Sorting out signatures

Seems a few of you are having trouble with the online signature site. I didn't write the steps for within that site because it's not the only signature site on the internet, and if folks use another site the steps may not apply. Here's how you do it on MyLiveSignature.

When you go to this site first click on "Click here to start".

Of the three options which come up, choose the first, "using the signature creation wizard".

Follow the steps through choosing font, size etc. You will come to colour.

Click on the red box to bring up all colour options.

Using the slider on the right hand side of the box, slide it down until you see a colour you want to use - click within the box on that colour. If you don't click on your chosen colour it will stay black.

Choose a slope for your newly created signature.

Your signature ID number is displayed, and under it are three options...choose the bottom, "Want to use this signature?"

Two options are displayed, the first is "Generate HTML CODE" - click on that.

Two options are displayed again, you need the first - "generate a code for my handwritten signature".

When you have chosen that, the HTML code for your new signature is displayed with a box. Copy that, then return to your blog and follow the steps in my last post to paste it in your blog.

If you have any more trouble let me know, but that should do it.

Disclaimer: if you use another signature site you may need to go through a different procedure for the same result! If so, just follow the prompts on the screen until you have what you want.

You can do it too!

Following some googling this morning this is how I made my unique signature. If you don't use Blogger the procedure may be different.

There are online signature makers, I used this one and had fun choosing a font, size, colour (of course it had to be green....have I mentioned that I am quite fond of green?), slant etc. When that is done, you will have your signature's html code. Don't forget to copy it before moving back to your blog.

Go to your blog dashboard, at the top go to "Settings", then "Formatting". At the bottom of that page you will find "Post Template" with an empty box. Paste the html code with your signature into the box.

Voila - your own personal signature!

Don't forget to type above it and not below, or you will sign off on your posts before you even start.

If you want to remove Blogger's "posted by Jane Bloggs at 3.30pm" - having your name twice makes your lovely new signature redundant, and we don't want that - go to your blog's "Design" page, the page that lets you add and remove elements. Click on "Edit" on the large Blog Posts box, which will bring up a pop-up window "Configure Blog Posts". Uncheck the "Posted by" option.

Have fun!

My new signature......

....how about that!

Unidentified no longer......

Yesterday we took a cutting of The Pretty Purple Thing to a local nursery and were told it is an Australian native plant, Prostanthera Ovalifolia Variegata or Variegated Mint Bush. I had a feeling it was Aussie! I had a very small prostanthera back in Sydney but it hadn't flowered yet, so inheriting this large shrub already growing and blooming is wonderful.

We also took along another cutting and found out that we have a port wine magnolia. Kevin has been told he is not to hack it again (he did so soon after we moved here as he wanted to park the caravan alongside) but a careful pruning is allowed. Fortunately he didn't do much damage and it will grow out in a couple of seasons. The scent is heavenly, very fruity, the piece I cut yesterday is on the benchtop perfuming the kitchen.

We also have a large clump of iris - is the plural irises or just iris? anyway we have a lot - which are starting to bloom in a soft creamy pale peach. The garden surprises keep coming. And last weekend the palm tree was chopped down, yay! This is not the coastal tropics. This is inland. If you want to grow cocos palms then you move to Cairns. One house between here and town has 18 cocos palms in their front yard.

This morning just after 2.30am we were rudely awakened by some local lads slowly wandering past, swearing loudly as they went....my tender ears blushed at the language......we turned on the exterior lights in case they had any silly ideas but they continued on. We have a street light at our driveway and I suppose they stopped under it to open another can of alcohol, or light up another ciggie, or both. Because this is such a quiet area it probably sounded louder than it was. Fortunately our neighbour arrived home just then, he is a paramedic who brings an ambulance home when he is on call, so he radioed the police who came quickly. I don't know if they caught up with the lads, but seeing the ambulance arrive was enough for them as they melted away very soon after that. So having missed out on some well-needed beauty sleep I am slightly fuzzy today and am not at my usual brilliant best, whatever that is.

So I am joining pieces of fabric to make the back for my challenge quilt because that's a pretty mindless activity. Horizontal half and quarter metre pieces make a very quick back when joined in a strip! It won't be quite wide enough so I will add side borders, then Bob's yer uncle as they say. It has to be finished soon as I am pinning it on the large high table at a local quilt shop on Tuesday.

Survived my trip to the hairdresser yesterday and my locks are now about three inches shorter than they were, but as it was past my bra strap that means I still have long hair. But it looks better as it's all one length again....like the garden, it had grown a bit wild over the past several months and benefited from its trim. It was nice being pampered.

This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada, so best wishes to my Canadian family and friends - last year we were there sharing in the feasting and fun. Turkey.....pumpkin pie.....family and friends....wonderful.

"Good manners are only acquired by education and observation, followed up by habitual practice at home and in society, and good manners reveal to us the lady and gentleman. He who does not possess them, though he bear the highest title of nobility, cannot expect to be called a gentleman; nor can a woman, without good manners, aspire to be considered a lady by ladies."

I have a blogging question: how does one sign off one's words of wisdom with a really cool signature? Does one find something fantastic on the web and save it as a picture then add it to each post, or is there another way? One has decided that one need a flash ending to one's posts.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Stirring WOW

Remember when collecting souvenir teaspoons was the thing to do? People bought wall racks to display their collection, or had special glass-topped tables made. Now the racks turn up in op shops, empty of their spoons and looking very forlorn. I don't have a collection, I have just a few - this one was a gift from friends.

The wombat wall plaque I bought a while ago is now hanging by the front door to welcome anyone who pops in, and the little wombat print I bought several years ago has been beautifully framed and hangs in the living room. Perhaps I should photograph them in situ. We have (finally!) started hanging our pictures so the walls don't look so bare. This house has two living rooms and we spent the winter in the open-plan family room off the kitchen, while the more formal room was closed for warmth. I shall start spending more time there now it's getting warmer. Especially as the Commonwealth Games are on TV and you know me....can't stand sport for hours on end.......and the TV is in the family room.
My turn next week to take along a block of the month for one of my quilt groups to make, and I thought a black and white print with bright blue and green would make a good quilt for an older child. The group makes quilts for children at the local Ronald McDonald House. The placement of the blue and green fabrics are reversed in these blocks which (I think) makes for an interesting look. The darker black and white print is very op-art and would make your eyes pop first thing in the morning before coffee sets them right, would it not?
Couldn't resist taking a picture of this pretty quilt last weekend, if you click on it you can see the gathered flower petals in the centre of the stars. I would like to think I might make it one day, but you and I both know that is very unlikely. I'll just admire it when someone else makes it.

Just about to join fabrics for the backing of the maritime challenge quilt - have decided that the easy option is just to join all the pieces I want to use and add side borders to make it wide enough. All the fabrics except one are cut full width, and that one is a fat quarter which I will cut across and join so it is double width. Some of the FQ will of course be sacrificed to seams (can't help that) but it's also not cut square...the four sides may be the correct measurements but it's a parallelogram not a square, so a bit more fabric will have to be sacrificed when straightening it. Bummer. Oh well. I tried different fancy-nancy layouts for the back and in the end came to the conclusion that less fabric would be wasted and less time used if I just joined all the pieces, trimmed the ends (because they won't all be the same length will they, oh no, nothing easy like that) and sewed on side borders to make up the width.

Had the news today that another folkie friend won't be joining us at the big festival next Easter.....that's two gone now.....it's so sad. Dave was a singer and poet and a really lovely bloke, we will miss him. Every year we have a wonderful time greeting people we haven't seen for a year, and every year there are sadly one or two less.

This time last year our arms were getting tired from flapping....we were on our way to Toronto, Canada. It's a long trip from Sydney so no wonder we were tired, and we still had many more hours to go.

Speaking of the Commonwealth Games which we were earlier, when I rule the world I will not let anyone overseas to represent their country if they cannot pronounce the name of said country correctly. Repeat after me.....it's "Australia"....not "Austraya". And heaven forbid, not "Straya". Every mispronounced "Australia" makes my hands tingle because I want to smack the perpetrator severely about the head. That goes for (mostly) athletes and (occasionally) other people, including politicians.

"Influence of Example.

Never forget that the first book children read is their parents' example - their daily deportment. If this is forgotten you may find, in the loss of your domestic peace, that while your children well know the right path, they follow the wrong."

I'll bet the good people of 1885 taught their children to say the name of their country correctly, no matter which country it was.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Saturday Quilt Airing

Once again Blogger has fooled me and uploaded the pics in reverse order.....last week they were going on in the right order. I give up.

Anyway.....yesterday we went for a drive to Nundle for the quilt airing at The Cottage On The Hill. The quilts were hanging along the fence as we drove in, and also on the fence around the house. It's a beautiful setting! I love the design of this scrap quilt and could possibly even see one in my future, it looks like a great stashbuster idea.
A young pup doing his best to make sure the wind didn't blow this little quilt away. It worked. The quilt stayed on the line. The pup stayed on the quilt too.
It was windy and the weather kept threatening to close in....we had a few rain spots, but nothing much. However shortly after we left, while having a very nice lunch at the local pub (which was celebrating its 150th birthday weekend) the rain came down in buckets. You can see the shop in the background.
Isn't the countryside beautiful? It wasn't windy all the time, I did manage to get some pics when the quilts weren't blowing. We also indulged in a yummy Devonshire tea, scones with jam and cream - Kevin enjoyed his, and he doesn't eat jam or cream often - went into the shop, but it was very busy. However it's only about 40 minutes drive from here so I shall go again.

Had a very lazy day today, daylight saving started last night and we woke up late. It was a cloudy and rainy day so was a good day to do not much at all.......managed to trim some little pinwheel blocks for this quilt, by gosh trimming little 2-3/4in blocks is tedious......but I have quite a few done now, so will keep at it. I really would like to make that quilt. Didn't even look at the fabrics for the back of the maritime quilt. Might do that tomorrow.

Speaking of daylight saving, I reckon six months is too long. I didn't mind when it was four months - from the beginning of November to the end of February - but gradually "they" have increased the time so now it's half the year. There have been many studies showing the effectiveness, or not, of daylight saving over the years and apparently it's not as good for us as some people make it out to be. We change most clocks except the oven clock (because one needs a degrees in astrophysics to work out how to do so, the previous owner left no manuals or instructions for anything) and my little sewing room clock, because I can't be bothered.

The turkey drumsticks in plum sauce were very nice, we have had two meals from it so far and there is still enough left for one more. And last week I made some pumpkin cupcakes from this recipe - they are all eaten now - we liked them better than the pumpkin muffins I made a while ago. The oven might be difficult to set the clock and almost impossible to set the timer, but it bakes well.

"Sunday Hospitalities.

In this country it is not expected that persons will call after informal hospitalities extended on Sunday. All gatherings on that day ought to be informal. No dinner parties are given on Sunday, or at least, they are not considered as good form in good society."

So there you have it. Don't expect an invitation from me for a Sunday dinner party, because it will not be forthcoming.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

The Unidentified Growing Object

Tres pretty, n'est-ce pas? Yesterday one of the women at quilt group said she may know the name of this plant, so next week I shall take along a sprig in the hope that she does.

"Bring one of the commonest field flowers into a room, place it on a table, or chimney-piece, and you seem to have brought a ray of sunshine into the place. There is a cheerfulness about flowers."

All my quilt blocks that I needed to make are done so now I need to think about a back for the challenge quilt. It will be pieced from different fabrics and I have always liked doing jigsaw puzzles. Just as well, isn't it? But first I need to spend a little time in the kitchen and clean up after cooking earlier, the slow cooker has turkey drumsticks in plum sauce simmering away for dinner tonight. Yum........

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer