Monday, April 5, 2010

Mo 'bout Me Monday a.k.a SWATCH.com

I am often asked little things about what makes up Leah.  And after thinking about it, I realized that we have thrown ourselves into this little virtual world and wrapped ourselves into this web of friends without really knowing anything about each other- well except that we all like fabric!

So I thought I would take Mondays and make it a Mo 'bout ME day.  I tell you something about ME and then you tell me something about YOU!  It's like our own little Match.com for Fabric Friends!  Would that be SWATCH.COM? Hey- what a Great Name!!  SWATCH.COM it is!

I like the sound of birds in the morning,
cold wet puppy noses,
fabric with paisley..

All joking aside- who is Leah Marie?

Hmm. let's see.  I just had my 40th birthday- OUCH!  I don't feel forty, and it's best to just go ahead and say that I don't LOOK forty whether it's true or not!  I have never been married- no weird story to tell outside of the fact that I just never met Mr. Right.  I have a GREAT boyfriend now who expresses much enthusiasm for Burgundy Buttons and gloats often about my successes.

My children are both four legged furry ones, Cinnamon and Woozle- I'll let you guess who is who!

I have been quilting to some degree or another for about 12 years, but never took a formal class until about 2 years ago.  My mother, Janet a.k.a "Momma Albertsen", owned a quilt shop for years in Burlington, North Carolina and helped me get started.  (The Threaded Needle for anyone who may have known her).

I opened the virtual doors of BB on November 1rst, 2008- and my dear sweet Mom died unexpectedly 1 month later on December 1 at the age of 61.  I didn't quilt for over an entire year!  (that was something we had done together).  I kept BB going and continued to grow my business but never touched my sewing machine until about this past November...and when I finally did it was a bitter sweet feeling.

She still sews with me though!  I found her little "ribbit"/"rip-it" frog that graced the top of a quilter's machine any time he/she had to rip out their seams during one of my Mom's classes.  That little froggy has a permanent home on my own machine and it watches over me on her behalf.

On to a lighter note!

Outside of quilting, my favorite hobby is SCUBA DIVING! My favorite place to dive thus far has been Bonaire. (A little island off the coast of Venezuela) My dream dive would be in Belize or Fiji. I have dove with Sharks, albeit nurse sharks- who are really nothing but overgrown catfish.

I am an Advanced Open Water Diver with certifications in Peak Performance and Nitrox.  I would like to also be certified in Cave Diving, Wreck Diving and Underwater Photography.  Ambitious Goals!

Next to diving and quilting, I love photography and am especially fond of architectural photography. Give me a building and I will use an entire 4GB card! My camera of choice is my Nikon D90.

I use a mix of Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop to edit my photography.

I have never done any professional photography, but did get the opportunity  to snap some photos of a friend's children recently.  Of all the interesting photos, I have to say that this was my favorite...

This little gal would NOT smile until she had a face full of Cheetoes!  So you gotta work with what you have, right?

My name is Leah, it's nice to meet you!

16 comments:

  1. Nice to meet you, Leah! What a great idea to share a little about yourself and learn about your readers! I also have a Nikon D90 - don't you LOVE it? I loved the story about your mom. I also lost my mom suddenly at a young age, and quilting was something we shared, too. I did the quilting on a flimsy that she had left on the first anniversary of her passing - it was the first quilting-related work I had done after a hiatus of about 15 years. It was a very healing thing to do in her memory. http://pickledish.blogspot.com/2009/10/interwebs-quilt-festival-entry.html

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  2. How healing to have done that! I have quite a few unfinished projects of my Moms as well. I have not had the strength to take any of those on yet- KUDOS to you!

    And yes D90 ROCKS! I always see a huge difference in my photos taken with the d90 than with others- above- the D90 was used for the Me Scrabbles, the frog, the building and the baby. I used and older D50 for the pups- the rest were taken by other folks The D90 makes a photographer out of anyone!

    Nice to meet you!
    L

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  3. Nice to meet you Leah. I'm Monica, been married to Mark for almost 4 years, and we have a 10 month old. We just moved to Italy. I just started quilting less than a month before we moved so I'm brand new to it all. We have 2 Doxie's too! Ollie and Sadie. They're my oldest kids. And I love photography too, except I use a Canon XSi. My other passion is horseback riding, but I haven't done that in years, thanks to my husbands job in the military. I had to sell my horse 3 years ago because we couldn't afford to move him all over the country (and now out of the country). I'd love to get back into riding someday. Oh, and I'm 29. =)

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  4. I love it!!! Swatch.com!!! You might be onto a whole new business! I'm sorry about your mom. It hits harder than we can ever imagine, doesn't it? I am glad you are quilting again with her ripper. My loves are Jesus, my fam, friends, dog, home, yard, bicycling, golfing (though I totally suck at it... though... I got my first hole-in-one two summers ago), Disneyland, and fun. I am the lucky friend of two BFFS, both for many many years! Oh, and did I mention I loooooove books? I am a sub librarian in the elementary schools here, and my honest enthusiasm jumps onto those kids. New generations of readers abound! :) Anyhoo, I didn't even mention sewing or quilting or annual BFF trips to the coast or swimming... just so many things to be thankful for!!!! :)

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  5. I enjoyed reading about you....I was very touched about you and your mother and my heart goes out to you. I am glad you are back to sewing and happy about your business and scuba diving, we all find pleasure in our own ways.

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  6. Monica you made it to Italy! The sewing machine came through alright? How long to you guys have to wait until you have perm. quarters on base?

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  7. Nice to get to know you, Leah!

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  8. Leah, it's so great to learn more about you. I think it is wonderful that you are following in your Mom's footsteps. She must be very proud of all your accomplishments!!

    I'm new to quilting (which you know), but I am a lover of crafts. I have spent most of my craft time the last 10 years or so on paper crafting... cards and scrapbooks. I just love paper and design so much and quilting fits nicely with that.

    I also love photography and am looking forward to taking lots of pictures of my 4-year old niece in the coming months. Her mom is headed to the FBI academy for 10 weeks, so I'll be helping out a few weekends a month to give her daddy a much needed break. I am in the Canon camp. I am on my 2nd DSLR. I started with a Rebel and last Summer, I moved up to the 50D. It ROCKS.

    Your photo of the little girl is precious... really great composition!

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  9. Thank you! (we learned from the same master!) Although- I am loving the composition of the building more. Whitney would not be a proud instructor as the focus of the gal photo is on the cheetos crumbs rather than her eyes- I was lucky to get what I got!

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  10. Great post, Leah! I hope you don't mind, but I quoted a bit of it (with a link back here, of course) as an intro to my very own "mo 'bout me" post: thriftyquilter.blogspot.com

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  11. Leah,

    It's nice to get to know you a little bit! You're beautiful and talented and I love your photograph of the house and I am scuba certified too! I've only done it a few times though - Grand Cayman is the highlight of my dive locations.

    I was just looking at BB. It's a wonderful site. I'm excited to see that Mod Medallions has only two in stock. Let me know if I can do anything else for BB.

    Amber
    Gigi's Thimble

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  12. Your babies are so very cute. So glad Stefanie found you and your great fabrics.

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