Holiday Masks from The Vintage Table

 I had been chatting with a friend, and the talk turned to masks. She was saying she bought some holiday masks because we'll probably be wearing masks for a very long time.

Now, I have some fun mask prints, but nothing for the holidays. Looking around, I wasn't able to find anything with holiday prints that I liked or masks that were made in the USA. Then Karen, one of the karate family friends from the karate studio where Himself teaches and works out, posted on Facebook that her company, The Vintage Table was not only selling vintage tablecloths, but she was making masks, too. Mask not only made in the USA, but made in Natick, Massachusetts, the town where I grew up. 

Karen offers fitted and pleated mask styles for both adults and children. Cute vintage and retro patterns. I ordered a bunch. 

The masks practically arrived the day after I order them in this cute flamingo, vinyl envelope. The Eldest's favorite color is pink so the envelope will be recycled to send to her.

The Young One and I already have masks that we can wear for Halloween, but Himself didn't. His favorite color is purple so I ordered the mask with the spooky eyes. There was also a mask with Fall color pawprints that looked like leaves to me. Vintage snowmen and reindeer for Christmas. Snowflakes on blue to get me through the Winter blues. The Young One and her Beau have a thing about owls and the black cats sitting so their tails form a heart will be perfect for Valentine's Day.

The masks are well made from very, fine cotton so they are soft on sensitive skin. Not only cute patterns on the outside, but some also had a print on the inside. Made so well the masks can be reversible! They launder well and no ironing!

If you can't sew (like me), and you're looking for some masks made in the USA, follow the link above to Karen's website. There are lots of patterns to choose from  and you'd be helping out a small business.

A mask and a roll of toilet paper would make a great Christmas gift.  😺 Karen also has a fine selection of vintage tablecloths, too. ( I have a couple of those, too.) 

Karen, I hope you'll have some prints for St. Patrick's Day.

Wordy Wednesday

Anonymous Comments

Lately, I've been getting a lot of anonymous comments on old blog posts. The comments end up in a spam folder.  Usually, the comments have nothing to do with the post in question. I suspect these comments are either phishing or bots, and I delete them.

Earlier this week, Anonymous asked for some advice on starting a blog. So Anonymous, this is for you. Last year, I wrote a post with some tips for blogging. You can read the blog post here.

In addition, let me add this. To be honest, anonymous makes you look like an Internet troll. I have received anonymous comments, but the author also includes his or her name. I treat anonymous the same way I treat phone calls where I don't recognize the name or number on Caller ID. I don't answer those calls. If it's important, the caller will leave a voicemail. If you want me to answer you, even if you are commenting as anonymous, leave a comment that has to do with the topic and leave your name. Let me know there's a real person behind the comment and not a phishing scam or a bot.

If you are sincere about starting your own blog, you can't be anonymous. Does anyone else have any other tips to help Anonymous?

Instagram

A friend told me I should sign up for an Instagram account. Instagram is a picture and video social media sharing site using your smartphone. She said there were a lot of art challenges and contests that I might like.

Bored while watching it snow on Saturday, I signed up for an account. My first pic to upload was a storm picture.  Instagram then suggested people for me to follow.

I'm still trying to figure the ins and outs of the app. The app allows you to edit your images though what you can do with them seems quite limited to me. Maybe I just haven't figured it all out yet.

I'm also not sure of Instagram etiquette.  How often should you spam share pictures with your followers? Once or twice a day? Once or twice an hour? (-;

You can leave comments or click a heart to like someone's pictures. With Twitter you can retweet, and with Facebook you can share, but there doesn't seem to me to be a way to share Instagram content  with  friends. Maybe I haven't figured that out, either.

My website promotes my calligraphy services. Twitter does, too, to a certain extent. I can show my work on the blog. I can also whine, review tools, software and services which hopefully will show more of me beyond calligraphy. I use Tumblr as an electronic portfolio. But I'm not sure how Instagram goes beyond the social media I already use.  The people I'm following and who are following me back already see my stuff on the other social media sites.

I'm also more of a computer person than an app person. Call me old(-fashioned). I'd prefer to edit my photos on the computer and upload them to a site. I can tweet, Facebook, and Tumblr all from the comfort of my computer keyboard. That doesn't seem possible with Instagram.

So, the jury's still out as to Instagram's value for me. Perhaps I just need more time to figure it out.

If you're on Instagram and need another follower, you can find me at cjkennedyink. And if you want to let me know what I'm missing, that would be great, too.

Coffee Table

Sunday morning and Himself and I sitting at the dining room table each on our laptops reading blogs, Facebook, and other items of interest.

Himself: Cool! Look at this coffee table!

I glance at his computer screen.

Me: Kid. No.

If you're interested, you can find other designs for inspiration and stencils so you can DIY: Batman Tables.

The Friday Five

Some thoughts on social media

1. Facebook:  With the privacy issues changing hourly, I probably shouldn't spend time on the site, but I like it. I've been able to connect with family and friends from far away. A lot of my calligraphy colleagues from around the world are here, too, and I get to keep up with tools, tips, and what people are working on.

2. Twitter: It's hard to make your broccoli stand out when everyone is talking about their broccoli. And I'm pretty sure no one really cares what I had for lunch or my whines about the weather. I've had "conversations" with a couple of others, but in order to keep up, I'd have to spend my entire day on Twitter. Mostly I tweet links to my blog.

3. LinkedIn: There's a discussion happening on Cyberscribes, a calligrapher and lettering artist group, as to whether or not there is any benefit to joining LinkedIn. I haven't gotten any work from the site, but have been endorsed for my skills. Jury's still out.

4. Pinterest: I liked the idea of vision boards, and I enthusiastically pinned colors, studio organizing, crafts, recipes, and a bunch of other stuff. Then I read the fine print in Pinterest's usage agreement. Basically it stated Cold Brew Labs the company behind Pinterest gets to use images that you post in any manner they wish among other things. No thank you, and I deleted my account.

5. Ancestry: This is where I've been researching my genealogy and building my family tree. I've "met" cousins, okay, they are fifth or seventh cousins a few times removed, but we still have a link to a common ancestor.

What do you think about social media?

Are You an Egg?

Then why do you use the default egghead shape as your profile photo on LinkedIn?

When I see the egg, I'm not inclined to make a connection. The egg tells me you don't really care about the site. A friend probably sent you an invite, and you felt obligated to bang something up. You may pop in from time to time, but you're not serious about networking through the site. That's ok. Maybe you should delete the account, but you may miss a valuable opportunity.

Stop being shy and bust out of your shell. Upload a picture of your smiling self to use as your profile photo. You don't have to use a head shot. How about a picture of you in your favorite chair or location? Or your favorite pair of shoes? Just put up a picture that identifies you as a real person and not an egg.

Tumblr

I can hear you. Your saying, "Isn't Tumblr another blogging platform?  Help me, Lord, she isn't starting another blog, is she?" Wait, wait, she is...I mean I am, but I need to use the site. Well, I don't really need it. It just goes along with something that's way cool though a little bit of hubris is involved. More on that tomorrow.

Do you use Tumblr?

I Know Nuthin' 'Bout Birthin' Apples

That was my silent, first reaction when I was asked to sub an adult class about blogging using Blogger. Wasn't the Blogger part that had me in a Prissy. (If you have no clue what I'm talking about watch Gone With the Wind to get yourself edumacated). Nope, I was worried about the classroom of Mac computers. Silly, really.

BC, before calligraphy and before children, I was a computer programmer. I began my career in the late 70s. Computers, no longer the size of a house and for government use, were the size of a full-sized Buick automobile and took up the space of a bedroom. These systems were known as mini-systems and were made by companies like Prime Computer, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), CDC (Control Data Corporation, where I earned my computer programming and operator certificate) and Basic 4, the computer system I mostly worked on. IBM was the industry standard. When Big Blue spoke we all listened. Microsoft and Apple were just the dreams of two young men.

Even though the boxes that housed the electronics were different outside, inside they all functioned the same way. The CPU (central processing unit), ALU (arithmetic logic unit),  Core memory (before memory circuit got cheap and small enough to be RAM (random access memory), boiled down to a bunch of circuit switches that were either 0 (off) or 1 (on). So I took a deep breath and relaxed. This would be the same way. It also helped the instructor answered some questions I had about booting the system, logging on, using the projector, and his lesson plan for the second class. No worries. I also had a back up plan as any self-respecting, computer programmer would have in this situation. I'd have the safety and security of a laptop.

I arrived at the computer classroom early just so I could familiarize myself with the machine. I put my stuff down on a table, approached the main terminal, and gave the mouse a wiggle. Nothing. No buttons or switches on the front of the terminal and there didn't seem to be a CPU tower. Nope, this was a sleek, elegant, minimalist all in one, monitor and CPU. No buttons, red, blue, or amber lights to indicate an On switch. Step one, check to see if the beast is plugged in. Yup, plugged into a power strip, and the power strip was on. I ran my hands around the edges: top, sides, button. Zip. I took a sip of water to swallow a moment of panic. It wasn't really not knowing how to turn on the machine, but the students wouldn't be able to follow the bouncing cursor on the projector. The projector worked by pushing the power button on a remote control. That worked just fine except for the glaring No RGB message projected on the wall.  Another crawl around the terminal. From the back I could see a small, almost invisible ring,on the lower right side. A stupid place for a power button, I thought. A push and voilá! The main terminal lit up and was projected on the wall.

I settled into my command chair, took a sip of water and read the instructor's syllabus. It was amusing when the students began to file in. First, there was that shocked look that they had entered the wrong classroom and then several of them told me they didn't know how to use a Mac. No worries, I told them. I didn't tell them I just learned how to turn the box on 20 minutes earlier.

Andy, maybe you can put a small sticker on the back of the terminal above the on/off switch. Label it PhD. Push here, dum...er...darling for us PC-uddites.

Have you done anything lately to step out of your comfort zone?

Caveat Pinner

 Recently, I enthusiastically extolled the virtues of Pinterest. Pinterest is a social media site where you create virtual bulletin boards and share them with followers. As you surf the web, you pin pictures of things you like to your bulletin board. You can also view your followers boards and pin their pictures to your bulletin. It's a happy, little time waster.
I created boards for color inspiration, ideas for gardening, collecting quotes, but over the past few days, I've read several articles about Pinterest's use and terms of service that have waved red flags. PCWorld and artist, Traci Bunker are two of the articles I read. The issue that sets off whistles is copyright.
Pinterest encourages users to pin images to bulletin boards. The image is snagged with the URL of its source to give credit. Sounds harmless enough until you look at the fine print.

By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.

You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services. Accordingly, you represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content

Bascially, users grant Cold Brew Labs, the company that owns Pinterest, exclusive right to the images posted to do with as they wish. And users are responsible for any copyright infringements, not Cold Brew Labs. Did a chill just run down your spine? It did mine.

Pinterest has offered a "fix" if you don't want your images to be pinned. Add this line of code to the header on your website:

<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin"/>

Users will see "This site doesn't allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!" The fix will  prevent most pinners from taking content, but won't prevent all as there are ways around the code.

For now, I've deleted my Pinterest account. If I want some gardening ideas, I'll do it the old-fashioned way and browse through copies of Better Homes Than Yours.

Pinterest

What is  Pinterest? It's another social networking site where you collect images onto virtual bulletin boards as your surf the web or browse Pinterest.  The image is tagged with the URL where it was found. Your boards can be about any subject: arts, crafts, cooking. People use the boards for inspiration, plan weddings, or collect recipes. You can also follow other Pinners. It's a happy, little, time waster. Lots to look at and lots to pin.

Have you discovered Pinterest?