Around the World Blog Hop, more or less

A little while ago, my blogger friend Jay tagged me in the Around the World Blog Hop.  Is there anyone left who hasn't been tagged in this? I think perhaps not, as everyone I asked to tag (which was admittedly about 5 people) had already done it. And a few of the others who I might have asked, had already asked me (after I'd said "yes" to Jay), so I knew I couldn't ask them.  I'm not a huge person for tagging and nominating and chain letters and all that sort of stuff, but I don't mind giving you a few recommendations as to where you might go to enjoy reading a new blog. So I've just put some links to blogs - an international selection - at the end. If you want to take part in the blog hop and haven't yet done so, I think you should feel free to jump in - grab the questions from here and just go for it.

So. First question:  What am I currently working on?

Well, what I am not currently working on, is more like it. I always have a bunch of different stuff on the go. Here's a selection.

Here are a couple of quilted quilts, back from the longarmer, which are waiting to have binding attached. There's a third hanging around somewhere too.  So I guess they count as something I'm working on at the moment...

I'm always trying to keep my scrapbasket (above) and strip bag (below) under control; recently someone donated a load of fabric, much of it decent quality poly-cotton to me, so at the moment, I'm trying to use that up in a purposeful way.

I tend to make loads of blocks, accumulate them, and then have a massive go at turning them into tops - here are some of the block sets I have, wiating to be made into tops (actually, some of the ones in this photo  have been dealt with, though many of them are still hanging about). 

I do a lot of cross-stitch as well - above is a sneak peek from a Hallowe'en mystery, which I'm not supposed to show; below is part of a larger piece of a girl with a cake - I'm only working on this one sporadically, so I don't suppose it will go very quickly. 

I also make a lot of ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) which are little works of art, the size of a collector's card (e.g. baseball cards or Pokemon cards or whatever). This is a fairly recent series of house-shaped cards for a swap.

I am also currently collecting an entire deck of Altered Playing Cards (a subset of ATCs), with a butterfly theme - here are a couple of the ones I made for the swap, which is now nearly done - fours, with a Flower Fairy theme

and 8's.  I'll spare you the photos of the other numbers in each suit...

Question 2: How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

Well, I'm not sure it does, really.  Certainly in quilting, I make what I like, mostly, which tends to be simple, geometric blocks, using a scrappy or controlled scrappy look. But lots of other folks do this as well.  Perhaps mine differ in that I make a lot more tops than finished quilts, and then donate the tops to Project Linus.

Question 3: Why do I create what I do?

Several reasons, really. I like to have something creative to do. I hate being not busy. I like to try new things. I like to swap things with people. I also organise swaps sometimes - the only current one is the series of little quilt swaps called Another Little Quilt Swap. Of which another round will probably begin before too much longer....

Question 4: What is my creative process?

I'm not sure I have a specific process. In quilting, I just tend to look at what I have and see if there's anything obvious I should do with it. For instance, an abundance of 3" squares in my scrap stash might lead to someting using squares and rectangles. And abundance of strips will lead me in a different direction.  Sometimes I'll see something someone else has done and have a go at that. Is that a process?

Some places for you to visit:

I used to read many, many blogs (off and on - never could keep up). A few years ago, I cut them way back, and only kept a small selection (like maybe 100) that I look at with any regularity. Sometimes I add some, sometimes I take some away. But at the moment, here are some I read a lot, most of which, whose authors I consider friends, even if I haven't met them in person.  And a couple I just like to keep up with because their lives are so different to mine. And still interesting.  With an emphasis on the international...

Ruth's Place. Ruth is a knitter, quilter and scrapbooker, originally Australian but currently living in Papua New Guinea. I started following Ruth's blog when she lived in South Africa a number of years ago - trying to remember how many - not sure, but it was considerably before her daughter was born, and the daughter is now 6. Yikes - where does the time go?

Celtic Knots. Cathi is a displaced Yank, like me, and in fact, we were in person friends way before blogs existed. She's currently in Ireland and although she has a quilting history and knits too, her currently big thing is scrapbooking and cardmaking and designing for companies in that industry. She's on a number of design teams... She took part in the blog hop earlier this summer, so you can read her blog hop post here.

Sew Kalico. A displaced South African in Yorkshire (hmm, sensing an ex-pat theme to my blog reading!) who sews and quilts and raises kids... I've been reading her blog for many years as well, and we have become in person friends as well as online buddies. She also is taking part in the blog hop, so you can read her posting here.  The person who tagged her (Plum) also tried to tag me, but I was taken. But hey, go check out Plum's blog anyway!

Sophie Junction. Again, a longtime online friend,  currently living in New Mexico, though we have yet to meet up in person. Sophie runs the Block Lotto, of which I am a huge fan, as well as writing her own blog. She also asked to tag me, so I'm thinking she'll be posting a blog hop post soon - perhaps today!

Life at the Black Bear Cabin. Lisa lives in the mountains of Colorado, way more in the middle of nowhere than I'd be interested in living, but I do love to read about her adventures. Again, we haven't met in person, though we've been acquainted online for a long time, and are of a similar age, so have a lot of cultural reference points in common, at least in our childhoods!  Lisa is a quilter, but has a lot of other things keeping her busy, too, not the least of which devising ways to keep the bears and raccoons out of her kitchen...

Veronica Roth. (Vancouver & Oxord.) Veronica is an artist with her hands in many pies, and a prolific blogger. Her blog always has fantastic photos, too. I've only been reading it a few years, but it's very peaceful, and of course, having lived in Oxford in the past myself, I always enjoy seeing what she's up to when she's there.

Comptonia. (New England) Quinn is a knitter, among other things - I started following her blog a few years ago as well, I think as a result of a blog hop of some sort. I like a lot of what she blogs about, but mostly, I enjoy her goats. It's almost like having my own goats, without any of the work.

There are loads more - if you are out of ideas, try some of the links in my sidebar. Or jump around from the many links you will no doubt find on these fine ladies' blogs. Sometimes, when I have free time, I like to indulge in a little random hopping - you never know who you might come across...

The ABCs of Me

I don't take part in a lot of meme stuff, but I saw this on another blog and it looked fun. So here you go - the ABCs of me...

 A - Age: 44
 B - Bed Size: King
 C - Chore you Hate: weeding
 D - Dogs Name: don't have one now, but had Scruffy and Socks when I was a kid
 E - Essential Start of the Day Item: cuppatea
 F - Favorite Color: brown
 G - Gold or Silver: Silver
 H - Height: 5'6" ish.
 I - Instruments You Play: clarinet, piano - neither of them much
 J - Job: Teaching Assistant. And House Manager (neither of which pays as well as it should)
 K - Kids: 3 - Sarah (15), Olivia (13), and Alex (10)
 L - Living Arrangements - House, outside London, sometimes feels a bit crowded
 M - Music You Love - Pretty much everything except stupid pop music, hard rap/house music and weirdo modern classical
 N - Nickname - Technically, Kate is a nickname, since my birthname is Kathryn
 O - Overnight Hospital Stays - 3 - all to do with having babies
 P - Pet Peeve - bad grammar (funny enough, this is what the person I took this from had - and I'm going to leave it, to the surprise of no one who knows me!)
 Q - Quote from A Movie: Hmm. We quote movies (and songs) all the time but of course I can't think of a good one when I want to. I've always been quite fond of the conversation about men & women being friends, from When Harry Met Sally - especially when she says "Are you saying I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?"
 S - Siblings: 1 brother. younger. 
 T - Time You Wake Up: way too stupidly early (6.45)
 U - Underwear: not optional.
 V - Vegetable you dislike - none
 W - Workout Style - walking, swimming, bike-riding
 X - Xrays you've had: Not sure, it's been a long time since I had one for anything. Teeth!
 Y - Yummy Food you Make: Everything. Well, not quite, but if you are interested, check out my family blog...
 Z - The Best Place to Visit:  (where's the z?) Going home is always lovely...

(Just realised, I've lost "R"  - will now have to try to remember whose blog I got this from so I can find out what it was!!)

A millennium of blogging?

I said in my intro recently that I've been blogging for 10 years and writing this particular blog for 6, but I only just realised a few days ago that this very post will be number 2000 for this blog (yep, I talk a lot).   Now I've got a little giveaway going already, so I don't really fancy another one - even a more interesting one - at the moment, so I think what I'm going to do is wait until later in the year, when I hit some other interesting number (I'm thinking 2222, perhaps - that will give me lots of time to prepare!) and do a decent giveaway then.  Watch, as they said, this space.

Now that's not a very interesting post, in and of itself, so I thought I'd also show this post-Christmas ornament I made recently - I often make one of these from the Christmas cards we've received - you need 20 circles of your chosen size and I usually pick my favourite cards, either in pattern or colour, to use to make a ball (I have 4 or 5 of them now). If I were clever, I'd remember to write the year on it somewhere, but I haven't done in previous years...

I've made these lots of times and don't really need instructions, but if you want to have a go and have no clue where to begin, here's an excellent tutorial I just found (gotta love the internet - I googled "folded paper ball tutorial" and this was the first hit) if you are interested in making one yourself.  I didn't use a glue gun, I just used fast-drying glue. And I didn't have a circle die-cutter, I just drew around a juice glass 20 times!

Grow your blog - intro

Welcome, to anyone who might be reading as a result of the Grow Your Blog project. If you're someone who knows me and has read my blog for a while, I hope you'll either bypass this post, or else read it and discover some things you didn't know about me. I can't promise they will be interesting, though!

I have been blogging for a long time now - over 10 years - though on this blog, not for as long as that. I began blogging in July 2002, on my family blog, more or less when I stopped working. The idea was, I think,   just to have a way to impart information to those far and wide - I had two small kids at the time (rather than the 3 rather larger kids I have now) and a dial-up internet connection.

10 Years later, and I no longer have dial-up - and I no longer have a single blog.  I do still have the family blog - in ten years I've posted 1288 times, apparently.  Not a bad average, although this year I'm trying to post more often. I talk about my family, my house, trips we take, days out, cooking, art and craft the kids do, the weather, books, and so on. It's a family blog - does, as they say, what it says on the tin.  In 2012 I blogged our family meals, with recipes, which was great fun, but also hard work, so this year, I'm not dropping that idea entirely, but I'm only blogging photos of the food and a little chat about them with no recipes - avoids all the copyright issues, too...

I started this blog, my art blog (which used to be called just Kate's Quilting, hence the URL), in August 2006 (you can see my first post here, if you fancy it - and indeed, can view any of the nearly 2000 posts by checking out the archives in the sidebar), and in addition, I have several other blog that I am involved in or run - the one for my mini-quilt swap (Another Little Quilt Swap) - which has just wrapped up its 7th round (aside from a few quilts still lost in the postal ether), and one specifically dedicated to scrapbusting ideas for quilters. I've also been involved in various blogs related to challenges and projects, like the one for a Stay-at-Home Round Robin I ran for a few years, and so on. Blogs come and go - though I think this one is here to stay.  I sometimes think I should just have the one blog, but I don't want to drop either of them, and I think a lot of my quilter friends wouldn't be all that interested in my family blog - and vice versa. People can always hop around if they want to!

I always hate trying to tell people about myself, especially unprompted, so it occurs to me that if you really want to know, I did an interview about 5 years ago on Carina's blog, which probably answers all the questions you could conceivably ask...

Anyway. Welcome! Enjoy, relax, comment.  I'm here blogging anyway, so it's nice to have you along for the ride...

Oh, and I meant to say, there will be a giveaway related to the Grow Your Blog project!  Leave a comment (make sure you are contactable) and you'll be in with a chance to win this lovely(?) set of 6" squares - there are actually 51 in the pile, because I apparently can't count, and at least 44 of them are unique. There are a few repeats, but nothing more than twice. All cotton, from various sources, mostly regular quilting cotton, but a few from my dad's Hawaiian shirts and other such projects.  I'll draw a winner probably on the 1st of Feb.

Grow your blog

Here's a fun event happening in blogland, which I have just discovered, thanks to Angela. It's a way to help you find more blogs to read (as though we need that in our lives!) and to help find followers for your own blog...  I think it will be fun to take part, though - and it's been many years since I started this blog, so perhaps a short statement about who I am and why I blog will be fun to produce - look for that on the 18th/19th...

15 minutes of fame

...or maybe not even that much! Nonetheless, my blog has been chosen to appear in (British) Patchwork & Quilting's August issue, in their web column, with a nice little blurb about it. The August issue is on sale from tomorrow (July 15th), and if you watch this space, I'll have a little contest going shortly (i.e. tomorrow), prizes courtesy of P&Q!

6 months of daily blogging

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I made a decision this year that I would try to blog in my art blog every day this year and so far, I have managed to put up a post for every day. Amazingly, we are halfway through 2011 (I know! Where did it go?) so I thought I'd mention it...

So, have I really blogged every day? Well, no, not quite - there have been days when I just didn't manage it and blogged the following day, and days when I knew I wouldn't be there to do it, so wrote a post earlier and scheduled it for the day I knew would be hard to make. And apparently, one day in May when I blogged twice, unless May has suddenly acquired an extra day! Am I ok with that? Sure, that's the way things go. And by having a blog post every day, even if I have to sometimes do them on different days, it does break up my blogging into small, manageable chunks, which I like, and I imagine my readers like as well.

Have I managed to do something arty every day I blogged? I wish! But what I have done is divide stuff into related sections - so if I have an entire weekend day to play and do four different things, I do spread them out over the week's blogging. I think the posts read better that way anyway...

On another note, I've been playing around with Picasa a little (not too much - don't need another addiction) and have made some mosaics - the top being a selection of things I made in 2011 so far, the middle one being a selection of ATCs made in May and June and the bottom being sewing projects worked on in June. I might do a monthly ATC mosaic and a monthly sewing mosaic - or maybe not - no promises, other than the fact that I'm going to carry on trying to blog daily wherever possible in 2011. I'm not quite sure what I'll do when I'm on holiday, though I did figure out how to blog, including photos, from my phone, so you never know!

More scrappiness

Finished up all the hearts I had prepared from last weekend today, and even remembered to take some photos as I went along so I can do a mini-tutorial sometime soon on how to do them, if you should so wish.

Someone last week suggested that the offcut triangle squares looked like good churn dash starters - I've taken that idea and run (not quite in a straight line) with it - and made some shoo-fly blocks with them. Ten heart blocks yeilds five shoo-flies, but there will be more hearts in other colours, so more shoo-flies later this year. And the amazing thing is, I don't think I added anything to the scrap basket at all... Oh wait, I'm wrong - one cream square which I cut the wrong size...



I also did some quilting - a few ATCs with some threadplay, and then I quilted a couple of small pieces for upcoming challenges and swaps - yes, I'm being vague, you'll see them in time, I promise.

Thanks for the various comments about my thoughts on my blog - I have decided that for the time being, I will keep the two separate - I think if I were starting again, I would just make one blog and that would be that, but they've been separate for so long it seems weird to join them. (The family blog is older than Alex!) Also, I am trying to write more often in both places (especially here), so I don't want to get TOO many posts. The family blog doesn't get updated nearly as often, it's true, but that's partly because I don't take as many photos now that the kids are older, and partly because this year I've been doing the 365 project, so some of the photos I take around the house, etc go there instead.

I decided I would link the two a bit, though, so I have put a feed from my family blog in the sidebar on this blog for anyone who wants to see what we're up to. I couldn't make it put a photo and a couple of lines of text, but at least you can see when it's been updated, if you are interested in that aspect of my life.

I also gave this blog a title (though not URL) change (I did think about changing the URL, but it seemed like too much hard work - actually changing the title is simple, if you can think of a new one not taken, but all the associated palaver...) and revamped it for the season. And you can expect to see a bit more of other stuff besides just sewing (though I will keep it art & craft related, mostly) here in future. I think that will hold me for the time being!

Forgot to post this!

As I mentioned before, I am making some more of the wonky log cabin blocks, this time in warm colours. It's making a nice dent in my scrap basket, and so far I haven't even touched the strips in the shoe boxes of strips (which are a lot emptier after I did all the cool colour blocks). I'd really like to get rid of all my accumulated scraps - or at least, a lot of them - so I think this might be the way to go. I may also offer some stuff up to people who do charity quilts - I have a lot of pre-cut squares, for instance - which I don't think I'm really likely ever to use.

Anyway, there are a lot more of these warm colour blocks on the go and I plan to work on them some more today. Tomorrow I might make some blocks for the April block lotto, but I won't be able to show them yet, so perhaps I'll show more of these blocks.

And yes, I did redesign my blog, by playing around with the template designer on Blogger Draft - I know it looks kind of autumnal rather than spring-like, but it suits me. I'm sure I'll fiddle with it some more before too long, as it seems to get easier and easier to do - thank goodness!

Possibly in limbo...

Just a quickie to say that if you don't see me post and/or don't get a response to emails for the next few days, it will be because of internet problems at home. They aren't quite sure what the problem is, but it's on their end (for a change) and has been referred to engineers. Problem is, depending on what the problem is, it could be 3-5 working days. It might not be, but then again, it might. Sigh. At the moment, I am at the library, and I can use the library again later in the week, plus the free WiFi at McDonalds and so on, but needless to say, my internet access will be a lot more limited than normal. Perhaps I will get more sewing done (if only - usually late evening/night-time is internet time - not a time which is good for sewing for me, so unfortunately, the time won't make an easy transfer across. Too bad!)

Shameless Self-Promotion

Thought I'd share this - not sure if you are all familiar with the blog Subversive Stitchers - interesting blog, actually, I think it's going to be a regular read around here. And that's not simply because she talked about one of my pieces in a post about quilts with pockets. Go on, have a visit!

Big Bloggy Picnic

Well, today was the long-awaited Bloggery Picnic Party, organised by Lucy Locket & her Bossy Big Sister, Ally. Lots of people were there, including some I "knew" already, like Penny, Jane, Moogsmum & Trash and some I didn't know, like Ali , JuliaB, Kitty, Eve and Julie. And all of our kids (well, not Eve's kids, who are more or less grownups) - frankly, I'm not completely sure about all the kids, but I reckon there were about 20 there, most of them seemingly 9-12 year-old girls. OK, perhaps I exaggerate about the girls - after all, there were enough 5-9 year old boys for a small football match - but it sure seemed like that at the time. Fun did seem to be had by all in the end, with the possible exception of one rather bored but fairly tolerant (and extremely polite) teenage boy, who was one of the few teens and the oldest boy by far. Luckily, he had electronics, so didn't suffer TOO much...

The great pile of loot above was a super idea for the kids - we each brought the same number of Easter Eggs as children (except for Moogsmum (I think) who brought an extra, somehow (egg, not child!) and me - as my slightly odd younger daughter doesn't really like chocolate, she had her own tub of Easter themed jelly sweets instead - in fact, you can see her eating them in the background of the photo below) and they were all piled up in a big pile. Then the kids took turns picking, from the youngest up. The youngest was 5, so Alex was very near the start of the pick, which delighted him as he really wanted to take home the Mini Egg egg we brought (yeah, I know, I know- but hey, he's happy).

The grownups had loot, too, though we didn't pile it up in a pile and go from youngest to oldest (this might be because no one really wanted to own up to being at the latter end of that spectrum). Instead, we all put our names in a bag and then took turns drawing - whoever's name you picked, you gave that person your present, then they drew a name, and so on - obviously if you had your own name, you could put it back. I can't remember all the presents, but there were some great ones. Kitty drew first, and picked her own name (of course!) but eventually ended up with some homemade preserves from BossyBigSis, who in turn drew Kitty's name and received her gift, a great sock monkey. The draw was then passed to JuliaB, who picked my name and gave me the lovely gift below, which is a pedicure set (good timing, as I do paint my toes in summer and haven't started yet) and some lovely soap, which smells quite mild, but apparently has chocolate in it. Anyone who knows me well knows how I feel about soap, so really, this gift suited me well! Thanks again Julia.

I drew Ali's name, and gave her a bag - the December bag from last year's BQL challenge (looking back over my blog, it doesn't seem I ever posted a photo of this - I know I have one, though, so I will dig it out and post it below). She picked Trash's name, and the gift was some gorgeous pegs with words - you can write poetry while you hang out the laundry. This is where I began to lose the plot (as I was busy unwrapping and exploring my own treats at this point), but I know that Penny received a lovely fish textile from Bossy Big Sister's DD, and that Julia got a funky bag with multiple pockets from Penny. Other gifts included several small knitted rabbits and a very cute chicken and hmm, I'm sure I saw more things, but well... Oh, just remembered an echidna-shaped pincushion from Trash for the lovely Jane - I think - pretty sure Trash made it, because of the Australian thing...

We were lucky with the weather, which was sunny for most of the day, although the wind had a slight chill to it - but no rain and warm enough to stay outside all afternoon. The kids all seemed to get on okay (once they actually started talking to one another - mine took a while to warm up, but by the end, my girls and Penny's were very sorry to part and probably would have spent several more hours - at least - chatting happily about school, braces, DS games and I don't know what all else) and although trees were climbed, no one fell out and broke anything or got sick - frankly, I count it a huge success, despite some rather SLOW traffic on the M25 on the way home (only to be expected).

Thanks again to Lucy for organising it. I'm sure some of the others will blog about it, in fact, Julia has already done so. Much more eloquently than I.

Oh, and there was a little craft shop on the premesis - mostly paper stuff (and lots of stamps), so not of interest to many of us, but I did pick up a few papers to use as backgrounds for ATCs - I've used up my stock now, and will have to make new ones for the birthday swap from May onwards, so I might well do some with mostly paper, rather than fabric. Or at least, rather than solely fabric. Hard to tell in this photo, but some of these papers are highly embossed and the plain red one is actually a flock paper, which I intend to try texturing in some way.

Tomorrow we are staying close to home (knowing my girls, a good chunk of the morning will probably be spent in bed - especially as neither is yet asleep and it's nearly 10pm) and I actually think I might have a dyeing day - haven't had time for one in ages, and there are some things I want to do. Watch this space, as they say.

Tada!

Finished! Got the binding attached today and sewn down tonight (we watched an early film, then it was time for CSI, so there was lots of time for stitching). And it's done. I will put a label on it before it goes to Angela, but well, it's finished. Woo hoo.

Tomorrow, there will be no sewing, on the whole (might be a little hand stitching in the evening), but there will be cool bloggy related things as I will be attending Lucy Locket's Bloggery Picnic Party... Now that's, in the parlance of my children, well cool.

Comments

Just wanted to write a quick note here about comments - I'm getting more comments lately from people who have a name, but no blog link and no return email - just wanted to say, I'm not ignoring you guys, but as I can't easily respond under those circumstances, well, I can't easily respond. So, people like Feti and Mikka, who have commented lately - thanks for visiting!

Bloggery goodness

OK, something to show after all. I forgot about this. The wonderful Lucy Locket is organising a Bloggery Picnic Party which we hope to be able to attend during the Easter Break. It's over near Abingdon (Oxfordish). Check out her blog for more details!

Nothing!

World's dullest blog post, but no work has been done, I've nothing to say or show, just wanted to say I'm here, I'm fine (well, I have a cold, but nothing major) and hopefully someday I will have time to sew something!! Feels strange not blogging for days...

Unfortunately

Ok, I don't always play along with games, memes and tags, but I saw this on Jane's blog and just couldn't resist. It's a google game where you search "Unfortunately, your name" (including the quotes) and see what comes up. Here are some of my favourites:

Unfortunately Kate's globe trotting is restricted because she starves when abroad

Unfortunately Kate carries ALL OF HER WEIGHT in her ass

Unfortunately, Kate herself is not possessed of a remote control that will rewind time

Unfortunately, Kate’s not so dead husband resurfaced into town and blackmailed Kate

Unfortunately, Kate just doesn't exude any special qualities

Unfortunately Kate doesn't own her castle yet, but she holds out hope that one day soon she can pull her berets out of storage

Unfortunately Kate is dating a rock star

Unfortunately, Kate's innate tendencies had a larcenous bent despite her parents constantly extolling the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Many of these are less amusing when you know they are talking about Kate Winslet, Kate Hudson (the ass comment), Kate Middleton (the special qualities) and so on, but it was a fun 5 minutes!

Been tagged

A lot of times, I don't bother to respond to being tagged, but as I have nothing much to show today (a little more work was done on the Triptych piece, but it's still really not very interesting and anyway, it's upstairs and I'm too lazy to go photograph it) I thought I'd go ahead. It also helps that this is an easy tag which doesn't require me to list 7 things or 8 things or 16 things or anything else requiring thought. The challenge here is to upload the 6th photo in the 6th folder in your picture folder. For me, the 6th folder was the one called "screensaver", which as you can probably guess, is where the pics are that make up the slideshow on my screensaver. We're supposed to share the story behind the photo - I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume most of you can work it out yourselves, at least approximately. This is Hallowe'en 2006, we were in the US visiting, and my kids were about to acquire more sweets than they'd ever seen in the history of ever. It was a gorgeous, warm, lovely evening, and because Hallowe'en is so much bigger in the US than in the UK, I let them do quite a few houses, so there was a LOT of stuff gathered up. We took it back to the UK with us, and I think there was still some left at Christmas. Or close!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play along, go for it. And thanks to Lisa for the tag - it was fun.

Interview with...me

If you're a regular reader here, you no doubt know a lot about me already, but here's an interview with me on the Swapdex, if anyone is interested...

Things I've done meme

Well, just for fun, here's a good meme - I saw it on Amy's blog and couldn't resist.

1. Started my own blog (duh)

2. Slept under the stars (in college, down by the beach)

3. Played in a band (band, orchestra mainly in high school, a little in college)

4. Visited Hawaii (no, though I've been invited several times)

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world (yes - the one in Florida)

8. Climbed a mountain (well, a small mountain - in England!)

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo (no, though I have sung with very small groups - 4 or 5 voices)

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightning at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch (not really - as a mixed media artist I am largely self-taught (read: I muck about a lot), but not entirely)

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning (bad oysters - yuck)

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (when I was a kid we went as high as you were allowed - I think that was the brim of the hat, rather than the torch, but I do remember a lot of steps)

18. Grown my own vegetables (bits and pieces)

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon (not an ambition, either!)

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (no, but I did stay in the Venetian in Las Vegas, once)

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community (not quite, though we've been through the outskirts many times)

36. Taught myself a new language (does HTML count?)

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I wish I could say yes to this, but really, I'd like just a littl more...)

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (a couple of times when I worked in DC I bought a cup of coffee & a bagel for homeless people - nothing more than that)

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie (no, but I've been on telly!)

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (more than I can count)

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (no, but I've tried - I have really difficult veins, so it's not really viable for me)

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar (but not the posh kind)

72. Pieced a quilt (just one or two!)

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (I think maybe I broke a toe once, but it was never diagnosed)

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible (mostly, at one time or another, but not quite all of it - some of it is really boring!)

86. Visited the White House (with Girl Scouts - back in the day when you were allowed in on tours)

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I'm counting fish here)

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous (most of them scientists - like Jim Watson of Watson & Crick fame)

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Ridden an elephant