Skirting the Crumbs

So, Inkblot re-found (she had totally forgotten she had bookmarked it!) a fabulous website called Anatomy of a Skirt. Sadly, Inkblot hasn't really found any skirts on the site (they are her favorite item of clothing next to dresses), but she has found about a trillion other AMAZING items! The site sells handmade creations, mostly bags. They even have an eco-friendly section for all you land-lubbers out there! The site is easy to navigate and really pretty. Anatomy of a Skirt keeps a link to their Etsy shop on the front page, though most of their items are sold on their site. If the prices are a tad too much for us regular people, Inkblot noticed that they also have a Sale section!! That is probably the greatest thing since mp3's came out! And... here is the coolest part of Anatomy of a Skirt... they have a customizable Build Your Own Bag option. Currently, they only have two bag styles. But Inkblot thinks they will probably expand that, and guesses that they would be accomodating if you are willing to pay a little extra. Basically, Anatomy of a Skirt has Inkblot imitating Sleeping Beauty (enchanted, of course)! As always, much love,
Inkblot

Musical Crumbs

Okay... feel free to chastise Inkblot for having gone missing for a week! She does love you all, she just got all caught up in HP's latest book, the five day loss of her laptop (I suppose her mother borrowing it isn't exactly a loss...), and her feverishness several days ago. But now, Inkblot is back! And she's totally ready to share with you a mild obsession called Pandora. This site is as awesome as it gets without paying money. You just sign up (they send occasional emails pertaining to your Pandora use, but nothing else) and start listening to their unique radio stations. The way Pandora works is crazy awesome! You type in the name of a song or artist that you LOVE, and Pandora creates a radio station based on that song or artist and other songs and artists similar to them. You can create unlimited stations and add/remove songs and artists from your stations. Even better, Pandora learns from you! You can press a button as a song plays to tell it to stop playing that song or to never play that song again. Same with the artist. In this manner, it is totally customizable! And you can listen as much or as little as you like. It's on the internet, not a downloadable program, so you are totally safe and can use your account from any computer without having to set everything up again. It remembers all your stations and preferences, too. Basically, if you adore music, you'll adore Pandora. Inkblot has found countless new bands and tons of awesomeness... though she has been a bit less productive lately (you are totally right, Kate!). So check out Pandora Internet Radio as soon as you can!! And let all the rest of us know about the exciting bands you've found! Much love,
Inkblot

Crumby Crumbs

Inkblot is sick. She thinks she has some sort of feverishness thing going on... sad. So if she doesn't post for a day or two, that's why. Well, that and the fact that the new Harry Potter book (Deathly Hallows) comes out tomorrow so she will be reading until she finishes it.

Inkblot needs some sleep now.

Much love,

Inkblot

Harry Crumbs

Not Hairy Crumbs, but Harry Crumbs... Inkblot has more than one for you! Inkblot was finding some music online from the Harry Potter soundtracks, and came across a copy of the new book (Book #7 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) that has been leaked online. Inkblot is so proud of herself for resisting temptation. She simply paused at the download link and then moved on. It's just a matter of honesty. Even though Inkblot has already bought the book, so she would be, in effect, still paying for it... she made the responsible decision that it wasn't right to read the book before it is supposed to be released (on Saturday the 21st at midnight - which is Friday night for most of us). Inkblot is satisfied with her decision, though a little disappointed that she feels compelled to do the right thing.

Another Harry Crumb! Inkblot received an email today from Barnes and Noble, stating that the book has been shipped. This means that it could conceivably arrive early!! Sadly, Inkblot has assumed that Rowling's publishers have made deals with the shipping company to ensure the book's delivery on and after the 21st ONLY. But the tiny glimmer of possibility is enough to make Inkblot happy.

The last Harry Crumb is that Inkblot has heard that the new Harry Potter video game (Order of the Phoenix) is actually worth the money. Inkblot bought the first video game when it came out years ago, but it froze up on her when she got to a certain point in the game. Inkblot never took it back and complained, though she should have. Inkblot thinks technology has come far enough since that it is very rare for this to happen. And it's easier to return the items as well. Inkblot thinks she'll invest a few bucks in the game. That one and the Sims 2. Inkblot has wanted the Sims 2 for quite a while.

Midnight Magic!

Sims 2!!

As always, much love,

Inkblot

Various Itsy Crumbs

Inkblot has been busy today. She finally got a summer job, but the summer is half over. At least her job is on a nice schedule - 2 to 6! Yay! Only four hours a day, flexibility on times and if she needs a day off for some reason. Mostly simple office work. Since it's summer, there won't be a ton of people coming in. It's at her dance studio, so Inkblot gets to see all her old students and those of her friends who are still young enough to be dancing there. And the pay will be good.
Inkblot also backed up all her files on her laptop! Yay! This means she won't worry about something getting lost or destroyed when her mother borrows her computer while she travels for a couple days. Oh, don't worry! Inkblot can use the home PC to post.
Inkblot worked on her altered book today as well. She is making huge headway on a spread she started a couple days ago. She's really excited because she got some organizers from The Container Store and has them in use in her art space. If she has a couple hours tomorrow, she can get the whole area cleaned up!
And Inkblot also got a postcard from her friend who is traveling in Senegal right now!! Fun stuff! Apparently, she was talking to a friend over breakfast and they spoke about Inkblot's hometown for some reason and it made her think of Inkblot and prompted the delightful postcard. Inkblot wishes she could put the postcard up here, but kind of worries about the partial anonymity of Cookie Crumbs. For now, Inkblot thinks she'll just take some pictures of her newest crafty endeavors and post them up here in a few days to satisfy all our cravings. Much love,
Inkblot

Crumb-alicious Stuffies

While Inkblot wishes that she could be a fantastic knitter someday, she definitely can't do much more than a simple scarf. Inkblot can't even read patterns yet... But somehow, Inkblot plans to make these crazy-cool stuffed animals. These stuffies have something so cute about them. Maybe it's just that they are hard to knit... Maybe it's that they are dinosaurs, which Inkblot feels have gotten the shaft among today's kids. Or maybe it's that simple stuffed animals are so charming to Inkblot (the single color, single fabric style with a little embroidery... love!).












Inkblot thinks she might just do a simply sewing with fabric instead of trying to knit these cute stuffies. Hmm... Or she could just draw one... haha.

Extreme Crumb-finding

While finding sources for a post on Extreme Knitting (much like Knitting Crumbs a couple days ago), Inkblot discovered an exciting new/old blog. The site is well-established (been at their new website for almost a year but has had a blog for several years) but Inkblot has never seen it before. How exciting! The site is called Extreme Craft. And, of course, they showcase crafts and crafters who are doing new and exciting, and incredibly offbeat and wild things. Their latest post discusses a website (tamponcraft), focusing on the Pan Pipes made from tampons that actually play IN TUNE!! Looking at a few of the more recent posts, Inkblot noticed that Garth (the blog's brains) posted about the fabulousness that is the new Simpsons movie website. Inkblot discovered that site a few days ago, and hadn't had a chance to post about it. I'll tell you, it offers a host of fun time-wasting activities, including the freaking amazing character creator. You can go in this character creator thingy and practically draw your own Simpsons character without having to do any drawing! You just choose the sex, coloring, hair, mouth, nose, eyebrows, clothing, etc. Put it altogether and then save it to your computer or link to it from your blog/site, whatever. So adorable. Anyway, back to Extreme Craft... Garth's older posts seem to be a tad more on the chic craft side, though they are still nice and wild. Have fun perusing! Much love,
Inkblot

Shifty Crumbs

Inkblot's daddy sent her this video:

It's called Shift Happens. It's about globalization and the ever-expanding technology of our times. It's slightly frightening, but massively exciting, for Inkblot to think about. She means to say that it kinda sucks monkey butt that her junior year of college she will have to "unlearn" half the stuff she learned her freshman year because of how outdated it will be. Of course, it isn't like it happens over night and we will have to learn it out of nowhere. We will be adapting to the change as it comes, but it does seem sort of a waste for us to be learning all these things that won't even be useful to us in two years' time.
In relation to this technology race we seem to be having against ourselves, Inkblot has been trying to find a way to store humongous files (ooh! sidenote! Did you hear that Webster's Dictionary added 'ginormous' as a word the other day...) on the internet instead of on her computer to save space and have access to the files no matter where she is. Inkblot is having trouble figuring out exactly what she wants, though. Ideally, it would be more like a website than a place to download the files. Downloading is more for sharing files, but Inkblot wants to store them and access them in other places so she can work on them. She's thinking a lot about big term papers and long stories (possibly novel-length, there is one in the works!). Inkblot wants to be able to go to a certain website and look at her work much like she would look at a Microsoft Word document, but online so that she doesn't have to wait for the file to download, have enough space on her computer, upload the updated version back to the storage space, and then delete the file from the computer. It's just too high-maintenance. Inkblot wants something a lot like this blogger account. She comes in, has an easy to use formatting thingy (though she may like a few more extras like the ability to indent and more font options), can type up what she wants or copy/paste it, can edit stuff she's worked on before... And then everything is saved on the internet and not on her computer, and (barring a huge internet crash - cross your fingers, God forbid!) it'll never be deleted unless I want it to. It would also work where, if you didn't give anyone the link or the password (a password would be ideal) then your files would be safe from potential essay-stealers or whatever. If such a website-like-thingy-majiggy actually exists (yayness), please let Inkblot and her other readers know! And, of course, all technology-related thoughts, comments, ideas, fears, etc. are welcome. Much love,
Inkblot

Knitting Crumbs

Inkblot wishes she could knit actual crumbs, but for now she is "stuck" with finding knit-related crumbs. And here are two right now!

The left picture is a knit likeness of a Fender guitar. That must have taken so long to make! Inkblot can barely get the stockingnette stitch (the second simplest stitch in all of knitting) right! This must have been done by someone extremely talented. On the right is a knit-covered moped. Or maybe a scooter. Inkblot doesn't know much about motorized bikes... Anyway, almost every inch of this thing is covered! What's left? The spokes. haha. It looks so pretty and girly. Inkblot can think of a few of her friends that would love to ride around on this cute bike! Whoever made it would have had to create their own patterns for most of the pieces to make them fit the bike well. And it might be harder than the guitar, in that each piece must fit perfectly. But the guitar may be harder in that the pieces are smaller, more complex, and more detailed. And it has to closely resemble an actual guitar.

Inkblot isn't sure which one is better or more complex or cuter, but she does know that they are both winners! As always, let her know if you have seen any amazing knit things. Inkblot loves to see more crumbs! Much love,

Inkblot

Emma Gives Us a Crumb

Here is Inkblot's favoritest picture of her brand spankin' new niece, Emma:

Inkblot knows the whole "baby in the laundry basket" picture is a little old hat (or rather old tee shirt in this case... or old sock.) But there is something so precious about it. I think they actually hadn't set up the bassinet yet, so Emma really didn't have anywhere reasonable to sleep other than the carrier. She's grown a lot in the week and a half or so since her birth. Physically, of course. But mentally as well. She is so alert. Inkblot's and her mother went over to babysit whilst one parent went to the grocery store and the other parent took a shower and got some dinner. While there, they fed her and she kept looking around. Normally she would fall asleep after nursing, but she just yawned a bunch. And stared at her daddy. And stared at Inkblot. And stared at basically anything and everything that caught her interest. And every time she would start to drift off, she'd wake herself back up by moving her arms and legs around and making cute little noises. She was so interested and curious in what was going on around her. Inkblot was in awe. She just adores her niece. Emma finally did fall asleep, only to be woken up by her daddy when he wanted to give her butterfly kisses. Not exactly condusive to playing with a baby, dad... haha. Inkblot would like to thank Emma for falling asleep in a laundry basket, and thus giving everyone who reads this post a delightful little picture to enjoy! Much love,

Inkblot.

Dirty Crumbs/Floral Crumbs

Inkblot caught Robert attempting to garden today. He was digging a hole by a bush. He told Inkblot that he wanted to plant some flowers. Inkblot, being the sweetie that she is, decided that she would help Robert garden. She told Robert he wasn't ready for planting yet, but that he could help her tend to the plants. Here are a few pictures of Robert's adventure in gardening.

On the left, we have Robert digging his hole before Inkblot stopped him. On the right, Robert is playing amongst the flowers, helping Inkblot decide which ones need watering and pruning.

Over here on the left, you can see Robert trying to untangle the hose to water the plants. Robert was very excited about watering. Inkblot thinks it had something to do with the fact that Robert ended up playing in the water and getting soaked. But the sun quickly dried him off, so all was well. And it wasn't like he would be dripping all over the carpets or anything. Robert hadn't been invited inside.

And here on the right is another picture of Robert tending the flowers. He also helped Inkblot clear out all those leaves. Congratulations on learning to garden Robert!

Much love,

Inkblot

More Post It Crumbs

Excited by her earlier post on the Post It graffiti trend, Inkblot searched for some more cool examples of creative use of Post Its. So here are some more pictures of awesome artists using basic items in their creations.

This one on the left is by a guy named Duncan Wilson and looks like the pixel stuff from the Nintendo guys, but might just be colored tiles.

And the one on the right is a car covered in colorful Post Its. Apparently the car belongs to someone named Walt... hmm...

And this one over on the left is an entire room decorated in Post Its. The detail is amazing, too! They placed them perfectly. Inkblot only wishes she knows who created it.

This yellow one on the right really needs a close up view. Each Post It note is drawn on, each being its own piece of art. But collectively, they are like wallpaper. All the little pieces of art make one big huge piece of art. Beautiful.

Inkblot thinks these are amazing artists that have found a creative use for a common office supply. Their innovation is worth all the praise in the world. If you have other stories or photos of creative Post It usage, let Inkblot know. Much love,

Inkblot

These are not Crumbs.

As an American, Inkblot is deeply saddened to receive an email today about a high school in California. Apparently the students hung the Mexican flag above the American flag on their flag pole. What's more, they hung the American flag upside down. This atrocity does not seem to be getting much air time on the News channels or even the newspapers. Though it is getting a ton of publicity over the internet. Is it not the news media's job to report on the most interesting and important things going on in the world? If this story is causing such a frenzy over the internet, it must be important to people. And, thus, if it is important to people, it should be reported on news networks and in the papers. Inkblot must admit that she is a tad distraught over the symbolism of this event and the subsequent actions of the media. This was clearly meant as a stance that Mexico is better than the US, which is all fine on Mexican soil (in Inkblot's opinion). But as soon as you hit US territory, you should be expected to respect the country. This is an act of pure disrespect. And the worst part is that our country has become so weak that they will do nothing about this occurance. It is treason, yet our country will stand by and ignore it. Even our media will not give the event a nod of recognition. It is horrid to see our country losing its strength because people feel guilty that we are doing so well. Inkblot does not believe that the US just fell into its good fortune. She knows that there was a lot of work that went into making America what it is today (or more, what it was fifty or sixty years ago...). She knows that the choices Americans have made and the work they have put into their lives are what made the US great. But when we all decide that we don't deserve what we have worked hard for and made good decisions for... that is when our country will begin to meet its demise. It has already started. Are we no longer proud to be Americans? Do we no longer support each other because we know that we support democracy and freedom? Are we so "accepting" of everyone that we have forgotten to accept each other? It is a dark day we are living in that we don't take care of each other on a personal level and support our country on a governmental level. Inkblot would like to know of any other westernized country that would allow treason without so much as a news segment. Really, please post a comment if you know of any such country. Inkblot certainly can't think of one. As usual, much love,

Inkblot

Graffiti Crumbs

Apparently Nintendo promoters in Italy are trying a new advertising technique. Pixel-inspired graffiti made from Post-It notes. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But the results are actually quite cool looking. The Nintendo guys create these Post-It murals that depict iconic video game characters, mostly from the 80's, to promote the game console. The picture with the hand (left) was actually created by an artist, but Inkblot couldn't find any further information on the mural.

Inkblot just loves the idea behind these Post-It murals! The advertising is genius... You can make really interesting-looking displays that get people talking, and they're removable! The graffiti isn't permanent, so you have a better chance of getting the owner of the building to agree to putting up a mural on their wall. And another great thing - you can refresh the Post-It's if they get dirty, and change the colors if you want, and allow people to write on the art for an interactive feel or something. Plus, they just look awesome! Below are a couple more Post-It graffiti pictures that weren't done by the Italian Nintendo people. Much love,

Inkblot

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Baby Crumbs

Inkblot is sorry she took a while to post after her niece's birth. But Emma has just caught Inkblot up. She can't help but go visit her everyday... In honor of Emma, Inkblot would like to share with you all a baby-related website, though it can be used for so many other things! Babynamesworld.com is, of course, a baby names site. You can search for boys names, girls names, names with a certain origin, names that start with certain letters, or names that mean something. You can view lists of the most popular names or get a random name from a generator. Obviously, you can use the site to find a name for the newest member of your family. But you can also use the site to find the meaning and origin of your own name, your friend's and family's names, or even find a name to use in a story you are writing. Inkblot prefers that last one. That is why Inkblot has the site saved to her favorites list. When Inkblot writes, she has a lot of trouble coming up with names for her characters, and the website really helps everything work out alright. Inkblot is generally satisfied with the names she finds on the site and the stories usually turn out well because of that. So check out Baby Names World for all your name-related questions! Much love,
Inkblot

Emma Elizabeth Crumbs

Inkblot hasn't posted in more than 24 hours because she has a new niece!! Emma Elizabeth was born on Saturday night! She has all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. Her nose is adorable, and she was wide awake right after she was born. Her eyes are big, her skin is soft, and she likes to reach out at things. She has the longest fingers and little tufts of hair on her head. Inkblot is just so happy. She got to hold Emma today for about 20 minutes. Emma was sleeping and bobbing her head up and down as she snoozed... haha. Adorable. Inkblot will post a picture of her as soon as she can get all the photos onto the computer. Now, she needs to make some pretty letters for her brother, sister-in-law, and brand new niece. Much love,
Inkblot