WiseArts

Woot! The new theme has made almost made the transition from my test server to the live server. But, the road to getting it up and running live was not without its bumps.

• I had to do some CSS tweaks… Some things just looked a little different. Same platform, same browser. Somehow, something had changed.
• The Twitter Tools plugin that I use to get the tweets in the sidebar didn’t work. First, I couldn’t connect to Twitter at all using the plugin. To remedy this, I used some ideas I found on message boards that had worked for others. I changed my username to lowercase. No joy. Then I tried changing my password. That allowed to plugin to connect with Twitter, but it still wouldn’t update the sidebar… I tried the manual update buttons. No good.
• The Last.fm Records plugin that I use to put the music in the sidebar wouldn’t even install!! Got some fatal error. After searching around, I discovered that the server needed to be running PHP5 for it to work. Didn’t see any potential problems anywhere, so I enabled PHP5 on the server, and Last.fm is on the sidebar! In addition, it was at this point that the Twitter Tools plugin now started working properly!

Now… (I should have checked this browser before making it live) it seems that Internet Exploder is doing  a few funky things with my CSS. I’m a hardcore Firefox user, and thus, used that as my main testing platform while I designed the theme. The problems in IE do not render the blog unreadable or un-navigable, so I think I’ll get to that tomorrow night.

One plugin/widget that didn’t give me any problems was my Library Thing Widget! Installed and worked great from the get-go! If you don’t know what LibraryThing is, check it out! Basically, it’s a social networking site for people who love books and reading. You import your books into the system, then you can see a wide variety of information about the books, see who else on the network has similar libraries, read and write reviews, get suggestions, buy and sell through partner sites… lots more! I just upgraded to a lifetime account today. With a basic account, you’re constrained to 200 books, but now I’ll start cataloging the rest of my library. I don’t even have to type in every book. On my computer, I use MediaMan to catalogue my library of books and music. This program allows you to use your webcam as a barcode scanner — you scan in the ISBN/ASIN and then the program will automatically look it up on sites like Amazon or Library of Congress and import all the info. Then I can just export my list of ISBNs from MediaMan right into Library Thing! The problem is that I have a lot of old books that don’t have ISBN numbers and won’t be in any databases… I’ll have to type those in manually. I have a lot of books period! Even scanning barcodes takes some time. I won’t have my complete library online for a little while…

Now for something completely different… My husband picked up this cool print for me at Blockbuster, of all places. I saw it last time I went there and thought it was cool, but didn’t buy it. I’m not a huge Doors fan or anything, but something about it kept haunting my thoughts once in a while, so I mentioned it to my husband and then he went and got it for me. It’s called The Spirit Of Jim Morrison. It has a nice paint-y texture and comes with a clean black frame around it.

Wow! I’ve been a serious slacker for a while. In hibernation for the holidays I guess! haha

I had a lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and I’m ready to get back into normal sleeping, eating, and working habits. Also, planning some more serious training on my bike and some craft time. A rubber stamp store not too far away (at which I was actually employed for a while!) has a super fun altered book club! I was a member since its inception, but I had dropped out for a year or so. Anyhoo, I’m planning on getting back into that! Making altered books is such a fun, spontaneous, and unrestricted art/craft. You are nearly unlimited in your choices of subject matter, medium, size… You can paint in a book, rip it up, glue things into it, saw it into shapes, add in pop-ups and containers, collage on a favorite subject, create journal pages, scrapbooks… You give unlimited potiental, new life, to a book that might be considered obsolete, a book that someone has discarded. You can also give new life to all variety of ephemera, junk, even straight-up garbage! Nearly anything can be used as craft materials for altered books.

Here are some spreads I did in the group’s very first round-robin (we each have a book, trade books, and alter a spread or two in each others’ books). These were done maybe about 5-6 years ago… Each book had a theme for the participating artists to focus on. Don’t ask me what these were… can’t remember.

Along with getting back into altered books, I have some plans to do some more beading. Annnnd, I’m updating this blog! I’m nearly done with a new theme. Here’s a peek! The new theme will feature a wintery look (this locks me into making a new one for spring), and it has a more interesting and useful sidebar. Now you can view my latest tweets via Twitter, the last songs I’ve played via Last.fm, and some random books from my library via LibraryThing! (BTW, LibraryThing is super cool!)

So some of my (few) loyal readers have wondered what the hell happened to my blog, and why I’ve neglected it over the past few months.

Well, I’ll tell ya what the hell happened… THIS!

After completing the MS150, I was hooked, and dove head-first without looking into the wonderful world of road cycling. My parents were at the finish line of the MS150 to cheer me on, and were very enthusiastic about my accomplishment. My dad is certainly a fan of anything with wheels that can race, and offered up that he should buy me a proper road bike. We didn’t go out and buy it that day, but I did hold him to his word a little later on in the summer. So my new baby is this lovely 2008 Giant TCR C1.

I did a few other organized cycling tours in the area, the Tour De Tonka – 67mi and the Rum River Bicycle Classic – 63mi, and I’ve been riding as much and as often as I can on my own. I want to use what little outdoor training time is left this year (cold winter approaching!) to work on general skills, endurance and speed. When spring hits, I want to learn racing skillz and maybe find a team I can ride with. Minnesota is a great place for cycling. There’s tons of places to ride, lots of great teams and events.

So, being obsessed with cycling, dancing with a Japanese dance group, and spending long days at work… my summer was pretty well packed! I didn’t have time for crafting, and thus, haven’t posted. I have enough crafty ideas floating around in my head, that I could darn near write a book! When I have time, I’ll make some stuff and post it! But, when I’m not feelin’ crafty, I think I’ll write about some of the other things going on in my life too. (You might hear a lot about biking next summer! haha)

Not to bore you completely, here are some thrifty things I got at the last 50% off sale day!

Some linen-y fabrics and a crazy retro print on stretch knit. Couple bucks per chunk.

A copy of McCalls Needlework & Crafts – 30 cents, Folk Tales of China cute 1st. ed. book – 50 cents, a knit mice kit – $1.50. (I think I’ll stuff ‘em with catnip for the kitties!)

This cute little Ukranian apron and potholders set was 85 cents.

Cute retro cross-stitch kit for $1, and The Wilton Way to Decorate for Christmas – 30 cents! This book drew me in with it’s musty, sitting-in-a-box-in-the-basement-for-years smell and it’s retro holiday goodness inside.

This page was dog-eared. I wonder if someone made a few of these cakes with plastic doll heads on ‘em!

One of my favorites are the “Gay Holiday Wreaths”. Despite them being coated in acrylic spray and assembled with airplane glue and wire, I think these mint sugar wreaths would be a sure-ticket for holiday pest problems! ha

This was my cheapest find, but one of my favorites. This darling little television has a lenticular image of hula dancers on the screen, they dance when you tilt it back and forth. Then, look through the little hole on the back and it’s like a mini View-Master. There are 8 uber-vintage looking photos inside that change when you press down on the little white lever. (Images are titled: Kamehameha Statue, Aloha Tower, Pagentry of Old Hawaii, Nuuanu Pali, Graceful Hula Maidens, Kilauea Volcano Eruption, Waikiki Beach, Surfing & Canoeing At Waikiki) I’d guess this as being from the 60′s or 70′s?? I can just picture it in one of those shops filled with crummy souvenirs. The original tag says it’s from a shop called Nagasako, and it cost $1.25. I paid a mere 15 cents for this little made-in-Hong-Kong plastic treasure! A steal at twice the price!