Maghound
An item while debating internally whether my Gmail is broken.
… (Gmail not broken, as I have just received tantalizing e-mail from Apple about 3G iPhone. Not-so-surprising follow-up: I really, really want an iPhone.)
As I was saying, an item. Was reading Romenesko, as is my wont on a Tuesday, and read that Time Inc. will be launching a sort-of Netflix for magazine freaks such as myself, called Maghound. A subscription service for your magazine subscriptions. There are several price tiers: for $4 a month, you can get three magazine titles; for $10, you can get seven. The best part is that you can change your title selections from month to month. I love this idea. Sometimes I feel like WIRED, sometimes I feel like Better Homes and Gardens, sometimes I feel like BUST. As certain people of my acquaintance will tell you, I myself am a magazine fanatic (only poverty prevents me from subscribing to dozens). I regularly check them out at the library (does anyone else do that?). I save them. I hoard them. I have to be sternly instructed to get rid of them.
So, to have a good rate on popular magazines with the option to mix it up month to month? Sold. Can’t wait for the launch.
Update: Good points on why it won’t work, though
At least I can look at the pretty things
Found a great tutorial roundup at The Princess And The Monkey today. The tin can cover tutorial, from an old issue of Cotton Friend, is especially cute — just to name one. I absolutely cannot get started sewing things right now, even though I seriously want to, but I’m bookmarking this with a gilded bookmark for later. Hopefully later won’t be too far away.
True Up
True Up is my new favorite blog. It’s the beautiful brainchild of Kim of Dioramarama. What it is, is: All Fabric, All The Time.
Girl knows her fabric, and her giddy joy at fabric of all kinds is very nearly palpable. You could practically slice through her joy with a good Olfa rotary cutter, all the way through the computer, it’s that strong. And that makes the blog not only entertaining and interesting but informative, too. Hell on the wallet, though — makes you want EVERYTHING.
Etsy love
- toyfoto: photography
- kim mama: photography
- relentless toil: wooden dolls, prints
- her own hands: prints, jewelry
- hvm designs: wool works
- 60 bugs: embroidered cool stuff
- bunnybum: opening soon — preview here!
These are just people I know — not all the talent I stalk on Flickr and blogs, who also have shops. That list would take me all day to make.
And this one’s favorites are bound to get your cash on fire, buring holes in your pockets.
I deliberately do not spend much time on etsy, to avoid the aforementioned burning, but I’ve bookmarked a few things here and there. Maybe one day I’ll sell a few things, too — I just have to make them first.
Do any Supa readers have shops? List it in the comments. You know we love that shit.
Tomorrow’s TV — today! Or in 6-8 weeks!
Read a really useful article in the Sun today: Mike Himowitz: Act soon to try out your TV’s converter.
Apparently the government is offering up to two $40 coupons toward a digital signal converter box for our perfectly adequate television, with which we use a set of rabbit ears to catch PBS Kids, Martha Stewart’s TV show, and the local news. I did not know that.
Also news to me: that the digital-signal switch, which happens less than a year from now (February 2009), does not force us non-cable-havin’ people to buy a whole new compatible television set (darn!) — just a converter box. Still, Himowitz makes a good point:
Never before has the government, by fiat, declared obsolete a perfectly good, working technology that’s almost universally available and so critical to public safety. And with so little real-world testing of its replacement.
Damn government.
Anyway. I am applying for the coupon today, intent on taking his advice and seeing whether I can get, say, NOVA to come in in high-def. If so: Sweet! If not — well, I’ll take the other part of his advice and let my congressmen know that this idea of theirs was crap. Only time will tell!
Supa recommends!
- Juno.
- Everything is Illuminated (the novel)
- MacBook Air
- Spinster Yarn and Fiber
Wow. Saw this last weekend and it was so, so good. Ellen Page was beyond stellar. Reminded me of my little sister, in a very good way. Of course, I cried and cried at the end.
Guess what? Cried and cried at the end.
Shiny. Didn’t cry. Might have licked it, though. I am considering it my Valentine’s Day present to Iain. Not even entirely sure how we ended up leaving the Apple Store with one, but there it is.
Neither cried nor licked anything. This brand-new yarn shop just opened underneath Red Canoe and is full of eco-friendly and organic stuff for your fiber pleasure. Love it already. (Nothing to link to, yet, though.)
February is quilting month!
I’m psyched about February’s theme at Sew Mama Sew: quilting. Not only because I love to quilt, but also because I think I’ll finally be able to sew along this month and contribute to the pool.
I already have a few quilty projects completed, which I’ll post promptly, and I also plan to do the quilt block sew-alongs as well (SMS will post a new one every Friday).
Mac and Owen are at long last allowing me to get some tidbits done here and there, playing by themselves or with each other while we all hang out upstairs in our attic/sewing room/playroom. Honestly, six months ago I thought I’d never reach this point. Now that Mac can sit unassisted (and isn’t nursing) and Owen has his Christmas toys to occupy him, getting 15 or 30 minutes of hands-free time is not such an insurmountable goal. There is hope yet of my sanity returning.
Spending my hypothetical “tax rebate”
According to the New York Times, the House approved a quick-fix tax rebate:
As it was presented on Thursday afternoon, the package calls for workers who paid income taxes to receive $300 to $600, and couples to receive up to $1,200 — plus $300 more for each child. The stipend, which some lawmakers were calling a “tax rebate,” would be subject to income limits so that the wealthiest taxpayers would not receive it. Payments would go to individuals with adjusted gross incomes under $75,000 and couples with adjusted gross incomes under $150,000.
I do not think tax rebates are any kind of solution to the general problem of the faltering middle class, and I suppose it isn’t meant to be, anyway. When you’re bleeding from an artery, even a band-aid is better than nothing.
Here’s the problem: the smart thing would be to hang on to that windfall and try to earn a few percent’s worth on it. But that defeats the economic purpose of a rebate, and unfortunately we always have something that $1800 could be put toward, like the $800 in repairs my car is waiting on.
So what do you think: spend it or save it?
Another Built By Wendy book
I had a little money to spend at Barnes and Noble over the weekend, and I was so disappointed I couldn’t buy this:
because it’s on pre-order. It’s Wendy Mullins’s second book, Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics. Sewing knits is still very much a mystery to me, which is why I can’t contain myself that this book is coming out. At last, I’ll have answers. According to the publisher’s blurb, she has tips even for people without sergers, such as myself.
I have her first book, Sew U, and love it — and I especially love that her books come with full-size tissue patterns. So I have high hopes for this one, as well. I only have to wait until May.
Reading: How to prepare for a recession
How to prepare for a recession. (Move to Canada! Then turn around and blow all your extra loonies and toonies on super cheap American goods. Wait, that’s not on the list. Hmm.)
This paragraph from the NYT struck me, all the way down at the end of the story:
“We want people owning homes. But oftentimes, to be able to do so requires literacy when it comes to financial matters,” Mr Bush said. “And sometimes people just simply don’t know what they’re looking at and reading. And it can lead to personal financial crisis, and that personal financial crisis, if accumulated to too many folks, hurts our country.”
I agree. So I’m reading a lot about personal finance lately. It’s a mom thing, really — I look at those sweet cherubic little children of mine, and I think, “When I don’t feel like strangling them, I feel like providing for their future.” And seeing as I’ve never been formally educated in the matters of personal finance — no business degree for me, just Hard Knocks University — it only makes sense for me to turn it into an academic question, read a bunch of books on the matter, and reassure myself that the sky is not falling.
Working OK so far, I suppose.
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