The last few weeks have just been flying by. With several major projects almost ready to go really public I am sincerely wishing for a really good “voice to text” system from Santa –
As some of you may have read, I have been pretty excited about a new project for Retailers commission by KFI – Knitting Fever. I have been assisting the KFI Manager of Operations with several new things for KFI retailers. It begins with a private Yahoo discussion group for their customers, the retailers. The goal is to provide a place for positive interaction between the more than 1500 shops in the US who offer the products distributed by KFI. I expect once Jeff’s letter reflecting on changes this year and letting their Retailer know a bit of what coming – the KFI-Retailer@yahoogroups.com will be a terrific resource for all involved.
My other big project is for the TNNA-Designers & Teachers as we are all preparing for the TNNA, The National Needlework Association Winter Show holds major wholesale to the trade events several times a year. A group of TNNA-Designers & Teachers are creating an opportunity for the Retailers who will be attending to get a sneak peak. That site will open late next week.
Last but not least, also almost ready to start is a site called YarnQuest – where anyone searching for “just one (or two or many) more skeins to finish a special project will be able to fill out a form and it will be “broadcast” to Independent Retailers who will then email you if they have what you need “on the shelf”. But this may have to wait until after the first of the year. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done
Now, after a night where it seemed we should be considering building an ark, the sun is out, so the computer is getting “turned off” for a few hours while we put up the outside decorations, then some last minute shopping for the first celebration’s menu.
Once that is done, well it will be back to TCB – Taking Care Of Business & Working Over Time
And all the things on temporary hold
Talk to you soon
Peace of the Season
Wheat
Something for you to listen to while we are out putting up the lights
It is one of my favorite mixes.
Because my family celebrates both “regular” Christmas and “Real” Christmas in January, we have always delayed setting up decorations until “just before” the 25th.
The off to the store for some last minute ingredients so we can include some of the recipes we found during the Arm Chair Chef’s Holiday Bake Along
Best Wishes for your Holiday Weekend
Peace of the Season
Wheat
Today, in Quilt Art, the always inspiring Karey Breshenhan began another of her wonderful ideas about something to do for our military – more of that another day.
In response, Tomme Fent shared a poem she had received.
After a bit of research, I located the poem and a tiny bit about the author in Ziplo’s pages
For a less graphically intense “read” you can try the Black Five blog
A Soldier’s Christmas
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
secure and surrounded by love,
I would sleep in perfect contentment,
or so it would seem.
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
but I opened my eye when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold, and the dark of the night,
a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
you should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
to the window that danced with a warm fire’s light ,
then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night”
“Its my duty to stand at the front of the line,
that separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
then he sighed, “that’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam,
and now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
but my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
the red white and blue…. an American flag.
“I can live through the cold and the being alone,
away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
or lay down my life with my sisters and brothers,
who stand at the front against any and all,
to insure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do,
at the least, “Give you money,”
I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
for being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“just tell us you love us, and never forget,
to fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone.
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
to know you remember we fought and we bled,
is payment enough, and with that we will trust.
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us
Written by
Michael Parks
copyright © 2000
Michael wrote: was thinking about our servicemen overseas this Holiday Season and wrote the following in hope of bringing a small bit of Christmas cheer to active
duty and veterans alike … just a humble thanks and “God Bless.”
Flame of Life
Although I found a number of sites with info about TrackBack, this is the best so far specific to WordPress.
Hope you find it useful
http://www.optiniche.com/blog/117/wordpress-trackback-tutorial/
This one is really pretty simple, we don’t need Mirriam-Webster or other sources,
Group Buys are orders placed by a group of folks – either working with a retailer or working around them by going direct to the manufacturer/distributor or other source.
“It used to be” that there was some affinity among the groups. Group member might have been part of a business or social organization, a local craft guild. But generally speaking they KNEW each other and often as not, functioned in many ways cooperatively.
Now, all it takes it Internet access and 5 minutes to set up a group on one of the many online services that support “groups” and poof you are instantly able to organize group buys.
Some of these groups are well run and organized and businesslike in how they operate. Others are not.
Quite simply, they exist so must be considered as a potential competitor for those who really are in business.
