family history museums travel

Darwin’s Big Ball of Twine – Don’t Blink!

Hubby and I visited Darwin, Minnesota, on St. Patrick’s Day. We were in the area of this small town (population around 337), which is known for its giant ball of twine, and I had to stop. For a fiber artist, it’s a must-see. According to the informational signage with the ball of twine, this won the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991 for the largest ball of baling twine constructed by one man, Francis…

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Clever Marketing of Banned Books

Hubby and I had occasion to visit San Diego last week. While there, we visited a shop called the Sea Hive. It was a combination of a maker’s market and antiques store, with the floor divided up among numerous sellers. One seller, whose area had a sign that said “Gentleman John,” was selling old books. Laying on a round table in Gentleman John’s space were numerous books wrapped in blue wrapping paper. By the blue…

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Bringing Sunshine Into the Kitchen

The year is off to a rollicking start. I wrote one post at the beginning of January and here we are already, staring at the end of the month. I sense this year is going to fly by. I’ve had numerous ideas for blog posts, but no time to write them, so I’m going to see if I can write a couple of them today. First up, another home improvement project Hubby and I completed…

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FtTP: Aurora & Devin Townsend

Welcome to a new edition of Frankensteining the Talent Pool, a long-running but occasional series on my blog, wherein I express my wishes for talented people I’d like to see work together. I’ve done this series often enough that I have a category for it. Click the Frankensteining the Talent Pool link above the blog post title to see more in this category. Over the holiday season, I got Hubby a couple of Devin Townsend…

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Practical Christmas Gifts

I am surprised I haven’t written about this before, but I love practical Christmas gifts. While some might open a present of socks and groan, I’m like, “Socks? Sign me up!” Here is the funky pair of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation socks Eldest Son and his partner got me this year for Christmas. They picked this particular pair because they know of my penchant for circles. What makes a gift practical in my eyes is…

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