… I’ve been getting out in the garden. And engaged in some brutal hacking garden maintenance. But I felt sad about those fallen sprays of soft and velvet-y grey-green, and gathered them up, and made an arrangement. Quite nice, don’t you think? I think sometimes the obvious beauty of flowers blinds us to the quiet and subtle beauty of plain unadorned foliage.
Alongside there; a knitting work in progress 😉
And just to prove that my kitchen is not merely for show (although everyone including my family might be forgiven for mistaking that one) I have been baking…. A friend had an important birthday and I hosted a birthday do and made a cake, and y’know what? fortuitously it was delicious! I was so proud like a mother with her new baby I took a picture…
Pink Velvet Cake (recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly “High Tea” cookbook)
There! It can be seen that I do occasionally dabble in activities other than sewing!
But back to important matters…
In sewing news:
I’m getting behind on my documentation… I have three new things to show here 🙂 I am just awaiting on the right day to take photographs…. you know how I am a bit of a perfectionist in such things. It’s not like I am going to just slap any ol’ hideous me-photo here on the internet… And realistically, it has just been too darn crazy-hot to actually wear any of my new creations yet, and I like to actually be wearing that thing on that day or I feel like a bit of a fraud. Silly, I know… as it is I have been boringly wearing the same-old-same-old little summer things and I am getting. Sick. To. Death. of my summer wardrobe. I’m dying to get into some of my new cooler weather things! But we are expecting a nice cool change today, so soon a “new thing” picture shall appear. I promise.
I received a very cool and very generous gift recently from the very talented Shams. Thank you so much Shams!! I won’t show details here just yet… but I will at the right time. Sorry to be all mysterious, but results will appear in due course… watch this space!
Also, the lovely Mary awarded me the Versatile blogger award! Since I already have this one I won’t repeat myself by doing it over again, but if you want you can click on those award buttons in my sidebar to read the things I have written about before. Thank you so much for thinking of me, Mary!
Now I’m going to have a minor rant give my considered opinion on something that is bothering me heaps lately;
That hideous new word verification thingy. Is the new system not the most teeth-grindingly awful thing in blogworld at the mo’, or what…. Does anybody else agree? Whenever I go to leave a comment and that blurry, blended-together, ridiculously illegible as well unintelligible, thing pops up… well, half the time it’s so damn difficult to work it out I have to have a couple of goes at it before I get it right. And … “prove you are not a robot”? What the heck? that’s a little bit rude… Honestly, it seriously saps the will to comment… I removed the word verification from my own blog months ago, even back when the word was still relatively easy to figure out and I haven’t been spammed or had any (intentionally) rude comments yet.
Here’s my feeling; the sewing and creative community is nearly always so kind and supportive, do we really want to put obstacles in the paths of people who might merely wish to say a kind word about our new creations? So I respectfully suggest that if you do have word verification attached to your blog then you might consider removing it for a while and see how you go.
It might not be as bad as you think 🙂
It's a gorgeous bouquet. Sometimes in our northern hemisphere fall, I will collect things like this…and put them dried in a vase. I am impressed that your cake has 4 layers! And, yes, the word verification thingy is the bane of my blog commenting existence. Rant on!
I am tired of winter (which I acknowledge here in Calif. is hardly that bad) but I would like to be wearing summer things. Agree with you about the word verification – always find it difficult to decipher. Funny you did your gardening (hacking) today, as I did the same. It was very windy and my lemon and orange tree which overhang the house were thumping away on the eaves. So I hacked away and now have bags of lemons and oranges. Perhaps some baking in my future or lots of giveaways to the neighbors 🙂
I hope you'll get some cooler weather soon. We could exchange some weather 😉 over here, we're waiting for spring to start properly.
About the word verification, you the words can be almost impossible to read, however, I won't be disabling mine. Before I put it in place, I would get spam in Chinese and odd 'comments' plugging internet stores which had nothing to do with sewing at all. So, I'm afraid it's got to be word verification or some quite active moderating. Not because of the mood in the sewing/blogging community but because th spam-bots are out there and may well come crawling past our friendly little blogs.
Oops, I've been typing too fast, of course I meant to write: "About the word verification, you are right, the words can be almost impossible to read"
I seem to have lost part of the sentence…
I agree about the word verification. The annoying thing is many of us don't realise it is turned on. I turned it off years ago and assumed it was still off until someone left a comment. I had no idea. Grrr to Google!!
So the big question, seeing as you have it turned off, is how? I've searched and searched and I can't find the secret to turning it off and still not allowing annonymous comments. Help? 🙂
Me again. 🙂 I found the answer, thanks. FYI, there is no way to turn off the verification using the new blogger interface. Grrr!
I'm working on finding a way though. I won't let Google beat me, but this is probably why so many bloggers like me have it turned on and don't realise.
I totally agree with you about word verification, and risking spam I've turned mine off from the start of my blog.
I didn't mind awfully the single word I had to fill in before, but these illegible two words verifications of lately are a real pain.
Another anti-word verification vote here…it's not so much the lack of legibility for me, it's that the interface is broken when used on my phone. And why you need verification when you're already signed in beats me. It's not as if they couldn't block anyone signed in who's spamming. Anyway rant over!
Love the vegetation in the vase 🙂 Grevilleas are so pretty.
Yum to the cake – love a good Women's Weekly recipe.
Boo to the word verification – seems that most people are really quite annoyed with it.
Those fronds are beautiful! I too agree about the word verification…although it seems to have improved recently. A week or so ago I was failing utterly to recognize the letters and just gave up on commenting.
That cake looks so yummy! Your pics are always great, how do you do that?! I try and try and nothing as nice comes out of my camera. About the verification, I could disable it but it takes a while to figure out how to get rid of that one, so is not an easy task for those such as me, computer iliterates.
Waiting to see your creations!
Try this for removing your word verification.
Go to your Dashboard (you should have a link on the top right side, near where the New Post link is).
Now find the Settings link. If you are actually writing a new post in the blogger interface, it should be a tab at the top; if you are on the dashboard and manage more than one blog, it's listed under each blog you own.
Now click the Comments tab at the top of the page, scroll down and find the Show word verification for comments? option (after Comment moderation and before Show profile images on comments). Select no, save your changes and you should be good to go.
Short version:
Dashboard > Settings > Comments > Show word verification for comments
I totally agree with the word verification. And your cake looks yum!
That cake looks very yummy – which of the 10,000 WW cookbooks was it from ?
I agree about word verification although it does seem easier lately but I can still get it wrong.
Carolyn, as you are one of my favourite bloggers, I selected you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Come over and pick up it and pass it along.
Nice bouquet, and lovely cake. I have nothing to say, but I'm commenting BECAUSE I CAN. The word verification often does not work at all when coupled with a wordpress account, so I have been frustrated by trying to comment on Blogger blogs lately.
I do SOO agree with you on the word verification. It´s becoming increasingly more difficult to understand the words, and if wordpress can find a way to make it work, why can´t blogger?
And by the way, that cake looks delicious! 🙂
That cake looks so yummy! I am having a real hard time reading the verification words too!
Lovely bouquet!
And I agree that the new word verification is a royal pain. I don't see what was wrong with the old, easy-to-read, 1-word system. But I'm torn on whether to turn it off, since I have been spammed on multiple occasions. I guess I can always give it a shot….it's not like I haven't deleted those stupid ads before.
Hate the word verification, love the 4 layer cake and thanks for posting a pretty bouquet. 🙂 I have been less than responsive on everyone's blogs because of word verification. It takes too long, it annoys me, I hate the format of the upper and lower case letters and all squished together. grrrrr
Your cake looks GOOD! I think I will turn off the word verification on my site. Funny, but I hadn't thought of doing that. I don't seem to have any problems with spam. So there is no harm in giving it a go.
When I am commenting on other sites, it usually takes me more than one try to get the word verification right.
OK, I skipped off to disable to word verification on my blog and couldn't figure out how to do it! Can you guide me?
I don't know if that word verify is on my blog, I'll make sure I check – when and if I ever get around to blogging again. I totally agree though, sometimes I give up. I am so excited to see your new projects!! Hoping for cooler days so you can get out and get the photos 🙂
hmmm, I'm pretty sure I just have "blog owner approval" and not word verification? Or do you have to do that on my blog? Gah! Yes, it is annoying. And rude comments can still be left even with it.
Your cake looks delish… and I wish my kitchen looked half as ordered and minimalist as yours always appears in photos but alas I live in the house of piles! (and spend literally hours in my kitchen most days – I cook a lot!)
He he, I'm laughing about your photo taking because yours are always good, and I did just post an "any old" on my blog …
Thank you for spelling out exactly what I was thinking….I hate those word verification things. It was okay when it was only one word but two! Does my head in every time. I also hate when I am trying to comment on my Ipad and they ask for the text verification number which I have, but it doesn't work…whats with that!
Rant over….your cake looks good enough to eat! Haha.
I like your foliage. Every time I prune my magnolia I think the same thing…what a waste, they are so lovely.
By the way…can we have some of your summer please. Ours last all of one month plus the odd day here and there…very disappointing!
Yum – that cake looks amazing! As does your leafy green arrangement 🙂
I couldn't agree more on the word verification thing. I can't stand it, and removed it on my blog when they changed the system the day I knew it had changed. It is seriously a comment-impeder and puts tarnish on the otherwise lovely blogging experience!
Yum – that cake looks amazing! As does your leafy green arrangement 🙂
I couldn't agree more on the word verification thing. I can't stand it, and removed it on my blog when they changed the system the day I knew it had changed. It is seriously a comment-impeder and puts tarnish on the otherwise lovely blogging experience!
Ohh your cake looks scrummy!
A note on the captcha phrase thing (which I also hate, once I had to refresh over 10 times until I could actually read one – but not on your blog) Recently I've been completely unable to comment on any Blogger powered blogs because they keep refreshing the catpcha phrase telling me it was incorrect but actually I've discovered it's a fault with Blogger reading WordPress credentials. I have found that I can avoid that problem if I just use the name/url sign-in for commenting instead…now on another note, I wonder if I have it on my blog, funny, I'll have to do a test 🙂 You don't relay need it anyway do you? That's what the SPAM box is for 😉
I totally agree that garden greenery of the non-flowering variety can make lovely arrangements – I do it all the time!
Regarding word verification – yes you CAN turn it off in blogger! You just need to switch (termporarily) to the old interface.
In Dashboard, click on your "Settings" Gear icon. You will see the "Old Blogger Interface" option on the menu.
Once you're in the old interface, click "Settings", "Comments", scroll down, & you see the option to "Show word verification for comments?" Click "no"
Then you can switch back to the new interface
Note: Some people don't allow Anonymous commenters if they get spammed too much by turning off the verification.
Knock on wood….I've not had any spam issues…don't know why, but I'm not questioning it! I really dislike ANY word verification, but the unreadable new setup is atrocious!
I will be right over with coffee in hand for some cake! Yummy…
Yes that new word verification is horrible! I turned word verification off on my blog quite a while back but if I had not I would now LOL. I set mine so no one anonymous could leave comments. I have had no problems not having word verification. Since they have started this new word verification I try once to leave a comment on a persons blog with it and then I have to move on as I am so short on time these days. Half the time I get the letters wrong arghhhh who can read those letters!
Love your stove and vent a hood!
The new word verification is the pits!!! My comments have seriously diminshed cause my mature eye sight just cant cope. On my own blog limiting comments to registered users solved the creepy posts.
The new word verification is the pits!!! My comments have seriously diminshed cause my mature eye sight just cant cope. On my own blog limiting comments to registered users solved the creepy posts.
Thank you all!
though I'm a bit flummoxed by all the comments telling em how to turn off my word verification, since I thought I did not have it…
sdBev, I would love to reply on your own blog, but your profile is private (or something) so I cannot find your blog. But thank you for all your supportive comments!
Hi Carolyn – sorry if my comment about the word verification was misleading – I posted it more for all the commenters here who were saying they didn't know how to disable it, not to you!
You're absolutely right, you don't have the dreaded WtF here 😉
So much for trying to helpful lol!
thanks for letting me know which cookbook the cake is in – I have that one ! I will be trying that recipe out , it looks seriously yummy.
thanks for letting me know which cookbook the cake is in – I have that one ! I will be trying that recipe out , it looks seriously yummy.
Thanks a million for your comment – I honestly thought I had turned it off! After a bit of wangling and transferring back to the 'old' blogger interface, I've pretty sure I've now turned it off. Red face saved!
Hi Carolyn, thank you for the comment on my blog.
My comment here wasn't for you, because you are right, you (and I) have disabled it. I wanted to help out the others who said they couldn't find where to change that setting.
BTW, my husband has now made a couple of dress shirts because he was inspired by the ones you've sewn.
I think I fixed mine so I still have approval but there is no verification? I think?
And yours doesn't have verification either!
Edit: I took off the verification, and it took all of twelve hours for me to get a notification that I'd gotten a comment that looked like gibberish. Either that, or an ad for a Russian porn site. Probably the latter. Fortunately, it was on an old enough post that I can easily mark it as spam, but this is exactly why I turned on the verification in the first place. Grr.
I was lazy when I created my blog so my blog name sort of resembles porn which meant I got inundated with porn links.
It was so bad that Blogger turned on spam notification. If you just sort of quickly look at my blogger ID, it looks like kitty sex when really it's kitties times three. So I do sympathize!
I hope my blog doesn't have it! Will have to check because it takes me at least two times before I get the stupid words right when leaving a comment!
The cake looks gorgeous, as does the tree limb! I agree, the word verification is impossible – I've got it wrong 4 or 5 times in a row before giving up. I double checked to make sure my blog didn't have it. Life is too short…
The new word verification is the pits!!! My comments have seriously diminshed cause my mature eye sight just cant cope. On my own blog limiting comments to registered users solved the creepy posts.
Pingback: Peppercorn cardigan - Handmade by Carolyn