what I'm up to

Hey guys! Happy January. Trying to keep warm in the house is a winter-long project for me. Note my perpetually red (drippy) nose. So charming. I routinely wear scarves and coats inside the house, especially as my fave spots are near windows. I received some much-enjoyed and also ridiculous looking but super warm socks for Christmas. (Thank you, Schmoopie!) And the hot coffee and tea ever floweth over here, of course! We are also in the midst of a dispute with a group of flying squirrels for possession of our attic, and so far they are winning.

I’m busy busy working on the next pattern in the 'Twas the Night series, and I’m excited to show you once I have anything photo worthy. Not yet, though! It's in the very preliminary stages. 

I hope you guys are keeping well? We are passing around the usual winter assortment of viruses and colds. My poor Thing 1 got out of Covid jail at college over the weekend. It snuck right past her vax and whacked her with a headache, body aches, fatigue, and head cold. She's feeling much better now, but says she noticed she can't taste spicy things. Everything else, yes. Spicy stuff, no. That's just bizarre. Sigh. Errbody taking a turn with the new variant, looks like! 

Back to sewing! Y'all stay cozy. Except for my Australian friends – y'all stay cool. :-)

Xfinity's block on my blog is now fixed!

Yay! Just to let those of you know who subscribe by feed or email, the erroneous block put on my blog by Xfinity's service Safebrowse.io seems to be fixed now. It only took seven days. :-(

I can now load my blog using Xfinity wifi on any of my devices and I hope you can too. Thanks so much for your patience, and if you notice the Safebrowse warning is still happening for you, can you contact me via FB or my shop and let me know? Thanks!

getting a Safebrowse.io warning when you go to my blog? me too >:(

UPDATE: THE ERROR SEEMS TO BE FIXED! At least on my end. If you get the erroneous Safebrowse warning, can you contact me via FB or my shop and let me know? Thanks!

I reference my own blog almost every day when I grab helpful links to send my customers. Imagine my surprise on Tues May 18th when suddenly I got the above intimidating screen (in several languages) from a URL called safebrowse.io when I loaded it on my Mac. Panic immediately set in. Had my blog been hacked? What was going on?

As you might imagine, I started researching and testing immediately. I spent all day on it and reached out to a lot of my friends to help me test it. Here's what I figured out:

• Safebrowse.io is a legit policing service used by Xfinity (my internet provider).
• It was flagging my blog for no apparent reason.
• My blog was not flagged on any other internet provider or cellular service that I could see. Non-Xfinity users and anyone using cellular data could access it just fine.
• Not all Xfinity wifi users were getting the same screen, but everyone who got the screen was an Xfinity user.
• If we turned off the Advanced Security Filter on our router, voila, the problem was solved. If we turned it back on, the flag appeared again.
• The problem seemed to be with the Xfinity advanced security algorithm or blacklist.

Obviously, asking my customers to click 'proceed anyway' after getting a malicious site warning is not an option. Neither is telling them to take their security fence down on their router just to reach my site. Unacceptable.

After two long phone calls with Xfinity support, they told me that my blog was erroneously flagged in a recent security update which referenced certain server ports. This has presumably affected way more websites than just my own. They tell me their engineers are aware of my issue and are working to solve it.

I'm currently waiting for them to whitelist my poor ol' innocent blog (which is a legit web site on the internet since 2008). Today is the fourth day it's been held hostage by Xfinity, scaring my visitors and ruining the reputation of my business. 

HURRY UP, XFINITY.

If you are an Xfinity user, obviously you won't be seeing this post. If you did, I'd tell you a good workaround during this time to reach my blog is to turn off the wifi service on your device and access it via cellular service using the usual link:

https://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/

beware listing spoofers

ALERT: It has come to my attention there is at least one pirate site that has stolen my Etsy listings, including my words, photos, and even the customer reviews. They look just like my Etsy listings, except the website is not Etsy. The spoofer lures folks in by pretending to be me and pricing my patterns at half the cost of my Etsy shop. BEWARE: They are actually phishing sites that capture your financial and personal data instead of sending you the product.

It’s not just my own listings. I’ve seen several other reputable Etsy sellers I’m familiar with have also had their listings stolen by the same site, even listings for actual hard to fulfill items instead of digital listings. And this is likely not the only pirate site out there. I’m not including the link here for obvious reasons.

SO HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT’S A PIRATE SITE? In my case, that’s easy. The ONLY place I sell my pattern downloads is mmmcrafts.etsy.com

If it ain’t my Etsy shop, it’s a pirate site, and is in direct violation of DMCA and US copyright laws. My lawyer is aware of the site and we are gathering information. Be careful out there in Internet Land, y’all. #meanpeoplesuck

these are strange times, y'all

Hello, people of the world! I love you!
From afar though. *blows kiss*

As we all try to navigate this coronavirus crisis, I pray for the renewed health and well-being of everyone around the globe affected by this virus. I pray especially for all those in seats of authority struggling to make tough decisions, and also for our healthcare workers. What a heavy burden they are bearing! We can do this, y'all. Let us love and serve one another.

You may have guessed I'm kind of an introvert, so our voluntary office/school closings and limited forays into society are not bothersome to me yet. HOWEVER, my teens and He Whom My Soul Loves are going kind of stir crazy. As homeschoolers we are already more isolated than most, so the further cancelation of their classes, worship, sports, dances, and social gatherings are a blow for them. BUT – these are small sacrifices to make when we consider current events around the globe.

In my home state of Georgia currently there are just shy of 100 confirmed cases, but I'm sure that means many more that are undiagnosed at this time. We are trying to do our part to keep the bell curve of infections shallow. God willing, we will be on the upside of this in a few weeks.

In the interim, I officially call an isolation single player craft party at my house. I'm feeling well and there's certainly plenty of time for me to sketch, design, and craft new ornaments. Ebenezer is underway. I'm not ready to show photos yet, but I will in due time.

Appropriately distanced air hugs for everyone!
*so many heart emojis here*

what I'm up to

Hey, guys. I've been absent for a while #becausehomeschool. We are finishing up a crazy hard year for us. Freshman year and junior year. We are on the homestretch now with just a few more days and then FREEDOM. Final projects, exams, standardized tests, school events, graphic design projects for school, etc... have taken all my time/sanity lately.

May is super manic always for us anyway just because of family events – our anniversary, Thing 2's birthday (she can get her permit now YIKES), extended family birthdays, Mothers Day, plus all the graduation events for the happy seniors in our lives. You know what I'm talkin bout. I'm hoping to get through the gauntlet and get back to pattern development and crafting when the dust settles, and then the girls can focus on their video game achievements.

what I'm up to

What is going on with me? You may have noticed I've dropped off social media. It's because we are moving! Just 15 minutes away but this process has taken over my life at the moment. After searching diligently for an ideal (slightly larger) house for 2 years we've pretty much found it. Our poor realtor! After about 6 months of fruitless showings we told him to forget about us and we'd just call him when we saw a house we wanted to see. Last month we saw the house listed online, went to view it and whamm-o, that was it. It's been a contracting/mortgaging/packing/painting/flooring whirlwind ever since. And throw in some home schooling and pattern design. And so much coffee.

My two girls are kind of freaking out. I caught Thing 2 hugging our refrigerator the other day. She's not ready for a strange refrigerator. I need to remember they didn't grow up like I did – moving every couple of years. They were excited about finding another house until we found one. They've never lived anywhere else but here. Unlike the moves in my formative years, nothing will change for them except for their house. Church and school are still the same. But it's still an adjustment and I have to remember to be sensitive to that! But not that sensitive. Adversity makes you grow. And there's a huge consolation for two teen girls in the new house: they each get their own bathroom. That will be epic. Plus they get to pick their own paint color for their rooms. Within reason*.

Our current house is pretty great. We built it in 2001. Picked out all the colors. Brought our babies home to it. It's packed with memories. It's our first house. I remember how huge it seemed after we moved here from our apartment. It has an awesome studio for my business. I think the sentimentality will surely hit me at some point. I'll be sad about leaving it. But for now I just ain't got time for that.

*No glitter. No green. No darks. No color that will be hard to look at. Nothing in the pink family. OK, basically they are constrained to white, blue or gray.

having problems with your Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy?

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD POST FROM 2017 and the issue described here no longer exists. If you are having trouble rinsing away Sulky stabilizer please review this current post. Thanks!

Hello, guys! This is a Sulky PSA. You folks know how much I love their Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy. I can't live without it! It's an integral part of my Twelve Days ornament series. However, I've heard from several heartbroken crafters just lately who can't get the Sulky stabilizer washed off of their embroidered ornament pieces even though they have followed all the directions and are doing everything right. If this is YOU, you are not crazy. You have some faulty stabilizer!

I've just spoken to Patty Lee at Sulky. She was so helpful and apologetic! She tells me the manufacturer who makes the glue for the stabilizer reformulated the glue without informing Sulky. While the reformulated glue worked for some industrial applications it did not work for Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Sulky was not aware of the problem until some of the faulty stabilizer had already been distributed to resellers.

Have they fixed the problem?
YES! There are no batch numbers to check, so you will need to test your product before using if you have the old packaging and name. The stabilizer has now been renamed and repackaged, so the new stuff should be fine. New name: Sulky Printable Stick 'n Stitch.

Questions? She will be very happy to help:
Patty Lee
(800) 874-4115, extension 173
(If you are outside the US you might need to visit the website to get the correct phone number)

How do I know if my stabilizer is the bad batch?
If you are breaking open a new pack of the old packaging/name (see above), test it first! Go ahead and print the pattern on the stabilizer just in case it's good. Then cut out a blank corner or strip of the page, peel the backing off and stick it on a piece of scrap fabric. If it doesn't soak away in cold water after a few minutes, you may have the bad stuff. This is what it looked like for me. The bad stuff is on the left (turns clear and gooey), the good stuff is on the right (turns white and dissolves away):

I have the bad stuff. What do I do?
Sulky will gladly replace your faulty stabilizer. Please contact:
Patty Lee
(800) 874-4115, extension 173
(If you are outside the US you might need to visit the website to get the correct phone number)

OK, but how do I fix my current project?
There are some things to try! Patty has a list of suggestions that will hopefully fix the problem and she even offered to foot the bill for dry cleaning for your project if that would help. Please contact her.

Thanks very much to the crafters who let me know about this problem! I'm so sorry you ran into it and I hope you will be willing to try another project with the REAL stabilizer (with the new name!) so that you can discover just how wonderful it is!

cipro/levaquin awareness

At the risk of sounding like a nutter, I'm going to talk a little (OK, a lot) about a certain antibiotic I was given for a possible UTI. This is pretty off topic, so forgive me, but it's a commonly prescribed drug in the USA and I want as many as possible to be aware so you can avoid what happened to me. If you don't enjoy hearing folks blather on about their medical problems, I suggest skipping the rest of this post. I won't be offended!

Please note: I am not a medical doctor, nor do I play one on TV. This is my personal experience. Ok?

Cipro and Levaquin (and there may be other names/forms) are fluoroquinolone types of antibiotics and are commonly given for bacterial infections like UTIs and sinus infections, among other things. The generic name for Cipro is ciprofloxacin.

So the reason for this post is that I had an adverse reaction to Cipro and, most importantly, I didn't clue in that I was having one right away because the symptoms are not normally associated with antibiotics. I confess I had started the medication without reading the entire paper insert that came from the pharmacist. (Yes, that is dumb.) After two days on Cipro I had:

• insomnia
• headaches
• feelings of depression
• feelings of anxiety
• strange/irrational thoughts
• tremors in my hands
• charley horses in the night, with sore calf muscle the entire next day

I started to worry about it, especially the tremor in my hands. I decided to put it all down to too much caffeine and my hormone cycle. After another couple of days on Cipro with the same symptoms, I had to get out of the house and get some sunshine to get a handle on my blues. So I took a brisk walk through my neighborhood, about a mile and a half. As soon as I got back, my shoulder started to throb. It was quite painful, and a complete mystery since I had done nothing strenuous.

As I sat on the couch icing my shoulder and feeling a wreck, I read the insert that came with the drug and realized what was going on: not only was I having the adverse neuro side effects, I now had tendinitis in my shoulder. I had already taken the evening dose and felt a little panicked about that, but resolved to call my doctor the next morning and not to take another pill.

I also noticed that suddenly all my joints started to pop and crack with every movement and my muscles felt tight. Shoulders, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. All popping continuously. I thought, 'this can't be good'. 

That night I searched the internet for some advice on how to counteract the adverse reaction I was having to the drug. I read in several places that Cipro can leach away too much magnesium, so I immediately downed two magnesium supplements. I've been taking magnesium every single day since then, and it has helped a lot. My compounding pharmacist also recommended taking Vitamin C, which I did and do. (Now, remember that note about how I'm not a medical doctor? You need to ask yours before taking supplements.)

I called my doc and pharmacist in the morning to let them know about my adverse reaction so that I am never prescribed a fluoroquinolone antibiotic again. My doc told me to definitely quit taking the drug. It took me several weeks to get back to mostly normal. The mental craziness went away pretty quickly. Now, six months later, I'm still dealing with intermittent joint/tendon pain and tightness, and I'm much more prone to injury when I exercise, but it is mostly better overall. I do still have a tremor in both hands, but only when I move them in a certain way. Pretty weird, and may be permanent.

Since then I've spoken with several friends who have all had various adverse reactions to Cipro or Levaquin. Which is why I'm writing this post! Because these rare side effects don't seem to be that rare, nor does it seem to matter if you have taken it before with no problems. My MIL took Cipro for a UTI recently and even though she's taken it many times, this time she developed unexplained shoulder pain.

Even some doctors are not aware of the risks. One friend from church said his knee started killing him after five days on Cipro for a sinus infection and he called his doctor to ask him about it. His doctor told him there was no way it was the antibiotic and advised him to continue taking the full ten-day course. He followed his doctor's advice, and almost had to have knee surgery afterward.

I think in this day and age of overstressed and overloaded doctors it's helpful to be your own best patient advocate. For instance, Cipro has been given not one, but two black box FDA warnings, one of which talks about the risk of tendinitis/tendon rupture. The possibility of tendinitis is not just in the Achilles tendon - it's every tendon in your body. (Late note: I've just read that the FDA is requiring a new warning on the label of fluoroquinolone drugs regarding "possibly permanent nerve damage". Is the risk really worth it?)

Two more notes: even though my doctor never mentioned it, I found out from the insert that while taking Cipro you should stay away from:

• NSAIDs (including common over-the-counter anti-inflammatory meds like Advil, aspirin and Motrin) Now this seems particularly ironic, since those drugs are the first thing most people reach for when they have tendinitis or joint pain. I took one for the pain in my shoulder before I realized.
• Caffeine (doh!) as it can make the crazy nervous system side effects even worse. Hello, me and coffee? I wish I had known.

Ok, sorry about the long post that has absolutely nothing to do with crafting. But! If this post saves even one person from suffering all the side effect super-crazified-weirdness that I did, my work here is done. If you start having any adverse reaction, my hope is that you won't wait and wonder, like I did. Call your doctor right away!

What isn't the moral of this story: to avoid antibiotics altogether. I'm not anti-antibiotic. There are other classes of antibiotics that do not have these types of risks. Also, I'm sure that many folks do take Cipro and Levaquin with no adverse effects...at least I hope that is true! The moral of this story is to be properly informed before you start taking any Rx meds, including Cipro/Levaquin! Read your drug inserts! Be your own best patient advocate.

The end!

Tucker's mouse in Homespun magazine, followed by a PSA

Hey Tucker, look, your wee mouse with his little book was featured in the December issue of Australian Homespun Magazine! And what a pretty cover! Thank you, Homespun.

I still can't upload new photos, so recently made crafty stuff will have to wait a bit. My Mac Mini had to have a hard drive transplant and an OS upgrade, and I'm still moving in. It's a good thing my nerd husband can replace computer parts (that's right, he is not just eye candy). Hard drives fail, folks. We've had to replace mine several times over the years. They are a moving part, so they will eventually break.

While I'm on the subject, may I suggest that you have at least one backup? Learn from my mistakes. I've lost data and precious photos in years past, and that is why I now have a remote backup running all the time (remote means to a distant server that is not located in my house), as well as a local backup to an external drive. I have 15 years of freelance work, photos, and music on my tiny Mac. You probably have pure gold sitting on yours too in the form of photos, purchases, music, etc. It's way too vulnerable to roof leaks, house fires, burglars, peanut butter and lightning strikes.

And if you are a blogger like me, consider backing up your blog too. Blogger offers a way to export your blog to an XML file, which I do periodically. Because you just never know when a server is going to throw a rod. Back up, y'all! PSA over.

what (cough) I'm up (cough cough cough) to *honks nose*

Sewing final samples for the pattern. That's the original needle book I made myself on the bottom left there, still looks great even after a lot of use and abuse. Finalizing the pattern has been delayed because I've been felled by a bad head cold, the second bout of merciless coughing I've had within a month. First round was brought on after I had laryngitis about three weeks ago. Was just getting over that and got hit with the germ stick again, this time smack on the nose. I'm a wee bit tired of coughing. And of being socially unacceptable with my soggy piles of tissues and constant barking.

Bright side: I'm sure all this coughing has toned up my abs.

What else. School is still in session at the Holland Academy for Young Ladies. We usually go through June and sometimes into July because we take mini-breaks through the year. In Georgia it's a mercy just to have a reason to stay in the air conditioning during the hot hours of the day. We fit in plenty of evening PE trips to the pool.

Currently re-reading: David Copperfield. I'm really enjoying Dickens' vivid prose. He paints a rich word picture, that man. I'm not sure there could be a more repulsive character than Uriah Heep, with his clammy hands and his darting red eyes. All the more evil because he's so very umble about it while he sinks his skeletal claws into you. It's got me wondering if there's a great screen adaptation of David Copperfield to watch. Do you have a favorite?

And big news at the shop: You might have noticed that Etsy has recently revamped how they list PDF files so that they are instantly downloadable for you instead of being e-mailed. I cannot tell you how happy this change has made me! Instant gratification for you, no email-gone-astray mishaps for me. Oh, thank you, THANK YOU one thousand times, Etsy! So now both my shops have that feature.

Hoping to feel better soon and get the needle book pattern whipped and good. And instantly downloadable.

replies to your comments

I recently enabled the threaded comments feature on blogger (sorry, WAY overdue). I read every single comment and if you have a question I always try to give an answer. I reply within the comments to questions because that saves time for those who have the same question as they scroll through. If you would like an email response to your comment or question, be sure to click the 'subscribe by email' link that is visible underneath the comment field before you publish your comment. It's just one click, there's no hassle involved or any additional thing to fill out. When you do that, my response will be on the blog as well as emailed directly to you. Thanks as always for your comments and questions!

mustaches and misc.

(Late Note: This is now available as a PDF pattern in my shops: Etsy (emailed within 24 hours) and Craftsy (instant download))

Hey, there. It's all mustaches all the time around here. I'm finishing up a sewing pattern for the previously seen Operation Incognito that I think you'll really like. I've added new mustaches and beard styles and a new way to stash them all. Ha ha. Stash. In other news:

• Abby Glassenberg has another great article posted right now on the ins and outs of contributing to craft books. It's a great resource for you if you'd like to know more about the process. I'm just really enjoying her whole Softies For Sale series. Hmm, that's a lot of Ss. Fun with sibilance.
• Am I the only one not watching Downton Abbey for pity's sake? I watched series one last year, but fumbled it and didn't catch the first episodes of series two, and now I stubbornly refuse to enter in the middle of things. I'll have to wait until it streams or something.
• There are now several shops listed on the mmmakers page if you are looking for ready-made Wee Mouses or other items from an Mmmcrafts pattern. 
• Wow, suddenly I really, really, really need a haircut. This always seems to sneak up on me. I'll go for weeks feeling good about my hair, then one day I wake up and it has Crossed The Line.
• I'm rereading Circle of Friends and I've decided I'd like to be Irish and live in a tiny town near Dublin, eat porridge with cream and wear woolen pencil skirts. I love the way Maeve Binchy phrases things. My favorite quote from today's reading: "She doesn't spend the the whole lunch hour eating by the look of her, thin string of misery that she is."
• Speaking of food, I'm going to see Hunger Games on Monday night with some gal friends! Oh, Hunger Games the Movie, please oh please oh please live up to my (unreasonable) expectations.