Eliza tagged me with a meme that’s been going around. (Or a “me-me” as I think of them.)

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Living in the Midwest. I was working in a gallery. I already had a studio and I think that was the year I participated in the town’s open studio day. Friends helped me hang Christmas lights and baked gorgeous cookies to offer visitors. I hung my first quilt on the studio wall. I was figuring out what I “should” be making.

5 things on my to-do list for today:
Nothing fascinating –
Answer a couple of emails.
Make jewelry.
Pay some attention to this blog.
Make a phone call about buying a car.
Wash them dishes.

Snacks I enjoy:
I’m not crazy about snacks. I like FOOD. And generally not the low fat, virtuous kind, although I do love dark leafy greens. But also ice cream, and cheese, and pieeeeeee.

Due to the strange effects of colonialism, we’re able to get these Scottish caramel wafers in our Caribbean corner store. Bizarre, but appreciated.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Freak out.

Places I have lived:
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After a year or two we moved to Roubaix in the north of France, then Paris, then on to Geneva in Switzerland where I was for most of my primary schooling. Back to Edinburgh through high school and art college, then across the Atlantic to Ann Arbor in Michigan. And finally to Brooklyn, New York.

In retrospect it seems kind of inevitable that I would end up in North America. My German grandmother came over to Canada in her 20s and stayed. My mother, on the other hand, was raised in Canada but has spent her adult life in Europe. Seems every generation bounces back across the Atlantic.

I am in love with this bed by Shawn Lovell, who just won a 2008 Niche award.

How could you fail to sleep well?

I also covet her gorgeous trellis.

Of course the whole established perennial garden is part of the dream too. Better find me a plot and get digging.

On Sunday I went to the Winter Garden for the opening of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. The project marries craft and mathematics, and brings attention to the ocean’s endangered coral reefs.

The pieces are every shape imaginable, and made from everything from wool to trash.

I got to meet Helle, who has flown in from Australia. Her Rubbish Vortex is hanging in the middle of this snapshot…

It’s made entirely from plastic bags of every color, sent to her from all over the world. I find the piece particularly moving; the real trash vortex in the pacific is large enough to be compared to a land mass and makes this planet seem very small and vulnerable.

I get the Quilt of the Month email from the International Quilt Study Center. Some quilts are old, made by unknown stitchers, others are by renown contemporary quilt artists.

This one is from January, and appeals to me since I have houses on the brain.

Reminds me of this mailbox I saw in Sunset Park while apartment hunting.

I think that was right before we saw the place where the sink was in the shower, and there was a hot tub in the closet next to the toilet…

I’ve updated my jewelry web site. Check it out – there are new designs and some additions to the spirals and zig zags.

There’s a wonderful thing happening over at one in ten.

Eireann Lorsung’s mom has suffered a hemorrhage in her brain, and the crafting community being what it is, there is an auction to raise funds to help out with her medical bills.

You can bid on pieces by Lisa Congdon, Amanda Soule, Stephanie and Mav of 3191 fame, and many more crafty bloggers.

You can bid on my leaf earrings:

Find out more about the participants at the one in ten site, or just browse the list of eBay auctions. You have until Friday to get a head start on your holiday shopping, in the name of a very good cause.

I was nominated for a thinking blogger first by Miss Frugality, and then by Gooseflesh. Any more nice attention and I’ll have to break out in a vivacious rendition of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story.

My 5 are:

Spirit Cloth, for bringing my focus right in to the surface of the work. And then deeper.

The Next Stop Will Be for his quirky perspective on life, especially in the city. Full disclosure: the man’s my honey.

SouleMama for keeping me interested in her daily parenting adventures even though I’m not remotely a mom.

Poppalina for being willing to tackle the hard subjects openly. And being funny about it.

And since I was gonna nominate her before she tagged me, Gooseflesh. I can’t think of the ocean in the same way anymore.

I’ve been tagged by Spirit Cloth for the “seven random facts/habits” meme, so here are mine:

1. I’m addicted to historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett. One outcome is that while reading on the subway, this

   
   
   has been visible to all, and I have been suffering the imagined indignity of being perceived as a romance reader.

2. …which leads me to my second thing. Whenever (rarely) I buy an issue of Martha Stuart Living, I feel as self-conscious as if I were buying porn. Perhaps these two really belong in a single “I get embarrassed while reading” category.
3. I keep and categorize beads which are faulty and unusable: a bowl of white pearls, one of stones, and one for colored pearls and glass.
4. Sometimes when I’m going to sleep I think, “Soon there will be coffee.”
5. As a child I had two guinea pigs called Gin and Tonic. I don’t know who named them. I like liquid G&Ts, but that came later.
6. I once shook hands with Lady Di.
7. I can write backwards.

I pass it on: the next stop will be, pink nest, miss frugality, the brown wall, and buddha is.

The Rules
Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself.
People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog, then choose another 7 people {or in my case as many as possible} to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog.