Drastic times

Drastic times …

Drastic times call for drastic measures. Actually, looking it up it turns out the saying is “Desperate times call for desperate measures” (still works for me). Originally, the proverb was “Desperate diseases must have desperate remedies” taken from Latin– the most apropos. So, why this useless bit of information?

Computer problems. Dum dum dum.  Diseases, viruses, black screens, freezing, just not doing a damn thing – arrrrgghh. First you should know I’m not computer illiterate. I have and run computer backup files, special Internet safety, re-create capabilities and so forth. I also have a pretty current little laptop with lots of storage. However, given that I tend to be busy and work with computers daily – I generally don’t read all the instructions for my “personal space” items. Pop in the disc, hit agree with license, next, next, next, be done. There is the gotcha. Not everything is as idiot proof as we think in this day and age. Who knew that although I have regular file backup capability, creating a complete rewrite recovery point is something that is not automatic and should be done, I now know, with much more frequency. I always thought folks whose computer “crashed” had older “not major vendor” machines and randomly opened files from people they didn’t know. I was wrong.

My mountain computer repair place informed me that fixing anything generally takes about three days (after a preview $$ & few day hold where they determine what might be wrong) – they can push it for a rush fee but they don’t guarantee return earlier. They close on Saturday and Sunday, those days aren’t counted. Say it with me – arrrggghhh.

So, with a recovery point of about one year ago (didn’t I just do that? I was sure it was only a few months ago…), I opted for my doing the complete rewrite in case it was some dastardly issue worming its way through everything on my disk. I was lucky in that I could get the machine to startup from the recovery disk. The laptop is alive again, but it turns out, I did a lot in that year. More than I realized when I opted for the rewrite. A lot. Sigh…

So, you haven’t seen me blogging lately and my near term personal computing time is now taken up with downloading (things like mucho embroidery design purchases, Kindle for pc was easy- quick nod to Amazon), all those ‘automatic’ program updates, rewriting, going through the pictures external drive for things I meant to blog about that were in nice little folders on the laptop, trying to recreate the landscape plans Excel and Word docs from printed copies. I’ll let myself forget all the recipes, crafts and bloggers I had flagged – perhaps I’ll stumble across them again.

But, I did find pictures from a year ago that I hadn’t yet shared – so here goes. Something a little fun, more upbeat for crafters and my blog post – a creation: Hummingbirds embroidery design from Embroidery Designs.com done up in my home colors:

Sulky 40 weight embroidery thread, tear away stabilizer on the back, wash away on top – Costco Martex towels. For complete tutorials, just click on Embroidery Library’s project page – they do a great job so I won’t recreate the details here.

If you don’t know – you can check your own “recovery point” in Microsoft, Norton or HP (key in “recovery” to your laptop/computer search and see what you get. It’s different than your file backup).

This post is participating in the parties linked below. My Sunday morning is again, a/c on, computer on, coffee and away we go. Trying to post this I get: “your browser is out of date blah blah blah please update your browser.” Say it with me again, arrrrgggghhhh!

Bits and Fragments

 

 

 

 

 

As I’m putting together notes, UnknownMami just tweeted: “I’m thinking of starting an anti-social network where instead of putting people in circles, you put them in corners”. Love it. I guess the whole Google+ circles thing is getting a bit of press this morning. 

Yes, I do live in the boonies. The farmer’s market signs about town used to say “Main Street, just past the Donkey.” Sadly, our town donkey Clarissa passed away last year. We have new signs. A stone memorial was erected to her in the park and when she passed it was a “Top Story” in the Calaveras Enterprise (county newspaper). Yep, boonies.

My latest example was expanding a tweet from My Motherlode about Angels Camp being a “wifi hotspot”. “The new system extends internet availability along the three block section of downtown, from the top of the hill on the north, to the creek at the south end of town”. I just smiled “from the top of the hill” – really not easy to let friends know when to expect service (much of the mountains is a wifi /smartphone dead zone – “can you hear me now?” No… “can you hear me now?” No…) that road has a few places one could consider top of a hill. Three blocks – really. But it’s “newspaper worthy”.

Want to get a few recipes posted, let’s see if I can get caught up soon.  Beautiful weather – high 70s low 80s – must get out with the camera, so time to end this chat.

Friday Fragments is a blog party hosted at Half Past Kissin time.

 

July = Another Warm Day

We’ve dropped to the low nineties (yea and whew!) after our few weeks of tappin low hundreds. Might even see high eighties this week – oh joy. J

Been meaning to tell you about Mineral –  an area oh so marvelous vegetarian restaurant. They rely on local, primarily organic ingredients.

I found their land scallops (tofu base) absolutely “to die for” and need to touch base with them to find out when they’ll have their multi cheese risotto (talk about filling) that a friend had. Both the asparagus and hearts of palm appetizers pictured below are yummy. The menu does change to utilize the best of available ingredients. It also gives the chef an opportunity to show off his creativity.

 

Mmmm – their veggie burger: ‘Mineral Burger $13.00 Hand Made Burger with Hook Five Year Cheddar, House Papaya Ketchup, Champagne Cucumbers, and Pickled Jalapeno Aioli. Served on house made bun with sea salt chips and pickled vegetables’.

Folks from everywhere give it a 4.5 out of 5 rating over at Yelp. It’s a tiny restaurant, so reservations are recommended. The only caution is that their corkage fee is higher than most, if you like wine with dinner, order it from their menu.

For my Sunday, I’ll be inside with the a/c on. (oops – should’ve wiped down the laptop screen).

Ohhhhh, so pretty!

Been keeping a few craft projects rolling along in the background here. One is the pillow project for the guest room. Loving these Art Deco – y butterflies from Embroidery Library stitched out on linen. Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Circle

Chose deeper but matching colors (Sulky threads) to the quilt will add a bit of punch. Had already made the chenille green pillows as the daybed is large and in need of quite a few more pillows to look as inviting as I’d like. I’m determined to finish these as pillows although I like them so much, I’m a bit inclined to just frame them.

 Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Square

There are clear step by step tutorials for everything (just check out the left column) related to machine embroidery at Embroidery Library’s project page. Perfect hooping, placement and stabilizer guides are available as well as hints for embroidering on any type of material. For linen – wash the fabric first as you plan to later, then starch the heck out of your piece. A medium weight cutaway stabilizer is a good choice for the weight of linen I like to work with. To later need to wash an embroidered piece, iron it while damp from the back of the piece.

Now, to border and stitch these into  pillows. Then, as this is the only frou frou room in the house, on to a ruffled pillow or two and one with a nice big bow.

This post is participating in the parties linked below.

Fragmented Friday

Friday Fragments is a blog party hosted at Half Past Kissin time.

Hot, hot, hot. Tappin high 90’s low 100’s for the last few weeks. Skipped out on the Arts Council music in Murphys park as even tho scheduled for early eve, just did not want to be outside.

Still playing at Pinterest DIY – getting all my ideas for my future garden in one place. Had been planning to paint the Adirondack chairs a deep red/brown to match an eventual trim color for the house; after seeing this, I’m moving towards more color. Summer here is brown. This cheerful shot from BHG is inspiring:

Pinterest Food makes me wonder if we’re in a competition to see just how fattening Americans can make any dish. Say, take a yummy, moist chocolate cake and frosting. Most of us would be happy with that as a perfectly executed dessert, right? But the web trend is to consider it better if you add a layer that’s cheesecake (with crumbled candies in the cheesecake cause good ol cheesecake isn’t enough) and make it really tall, then smear candies into the side frosting and – oh why not put cookies on top. Really?  Do we need our candy batter dipped and deep fried or your cake a monstrosity of 12 desserts in one?  Give me simplicity where I can savor my flavors.

Eek – yes, I did cute. Ikea bib pack plus embroidery designs (mostly Embroidery Library) and some stitching. For a friend (a bit ago, but found the pic when looking for something else).

From my lack of posting, you’d think I haven’t been cooking or crafting. Just been in a mode of making my favorites – various toppings on the so quick and easy pizza dough, my fav cornmeal muffins and the yummy raspberry tart. Even made up a batch of the “best ever” chocolate mocha cookies. All can be cooked in a small batch in the toaster oven on the porch so the house stays a/c alright. The cookie batter is perfectly happy in the fridge for a few days – you don’t have to bake it all at once. I’ve also been known to put the rice cooker and slow cooker (just did up a crunchy batch of garbanzos for salads) on the porch table.

 

Have to write up the crafty stuff, but it’s time for another iced coffee.

Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is a blog party hosted at Half Past Kissin time. Luckily, she leaves it open a few days as today is obviously Saturday J So my bits:

I’ve posted mucho photos of Ruth Bancroft Garden – but must add this: Puya berteroniana (Annie’s Annuals has 3 Puya’s – this, a cool blue or lime green flowered variety). There were a few flowering at Bancroft. Had to go right up to it as its color made it look like another manmade sculpture – not a color you normally find in flowers. The bloom brings it to about 6 foot tall.

Was looking for something on yet a few more blogs that did not have a search field again this week. Arrgggh, why not? Don’t all the major carriers offer a search widget? I may go one or two pages – then I give up. Do folks really think everyone will plod through every post they’ve written looking for something? I would’ve shared the item further if I could have found the post. Sigh. If you have cool pics/projects/recipes please, please, please add a search widget to your blog.

This week’s new effort – getting creative inspiration or internet time wasting? Pinterest, currently ok. I suspect not for long. What’s cool – if you’re a crafter or a foodie or whoever and save links of ideas, then install new software that messes up your browser (isn’t everything always trying to get you to a different browser) so said links are hard to find – or if they simply get too long and messed up to fuss around with folder organization – this is presently a great place to store your links. (notice all the disclaimers about good now). It saves a nice big picture – so instead of a list you’re not quite sure what your link will take you to after having it for a few years – you get a page of clickable pictures for each of your folders. Cool. I can open a file of crafts to make for Halloween/Samhain/Day of the Dead and scan it quickly. I can search on pallets to see what everyone is out there making from wooden pallets and become oh so inspired to make more outdoor stuff. (Really – if you take any action on reading this post – open the pallet link!). I can “follow” other folks folders if it seems as though they’re capturing the same kind of inspiration I’m interested in – and see everyone I’m following on one page full of pics. If I like what they’ve posted, I simply “repin” it to one of my own boards.  The downside? Self promotion not monitored – I’m ok with a bit of it, but you know what happens when it’s not. The easy answer is that Pinterest opens to your page of followers once you sign up – so you won’t run into this unless you go to http://www.pinterest.com/all and click their categories (I’m a fan of DIY and Food). If you’re the blogger – folks may never stop on your blog so you might not know how much visibility your post’s photo is getting over on Pinterest. But, the pallet search hooked me – especially when I then went to wine barrels….  Oh oh, too much to do.