Pride....

We all have pride. Maybe for our kids accomplishments, our mate's skills or our co-workers/student's growth. But do we take pride in ourselves? Do we even think about it? Confession: I don't! Women generally push themselves aside to dote on and take pride in others.

I'm of the school that anybody can do what I do. No big deal. If you can read, you can do it. Well, maybe not so much!
Some of my creations, take 7 minutes...who can't do that? Some go on for hours and yet again, anyone can do it. I decided to challenge myself a bit and try some things I usually avoid. With my yarn journeys I usually seek out gorgeous yarns and let them shine so the patterns are fairly simple and give way to the beauty of the thread. I have quite a stash of yarn (not surprisingly!) and found a huge skein of red worsted and another in white, hidden in one of my 7 bins. They yelled "Candy Canes" to me and I began a search for an appropriate item to make. In a stitch book I found one that seemed a bit challenging but the sample was done with 2 muted tones and you really couldn't see the end result. What to make with it? I took the red and white and started on what I thought might be a long scarf. I subsequently decided to shorten it to a scarflette with buttons (of course!) and here's the result. Can anyone do it? Probably, but I did it and I'm proud! Not a bad feeling at all!

A friend is..............

It really is amazing how you 'meet' people online, develop a relationship, listen to their rants or pleasures, sometimes become quite close and yet, if they rang your doorbell you would definitely say "Who are you?".

I think I have a new friend in Karen of Le Petit Poulailler especially with this wonderful post on her blog. What sweet memories it evokes! Notice the sub-title on Karen's blog...It's All About The Chickens.

She has several wonderful shops such as Three French Hens ,Le Petit Poulailler and The Little Chicken Coop
.
Go and visit, be charmed by her items, browse and buy but do tell her that it is all about the buttons AND the chickens!
Photo courtesy of Three French
Hens

Just ask....

Manners? Have any? Use them?
A friend just called quite upset about a blog post that her husband stumbled upon (no, not "Stumble Upon"!). He is an antiques dealer within a very specific genre. In fact, it is true to say, he is one of the world's foremost authorities in this area. A blogger decided to do a post about this type of item (yes, I'm being intentionally vague) and lifted about 10 photos to use in the article. Seven of those photos were his items and with the item title there was a link back. It was a fairly accurate post BUT there was no mention of his name and certainly no credit to him. He has written two "bibles' on the subject and yet with all this blogger's "research", not a word.
Now what's so bad, you are asking? He got his photos on another site and will possibly get interest and/or sales from it. It should be the owner's preference and decision to be associated with another venue or not. As an editor for www.indiesmiles.com, I seek photos for articles. After almost a year, I have never been refused BUT almost to a person the response includes "Thank you for asking".
Don't take...ask! It's good manners.
Now you'd love me to link to my friend's shop or put his name in my tags so you can figure it out but I'm not because I didn't ask! But please consider this when you are writing your own articles or blog or whatever. It's good manners so just do it.
And if anyone asks you what time it is, you can say "Time For Watermelon"...now really what other photo could I have used with this rant?!