Monkey Business

Well, unlike my talented sister and daughter, the quilts that I make are much less time intensive and creative. This is the quilt I made for Korven to go in his jungle theme room. It has NO piecing, no "real" quilting, machine or hand. It's straight up yarn tied and bound with single width bias directly out of the package. But, I did make it. Notice the rounded corners? Yep, I'm too lazy to mess with trying to make neat matching square corners and decided a gentle curve would be just the thing. I actually like it and if I never make another square corner it will be grand. I didn't get it done before he was born as I not only have arthritis in my hands but I also recently badly sprained my right thumb and it is still pathetically weak. So, pushing a fat needle with yarn through two layers of fabric and batting didn't exactly thrill me. However, it is done now and my thumb joint is only twice as large on one hand as the other. Let's see if I can take a pic of that... Oh yeah, that's lovely. Note the stylish long slender, manicured hands. Oh wait, mine are short,stubby and age spotted, not to mention getting wrinkly. So, if that wasn't a pathetic bid for pity I don't know what you would call it.


I really am actually feeling pretty blessed tonight. I just re-read the little life history mom sent of my great, great,grandma, Esther Williams Morris. She was born in Wales and went to work in a tin factory at the age of 9 where she worked until she was almost 20. At that time she and her mother and sister embarked on a condemned ship to head to America. Her father and two sister had died earlier from black cholera. They arrived and worked briefly to obtain enough money to join one of the handcart companies heading west. After months of travel they arrived in Utah and began the "casual" life of homesteading pioneers. Esther went on to marry and gave birth to my great grandma Charlotte and 11 other children, all but one of them surviving to adulthood. She lived for 76 productive years and took care of herself and her house up to the day she died. She was a mother, a nurse, and apparently a great pancake maker. I was fascinated to learn that she liked to eat them steeped in milk- just like I do! Yeah, I know most people think it's weird. Anyway, those are the bare bones of what I read but, it was enough to make me feel spoiled and very blessed with all the MANY conveniences, and luxuries I have.
Speaking of which, I have been thinking a bit about how things have changed just in the last 10 or 15 years. Let's just take one thing. Digital cameras and images. Once you have purchased a camera it is nothing to take as many pictures as you want, you get almost instant feedback, and you have MANY options for viewing and sharing those images. Hence we have a generation that takes pictures of everything (I mean for Pete's sake, would I have taken a picture of my stupid thumbs before the digital age? I think not.) The kids at school must take 100's of pictures a week with their cameras or cell phones. I can see the benefits of this technology on an almost daily basis when I get to see my long distance relatives through digital images and text (Like I'm doing right now). I'm sure my grandchildren will have had more pictures taken of them by the time they are 2 than I took of my kids during their entire growing up period. And I am among those who are avidly snapping and enjoying those pictures.
I guess here is my question. How or do you think this will affect the next generation ? I can see some trends or at least what I perceive as trends in my students. What do you see as any benefits or drawbacks? There have already been some students at school who have sent some really awful images and they don't seem to see what the big deal. It's not just the images themselves it's the potential for how they can be distributed. Now, I don't mean to say that this is all bad. Obliviously I love being able to stay in touch with family and capture moments in time. It's just like anything, it seems like where there is the potential for great good, there is also the potential for great evil too. Yeah... maybe I spend too much time messing around with computers at school and at home huh?
I'll close with a picture of some of those poor daffodils that were under 4 inches of snow last week. They bounced back pretty nicely eh?