Update Time

#1 -- There was nothing good to be had at last weekend's parish (what the sign said) rummage sale, although I would have totally scored if I liked to knit with glow-in-the-dark orange and green yarn. Afterwards, my mom and I had a nice lunch at yet another Mexican restaurant here in town. Here's a review of it by someone else, complete with pictures. (Note to self: the next time you bring your camera with you while out & about, be sure to take it out of your purse and use it.)

#2 -- Did I have more than one update?

#3 -- Oh yeah, I did. Jazz, the Katrina Cocker Spaniel I mentioned the other day, was finally returned to her owner. An anonymous commenter left a link to this story and video. (Thank you!) The owner, Shalanda Augillard, was arrested (and later released) during the hand-off because of an outstanding failure to appear warrant for allegedly assaulting the woman who adopted Jazz. The police have known of Shalanda's whereabouts all along and could have picked her up at any time but they had to do it on that particular day? Like that wasn't orchestrated by the adopters' attorney. [eyeroll]

#4 -- In personal news: I don't know if anyone noticed but I edited my Blogger profile so that it no longer has that I am suffering from a degenerative foot condition. Why? Because it was misdiagnosed. Oops. Actually, I'm pretty happy about the mistake since I spent two months waiting for a referral to a foot surgeon, convinced I was going to end up unable to walk and in a wheel chair. At some point, I did fracture four bones in my foot, (probably when I fell and broke my knee last year, and not due to Charcot Foot as first thought by my doctor), and the bones were dislocated and have since healed that way, which explains my now deformed extremity. Between the gigantic bunion below my big toe and all the swelling (leftover from knee surgery), (and, yes, I curse that doctor on a daily basis), I cannot get a regular shoe to fit my right foot so now I have to have a pair custom made. Hey, maybe that means they won't be as ugly as some of those other orthopedic shoes out there. I wonder if they could whip me up a pair of Mary Janes. In red.

Ok, enough updating for now.

TipNut has another list of links to free apron patterns and tutorials!

You have got to go see the cool pincushions that won Excellence in Needle Arts Awards from Piecework Magazine. There's a link to the pdf with photos of winners for 2008 on that page, and also links to previous year's winners.

Check out all of the entries in the Feeling Stitchy banner contest. I think they should use them all and change them out every week.

Your probably already know but Pimp Stitch is now open and selling patterns. I love them all but my favorite is Made in the 80's because I have a thing about mix tapes.

There are several new free cross stitch charts at Brooke's Books. Go to the freebie page and scroll down to the photos of Butterfly Wings and Land That I love. Brooke has also released the M is for Measure block for her Stitcher's Alphabet. Clicking the pictures will take you to the charts. To keep up with her new releases, check out Brooke's blog, and for access to exclusive freebies, join the Brooke's Books Interactive Yahoo group.

Over at Stitch Pink is an x-stitch chart for a breast cancer awareness biscornu called Be Aware. And, there are charts for two of Mary Engelbreit's Mini Flower Pots on her web site. And, more of her craft freebies here.