A Fool of Myself » link-lovin

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sarahjoaustin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:08:58 +0000

Last night, I went an excellent meetup with the Springfield Bloggers Association. I don’t know exactly what compels me to love bloggers so much, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s because they’re like me. Quirky introverts who like playing with language and expressing ourselves, even if no one listens, er, reads. I don’t care that all we do at our “meetings” is introduce ourselves, put names to faces, and tell a few stories.

So these are the awesome faces who were there last night. Thought I’d share some link love:

Carie Benton, Our Crooked Tree
Chad Harris, Fair City News
Harry Styron, Ozarks Law & Economy
Nigel Holderby, Tome Curator
Uli Gulje, Half Past Awesome
Sarah Austin, A Fool of Myself

Have a good night!

5 Refashioned Sweater Articles to Inspire Your Own Cute Cardigans

sarahjoaustin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:03:24 +0000

It is a cardigan day in the Ozarks! Spring is in the air, but it’s the dreary, is-it-gonna-rain cloudy day that leaves most of us wanting to crawl back into bed. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from my “Refashioning Old, Misfit Sweaters Into Cute, Crocheted Cardigans” post last week, and today I’m going to follow up with some resources I found helpful in this little adventure. I hope they’ll be so helpful, you’ll get crazy with some of your old sweaters, too! (And of course, share some pics of them! Hmm, if enough of you share pics, I might just link to you!)

Refashioning Sweaters via PatternReview.com. This gal (also a Sarah) shares a few of her sweaters and how she improved them with some crochet, edging, and buttons.
Refashioned Sweater into Cardigan via EricaMakesStuff. Another example of how a basic cable-knit sweater can be turned into a cardigan. For this one, Erica uses fabric to add a collar.
Easy Peasy Sweater Recon via One Pearl Button. I love this one because not only does Alli refashion her basic sweater into a cardigan, she also covers up soy sauce stains with fun embellishments.
Sweater Refashions via Pins and Needles. These sweaters are a bit more fabric and a little less sweater when Summerset is finished with them, but they still offer lots of inspiration.
Refashioned Cardigan Sweater via Lulu Bliss. A sweater from a thrift store that was a tad too small turned into something fabulous.

A few people have wondered where I developed my crochet and sewing skills, and since I’m a country girl at heart, I must confess that I learned to crochet (definitely) and sew (a little) through 4-H. (Actually, most of my sewing skills came from my mom and Aunt Kathy.) If you’re looking for some beginner resources, I recommend the 4-H pages on the University of Missouri Extension web site.

As I said before, if you decide to venture into sweater refashioning, please post some pictures on your blog and leave a link in the comments. I’d love to share your work with others!

Link Lovin’ | March 24, 2009

sarahjoaustin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:00:36 +0000

Nothing of substance tonight. Wrapped up the top-secret Twitter post/series with Linden. We’ll have that up next week. Spent an hour on the phone with my mom. Napped. Watched Dancing with the Stars. That said, thought I would share some articles I’ve loved from the last month or so.

Pay Attention. A challenge for stay-at-home moms to keep tabs on how much time they spend online and spend time with their kiddos.
Unemployment Project of the Week: Create a Portrait of Your Bookshelf. So I’m not unemployed, but I love the crafty/designy ideas from the gals at Stickers and Donuts.
25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb. A ton of great reminders regarding your personal finances.
5 Things To Do When You’re Unemployed: Hint It’s Not Job Hunting. Again, still not unemployed, but a useful article from Brazen Careerist.

If you’re a blogger or tweeter, be sure to check out my @bloggers_guide and @tweeples_guide accounts on Twitter. I’ve been “feeding” my recommended blogging and Twitter reading to those accounts. Have a great one!

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | Week of December 19, 2008

sarahjoaustin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:43:34 +0000

Today is Day 19 of NaBloPoMo, and I haven’t missed a beat. I gotta say, I’m getting a newfound energy regarding my blogging, and I have plans for the first of the year over on BloggersGuide.net. Anyway, here is my set of recommended reading for your weekend:

NPR Mix Your Own Podcast. This is for the NPR addicts out there. I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks promising. You can mix your own podcast of your favorite NPR news and shows.
Marathoning Will Still Be “Trendy” in 2009. Thanks to lifestudent, I now know that my attempt at a marathon in 2009 will be in vogue. And you all know me, I’m the trendiest person you know .
Why I (Still) Blog. I’ve really enjoyed Brazen Careerist’s “Why I Blog” contest this week, and here’s a notable entry. Maybe I should write a post of my own…
Hot Holiday Hair–See What Your Hair Can Do. That’s right, I favorited a how-to-do-your-hair video. But it was really useful to me–the girl whose default hairdo is a ponytail.
CSI: Springfield. I’m so glad Jason of the Life of Jason persuasion got to check out the new crime lab in Springfield this week. And I’m glad he shared his pictures!

That’s your reading assignment. I hope you’ll find these links as fun as I did. Have a great weekend!

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | December 12, 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:51:30 +0000

My brain has officially detached from the rest of my body. I am sick and have been all week long. I finally took some DayQuil and now everything is really, really fuzzy. On the up side, I haven’t missed a NaBloPoMo day yet! Thankfully, I’ve had the foresight to plan my posts ahead of time, and I’ve had a little bit of energy to write. I’ve even had a bit of energy to read, and here’s what I recommend for you to read this weekend:

101 Most Essential iPhone Apps of 2008. I don’t have an iPhone yet, but Chris got one for Christmas and his birthday, which is in January. He lets me play with it, though, so I enjoyed looking through this article for new apps Chris should add to his phone. (And to mine, when Walmart starts selling them for $99.)
Frayed Laces BQs in Las Vegas. For you non-runners, BQ stands for Boston Qualifies (that is, qualifies for the Boston Marathon), and Frayed Laces gives her account of her race last weekend. I made me cry, I was so happy for her. Congrats, FL!
Sexting Expert: Teens Should Not Have Cameras on Cell Phones. I think we knew this already, but this article explains the temptation/peer pressure teens face to take naked pictures of themselves and send them to their friends. That’s it, when I have children, I’m keeping them in a barrel, just like Mark Twain suggested: “When a child turns 12 you should put him in a barrel, nail the lid down and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug the hole!”

OK, that’s all the sharing I have the energy for today. Ravi is taking care of me here on the couch. Happy reading!

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | December 5, 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:21:37 +0000

Wow! It’s been almost three months since I’ve shared links with you! Not that I haven’t had anything to share, but this fall I did clean out my feed reader, eliminating 75% of the blogs I hardly read. I still have things to share, but not nearly the number I had before. Here’s what you need to check out this weekend:

The Newborn Ultimatum. My blogger friend lifestudent shared this article about how having a newborn around makes you a better man (or woman). There’s a lot we can learn from them!
10 Jobs That Make You Realize Your Job Isn’t That Bad. Chris and I now have a long standing joke that when we complain about our jobs, we say, “Could be worse. You could be a chicken sexer.”
Who’s Laughing Now? Did you hear about the runner who was attacked this fall by a rabid fox? Turns out, Michael Scott was right about his Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For The Cure.

OK, that’s the most relevant and recent list of important reading for you this week. As always you can see all my Google Reader Shared Items on my shared items page.

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | September 12, 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:39:48 +0000

Phew! My life has been veritably insane the last few weeks, but I finally have time today to share some incredible material that’s on the Web. Well, I like it, at least. Here we go:

Baldness Pattern: A New Cold War Analysis I almost wrecked my car this week listening to this story on NPR’s Morning Edition. While it’s fascinating that there’s a pattern of baldness among Russian’s leaders, the silly song at the end really made me laugh!
Introversion and Leadership Yes, another article about introversion, but ever since I’ve accepted that quality about myself, I love reading about it. And now there’s news that many great leaders were introverts!
Video: A Renewed Mind is the Key to Bad Dancing Thank you, Betsy, for sharing this. I’ve spoken with the leaders at LifePoint, and we’ll be adding this as a new ministry next spring. We’re holding open-call auditions for bad break dancers.
And We Wonder Why We’re Hated No kidding! This is by far the worst church sign I’ve ever seen! And for the record, I prefer to sing, “I kissed a squirrel…”

And that does it for the week! I hope you’re enjoying the Olympics as much as I am! That should be sufficient for this weekend. Be sure to check out my other Google Reader Shared Items and Delicious pages.

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | 15 August 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:00:02 +0000

Wow! It’s been a busy week! The Olympics have totally consumed my evenings and my RSS reader, so this week’s link lovin’ will all be related to those fantastic games. Here we go:

18 Smaller Countries to Cheer For In the US, we’re pretty fortunate to have so many athletes in so many events to check out, but who’s cheering for the little guys–for the countries who only have one or two athletes that qualify for the Olympics? I say, we adopt them and cheer for them, too. Many of the athletes listed will be participating in the track and field events next week, so you haven’t missed them.
For Opening Ceremony, Beijing Told Rain to Go Away Who knew that the picture-perfect weather on opening ceremony night was also part of the orchestration? Yep. Seems that it’s the rainy season in Beijing right now, so they (I’m not sure who exactly was in charge) made it rain outside Beijing where it wouldn’t ruin the Olympic events.
Speedo’s LZR Racer Breaks Records If you’ve watched swimming at all, you’ve seen these new suits that, quite frankly, make it hard to tell the guys and the girls apart. And you’ve probably noticed that there’ve been a lot of world records broken in the last week. Yeah, these suits have a lot to do with those new records, but you should also know that the Olympic pool is 3 meters deep. Regulation pools have to be at least 2 meters deep, and this deeper pool is reducing the ripples/wakes that usually bounce off the bottom of the pool and interfere with the swimmers above.
Champion Nicole Cooke’s Training Secrets This British chippy is a cycling champion who started out biking to school every day. Gotta love that!
Blue Screen of Death Appears at Olympics This is just one more reason to buy a Mac, and quite frankly, I’m surprise the production people weren’t using them in the first place. Anyway, if you were watching the opening ceremonies on TV, you missed it, but yeah, a PC crashed and it was projected all over the bird’s nest.

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | 8 August 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:20:24 +0000

OK. I finally put blogging on my to-do list, so in theory, I should be blogging a bit more. It’s too hot to go outside, so you should do some reading this weekend. Here we go:

Brazen Careerist. If you’re a twentysomething, you should definitely be reading this blog. I won’t say that I’m addicted to it, but I take the time to read most of the posts that come through. Here’s a handful of the posts I like:
- My Secret to Feeling Like a Million Bucks
- Working From Home Makes Me, Like, 85 Years Old
- Girls’ Guide to Making Your Weekend Wardrobe Work for the Weekday 9 to 5
- Get More Done by Working Less
- I’m Addicted to Books but Buying Them All Isn’t an Option
Story Behind Bluetree’s “God of This City My gal pal Heather turned me on to this song, which was picked up by Chris Tomlin. While I’m not the biggest Chris Tomlin fan, I love this song, and it means so much more once you know the story behind it.
Risking Life and Limb, Riding a Bike to Work in L.A. This is scary stuff. And I thought I was irrational for not wanting to ride my bike around Nixa!
Triathlon & Marathon News. As many of you know, I have a sprint triathlon coming up, so triathlons are my radar. And I’m hoping to do a marathon in December!

That should be sufficient for this weekend. Be sure to check out my other Google Reader Shared Items and Delicious pages.

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | 18 July 2008

sarahjoaustin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:10 +0000

You’d think having a new laptop would increase my productivity, but no, that hasn’t happened. In fact, I think I’m even lazier than before. Who knew that was possible? Anyway, I haven’t shared with you all what I’ve been reading (laziness has increased in that department, too), and here’s some material to get you up to speed:

DIY Moleskine Wallet Hack. Remember how much I love the Moleskine? If I was a guy, I’d totally do this for a wallet.
‘Gang Hangers’ on a Bike. I love my friend G’s stories from the suburbs. This one is pretty comical!
Add Blogging to Your Resume. Yes, you should blog. For one, it makes you a better writer. And you’ll be cool.
Comparing Christianity to Braveheart. Oh, yeah, it doesn’t make sense. But Christians do it anyway. Sometimes we can be idiots.

That should be sufficient for this weekend. I like to keep the summer reading light. Be sure to check out my other Google Reader Shared Items and Delicious pages.