Things I'm loving

A few weeks ago I was driving home from the North Dayton Garden Center, where I impulse bought a barrel cactus and named it Jesus because I just thought a cactus should have a Mexican name - anyway, I heard a piece on NPR about a local writer who'd written and published a detective novel that's set in 1930's  Dayton.  I repeated the title "No Game for a Dame" all the way home and looked it up on my kindle when I got there.  It was available as a free download through their Prime library so I started reading it. It's great!  then I decided not to keep my Prime membership and it got sucked right back - and I wasn't finished!  aaak!  I remembered that it wasn't very expensive, but when I went back this time, it was free for the Kindle.  yep.  zero dollars.  That means you totally need to get it - especially if hearing about old Dayton landmarks is something you think is cool, or you enjoy getting to say "gumshoe detective" a lot when you're talking about it to friends and neighbors!  The main character is a spunky detective (that's the "dame" part!) and it's definitely worth reading.  Note - i just went back to Amazon to link to it and it's $2.99 for a Kindle version now - maybe I caught the very tail of my Prime membership?  who knows - it's still totally worth it!

Another thing I'm loving lately is Craftsy!  Anybody else tried any of the online classes they offer?  They have a couple that are free - like one called Block of the Month for quilting.  I tried that one to see if I'd like it, and it's pretty cool!  I bought another called Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine - I've learned so much and I haven't even finished watching it!  It's cool because  you can start and stop wherever you want.  You can post questions for the instructor or comments/questions for other folks taking the class and then get responses.  They have spots where you can upload pics of your finished projects for inspiration, and all of the patterns and class materials, etc. are downloadable.  It's a pretty cool platform for a class - I've always been a book learner - but the visual is pretty cool too.  They have sales on their classes pretty often - you can get on an email list so you know when they are.  Most recently I bought a class on Tunisian Crochet taught by Ann Hanson from Stitch Diva.  I haven't started watching it yet, but I did buy 3 tunisian crochet hooks (just assuming I'll love it!) Two projects are made during the class - a spa cloth just to get the hang of it, then a multi garment (that's what they call it - it's kind of in the vein of their wear-it-a-million-different-ways garments they have on their website.)  Oh, and once you've bought the class you can watch it as many times as you want - it's yours forever.  Or, as they say, as long as the internet exists.  They have a huge variety of classes too - not just knitting and quilting - crochet, sewing (like really impressive couture how-to's!), home decorating, holiday stuff, cooking (there's one on artisan cheese making!), cake decorating, paper crafting - everything you can think of!  check it out and tell me if you take anything!