My interview with CraftBoom is up, go read to discover which questions submitted by you kind people that I answered. Thank you so much for all the questions, I think I might answer more of them because I'm so grateful so many people took the time to submit them.

A huge thanks to Lisa, whom you might know better as the lady behind U-Handbag, where she sells hard to find handbag supplies, and the fabulous site U-Handblog.

This is, sigh, test number four of attempts to post from my iPhone. Again please disregard unless you're anxious to find out if I've gotten the photos to show up yet or not.

update: Alrighty. This is what I've learned about the iPhone app for Wordpress, you cannot change the size that the image posts, at least not yet, so you'll have the thumbnail linking to the larger image effect which is inconvenient. The image won't automatically realign itself, which is something that worked with my old phone and it's suspiciously awesome camera. (Will the photo automatically rotate in Flickr? Must investigate.) The image will always appear below the text. But, I've figured how to fix the ../../../tmp business going on. If you happen to be trying to figure out the same thing let me know.

Hello, I need your help. I'm in the middle of being interviewed for a craft site and part of the interview is to make up five questions of my own to answer. I've been dragging my feet on that bit because ever time I try to think of something I go all Monty Python, "What is your favorite color?" "Blue. No, yel-- Auuugh!"

So, with the permission of the interviewer, I'm going to ask you for questions. Anything you'd like to know about this site or my business? Questions don't necessarily need to be craft related, or related to anything in particular, but considering the craft slant on the interview it might be an advantage. I'll choose the five questions that catch my fancy (aka. seem like ones I won't have to think to hard to answer) and let you know when the interview is up.

Please ask questions in the comments. My undying zombie gratitude!

I keep seeing people link to this Lego video but I hadn't had time to stop and watch it yet. Turns out, not only is it so very fun but it was made by the husband of a reader. The video is part of a competition and if he, that is Michael Leonard, gets enough votes he could win $10K to attend law school. I say? The world needs more lawyers who know how to make Lego stop motion techno videos that can make you laugh.

Watch the video Legal Land, then go here and vote for Michael Leonard. Good luck Michael!

Recently we took a short trip to Victoria, BC. We used a Clipper vacation package -- you hop on a boat in Seattle which drops you off in Victoria two and a half hours later with, hopefully, your hotel van waiting just on the other side of customs. Most hotels are mere blocks away.



Victoria BC is a small town with a ton of stuff to do, with Butchart Gardens being the one everybody asks about. We did not visit Butchart Gardens because for this short trip the interest level/entrance fee/travel time (it's about half an hour north of Victoria) didn't weigh out with my goal of doing nothing much at all. If you are car-less you can get there via a tour bus or the regular public transportation bus.

Victoria is a very walkable/wanderable town, and the Victorian architecture and Canadian-ness of it all make it charming. I was a little worried about the size while looking at the map, but ten blocks in any direction from the hotel had us where we wanted to go so there was never any desire to rent a car or scooter to get around. (more...)

Do you happen to have a copy of the current Disc Makers catalog (shown above) taking up valuable space on your dining room table? I'd like to persuade you to trade it to me for, uh, something of equal value. You see, that is Scott's current CD* shown on the cover and we'd really like to have a copy for posterity. Funnily enough, we don't get the Disc Makers catalog anymore. Do you have one you're willing to part with? Let me know and we'll make a deal, notmartha AT gmail DOT com, thanks. Ok, I have secured one, thanks to everybody who wrote in. I somehow suspected Disc Makers sent out an awful lot of these.


* His CD Release Show is Friday, July 18th at Egan's in Ballard, you should come!

Hi, hello. I've moved this site to new hosting, and except for that bit where my Technical Advisor was too busy practicing with his band* to help me out a few days earlier, it was nicely painless. I'm very happy in my new home at Media Temple, and a huge thanks to Susie at Boygirlparty for the emphatic recommendation.

A few things are looking wonky around here as a result of upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress during the move, and I have plans to makes some small changes while we're at it. But mostly we can all carry on.


* Scott's having a "Damn, I Should've Had A CD Release Party" party at Egan's in Ballard (here in Seattle) on Friday, July 18th. You should come!


While I was away I made popsicles and cut some lavender:

It's been awfully hot here and we're all moving a bit slow including, it seems, my site. Unexplainable technical difficulties have been plaguing me since last week so I'm in the midst of packing it all up and moving it to a new home. The site might blip away for a while, but don't worry, I'll return.

In the mean time I've been watching happily as my newly planted lavender blooms enough to let me cut a little bit this year. But only at night when it's cooled down a bit. Man.