Pressurized Rambling

My Mom gave me a pressure cooker very much like this one many many years ago. Possibly when I first moved into my house which was at least 10 years ago. Although I'd seen my Mom use this device countless times when I was growing up, it secretly scares me half to death--so I never used it. When reading the directions just about every sentence starts with "CAUTION!" and then some dire warning about the lid flying off or extreme burns. It doesn't foster a confident feeling. Still, according to the manual, you can make BBQ pork, the kind that takes all day in a crock pot, in 12 minutes.

I decided to face my fear and find out. And guess what? The lid stayed on, there were no burns, extreme or otherwise, and I made BBQ pork. In TWELVE minutes! My son was thrilled and told me numerous times that I need to use the pressure cooker more often.

I think I will.

Textile Ramblings

I have periods of fascination with Spoonflower and then I don't go for a while. Being a textile designer is something I've been focusing on a lot lately so Spoonflower has seen a lot of me lately! Spoonflower makes it easy for the common person to design and print their own fabric. My biggest obstacle is deciding which of my designs I'm going to have printed. As of yet I haven't made that step. At $18 a yard, it's kind of spendy. (The 3 designs above are my top 3 contenders.) On the other hand you could brag that your design costs at least as much as a Waverly.

The most exciting feature of Spoonflower is that it has the technology to show you what your design is going to look like repeated. Often this means returning to the drawing board because there will be holes in your design that you haven't anticipated. Or you haven't gotten it to line up exactly so that the repeat isn't broken or wonky. I've discovered using the grid setting in Photoshop makes that a bit easier. My Mom just sent me a link to a very cool blog The Textile Blog which is like a weekly textiles class. Textiles was one of my favorite courses in college.

If you have a moment to comment, let me know which of these designs you like most!