Success (sort of)

Well I did some looking around on the internet and it seems the automatic posting thingy that del.icio.us offers just isn't compatible with blogger. However I did come across this blog post which includes a tutorial on a way to get a daily update posted almost automatically using FeedBurner. Yay!

No time to say much else at the moment. This is possibly our busiest week of our year, and this year it's more so because sadly we have a family funeral to go to. So figuring this out is timely -- as long as I have enough time to surf the net a little there should be something to post most every day! Anyway, here's the first of the new links of the day posts:

Links for 2007-07-03 [del.icio.us]

Posted: 04 Jul 2007 12:00 AM CDT

• stacking rings on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  Fabric version of the rainbow coloured stacking rings that every baby I've ever known has (we certainly did), they're more usually plastic/wood. I think making them like this, fabric with different textures/smells/sounds, is such a great idea especially as I want as few chewable plastic toys. I've been wanting to get a wooden set for my daughter, but maybe I can have a go at making something like this, (or maybe I'll wait to see whether this lady will make them to sell - after all when am I going to find time to try?)
• Why we learn from our mistakes | Scientific Blogging
  "Psychologists from the University of Exeter have identified an 'early warning signal' in the brain that helps us avoid repeating previous mistakes."
• Chocolate Chewies for chocolate lovers on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  These look so mouthwateringly good, I want some!
• BBC NEWS | In pictures: Cathal McNaughton's award-winning year
• Raspberry Chocolate Ice Pops Recipe at Epicurious.com
  Another ice-lolly idea to try out. Raspberry and chocolate, so must be good right?!

The gathering of the links and other random musings.

Public 'unaware' of food origins - "Many British people are unaware that the ingredients for produce such as bacon, porridge, bread and beer come from farms, a survey suggests." [BBC]

The diary of a 14 year old Polish girl who lived in the Jewish ghetto and died in the Holocaust has come to light after being kept safe for 60 years by a friend. [via Parentdish] I was absorbed when I first read Anne Frank's diary (still am), this sounds as though it would be similarly fascinating, if more harrowing to read.

I read that Darcey Bussell is retiring from the Royal Ballet, the BBC has an In Pictures set of photos covering her career there. When I was in high school I was lucky enough to be taken to see the Royal Ballet by the family of one of my best friends and saw her dance. It's something I never would have done with my family. We had a cultural exchange going on -- we would take my friend to folk/traditional music and dance things and her family too me to see ballet and plays in London and Stratford, and sometimes we and our mothers would go see plays and movies at our local theatre. When we got into our later teens my friend and I , sometimes with a larger group of friends would go up to London for some of the Prom concerts in the summer too.

It's something I miss about my life in England, I've barely been to the theatre at all since living in the US and not that many musical concerts, and no ballet at all. Of course we do a lot of music so it's not as though I'm completely bereft, and it's not as if we even get to watch movies these days what with having a baby. It's definitely time to be organising a babysitter and a date for me and the husband.

Late risers unite in Denmark - "If you find it hard to get up in the morning, don't despair - you're not lazy, you're just genetically programmed that way, says the B-Society in Denmark." The link is to an article at the From Our Own Correspondent site, the story's part of the most recent episode (you can listen online or download the most recent episode). I like this idea of adapting society to the way different people's body clocks work. Of course I would since all of our household tends toward late to bed and late to rise!

Cod liver oil 'treats depression' - "It may make the stomach turn, but scientists in Norway suggest that taking a spoonful of cod liver oil each day could stave off depression." [BBC]

The linky part

The Recycled Yarn Tutorial - How To Unravel A Sweater (via an email list)

Artificial food colouring warning - "Parents are being advised by experts not to give their children food containing certain additives until the results of a new study are published." (BBC) (Also in the Guardian)

Through fire and ice - "The Norwegians' architecture stands up to glaciers, snowstorms and dangerous drivers - and it still looks beautiful." (Guardian)

The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it (Guardian)

Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet survive 40 years in the bush (Independent). Glen Stasiuk has made a documentary about this couple , Warri and Yatungka , who ran away together into the desert because tribal law forbade their marriage. They lived in the desert in the old traditional way for many years. They finally were brought back to live with the tribe during a drought in the late 70s that nearly killed them, but they died a few years later. The documentary is called "Footprints in the Sand" and features the couple's son returning to places he lived with his parents. It will be shown on Australian TV in the summer, hopefully it'll make its way onto US and UK telly too, it sounds really interesting.

Just like that! Tommy Cooper's final days - "He was the comedians' comedian, whose unique combination of surreal humour and inept magic captivated the nation. Now the producer of 'The Queen' is to dramatise the last week of a life which ended so dramatically - in the middle of a show" (Independent)
I didn't read this article (yet) but I distinctly remember sitting with my family watching the TV and seeing Tommy Cooper collapsing live on stage, not quite knowing whether it was real or not, the curtain coming down. I must have been about 8 years old, it's just a quick memory and I don't think I really knew who he was at the time, but obviously it made an impression.

And another quilt to make my fingers itchy over at Flikr -- "Crazy"

And pictures like this make me want to get more sewing machine time in to make clothes for my baby, and children of friends (and me...).

What I've been looking at today...

My husband's been away on business the last several days. By today I was getting a little crazy as the baby has been restless so when she wouldn't nap this afternoon I grabbed my ripple blanket and other supplies and headed to the park. Didn't get much crocheting done but she did nap on the way and we had a little picnic. Also we saw flowers and birds and dogs and other babies and some friends, and stopped in at an art gallery on the way home --- so many things to point at and exclaim over (mostly her but sometimes me too). All in all it was a very good thing to be out walking in the sunshine, lifted my mood considerably.


Today I haven't been reading much (not enough time for sustained focus) so this is a more image heavy post.

At Flikr:

• This sonogram tapestry is such a great idea! I have pictures from one of my daughter's sonograms up on the kitchen wall where they'll probably fade but I like seeing them there. It'd be great to do something like this with them, and with the sonogram pictures we have from our first daughter. I don't really weave though, maybe I could do something with embroidery instead.
  


• I enjoyed the story of the magic beans of oer-erkenschwick
  


• I love this baby quilt; more inspiration to work on patchwork/quilting again. I always get carried away with the idea of doing fancy things, or using a lot of colour. Then when I look at quilts like this I realise how beautiful more simple patterns, and how I enjoy the cleaner look of white with colour. I want to make my daughter quilts, and there a few children of friends who are older than her that I had plans for too...



• And here's my own contribution -- we passed this tree on the way to the park. I love this time of the year when the trees are flowering, seeing them always gives me a lift.

I like to keep an eye on the In Pictures section at the BBC website and was interested in the set Your perspective on the world: 28 April-4 May which is all pictures taken with pinhole cameras.

A How-To to bookmark (which I've already forgotten how I got to) on achieving jogless stripes when knitting in the round.

And last but not least, I was intrigued by this post at ParentDish "When kids art collides with an adult's mind" and saw some really amazing transformations where a professional adult artist uses children's art and takes it a step further.

What caught my eye today...

I'm trying a new tactic today; starting a "what's caught my eye today" post in the morning and adding links over the course of the day. It feels much more time efficient! I'm so behind on bloglines though that this post is going to be very heavy on Independent articles because I had a lot of headlines to look through from them, and they seem to have lots of articles I'm interested in at the moment.

Picture of the Day

This stunning blue quilt, hand pieced and quilted. One of these days I'll get back to quilting, my husband would love a quilt like that (blue is his favourite colour).

At the BBC:

I notice that BBC4 is featuring The Edwardians through May, lots of interesting looking programmes. The one that caught my attention in listings was called "What the Edwardians sounded like" but the link seems to be broken. There are also Edwardian themed shows on music hall, food, Saki, photography, shopping and more. I hope some of the shows make their way to BBCAmerica but I won't hold my breath.

A crossover -- scientists have found multiple ancient texts hidden in parchment recycled in the thirteenth century to make a prayer book. I noticed an article on this story at the BBC a few days back, and today read the Independent's article (which I think has more information). I love the idea of finding lost texts hidden behind other old documents. And having taken A-Level Ancient history I have an inkling of some of the lots texts we think have been lost forever that it'd be so exciting to discover hidden in this way!

In the Independent

Covering up 'best protection from sun' - experts say wearing clothes and hats that shield us from sun exposure is actually preferable to just slapping on sunscreen. (also covered by the BBC)

Why Britain can't cope with gays in high places: We like to think that Britain is a pretty tolerant place, a nation in which diversity is celebrated, where our private lives can remain just that. But as this week's sensational 'outing' of Lord Browne demonstrates, for those in the upper reaches of society, homosexuality remains a powerful taboo. Paul Bailey reflects on why one man's shame reveals a much wider hypocrisy

The Mighty Quinn: Art and agnosticism: The artist's 'Angel' was meant to provoke a debate about the existence of God. So where better to house it than a cathedral?

Theatres to be banned from turning bad reviews into a show of support - I've seen this story elsewhere too. It does seem ridiculous that theatres and similar can get away with the false advertising of taking snippets of reviews wildly out of context.

Britain's maligned moths suffer drastic decline: Sir David Attenborough is turning his attention to the humble - but increasingly endangered - moth.

Things that caught my eye today...

Chocolate 'better than kissing', at least according to an article at the BBC News website. Hmm...

Also at the BBC, this time on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, a piece about Women War Artists. Apparently at the beginning of World War 2 there was a project to get artists to record scenes of everyday life to preserve "everyday town and country scenes it was feared would be lost" as a consequence of the war. The segment for Woman's Hour is largely a recording of three of the women artists getting together at the Imperial War Museum and taking a look at some of their paintings and talking about the project (listen online). I hope they put together an exhibition at some point

On one of the crafty blogs I check via bloglines (I have little to no short term memory these days) I saw the "Reduction Tote Bag" which I now must add to my To-Make list. I try to always bring my own cloth bags when I go shopping and this one folds up into it's own little pouch, very handy. The pattern is at the Crochet me Magazine website which I'd not come across before. I'm not really very experienced at following crochet patterns but it may be something that I need to work on if I'm going to make the cute little Dodo someday.

There are posts at various blogs I read today about the story of Baby Evelyn. I don't really feel as though I know the whole story but from what I've read it sounds as though the adoption process was handled horribly irresponsibly, and that now all the people involved are in for heartache (as is so often the case when adoption happens it seems). I've been trying to write more than that, but I'm not sure I can. I've thought a lot about adoption, especially in the last few years for various reasons, and I think it can be a wonderful thing but that it's hard for that to be true for the first families. I think I'll leave it at that since it's taken me ages to write this paragraph and I need my sleep.

On a lighter note, I think I want one of these egg separators that I saw in a post at SlashFood today. It would probably get old quickly though, and I'm usually perfectly capable of doing the job with the egg shells so it's not as though I need such a thing. It's so interesting to me the things that I'm not grossed out by that other people (like my husband) are, and vice versa.

And finally -- go and look at this beautiful picture of bluebells in the woods on a misty moisty morning, scenes like that make me ache to be back in England (much as I love New England).

Commonplace jumble

A recipe for chocolate almond cookies at Bunnyfoot that I want to remember to try out. (Also includes a good paragraph detailing some of the less appealing parts of having a newborn baby to mother.)

Whilst on the subject of food, the NYTimes has an article with The Perfect Bacon Sandwich Decoded which includes an actual formula ("the formula evolved to establish the amount of force in the bite, expressed in newtons, and the level of noise, expressed in decibels, to make the perfect crunch"). I do like a good bacon sandwich.

More articles that caught my eye:

In the Independent: Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? Cheery reading. It mentions that 'Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left"', and lists things some scientists think mobiles could be doing to humans too.

The GuardianOnline has an article from The Observer about Daphne duMaurier (Daphne's unruly passions -- Haunting mysteries, wild landscapes, brooding mansions and secret Sapphic desire ... welcome to 100 years of du Maurier) that I've been reading today. I haven't read a lot of duMaurier, and none at all for many years but maybe it's time again.

I came across this set of pictures through looking at images tagged with Art Nouveau. I don't remember hearing of George Frederick Watts or Mary Seton Watts before so I'm very happy with this discovery! Already did a mapquest check to see whether it'd be a reasonable idea to spend an afternoon visiting the Watts Gallery and Chapel the next time we're in England (answer is Yes, hurrah!).

Beginning

Having spent the last year or two gradually reading more and more blogs I've been wanting to jump in and start my own for a while now. Writing that first post is proving a difficult hurdle. That and thinking of a name for this blog. So, I'm going to begin by telling you where the name of the blog has finally come from. That will also hopefully give you an idea of what the blog will be like.

Commonplace
I love the idea of keeping a commonplace book. When I was a teenager I started keeping notebooks to write down poems and quotations that struck me (as interesting/thought provoking/beautiful/inspiring...), I still enjoy reading through them, but haven't added to them for a few years now. One of the things I want to do with this blog is to note things I've come across that have interested me: poems and quotations, but also news articles, recipes, patterns, photographs and anything else that takes my fancy. It'll be a way to keep track of things for myself, and maybe it will also interest other people out there.

Iris
My name is not Iris. I tend to be somewhat shy and I think I need to try and be somewhat anonymous to feel comfortable blogging. I'm hoping that starting this blog will help me feel more comfortable leaving comments at blogs I've been enjoying for a long time, and at new ones I've yet to discover. I'm also hoping that now that I have a place to post I will be more likely join in with some of the crafty "-a-long"type projects that I see around and itch to be a part of. Since most of the time I am busy being a mother to a little girl (or occasionally sleeping) finding time to do all that I'd like to seems impossible, however, I'm inspired to try by others out there who seem to manage!
But to return to Iris. I love the flowers which is what first made me think of using iris in the blog name. Then I got to thinking more about the word iris and its various meanings and liked it more and more in the context of blogging about my life and my observation of the world around me: the idea of an eye looking at the world, filtering the light; the iris of mythology goddess of the rainbow being a messenger; rainbows different distinct colours blending together to make a whole.

Commonplace iris
I got to thinking of the other meaning of commonplace (the one that more readily springs to mind), and that also fits for me too. In many ways what I write about here will be ordinary, perhaps mundane or trite depending on your perspective. Things that I expect I'll be most likely to write about would be crafting, cooking, parenting, reading matter, everyday life. The commonplace. But as someone who spends her life doing a lot that could be classified as commonplace it's very important to remember that things that are ordinary can still be worthwhile. More than worthwhile.

When it is their time to flower I see many irises. I might pass them by with barely a glance, but if I take a moment to open my eyes and look I can benefit from noticing the beauty in the commonplace.

I don't know that this blog will always be beautiful, hopefully I will be able to avoid being overly trite and give anyone who happens to stop by something of interest to take away with them.