Bernard Pivot's Questionnaire

Of course, yesterday's list led me to think about: What if if was famous enough to be interviewed by James Lipton? How would I answer Bernard Pivot's questionnaire? What is your favorite word? Columbian (with a Spanish accent….) [I think it's something to do with the vowel sounds....] What is your least favorite word? ERROR What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]? colors What turns you off? loud voices What is your favorite curse word? Shoot - (a former roommate used to respond "bang" every time I said it….) and I also use the less familyfriendly version more than I should… What sound or noise do you love? the laughter of a 1-year-old (they never fake it…) What sound or noise do you hate? whining (dogs or people) What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? workshop teacher or tour guide What profession would you not like to do? dressing as an animal and standing on the street corner with flyers or putting handles on toasters If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Hey Hey Hey!! Good to see you!! Let's get this party started!!!"

Random things...

Jeni tagged me on Facebook today - telling me 25 random things about herself and the plan is you then turn around and tag 25 people with 25 random things about yourself. Now, I love Jeni, so I responded to her by email. But I don't like Facebook. It wants to know wayyy to much about me and my life and it wants to share it with everyone else on Facebook. And it must have 1000 ways to use up my time.

But I did like the 25 random things and they were pretty random - it was a lot harder than it seems. It was hard to be random because one thought just naturally leads to another. But this is what I came up with without thinking too hard:

I guess the 1st random thing is that I don't like Facebook.

2. I love my husband an immeasurable amount and wished we could spend more time together.

3.Winning the lottery would be nice, so we could travel more and stay home when we wanted to.

4. I have no favorite color because choosing one would hurt the feelings of all of the other colors (though, as a child, I tended to wear out my Midnight Blue first).

5. SpongeBob is kinda creepy.

6. I love doing hand embroidery. If I could only do one fiber art, that would be it.

7. Venice is my favoirte city on this planet.

8. I would like to live long enough to find out we are not the only intelligent (sentient? sapient?) creatures in existence, just so I could see the faces on some very uptight people.

9. I resent people who think they can use up your time for their errands just because you are home and "not doing anything".

10. I think my grandchildren are a gift from God because I make a better Grandmother than I would have ever made a Mother (I would have been too protective...genetics will out.)

11. I secretly like country music...a lot.

12. I loathe Romeo and Juliet in all it's permutations.

13. I would love to learn to speak and read Chinese.

14. Saying "no" to groups you belong to is a skill and I need to practice it more.

15. Swimming in water where you can't see your feet is not acceptable.

16. One of the idea for a series for my textile art is called "The Beautiful Side of Ugly Things" and incorporates things seen through microscopes (electron and otherwise) - have you ever seen e coli ? It's actually pretty striking and doesn't look like it would kill you.

17. Digital photography is fabulous. It is much appreciated that I don't have to pay to develop 20+ rolls of film at the time.

18. My girl points are extremely high when it comes to purses.

19. I make lace, but I don't wear it.

20. I make dolls, but I don't play with them.

21. I'v noticed that I'm beginning to look like the pre-Columbian goddess figures. Well - at least it's a goddess, though I would have preferred Athena or some other European deity.

22. I expect to always share my personal space with a dog. 23. My husband probably doesn't have the same expectation as expressed in #22.

24. I would wear jeans every day if it was allowed.

25. I keep a list of phrases that will clue you in that a movie is not worth your time to watch ("bloody remake...", "starring [any] Busey", "lackluster performances" etc. etc.) - I expect to publish this list at some future date for the good of anyone who reads it.

26. I don't like following all the rules.

The way of today....

This is today's sign for everyone in our area... and this is everyone else who felt they just HAD to be at work this morning (not including my husband)...personally, I could have used a day at home, but if Mr. Must Go to Work is willing to drive, I'm willing to ride... so we averaged about 21 mph and I still made it to work before 8:00 a.m....sigh... this was the patio last night...and then again this morning... that's not snow, that's ice. all ice. and the roads were just solid ice.

Now - I know that those of you who have to cope with real Winter are laughing at us...go ahead...but this sort of thing doesn't last long - it should all be gone this afternoon...and it will feel like Spring again in a couple of days...so, go ahead and laugh. We'll have Spring-like weather while you're still plowing your roadways...and who will be laughing then?

Another Workshop Saturday!

Another Saturday- another workshop! Woo-Hoo! I'm having some fun!!! This workshop was taught by Ginny Eckley

- I took her dyeing workshop in Houston....this time we were using SetaColor Paints - we practiced on a printed cloth just to see how the paint worked, and then we traced a pattern with resist and painted in the spaces...so here's both my practice piece and the beginnings of my first fish (we did two, on different kinds of fabric) - there were other patterns to choose from, but I liked the fish best - will post pictures of them after I take pictures of the pieces with the backgrounds added and I make them into pillows....

Just like coloring! It was great.

Also - two of the photographs I took down in Houston were published in Quilting Arts on the Editor's page - how cool is that?

Attention All Heralds!

Amazingly enough, you can be married to a man for 15 years and he'll still surprise you... I can now officially say that Dave has joined us in the 21st century: he maintains the website; he CARRIES A CELLPHONE; and he has his own blog (http://blog.appletonstudios.com)! Of the three, the cellphone still astounds me the most, but now he can write tidbits about heraldry to share with all of his heraldic friends (and there are a lot of them out there!). So...attention all heralds: get over there and become a follower! And, I suspect, the heraldically-themed scrapbooks I have in the works will be given to him to post there, so stay tuned...but feel free to stop back by here to catch up on our travels and my art and me... He also surprised me by going through all of the video tapes and history books in the library and thinning them out and I would have sworn he would never let them go...ah well...I'm delighted to have been wrong! So now the library looks better than ever. I can hardly wait to get rid of the video cabinets (did I mention they were empty?) and have less furniture in that small space and replace the one holding the lamp with a proper library table. Now the only issue - getting the 20 boxes of books and video tapes in the van to take to Half-Price Books...

A New Era

I don't usually post about politics, but today is a day that makes me very proud to be an American and I am very grateful that I lived long enough to see this day. Maybe we won't emigrate to Canada after all....

Workshop Saturday

I was fortunate to be able to take a workshop from Deborah Boschert last Saturday (here I am working very diligently on my series...occupying the entire space I'm given, as usual...). It was really nice - very relaxing, no pressure, no rules. And it had nothing to do with the accounting spreadsheet at work I've been trying to balance all week! You can see more of Deborah's work on her site, http://www.deborahsstudio.com/

The idea is, instead of working on one piece, work on a series of related pieces...take a shape or two from five or six different materials and use basically the same materials in each of them...no real rules...just basic design concepts...and what I learned from all of this? Even starting out with a geometric shape (the circle...I had candy wrappers I wanted to use...) I still ended up with a landscape/object type of piece. It just looked right to me. Dang. I thought sure I'd end up with a lovely geometric that looked like nothing in particular. Guess it just wasn't that kind of day.

It was a lot of fun and I'll post pictures of the pieces when they are finished - they may only be 6"x6", but (on the theory that more is more) I have a lot of embroidery to do on them...can't have my trees looking like artichokes!

The class was small (I think there were only ten of us) but that was nice, too - large classes sometimes get too loud - but we were all very focused and, with the exception of only one lady who never stopped talking, it was very relaxing. And Deborah is soooo nice. Not a negative word from her all day (and there were times when I was amazed by her patience) - she always found something positive and encouraging to say. A very admirable quality in a person.

Next weekend I'm taking another workshop with Ginny Eckley - I took one of her classes in Houston and had a blast - it will be especially fun since a lot of my friends are also taking the workshop. In this class, only two of my fiber pals (besides Deborah) were there (Sherrie and Tonya). Here are the pictures from the workshop....

Deborah....

Sherrie....

and Tonya...

Latest Grandson - Welcome Jaxon!

We'd like to give a BIG HUG&KISS WELCOME to Jaxon John Bradley Appleton. He was born Monday, January 12th at 5:26 PM. He weighs 8 lbs 7 oz, and is 21 inches long. Congratulations Joe and Steph! Beautiful!! These are the times we wish we weren't so far away...I guess we'll just have to go back to Utah to have an updated family picture made!