I wrote about mom’s new princess phone a few days ago. It turns out that that phone didn’t work well with her hearing aids. The sounds were garbled and it didn’t take long before she was frustrated. You might have heard my very deep sigh when I realized that the phone shopping was not over. Continue reading
Christy Hoffmann is sharing her finished Stars in the Garden that she entitled “Alaska Bugs in My Garden”. She writes:
This quilt was finished and entered into the Clark County Quilters Show in 2011 in Vancouver WA. I did hand appliqué and hand seed beading around all of the flying bugs that I designed to replace the pieced stars. Val Pellens, the free motion quilter, quilted a poem I wrote around the border in large lettering: “Oh Alaska summer bugs, please come fly, flutter & buzz, in my midnight garden so bright, ablaze in rays of sunlight”. It won Second Place Judged and Third Place Viewers Choice for Large Applique. It also won First Place for Large Applique in the 2011 Sandy Historical Society Quilt Show. I was sad to see it finished, it was so much fun to work on!
I love it! The bugs in the center are a good touch. Well done!
My mom and telephones have not gotten along well for the last several years. The more advanced the phone is, the less she likes it.
When mom moved a few weeks ago to assisted living I asked about phone service. Someone told me that the service in the apartments didn’t work so I got mom a non-contract flip phone from AT&T. Seriously… what was I thinking!!!! After 4 weeks mom told me that she’d rather not have a phone than use the little flip phone.
I asked the folks at Preston Place again about telephone access and was told to call Verizon to activate the phone service in her apartment. OK, I could do that. But when I called Verizon they said ‘no, they don’t do that anymore but Frontier might’. I was about to come unglued (this had been a frustrating day) and the nice man on the phone kept saying, ‘ but wait… we have this cellular thing.’ It only took him a few tries but he finally got me to listen to what he was saying and it’s pretty cool.
Verizon has a small shiny black box with an antenna that plugs into an electrical outlet. It’s called Wireless Home Phone. You can plug a landline phone into the back of it. In fact, you can plug in 2 phones!
This is the Wireless Home Phone unit.
They are having a promotion so the initial $40 fee was waived. I signed a 2 year contract locking in the price at $20 a month for unlimited calling (+fees and taxes). That’s cheaper than the flip-phone contract was going to be.
Mom’s fancier Panasonic cordless phones worked but she didn’t love those phones. They have too many bells and whistles and have been hard for her to use. Mom asked if I could just get her a telephone—and she asked in such a way that I knew I might as well find what she wanted, now, not later. So I Googled retro phones and found all sorts of choices.
Mom is now the proud owner of a beige princess phone. It isn’t smart. It’s just a phone and so far she is very happy. UPDATE: I need to get a better/more expensive princess phone. This one is a little twitchy but her cordless landline phone works very well. She doesn’t like it as much, but she can use it.
It’s loud enough for her to hear, the buttons are big and lit. It’s not as heavy as the original princess phones, but it feels sturdy.
I wish I had known about this years ago. Mom had phone service from Cableone and I know it was more expensive than this service is. And I wish I had thought to get her a retro phone a long time ago too.
I’m sharing this because I know some of you may know people who are having similar phone problems. I hope this helps!
Look what came in my email, from Sylvia Phillips:
She wrote:
I am 80 yrs old and I have been appliqueing for 60 yrs..It is my first love…my daughter and I took your class when you came to Hershey, PA several yrs ago..I am working on some of the blocks from your book “Aunt Millie’s Garden”..I am enclosing photos …thanks again….
Sylvia, you do lovely work and I’m happy that you are enjoying sewing Aunt Millie’s Garden. Happy stitching!
NASA has a massive library of amazing photos and they are right there for us to use! Read the fine print because there are some restrictions but for the most part we can use them for non-commercial purposes. I have always loved this sort of picture…
This image shows the galaxy Messier 94, which lies in the small northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs, about 16 million light-years away. Within the bright ring around Messier 94 new stars are forming at a high rate and many young, bright stars are present within it – thanks to this, this feature is called a starburst ring.
And the earth from space is also pretty darned interesting!
A hurricane, seen from space.
I was reminded about these free NASA images by John McWade. You should watch his free video about how he made calendars using these images. I read all of his issues of Before & After, published over the last many years. I learned so much about graphic design, text, and layout from him! He is now at Lynda.com and I wish him years of happiness there.
Quilt by Teresa Marler, quilted by Donna Titsworth.
Teresa Marler wrote a few months ago asking for permission to enter a quilt she made (quilted by Donna Titsworth) in which she used a few of our design elements. I always say yes but it’s nice to asked.
She just sent a picture of her quilt with the news that she won a biweekly prize at Hancock’s of Paducah. Isn’t it fantastic! I had to look twice to see the Tree O’ Life designs that come our book, Applique Outside The Lines. Very nice indeed!
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