C´était en août cette année.  Il y a presque 4 mois, un SWAP avait été organisé. Plusieurs personnes y ont participé. Les colis avec les spécialitées régionales ont fait le tour du monde, plusieurs pays ont été présent.

L´organisation était un vrai casse tête, mais tout à bien marché et les réactions ont été extrêment positives!!

Je vais donc, réorganiser un nouveau SWAP, mais dans les environs de janvier/février, quand tout le monde sera rentré de vacances.

Si ca vous dis de participer, contactez moi!!

I had been pet sitting for my little brother this passed weekend and wow, what a menagerie!  They have a dog, Shayna the Labradoodle, one large cat, Haji, two kittens, Graci and Emmit, and two hamsters Romeo and Pippie.  Most of my time was spent with the cats and the dog.  Shayna is one big baby dog!  She thinks she is a lap dog and spent most of the time sharing the chair with me and blocking my view of the TV.  She loved to be petted and to have her hair played with.  The kittens came by every so often for a little bit then Shayna jumped up in my lap and they scattered.  Haji finally came up to me on Friday.  I rubbed his belly for a while and he loved it…then came Shayna and off he went.  I had a lot of fun! 

It felt good to get back home today at lunchtime and have no commitments or anyplace to be.  It has been a while since that has happened.  I was late for the November birthday swap cards, well technically not late until Tuesday.  So I went for broke and while I was at it finished up the year’s worth.  I decided to raid my scrap bin as when I was driving home I kept thinking of a crazy quilt.  I am pleased with how it came out and even had some pieces left over so started working on another little project.  Nothing planned, it just happened.  More on that later. 

I called the cards Scrap Bin Crazy Quilt.  I like how the batiks came together and the water stained ric rac and the leaf shapes I cut out.  I love the stitching, too’.

I haven’t been a slug, I promise you. I’ve been busy with life (aka the hubster), school, Thanksgiving, etc. I’ve also been busy making a Christmas stocking to fill with quilting goodies for a swap. It was super stress relieving and I’m simply thrilled with the results. I leave you with the pictures. I hope you like it too!

Strips Of Fabric Sewn Together

Strips After Cutting, Then Re-arranged

String Strips & One Length Strips Sewn On Muslin To Create Large Block

Stocking (Was Quilted With Batting And Backing) Cut Out OF Strips

Back Of Stocking

Close Up Of Stocking Top

Ta Da!

Envoi demain !

Edit du 30/11 : colis posté ce matin

Cette recette au départ était des fondants de douche mais comme l’odeur me semblait plus approprié pour l’air ambiant de la maison pendant les fêtes que sur la peau les voila convertit en brule parfum. Il suffit de les faire fondre dans une soucoupe sous un lampion ou dans un brule parfum déjà conçu a cet effet. La fragrance se diffuse et on peut en ajouter d autre lorsque ca ne sent plus, mais dans ce cas ci on peut très bien les utiliser comme fondant de douche aussi.

Je voulais m inspirer de la nouvelle fragrance de chez Body Shop à base d’abricot…ca fait vraiment noël et j adore l’odeur d’abricot

40% de beurre dur (beurre de cacao)

40% de beure mou (beurre de coconut)

20% de cire émulsifiante (que l’on peut remplacer par de l’acide stéarique, de la cire de soya ou cire d’abeille pour en faire de vrai brule-parfum)

fragrance Christmas song, abricot et citrouille et cannelle cannelle

mica cappuccino

Comme 2e produit du swap de noel 2009 du forum faits maison j ai fait un essai avec une recette de fondant de douche.

j’adore les fondants de douche et voulant les essayer lavant avec du sci et bien j’ai tout simplement prit ma recette inspirée de ma Reo et ajouté du sci et bioterge deux surfactants en poudre…..bon ca se voulait un peu moussant cela n’a pas fonctionné vraiment mais c est pas grave ca lave quand même sans avoir de la mousse!

Le parfum et bien tout simplement le duo à tuer qu on a découvert Tartopom, Carton et moi lors de notre journée tambouille cet été….biscuit au sucre et orange squeeze….je ne peux plus m’en passer et NDA ne vend plus biscuit au sucre!!!!!!! j’ai trouvé ailleurs des que je commande je vais vous dire si ca sent pareil!

Fondant de crème lavante

• 35% de beurre de karité non raffinée
• 35% de beurre de cacao
• 20% de cire émulsifiante
• 4% de SCI
• 4% de bioterge
• fragrances sugar cookie et orange squeeze

si on ne connait pas ce genre de produit voici comme on l’utilise: sur la peau sous l eau chaude. Le fondant forme un lait….j’adore! je trouve c est luxueux comme produit!

Je vous dévoile mon swap de Noel du Forum Fait Maison……..celle qui n’ont pas reçu….on va voir ailleurs!!!!!

3 douceurs qui j’espère seront plaire parce que moi j ai aimé et j ai déjà presque plus

un beurre hydratant

un fondant de douche crème lavante

2 brule-parfum qui peuvent aussi servir de fondant de douche

Beurre hydratant…..(reprise inspiré mais largement modifié de ma crème fondante que l’on trouve ici http://madameparfum.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/crme-fondante-hydratante/) j’ai du faire 26 flacons donc je vous épargne les quantités astronomiques que ca implique et je vous retrouve les pourcentages

phase aqueuse

eau bouillie

jus d’aloès

phase huileuse

huile de tournesol, pépins de raisins, de soya, de jojoba, 

cire émulsifiante

pour le parfum …….de la cire de rose (hum parfum sublime), fragrance sans phthalates de dragon blood, margarita, nag champa et orange.

Autres

conservateur

poudre d’extrait de camomille

vitamine E

un peu plus ferme que j’aurais voulu, faut y aller doucement avec la pompe mais conserver dans une pièce bien tempérée y a pas de soucis

les deux autres recettes suivent sous peu…..

It must have been a very speedy flying bird that delivered the SSCS package from my partner all the way from OZ to my door!

After some tossing and turning of the envelopes I find out about the name of my SSCS partner. It’s Bec from ohsewbusy. Apart from receiving wonderful gifts, it’s so nice to meet new bloggers!

The big parcel will be opened on Christmas Day…. if I can manage. I’m the kind of girl that’s always so curious, so I might ask the man of the house to hide it somewhere…

But… I was allowed to open the parcel with the Christmas decoration. Aren’t they gorgeous? I love the stitcheries of the Christmas Pudding and the Tree. Thanks Bec!! Let all the Christmas fun begin!

Nicolette

Just kidding, but it’s possible as I am planning to change my beloved V 40 for a one with a stronger engine. Commuting between Landsberg DE and Gliwice PL (about 1000km) would save me a lot of time. And my wife is going to get Volvo XC 90 so she would gladly give away her Corsa. Lol!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! And just today I have come up with the idea of swap servicing, so from now on, iLearning Mobile Academy opens up SwapCenter for its members! (via @iGPS2Success)

House Swappers…I will be posting the official sign-up post on December 7th.  Be deciding what kind of building you want to make, they’ll be first come, first serve.  Check out this post for ideas on what to make.  I think there will probably be only room enough for 2 people to make each category, so 2 people to make schools, 2 people for houses, etc.  So you’ll probably want to think of a second choice, just in case.  Remember, we’re doing detailed buildings here, not vague wonky ones.  And each person will be making 9 blocks, and receiving 9 back.  Enough for a really cute wall hanging size.  So check back on the 7th to get all the details and sign-up early to get your category.  The swap won’t officially start until after the first of the year, so you won’t have to do anything for it before the holidays.  I just want to get everyone signed up and in groups so we can start early in January. 

I finally found the BOM I’m going to do next year.  Of course the pattern book is no longer in print, and they’re listed on Amazon up to $100, waaaaay out of my price range.  But, I was fortunate to find one on ebay for a good price.

There are actually 2 different patterns for each month, so you can pick and choose to make your own personal calendar quilt.  Plus, there are several pages of ‘gallery’ that shows different quilts that people have made, along with some custom blocks to give more ideas and inspiration.

I think if you click on the picture, it should open up bigger so you can see the details better.

I’m glad the whole pattern is in the book, so I don’t have to commit to one of those really expensive BOM programs.  I can use my own fabric, and work on it as I want.  I’m really excited to start.  If it wasn’t so hard to get the pattern book, I would see if anyone else wanted to ‘quilt along’.  There’s a lot of new techniques in this pattern…turned-edge applique, 3D effects…that I’ve never done before, so it will definitely be a challenge.  But I’ll learn a lot too.

And here’s a picture of 1 of 3 baby quilts I’ve been working on, for a very exciting purpose.  More on that later…

I haven’t posted much lately, but I really have been busy.  I’ve got 3 other quilt tops made, but of course on the one sunny day to take pictures, they’re over at my mom’s.  Figures.  We had an all night quilting party the other night and they’re still there.  But I have a few exciting things coming down the pike, so stay tuned…

Over the past month I’ve been participating in a secret pal swap through Knitty and it’s been super fun.

Here’s the gist for those of you who’ve never heard of this: You’re paired with both an “upstream” and a “downstream” pal.  You send fun goodies to your downstream and your upstream does the same for you.  It’s awesome because you get the fun of cyber-stalking someone to figure out what sorts of things they would like and you can be as creative as you like in picking them out, packaging, and sending them.  Plus, you have someone doing the same for you so you get a box of awesomeness to open too.

Well, my box of awesomeness arrived yesterday and I’m thrilled.

• Pretty Cheep Project Bag – super cute with a picture of a purple bird on it and useful because all of my other project bags are only half this size.
• Amy’s Blend spiced rooibos tea from Caribou Coffee – very exciting as I’ve not tried rooibos yet.
• Eucalan wool wash – I usually wash my woolly things in Dawn so I’m thrilled to have some fancy soap for my special things.
• Lucy’s Chocolate Factory toffee crunch bar – Yum!
• A skein of Wisdom Yarns’ Los Angeles sock yarn in brown, red, yellow, and blue – who doesn’t need more sock yarn, and such pretty colors!
• Two skeins of Berroco Pure Merino in a beautiful dark teal – so soft!
• One skein of a very bulky, natural colored wool yarn from Bartlett Yarns – this is the smooshiest yarn I’ve ever felt, it’s like hugging a sheep (without all of the wiggling and baa-ing and poop).

Thank you, thank you, thank you, oh secret pal of mine.  Now, my secret pal didn’t tell me her name, but I have a strong suspicion that it’s Christy.  Yoohoo, Christy!  Care to confirm or deny?

PS: If you’d like to see what I put together for my downstream, check out Lynn’s blog,  Froggy Knittery.

Dylan Static 3 by dbson

meanest mk4 ever

It’s time for the Holidays!  And for some of you that means lots and lots of parties and shopping to find you an inexpensive but very cute dress. Well I hate to add another party to your list, but this one is sure to get you (and your friends) ready for all of those holiday celebrations. Throw a Swap it Out Party! This new craze in shopping is all the talk and lots of fun! So how does it work? I’m glad you asked! Invite your friends and have them invite their friends to wherever you plan to host your party and the catch is, everyone has to bring a dress or dresses that they are willing to GIVE away. Then everyone SWAPS IT OUT and exchanges their clothes! Sounds fun right?!? Gather your girls and begin searching your closets. And don’t forget when everyone RSVPs they need to give their sizes. Now you’re on your way to begin partying for the season! Have fun and most importantly look fabulous! Remember one woman’s trash could be another woman’s perfect outfit!!!

Deena

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/momfashionality

More Ongoing Wish Swap goodness! I claimed Mlsocci74 for kitty things and armwarmers for her daughter.

It took me like, nineteen tries to get a color combination that wouldn’t make me want to stab my eye out while I was knitting them. I believe I was successful, though they’re still vaguely sickeningly girly:

Pattern: The one from my head. Top-down fingerless mitts with extra long cuffs.
Yarn: Reclaimed thrift store sweater wool. Natural/undyed* and kool-aid hand-dyed pink, which would be a pretty color if I liked pink at all.
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Clover dpns

*Mac dictionary wanted to correct this to “undead”. Bahahahaha, zombie mitts!

These took me a grand total of like three hours to make, which isn’t bad at all. And they’re cute I guess. I wouldn’t wear them (I need my pink to be SERIOUSLY TEMPERED if it’s on my person), but a 13-year-old might like them if she’s girly. Yay.

I also made a bunch of kitty toys (mice) for the package:

Pattern: My own. Increase up to 16, knit around, decrease down to three and knit icord. Ears are crocheted mostly.
Yarn: Various scraps of things including Cascade Eco Wool, Knit Picks WotA, and thrift store sweater wool.
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm for the Eco Wool and US 5/3.75(right?) mm for the others.

(I have a serious love for this photo. I love the Macro setting.)

They’re cute. I like to hold them. I might make some for my cats for when I’m home over winter break because they take only a tiny amount of yarn and are GREAT for stash/scrap busting. I used up every inch of that purple WotA. Win.

Anyway, that’s what I sent off. One of my packages has arrived (not this one), so I can claim someone else! Whoo! I also recently finished two knitted things, which I will have FO posts for soon (today is gloomy and not a good day for photos).

Google has reinforced its map search considerably since introducing in July, and has since made one upgrade in October, and now the search titan is making many other interesting changes to make property searches easier and search results more useful for users, the most significant being the option to search for properties by simply adding “real estate” to a map search.

The enhancement also extends to other variations of the keyword and search combinations, such as “homes for sale,” and link locations to individual “place pages” which offers searchers with more information.

Now, simply searching for “real estate” will return, well, real estate (try it)! You could also try “homes for sale sydney” or “homes for rent adelaide”. Or while you are at it, check out “apartments for sale brisbane”, or “homes for rent near perth”. The concept is to make it really easy for you guys – you tell us what you want, and we get it back to you! Of course, we will continue to work to return the best results for all your Google Maps queries, whether you’re looking for local businesses, geographic features, or your perfect home.

Apart from this feature, Google has also integrated real estate listing and hosted in on Place Pages. This gives Google users a day of rest, away from everything.

The place pages, named Google Base, will combine listings sent in by agents and brokers, and every listing will have its individual page, and one single page will give the users all the information about a property, including details of the property, pictures, videos and its street view, among others.

The updated real state search options were unveiled by Google Australia’s software engineers in a post on the company’s official blog. As of now, Google Base only includes homes for sale, apartments which are available for rent and distressed property listings from across Canada and US.

Here is the official Google press release from Google.

It IS getting to that time of year again, and Friday of this week starts its shopping season.  Christmas is almost here.  Seems like only yesterday it was Halloween!  LOL, the year has flown by and what have I to show for it?  A year of arts and crafts. 

The MAD and GAS MAMMA groups have combined for a time into a new group Art & Soul.  Some of the members have stepped forward to create group challenges and this one was brought to the group by Sherry.  She created these lovely angels.  They are quite easy to make so I made two. 

It feels great to have my scissors, papers, lace bits and templates in my hands again.  With the dog watching stint and the cold I caught after it seems like forever.  I have really missed it.  This was the perfect project to get my feet wet and my fingertips glued again. 

P.S. Did you notice the new banner?  What do you think of it? 

I just can’t figure out what to do. I mean I think I am a writer and dont have the time to write what I want. There are so many things that I have not written about that have happened since I started this blog. What the heck how am I going to be able to do it?

Discipline I guess is the key hunh? And you can add a little Focus? Dont forget the family that always gets in the way? And Life of course.

So I guess I will do a quick top 3 lately!

1. Clay Swaps at City O Clay
2. Polymer Clay Cafe
3. Tumbler Working

So I became swap mistress at City O Clay. A lot of work but honestly the first swap is not completed and I am getting more out of it than the clayers I think. I am so happy that my hard work is translating into their hard work! Nothing could make a mama clayer happier than others having ideas and needing to GET THEM ON PAPER before they forget. Or being inspired by trying a new technique even if they are not new to clay. This is something that has taken a great deal of my time the last few weeks but I can see this is something I really am going to get a lot out of.

Polymer Clay Cafe published one of my how to articles in their April 09 edition. This was a natasha bead that had a cool checkerboard pattern on the outer parts of the bead. For me that was so cool being a published artist. Whoda thunkit? I really love writing articles and plan on writing the next one over the Thanksgiving weekend if I have the camera then. Cant wait to try I am very excited about this next article. First time do you know that I forgot to include any contact information. Always remember they print what you send so make sure you send it all the first time.

I have a working tumbler now it is so nice. The first time I used the tumbler after purchasing I did not line it and the clay turned black. It just so happened the item in the tumbler was the next project for Polymer Cafe. Life is funny sometimes.

So I guess even though I want to write longer more involved posts I must shorten them so I can start a subject and finish. No more of this follow-up stuff. I will have to work out in my mind how to tell you something two months from now that is happening today because I just didnt have time.

A menudo las herramientas de particionado a nuestra disposición nos resultan incomodas, limitadas o complicadas de usar, todos los sistemas operativos incluyen herramientas de particionado, pero raras veces son tan completas como quisiéramos, en esas ocasiones puede sernos de utilidad una herramienta como GParted.

Para realizar el proceso detallado en este tutorial necesitaremos el Cd Live GParted, si vuestro ordenador permite arrancar desde USB podréis ahorraros un CD.

1) Como es costumbre con los Live CD, introducimos el CD y configuramos en la BIOS el arranque desde el CD-ROM, guardamos los cambios y salimos de la BIOS.

2)Este Live Cd nos presenta una interface bastante amigable y cómoda de usar, nada complicada, seleccionamos la opción “GParted” para iniciar el programa y acto seguido nos aparecerá la tabla de particiones, en función de si el disco está vacío o si disponemos de particiones ya creadas el aspecto que presentará sera distinto pero fácil de entender.

1. La opción “New” nos permitirá crear nuevas particiones, mientras que la opción “delete” nos permitirá borrarlas convirtiéndolas en espacio no asignado, la opción redimensionar nos permitirá reducir o aumentar el tamaño de una o mas particiones así como mover de sitio la partición si deseamos colocarla al final o delante de otra.
2. La tabla de particiones se nos muestra con un aspecto similar a un gráfico, pudiendo observar las distintas particiones, su posición, el espacio que ocupan o su nombre.
3. El nombre de la partición si tiene.
4. El sistema de archivos de la partición, “extended” hace referencia a la memoria Swap.
5. El tamaño total de la partición, su espacio ocupado y su espacio libre.

Si deseamos crear una partición, deberemos situarnos sobre el espacio del disco duro no asignado (en gris) y o bien con botón derecho o bien con el icono “New” podremos configurar sus características.

Podremos ajustar su tamaño tanto introduciendo el numero exacto en la casilla “Tamaño nuevo (MB)” como manualmente mediante el gráfico superior (algo mas impreciso que introduciendo el numero), la opción “Crear como” hace referencia a si deseamos una partición primario o lógica, en “Sistema de archivos” seleccionaremos el que se ajuste a nuestras necesidades, Ext2 o Ext 3 si ha de albergar un Linux, Swap si ha de ser la de intercambio.
Si deseamos ponerle una etiqueta a nuestra partición para tenerla diferenciada podemos hacerlo escribiendo aquellos que nos parezca acertado, el “espacio libre precedente“ y “el espacio libre a continuación” lo dejamos a 0.

Pulsamos en “add” y ya tendremos configurada la partición, podremos crear aquellas que necesitemos, en mi caso, dos para la instalación de una distribución Linux, por lo que necesitaré otra partición Swap.

Una vez creadas las particiones necesarias, procederemos a guardar los cambios, pulsaremos en “apply” para que se apliquen los cambios y escriba las particiones en la tabla de particiones, cuando termine se habrán realizado correctamente todos los cambios realizados y podremos salir del CD-Live con la opción “exit“.

S.W.A.P. Le plus grand échange de vêtements en amérique du Nord! North america biggest clothing swap!

Des vêtements jettés forment 4% du contenu des dépotoirs américains…

Cette semaine j’ai rencontré Aleece Germano de SWAP. Son projet de troc de vêtement marche très bien. Le dernier événement de SWAP a été un succès, avec plus de 650 participants et des dizaines de bénévoles. À la différence des lieux de donation de vêtements classiques au Québec (Armée du Salut, sous-sols d’églises, Petits frères des pauvres, Société Saint-Vincent de Paul, Moisson Montréal), SWAP fait une sélection des vêtements. Pour chaque vêtement donné, on nous donne un coupon qui nous donne droit à un échange. Les vêtements usés, tâchés ou déchirés sont mis de côté et sont donnés dans les réseaux classiques de don de vêtements. Et Aleece est très fière de l’aspect rassembleur de SWAP, qui a su attité des gens de toutes classes sociales et toutes origines. Grâce à Internet, le projet prends de l’expansion, et se déroule dans plusieurs villes: après Montréal, voici Calgary, Boston… et d’autres villes à venir!

Le projet SWAP

SWAP sur Facebook