Pardon me if I wince.
There’s a real corker of a storm snapping, pounding and snarling outside the studio, so I am somewhat distracted by the thunder, lightning and rain pounding down.
Rain. Sigh.
This is soooooo much the wrong time for rain…. my beloved husband has been watching the sky like a hawk, and finally took an educated chance on cutting the hay in the big field.
The weather folks ~promised~ 2 weeks of no rain.
So, he cut the big field, and now,
the hay is laying down, getting ‘washed’.
Sigh.  This is ~not~ a good thing.
That’s part of the ’squishie-ness’ of today in the …read more

Woohoo!

A couple of months ago, I was ecstatic to have won a Flip camera in a blogging contest on b5.
Well…. it’s taken almost 2 months for the camera to get here… but….
Ding Dong!
The doorbell rang today….. and
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Look what was sitting between the doors!

Open the box….

The batteries go in WHERE? and HOW?!
ahhhhhhhhhhhh…. okay…..
get set up and start shooting…..

Oh…. duh….. I have it set up so it’s shooting upside down. phoo……..
alrighty…. learning curve…..
:O)   Happy Dancing!  and no no no…. no videos of happy dancing!
Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay Copyright

 Yesterday was Canada Day…. which was a holiday for lots of people, but not for me.
It   was one of ~those~ days. The weather was glorious. It wasn’t the weather that made the day challenging.
It was that my computer and I were locked in mortal combat.
Oi vey!
I needed to update my website: My website
I wanted to add the new crocheted belts book, and to add this crochet hook to the Crochet page

But….the computer kept hanging. erg.
AND THEN! I thought… okay, I obviously need a cuppa tea.
Wrong choice. The cat leapt up at me just as I was …read more

A new little video  camera is on it’s way to our house.
So! I’ll be able to shoot video tutorials.
I have posted a new poll, because I’d like to know which topics you’d like video tutorials of.
You can vote in the poll, or just post me a comment or send me a note.
To see the poll, you need to move your cursor over to the right and scroll down a little.
Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay 

I am doing a H U G E happy dance right now!
b5 media, the wunnerful folks that I blog for, had a contest for their bloggers.
And I won one of the prizes!
(Aiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee -Noreen runs screaming from the room in total delight and jubilation) 
It’s a little  ‘Flip’ video camera!  Aiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee  I am so excited!
D’ya know what this means? Aiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee
VIDEO TUTORIALS!!!!!! 
LOts and lots and loTS of
VIDEO TUTORIALS!!!!!!
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
So, as soon as it arrives…. I’ll start working on those
VIDEO TUTORIALS!!!!!!
I’ve had all kinds of requests for tutorials for Lily Speed o Weave instructions, and for tatting….. and spool knitting and …read more

Our lives are never boring.
This evening, our son’s close friend and his beloved came out to the farm to pick up some stuff for a film they are shooting.
They were weary from racing around the city, finding props and costumes.  I asked them what they still needed, and they reeled off a list of things they needed for the Gypsy fortune teller in the film.
Piece of cake! We rummaged around the studio, and in just a few minutes, I had set them up with the costume and props for the Gypsy.  (I wonder why that was so easy? ahem).
Here’s darling …read more

Almost everyone in North America is getting hit with some kind of wicked weather right now.
We’re in the thick of an evil cold spell.  We have just come through one of the worst blizzards we remember.  (and that’s saying a lot!)
The wind chill is -50
Yes….
-50
that’s almost incomprehensible. 
Here’s what the windows of the studio look like:

The snowdrifts have filled the yard and swept right up to the top of the studio windows.

Luckily, the blizzard pushed warm weather ahead of it on Saturday, so we spent the day cutting wood and hauling it into the studio.
This is what the inside of …read more

I am making a doll for my beloved mother-in-law.
It’s a ‘memory’ doll, and I am making it in the hope of bringing comfort to Mum as she struggles with the death of her beloved daughter, Patty.
I knew from the first moment that I started sketching the doll, that I wanted to use spoolknitting for the hair. Patty was born with curly red hair, so I wanted to celebrate that.

I wanted lots of spoolknitted cord, so I decided to use my Embellish knit spoolknitting machine.

I did a test swatch and decided that it was too stiff. I really …read more