I intended to delve deep into quilting today. Then I went outside to a beautiful feels-like-fall Alabama day. Butterflies and bees were on my zinnias. The Monarch with its distinctive white spots on its wings and torso somehow justifies the wildness of my yard as do the Little Yellows, Gulf Fritillaries, Skippers, and bees.
I could try for words, but the photos speak more eloquently than I could.
Thank you for being one of a few. You are already my beta readers. Now would you be one of my beta viewers? Let me know what you think about this first video You Ask – I Answer video series. I am making these with Zoom while recording myself. I challenge you. Do something outside of your comfort zone. This certainly is for me. Another challenge: Do something you would have depended on someone else to do before Covid19.
Please leave a comment with feedback and any questions you would like for me to answer.
Later this series will be available to subscribers only.
Yesterday’s bed dismantled made this Zoom and sewing dedicated space possible. Before the room was like a closet room, a messy one at that. The photo is one corner. I am not ready to show you the whole room or the area behind my living couch where I moved boxes, baskets, storage bins, and bags. It seems my life is a never ending process of sorting, deciding what to keep, what to throw away, and where to put what I keep. I think spiritual life is like that. You can make good choices on what to keep and what to get rid of, but still you have to find where everything goes. Sometimes nothing seems to fit in an empty space. Sometimes a place cries for something beautiful.
In sorting through, I found my sewing machine, a lot of fabric and batting, and some UFOs (UnFinished Objects). Yes, quilting is calling me.
Since I am self-isolated, even family visits are limited with social distancing and masks at times. I will not have overnight company any time soon, yet one of my two small bedrooms was set up as a guest room – until today. I dismantled the bed. In its place, I will set up a Zooming and sewing area.. Having one place with the right lighting and background for Zoom will be a time saver. Having my sewing machine and clutter off the dining room table will keep my stress level lower. I look forward to the time I will feel safe with overnight company. Until I get another bed, there’s the air mattress.
I am practicing answering in short videos the questions I am often asked. Some of them are about Garth Brooks and why he says, “She started it all.”
I am also a quilter – at times. It is one of my escape passion. In revising the blog, I lost my quilting page, so I am posting this for them to be represented in the Other Passions category (on the menu).
Who would have thought I could have stage fright during a phone call? I thank Paul Leslie first of all for wanting to interview me and then for keeping me talking even though my voice was shaky.
This interview covers more ground and answers more questions than this blog can in years.
For the last two days, I have been consumed by WordPress Growth Summit. For the last month, I have been in the middle of Jeff Goins’ Intentional Blog.
I now know enough to get lost going down any number of rabbit holes. You are going to see a lot of experimental features. Today I am learning I can have columns in individual posts. Edit: Multiple columns in one post do not show in phone view – only in desktop or tablet. Yes – definite learning curve.
How do you feel about being a Guinea pig? If you are reading this, you are. Perhaps, you will be more willing if i call you a beta reader – and listener.
I have decided to go ahead and publish while experimenting.
No one to blame but me for all the chaos coming until the blog evolves. Including “Wish I Could Blame It on Tequila” lets me experiment adding audio. Sandy Carroll and I wrote the song. It is published in our respective publishing companies.
Did you listen to the song? If so, please leave a comment.
Ii think all my followers are personal friends at this point, so I feel free to experiment.
I may not post as often and what I post may be bit scattered while I am playing with content and format.
When the pandemic started one bit of commonly found advice was to learn a new language. I wonder how many people followed through with that? Building this blog is somewhat like learning a new language. A basic one is not so hard, like learning how to say hello and a few basic phrases of a language is not so hard.
I want to be fluent. Jeff Goins’ Intentional Blog course was a start. (If I were fluent, I would know how to embed that link). That course is as intensive as many university classes I have taken. I am not through with it. Thank heavens, I can always go back through the modules and read and post in the private Facebook group. Now I am enrolled in the WordPress Growth Summit. Until this year, it was in a big city and not virtual, so I could not have attended.
I will know how to accomplish what I want with this blog. I will have the skills. I have content to share. Will I? If I could be as connected and active with others now as I was before Covid19, I doubt I would follow through. I would be doing what I want this blog to do – share songs, host shows, spotlight people, keep conversations going, and tell my story. I can do that in this blog in a more permanent way.
Thank you for being here at the beginning. If you would, please, subscribe to my email list. At some point you will have access to content no one else does. One newsletter a week – if I can keep up.
Have you ever been to a Perseids party? I had one one year. We spent more time talking, eating, and drinking than we did stargazing. Of course, we could not have seen many shooting stars at 8:00 CST in the city. I have not had another one. After all, what is a Perseids party without the shooting stars?
Go to the following NASA page for all you need to know to have a better chance than I did. They peak this week.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/perseids/in-depth/
“The Perseids, which peak during mid-August, are considered the best meteor shower of the year. With very fast and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long “wakes” of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth’s atmosphere. The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers (50-100 meteors seen per hour) and occur with warm summer nighttime weather, allowing sky watchers to easily view them.
Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. This is due to the fact that fireballs originate from larger particles of cometary material. Fireballs are also brighter, with apparent magnitudes greater than -3.” – NASA
The meteors are referred to as “spectacular-earth-grazing-shooting-stars by Forbes.