A Happy Finish

It was being blocked yesterday. Today it is in a carry-on tote to go on a trip with me. I do need to learn how to block better but this was a great practice piece for learning. with. I need to order more blocks for large projects.

I didn't quite get all the roll out of the edges, but I can live with that for now. I also thought the ends would be okay just laying there but overnight they pulled in a bit in the centers of the ends. Next time I will know that you have to take care of all sides and not trust them to be okay if the look good when you first lay out the work. The massive amount of plain stitch came out beautifully even and smooth. I am so happy with my big gray scarf/shawl/airplane blanket!

One last thought. I saw this post on X the other day and thought it fit well with what I am others are thinking about blogging.  

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” - Anais Nin #QuoteOfTheDay

— Ed White (@CPBialois) January 11, 2024

Back with more again soon but not sure when. Will have lots to share when I return!

Take care and stay cozy!

One Social Media

I deleted my accounts on Facebook, Instagram and even Pinterest. The folks I liked to hear from and about weren't on those much and people I would rather not be in contact with were there way too much. My family is fractured, and I accept it.

I kept twitter though. I like all the sharing that happens among authors, photographers, eBay and Etsy sellers of fine vintage or handmade goods and artists that have things to sell on Zazzle, Red Bubble and Fine Art America. I share posts of theirs and they share mine with the followers we each have. It extends our reach. All the sharing is well intentioned and without drama. Sometimes it may even result in a sale. I know that because I have had Etsy sales I can connect to twitter. I do let my lefty Democrat thinking show at rare times, but I try not to be insulting but instead just passing on facts.

I get and give occasional comments from some of those that I share part of my morning with. In sharing what they have to offer I feel like I am putting a bit of good karma into the world. Some of those on twitter amaze me with their talents and some amuse me with their point of view. Some I feel that if we met in real life we would sit over a cup of coffee or tea and chatter for hours like old friends. I hope there are some out there in the X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) universe that feel the same about me.

It feels like my days on my last social media are being threatened. I use Tweetdeck as a tool for my sharing and resharing. The notification list I can make, for now, in the old version of Tweetdeck tells me exactly what I need to know about who had reposted, liked or commented on any of the content I put out there. It also tells me when that had happened so I can tell who I need to return reposting favors to since the last time I did it. You can't get that kind of information from the Notification feed on your X home page.

Yesterday I read that going forward you will need to be verified at $8.00 a month for Tweetdeck to be available to use. I do post affiliate links and get a bit, a very small bit from those, but not consistently enough to pay for paying to be verified. Even if I did cough up the money, if forced to use the preview of a new Tweetdeck version, I would be in the same mess I am fearing is the future of using this social media platform. The preview of the new version of Tweetdeck or is it Xdeck, is nothing more than what I can get from my X profile page Notification link. That sucks. I will be so sad if Elon breaks twitter, yes I said twitter and not X, but the further he goes into remaking it the worse it seems to get.

I'll hold on as long as I can and try to learn to use the ever decreasing tools available to me. If I have to let it go I will still be here blogging in my own personal echo chamber. That is unless Google breaks Blogger. Let's not let our thoughts go there considering I still miss Google Reader and the old, personalized Google homepage you could create.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Warning, I'm Gonna Whine

Whine, yes, yes I am gonna about 2 things this morning. 

First up is Twitter. What the hell are they thinking over there. I use twitter to post affiliate links and shop items when my Etsy shop is open. That is just a small part of my activity on Twitter. The majority of my time is spent retweeting creative types, vintage sellers, authors, photographers and more. 

My tool for doing these retweets is TweetDeck. I have a column for Notifications that lets me know who has retweeted me and I return the favor. It is so easy to scroll down the list and open up the timelines of those I want to retweet. That column is now broken and will not load or rather it has not loaded for the last 2 days.

Trying to use the Notifications from my profile page is just sooooo clunky and in no way is worth the frustration when compared to the list I can get from TweetDeck. 

I like Twitter, the good, the bad and the ugly of it. I will miss it if it collapses. I do hope it can survive Elon.

Whine number 2 is personal. My hip is feeling much better these days thank goodness. But I have a new issue and it bugs me when life goes this way. I am the one who is supposed to wake up fine every day. Jim tends to have all the aches and pains. 

I had an accident when we were moving some furniture around yesterday. We decided to do away with our shared office so Jim can have his room and I can have my own. It is a good idea but is going to need a lot of work to rearrange furniture and the organization of closets. I managed to catch my little toe on my right foot and break it. I spent a lot of time elevating and icing it yesterday. 

This morning it is sore and swollen and purple so I am looking forward to another day of the same. The  biggest pieces of furniture have been moved but the closets need to be cleaned out and my crafty debris needs to move from my old room to the new one. It is going to have to wait a few days I think.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

So Silly, So Sad

So I am being silly to be sad about the fact that twitter is currently broken. This means I can't do retweets for all the folks that have tweeted my posts in the last day.

I want my twitter back and it is totally beyond my control. My other issue is that twitter is my only social media now. For many reasons I deleted my Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest accounts last month. All of my online social activity is in one place. I felt so good about that but now I wonder.

So while I'm sitting here not doing what I had planned for the next hour I am wondering how y'all doin?

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Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

 

Finishing Feels Good

Finishing feels almost as good as starting a new project, for me anyway. This afghan was started the week Jim was in the hospital and was finally finished yesterday. The long slog through the middle was tough but I have a new couch this needed to be on and so I continued a row or two an evening. It has been washed now too and I actually took a short nap under it yesterday afternoon. 

The pattern, which I change from lots of stripes to big blocks of color, came from the blog Clementine Knits and the pattern's name is Chevron Gradient Afghan.

In other random and barely useful news I change my Etsy shop name from plain jane Cozy to CozyAtoZ. This change means my blog, pinterest and twitter accounts as well as the newly renamed shop all use CozyAtoZ. I like it when things match.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Yellowstone National Park Around the Web

I have been lucky to live close to Yellowstone National Park for the last few years. I have visited the park a few times and driven through it on the way to Ennis, Montana or Cody, Wyoming a few times too. 

Of course I have tagged along on trips with grandkids to Old Faithful. A few minutes of walking along the boardwalks in that area let you see pools like the one below. Please if you ever go do stay on the walkways. Stepping off in this area can be dangerous or even deadly. Plan on having some patience too since around Old Faithful and the boardwalks are some of the biggest crowds in the park.

Another amazing site and certainly worth exploring is the Old Faithful Inn. There is a gift shop inside the lodge. Other things you may see in the lobby including the stunning 3 story stone chimney, are an author signing books or an artist working on their latest painting. If you want to stay at the lodge plan well ahead and know that the rooms do not have televisions or radios. You wouldn't be coming to the park to have that kind of noise anyway, right?

I told in a previous post about my pleasure at finding great podcasts to fill up my days with pleasant background sounds that amuse, entertain and inform me. Yellowstone has its own podcast. The podcast is named Telemetry and the web site for it includes this introduction.

"Telemetry" refers to the wireless transmission of information, often via radio waves, from one location to another. Our public radio-style audio series helps transmit some of Yellowstone's scientific investigations to listeners, wherever they are. Go on a sound safari in the world's first national park for surprising stories and in-depth reporting that highlight science and issues in the region.

 There are six episodes so far and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one. The first podcast episode "To Catch a Loon" is probably one of my favorites. I used to daydream about being a biologist for the park service in my youth and although I like my life it is a regret that I didn't follow through and do that kind of work.

You can subscribe to Telemetry with your favorite podcast app. Other places to get Yellowstone information are at the park's web site or Instagram or Twitter or YouTube or even a Flickr account where one of the most impressive pictures in the stream right now is this one.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Twitter Manners, Etsy Shop News and a Photo of the Day

What's on My Mind?

Today once again I ran up against one of my very few pet peeves on Twitter. Mind you I don't have many complaints. Most days I enjoy my time spent tweeting, retweeting and seeing some amusing or amazing or thought provoking things. I share sellers on Etsy, Artfire, Ebay, Amazon, Bonanza, and the occasional Ecrater seller. I post things from my Feedly sources about news, science, tech, art and more. I sometimes share tweets from National Parks and the area I live in. I share a lot!

Back to that pet peeve and I hope I can explain this well. If not ask in the comments and I will try and clarify if anyone cares. Here goes. When I retweet someone's item most times I will get a mention thank you or a retweet. I don't care if they retweet one of my own items or one of the other amusing, amazing or thought provoking things they can find on my timeline. What I don't like is if they retweet their own item from my timeline. Why? Well to me it is selfish. Retweeting is about spreading the love. By retweeting their own item they have missed a chance to make a new connection, share something new, enjoy the good karma that doing something nice brings. There you have it.

Etsy Shop News

I did get the rest of my potholders listed. The first round of them were a generously sized 8 by 6. I have started working on more of them. The next sets will be a bit smaller and about 6 by 6.

My current coupon code expires in a few days on the 31st. No one has taken advantage of it yet. That saddens me a bit. If this is the way it goes, I may not bother doing a coupon code again. Most of my sales just seem to come out of the blue. I don't really have any idea how I get found but am extremely thankful every time it happens.

Photo of the Day

Jim actually took this one so I want to give him credit. The first spring we lived in the Jackson Hole area a group of these guys strolled through the neighborhood. It seemed to happen each year in May. The day of this picture there were about a dozen in the group. What I remember being surprised about was that they strolled around making no noise. I was expecting the ground to shake or something. 

Til next time.

Twitter Tips

I have been working to build my Twitter account into something that is useful, friendly and full of sharing from many sources. I follow and have followers that have interests in knitting, crocheting, jewelry, vintage, books, photography and more. I have really enjoyed interacting with so many people by retweeting, tweeting, direct messages and replies. It does keep me busy and out of trouble.

One of the simple things I have discovered are Pinned Tweets. When someone retweets me I go to their profile to find something to retweet (or RT) of theirs. I think that is more friendly and useful to us both than just sending a quick thanks. I like it when I see on the profile a pinned tweet. It means that tweet is something they really want shared and I am happy to do so.

I have started doing pinned tweets on my own profile and change them once a week or so. Sometimes I pin a tweet about a blog post, other times a product from my shop. It makes it easy for someone to find something to retweet of mine.

You may want to try it for your own twitter account if you aren't already.

I found some other Twitter Tips on the Just Unfollow Blog.

My latest pinned tweet is this one.

Can I help you be cozy? https://t.co/oGlp82Zzna pic.twitter.com/SXbjj71muj
— Kathy Johnston (@CozyAtoZ) September 26, 2014

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 I sell - Zibbet
I blog - A Cozy Life and Group2020
I pin - cozyatoz
I socialize - on Google Plus and on Twitter .



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Wow Friday Already!

At the end of what has been a prolific week of blogging for me I do find myself with just a couple more things to share with you.

My newest listing in my Zibbet shop is a gray and silver infinity scarf.

It was supposed to be a red infinity scarf. That red scarf is a lovely deep tomato red color that for the life of me I could not get a good picture of. All of my tries came out faded and to orange looking. Will have to try that one another day.

I spent a great deal of time on twitter this week. There are some amazing people to follow and interact with out there. I enjoy them all. If you are interested in following me on twitter or google+ the links are at the end of the post.

In other random news I am currently knitting another scarf, blues and purples this time. My current Netflix marathon is Dawson's Creek. It will disappear tomorrow and I had never watched it. The teenaged drama made a not too distracting background to computer or knitting time.

Monday will be here soon and I will be back then.


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I sell - Zibbet
I blog - A Cozy Life and Group2020
I pin - cozyatoz
I socialize - on Google Plus and on Twitter .


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Exquisite Studios

Well I haven't blogged in awhile. I do things, go places, take pictures meaning to share them here and then, well I am sure most of you know how it goes. Maybe someday I will share more of those moments, but today I am sharing a wonderful shop on Etsy. Exquisite Studios is our Group2020 shop of the week.

Group2020 is a small group of artisans who have met here and there around the web and have joined together to promote each other with pins, tweets, facebook posts, G+ posts and blog posts. Some of us are more active on one social media outlet than another and it all works out. Look for us on Twitter to be using #group2020 to see our featured shop and items each week.

NOW on to sharing Exquisite Studios!

The ring is absolutely beautiful and I love it. I wasn't really looking for a ring but then I saw it and knew it was the one for me. Emily is so great to work with and she has such amazing pieces. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her shop :)

Let me just say that this ring is even MORE beautiful in person! Its so unique and I get compliments on it DAILY. I am thoroughly pleased with my purchase, and the customer service of this shop is outstanding!

Above are just a couple of the many glowing reviews of what you can find in this shop filled with stunning pieces of vintage jewelry brought back to life by this talented artisans hands. If I had to pick a favorite it would be an impossible task but I will show you a couple items that caught my eye while looking over the shop to prepare this post.

Shop or connect with Emily of Exquisite Studios

on Etsy

on Pinterest

On Twitter

You can tell her Cozy sent you!

I sell - Zibbet
I blog - A Cozy Life and Group2020
I tumble - CozyAtoZ
I pin - cozyatoz
I socialize - on Google Plus and on Twitter .