Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday Miscellaneous, and a Question

The Garage Sale:

The garage sale was more successful than I'd imagined. I had visions of sitting bored out of my mind, and ending up with darn near as much stuff as we started with. Boy was I surprised! On Friday morning, people started arriving before our advertised start time. That was okay because we had done most of the organizing beforehand. We had customers all day long. By the end of the day, we'd sold the majority of what we'd had. Ironically, on Saturday we had a only a handful of people by noon, and had done less that fifteen dollars worth of business. So, we picked up our signs and closed up shop. We'll donate the remainder of the items to a local church that does a lot of good work in the community.

We met some interesting characters during the sale.  Pahrump, Nevada is probably about as close to the wild west as you can get and still live within 75 miles of civilization.  Case in point, Pahrump is home to Ray the Flagman.  Ray is a 2nd Amendment activist.  Many days you can see him standing on Pahrump's main street, wearing his 6 shooter on his hip, holding the American flag, and handing out copies of the 2nd Amendment to anyone who passes his way.  I kid you not.  No, Ray didn't come to the garage sale, but that's okay because we've talked to Ray a few times since we've lived here--but not about the 2nd Amendment.  Ray will talk about the weather too.  One of the last times we saw him was standing at the pharmacy counter at Wal-mart.  And yes, he had his gun on his hip.  You see, there's no law against it here, although you cannot bring your gun into the casinos.  (Casinos hold the real power here in Nevada.)

(Since I know some of you will think I'm exaggerating, check out this blog.  Yep, Ray the Flagman is mentioned in it along with some of Pahrump's other characters.)

But I digress.  I used Ray just so you could get the "flavor" of Pahrump.  We met some chatty people just about as unique as Ray, however they were not quite as focused on a cause as he is.  Interestingly enough, the chattiest people proved to be men.  I got the whole behind the scenes good ol' boy political history from one guy.  It was so detailed with so many factions of whom I wasn't aware, after the first 10 minutes I was lost. That was okay, because he found a customer who was more well-informed than me, and the two of them talked for another twenty minutes. I did get the picture that these good ol' boy politics in Pahrump are pretty darn ruthless though.

Charley:


Given all the strange people in the garage, Charley felt the vulture perch was the best place to be during the garage sale hullabaloo.

The Question:

Seems odd that when I started this blog, I couldn't conceive a situation in which I might no longer be quilting in the desert.  What's that old John Lennon quote?  "Life's what's happening when you're making plans."  There's another quote that the internet source attributed to Jewish wisdom that goes something like this:  "We make plans and God laughs."  No matter.  The point is I named my blog The Desert Quilter back in February and less than a year later, I'm moving.  Need to change the blog name to something like The Prairie Quilter or The Midwest Quilter.  Anyway, herein lies the problem.  What is the best way to do that?

Here are the options that I've come up with:
1.  Leave the URL the same, and just change the header.  I think that might be a bit confusing though.  The upside is that I wouldn't lose any parts of my blog, or my followers.
2.  Supposedly blogger allows an option to set up a new blog and import an old blog.  This sounds like it has possibilities, but how does it work?  How well does it work?  And I think there's a good chance it won't import my followers.
3.  I don't really have a number three, but I hope maybe some of you will.  I'm open to all manner of knowledge, suggestions, and opinions.  In short:  HELP!

A Beg and a Giveaway:

Suzanne, the Colorado Lady, is needing small pieces of scraps for a quilt she is making.  She is using 2" squares to make a quilt, and if I understand correctly, it's necessary for each square to be from different fabric.  (Not sure if that's 2" finished or unfinished.)  Hence the small scraps.  Let me be clear, she's asking for scraps and will cut the squares herself.  Oh, and the quilt is going to be king-sized.

Anyone who sends some scraps is entered in the giveaway.  I've got 60 in an envelope that will go out in today's mail.  While the giveaway is generous, I must admit, I'm really just curious to see this quilt completed.

14 comments:

  1. Congrats on the garage sale! Glad it was a success.

    About the blog, I say go with option 1. Oh, and I like The Prairie Quilter. That is a cute name.

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  2. I would just change the title of the blog and leave the address the same.

    Congrats on your sale!

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  3. Sounds like the garage sale was a success. Well done. Poor Cahrley though - all those random people in his space.No wonder the kitchen looked appealing.

    I changed the name of my blog and just kept the same url. It doesnt seem to have created any problems.It sounds a lot easier than exporting/importing.

    I think you should be Michelle of the Prairie or something Prairie.

    Are we counting days to the move yet?

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  4. SO good that you did well with the garage sale, and sounds like you had an interesting time. Laughed at the Charley's vulture perch comment. I'm sure my fur babies would do that if they could.

    I would change the title of your blog and not worry about the URL. The Prairie Quilter or Michelle of the Prairie sound good to me.

    I had to google the 2nd amendment, yep, had an idea it had something to do with carrying arms, but had to check.

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  5. where do we send the scraps too?
    I have a pile put in a safe place, I'd like those to move on, find a better home.
    Take care, Leslie

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  6. I sure wouldn't try to import my blog into a new one - sounds like a recipe for disaster to me! I agree with everyone else that says just to change the title of your blog. I see lots of blogs with different URLs than their title. Wish I had thought of that when I set mine up!! Or just leave it the way it is - everyone knows you by that! You could just put a secondary line in your blog title - like "adventures of a desert girl out on the prairie!"

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  7. Yeah just change the title Michelle, but don't make it geographically pertinent or you may be moving again in short order!

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  8. I agree, choice number 1 seems best. I'm so glad you did well on your garage sale. Makes all the prep work worthwhile when you have a good turnout. I'm sure I can send some scraps along to Colorado Lady. Thanks for blogging about it, since I'm so behind on my blog reading I will probably never catch up!

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  9. I'm happy the garage sale went so well for you, and I bet you are happy it's over.
    I wouldn't have dared to import my blog to a new one... sounds scary to me, but then I'm not very good at such things either... I had gone for option one...
    Poor Charley, so many people invading his territory! :)

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  10. I'm for choice #1 and just changing your blog header. It seems the easiest. :o) Glad your sale went well. I would've loved to have rummaged through your stuff! :o) Best of luck with the move...Yikes! Two weeks will be here before you know it. :o) (((HUGS)))

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  11. Rene Creates and Anne of Film and Thread both did it, from S&T, and I know they redirected their readers to a new site. Ask them and I am sure they would help you.

    Pahrump is an interesting town for sure.

    Good luck on the move! I remember the move from ME. At least you have movers helping you!

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  12. That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

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  13. Glad you did well with your yard sale. We had one several years ago. Lots of people but they didn't buy much.
    I think I would just change your header name. It all sounds complicated to me.

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  14. I follow other blogs that have one address, and a totally different name. Why not just do that? I like your quote of God laughing at our plans, I just say He has a sense of humor. But, I'll be a follower under any name, dear :-}pokey
    Oh, your garage sale sounds like you had fun visitin' the townfolk, that's always a nice thing. Loved the picture of the kitty, too *vbs*

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Your comments brighten my day. :-)