subdued and reflective...

There was a great need and want of surrounding myself with multitudes of color while working on a brainless project, this weekend.  

Even using sock yarn for something other than socks.

Then today there was so very enjoyable time spent at the library picking out some books that caught a little readers eye.  Oh the excitement!

There was enormous amounts of reflecting on how our country is going down the wrong path and what would our Founding Fathers say and do if they were here today.  I have a feeling they would be kicking some serious butt right about now.  Don't believe me.  Try reading the Declaration of Independence, every word (don't skim through it), and realize that all the reasons given for breaking away from the tyranny of the King of Great Britain are coming around again but from our own so called "leaders".  I use that word very lightly.

Here is one line that really makes me wonder what is next for this country.  Remember it was written 234 years ago.

"He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of Pretended Legislation."

So with that said, a most wonderful book was chosen at the library about the Greatest American there ever was.  Em stated that she wants to know more about the man who vowed to lose everything dear to him in order to make sure that our new country was free of tyrants and dictators and so everyone living within its boundaries were a free people.  I'm so proud of her for wanting to know more about what made this person tick and what he sacrificed in order for her to have the free life she has; for now.

Things are changing, and not for the better.  

I wish those brave, courageous Founding Fathers were among us today.

If they were, we would not be dealing with an out of control government who clearly forgets what the Constitution is about and who they actually work for.

I must go for now.  I'm getting too worked up again.

God bless this country.  It needs all the help it can get right now. 

Days flying by...

Things are way busy around here again.  When is it not.  This week it is more than usual because of Em's tests and trying to get things done around here when we finally get home after lunch.  Luckily, tomorrow is the last day for tests this year, but I'm not sure things will settle down until the weekend.  Maybe.

After tests today, there were some green shirts to be worn while at the park to celebrate in some small way that it is St. Patrick's Day.  It is so wonderful to sit in the fresh air, warm sunshine and just sit and watch two little ones go screaming by while wearing their roller skates.

Then there were some more inspiring projects to look at while soaking up all the wonderfulness at the park.

Does anyone know how to add more time to the days so that I can get all of great projects done that keep being added to my "thing to create" list?  It is a bit of a pickle, isn't it.

On another note...

I better get moving to email the members of Congress from my state about all the "crap" that is going on in D.C. before I get out of my good mood and the emails turn out kind of "gripey".  Gotta try to persuade some common sense into these people and remind them about the real foundation that the Founding Fathers built this country on.  It is so freaking clear that the imbeciles in D.C. really have no clue that we are a free country and not a socialist one.  We are the ones in charge, not any one person or group.  Speak out everybody before there is an end to everything that was fought for when this country was created.  It's closer than you think.

Pondering...

I had to post something pretty to look at due to the fact that I haven't been in the best of moods the past few days.  Hence the reason that I haven't posted since the beginning of the week.

Here is what put me in a bad mood.

I get email updates from a certain business that prides themselves at selling old fashion looking things and cookbooks.  I've bought several things from them before and have been somewhat pleased.  After buying some of the handmade things a couple of times I've had the thought that I could have done a much better job than the hot glue job that was done on the product, for the price paid.  I couple of the items I even took apart and re-did them myself so it would look better.

Well, I got another update from this company about a new crochet book they had put together.  I was curious about what was in it because I had bought one other crochet book from them before and enjoyed it.  I could not see any pics about the book on their site and decided to go to the publishers site (Leisure Arts) to see if they had any pics to look at.  This is when my jaw just about hit the floor.

The second thumbnail pic is a pic of a granny square blanket that is like the blanket I had made for my niece.  I had to order the book just to see how the pattern was written and to see how similar it was.  The only difference is that there are 8 colors used in theirs and instead of starting a circular "bobble" in the square, a traditional start of a granny square was used.  It is very clear after reading the pattern in the book that a few small details were changed so that the pattern wasn't exactly the same.  And a few more squares were made.  But it has the same design concept as the one I did.  Now mind you, I never took credit for coming up with the pattern because I had seen a similar blanket on someone else's blog (in the UK I believe), whom I believe actually came up with the pattern.  I even changed how many colors were used, etc. just so it wouldn't be the same.  And I did not sell the pattern.  So all credit should be given to the Miss in the UK.  My mind really started turning after that because shortly after I had posted the original pics of my blanket, I received an email from a girl who WAS a follower, on if I was going to post the pattern on the blog.  I agreed that I would because I love sharing things with you all and the fact that I have a copyright statement on my blog which is protectable.  Shortly after I posted the pattern, this person deleted their blog and I have never heard from her again.  I started thinking about things (after the company's email) because of the fact that this "follower" was from Ohio and this company is from Ohio and wondered if there was a connection of some sort.  Who knows.  My mind can really run with a thought sometimes.

I'm just having a hard time with how someone can take another persons idea (basically), change a couple of miniscule things and then go and make money off of the idea.  I had the thought that I should write to them to tell them that it is not cool to take others idea and profit from them.  I also wonder since they didn't use the exact pattern that I posted on the blog was not used, that I just move on and don't post anything again such as patterns again.  This also makes me wonder if I should even continue on with the idea of writing up my own patterns and selling them because there might be someone out there that would "take" the idea as their own and profit.  I just could not do that.  I even emailed Lucy (Attic24) once and asked her permission to make a bag from her Crochet Bag pattern for another person who said that they would pay me for my time.  I only felt it right to ask permission first being the pattern was not mine.  Lucy said fine, and thanked me for asking permission first.  She was dealing with a gal at the time that was taking Lucy's patterns that she posted, making the items and then selling them on her (the gal) shop's website for a pretty good penny.  So not cool.

All I know at this point is I will not be buying anything else from this company ever again.

I'm going to go veg out for the weekend while doing laundry and submerge myself into my yarn and some new books I got.  One is about hand dyeing yarn and looks so darn cool!  I'm surely going to be giving that a try soon. 

I've got to get my mind off of all of this before I get really upset.

What would you guys do?