Twin Cities Tatters - WOW!

Our Twin Cities Tatters group has GROWN this year - and today we had the largest group ever!  We've been increasing in numbers all summer, and finally decided to switch to a meeting room at a local library.  Thank heavens we did - we had 14 today.  14!  We may have beaten the Tollway Tatters gatherings with this one, though that wasn't really the goal.  😂

Good thing we switched to the library meeting room, or we would have taken over the Caribou Coffee.  (Well, we have done that before too.)  But it's certainly not quite as comfortable.

We had tatters from not only the north metro, but from even farther north as well as south-central Minnesota.  Fun!  These are tatters from beginners to . . .  AHEM . . . experienced - all willing to share ideas and good conversation.  Michelle and I just have to laugh at all those times we met and it was just the two of us, or sometimes 3 or 4.  The Twin Cities Tatters (Michelle and I) met the first time on 11/13/2010.

And here we are, 7 years later.  Thanks to all for joining us!

Adding Cloud Photos to a Blog

It is simple to add photos to your blog - but I have been trying to figure out where to store them and then have the ability to retrieve them from any device I use.  Which, as Jane mentioned, means storing them in the "cloud".  I've got my photos stored, but in my last post, one photo wasn't visible, and one was.  I'm not sure why, because I added them both the same way from Google Photos. This shouldn't be that difficult!  But it prevents me from blogging as much as I'd like to sometimes when I want to just add a quick little post.

Now I'm obsessed with figuring this out, so I thought I'd test what I think will work after a little more research.

The following two photos were added using the option from "Google Album Archive".  This brings up photos from Google Photos, but only if they are in an album.  If this works, I will need to be more diligent about my photo organizaton! 

How do you store and add photos to your blog using an iPad?

Lucky Pennies

Another Lucky Penny down!  I gave this one to a gal at work who is getting married in a week.  I figured today was a good day to get it to her (she's at a different location), since she will be busy early next week and off the end of the week.  She loved it - the day hadn't been going great, so she said it made her day.   It's a good feeling to brighten someone's day wth something like this - small, but thoughtful.

I also posted this on the Facebook Ice Drop Addicts page, and someone asked about Lucky Penny traditions for brides. The only one I know of is in the Bride's shoe - which my daughter did as a bride  last year.  I did a little research with Mr. Google, and found  a few poems about pennies, but nothing that specifically caught my eye that I could use when gifting lucky pennies for various occasions.  It would be fun to add a little poem each time I give a penny away, but at the same time, I like writing a personal note for each one I gift.  Tomorrow I give my hair stylist a penny for the baby she's about to have, and an ice drop for the big sister.

Well, I think I've figured out how to have my photos accessible on all devices so that it's easiest to share via blogging, texting and emailing. I do love my iPad and iPhone, but Google Photos seems to be the best storage option. I'm still figuring out how to access my photos the way I want to - shouldn't be that hard, but sometimes it just doesn't work the way I want it to!

No worries.  This stubborn Scandhoovian will figure it out.  Blogger doesn't work the way I want it to either, but eventually I get it to do something :)

Crazy Life and a Dog

Crazy Life lately!  Not really, it just seems that way with everything that has been going on all summer.  We've got a new street, a new driveway, a new little camper for State Park adventures, and some new furniture.  Ruby is a little put off that she can't be on the new furniture, but she's not pushing it.  Yet.

And, speaking of Ms. Ruby, she's been looking thin lately, and when she acted as if she was dying, we discovered she had lost 8 lbs since March (which is a LOT when you only weigh 58 lbs or so.)  She also had a UTI, and once we got that cleared up, we started coaxing her to eat and working on gaining some of that weight back.  (I should have that problem!)  We've put her on a sensitive stomach dry food diet, and then tried some canned food . . . until she was actually spitting out the dry food in favor of the canned. We decided we'd go broke feeding her the canned food, and finally found the right solution - a little olive oil gives her calories, and a bit of low-sodium chicken broth adds enough flavor to her dry food so that she's eating better than ever.  So, here I am, twice a day, heating up a little broth and scientifically preparing the Queen's meals (we call them her casseroles!)  She's had some blood work, so we know her organs are all good.  This could be an irritable bowel issue, or a gastric cancer of some type.  Neither would be strange, as she is old for a boxer and has always had a sensitive stomach.  I'll be bringing her in every month to check her weight - hopefully she'll at least stay the same and not lose any more. Worries me like my kids did when they were little!

On top of all of that, I'm still tatting ice drops, buttons and pennies!  And had a garage sale that I said I'd NEVER do again.  And shouldn't have - waste of time and ended up donating most of it anyway.  However, it's quite liberating to clean out closets and PURGE!  I guess it just feels good to get things in order as summer is coming to an end - I know it won't be long until the snow flies. Maybe now I won't feel guilty spending so much time on tatting and sewing over the winter! My cave needs cleaning, but no purging - ha ha!

Oh yeah, and I have a new iPad.  The latest and greatest! So I'm getting it set up and testing out my new keyboard - hoping I can figure out how to blog more conveniently. Now if I could just get my photos coordinated with blogging on the iPad.  All these gadgets have me crazy. [Crazier, maybe?]