Journal Notes- Downton Abbey - Positive Ending Note

Getting ready to enjoy Downton Abbey, especially it's clothes, and hats.

What future pretties will I create, based on this BBC series?

Of course soon this show's historical scenes will be history itself.

Instead of being sad, I vote we focus on telling our own stories!

Once Upon a Time In California (Time Travel)

Rosalinda, la voz melodiosa, ella canta las viejas canciones. Y sólo puedo oírola.
Debo volver a los días perdidos, los viejos tempos en California. 

Rosalinda, she of the melodious voice, sings the old songs. And only I can hear her.
I must go back to lost days, the old days in California.
 
Un día, cuando aprenda a escuchar con sólo mi corazón, su melodía una vez más me llevarás a mi amor.
One day, when I learn to listen with only my heart, her tune will once more carry me home to my love.

                        
Time travellers need helpful tour books. UCSC professor, famed journalist, and  California State Librarian,  Kevin Starr, has a true sense of California. He's more than a superb historian, he's a born story teller. Starr weaves together a tale that includes not only the appeal of the state - it's agricultural promise, natural beauties, ethnic diversity, and economic potential - but also it's historical exploitation.

 If you read only one history of the state, make it Starr's California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) 

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 Other volumes on my California Favorites Book Shelf

  

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Ench By Sew-017 Gettin' Shirty (Previously Ench By Sew-007)

VINTAGE PODCAST!
Listeners have requested that I re-publish this show, last published in
April 2013 (and removed for not-very-exciting technical challenges)

SEW now.... the February 2014 ReRun....
"Enchanted By Sewing" Podcast is, once more,
available in the pod-o-sphere!

This month we're getting' Shirty.

You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link. Or, download this podcast free from iTunes, to play on your favorite mobile device/mp3 player (like an iPhone or an Android), by clicking on this link to iTunes.

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Is that garment you're sewing a shirt or a blouse? Is it the collar stand, or lack thereof that makes you decide one way or another? How about set-in sleeves versus dropped? Maybe it's your choice of fabric.... This month Laurel talks about her experiences creating her No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Shirt, with a Butterick pattern that sometimes says shirt and other times blouse. She also discusses sewing techniques that say shirt, and chats a little about the history of shirts and shirty language (with special attention to a scene from a Harry Potter book ).

 This podcast is an extension of  my on-web sewing life journal Me Encanta Coser, a blog that tells the story of an arty-romantic plain sewist in CA. My blog is written in English. The blogs name, and occasional references, pays tribute to the beautiful Spanish language which is a part of both the history and modern culture of the San Francisco Bay area, where I live.

Check out a free excerpt from
My Heart Beats Faster in Past Times
By clicking here

The show is created, produced, and brought to you by Laurel Shimer author of the Time Travel e-book My Heart Beats Faster in Past Times. This historical romance, ebook-novella is available exclusively on amazon.com for your iPad, nook or kindle ebook reader, for only 99 cents (Only 99 cents? That's less than a cup of coffee!) 

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Resources

• Shirt or Blouse - Pattern Plays a Big Role
http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/04/shirt-or-blouse-pattern-plays-important.html

• No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency Shirt

http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/03/no-1-ladys-detective-agency-shirt-b5526.html

This book has really helped me to learn how to sew different seam finishes. The illustrations and descriptions are spot on!

The New Complete Guide to Sewing: Step-by-Step Techniques for Making Clothes and Home Accessories Updated Edition with All-New Projects and Simplicity Patterns (Reader's Digest)

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Please post other links and other pertinent information that you would like to see included in these show notes.

California Christmas Berry (Toyon)

Please Click on the Illustration Above

To Enjoy the Full Beauty of

Heteromeles arbutifolia

California Toyon Berries

European settlers were pleased to find a familiar plant from back home, when they saw these beautiful red berries and jagged leaves all over the hills of their young settlement in Southern California. I mean, come on, everybody knows holly when they see it!

And so.... that's why the California film industry didn't take off in the community of Toyonwood.

Bug in the Works OR Butterfly Workin'

This Golden Gate Park butterfly doesn't appear to be troubled by problems in her code

Go ahead and click on the picture for a more in-depth view of her world

I've been working away with the Objective-C programming language and the piece of software called Interface Builder.  Those are, of course, the  tools used to write apps for ipads, ipods and iphones. In my case, I'm still learning to do that.

I was up against a particularly nasty little bug in my program and finally, huzzah!, I found it. It reminded me of the  story from the old days, I mean the REALLY old days, kids. It dates back to around World War II. It's the origin of why programmers call problems in the workings of their software, 'bugs'. You all know the old story, right? The engineers had been tussling with some problem that was keeping the huge machine from doing it's thing. My college professor, Harry Huskey remembered those days. He had worked on the EINIAC. "Those vacuum tubes",  Professor Huskey told us. "they were always blowing, and we had to run around that huge room, swapping them out."  

So the problem-solvers on this day had been swapping out vacuum tubes, scratching their heads and dismantling things. Finally after days? hours? (depends on who's telling the story), they found the problem. A dead bug was found deep within the recesses of the machine. The programmers were so happy to find the problem, that they pasted the dead bug into the big ledger in which they noted their progress on the project. "Bug in the works", someone noted.

And of course, ever since then, a programmer works to find the bugs in her works. Because surely the problem couldn't be something SHE did.