Monday, June 30, 2014

At The "Keep Seeking God's Kingdom First" Convention


Every year we have a Bible Convention, this year is special as it's an International; which means that delegates travel from one country to attend a convention in another country.  Wilkes Barre was not an International host Convention, but we were linked up to the Met Life Stadium, outside NYC which was an International host Convention.  Attending that convention were over 60,000 we were tied in with Brooklyn Russian, New Jersey City sign language, Columbus, SC, Boulder City, CO, Milwaukee, WI, Orlando, FL, Turnersville, NJ Hindi, West Palm Beach, Haitian Creole, Winston Salem, NC.  All told total in attendance 140,000.  This is just one of many around the States and the globe.

My sister BB will be attending Twickenham, London which is an International Convention.  I myself have the privilege of attending the Honolulu Convention as a delegate, but that's not until November.

Here are a couple of pics of us outside the stadium.  Rob and I. Kim and Rich who we stayed with and a friend of Kim's.  Taken with Kim's phone.



Such a lovely couple and hospitable hosts.  We had such a nice time with them.


Inside the arena in the intermission.


Rob with my girlfriends and he calls them auntie Joan and auntie Janice.


A family demonstration during the convention.  The convention was for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Really spiritually up-building.

Christy

Friday, June 27, 2014

Fabric Bundle Winner

I was the most fortunate winner of The Long Thread fabric bundle.  Ellen designs fabric for the Japanese company Kokka, do go over and visit her Blog, she also has two books published, 1,2,3, Sew and 1,2,3, Quilt.


Sorry for not posting and thanking Ellen sooner but they arrived just before I went away.  Here is Ellen's fabric collection.  I love the different designs, it's hard to say which is my favourite, but it might just be the butterfly fabric, followed closely by the flower fabric sitting next to it.  The fabrics almost have an earthiness to them, at least in my mind.  Her fabrics come in cotton linen blend and double gauze cotton, it's the natural feel that I like.

By the way the English languages needs more than one word for Love, have you ever thought about that, we love our spouse, we love our families, we love our friends, we love our animals, we love our fabrics, one word Love.  Now what different words could we come up with to express all those different facets of love.  I do feel more words are needed.  In Greek there are Agape, Eros, Philis and Storgy I think there are a couple more, but these are the ones that I know and even these don't cover love of fabric and yarn, Oh well!


Now I need to think of what I'm going to make with each special piece of fabric.


Thank you Ellen, you made my day.

Christy

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Sunrise Along The Susquehanna


Last Thursday the Boy and I headed out to visit and stay with our friends in Danville, PA.  It's about a two and a half hour drive.  I had wanted to leave earlier, but what with the men coming to clean the chimney and Rob wanting to go to the gym, as he had not been for several days, in fact he had just got back from Ithaca the day before and wanted to rest up a bit.  I guess the seven hours on the Greyhound Bus had been a little daunting.  With all that, packing etc, we did not get on the road until 2:30PM.

The drive is mostly Turnpike and then on a major round, but most of this is in the country, in fact quite rural especially when you get off the Turnpike and head out West, along the Susquehanna to Danville, easy driving.  We ran into rain, but once we went through the Lehigh Tunnel and were on the other side of the mountains the weather changed and we were into sun.  In fact even the landscape changes on the other side, all mountains and trees as opposed to farms, then as you get nearer to Danville and closer to the Susquehanna it goes back to farmland.

I'm always amazed at how large even the smaller USA rivers are compared with the tiny Isle I come from.  The Boy travels with GPS which has its' advantages, but mum travels with a map, I just like to see where I am in relation to what's around me.  Love looking at all the towns and their names.

Our friends have been asking us to visit for ever, since they got married a couple of years ago and this is the first time that we have got up there to visit.  So nice to see them, and catch up on things.  Kim had a lovely dinner waiting for us and it fit the Boy's criteria of protein.  A free range chicken from a local Amish Farm.


Sunday morning I was up early with the dawn chorus,  took my camera and went for a drive around.  So here are a few pictures of my drive along the Susquehanna River.  The above photo is of the railway track which parallels the road and the river.


I like the early morning mist.




 


Some early morning fishing.


Christy

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Weekend Wander

It was dull and rained all week, some days it deluged.  It's been a busy week but we're making progress.  Yesterday I took my first hot shower in six weeks in my own bathroom, Friday they installed the new gas hot water heater.  The furnace which is a totally separate entity now will be installed some time in August, before the old furnace did double duty.  I must take a photo of the old furnace before they take it out, it's huge.  This week they suck out the whole tank of oil that the oil company should not have delivered and then the old oil tank is removed from the basement, that will give us a whole extra corner of space in the basement.

I'm still marvelling over my lovely new window pane, the old one looked like a giant rectangular petri dish, like a mad scientist working on mould cultures, for some crazy discovery.

Yesterday the Boy had my car all day as he worked double shift, all next week he will not work.  This morning his dad took him down to Philly to catch the Greyhound Bus to Ithaca, which will take him about six hours, he'll be back Wednesday and then Thursday we leave for Wilkes Barre, PA where we will be staying with friends for a convention, so it's all go.

Yesterday I sat and finished my crochet skirt, even crocheting a tie to thread through the waist holes to pull it in, still have to try it on and take pics I am pretty happy with it though, of course it's summer now, but will be ready for next winter.  If I really like it I might have a go at making some more, think of all those delicious yarn colours out there.  Actually I had half a line of crochet left when I ran out of yarn and it was touch and go if I would find the exact colour match to finish it off, but I did, it was not on the same shelf in the store, but eventually I found it, so happy.  Also Patons Pirouette yarn was on sale, the yarn I used for the shawl, well it was on clearance, so the cheapest it has ever been.

So then I moved on to crocheting Japanese flowers, while watching To The Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway's Party, I must have been in a Virginia Woolf mood.  I so much more understand her writing now than I did reading these books as a youth.

With all this rain the garden is really coming along, although now we need some sun for the veg to grow.  I'm not going to complain though as the temperature beats our usual 100 f and 100% humidity.

So here is a look around my garden.


My roses before all the rain got to them.





I am enjoying all the hard work I did last autumn in making these raised gardening beds.


This was where my large rosemary bush sat for many years, but died this winter, so now it hosts a number of herbs, rosemary, cilantro, lemon sage; which I love, basil, my sage bush made it.



Looking through the leaves of my aubergine plant.



I'm excited because this year I should get my first crop of blackberries off this bush, I'm looking forward to apple and blackberry crumble.


I want to make more wine this year, using the grapes.  My last batch several years ago was very dry, too much for me, those grapes just ate all the sugar up.  I have some old English recipes several of which I've tried before and they are more to my liking, but I shall incorporate the grapes in them.





This little planter came home with me from England on the plane, it's amazing what you can pack.  That was in the years of two suitcases, now it's down to one.


So much pollen in the air which you can see on this velvety petunia.



Must mention this rose bush, I bought it because it reminded me of my childhood, we had one just like this that rambled all over.



Planted two more pairs of boots with cats and kittens, they make it through the winters amazingly well.  Mr. B.'s boots down through the years.

 My lovely fuchsia.



Climbing hydrangea, which says to me, "thank you for moving me after letting me languish in an incorrect growing environment for five years"  it loves it here.


My butterfly bush cut right back after dying, but it is putting out new shoots.


This little tree seeded itself where we usually get our winter wood delivery dropped, so Mr B. dug it out, a tiny little seedling and I planted it here and it's happy.

Wow!  It has been a busy week.  The sun is out it should be a lovely Sunday, hope yours is too.

Christy

P.S.  Thank you to all those who visited my new Lil Bit Brit Lit on WordPress and left a comment.


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Lil Bit Brit Lit Has Moved To Wordpress

Well I have moved my Lil Bit Brit Lit to WordPress click here to visit me there.  For a long while Lil Bit Brit Lit has sat as my orphan Blog and although I copied all of the content into Lilbitbrit may main blog.

I have long wanted to have a go at using WordPress and that truly is a learning curve.  There are so many features that are just not on Blogger, so I thought why not, I've got nothing to loose if something terrible happens.

This will be a work in progress but all my old book reviews are there and I will be adding more and possibly a children's category, revisiting beloved books of my childhood.

So come take a peak Lil Bit Brit Lit on WordPress

Thank you,
Christy

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

New Window On The World

Yesterday Mr. B. put in my new window, no it has only taken about four or could be five years to get this window in, let me explain.  Somehow the bottom half of my front sitting room window had grown mold in between the two panes of glass.  It just got worse and worse, eventually about five years ago we looked up the code from a label stuck inside the window and phoned CertainTeed the makers, sending them photos etc.  They in turn sent us a new window to install, just the pane that was bad.  Now is the tricky part, actually finding someone who can install the pane of glass, and having the time to find that person and putting it on ones list as a priority item, instead of something that should be done at some point.

Eventually Mr. B. found a glass place that would install the window in the frame, if he took them the frame.  He found out on You Tube, that wonderful resource to learn just about anything and was, with the Boy’s help able to do this.

He got the window back in just before this horrendous rain storm hit, when everything on my drive home was flooding.

So now of course the new window needs cleaning, maybe the deep window sill needs cleaning and rearranging, maybe that whole area needs cleaning and rearranging, maybe the whole room needs cleaning and rearranging.  Yes that was me last night after a day of work.  Am I crazy?

This is what the window used to look like.

Christy

Monday, June 9, 2014

Pantone - Spot Colors or PMS Colors Verses CMYK

Pantone - Spot Colors Verses CMYK
I’m going to talk about color or as us Brit’s spell it colour.

Our eye is marvelous, scientists claim that we’re capable of seeing 10 million shades, and some animals, such as tropical fish and birds, can see colors that we cannot.  In fact bees can even see into the ultraviolet.

Our world is in color, but matching colors can be very frustrating.  You know how hard it is to match a paint color, or even choosing a paint color, you think it’s the perfect color, take it home do a swatch or a whole wall and horror of horrors it is not what you thought.  How about with yarn, you run out of yarn and find the original dye lot is no longer on sale, how frustrating is that?

My world is print, that’s my every day 9:00 to 5:00 job I live in that world, well actually 8:30 am to 5:00pm.  There are so many variables in the print world that I am going to just smudge on the surface of this.

But how do we duplicate in print all those colors we see, well of course we can’t, here is where Pantone Spot Colors and CMYK come in.

We ask the question is your project in CMYK or PMS.

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. 

In the Pantone Plus Formula Guide there are 1,341 colors then add the Pantone Plus Extra which gives you another 336 colors, now you are up to 1,677 colors.  On top of this you have Pantone Plus Premium Metallic, Pantone Plus Pastels and Neon’s.

These Pantone color guide swatches, I’m sure you have seen are very expensive to buy, but if you were to buy only one  you should get Pantone Plus Color Bridge which gives you Spot Color to CMYK equivalent.

So you may ask what is CMYK?

CMYK is made up out of:

Process Cyan
Process Magenta
Process Yellow
Process Black

Some spot colors are very hard to render in CMYK one is Navy Blue, it will look kind of purple, somewhat grey, and other hard colors to render in CMYK are bright orange, neon and metallic colors.  CMYK colors tend to look a dull version of a spot color, but not always. 

Another interesting thing about color is that some countries have pallets of color, we all think of Provence in France, their color palette being a certain shade of yellow and blue and in our mind we can visualize that. 

DIC which is created by Dainippon Ink is used in Asia.  It has what they call a theme series including Japanese Traditional Colors. So, those are colors that have been used throughout history in Japan. And French Traditional Colors and Chinese Traditional Colors. So, that's sort of an interesting approach to create a theme, using a dedicated pallet to that country.

In my print world some of our greatest woes happen when a designer designs this amazing piece that looks great on a screen, but does not consult the printer as to how this will be executed, what type of paper stock this should be printed on i.e., coated verses uncoated, which will totally alter the vibrancy of the color, or build colors in CMYK that should really be spot colors; this is when the printer wrings his hands, stands on his head and does cartwheels saying “why didn’t they consult us before designing this piece”  happens all the time.  We have in house designers who know the exact programs that these files should be designed in and it’s not Photoshop.  Also some design pieces with just minor changes in the artwork could be printed much more cost effectively.

I digress, because I just wanted to stick with color.  So I will conclude with a poem by Christina Rosetti  named Color.

Color

What is pink? a rose is pink
By a fountain's brink.
What is red? a poppy's red
In its barley bed.
What is blue? the sky is blue
Where the clouds float thro'.
What is white? a swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow? pears are yellow,
Rich and ripe and mellow.
What is green? the grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? Why, an orange,
Just an orange!


Christy

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Chilling Out Weekend


Chilling out, what do you like to do to chill out?  Work has been very intense for the last fortnight, the type of workload, that when you come home you feel that your brain has been fried.  To wind down I might just pop in the Thrift, it's on my beaten track home from work, so can take a quick look around, here are a few of my finds.

A teacloth embroidered with Mont St Michel, this is such a nice one, brand new, I personally love to take interesting tea cloths on picnics, to lay things out on or cover my basket.  This is the second item I have found in the Thrift from Mont St. Michel. The other item was a china spoon rest. Mont St. Michel of course is in Normandy, an island with what was originally a monastery on it and church.  I have never visited, although would love to.  The sister is Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall, which I have visited several times.  There is a causeway of giant stone which you walk across to the island when the tide is out.  The legend is that a giant dropped them out of her apron.  When the tide is in the causeway is covered.

Historically, St Michael's Mount was a Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (which shares the same tidal island characteristics and the same conical shape), when it was given to the Benedictines, religious order of Mont Saint-Michel, by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.




A little piece of embroidery, at first i though they were rabbits, but now I don't think so, maybe dogs, I'm not sure, delicate work.



And a book, yes I know do I need another one?  Something I have long wanted to get into, keeping a memory journal, I keep an on going diary, and tuck mementos in the back pocket, but keeping a memory journal would be more creatively satisfying, maybe of a holiday.


This is what The Boy likes to do to chill out, here he is working on his dad's bike.  He's learned a lot about bike repair and is good at it.  So I sat with him and he was explaining what was wrong with it and then he said, I miss  Florida and would like to go back.  We both agree that we would indeed like to do it again, only just concentrate on the Panhandle area along the Gulf Coast, plus some of the beautiful parks with Springs, in that area.



I like to chill out with a nice glass of wine and a good book.  When I go to the Thrift I look for wine glasses that are truly different and this fit that criteria.



The Daring Ladies of Lowell, set in Lowell, MA in the 1830's, it's a story about the girls who worked in the cotton mills.


Tuppy chills out like this.



Tink contemplating life.  Her favourite spot is behind that black trellis to the right, her back against the wall, tucked in there with the sun on her, and her back covered, she feels cozy and safe, and sleeps deeply.

That's chilling out and winding down for us.

Christy

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