Idea Gal

Mister to Darcy

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:30:00 +0000

"Hey, this is MY bed!"

"After all, you destroyed YOUR bed."

Computer Support

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:50:00 +0000

We always have a helper close when we work on the computer.

Our UT Scholar

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Schraders Enjoying SXSW

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:22:00 +0000

Love this quote!

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 02:15:00 +0000

‎'Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.' Bella Abzug

Thanks to Ann Daly for alerting me to it!

How do I love thee...

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:00:00 +0000

...let me count the ways:

Best Greek salad ever!
Clam chowder that isn't too thick and includes bacon!
Maple-glazed pork roast (substitute chutney + 1 Tbsp. maple syrup for glaze) to die for!

Thanks, Mom!

Inside America's Test Kitchen: All-New Recipes, Quick Tips, Equipment Ratings, Food Tastings, Science Experiments from the Hit Public Television Show - Hardcover (Oct. 2003) by Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Em's Tree

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:09:00 +0000

At least my offspring is a die-hard fan!

Article on Spicewood, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:37:00 +0000

Check out my article on Spicewood in the ~~August~~ November issue of austinwoman Magazine!

http://www.austinwomanmagazine.com/Articles/2010/11_NOV/74_Weekend.html

Austinites turning 21...

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:00:00 +0000

...must have a margarita at Chuy's!

Of course, I had her when I was 8!

Ridiculous Packaging

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:29:00 +0000

A good-sized (about 12 in x 15 in x 8 in deep) box was delivered today:

And this headset was in it:

Huh?

Well, those towels WERE clean

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:35:00 +0000

It's a Strange World...

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:38:00 +0000

...when the satirical news outlets are more accurate than the traditional ones.

The Onion: Area Man Defends Constitution

ESCONDIDO, CA—Spurred by an administration he believes to be guilty of numerous transgressions, self-described American patriot Kyle Mortensen, 47, is a vehement defender of ideas he seems to think are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and principles that brave men have fought and died for solely in his head.
...
Mortensen said his admiration for the loose assemblage of vague half-notions he calls the Constitution has only grown over time. He believes that each detail he has pulled from thin air—from prohibitions on sodomy and flag-burning, to mandatory crackdowns on immigrants, to the right of citizens not to have their hard-earned income confiscated in the form of taxes—has contributed to making it the best framework for governance "since the Ten Commandments."
...

Introducing...Darcy

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:05:00 +0000

Here's our new doggie, Darcy:

We brought him home today and he immediately fit right in. It's like this is his long-lost home.

So far, he's had treats, dinner, a bath and play time.

Reflections on Get ‘er Done Week

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:57:00 +0000

I’ve felt extremely overwhelmed with ‘to-dos’ since I returned from New York. So I decided to dedicate this past week to an experiment in Getting Things Done. I didn’t adhere to all the lists and paperwork of the GTD system (http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php) but did apply the long-term outlook to prioritizing what to work on.

After a week of getting things done–large and small, short-term and long-term–I have mixed feelings. I did make progress on some long-term goals, but didn’t do a lot of the little things. Which seems good, except that not doing the little things (keeping up with emails, cleaning house, etc.) eventually turns into a big thing. By Friday, I did achieve clarity in which little things I could postpone or not do, so I was able to get those off my plate.

The best thing about the week is what I learned about myself and how I work:

° I got a lot done during days at work with no meetings. I was able to concentrate and focus and make good progress. Of course, I do have to attend meetings and am brainstorming how I can focus during the hours-long planning meetings and how to keep from getting distracted when there is a long technical discussion.

° I want and need a day a week dedicated to staying home and writing. I can tackle some of the little chores if I need a break, but if I’m in the researching/writing groove, I can just stay with it.

° I am more open to running errands and meeting up with friends if I am already at the office. If I’m home, I like to stay home and if I’m out, I like staying out.

How do you handle that overwhelmed feeling? What do you do to make sure you’re getting the important things done?

Adventures in Panama

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:22:00 +0000

It sounds like Emily had a wonderful time on her medical mission trip. She enjoyed diagnosing conditions and giving the patients instructions and/or medicine for minor conditions. The doctors looked at the more serious cases.
Here is a photo of Em with a couple of kids at a church in Juan Diaz in Panama City.

And here's a shot of the girls from the group at the Panama Canal.

I think it was a lot of fun and a growth experience. Thanks to everyone for the donations and prayers.

News from Panama

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:48:00 +0000

Well, Emily has finished up her medical work and now it's time to party! They're going dancing and (tomorrow) to the beach.

She arrives in Houston late Saturday night, and thunderstorms are predicted for the area. Hope they're wrong, as usual!

The weather is driving me crazy!

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:21:00 +0000

Let's see...
Sunday: Sunny 74 degrees
Monday: Mostly clear 53 degrees
Tuesday: Snow!! 30 degrees

Wednesday: Sunny 50 degrees

Ah! Texas weather.

Wintertime at the Schraders

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:08:00 +0000

Note the blanket that keeps the jealous siblings from touching each other...

Happy new year

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:01:00 +0000

Tomorrow feels like the start of the new year for me...first day of the routine I hope I can keep. Work in the office Mondays and Tuesdays. Research and write Wednesdays and Thursdays. Play or visit places for research on Fridays.

For the near term, my research will focus on the Marble Falls, TX area: attractions, wineries, B&Bs, restaurants. Let me know if you want to go along!

Lefse

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Last week, darling Janet had us over to make lefse. Lefse is like a flour tortilla with potato: really good with butter. Some of us are Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish; some of us married into the Scandinavian culture, and some are simply curious cooks.

Julie K, Julie A, and Wendy were our experts.

We were slow getting started until we added the first secret ingredient (wine).

Then we were cookin’!

After adding the second secret ingredient (aquavit) multiple times, we started losing interest in the lefse, as Julieanne demonstrates.

But, in the end, we had a good supply for the holidays.

Book jacket model

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:36:00 +0000

It's published! Don't I look menacing?

http://www.womenplaywrights.org/play-publications-by-women

International Quilt Festival 2009: Classes and Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

Classes

The classes we took were outstanding. I guess you have to be a top-notch teacher to get a gig with the IQF.

Thursday morning: Color for Your Scrap Quilts

This class was taught by Karen K. Stone, a gracious and fascinating lady. We didn’t realize that her amazing quilt, Clamshell, had just won a major prize at the festival until someone in the class told us. But we understood her quilting talent the minute she unpacked her quilts.

We learned so much about putting colors and prints together that it’s now not so intimidating to plan a quilt. The exercise of picking your keynote fabric and laying out other fabric that complements and contrasts and provides balance was revelatory. Karen has a new website under construction.
www.karenkstone.com

Thursday afternoon:

We split up to cover more ground. Edie attended the Back to Basics class that covered batting, borders, and binding. The information was really useful and will help us out a lot in our endeavors. The ladies who taught this class own the quilt store on Mason Rd. in Houston, VERY close to my brother and sister-in-law’s home, so we plan on taking some classes there. www.quiltnsew.com

And we might have to attend the West Houston Quilters’ Guild meeting if it coincides! (Not far from my parents’ home.) http://www.whqg.org/

I attended the Mixed Media Miscellany, basically a showcase of 20 teachers doing short tutorials on different techniques. These are the tutorials I watched:

Carve Your Own Rubber Stamps, Cyndi Souder

Of course, I loved this session. She showed us what to use and how to carve stamps that can be used on fabric or paper. Cyndi was a quiet spoken, knowledgeable woman who made it seem easy. It looks like she mostly teaches at the quilt store in her hometown, so I’ll have to be content with her online content.

http://www.moonlightingquilts.com/

Print, Paint, and Bead Your Way to an Embellished Art Quilt, Lisa Louise Adams

This woman is seriously talented. From her website:

“Lisa Louise Adams--painter, potter, printmaker, bookmaker, papermaker, jeweler, poet and quilter--lives in the lush rainforest village of Volcano, on the Big Island of Hawaii, where she works out of her Spiral Triangle Studios.”

This tutorial was great fun. The tips I took away: include

Use both sides of the rubber stamps you carve.
Felt is very strong for beading.
Sew beads on with the trim to eliminate a step.

http://www.lisalouiseadams.com/

Mixed Media Art Totes, Elinor Peace Bailey

You cannot miss Elinor! We spotted her right away in the crowd and I was intrigued to see her in this showcase. She is just as nutty and artsy as you would expect from her demeanor:

Her instructions on the tote bag were similar to those Annie gave us in the Friday class.

http://www.epbdolls.net/

Metal Embossed/Pierced Embellishments, Madeline Arendt

She made it look easy to add metal embellishments to paper or fabric projects. Some hints:

Use paper punches for thin foil and die cutters for thicker metals such as copper.
Rub over texture plates.
Use a flexible surface like suede first, then a hard surface for refining the design.
Fill raised designs with plastic resin or spackling compound.

Resources: www.amaco.com, www.mercartusa.com, www.tensecondstudio.com, www.walnuthollow.com.

madelinesthoughts.blogspot.com

Manipulating Specialty Fabrics, Esterita Austin

This session was pretty much over my head. She focused on complex fabric manipulation for art quilts. I remember the talk on fusing sheer fabrics but the rest is a blur. Check out her artwork. It’s amazing: www.esteritaaustin.com

Update Fabrics with Paint, Dye, and Pens, Nancy Brenan Daniel

This was an excellent demonstration of how to take those blah and/or dated fabrics and jazz them up. She suggests: using Kool-Aid or coffee to over-dye, make stencils from freezer paper, paint with Versatex paint and heat set it, print with fake leaves and plastic aquarium ferns. The before and after versions of boring fabrics were great.

www.nancybrenandaniel.com

Discharge and Overdye Workshop, Sheri Wood

She made this look so easy! Discharge is the process of removing color from fabrics, usually with bleach. She gave us several ideas on how to do it and on making our own “bleach stop” solution (1 part hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water). I’m most excited to try using Clorox Bleach Pens! What an easy method.

Also, put school glue on a rubber or foam stamp, stamp the fabric, and then spritz the fabric with a 50/50 bleach-water solution. It looks like batik.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherriwood/
http://www.whiterobindesigns.com/

Drawing and Painting for People Who Don’t Draw or Paint, Patt Blair

She advocates tracing an image and using software or an overhead projector to enlarge a drawing. Lay cotton over a black-and-white image and paint using “high-control applicators” (markers, paint pens) to trace the image.

http://pattsdrawingmethod.blogspot.com/

Fiber Fusion Floral, Marylin Huskamp

This is the fabric embellishment technique for me! Totally free-form.

Use fusible paper under tulle or other sheer fabric and place threads, paper, yarns, and fabric snips randomly, heat set, cover with tulle, and press. The quick examples she made were great for a variety of projects. Here one from her blog:

http://marylinsnouvelle.blogspot.com/

Painted Flora and Fauna, Tracie Lyn Huskamp

I assume she is Marylin’s daughter.

Tracie was a lot of fun and showed us how to use muslin and a light box to copy an image, then gave us beginners’ tips on painting the image. The flowers and butterflies she painted looked great. I wonder if I could do it?

http://TheRedDoor-Studio.blogspot.com

Foiling on Fabric, Lois Jarvis

I’ve admired this woman’s quilts at several shows, most recently Quilt National in Athens, Ohio. She is widely known for her Ground Zero quilt. And here she is teaching a handful of us how to apply foil to fabric! She provided instructions and small pieces of foil in five colors, and I will let you know if I can figure it out. Her samples were beautiful.

http://www.loisjarvisquilts.com/

These are the sessions I didn’t have time to see:

Veggie Bouquets/Edible Art, Marlene Glickman (www.silkdyes.com)

Soda Can Upcycle: Transfer Photos to Metal, Taylor Stephens (www.seditiousseraphim.com) It looks like their studio will be a must-see when we go to the Texas coast!

Print, Peel, and Stick with Inkjet Fabric Sheets, Daphne Greig (www.daphnegreig.com)

Embossed Leather Beads, Kristal Wick (www.kristalwick.com)

Freeform Needle Felting on Silk, Katrina Walker (www.katrinawalker.com)

Explore Lazertran Inkjet, Christine L. Adams (www.storiesinfabric.com, www.lazertran.com)

Punchneedle Embroidery, Marinda Stewart

Monoprinting with Freezer Paper, Melanie Testa (www.melanietesta.com)

Hand-beaded Embellishment on Silk-Screened Designs, June Colburn (www.junecolburn.com)

Wasn’t this an amazing selection?

Friday: Bohemiannie! Bags

Although we were reluctant to spend an entire day in a class, this one proved to be so much fun that we hated to leave at 5. Annie is a kindred spirit to our darling friend Joan—someone who is flamboyant, kind, and a whole lot of fun!

We painted, quilted, fringed, and stitched and each of us made (or got started on) a unique tote bag. They were amazing, each completely different. Here are a couple of examples from Annie’s website:

I’ll post mine whenever I get it done!

Check out her website: http://www.bohemiannieart.com/

Shopping

You can’t tell me there’s a reduction in quilters’ spending these days! This is approx ¼ of the vendor booths.

Whew! And we definitely shopped until we dropped! Now when will we have time to do the projects?

The Womens Conference 2009, Long Beach CA

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Just to make it even more exhausting, another day was added to the conference. But, because there were fewer attendees and a lot fewer volunteers than last year, it ran smoothly (mostly). Here is a photo of most of the group before our early morning meeting Sunday. Thank goodness the interns brought Starbucks!

I had my camera in hand to catch a few celebrities.
Mario Lopez:

Kate Gosselin:

And this is as close as I got to Paula Dean (sorry, Dad!).

But Maria isn't my best friend anymore...it's her cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who was very gracious as we tried to get her to the speakers' room. I couldn't bring myself to take a photo...she was very quiet and shy.

International Quilt Festival 2009, Vol. 5

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:18:00 +0000

Dolls
The Dolls exhibit was magical. Such a variety of exquisitely crafted dolls!

I think the forest goddess is my favorite:

Wish I had better photos, but the poor lighting gave me fits. There aren’t even any good ones on the quilts.inc website. Perhaps next year, we could employ a professional lighting designer?

Coming next: Classes and shopping.

International Quilt Festival 2009, Vol. 4

noreply@blogger.com (BusyTraveler) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Our picks

Here are our top picks of the quilts not posted in the previous volumes.
We were amazed by the displays of exceptional quilting (machine and hand).

And marveled at the color sense of these artists.

I prefer jewel tones and a swirly, embellished quilt.

While Edie loves stark contrasts, a tailored look.

This woman was so cute. She won a big prize and was thrilled to be posing for photos.

This was my favorite quilt because it uses the Guatemalan fabrics I love. I couldn’t get the whole thing in a shot, so here is as much as I could get at once and a detail shot.

And I think this was Edie’s favorite.

Coming next: Dolls!