A Small Fox in a Big World

I haven't blogged in so long, Typepad didn't even remember me!

Hi. Remember me? I won't blame you if you don't. If there was a Worst Blogger in History Award, I'd probably win. If anyone remembered that I had a blog. I'd apologize for my lack of entertainment in these parts, only I'm not exactly sorry. I just didn't have anything to say. Some days, I found it hard to twitter. If I couldn't come up with 140 characters worth reading, I did you all a favor by not blogging. Trust me. Today, because I'm feeling chatty, I'm going to log a bunch of posts a few days apart in hopes that they will last until the next time I feel chatty. We shall see.

For Halloween, Brian and I were Octopi. I saw the idea in Family Fun magazine and then I made a better costume than the one they described. I stitched the legs closed, instead of using duct tape and I made my suckers out of felt, instead of just using mailing seals. My eyeballs are felt too, instead of styrofoam balls. This hopefully means that these will last a little while, as I have at least 40 hours worth of work in them. There were A LOT of suckers! I went through a whole bottle of Fabri-Tac. But we're cute and that's what matters!

First Annual Small Fox Ornament Swap: Sign Ups Closed THANK YOU!

After some disappointments the past few years participating in another ornament swap, I thought it was high time I started my own! And so, I present to you THE FIRST ANNUAL SMALL FOX ORNAMENT SWAP!

Here's how it will work. The first 20 people to email me at paperfoxling @ yahoo {dot} com with their name, address and a statement of interest are in the swap. You will then be responsible for making 10 ornaments and mailing them to me, along with $5 to cover postage, by November 21, 2009. I will then distribute the ornaments, so everyone gets what they put in to the swap, without having to worry about participants who flake out. You should receive your ornaments sometime the last week of November or first few days of December and then will have all of December to enjoy them! 

Here are some examples of what I've made in the past:

I always try to put a lot of thought, time, and effort into the ornaments that I make each year and I know you will all do the same! I can't wait to find out who will be participating! Please post any questions you may have in the comments and then please check back, as I will be posting answers there as well! Happy Swapping!

DQS7

Here is the quilt I made for DQS7. My partner said she liked mermaids, and I've been meaning to make this quilt for some time. I think I've had that mermaid in my sketch book for almost two years. The stars finally aligned and I made the quilt for my DQS7 swap partner. It was all going so well, until I had the wonderful idea to hand quilt the thing. I figured, hey, it's small, it would be a good place to start. Having never hand quilted, it never really occurred to me just how long it might take. The answer is FOREVER! But it did turn out deliciously wrinkled, so I can forgive it. Some.

I left the edges of all the applique rough, so that it would fray in the wash. I love the way it looks, all worn and fuzzy. For some reason, that really helped contribute to the underwater feeling for me. I really hope my partner likes it.

In return, I got this lovely little number from Kerri, of Lovely Little Handmades. It's like she used my brain as a sieve to sort her stash, only using the fabric that stuck. BECAUSE I LOVE EVERY ONE OF THOSE SNOWBALLS! And I can't wait to stick it in the washer and pull it out all warm and wrinkled. Thank you so much, Kerri! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Happy Anniversary, Love

Quilting Bee Catch Up

Here is the very last block from The Busy Little Quilting Bee that I hosted. This block is for Shannon, who requested scrappy circles. Circles scare the bejeesus out of me, so hopefully she likes my reverse appliqued version.

And here is the August block for the second round of the Common Threads quilting bee. Wonky squares were requested and hopefully I delivered something that will be considered appropriately wonky. I used this tutorial to make it. It's like the anal way to make wonky blocks, which is just the kind of thing I needed. LOVE!

Labor Day Car Show

The rest of my mini vacation

Like I said, I'm not the most consistent blogger. I try and fail and try again. So, I'm banking some posts today, just for you guys.You should feel loved!

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The next day, Kristin picked me up in the morning and we headed off to the Minnesota State Fair. I've never been to a State Fair before, mostly because the one in Iowa is in August and it's usually 8 million degrees outside. However, it was a lovely warm September morning and I was quite looking forward to seeing all the sites. Kristin, being a native, knows all the tricks for getting to the Fair in style. She parked us over by the University, and then we rode a free bus over to the Fair.

As you can see, we were not the only ones out enjoying the weather. The place was PACKED! It was a little unreal. We meandered over towards the Creative Arts building, stopping momentarily to appreciate some live opera at the NPR booth and this interesting sculpture, which is apparently made from all the trash taken out of the river for the year.

It was at once awe-inspiring and disgusting. And huge. Poor river. After we had gawked for an appropriate amount of time, we went to the Creative Arts building, which houses all of the textiles, wood working, needlepoint and other crafts that people have contributed at the various county levels. Here are some of my favorites:

Julen was so cute. He kept saying hi to the myriad people who passed us looking at the exhibits and every once in awhile, he would spot something he loved behind the glass and point and cheer. And he had no problem making himself comfortable.

After the Creative Arts building, we headed to the Fine Arts building. This building houses all the "fine" art pieces. I find the difference between the creative arts and the fine arts to be debatable, but that's an argument for another post. My favorite piece was called The First 200 Days of Non-Smoking.

Then, it was time for lunch. We got ourselves some Pronto Pups -- corn dogs -- because when you are at the fair, you have to eat food on a stick, and settled down to eat and watch a really cool dance troupe. Even Julen wanted to get in on the dancing action.

From there, refreshed by our convenient food products, we headed to the Agricultural building and then to the Miracle of Birth center. Yay farm stuff and baby animals!

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By then, we were back by the main gate, and it was just about time for Kristin to leave to pick up Peanut from his first day of school. So, we headed back to the buses, and then Kristin drove me back to my hotel. Brian came and picked me up a short time later and I helped him load out from his trade show. That night, we went out to dinner with his cousin Chelsie and then came home the next day, after a short trip to IKEA. It was a great mini trip and a nice way to unwind after the hecticness of Summer Reading Program. And visiting with Kristin and her family is always such a wonderful breath of fresh air. Thanks guys! I hope I can see you soon!

Lois Hattery Tiffany, a Tribute

Lois Hattery Tiffany
March 8, 1924 - September 6, 2009

Lois Hattery Tiffany was born March 8, 1924, on a farm near Collins, to Charles and Blanche (Brown) Hattery. She married F. H. (Hank) Tiffany May 16, 1945.

Held in high regard by the public as “Iowa’s Mushroom Lady,” and known by many students, colleagues and friends as “Dr. T,” she was the matriarch of the Botany (and more recently, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology) Department at Iowa State University. She joined the faculty of the Botany Department in 1950, served as department chair from 1990 to 1996, and was named as distinguished professor in 1994.

Dr. Tiffany’s degrees were all from Iowa State University: Bachelor of Science in 1945, Master of Science in 1947, and Ph.D. in 1950.

Dr. Tiffany taught mycology and field botany courses, both at ISU and Iowa Lakeside Laboratory.  She advised many hundreds of undergraduate students and was the major professor or committee member for numerous graduate students. Many of the graduate students she mentored have added greatly to the field of mycology in teaching and research.

Her research, although mainly focused in Iowa, was broad in scope, and included studies of fungal diseases of native prairie plants in Iowa, a 10-year survey of Iowa’s morels, and a study of the fungus flora of Big Bend National Park, to name just a few of her projects.

She served in numerous capacities in  leadership and service within and beyond ISU, including leadership in various ISU committees at all levels, the Iowa Academy of Science, the Mycological Society of America, the American Phytopathological Society, the Iowa Natural History Association, and other organizations.

She received numerous awards, including: first recipient of the Mycological Society of America W.H. Weston, Jr. Award for Teaching Excellence in Mycology, 1980; Distinguished Iowa Scientist Award, Iowa Academy of Science, 1982; first recipient of the Governor’s Medal for Science Teaching, 1982; ISU Teaching Excellence Award, 1989; Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame, 1991; First VEISHA Professor of the Year, 1993; Iowa American Association of University Women Distinguished Faculty Award, 1993; Distinguished Service Award, Iowa Academy of Science, 1994; Distinguished Professor, ISU, 1994; and most recently, an Honorary Outstanding Career Award at the 62nd meeting of the North Central Division of the American Phytopathological Society, 2009.

She is survived by her three children, five grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

Proceeded in death by her parents, husband, and one grandson.

"Death is nothing at all… I have only slipped away into the next room… I am I, and you are you… whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always used. Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is absolutely unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner… All is well."

 

~Henry Scott Holland

Oxford Professor of Divinity

Rest in Peace, Grandma T.

Brian's grandma passed away September 6. Today, we celebrate her life. She was an amazing woman. Some day, I'll have to tell you all about her.

My Mini Vacation

Brian had a trade show in Minneapolis the first few days of September and I tagged along, because after the busy Summer I had, I deserved a mini vacation!  We stayed at the Best Western Normandy Inn and Suites downtown. It was a pretty nice hotel, hokey amidst all the skyscrapers, and really won my heart when I found out about the complimentary milk and cookies before bed. THE BEST! So, while Brian went and toiled away working all day, I had fun. I lead a rough life, I know.

The first day, I set out walking from our hotel with the idea of heading to the downtown branch of the Minneapolis Public Library. Kristin wasn't going to come pick me up until 3ish, so I had some time to kill. I'm always amused by the strange juxtaposition of buildings in downtown Minneapolis. There are the skyscrapers that you would expect, but then their are also these castle-ish buildings that just look so out of place. I love them.

I was also really impressed with the number of bike commuters. The traffic downtown is intense and just watching where some of these folks were biking was freaking me out a bit. And then of course, on the news that night, there was a story about someone being plowed into by a big SUV. YIKES! Makes me grateful for my peaceful little town with the barely traveled on side streets that make biking to the store a breeze!

The downtown library was rebuilt in 2006 and it's so shiny and new that I hardly knew what to do with myself. It's a good thing I was all alone, because I'm pretty sure Brian wouldn't have been geeking out the way I was!

The inside was just as fresh as the exterior; the stacks seeming to go on forever. When I was in one of the rooms that had stacks, they seemed so huge, but from the hallway, everything is dwarfed. They really built this building with future growth in mind. IT'S HUGE! Like, four stories huge. But most of it just seemed pretty library standard to me. It's pretty, but it just looks like a library. Not much variation on the theme, if you know what I mean.

But then I got to the teen room and it was the most beautiful, wonderful, splendid teen room of all time. I wanted to live in it. This room was hip. This room had it's patrons in mind. This room didn't care that it was in a library. This room just wanted to chill and listen to music and eat pizza and play video games and then read a good book before bed. LOVE! Wish we could do this at my library.

After I finished drooling on the teens, I left the library to find myself some lunch. Having done so, I walked back the hotel and read stretched out on the bed, the windows open to the pool. It was like a little slice of heaven. Kristin called around 4:00pm and we headed out for our afternoon of wonder. We had been planning on going to the Fair, but her husband had just had knee surgery the night before and she wanted to be more easily mobile in case he needed anything. So instead, we went the the Textile Center of Minnesota. They had a few really cool exhibits and some beautiful quilts on the walls. After that, we just started driving, chatting about this and that. Before long, we found ourselves here:

which was full of the most wonderful things. And I wanted to buy them all. But thankfully, one pleasant side effect of traveling in an overstuffed pick-up truck is that you don't go broke at the antique store, buying everything in sight. Because if you did, you wouldn't be able to bring it home anyway. So we just gawked. It was lovely. And then we went to the Salvation Army and I had a wonderful sheet thrifting day, but as I forgot to photograph them and they are now in the laundry, you'll just have to take my word for it.

After that, it was around 7:30pm and we decided that we probably should call it a day. However, Kristin surprised me by inviting me out for a second afternoon of fun! Of course I said yes. I mean, look at our travel partner. Who could say no to him?

I'm pretty sure he's the prince of my heart. I love this boy and his brother and his momma. LOVE THEM! Come back tomorrow (or some day after today, because let's be honest, I'm not the most consistent blogger) to find out about our day at the Minnesota State Fair! There will be textiles, and animals and more of this guy. You can't say no to him, we've discussed that, so I'll see you later!