boogaj

Back to Writing?

Inspired by Claudia, I've decided to dust off this old blog and commit to writing on a regular basis. We'll see how this goes.

I started this blog way back in 2002 when Maddie was nearly 2 years old and I was finally finding a little free time for knitting and crafting again after the craziness of the whole baby thing. Over the years it morphed into a lot of things and I started a lot of side projects on the internet (including Black Sheep Bags, my podcast, the Pincushion Challenge, The Chocolate Blog, and many more.) 

At this point, I think I need to land in one place and write about whatever I'm obsessed with at the moment. (And I often become obsessed with things -- it's my nature.) 

If you still visit my website -- Hi! Glad you stuck around. I hope to get re-acquainted with you again!

(Oh, the photo? That's a pile of my dish scrubbies. Free pattern at Ravelry and on the blog.)

The Summer of Walking -- Podcast Recommendations Needed!

(This photo has nothing to do with this post, but I don't like photoless posts -- so there you go.)

With Maddie in Summer Camp for the months of June and July, my schedule is completely disrupted.  Here's how things go for most of the year:  Maddie and I wake up when we wake up -- usually between 7:30 and 8:00.  Maddie eats breakfast and plays/watches TV while I work out and shower.  School runs from 10 - 1.  Then lunch, work (me) and homework (Maddie) plus free time, errands, etc. until dinner.

Now we are dragging our sorry selves out of bed at 7am.  Neither Maddie nor I are morning people, so this is quite a feat.  Then we eat breakfast, get ready and I take her to camp.  This has screwed up my work out schedule, so I've given up on the Pilates/Yoga I usually do and started walking after I drop her off. 

This new routine has been quite enjoyable (after the initial shock -- I do not like changes in my schedule), and I've started listening to podcasts again. 

Here's my question -- what podcasts do you like?  I walk for between 30 - 60 minutes, so I am quickly burning through the podcasts I have on my iPhone.  Please give me suggestions.

Two New Quilt Blocks & a note about Stitch-Cast

Two new quilt blocks in the Flickr set.

And I'm thinking of starting to record some new episodes of Stitch-Cast now that I have my crafting mojo back. I'll probably go with a bit looser format -- talking about whatever strikes my fancy each week -- but I'd love to hear any show ideas you have. Is there a craft that you want to know more about? I'm willing to go find out about it for you! Just leave me a comment or email me (email link is up at the top of the right hand sidebar.

Knitting Video Podcast

Don't worry -- *I* haven't started another podcast!  But I did want to share a new podcast with you.  There are a lot of knitting podcasts out there, but this is the first *video* knitting podcast I have seen.  It's caleed Let's Knit2gether and I just watched the first episode.  I like it because you can see the techniques she's describing -- very cool!  She talks about knitting socks on one and two circs and even show you how to cast on if you want to knit 2 socks on 2 circs.  I like it!

Confessions of a Work at Home Mom -- episode 4

I had to upload my pic for iTunes for Confessions of a Work at Home Mom, so I figured I might as well let you know that episode 4 is up.

Oops -- it needed to be a .jpg, not a gif. Grrrr. . . .

An update. . .

I did another episode of Confessions of a Work at Home Mom and I'm now in iTunes too.

Confessions of a Work at Home Mom

I started *another* podcast for fun. . .
Confessions of a Work at Home Mom.

Of Books and Potholders

I haven't been feeling all that well, so I haven't done a lot of crafting lately. I did start Maddie's second sock during some traveling to and from My Mother-in-law's this past weekend, but that's not very exciting, is it? So if you want to see something interesting, pop on over to Homeschooling Maddie and check out Maddie's adventures with dyeing and weaving on a potholder loom.

And if it's books that you are interested in, pop on over to Booga Talk to hear Pete and I talk about the books we are reading (me ~ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Pete ~ Sister Carrie), have read and want to read. We also have a book give away in the works. Check it out!

Booga Talk has changed!

What do Pete & I know about?  Books.  So, that's what we'll be talking about on Booga Talk from now on.  Go check it out.  I think you'll like it better than our first two show.  We read -- a lot -- so we can really talk about books. 

Since we spent Tuesday night recording the episode, I spent last night editing the episode and I spent this morning doing all the other stuff (converting the file, uploading it, putting up the show notes and all that good stuff. . .) I have no crafting to talk about. 

Any free time I had yesterday was spent on the Knitting Blogs Web Ring -- see what I do for you people?!?!?!  (Hand draped dramatically across forehead. . . )  So go check out all the new sites I added to the ring!

Booga Talk!

Okay, Pete and I have been thinking about doing a podcast for awhile now and we finally got our acts together and did it.  It has nothing to do with crafting.  Basically we sit in bed and chat about. . . stuff. . . current events (we are liberals -- you have been warned!), our local weathermen and their hijinks, and this week we talk about Quizno's -- stuff, I tell ya!  I created a website so that iTunes will eventually pick up our feed.  The podcast and blog are called Booga Talk.  And here's the first episode -- "Lions and Lightning and Sandwiches, Oh My!"

What do you think?

Pete gets a flat

Want to hear what Pete sounds like? All is revealed on today's Quirky Nomads. (I think you'll like the tale he tells -- he's a writer. Really, he's much better than me at this stuff.)

I'm on Quirky Nomads!

Okay, I really love Quirky Nomads and listen pretty much every day if I can. But the questions? Well, I didn't really think I would ever have anything that was interesting to say in response to any of the questions. Then she asked. . . "Tell us about a job you’ve loved, a job you hated, a job where something strange happened. You could have been babysitting at fifteen, or running a multinational corporation. As long as it was a job, it counts." And I instantly picked up the mic and started talking.

Want to hear what I had to say? Pop on over to QN and give it a listen!

Swamped

I've been working long hours trying to get caught up on wholesale pattern orders for BSB before I leave for MS&W on Thursday, so blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside.  I did a mini review of the new issues of MagKnits & The AntiCraft over at whip up yesterday, but that's about it. 

I did want to tell you that while working I have been listening to some new (to me) podcasts.  Here they are:

• Geek.Farm.Life -- Love this one so much that I've been listening to all the old episodes!
• craftypod -- dual interview with CraftSanity was very good!
• Quirky Nomads -- Okay, I'm probably the last person to start listening to this podcast.  You all already listen to Sage, right??

Time to go stock up on provisions (read frozen dinners) for Pete & Maddie and do 100 other errands!  Really, I do craft -- maybe I'll even start that quilt one of these days.

New Stitch-Cast Episode!

I just uploaded Episode 3 of Stitch-Cast!

Episode 2 up at Stitch-Cast!

I just uploaded Episode 2 over at Stitch-Cast! It's mostly about dyes and dyeing. Let me know what you think!

Working on Episode 2!

I recorded episode two yesterday afternoon and I've been working on editing it and adding some music samples in little bits of free time today.  I'm going to let Pete take a listen to make sure I didn't miss anything and then I'll put it out there.  I also tried to make the Stitch-Cast site a little prettier this week. 

Today was a big day for Maddie.  The annual Easter Egg Hunt!

Every year they have a nice egg hunt in my Mom's neighborhood for the kids and grandkids.  All very friendly and fair.  It was a little chilly, but bright and sunny!

We also went out to the "country" to see my Mom's new cottage on the river and visited an old farm town.  Look at these cool Lustron fronted shops:

At least I think they're Lustron.  (Don't know what Lustron is?  There's info here and here of course.)

So that was our day.  Hopefully the second episode of Stitch-Cast will be up tomorrow!

I'm in iTunes

First of all, I'm in iTunes! (It's not pretty though -- I updated my feed trying to fix that, but not sure if it took. iTunes seems to take *forever* to refresh.)

And today I sewed the binding on my quilt!! I have to hand sew it onto the back, so no photos yet. Quite exciting -- this means it is nearly a real quilt! If tou want to see a real actual quilt, look here.

Stitch-Cast.com (my podcast)

My website is by no means all pretty yet. And I don't have a show yet. But I do have a promo and a url. So if you want. . . you can go over to www.stitch-cast.com and listen to the promo and let me know what you think!

Podcasting to commence soon!

Well, I got the mic working and I have a domain name (yeah!) I could not for the life of me come up with a good name, so thank goodness for Pete. All will be revealed soon!

Me -- podcasting?

Pete & I have been talking about podcasting for awhile. He has a very good speaking voice and is quite witty (please don't tell him I told you that) so I think he would be a great podcaster. And you know if there is a microphone in the house I'll have to give it a go!

Fry's -- here we come!

What do you think?

Mad dash!

It's been a bit of a mad dash around here today.  Thank goodness Pete had today off!

First, I wanted to get together a post for whip up on French monochromatic cross-stitch designs.  I have the design I included in the post over there  coming from Stitching Bits and Bobs.  Bobbie, the owner, has been a peach!  I had to special order the thread because it takes a *ton* of the same color (*duh*) which had to be dyed up all in the same lot.  I'm hoping to get everything to start on it in the next week!

I also had to get all the fabric for my quilting class washed and pressed today.  It's in the washer on *super* gentle cycle as we speak. 

The rest of the morning has been taken up with work (lots of orders for Black Sheep Bags since I was featured in an article in CNA Magazine!)  This did give me time to get caught up on the crafting podcasts though.  Here's some new ones (episodes) I listened to:

• About Time -- Great interview with the Yarn Harlot.
• KnitCast -- Marie's 1st Anniversary show with lots of guests!
• Cast On -- Brenda's latest episode with some interesting ideas on advertising and podcasting.
• FiberCast -- New to me.  Not really about knitting -- this podcast is more about spinning and fiberarts in general.  Great episode with info on raising Angora bunnies.

So you see. . . it's been a busy day.  And I still have a quilting class ahead of me!

And Liz, you have *completely* changed my mind about CVM!!  I am in love and will not be happy until I have a whole mess of CVM in my hot little hands.  I think Theresa & I will be combing MS&W this year for this lovely fiber.  I'm now thinking that the dyeing process must not have been kind to the CVM I had, because the lovely chocolate brown stuff you sent was so soft and springy that we could hardly believe it!  Thanks again!  We are having a lot of fun trying out these new fibers and were ooohing and aaahing as we fondled each one. 

New Knitting Podcast!

There's a new knitting podcast! It's called Pointy Sticks and here's episode 1. This podcast comes to us from Christine over at Big Pink Cookie.

I just listened to it and I thought it was great! Go check it out!

Stitch 'n Bitch

I really enjoyed Brenda's take on the whole Stitch 'n Bitch controversy.  Go listen to her latest podcast!

Booga Bag on a podcast?!?

Thanks goes out to Chris for letting me know that the Booga Bag was featured on Episode 3 of Knitting News Cast.  I guess it came out way back in December, but I had no idea until today!  I told you that I was podcast unsavvy!

Thanks for featuring my little pattern Rhonda!