I’ve been interviewed!

No kidding! I told Marie of Craft Arsenal that even though I’m a webmaster for a big website and write blogs, I’m still not used to seeing what I write out there on the webernets. It’s so exciting!

Why was I interviewed? Crafting for charity and my Index of Indie, you see. If you read, you can also find out what I do during the day when I’m not blogging & crafting, and my attempt to explain why I do it. I don’t believe I’ve ever hinted where I work before on here … not because I don’t want to, I just don’t really think about it.  It’s the title of the blog, isn’t it - it’s Crafter by Night, which by necessity excludes Fundraiser By Day … but the two are not mutually exclusive after all.

The interview is to be found at the Craft Arsenal blog, which was begun, as I understand it, in response to the Southern California fires … Marie, the author, was rather too close to the fires for comfort, and has started an Etsy shop (Witchfire) to bring in funds to help out. She sells donated items and there’s a raffle, too. Verrrry nice!

Marie also runs Marimello, where she posts about craft events and craft-related jobs, plus she keeps a calendar of crafty events which you can add to. Check it out

Weird Stuff About Me

So I got this idea from Lisa at U-Handblog… basically, I just post 7 things about me that are weird. Or at least, I guess I’ll be posting 7 things that I think that you will think are weird, but which you may not think are weird … who knows what you’ll think, really?

1. I love Agatha Christie. I love the mystery genius and her characterizations. I love her occasional meanderings into esoteric topics. I love her writing. I just love her. I have read everything (seriously, everything) she has ever written - mysteries, fiction, short stories, plays, interviews. Most of it I’ve read twice. I’ve memorized a couple. I used to own over 60 of her books until an unfortunate incident forced me to get rid of over half my library.

2. I am the only kid I know of who was sent to the principal’s office for reading too much.

3. I write music. I started writing music at about age 8 and secretly kept doing so - I write piano music, and if you know clarinet or piano you might recognize me working out fingering on my knees or in the air. I love music - I started playing piano at age 4, I can read & write music from over 1000 years ago to the present (musical notation has changed significantly over time). Being a medievalist, I took several medieval music classes and was lucky enough to have access to a great manuscript library.  There I spent much time with photocopies in music rooms picking out old chants. Since the advent of Garage Band, I’m now writing mostly electronic music based on piano interpretations of chant melodies.

4. I have lived in 19 different domiciles in the last 14 years in a number of states & cities. Yes, that’s approximately .74 domiciles per year. No, I don’t like to stay still, how did you guess?

5. In my 14 adult years, I’ve rarely owned a car. Although I love cars, I only love working on cars, and I do love pretty cars. But I really, really despise driving - it makes me quite nervous, and I’m night-blind to boot. Doesn’t mean I don’t have to do it, but … Most of the time I’ve lived within walking distance of my work, taken public transportation, or just lived in a place where owning a car is a rather silly & expensive proposition.

6. The only country outside of the U.S. that I’ve been to is the U.S.S.R. (cue Beatles song, Back in the USSR). I was 15 then, it was 1991, so it was still Soviet Russia. It was an awesome trip, and life changing. I’ve been to Siberia!  It’s really sandy!

7. Qualified for the college swim team by several tenths of a second in 2 strokes, but although tempted because I do love swimming, I declined to complete any trials because practice was at 6 a.m., and I am not a morning person.

Tagged for a meme and other stories

So for the first time, I was tagged for a meme by Anna of Stitch Bitch. For those readers who don’t know what that is (hi mom!), look here. This particular one involves the following:

Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written. But there is a catch:
Link 1 must be about family.
Link 2 must be about friends.
Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are… what you’re all about.
Link 4 must be about something you love.
Link 5 can be about anything you choose.

Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better.

Coincidentally, I understand it’s also time to put together 7 links for 2007 for the Small Is Beautiful thingiemabob, so actually there are 7 links in total, things I remember, things that were important, things I just like …

OK so here goes … this is a task made both more difficult and easier by the short duration of my blog … last June, to be precise. Anna’s been posting since 2003, so there’s a lot more variety there! So let’s see what I can do:

1. Family - This post is about Alton Brown’s visit to the Quincy, Illinois Maid Rite on his Feasting on Asphalt show. I still think this is awesome. What does it have to do with family? Quincy’s where my dad’s from, and the Maid Rite was my grandmother’s favorite place to eat.

2. Friends - I typed this post thinking of a friend from childhood, a grandmother figure I had. I almost want to include this in the family section. I also like the pictures of my little kitty, and the juxtaposition of them.

3. About me/who I am, etc. - I couldn’t decide between my rambling about crochet or my rambling-pseudo-mini-crisis. The latter post came from a day I remember well … it’s on the grumpy side because my husband’s grandmother had been admitted to the hospital (who has since passed away).

4. Something I love - This post was where I began my Index of Indie, which is my list of resources for buying and learning about all things handmade-crafty-indie. I have yet to morph that page into what I’d like it to be, but it’s been such a lovely organic outgrowth of something I believe in and stuff I’ve written about here, something I’ve enjoyed putting together.

5. Anything - This was a terrifically long post, but I liked it because of its pictures, I liked the project itself, and I liked the comedy of errors, which is how I live my life, doncha know. I’m really not a baker. I’m surprised the cookies were edible, but they were awesome.

Now to tag 5 more people … hmmm … I tag Jenna/Corgipants, Subu, Vicki/Patriot Goose, Irene/Mushroom Villagers and um, Dacia Ray. All crafters, all creative, all people whose blogs I read. So if they decide to play, wonderful! and hello to all of you, you each help make my days more interesting and fun when you write!