Happy Zombie

Welcome to my new home! In celebration of my new home and my 100th Postaversary, I will have a drawing for this darling Japanese quilty-craft book appropriately titled “House”. On Saturday (2-17-07) Friday (2-16-07) I’ll draw a name from a comment left on this post for this darling book I got at Kinokuniya in Beaverton, OR. I want to thank you all for the wonderful comments you left on the Bloggy Love Drug post. I had no idea my jar would be filled with so much BLD! You guys are GREAT and THIS IS WHY I blog - because of you!

It was time to kiss the “B word” (Blogger) good-bye and hello to WordPress.com (I’m actually using WordPress.org)! Moving over was a snap, but re-hacking all my hacks was a chore and a half. I hope this will be an end to all the problems I had with Blogger. I still have a few glitches here and there with font size and color… and a few little tweaky tweaks that need to be done… but I think I’m good to go! Some of the posts and comments didn’t move over that well. The dates are whacky and your names are not linked with your blogs (I’m still working on trying to fix that). I’m just glad I was able to transfer everything over (another gold star for WordPress). All new comments should be fine (typing with my fingers crossed).

I’m hoping making a comment will be a breeze now. No more word verification here. Though… the first time you comment your post will be held for moderation. Once your first comment is approved, you’ll be free to post comments with no moderation or word verification. Easy cheezy, eh! This is not to have you wait in line for the bouncer to let you in… it’s to keep the rif-raf spammers out.

I have a favor… if you spot anything out of whack, please don’t hesitate to mention it! Especially you PC users, as I have no idea how everything is functioning and looking on a non-Mac computer. I appreciate it so much!

Welcome to my new home and thank you for visiting! Putting your feet on the coffee table is allowed and encouraged! - Monica
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WARNING: The Bloggy Love Drug has reported known sides effects -Friendship, inspiration, swapping, shopping, laughter, saying “OMG” repeatedly, and last but not least… cravings for Cheez-It’s.

You’re here either because you’re already on the Bloggy Love Drug prescription plan, or you’re here because maybe you read about blogging in the April issue of Better Home’s & Gardens - American Patchwork & Quilting (or you read the full article online here).

If you’re already taking your daily dose of the Bloggy Love Drug… I just want to say thank you for being a bloggy pal, visiting/commenting, having me on your blogroll or bloglines, being my cheerleader, and inspiring me in ways I didn’t even know was possible. Thank you my bloggy pals for keeping my Bloggy Love Drug prescription filled!

Are you here for the first time and thinking what the Cocoa Puffs is she babbling about? Well you, our future bloggy pals… need to get on the Bloggy Love Drug prescription plan! There are quite a few pharmacies out there, but the most popular by far are at Blogger.com (free) and Typepad.com. Edited in… and Wordpress.com (free) too. Thanks Wende and Linda!

Fast forward - You now have a blog of your own and now all you need is your BLD prescription filled and re-filled:

STEP 1) Write on your blog what’s of interest to you. Show us your WIP’s (works in progress), tell us about your family and friends, show us your photos… it’s up to you what you blog about. Besides uploading photos via your blog service, you can also get free photo storage at places like Flickr and PhotoBucket.

STEP 2) Keep a blogroll (links) of your favorite blogs. This is a benefit for yourself, but it’s also a way sharing and/or promoting other blogs that are of interest to you. Putting someone’s blog on your blogroll is a nice thing to do. You don’t have to ask… just do it and you’ll be surprised how happy it makes a fellow blogger!

STEP 3) Comment, comment, comment! When I first stated blogging I thought I had to literally be friends with the blogger to make a comment. SO NOT TRUE! It’s actually HOW you become friends! I know, that sounds so puppy dogs and rainbows the way I put that… but commenting really is the way to meet other bloggers. When you fill out the little comment box, there’s also a field where you can enter your blog’s URL. Now when you make a comment, the other commentors have a way to pop on over to your blog and visit you. Easy Cheezy.

STEP 4) Have coffee and snacks handy (Cheez-It’s), for you may be sitting at your computer blogging for many hours on end and you’ll need your nourishment.

Steps 1 - 4 is only the beginning! There’s so much more to the Bloggy Love Drug and I hope you all get inspired to blog as well as to share your thoughts on your own views of the BLD! And if you’ve never commented before… ga-head… give it a whirl! You’ll be glad you did… and so will I!

The Potholder Swap sign-up is now closed. Our lovely swappers have been paired up and are ready to play! So who are these lovely ladies? From the US, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Norway, Holland and Spain… I’d like to introduce to you the fabulous 2007 Potholder Swapettes!

Swappers… grab your towel and dive into the Flickr photo pool!

Last summer my friend Karen and I went down to Asilomar to attend The Artist’s Way for Quilters. One of our assignments was to “go out” and get inspired (for lack of better wording). I was just in the beginning stages of my aqua obsession, so I was snap happy with my camera capturing all things aqua in and around Pacific Grove. All was humming along… Karen was seeing/finding her inspirations… and then lighting struck when I saw the Atomic Aqua Potty. There it was, all hooked up with electricity shining like a beacon in the night waiting for me. I loved how the orange fencing looked like a patch of poppies planted in front of this little man-cottage. Red and aqua is my thing… but I like orange and aqua too (Karen’s thing).

Now I know this little man-cottage is not really juiced up with electricity, and that the aqua potty is just being used as a “post” for the electrical thing-a-ma-bob. BUT… being that I’m estrogenly inclined, I can’t help but believe that this aqua potty actually IS juiced up. I imagine there’s a TV in there set to ESPN, a DVD player, a satellite box (and of course a half dozen remotes), a boom box, a kegorator, a microwave, a small fridge filled with Hot Pockets and a reading lamp for the small library of SI and Maxim. Ok… I’m being sexist. So for the sake of not being offensive to all men, let’s just say SOME men.

So now I’ve become so enamored with this Atomic Aqua Potty, I’ve been designing in my head an Atomic Aqua Potty quilt since last September. I actually have not gotten much past my title and inspiration… but it will come to me.

I finished my little shop quilt WIP, and I have to say… it was so much fun making it I kind of hated to finish it. Sort of. I’m always happy when a shop quilt is done and I can turn it in. It’s one thing to put my stuff off, but I can’t do that with someone else’s stuff especially sister friend Karen!

I did change the butterfly that came with the pattern into an “Anna Lena butterfly”. Karen did the beautiful machine quilting (maybe you can see it in the second photo)… and all the beautiful fabrics are from Karen’s Wash Tub fabric line. It’s hard to see in a photo, but with these vibrant 30’s fabrics it looks like candy on a quilt IRL.

It’s not often I want to make a shop quilt a second time (or for me for that matter), but I think with this one I’m going to get a kit and make one for me too. How can I not… it’s so beautiful and packed with all that Snyder goodness!

Second photo used with permission from Anna Lena’s

Have a napkin or bib ready… I was just at QuiltersBuzz and Gina has a really nice post about the recent Road to California Quilt Show. I wish I could have gone… next year for sure! Anyhoo… Gina has a link to the R2C winner’s gallery. Jaw drooping drop dead gorgeous drool inducing quilts. The quilts are the Manolo Blahnik’s and Prada’s of the quilting and textile world!

I’m neat, I’m tidy, I’m organized… I’m full of crap. I’m exposing myself in the hopes my public humiliation will bring about change. THIS is my reality. Stacks, piles, notes, more stacks, more piles… and then there’s the disorganization in my head too. What was I doing? Where am I walking too? What was I gonna get?

As you can see in the photo, I have totes and bins, ready to be filled and tucked neatly away. But sigh, I’ve just stacked those into piles as well. My studio/office is just shy of being 10′x10′. I can use the lack of size as an excuse, but the gist of it is, is that if my space was 100′x100′… my mess would only be bigger.

I recently redid my studio/office. I (read: my DH) hung white cupboards and base cabinets with a counter also. The walls I painted this soft, soft pink (they used to be a light butter yellow). All my treasures were parading neatly on little shelves. My fabric stash cozy in the cupboards away from sunlight (now THAT’S funny… sunlight, in Oregon!). So what happened? I don’t know! I’m going to point a finger at the pink paint. Just because.

Yesterday I picked up more cabinets at Lowes and I’m filling them with skinny shelving so I can have 10 or 12 shelves to make my piles in/on. I’m hoping this is the ticket and I’ll soon have the neat and tidy space I dream of. When I’m at my computer, my back is to the mess. By having this photo on my blog I can’t escape it. Plus it’s helping motive me to get off the computer and get crackalackin on the studio/office redo. BTW… no longer a studio/office (I’m tired of saying that)… it’s officially now a STUFFICE! Stephen Colbert’s not the only one who can make up words!

I’m having one of those “sigh… I love blogging” moments today. So I’m cruising around Blogland this afternoon, seeing everyones photos and reading wonderful little tid-bits of their lives. I thought to myself how awesome it is that bloggers like to show morsels of their lives, stopping for a moment to snap a photo to share. Where once there was just life going on, now thanks to blogging life just stops for an instant with the opening and closing of the shutter and we truly stop to smell the roses.

Maybe it happens outside the gates of Blogland? I do not know. I do know that I catch myself seeing things in a new way now that I want to capture the moment for my blog. I catch myself saying, “FREEZE… this is for my blog”. My son even says things to me like, “Don’t you want to take a picture of that for your blog?”. In reality only 1% of things I snap end up on my blog or I end up writing about. It’s just the mere fact that I’ve stopped (like the Road Runner putting on the brakes with his feet) for those few seconds to enjoy the extraordinary beauty of an otherwise ordinary moment. For months I’ve been trying to figure out just how it is that blogging changed my life (aside from the wonderful sister friends I’ve made). And today I had this realization!

You may find my Happy Meal weird, or boring, or that I’m koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs… but for a few seconds while I snapped the photo of my Beckmann’s German Farm Bread and Saag’s German Bologna (Best Lunch Ever)… I experienced the extraordinary beauty of an ordinary moment. And that my friends is what I call “The Bloggers O”!

SIGN-UP FOR THE POTHOLDER SWAP IS NOW CLOSED
Swappy good fun… it’s a potholder swap! Easy cheezy fast and fun. Nothing tastes better then a casserole removed from the oven using a beloved potholder. Both my boys at some point in their younger years each made me a potholder, and to this day they are my favorite to use.

This swap is for one potholder and your favorite casserole recipe. Your potholder can be quilted, embroidered, crocheted, knitted, a vintage gem… it’s up to you! First time to join a swap? This is a fun and interactive way to meet other crafty bloggers, as well as have something to cherish, hold, and use that goes beyond your computer screen and keyboard.

So… who wants to play!?!?
SIGN-UP FOR THE POTHOLDER SWAP IS NOW CLOSED
1) Sign-up deadline is February 5th, 2007 at 11:59 PST.

2) To sign-up, email me at thehappyzombie [at] gmail [dot] com with your: IRL Name & Blog Name

Snail Address
Email Address
Blog Address
Flickr Address (if you don’t have a blog)

3) You will receive your swap partner on February 6th.

4) The deadline to mail your swap partner the potholder and recipe is Feb 14th. I will send a reminder a few days prior. Please email me once you’ve sent out your swap. If emails come back invalid or unresponsive, you will be removed from the swap (I know… I’m so mean).

5) This is an international swap from the United States. If you wish to only to swap within the US, please let me know so you don’t get matched internationally.

6) If you don’t have a blog or Flickr, please email me your photos of your swap (sent and received). Once the deadline has come and you’ve received your swap partner, I will have a photo pool of the swap. UPDATED: I have set up a Flickr photo pool for the swap. Feel free to join the pool now!

7) This is a serious commitment and a lot of fun. But… [begin Mommy voice] If you fail to send to your swap partner… I will out you on my blog [end mommy voice]. The more the merrier… tell your bloggy pals about the swap and encourage participation!

Fake Questions… Real Answers:

Q: Can I make my potholder now, or do I have to wait until I’m paired with my swap partner?
A: It’s up to you. You can make it a reflection of you, or you can wait and find out what your SP likes. Chances are your SP will say “do what you like”. I personally think it’s more fun to receive something that reflects the person who made it.

Q: Can I make an oven mit?
A: SURE! You can make an oven slipper if you like! Ok, not really on the latter.

Q: I signed up but have not heard from you.
A: If you have not received a thank you note from me for joining the swap… that means I did not get your email submission. Be careful with my email address. It’s “THEhappyzombie”. Don’t forget the “the”.

Q: The health department issued me a citation and confiscated my recipe box. I have no casserole recipe to send. What do I do?
A: How about a “Top 5″ list of your favorite food haunts in your hometown. Myself being one who is recipe challenged… I would love that!

Buttons! Would you like a Potholder Swap button for your side bar? Easy cheezy… just paste the code below into your sidebar and you’re done! There are two buttons. One with a white background and one in aqua. Pick one… pick two!

For a button, copy and paste this code:
<a href=”http://thehappyzombie.com/blog/?p=97″><img src=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_CqYDMUhDoEk/RbPv3b8KjeI/AAAAAAAAAJc/-i4tL6ZDtJM/s320/phs_buttonaquared.gif” border=”0″ alt=”Potholder Swap” ></a>

I got tagged by Raesha with the 6 Weird Things About Me meme. I’m supposed to write six weird things about me. The problem is narrowing it down to six, so here goes!

1) I eat my fries with mayo. If you’re German and reading this… it’s not so weird.

2) When I buy fabric yardage, especially fat quarters… I refold them so you can’t see the raw edges. I also like all my FQ’s to be folded the same way, into a neat little chubby folded pillow of cotton delight. Is this weird or anal? Don’t answer.

3) I like to pull the little “pills” off fabric and roll em around my fingers. I’m sure it’s some weird Freudian thing that dates back to babyhood. Ok…. That’s REALLY weird. It’s how I live.

4) I can’t just sit. Sitting and doing nothing, for example watching TV. I have to be doing something with my hands at all times (I’m guessing this is how #3 fits into my life). Quilting, embroidering, appliquéing, etc. It’s why I don’t like going to the movies. And to my English teacher Mrs. Nuccio at Foothill Intermediate in Walnut Creek… way back in the stoneage of 1975ish… you sent me to the office for not sitting still and playing with some elastic band I had from sewing (home ec). You said one day I’d grow up and be a well behaved young lady and sit still. I’m still waiting. Oh, and Mrs. N… I had a cigarette on the way to the office.

5) I can’t sleep on an airplane. Too many conversations to eavesdrop on! And what if I miss the food service while sleeping?!

6) I can’t drive my car without toting along a cup of coffee. I also never get lost while driving. I have this internal TomTom I’m equipped with. I may forget why I’m going there… but I know how to get there.