Happy Friday! Just popping in to give a shout out to some websites that have featured The Pink Toque and/or GEEKSOAP specifically this week.
Firstly, I was interviewed in preparation for the Bloomington Handmade Market coming up on April 3. The BHM blog has been featuring one artist/vendor a day, and I was featured on Sunday, March 7. Be sure to check back often; they will be interviewing all 42 vendors to showcase the talent that they will have at the show. I’m totally excited!
Secondly, GeekCrafts.com featured GEEKSOAP earlier this week on March 9. GeekCrafts showcases geeky crafts from all over the world, and I feel honored to have been noticed and written about. The particular GEEKSOAP they chose to show off was the Operating System soap – Windows, Ubuntu (Linux), and Mac. Cool, huh? I’ve been trying to focus more on promoting GEEKSOAP, and this is one step in the right direction.
Speaking of GEEKSOAP (when am I NOT dreaming or thinking about GEEKSOAP lately?) there are some big changes coming soon. I’m currently experimenting with larger molds, which would produce bigger, more solid bars of soap that nearly double (and in some cases more than double) the weight in ounces of the current molds. Of course, the price would have to increase to accomodate this change, but some early experimentation has produced some really pleasing results. When I finish ironing out the details I may switch over completely. I’d like to wait until I “replace” all of the current soaps with the new models before I do the switch over on Etsy and change the prices so people can really see the difference, but I am looking forward to it and hope to get moving on that ASAP. The designs inside the soaps will not change except to become a bit larger to fit better in their newer, larger soaps.
And there’s even more about GEEKSOAP that I’m looking forward to – some new designs coming soon… shhh! I’ll hopefully unveil them this weekend or early next week, so stay tuned!
Tags: geek, GEEKSOAP, geeky, soap
You all know how much I love My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software. (Read my review here!) Recently I blogged about the fantastic new Version 2 that has been released, and now I’m proud to share a discount with you so that you can get your hands on the newest version of My Memories Suite a little more easily.
Readers of the Pink Toque Craft Blog can receive a 10% discount off of the very popular (and fabulous) Version 2 of My Memories Suite software just by clicking here!
Remember that Version 2 of MMS comes with 1500 new background papers, 1300 new embellishments and 20 new layouts. Not to mention all of the awesome new features such as zooming in, WordArt Creator, being able to click and manually rotate your embellishments and photos right on the page, having text follow a shape, and so much more! Be sure to check out all of the great new features of Version 2 that I blogged about a few months back (which includes a video walkthrough!). You’re going to love the facelift that My Memories Suite received with V2!
If you’ve been holding back and waiting for a rainy day to purchase My Memories Suite Version 2, now is definitely the time to pick it up at a discount. :) And don’t forget… I’ve created 5 tutorials for My Memories Suite (including the latest one that showcases the new additions with V2) available to help you get started, and I’m always available to answer any questions you have along the way. So what are you waiting for?
Tags: digital scrapbooking, My Memories Suite, scrapbooking
Hey readers!
You all know how much I love Polariod’s My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software. I just wanted to let you know about their great deal for Halloween; check it out!
If you’ve been waiting to purchase My Memories Suite, now is the time to grab it at a fantastic price just in time to scrap those precious Halloween memories. Need some guidance along the way?
- Get even more support from the Facebook Fan Page for My Memories Suite where they share ideas and show off scrapbooking pages and have contests!
Don’t wait! Check out My Memories Suite today; I know you’ll love scrapping memories with it as much as I do :) Happy Halloween!
Tags: digital scrapbooking, My Memories Suite
Posted by Lesley on Aug 22, 2009 in
crochet,
events,
resources 
Me with Julia at the Indianapolis Hot Pink Party
I had a unique opportunity this week that allowed me to participate in crochet and charity at the same time. A friend of mine from high school, Julia Porter, is the Director of Program Expansion for GlamourGals, a non profit organization whose mission is to foster inter-generational relationships between teen girls and elderly women living in senior homes through monthly facials and makeovers. Julia is also a crafty fellow crocheter, and a few months ago she told me about a GlamourGals event coming to Indianapolis and asked if I could come and teach crochet at it. This was a no brainer!
So Thursday night I made a fashionable change by attending and teaching at the Indianapolis Hot Pink Party. The Hot Pink Party is a GlamourGals event that started in New York, where for a small donation/registration fee, you would be taught how to knit or crochet and receive a Lion Brand bag of supplies that would allow you to knit or crochet your very own hot pink scarf, which is a symbol of the awesome that is GlamourGals. The donation goes towards the leadership program for the GG Foundation and you get a night of fun learning a craft with other women also making a fashionable change and you take home a scarf that you made! It was a really inspiring and fantastic event, and I taught crochet at a table with a couple of women who had varying levels of experience crocheting, from none at all to moderately experienced. I met a lot of women who have made a difference and who have volunteered their time and dedication to others. It was so much fun, and I even got the honor of teaching the GlamourGals founder and CEO, Rachel Doyle, how to crochet.
Me teaching the GG Founder and CEO, Rachel Doyle, how to crochet!
I strongly urge all of you to take a look at the amazing impact that GlamourGals has made upon communities all over the globe by taking the Hot Pink Pledge. Each donation, no matter the size, goes directly to support the GG Leadership Program which inspires and organizes teen girls around the country, helping them to take part in all of the support GG provides to its senior community of women. YOU, too, can make a difference; make a fashionable change today. For more information, check out the official GlamourGals website and the GG Blog.
Tags: charity, GlamourGals
Photo copyright to Daniella Cortez of DaniDo Crafty! Get your own at http://danidocrafty.etsy.com
I’m just tickled to have been one of the winners of the lovely and talented Daniella of DaniDo Crafty’s Handmade News scavenger hunt contest last week. I’m tickled pink… and blue… and green… because I chose as my prize some of her absolutely gorgeous Superwash Merino roving. And the colorway? Please Clap Your Hands! (Seen pictured here. Photo copyright to Daniella!) Way too fun! This excites me because I’ve been wanting to spin; if you recall in a previous post, I had purchased a top whorl (and bottom whorl) drop spindle kit that came with some plain white wool roving to work with. I’ve been so busy with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day knitting projects that I haven’t had a chance to sit down and give it a whi(o)rl. (See what I did there?) Then in walks an opportunity to work with Daniella’s beautiful Please Clap Your Hands roving, and I’m inspired to make time for spinning. No more putting it off — once this fabulous merino arrives I’ve got no excuses; I can’t let such beauty go wasted and unused. It will be loved, I tell you, LOVED! And hopefully (*fingers crossed*) spun into something that I can knit into something fantastic. I’m also a little embarrased to admit I’ve never worked with merino before; so even more reason to be excited about such an opportunity to work with something so awesome.
Special thanks to Daniella for the contest and the wonderful prizes. I truly am tickled. You should definitely check out her site, Danido Crafty! as well as her Etsy and Artfire shops. You’ll love the free patterns on her site and all of the beautiful handspun and hand-dyed yarn and roving (among other things) that she has available in her shops. She’s also a writer over on Handmade News and guess what she writes about? Inspiration! Perfect, as her contest to hunt all over Handmade News last week had me finding articles that I may not have otherwise read, and so many great ideas — all very inspiring! Thanks again, Daniella!
Tags: Danido Crafty, featured artisans
Posted by Lesley on May 29, 2009 in
crafts,
knitting,
resources,
site news 
I love this thing.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently acquired my first real MP3 player. I’ll mostly spare you from the horrid details of my problems with the Zune MP3 player that I purchased first… let’s just say the Microsoft proprietary software you are forced to use to sync your files with the player has a long way to go to reach a level of acceptable user friendliness. I took it back and picked up an 8GB Sony (Walkman) MP3 player; the same brand and type my husband has. And now, a haiku, to express my love for this new gadget.
Ode to my Sony MP3 Player
Thanks Sony player
Music, podcasts, video
Doesn’t suck like Zune
And now, I want to point out the highlighted word in my haiku that inspired today’s post. Podcasts. This is a fairly new concept for me; digital media in a series, web syndicated. Like a radio show, but broadcasted online for you to download and put on your MP3 player and listen on the go. And when I started looking around for knitting related podcasts, I was overwhelmed by just how many podcasts there are out there for just about anything and everything you can imagine. Some series are updated weekly, monthly, and in each little segment or show, there’s obviously a main topic related to the subject of the podcast that gets discussed. I don’t know why it never really occured to me to listen to podcasts before; perhaps it has to do with the fact I’ve never owned a portable media device before. I know that’s not a requirement since you can just listen on the web, but using a portable digital media device is where it’s at. I can take the Cast On podcast (knitting) or Epic Dolls podcast (gaming) with me wherever I go and get updated on new segments in the series just like I do with bloggers out there like the Yarn Harlot or KnitPurlGurl that I follow with Google Reader, for example. KnitPurlGurl has her own mom and fiber podcast, too. I find this whole thing fascinating. And I also feel a little noobish that I’m so late to the game on this.
Check out what I’m listening to and see my subscriptions, add me as a friend, or suggest podcasts you think I’d be interested in over at Podcast.com! I don’t use iTunes, as much as it’s promoted and hyped up, because when I tried to browse podcasts there it wanted me to download and install the iTunes app to use like a “store’ to shop for things instead. I don’t want to add more proprietary software to my computer; that was my main problem with the Microsoft Zune. If I can’t browse and download your selections online (via website, and not an additional required application that connects to a website) to then just drag and drop onto my MP3 player, I’m not interested. I don’t need another media player on my computer and I don’t have an actual iPod to sync, so it’s all pointless to me. But I digress.
If you have any podcast goodness you think I should be listening to, let me know! :)
Tags: haiku, mp3, podcast
Drop Spindle set by Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber!
No, my KnitPicks nickel-plated interchangeables haven’t arrived yet (trust me, I stalk the tracking number 800 times a day) BUT more goodies arrived today; my first wool roving and drop spindle kit! The kit comes from Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber, and I highly recommend ordering from them if you plan to learn spinning or if you need gorgeous (gorgeous handpainted!) roving to spin with. You can order from their website or check them out on eBay, where I originally found them. The customer service is absolutely fantastic and it was a pleasure working with the owner, Arlyne. I will definitely be ordering from them again — especially because I can’t help but drool over their yarn swift. I ended up with a maple wood top whorl and bottom whorl drop spindle and have been scouring YouTube for good instructional videos to accompany the great booklets that came with the kit. (I’m a visual learner.) I think I’m going to work with the top whorl first, because this video by theartofmegan is very clear and easy to understand. With written instructions from Arlyne and the video to guide me, I think I can handle it! Once I spin some yarn I plan to give dyeing a try — this will be a very noobish, first time experience for me on many levels. I’m so excited! Not that I don’t have 100 other things I need to finish, like starting Father’s Day gifts, working on birthday presents for a couple friends and a wedding anniversary present for Lucas, all within the next two months or less. Ahhh! But how can I say no to getting started with these wonderful goodies sitting here in front of me, practically calling my name? What would YOU do?
Tags: Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber
Posted by Lesley on May 4, 2009 in
crafts,
featured artisans,
resources,
site news 
Queen of ALLL Things AWE-SUMMM!!! award
I was generously bestowed the honor of Queen of ALLL Things Awe-Summm, an award granted to me by my friend KnitPurlGurl! To accept this award, I am required to abide by the terms and conditions that come with it: I must list 7 awesome things about myself, and then I must list 7 others who I think are awesome to pass the award on to.
1. I’m crafty. But you already knew that. I knit, crochet, sew, paint, handmake cards and everything else in between. If it’s crafty, I’ll try it. I’m constantly crafting something and always trying to figure out how to make things; I prefer to make something myself if I can, especially gifts for others. I can’t remember the last time I purchased a greeting card for someone. Being crafty means I understand, appreciate and respect others that handmake things, too: the process, the effort, the time investment, the heart and soul…
2. In my professional life, I am dedicated to helping others. I’m an elementary teacher by trade, and have known my entire life that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I’ve been teaching others for as long as I can remember and am proud to have a career where it’s my job to help others all of the time.
3. Along the same lines, in my personal life I am dedicated to helping others. I’ve melded my love for crafts and teaching together here, where I’ve made tutorials on the digital scrapbooking software, My Memories Suite, to help others get the most out of and figure out how to use the software. My other pastime, gaming, has also been melded with my passion to help others as I write tutorial articles for various games, too.
4. I took a huge plunge and moved to another country in the summer of 2006. Moving so far away from family was hard, but it was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life and the best thing that I’ve done for myself, ever. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do so in a heartbeat.
5. That being said, Lucas and I have made the decision to move back to the states this summer (or ASAP) to be closer to family so we can start our own family soon. And while we’re moving back, which makes my family very happy, I’d still not change the three wonderful years in Canada nor change my decision to move here back in 2006.
6. I can multi-task. Seems boring, but I get a thrill out of having multiple things to do and managing them all at once. To be honest, I think I am more efficient when I’ve got a lot of things due and am up against a deadline. I think this is because I’m very organized and get excited about organization and prioritizing.
7. I can rollerblade. Don’t make fun, because not only can I rollerblade, I can do so without killing myself. While this may seem silly, rollerblading makes me FEEL awesome, and I can’t get enough of it when the weather is nice.
Whew! That was a bit challenging. Really, I thought about it for two days. However, it’s easy peasy to come up with 7 awesome people out there that I would consider Queen of All Things Awesome. In fact, the hardest part about listing 7 awesome people is limiting my list to only 7 people! Ugh! So here goes, in no particular order, the 7 awesome people I am passing this award on to:
1. Daniella of DaniDo Crafty! – fabulous patterns, owns a white mini schnauzer too, and an overall awesome person :)
2. Crazy Aunt Purl – love her writing style, humor, and perfect rolled brim hat recipe!
3. The Yarn Harlot – sure, this may be obvious, but it wasn’t until recently I started using Google Reader and actually following other peoples’ blogs more efficiently than just remembering to go down the list every week or so. Now that I’m on top of it and reading/following/stalking regularly, I can’t believe I’ve been missing out for so long. The Yarn Harlot’s blog leaves me in stitches! (See what I did there?)
4. Maria, creator and maintainer of the DigiFree digital scrapbooking freebie blog. I heart it.
5. Scrap Stuff with PSP – Shawna’s tutorials for PSP and PSD are my inspiration and where I learned most of my digital scrapbooking design techniques. I’d be nowhere without her!
6. Glamour Gals – My friend, Julia, is the director of program expansion for an amazing charity called Glamour Gals. Check her out!
7. Teresa Richardson’s Crochet Mania blog – I taught myself crochet via her YouTube videos. She has over 300 instructional crochet videos or something amazing like that. All I know is she is my top resource for all things crochet. She even has a Video Crochet group on Ravelry!
And there you have it! Special thanks to these lovely people for being blogs I enjoy following and for doing amazing work in your field. You’re all an inspiration! And thank you to KnitPurlGurl for thinking I’m AWE-SUMMM enough to deserve this award in the first place! I’d have included her in this list but since she just had to do it… I figured I can’t really send it back to her. But she’s definitely an AWE-SUMM crafter and overall fab person, and you simply have to pop in and check her out :) Have a great afternoon!
Tags: awards, featured artists
Let’s set the scene: You’ve recently added some new content that you’ve downloaded to the My Memories Suite program directories and you can’t wait to get in and make some fantastic new scrapbook pages with them. You start up the software and rush in to browse in the new directory you’ve created where all the new content is stored. As soon as you do, an error message pops up. Something about a corrupted file. Annoyed, you click ‘OK’ and realize that you were able to “bypass” the error and still access the files after clicking ‘OK’, but the error keeps popping up and you have to click ‘OK’ for all of the errors before you can use anything in that directory. Every. Single. Time. Ouch.
Some of you have experienced this situation multiple times. And many of you have emailed me, asking about the error and how to fix it, or what was causing the problem. Was it the content you downloaded? The error used the term ‘corrupted’ in reference to a particular file as you were browsing content directories; was there a corrupted image file in your download? Rest assured, it’s not anything you’ve done wrong, and believe it or not, the actual image file in your download isn’t corrupted. (Which is why most of you realized you could just click “OK” and it would allow you access to those files.)
Thanks to a helpful Pink Toque Craft Blog reader, Cam, we now have a resolution straight from My Memories Suite customer service that fixes the problem. And the answer is so simple I keep wondering why I never bothered to call them myself.
Apparently Windows Vista doesn’t like to play nice with My Memories Suite. (Wait, Vista isn’t 100% compatible with everything? NO WAI!) You know how when you go browsing for scrapbooking items such as backgrounds or embellishments within the software and you see various thumbnails there to choose from? The first time you browse new content to use within the software that My Memories Suite hasn’t accessed before, the program renders thumbnail versions of every single image file in the new directory when you browse in it right then and there — backgrounds, embellishemnts, etc. — so that when you are browsing your options you have a little preview thumbnail image of the items to choose from. The error comes into play when you’ve added new content, go to browse it within MMS and you use Windows Vista, as Vista doesn’t like to render the thumbnails properly, hence the error message. The error is basically just letting you know that the thumbnail isn’t present and it can’t be rendered, but it forgets to mention that it’s all Vista’s fault.
The Solution?
I know you’re thinking, “Great, Lesley, but how do we FIX it?” Well, after adding new content to your My Memories Suite software, be it additional content you’ve created or you’ve downloaded from others, (See my tutorial on how to add additional content HERE) you need to right click on your shortcut to launch My Memories Suite and choose “Run as Administrator” from the popup menu. If you run MMS as an administrator and THEN go in and browse the new content you added, My Memories Suite will render the thumbnails properly. My Memories Suite only needs to render thumbnails once — the first time the program accesses the new stuff — and then the thumbnails will always be there. So this is why right after adding new content you may get errors for certain embellishments. You will continue to get those errors every time you run My Memories Suite afterwards until those thumbnails are created properly. Once the thumbnails are rendered, the errors will go away.
You will only need to run My Memories Suite as an administrator once after adding new content to your software directories. If later on down the road you add more new content, be sure that the next time you run My Memories Suite that you run it as an administrator and then go browse to the new content so that the thumbnails for the new files are made correctly, and you’ll be good to go. If you ever run into the error while you’re working within the software, simply save what you’re working on, exit out of the program, and restart My Memories Suite, being sure to run it as an administrator. Then go back to the directory you were trying to access before and the errors should be gone.
The only part of this that still doesn’t make sense to me is how Vista decides which files it cannot render properly. Sometimes I get the error after adding new content but other times I don’t get any errors at all. Sometimes it’s not the entire contents of the new directory I’ve added, just a few select files among an entire folder of new stuff that produces the error. Previously I believed it affected files that were small in size or too small of a resolution to be used properly within MMS. I was fairly regularly getting the error on tiny items or very thin ribbons, which tend to be a lot of pixels wide but only a few pixels tall and I thought that was the contributing factor. Perhaps that is part of it; perhaps the reason Vista is having issues rendering these thumbnails has to do with file sizes, dimensions or resolutions. But the most important part to note is that it is not an error or problem with My Memories Suite; it is a Windows Vista problem.
Bottom line: If you’re getting errors about corrupted image files after adding new content, run My Memories Suite as an administrator (right click on your desktop/taskbar shortcut and choose “Run as Administrator” from the popup) and browse to the new directories to ensure thumbnails are rendered properly to alleviate errors. Special thanks to Cam for sharing this information with us :)
Tags: error, My Memories Suite
Posted by Lesley on Apr 21, 2009 in
friends,
knitting,
resources Ecstatic
I haven’t even received my first KnitPicks order yet of a sock-sized DPN set and sock-sized 40″ fixed circular that I ordered a little while back (Still waiting on Canada Post!) BUT I did place my second order today already… and I ordered *takes a deep breath* the Nickel-Plated Options Interchangeable set! And here I thought I was excited about the DPN order… WOW I cannot wait for my interchangeables to arrive! I also threw in the ball winder for a little extra fun. I’m just ecstatic! This order cannot arrive fast enough, that’s for sure.
KPG’s Contest
My friend Karrie over at KnitPurlGurl is having a contest that started yesterday, and you won’t want to miss it! It’s a Curbing Bag Kit giveaway from ADHD Knitting/Straight Jacket Knitting, and it’s fabulous! The winner will receive the pattern for the Curbing bag, will get to choose the color scheme of yarn they want to have sent to make the bag with, and you’ll also receive some coordinating fabric and a pack of magnetic snaps. The contest is running from April 20 – May 4th, so be sure to get over there and enter! *drool*
Knitting Under the Desk?
Oh, and … do you knit under your desk at work or school? Regardless of whether or not you do so sneakily or not-so-sneakily, you’ll want to check out THIS blog: Knitting Under the Desk! There’s also a Knitting Under the Desk group on Ravelry which is growing quickly, so be sure to check it out! I am SO making the Blueberry Waffle Socks free pattern suggestion on today’s post. Awesome!
Have a great day!
Tags: KnitPicks, KnitPurlGurl, knittingunderthedesk, Ravelry
