Do you remember 9Rules? It was a blog network, quite busy a couple of years ago. Then it seemed to drop off a cliff one day. It has since been bought up by SplashPress Media.
Once upon a time there would be a gush of interest each time they auditioned new blogs to join the network. I submitted for the last audition but that was at the time they faded away and I never heard a thing. But, now they are revving up again, hoping to regain their place as a network people want to be a part of.
I do. Mainly because I want to have other bloggers to talk to, to compare ideas, successes, failures and just know there are others out there who are in the same boat. You can add your blog to the submissions at midnight on October 1st, 2009. Yes, tonight.
My Grandmother had a button box. She would add any buttons from clothes that were worn out and being cut up to use for patches and cleaning rags. Sometimes she bought sets of 4, 6 or more buttons on sale somewhere and brought those back (kept on their cardboard packaging) and put them in the button box too.
As she got older she became legally blind and was no longer able to sew her own buttons (or anything else) as well as she used to. She was always more of a cook anyway. I still remember the white sweater I fixed for her. It had a few loose buttons and one missing. It was one of the very few times I got to look through something of my Grandmothers. She brought out the button box and let me have a look through them all. I found enough new buttons for the white sweater, all matching and all pink.
For years she would brag about how well I sewed those buttons on her sweater. She said I had done them so well they would never come off. I did too. I remember sewing them on and how honoured I was to do something, something real, for my Grandmother. Not just kid stuff playing around. She kept that sweater and the buttons did last years and years.
I still like buttons. I guess I have a soft spot for them. My Mother had a button box. My Grandmother’s buttons became part of that collection in time. My Mother gave me the button box a few years ago, when she started spending winters in Florida. We used to sew together but that was usually around the holidays. Now that I’m alone I still do some baking but not so much sewing. It’s kind of sad. I have that button box but it’s been many years since I last looked at any of the buttons in it.
There are some nice crafts with buttons, like button bouquets. I’ve seen a few uses for them other than the traditional clothing fasteners. One site has old/ vintage buttons turned into fancy rings. I’ve seen scrapbookers use buttons as flower centres in drawings. We have used buttons in place of game pieces. They string up on ribbon and look pretty girlie and pretty too.
National Button Day - November 16th.
Your ideal romantic relationship is peaceful, romantic, and private.
This came up as a result from a quiz on Blogthings.com. It's probably right. I do want something close, personal and cuddly. Not that I am all cuddly all the time. But, that is all a part of being close in mind and in body. Spirit too but that could be asking too much, besides I'm not looking for a complete clone of myself. Still, I'd never stay in a relationship where there was a lot of discord (with himself or his family/ friends).
How would you sum up your own romantic relationship personal best in just three words?
From a Chinese fortune cookie: "Select from the past only what is useful for dealing with the present."
Yes, another Chinese fortune cookie. It's not that I've been spending a lot of time eating Chinese food lately, I just save up my fortunes to see if one of them comes true. So far it's still a work in progress.
Write your own Chinese fortune. Try one modern style (optimistic and generalized) and try another the of the old fashioned kind which were kind of spooky and mystical. The sort of cookie you open with your fingers crossed and your breath held, suspense making your fingers tremble in case this fortune said something you didn't want to hear/ read.
You're making a ship in a bottle. It's something you've always thought would be interesting to do one day. Like making paper doll chains into infinity, or bungee jumping... well, maybe not so much, it seemed creative, intricate and something you could boast about making later and then give away to relatives when you got tired of it. Plus, you heard once that your Great Grandfather used to make them.
Only, when the glass bottle company delivers your glass bottle, it's a baby bottle. What kind of ship would you design to fit inside a baby bottle? Or would you go with something completely different?