a home on my desk where it would be secure and easy to access.

Yesterday, I had an Ah Ha! moment and built this.

I cut out one end of the box and reinforced it with cardboard strips glued inside, then glued fabric to the outside to make it really sturdy and purdy. I really like how the colors coordinate. Anybody recognize the fabric? 🙂

I backed up ALL my files YAY! and when it was done, the external hd and its rolled-up cords tucked nicely together in the box where they are safe AND visible so I won’t forget to do regular updates to my backups.

I decided to call the external hard drive “Locke.” It’s a play on words  … the unit is a Seagate. A lock in a canal is a seagate, get it? I added the -e to give a nod to John Locke whose writings influenced our Founding Fathers.

(The keyboard I use is on a slide out tray under my desk top.)

Dearest just blessed me with his latest batch of photos. Here are my three faves.