Oh, Yeah, And I Tat

In case anyone was interested in seeing a gen-u-ine tatted item, here is a bookmark for your viewing pleasure!

It has been tatted (erm, tatting is making lace out of a series of knots, formed with either a needle or a shuttle) out of sewing thread. That means this cross is about 3 1/2" from the top (just above the picture) to the end of the tassel (off the bottom of the picture). I would measure it, but I gave it to a friend of mine.

So now you know what tatting is, if you didn't before! It doesn't mean I make marks on skin with ink... although I can do that, too. On rabbit ears, though, not people skin.

I kept it near my favorite Scripture passage for several years. Anyone want to guess what Scripture it is?

On Headcoverings And Such

The following items are highly debated around Christian circles:

Skirts for women
Headcoverings for women
Torah Observancy
Baptism
And bazillions of other things

I'll spell out my take on it here. *ahem*

Nothing but the blood of Messiah/Christ will get you into Heaven, so if you understand why He was crucified for you and accept His salvation, you WILL hang out with me in Heaven one day. The other things are unnecessary for salvation from the fires of hell, but the lifestyle parts are good ideas to incorporate into your life. Why? Because He (YHVH/God) likes it. He wouldn't have said to do something if He didn't like it. But they will not save you.

Baptism exists as a public symbol of acceptance of salvation. Just like a wedding is a public symbol of marriage. A marriage happens when a man and woman commit to each other for the rest of their mortal lives. Weddings are irrelevant to marriage. Salvation is between a man/woman/child and YHVH/God. Baptism is irrelevant to salvation. They are nice symbols, though.

The person whose life could only be described as an abomination that accepts the Lord as they breathe their last breath alone in that hospital room is just as saved as someone who accepted Him at the age of 10, was baptized, and lived a righteous life.

So there ya go. Good ideas, but they are not a path to salvation. More like a path after salvation.

Emily's Post

I thought that title line was particularly brilliant. Today must have been a long day if I thought THAT was brilliant!

Anyway, over on Emily's blog, she is hosting a give-away of mother-daughter aprons and gave a challenge to post things you're thankful for on our blogs. As I am a dedicated apronophile, I entered the drawing. But also I love to be thankful for things. Let's see how many things I'm thankful for that I can come up with in the next five minutes. Comments in parentheses were added later. :)

My Lord (Do I need to say a reason?)
My parents (for being patient and loving and... more patient... See various thankful things below...)
My brothers (yes, all of them!)
My grandparents who live next door (they have been instrumental in teaching me)
My home (a comfortable place to live, far beyond what most people in the world have)
Rain!
My kitties
Wonderful friends
"Adopted" family (this may come under "friends" but they are the people who are not blood-related but have let me into their lives and call me their sister or daughter)
Inside jokes
The ability to do arts and crafts
Good schooling (thanks to Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma, and my wonderful college professors)
Educational and work opportunities
A job I love, coworkers who are good friends, an a boss I am proud to say I work for
Creativity
Good books to read
Tea :)
Food
A pretty valley to live in
The uniqueness of snow
How even after disasters, there is still life and beauty
The resilience of mankind
Batteries (Hey, I can be thankful for batteries!)
My dad's ability to fix everything
And that he didn't get upset when I (possibly? probably? most likely? almost definitely?) destroyed the faucet on the side of his shop on Friday when I tried to back his truck out of the used car lot that is our driveway. Maybe that's why we ran out of water Friday night...

Yep. That took slightly longer than five minutes, because I had to finish the bit with the faucet. Oops. Sorry, Dad! I... um... got him some M&Ms. And that made everything ok. Listen up, kids. M&Ms are like little dabs of magic. If there was such a thing as magic. They make everything better.

Ummmmmm...

In the public speaking group Toastmasters, you are taught how to give speeches and critiqued on a number of things. One of the things you get "dinged" for is making a pointless syllable. Um. Uh. Er. Well. Hm. Oh. Etc. But why do we say them, anyway? Why are they habitual for nearly every person you run into? Do they have a purpose?

My answer: Yes. It has a purpose. (Everyone in Toastmasters cringes and protests) Hang on! I'll explain.

"Um" is often used to fill the silence that follows a question. Ex: "What would you like to do today?" "Uh... Go to town, I guess." In modern English conversations, silence during the conversation is dreaded, and either person will do anything to keep a silence from occurring. "Um" is a place-holder sound. It informs the person asking you the question that you are thinking of the answer and they should be quiet until you finish thinking. If you were to remain silent, the asker would assume they asked the question in such a way as it was difficult to understand. So the moment you begin to answer, they rephrase the question. Then there comes the awkward "You go first." "No, you." "I insist - what were you going to say before I interrupted?" "I forgot now."

Alternately, it can initiate a conversation by capturing someone's attention while you are thinking of what to say, "Ummmm, hey, I was going to talk to you about the concert tomorrow." And the "Um" is held out to the duration of the time to figure out what you're going to say. Convenient!

Perhaps it might have become a matter of etiquette in our society to include these little "nothing" sounds, maybe even as important as non-verbal cues. In the age of the telephone, they may be entirely replacing non-verbal cues. Rather than letting the phone line go silent and make the other person sit there and listen to nothing, you'll utter a long "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell..." so that at the very least they won't think you hung up or fell asleep!

I believe that is also why run-on sentences happen. How many "and"s can you fit in that sentence? My explanation: When someone comes to a punctuation mark, like a comma or period, in their spoken paragraphs, they panic. If they allow a full pause to indicate a period, someone might grab that moment and start talking, so, in preservation of their "speaking turn," they add on to a single sentence as much as possible to put out all the information they possibly can before the other person can jump on the break in their sentence and mess up your train of thought, because you have so much more to say and besides, if they take the "floor" with the conversation, you may never have a chance to finish what you were saying and then it would be a horrible tragedy so you go on and on without pausing or taking a breath until you finally gasp for a breath at the end of your monologue and let the other person speak.

Whatcha think?

Being the one who is guilty of LONG awkward silences and snipping ALL sentences short, this is what I've noticed around other people. Feel free to correct...

Ramblin' Man... Er, Woman...

I had a random thought the other day about a tiny subject that made me sad. With the trend of children using first names for adults (including their parents!), there is a distinct possibility that I will never be called "Mrs. Cowboy" by my children's little friends. I will merely be Cora.

All of my life, I've longed to be Mrs. MarriedSurname, but in our society of holding a greater value on childhood and youth than age and wisdom, people don't want to be thought of as "older" than the youth surrounding them. They take offense to being addressed as Mr. or Mrs. Surname. Even Sir or Ma'am, which were drilled into me as the most basic of decency are now abhorred.

Perhaps you think I'm strange. It wouldn't be the first time. I look forward to the gray hair and wrinkles in my future. To grandchildren. To growing old with my beloved Cowboy.

What do you think? Do you look forward to growing older? Would you be offended by being called Mrs. Surname or Mr. Surname?

...

My next ramble:

"'Um.' Society's Necessary Superfluous Sound"

Porthos the Pirate

Introducing the dashing new stranger residing in my home! His name is Porthos the Pirate, and he was given to me by the Queen of America. Those of you who get the reference are smiling right now. My friend who buys and refurbishes old machines gave it to me the other day: "Since you're like an adopted daughter to me, I've decided you must have one, and I couldn't possibly make you PAY for it since you're family!" Woah! Erm, thank you!

He is a Singer treadle sewing machine, one of 50,000 made in Elizabethport New Jersey on April 18th, 1921 (yes, 50,000 were made THAT day). That means, folks, that this is an entirely uncomputerized, non-electric sewing machine. Yay! The head (what you call the machine itself) is in great working condition, and I think the decals are to die for. :-P

It also weighs a ton. The head and the big pedal underneath are cast iron. Heaaaaaaaavy

Well, I Gone and Done It.

In all this time away from my poor, neglected blog (I'm sorry!), I've been attached to my sewing machine. You see, my dear Cowboy saw THIS and asked me to make him a quilt out of old jeans for his upcoming trip to Alaska. "No!" Cora said. "I hate quilting and you know it!" Well... not really. She does hate quilting, but she did make it. *sigh* It was a trial.

Then that led to making a patchwork dress out of old blue jeans, which turned out to be a very post-apocalyptic-esque style. Kind of cool!

And now, you demand, where are the pictures? Pictures or it didn't happen, Cora!

Well...

In proper post-apocalyptic fashion, we will pretend that there are no cameras... because I can't find ours... anywhere... :-/

BUT since I can't leave this post without a picture, I'll put in this one. I posted a picture of my hair a while ago, and I thought I'd update that. :) Here's my hair sans shampoo. Yep. I've switched to using solely baking soda and vinegar after my dear sister Jocelyn inspired me to.

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Hmm... I don't think it looks all that worse for wear... Very fluffy...