Saturday, August 27, 2011

Last of August

We are nearly at the the end of August. Where did the month go? I mean really, one minute we were looking at the end of July and now the end of August. I have been thinking a lot about ‘this time last year’ and how to mark the differences or note the changes.  No solutions yet…. still thinking.

DH is gone again, and has been for 2 weeks. Maybe home next week or the week after… no firm date as yet.

I have caught up with the Sparkly Chicken Swap blocks “Receivers Choice”… they are going in the mail on Monday as are 2 more gifts…. Of course no photos… because I want the recipients to see them first…. I can however post my swap block for Fiestathe ‘Fiesta’ Chick. Originally I wanted to do bright pieced block in primary colors, but that did not work out. My piecing skills are way off and I just was not meeting the vision. My true inner vision of  “Fiesta” is warmth and sun or beer and lime , a la Baja Mexico and Southern California. That was the end of creativity for me….

and how you say was that the end of creativity? At work the other day I broke one of the cardinal rules of cutting; ‘Always cut away from yourself’. I was using a utility knife, and was cutting toward myself. BIG mistake. Sunk the blade into the thumb muscle of my left hand. Very little blood, but plenty of pain… and 2 very ugly stitches later. Do you think some day that we might get a choice of color for the stitches? You know maybe compliment the skin tones, or at least a really nice shade of say blue or purple or maybe lime green. Nothing looks worse than puckered skin and black stitches with long tails. So not much in the way of of other stitching activity here.

I do have some new toys to help pass the time. Sometime in late June, my iPhone was giving me connectivity and reception problems. Like stating no carrier… and to resume I would have to turn the phone off and then let it power back up…. a very long and time consuming process. So I bought a new phone. An Android Desire. I think I like it better than the iPhone. Not as many Apps yet, but most of the important ones are there and there are some that are better and built in. The other new toy, to match the new phone is a Tablet, (a gift from DH), The XooM by Motorola which as I recall uses the Android platform. Anyway…. it is similar to the iPad, but doesn’t have the Flashplayer restrictions of the Apple platform. I love it especially for the web based applications. Displays much better than the iPad, has some cool function fly outs and has USB input as well. I can read books (Kindle), listen to music (still have to transfer my iTunes library over), send and receive email and of course surf the Web.

And since not much in the way of other pictures… more birds.

barbet

Black Collared Barbet - are generally very shy…. not good photo subjects.

woodpecker

I think this is a female Cardinal Woodpecker. It was beating at the bark like a woodpecker…

 

More Later-Beth

5 comments:

  1. Love those bird photos. It looks as if they are posing for you. You have great talent! Sarah

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  2. I'm glad to hear a review of the xoom. My brother was here for a week and he had an ipad. I didn't realize they don't have a USB port or Flash player. He had the first model so maybe they have added the USB as they did add a camera on #2 but I guess I would be more comfortable with the Android version since that's what my phone is.

    Your sky is SO blue!! Love the bird photos.

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  3. I'm sorry to hear about your thumb. Those stitches cannot look bee-u-ti-ful! Hopefully you will heal up soon so you can get back to the creativity. The birds are quiet nice.

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  4. I bet you can download the Nook application and read NookBooks on your tablet too! Then we can share. Although I usually only "buy" free books and borrow from the library...
    I love the fiesta sunshine -- made me homesick for CA. It will look nice with the other blocks she's received (including mine).

    Nice (as usual) bird pics -- I really like the lighting in the Barbet pic.

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  5. It was nice seeing your mug live and on cam... we need to do it again and soon!!

    Me

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