Simple Still Life: Month the Second, Part the First

Here's the current assignment, as laid out by SSL's Fearless Leader, Debra:

Your first assignment is to take the picture of your of next Still Life Challenge. AND POST IT TO YOUR BLOG ON SEPTEMBER 30TH. Not earlier, and hopefully not much later. The SUBJECT of round two: ONE ITEM (AND A SHADOW). Note, the shadow may belong to the item you are photographing, or so some other item out of the frame.

You know what? That assignment is harder than it sounds! First of all, if you are only going to have one item in your photo, you want it to be something interesting. Well, at least I do, and I assume most other people do too. Also, I loved the idea of having the shadow in the photograph NOT be the shadow of the featured object, but rather be the shadow of something out of frame. But again? Harder than it sounds. I carried my camera on every walk this past week hoping something would catch my eye, as I had in mind to maybe feature an interesting rock, or leaf, or branch or something. But the weather wasn't cooperating with me at all this week. It's been very overcast here and spitting rain, meaning either no shadows or very weak ones. (Until today, naturally, when I've already done something else. Today it's sunny and gorgeous. Ppppfffttt!) So yesterday I finally gave up on that idea and started looking around the house for something to photograph. I'd thought I would set something next to a lamp or something, but in the end I actually caught a few moments of decent sunlight and carried my chosen object out onto the deck railing so I could photograph it without a flash. And here it is, my starting photo for the Simple Still Life October assignment: It occurred to me well after I'd taken the photo, that some might consider this candle-holder almost "cheating" since it has many parts, but I figure since I can pick it up and carry it around as it's pictured in the photo, it counts as a single object. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Once we have a working photograph, our assignment is:

After we get to admire all our wickedly inventive photographs next week... we have four weeks to create something from our photos. Once again.. it can be anything. A fiber postcard, a drawing, an exercise in photoshop, a pair of socks... whatever. Post the photo of your completed object ON OCTOBER 28TH.

I have NO clue yet what I'm going to do from here, but stay tuned...

Mrs. Clean

Did you miss me yesterday? I meant to blog, really I did, but I had such an unblogworthy day! I considered posting a quiz, but have decided my quiz addiction is getting a wee bit out of hand and I'm trying to cut back. Not stop, mind you. I enjoy the little buggers too much for that. But to maybe keep it down to one a week or so would be a good thing, yes? So yesterday I was Little Miss Susie Homemaker. Bleah. Have I mentioned how much I really, truly HATE housework? Well, I do. I wouldn't mind if it was something you could do and it would stay done, even for a little while. Like, if I could thoroughly clean my house and it would STAY clean, exactly the way it was when I was finished for, oh say, one week before starting to look crappy again, I think I could deal with that. But no. I live with dogs, y'all. Three of 'em. BIG ones. And a cat. Also large. And J and I are not exactly petite neatniks either. All of which pretty much means that by the time I've cleaned the house from one end to the other, the end I started with is already looking like I haven't touched it in just a little too long. ***sigh*** So long ago, I decided life is too damned short to worry about my house looking perfect. I'd rather spend what time I have here on this planet doing other things. So when it comes to housekeeping, I do the basics...well, my version of the basics. Heh. But mostly I'm pretty content to live in the midst of a certain amount of messiness. I have a few things I'm picky about, but I can, for instance, look at teetering stacks of books and magazines for a long, long time before I'm bothered enough to do something about them, and I've been known to name the dustbunnies and consider them just a few more members of the family. Anyone want to meet Ralph and Julio? But then (cue dramatic music) someone wants to visit. And suddenly all my Good Girl training comes rushing to the fore and I am filled with anxiety about being Less Than Perfect. What if I have Hard Water Stains in the bathroom? What if my carpets are Not Fresh? What if my windows are the ones birds like because they aren't Windex Clear?? OH Nooooooo! The Horror, the Horror... Uh...sorry...I was living in TV AdLand for a minute there. But really, there is some part of me I haven't yet been able to get with the program that hates the idea that visitors - even people I love (especially people I love?) - will go away saying I'm a Bad Housekeeper. Which I AM. But just because I know it and say it myself doesn't mean I want other people saying it. **snort!** So yesterday was spent scrubbing bathrooms, sweeping floors, dusting furniture (I've always thought that should be UNdusting furniture), etc, etc, etboringc. And today I'm going to mop, clean windows, and cook. All so two more people and one more dog can come live in my house this weekend and mess it up again. Yay! You know what? If I ever become suddenly and unexpectedly wealthy, I am hiring a housekeeper. Then if someone wants to visit and the house looks like the Before photo in an ad, I can blame it on someone else. HA! Hhhmm, I just scared myself a little with that last paragraph. Maybe I should go into politics.

The Crow Girls

The group with whom I sometimes do collage swaps is currently doing a Halloween deck called "Mythical Metamorphosis". I wasn't going to do this one at first because a) I really didn't have any ideas for it and b) I (more importantly) had several quilt deadlines looming. Then a few days ago, Red put out a call for subs to fill in for a couple of people who had dropped out of the swap at the last minute. And since I'm at a creative standstill at the moment when it comes to quilts, I thought what the heck. Surely I can think of something to do that fits the theme. So after many long and sometimes frustrating hours playing with Photoshop, including one time when I was half done and managed to accidentally delete the whole project (***sigh***), here is what I finally came up with: "Crow Girls" 3" x 5" The Crow Girls are Corbae - Manitou (spirit beings) who can take on the form of either a crow or a dark-haired young woman in order to appear to and interact with humans. They show up in many of Charles deLint's wonderful stories. Here I was trying to show a glimpse of them in both forms on a cold northern Halloween night. For the specific imagery, I was inspired by the last stanza of a poem by Aine MacDermot.

The Crow Girls ever seen the Crow Girls, singing 'neath the moon of the sadness and the gladness that both fill their tune, piercing hearts that know the secrets of the Crow Girls' song knowing deep down inside it won't be long, won't be long

Self-portrait Tuesday, Part two

Another Tuesday, another self-portrait, and this is the final week for the September theme of "Body Parts". This week was hard. I wanted to do something a bit arty and abstract and maybe darker (thematically, that is) than what I did last week. But you know what I discovered? I don't really DO darkly arty. (Pause while all my friends say "duh!") Everything I tried looked very self-conscious and contrived. Bleah. So yesterday evening when I was taking my daily walk, I took the camera along, hoping for inspiration. It was around 7 PM and the sun was low in the sky and I suddenly thought of how it used to fascinate me when I was a child to hold my hand up to the sun and the edges of my hand would go all pink and glowy and it would seem like I could almost see through the skin to the bones. When I had that thought, I whipped out the camera, held up one hand, and snapped off this shot: I like it. It isn't great art, but it's very me. By the way, thank you to everyone who commented about the postcard lesson yesterday! I'm going to pass on individual replies this time around because I'd basically just be saying "thanks for the nice comment" over and over, so here's a big group "Thanks for the nice comment!". :-)

How To Make A Fabric Postcard DebR Style

A few days ago, in comments, Elena said, "I'm so intrigued by the fabric postcards--can you shoot me an email about how you got started, maybe some resources if I was interested in doing something like that?" Well, I started writing an email, but then decided it would be more fun to make a postcard and document the process with pictures, creating my own little photo lesson. So if you always wanted to make a fabric postcard, but weren't sure how to start, here's one way. If you already know how, then just enjoy the pictures. Because y'all know I live to add captions and little arrows to my pictures. It's a sickness. Here are some of the things you need to get started: You can find Peltex (or Timtex, pretty much the same thing) in the section of a fabric store where they sell interfacing and fusible web. It's thicker than normal interfacing and has a lot of body. It kind of looks like thin quilt batting with a stiffy. Wonder Under is the fusible web I used most often, but you could use any one you like. Except for Heat 'n' Bond. H 'n' B is evil. Many people use heavy paper (like watercolor paper) for the backs of their postcards and that works great - and is actually easier to write on! - but I just really like the idea of a postcard that's all fabric, so that's what I use on the back of mine. Some things you'll need that aren't in the photo include an iron and ironing board, a sewing machine with a good sharp needle in it, and a pair of scissors. Here are some optional items that can be fun to use, but aren't strictly necessary: You can, of course substitute a Shiraz, or a margarita, or even a latte for the Pinot. I'm not sure there's any real substitute for the chocolate, but I understand some of you may be more into salty than sweet. In that case, nachos are good. Oh yeah, and the beads, buttons, yarn, etc? Those are for surface embellishment if you're so inclined. Just keep in mind that the folks at the post office say the postcard has to finish up to be 1/8" thick or less. They even have a slot thingy where they check that! Seriously! Ok,now that we've gathered our materials, let's get started! First, cut a piece of the Peltex to slightly larger than the finished size you want. We want to finish to 4" x 6", so I cut the Peltex about 4 1/4" x 6 1/4". Cut a piece of backing fabric (something plain-ish, because you're going to write on this later!) to around 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". And cut two pieces of Wonder Under, exactly 4" x 6" each. Iron one piece of WU to the Peltex and the other to the wrong side of your backing fabric: Follow the directions for whatever type of fusible web you're using, because they vary a bit, but if you're using WU, you do this step with a dry iron on fairly high heat (wool setting). Here's what it'll look like when you're done: Now lay something down to protect your ironing board surface in case you get a little sloppy with the fusible web. Not that I, or any of you, would ever DO such a thing, of course. Ahem. But let's be careful, shall we? I use a largish piece of the release paper from some Wonder Under I used a while back, but if you don't have that you can use a silicone pressing sheet or even an old flattened paper grocery sack. Now to start constructing the front of the postcard - the pretty part! Yay! You can make a little quiltlet to size and then fuse the whole thing onto the Peltex. But here's a fun fast and dirty...er...I mean fast and easy way to make one that doesn't involve any piecing or applique at all. Find some larger chunks of fabrics in your scrap pile and lay them on the side of the Peltex that has the WU on it. (You need to remove the release paper from the WU before doing this.) You can, of course use a single piece of fabric for the background, but why use one fabric when you can use four, I always say! Once you like how it looks, follow the manufacturer's instructions to fuse the background fabric(s) to the Peltex. For WU, that means pressing for 10 seconds with lots of steam. Now grab your little pile of leftover scraps. If you've already been doing some fusing, these should be scraps that already have WU (or other fusible web) attached to the wrong side. That's easiest. But if you dont' have any scraps or fabric pieces that have fusible web on them, you can lay some small pieces of fabric on the web side of some WU, use a pressing cloth (!!!) and fuse them and create some fusible scraps. Then remove the release paper and just start cutting some shapes and placing them on your background until you like what you see. Play! This part is supposed to be fun!! Once the front of your postcard looks done, stick a fork in it...oh, no, that's chicken. Uh...oh yeah, now you fuse it, just like you did the background in the last step. Then the next step is to quilt it. Keep in mind, at this point you're quilting through just the front and the Peltex, with no backing. You can either keep it simple, with straight parallel lines, or a grid, doing just enough to hold everything in place, or you can drop your feed dogs and do swirling free-motion quilting until it begs for mercy. The one thing I'll mention about the quilting is that if you're doing fused, raw edged designs I would make sure to choose a quilting design that puts at least a few stitches into every piece you fused down. You have to assume that if you mail the finished postcard to someone, it may go through some rough handling between your house and theirs and you don't want frayed, dangly bits hanging off it when it arrives. Uh...unless you do want frayed dangly bits hanging off it when it arrives. Then, never mind. If you want to embellish - buttons, beads, sequins, couched fibers, etc. - I do that after quilting, but before adding my backing fabric. That way you can hide your knots with your backing. Here is my postcard, seen from the back, and my backing fabric, with WU attached, ready to fuse (as soon as I remove the release paper...it's still attached in the photo). Then you center the backing fabric on the back of the postcard, WU side down, and fuse it in place. :::::Ssssssteammmmm:::::: See? You can see the backing fabric sticking out around the edges: Now you lay the whole thing on your cutting mat and trim away the extra stuff - front, Peltex, and backing - and square it up so that it's exactly 4" x 6". Unless you are a rebel, in which case feel free to make it 3 7/8" by 5 13/16". Heh. Almost done now...we're on the home stretch! Next step is to seal the edges somehow - partly for looks, partly for practicality so that the whole thing doesn't start to peel apart in transit in case your fusing job doesn't hold up to the tender mercies of the postal system. You can use 'most any sort of stitching around the edge as long as it holds the layers together, but I usually do a basic satin stitch. Here I'm about to stitch away: Once you've sealed those edges with some sort of stitching, your postcard is nearly done! The US postal service wants you to write "postcard" on the back. And if you've used fabric backing, you need to be sure to do your writing with a pen that's both permanent and fabric-safe. I use a Pigma Micron. Some people do this step on the computer, printing this stuff on their backing fabric before they attach it. Still others have lovely rubber stamps that say "postcard" and other official-looking things. Me? I'm a slob...I scribble. It still gets where it's going. Be sure to use a self-stick stamp and rub it firmly onto the fabric. But don't try to iron it in place. We won't discuss how I know that. And here we have the finished postcard: TaaaDaaaahhhh!! That wasn't hard at all, was it? And here's a potential prize for those of you who made it all the way to the end of this loooooong post. If you'd like to own my "Fruit-A-Delic" postcard for your very own, and if you've never received one of my postcards before, either in a swap or as a surprise, pull up the comments and say "Show Me The Postcard!". First person to say the magic words wins the card. (Be sure I know how to contact you, as I'll need to get your snail mail addy in order to send it to you!) Added: Since I still get an occasional comment or email saying "show me the postcard", I figured I'd better amend this to say here that the postcard was claimed the very first day! Sorry, ya gotta make your own! Th-th-th-that's all, folks! Added: I love getting comments, but PLEASE...if you have a comment or question that requires an answer, be SURE to include your email address for a reply. I can't send an answer if your blogger ID is set to either "anonymous" or "no reply". Thanks!!

Postcard Mania!

This arrived yesterday from Arlee: "Dances With Fish In The Mountains" Thanks Arlee, it's wonderful!! And since all the ones I sent have now arrived at their destinations, I'll share some photos of my own. I based my postcard series on a quilt I finished recently, "Eyes of the Sun 2: Solar Flares". I used leftover bits from that quilt to create the postcards and they were done in sets of 4, so that they're almost like a puzzle, with 4 postcards each making up a piece of a complete sun motif. "Sunspots" postcards, set 1 "Sunspots" postcards, set 2 "Sunspots" postcards, set 3 close-up of one card Special note to Elena, who asked in comments about how to make a fabric postcard - I haven't forgotten! I'm working on an answer for you, but I want to include pictures because, you know..."worth a thousand words".

Well, I DO Like Apples

Hhmm....somewhat ironic, considering that I was licensed to teach art in the state of Kentucky before I let my certification expire. Got this one from Diane over at Passages:

Teacher You scored 57% Do Gooder, 57% Drive, and 82% Intellect!

You are a smarty-pants and eager to share your knowledge with others, while still open to absorbing everything in your environment. That is why you are a teacher (and at the same time, a perpetual student). You have above average intelligence and the drive to be effective in your life and the lives of others. You are also a good person who cares about others, but yourself as well, generally not letting people take advantage of you. A teacher is a great thing to be and we need more humans like you in the world. All human being categories are: Lazy SOB, Rebel w/out a Cause, Evil Mastermind, Henchman, Criminal, Dictator, Frat Boy, Socialite, Philosopher, Stunt Double, Upstanding Citizen, Teacher, Cheerleader, Sister Mary DoGood, Benefactor, Loyal Sidekick, Candy Striper, Goody Two-Shoes.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 15% on Do Gooder You scored higher than 23% on Drive You scored higher than 69% on Intellect

Link: The What Type of Human Are You? Test written by weeredIII on Ok Cupid

Of Shoes, and Shoes, and Shoes, and Music

LookyLooky at the two cards I got in the mail yesterday afternoon! This one is from Adrienne: "Gloria DeHaven Wearing Cowgirl Costume, 1954" And this one is from Julie: "Shoe Fetish Queen" by Robert Shields Aren't they great?? Thanks, guys! :-) The more I looked though, the more I thought the Shoe Fetish Queen really NEEDED red hair. Plus, I wouldn't be caught dead in bubble-gum pink pants. And I'd like the boots better if they were red. Sooooo.... "Shoe Fetish Queen Debified" There, isn't that better? :-)) (I can just picture my brother-in-law [Hi, Andy!] reading this and saying "She has way too much time on her hands".) Speaking of shoes, check these out: Icon Quilted Clog. Aren't they fabulous?? Not something my budget will stretch to, unfortunately, but if I win the lotto or something, I'm buying a pair! (Thanks to MavJanis for the link!) Music Mess Clean-up Finally, since I spent so much time whining about it earlier in the week, I just wanted to tell everyone that I got my music download saga straightened out, FINALLY. Still not happy with the way the process of fixing things was handled, but at least it turned out right in the end and I'm not feeling ripped off anymore. So Yay! Now I can listen to music from Rock Star: INXS while I work in the studio! Once I start actually, well, WORKING in the studio again. Heh.

Lame-O Filler Blog Entry #416

I had an idea in mind to blog about today. Really I did. But it's just been one of those days. Not in a bad way, just in an "I really can't concentrate on anything that requires actual writing skills right now" sort of way. So it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I'll fall back on an old standby, Ye Olde Quizze. You can blame this one on Valeri.

Your Power Color Is Red-Orange

At Your Highest: You are warm, sensitive, and focused on your personal growth. At Your Lowest: You become defensive and critical if you feel attacked. In Love: You are loyal - but you demand the respect you deserve. How You're Attractive: You are very affectionate and inspire trust. Your Eternal Question: "Am I Respected?"

What's Your Power Color?

And as if that weren't exciting enough (woohoo!), here's a meme I snagged from Michelle. The 23/5 Meme The instructions are to find your 23rd blog entry and tell everyone the 5th sentence. Why? I have absolutely no idea. But hey, I've got nuthin' today, ok? Cut me some slack. So here's my result, from the post "Pre-Birthday Flowers", 3-14-05: ME: "You have good taste. I love them." Wow. Thrilling, yes? I'd better sit down now. Oh wait. I am sitting down. Well then, never mind. I never tag anyone for these things, but if you too want the thrill and excitement of knowing that you said in the 5th sentence of your 23rd post, then take my meme...please.

Backyard Views

Would you like to know one of the things I love about this time of year? (Say yes. Thank you.) I love the colors. It's not quite really leaf-turning season in Kentucky yet, so most of the leaves are still green, and so is the grass. But a few early-birds, like winged sumac, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy are beginning to turn bright red. Poke stalks are magenta, while the berries are a deep eggplant purple. Goldenrod and Jerusalem artichoke, both very plentiful around here, are sweeping the hills with masses of bright yellow. And here and there are stands of royal-purple Ironweed. Put them all against an intensely blue autumn sky and it's just breathtaking. This morning I was filling the birdfeeder and the view off my back deck caught my eye. I may have mentioned a few times that I live way out in the country. Way, WAY out in the country. And did I mention the words "middle of nowhere"? Our house sits in the middle of about 120 acres of land. There are a couple of relatively civilized acres around the house that we choose to call the yard. The yard is surrounded by fields. And the fields are surrounded by woods. Off to the north, just where the yard ends and one of the fields drops away over a hill is one of the most impressive stands of golden wildflowers on our place. And there's a dying tree (which we really need to cut down) being taken over by Virginia creeper. This morning, the light had an amazing quality to it that I don't know quite how to describe and that field just glowed. I threw on some shoes, grabbed the camera, and wandered outside in my nightie (middle of nowhere!) to try to capture the image. And failed. Miserably. The very quality of light that attracted me so, made it impossible to capture. Well, impossible for ME to capture. Someone with a better camera and/or a better knowledge of how to use it probably could have done it. But I decided to share a couple of photos anyway. Even though they aren't "right" in terms of being exactly what I saw this morning, they're still kind of pretty. Looking straight north from my back yard Looking northeast, toward the "back 40"

Maybe Someone Should Tell France...

...Because, y'know, I'm pretty sure they don't know their national language is "obsolete". Got this one from Gabrielle, of course. You are 'French'. In the nineteenth century, it was the international language of diplomacy. It is a 'beautiful' language, meaning that it is really just a low-fidelity copy of Latin. You know the importance of communicating 'diplomatically', which for you means both being polite and friendly when necessary and using sophisticated, vicious sarcasm when appropriate. Your life is guided by either existentialism or nihilism, depending on the weather. You have a certain appreciation for the finer things in life, which is a diplomatic way of saying that you are a disgusting hedonist. Your problem is that French has been obsolete for a long time. What obsolete skill are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Wonky Houses Published! Plus Rock Star Stuff! And a Rant!

(Usual spoiler stuff applies about Rock Star: INXS. If you TiVo'd it and haven't watched yet, or you live someplace it hasn't aired yet, or have been on retreat someplace with absolutely NO news and you don't want to know the outcome of the finale, then don't read this post.) But first, before we get to the RS:INXS stuff... Quilt News I got the November issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine in the mail today and my quilt, "Wonky Houses" is on page 83, top right corner. Yay! Pretty decent photo too! So if you subscribe to QNM, or you don't subscribe but you want to pick it up and flip through it at the grocery store, take a look at my quilt's superfantastic photo! (I was starting to think they'd never print it. They requested this quilt for photography at least two years ago!) And in other quilty news, the FedEx truck pulled up this morning returning my Mama quilt from a photography session in Houston, and the UPS truck pulled up returning my Queen of Cups quilt from PNQE. Here are the Judges' comments, as they were written (I can never resist reading them, even though they occasionally make me say Bad Words): "Color choices in water area are affective. Matching binding is a nice touch. More quilting in the body is needed." People who see that quilt in person always like the water. Although I assume the person writing the comments meant the choices were "effective" since I don't think they were affecting anything in particular. Judges always like my bindings too. How boring, but hey, a talent is a talent and I happen to make very good bindings. And they're totally right, she does need more quilting in the body. She probably won't get it. But she needs it. Not so bad, as comments go. Nothing I didn't already know, but nothing that made me screech in frustration. More of the Music Saga Speaking of screeching in frustration, want to hear the latest in my downloaded music saga? (You might as well say yes, because I'm telling you whether you want to hear it or not.) I finally, after about 3 tries, received an email that sounded like it might be from a real person instead of a generic form letter. This person asked for some more information, which I provided. And keep in mind here, every time I reply, I'm including ALL previous emails, my own and theirs, at the bottom so that they have the complete story in one document if they can be bothered to read it. So then I waited some more. And this morning I got another email and thought "oh good, now maybe I'll get some useful information". HA! Nope, back to another generic email that gave me totally UN-useful and UN-applicable advice. Here is my most recent reply:

OMG...how many times do I have to say this is NOT (!!!!!!) a WMP problem! Do y'all even READ the previous messages (all included below!!) before you reply?? I'm not going into it again because I've stated repeatedly exactly what the situation is and continue to get replies that completely fail to address the problem. Every time I think I'm finally getting a reply that *might* get me somewhere, by the next one I'm back where I started. Ok then, never mind. I will accept that I just wasted $26 + tax. But I will never buy music downloads from MSN again, and will tell anyone who asks about this experience. This is the WORST customer support I've ever encountered in many, many years on the 'net. Seriously. And that's just sad. Deborah Richardson, former customer

Haven't heard anything more since firing the above note off this morning. Imagine that. It really IS pathetic customer service. It's excruciatingly obvious from the emails I've received that they aren't even really trying to help me. And here I was trying to be honest and support the artists by buying legit copies of the songs instead of searching for free downloads. Their response doesn't exactly encourage me to be honest next time, now does it? Gggrrr... I wash my hands of them. With a little help from my friends I've finally managed to find downloadable versions of the six songs I hadn't been able to find on my own, and today when I was running errands I bought some new blank CDs. So as soon as I get time to mess with it, I will hopefully have the CD I've been trying to create for nearly a week now. Now for the obligatory Rock Star commentary about the finale. No one was really surprised by the outcome, were they? I sure wasn't. A bit disappointed, yes, but not surprised. I knew as soon as MiG chose "Bohemian Rhapsody" for his final song that he'd just shot himself right out of the running. There were very, very GOOD reasons for him to decide not to do that song the first time it came up and those reasons were still valid, IMO. Then add to that the fact that the band loved Suzie's version a few weeks ago, giving her a standing ovation, many kudos, and an encore. That means that MiG had to TOTALLY rock this song to make it work. He had to do it way better than Suzie did or else INXS would be sitting there thinking, "Suzie did this as well or better a few weeks ago and we let her go last week. Why would we now hire someone who doesn't do it any better than she did?" Sorry, MiG, foolish choice. I thought Marty did a very good job with his two songs. But I always had my doubts about his style meshing with INXS. To me, he just seems too indie rock for them, and I think he wanted to take them in directions they weren't interested in going. I'm glad they offered to talk to him about opening for them on tour though. That was cool! I wish they'd extend that offer and make their opening show a small group thing for the last 4 or 5 performers standing, if they're interested. That would make a great opening act. Although anyone taking them up on it would have to put up with JD's post-win ego on the road. Oy. JD? Well, what can I say? Last night he rocked. He really did. I still don't like him much. I still think he's very immature. I still think his vocals are way weak compared to some of the other contestants (namely my beloved SUZIE!). But I will be woman enough to admit that his version of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" actually gave me chills. In a good way for a change, instead of in that "omigawd he's a half-note off-key and I feel like my skin is being peeled from my body with a grapefruit spoon" sort of way. Heh. The performances he's given in the past 2 - 3 weeks have been a good match for INXS's style. Maybe they can whip him into shape over the next year or so. I wish them all luck. And for once I'm not being a smartass about that. I'm So Fortunate! Finally, gotta share this with you. I brought home take-out from the local Chinese restaurant last night and there were two fortune cookies in the bag, so I opened them both. Here they are: Now THOSE are what fortunes should look like. I'll take these over pithy sayings cookies any day, creative spelling and all!

On Creativity and Self-Portrait Tuesday

Beyond finishing my AQ Web Ring swap postcards, I've been very uncreative lately. Over the years, I've learned that's typical for me. I tend to be cyclical in my artwork, spending weeks working on piece after piece, hardly leaving the studio, and then spending weeks when I might as well say "Studio? What studio??" I should be used to it by now. I guess I am used to it in the sense that I know to expect it, and I know that somewhere inside I'm "refueling" for the next creative binge. But I've never learned to really like my all-or-nothing approach to creativity. I feel a twinge of envy for those who seem able to work steadily instead of swinging back and forth between massive obsession and a complete lack of interest. I've even tried a few times to train myself into a different pattern - forcing myself to work on things when my natural inclination is to be in Downtime Mode. It never works out well. So I guess I need to work on appreciating my own rhythms instead. Dammit. Life lessons are a bitch. Anyway, since I have no new fabric or paper works to share, I thought I'd jump on the Self-Portrait Tuesday bandwagon. I like the theme this month, which is Body Parts. "Strength" I don't know if you can see it well enough in the photo (kinda doubt it!) but the mug I'm holding - one of my favorites! - is the Tarot card Strength from my friend Sally Anne's soon-to-be-self-published deck. I've been having trouble with my right wrist lately (too much time on this 'puter!) and am wearing a brace when I type. Somehow the contrast between my braced right hand and my big, sassy Strength mug caught my eye this morning. "Inspiration" A fragment of my face in front of my Inspiration Board, which is right next to the computer desk. That's where I put postcards, photos, etc, that catch my eye and inspire me. ("catch my eye"...geddit, geddit? Snort!) "Inspiration 2: Stripped of Color" Just wanted to see what the above photo would look like with line and value emphasized instead of color. Finally I wanted to share a link that was posted on a the Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society list: QAK Show at ArtSpace, Berea, Kentucky I didn't go to this show, so I know nothing more than what's posted there, but I wish now that I'd made the drive down to the gallery. There was some very good work, as well as some I found pretty derivative. (See if you can spot the quilt I am mentally calling "The Love Child Of Melody Johnson and Jane Sassaman".) Ok, I must drag myself off this thing now to do, um, something...

PNQE Photo and Music Mess Update

My friend MavMarie was nice enough to stand in as my Quilt Stunt Double at the PNQE show this weekend. Take a look: Marie with my "Queen of Cups II" quilt. Doesn't she look pretty in pink? Thanks, Marie! Music Saga Update I've gotten a couple of notes about my music download woes and I appreciate the advice and commiseration, especially since I'm still only getting generic form emails back from msn. So far none of the suggestions have worked, but keep 'em coming! I'd still love to have a CD of the songs I paid for and downloaded. In the meantime, I scoured the web yesterday to see if I could find freebie downloads of any of them. I figured (correctly) that the sound quality probably wouldn't be as good, but at least they wouldn't be write-protected. I found all but six of the songs I had purchased, so I do have a Rock Star: INXS compilation CD of sorts now (yay!), albeit not the one I originally had in mind and paid for (boo!). I watched the behind-the-scenes show on VH1 last night and I think if Andrew had the final say, the new lead singer for INXS would be either Marty or MiG. He seemed less than impressed with JD's preparation for the song-writing exercise. And he was definitely unimpressed with JD's lack of preparation for the studio session a few weeks ago. But I dunno...Tim seems to think JD can do little or no wrong and Tim seems very much like Alpha Dog of the group to me. So I still think JD has a better-than-even shot to win this thing. Dammit.

Of Music and Magazines

First of all, I must begin today's post with a plea for information and/or assistance. I won't go into quite all the gory details here, but the deal is this: I downloaded (legitimately, as a purchase) some music from the Rock Star: INXS website with a view to creating a personalized compilation CD I could listen to once the show is just a memory. According to msn's website, it's legal to do that, provided I just make a personal-use CD, not mass-produce them. The downloads worked and I can listen to the songs fine on my computer, but when I try to burn a CD with any program I have (I've tried Nero, MusicMatch, and WMP) I get an error saying it can't be done because the files are write-protected. I have an email in to msn tech support, but so far have only gotten totally non-helpful form letters back - no contact with a real person. Anyone have any ideas of a fix for this?? If you want more details about what I have and haven't tried, let me know. If you can tell me something that works, I'll make and send you a fabric postcard as a thank you gift. :-) Speaking of music, Debra came up with this site, where you can enter a year in the search box and it will tell you the top 100 songs for that year. She suggested entering the year you graduated high school, so I did. For me, that was 1979. (Originally should have been 1980, but I got an early release for good behavior. Heh.) Somehow I remembered the music of my high school years as being better than this. Leif Garrett? Barry Manilow? Kenny Rogers? All in the top 100 pop/rock charts?? Oy. And like Debra said about her list, there are some on this list I don't even remember. Still, I'm always game for a good time-waster, so here's my take on the top 100 songs of 1979. Bold = a favorite of mine at the time (or in some cases, still!) Italics = I hated it, and probably still do Normal font = I remember it and felt/feel pretty neutral about it Faded font = no memory of these songs (Although I bet in some cases I'd remember them after all, if I heard them again.) Top 100 songs of 1979 1. My Sharona, The Knack 2. Bad Girls, Donna Summer 3. Le Freak, Chic 4. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy, Rod Stewart 5. Reunited, Peaches and Herb 6. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor 7. Hot Stuff, Donna Summer 8. Y.M.C.A., Village People 9. Ring My Bell, Anita Ward 10. Sad Eyes, Robert John 11. Too Much Heaven, Bee Gees 12. MacArthur Park, Donna Summer (I wish I had triple-italics for this one...hate it SO much!) 13. When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman, Dr. Hook (ditto!) 14. Makin' It, David Naughton 15. Fire, Pointer Sisters 16. Tragedy, Bee Gees 17. A Little More Love, Olivia Newton-John 18. Heart Of Glass, Blondie 19. What A Fool Believes, Doobie Brothers 20. Good Times, Chic 21. You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond (another triple-yucko!) 22. Knock On Wood, Amii Stewart 23. Stumblin' In, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman 24. Lead Me On, Maxine Nightingale 25. Shake Your Body, Jacksons 26. Don't Cry Out Loud, Melissa Manchester 27. The Logical Song, Supertramp 28. My Life, Billy Joel 29. Just When I Needed You Most, Randy Vanwarmer 30. You Can't Change That, Raydio 31. Shake Your Groove Thing, Peaches and Herb 32. I'll Never Love This Way Again, Dionne Warwick 33. Love You Inside Out, Bee Gees 34. I Want You To Want Me, Cheap Trick 35. The Main Event (Fight), Barbra Streisand 36. Mama Can't Buy You Love, Elton John 37. I Was Made For Dancin', Leif Garrett (I'm convinced I must have deliberately blocked this one from my mind.) 38. After The Love Has Gone, Earth, Wind and Fire 39. Heaven Knows, Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams 40. The Gambler, Kenny Rogers 41. Lotta Love, Nicolette Larson 42. Lady, Little River Band 43. Heaven Must Have Sent You, Bonnie Pointer 44. Hold The Line, Toto 45. He's The Greatest Dancer, Sister Sledge 46. Sharing The Night Together, Dr. Hook 47. She Believes In Me, Kenny Rogers 48. In The Navy, Village People 49. Music Box Dancer, Frank Mills 50. The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band 51. Gold, John Stewart 52. Goodnight Tonight, Wings 53. We Are Family, Sister Sledge 54. Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy, Bad Company 55. Every 1's A Winner, Hot Chocolate 56. Take Me Home, Cher (I like Cher. I'm surprised I don't remember this, but I'm drawing a blank!) 57. Boogie Wonderland, Earth, Wind and Fire 58. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away, Andy Gibb 59. What You Won't Do For Love, Bobby Caldwell 60. New York Groove, Ace Frehley 61. Sultans Of Swing, Dire Straits 62. I Want Your Love, Chic 63. Chuck E's In Love, Rickie Lee Jones 64. I Love The Night Life, Alicia Bridges 65. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, McFadden and Whitehead 66. Lonesome Loser, Little River Band 67. Renegade, Styx 68. Love Is The Answer, England Dan and John Ford Coley 69. Got To Be Real, Cheryl Lynn 70. Born To Be Alive, Patrick Hernandez 71. Shine A Little Love, Electric Light Orchestra 72. I Just Fall In Love Again, Anne Murray 73. Shake It, Ian Matthews 74. I Was Made For Lovin' You, Kiss 75. I Just Wanna Stop, Gino Vannelli 76. Disco Nights, G.Q. 77. Ooh Baby Baby, Linda Ronstadt 78. September, Earth, Wind and Fire 79. Time Passages, Al Stewart 80. Rise, Herb Alpert 81. Don't Bring Me Down, Electric Light Orchestra 82. Promises, Eric Clapton 83. Get Used To It, Roger Voudouris 84. How Much I Feel, Ambrosia 85. Suspicions, Eddie Rabbitt 86. You Take My Breath Away, Rex Smith 87. How You Gonna See Me Now, Alice Cooper 88. Double Vision, Foreigner 89. Every Time I Think Of You, Babys 90. I Got My Mind Made Up, Instant Funk 91. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson 92. Bad Case Of Lovin' You, Robert Palmer 93. Somewhere In The Night, Barry Manilow 94. We've Got Tonite, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band 95. Dance The Night Away, Van Halen 96. Dancing Shoes, Nigel Olsson 97. The Boss, Diana Ross 98. Sail On, Commodores 99. I Do Love You, G.Q. 100. Strange Way, Firefall Anyone else wanna try this blast from the past?? And finally, although I know this post is getting long, Diane, leader of the Arftul Quilters Web Ring, asked this question: "What magazines do you subscribe to, and why? (Only count the ones that come to your house, not ones you buy individually to read)." Ok, I'll do this one too, although I think my list will be embarrassingly pedestrian. I'll mention too, that I'm something of a magazine junkie and I'm trying to cut back! So although I currently subscribe to several, the number isn't as large as it has been in the past or as small as I plan for it to be in the future. *Quilting Arts - mostly for the eye candy/inspiration; to a lesser extent for how-to articles and contest information *American Quilter - not sure if this even counts, since it's just part of AQS membership, but I like some of the articles *Quiter's Newsletter Magazine - I've subscribed to this for 15 years, but think I may let it lapse when it's up for renewal again. I've always enjoyed their profiles of quilters, both well-known and less-so; their "show and tell" type photo layouts; and some of their how-to articles. But in their recent format change, they seem to be drifting away from that and toward being just another pattern magazine. I don't do patterns unless I make them up myself, so they're losing my interest. *Cuisine at Home *Taste of Home *Cooking for Two - I subscribe to THREE cooking mags and yet I cook the same damn things for dinner over and over and over and over and..... Sheesh! *More - "lifestyle" magazine aimed at a target audience of women over the age of 40 *Ladies Home Journal - subscribed in a weak moment when it was offered cheap...boring *SHOP - just what it sounds like, a mag about shopping...another impulse subscription, which is about to expire and not be renewed (They have good coupons in there for online shopping though, if I wasn't trying to not DO so much online shopping!)

Quilt News, B4B Results, and a Return to FotoFriday

Good news - I got the envelope yesterday telling me that "Eyes of the Sun" has been accepted for exhibit in the Pacific International Quilt Festival in California next month. Yay! Not-quite-so-good-news - I didn't win the Blogging For Books contest. I'm competitive enough to be disappointed that my entry didn't win, but happy for those who did win. Yay for Vicki, Amy, and Holley! Congrats to you all. I see that at least one person-who-is-not-a-personal-friend-or-family-member commented that they liked my entry best, so that's really nice! :::Beam::: I just realized a day or two ago, that I haven't done a FotoFriday in a long time, so today we see the return of the FotoFridayFeature. The theme of today's photographs is Pretty Poison. Poke Plant - You can eat the young leaves and stalks (before they turn that fabulous magenta color), although I wouldn't recommend doing it too often. But you don't want to eat the berries or the mature stalks! Poison Ivy - Wish this was useful somehow so it could be a cash crop. I'd be a millionaire. So far, I've never had a poison ivy rash, but I know that's no guarantee that I won't have a reaction in the future, so I treat it with respect and try to stay away from it. Jimson Weed - Isn't it pretty and innocent looking? When it's open, the flower resembles a morning glory. If you eat any of the plant, you will, if you're very lucky, have hallucinations like a freaky acid trip. If you're not-so-lucky, you can end up having a psychotic break with reality, or end up comatose or dead. Yikes. And finally, after seeing QuizQueen Gabrielle's results, I had to take this quiz too:

You Belong in London A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well. What City Do You Belong in?

Hhhmmmm....I've never been to London, but I've heard good things about it. Perhaps I should check it out!

Good Mail and Bad Rock Star News

(Usual INXS spoiler warnings apply for the latter part of this post. If you haven't seen the elimination show yet and don't want to know what happens, go away until you watch it.) New Postcard! Got a really lovely postcard from Liz yesterday, done mostly with sheer layers, but with some very texture-y bits for contrast. I ended up scanning it instead of photographing it and it shows it a little more accurately, but it's one of those things that's just very difficult to get right on a computer screen. It looks even more complex and lovely in person. "Debris" by Liz Plummer Thanks Liz!! Speaking of postcards, I'm mailing mine out today. Yay! And More Good Mail! Take a look at what I got from my friend Sally Anne: Footnotes! In a lime green flip-flop!! Isn't that just too funny? Thanks Sally Anne! Rock Star: INXS Stuff I am displeased. I am unhappy. We are not amused. We are so distressed we have begun speaking of ourselves in the third person. We will stop that now. Damn. I just love Suzie. I know all along most of you other fans were saying INXS would neverever choose a woman to front them, but I kept hoping they'd have balls enough to overlook minor handicaps like a lack of male genitalia and choose the person that they themselves ADMITTED on several occasions had the best voice of the entire group! Sheesh! But no. And they couldn't even keep her around one more show so she could get the car, dammit. Speaking of...I thought it was really mean of the producers to show the car THIS week, so that the person who was eliminated would have that extra knife in the wound of not only not getting the job, but also JUST missing the bonus prize. I mean, I know if they'd waited until next week to show it, Suzie would still know she'd just missed getting one, but at least they wouldn't have gotten her hopes up that one extra notch before they tossed her ass out. I also wasn't pleased with INXS's good-bye to her. When they let Jordis go, they were very supportive about how much they admired her voice and hoped she could turn this opportunity into a solo career, while they said almost nothing about that to Suzie and I think they SHOULD HAVE, dammit. Suzie ROCKS! I hope they did better by her when she went over to say her private good-byes. So now what? Well now I'm going to think of anyone they choose as somewhat second-rate, frankly. I hold grudges that way. But since I didn't get a choice in it, I'd be fine with them choosing either MiG or Marty. I personally prefer MiG's voice, even if he tends to be just a bit on the soft pop side sometimes. But Marty has a very cool rock star-ish sort of style to him and I think he'd do fine with the rest of the band ragging on him to hold down on the "screaming angry Marty" persona. I still think JD is a talented-but-immature asshole. And I think that's who they're going to choose. Sigh.

Mostly Good Stuff (with a little rant on the end...ok a big rant about a little thing)

I have many, many things I want to blather about today, but I have to say this one first: I'm a finalist in the Blogging For Books contest!!! WooHoooo!!! Seriously, I'm excited! This morning prelim-judge Mir posted the finalists' list on Joshilyn's blog and my entry was on there. Yay!! At some point, finalist-judge Melanie Hauser will read the final 7 entries and pick a winner, but even if that isn't me, I still think it's pretty cool to make it to the finals. I hope you'll check out the list on Joshilyn's blog and read some of the other entries. There's some good stuff posted. Oh, and also...Mir's pretty. Postcards And in other good news, I finished my postcards for the AQ web ring swap yesterday afternoon. They're all addressed and stamped (well, the US-bound ones are stamped...wasn't quite sure what the non-US-bound ones needed) and they are sitting in a lovely, neat, colorful pile by my car keys, waiting for my next trip to the post office, which will probably be tomorrow. So be on the lookout for more fabricards headed your way soon, swappers. Puzzles Also, this morning, as I did my daily Jigzone puzzle, I came within 33 seconds of having the fastest time. Check out the screen shot: Every morning I do their puzzle of the day as quickly as I can, and every day someone beats me, usually by a minute or two. But today, hello! 33 seconds, people!! That's both exciting and frustrating. So close, so close but yet so far... Rock Star:INXS Because it's Wednesday I must at least mention Rock Star: INXS. Good show last night, IMO. Not the best ever, but quite good. Even JD performed well, dammit. I liked it a lot better when he was giving lackluster performances and I could dislike him without reservation. I have NO CLUE who to expect to be in the bottom three tonight. None. And no clue who I think will go home. I think each performer left has fans among the band. Should be an interesting elimination show. I thought the performances were very even and it's all going to depend on the fickle voting public. I voted for Suzie. Five times. :-) I actually didn't think she gave the strongest performance last night, but I like HER, I love her voice and she's the only woman left in the competition, so I don't want to see her go home. And you just never know when a vote or five can make a difference. And More TV Talk Speaking of TV, did anyone else watch the debut of "Bones" last night? It's a new series on FOX, based on Kathy Reich's Temperance Brennan book series. I really like those books, and I tend to like forensic dramas, so I was excited to see this character come to the screen, even if it's the small screen, not the large one. Um...yeah...I should have remembered that producers and screenwriters and others involved in translating books to movies have managed to royally screw up one of my all-time-favorite books not once, not twice, but THREE times. Sigh. So it may not surprise you to hear that I was unimpressed. Bear with me, please, while I rant. In the books, Tempe is a blond, reasonably attractive, middle-aged divorced mother of a college-age daughter. The Tempe we saw last night is a late 20's or early 30's single brunette with great cleavage. I know about the cleavage because it was spilling over her tank top. Oh yeah, and she's a novelist who writes books about a character named Kathy Reichs. Cute, no? No, I didn't really think so either. In the books, Tempe divides her time between North Carolina and Montreal. In the tv show, she lives and works somewhere around Washington DC, but she does MENTION Montreal, and then says (badly) "Parlez vous Francais?". I guess this is supposed to show us...um...something. I'm a little fuzzy on what, exactly. Hell, I don't speak French at all, and even I know that much French. Tres lame, oiu? Since part of the appeal of the books is the contrast between her North Carolina life and her Montreal life, I'm not sure why they moved her to a whole new place, but maybe maintaining two sets was too expensive. And with JAG recently canceled, they may have been able to get a bargain on some DC sets. Speaking of JAG, the guy who used to play Admiral Chegwidden is in this. It looks to me like he has pretty much the same office with the same desk, except he's in civvies instead of a uniform and he spends a lot of time looking very seriously at papers. Or something. Tempe's been surrounded by the requisite cast of diverse co-workers. I haven't quite gotten their names down yet, so for now I'm just calling them Walking Cliche #1, Walking Cliche #2, etc. And she's alternately sparring with and attracted to FBI agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, formerly of "Angel". I know they're attracted to each other because at one point Walking Cliche #1 mentions their attraction to Tempe, and tells her she shouldn't be fighting it. Seeley is a former Army sniper (yes, seriously). Hey, it's a job, and after Angel was canceled I guess he took what he could get. He calls Tempe "Bones", cuz, you know, she's a doctor (PhD, I assume) and people sometimes call doctors "Bones", and also she works with bones, so it's all just so terribly, terribly fitting and cute and stuff. All together now - "aaawwww". She, of course, hates it, and repeatedly tells him to stop, just stop it. It gives her an opportunity to pout. Every pretty genius forensic pathologist with great cleavage should have an opportunity to pout. Every time there's a pop culture reference of any kind - EVERY time - Tempe says "I don't understand that". This is supposed to show us how smart and serious she is, I guess? I mean, come on...she's such a genius and so involved in her work that she'd never EVER watch tv, or listen to popular music, or read a best selling novel. Perish the thought. Never mind the fact that she's supposed to have WRITTEN a best-selling novel and I find it difficult to swallow that someone could write fiction that appeals to the masses if they don't actually READ, listen to, or watch anything that appeals to the masses. Ok, enough. Well, yeah, of this post too. But I meant of the show. Heh.

Blogthings Snafu and Great Quotes Deck

First of all, I want to say sorry to anyone who tried to do the "What Color Should Your Blog Be?" quiz yesterday and then couldn't get results. It worked when I did it last week (obviously!) but this past weekend they updated the Blogthings website and one thing they changed was to add that bit to the end of each quiz where they customize the code depending on where you plan to post it. Somehow they've messed up the blog color quiz when they did that. I'd email the webmaster and tell him-or-her if I could find contact info on the site, but so far no joy. Anyway.... On to other things. I've been working on my postcards for the AQ web ring fiber postcard swap, but it's against the swap rules to post in-progress photos. Hopefully I can have them finished and mailed before the week is out. Actually, I could probably have them finished today, but I'm dithering a bit about whether I want to back them with fabric or paper, and whether I want to make up a story of not. Decision, decisions... Yesterday was a Good Mail day because I got my Famous Quotes Deck in the mail! This was a collaborative deck project I did a while back. Long-time readers of RSR may remember when I posted a photo of my card for the deck. At last the deadline arrived and our lovely hostess, Red Dog, swapped the artwork and mailed them out. This deck is WONDERFUL. Seriously. This is the third collaborative project I've done with this group, with the first two being the Characters in Literature Tarot Deck and the Secrets Deck. The thought that goes into these cards by the artists and the quality of the artwork itself is just stunning. I'm so glad I participated in these! There are 44 cards by 44 artists, so it was very difficult to narrow it down to just a few to share, but I finally managed to decide on 10 cards that really spoke to me in terms of both the quote chosen and the artwork used to portray the quote. Here they are, with the artists' names listed below the cards and the quotes themselves listed below that. (Some of them are easily readable on the card photo, but others aren't, so I'll just type them all out to be sure.) Enjoy! Cards by: Teresa Bailey and Fast Eyes Quotes: (left) The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust (right) A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. - Diane Arbus Cards by: Misty Frederick and Michele Jackson Quotes: (left) Think like a Queen! A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is a stepping stone on the way to greatness. - Oprah Winfrey (right) You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. - Buddha Card by: Jean Hutter Quote: Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journey. - Gail Pool Cards by: Marina Lenzino and Pat Pleacher Quotes: (left) Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. (source not listed) (right) To invent, you need a good imagination...and a pile of junk. - Thomas Edison Cards by: Suzanne Reynolds and Lunaea Weatherstone Quotes: (left) The longest journey of any person is the journey inward. - Dag Hammarskjold (right) Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of fat, happy women! - Nicole Hollander, "Sylvia" Card by: Sally Anne Stephen Quote: There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. - George Carlin