Let me show you a very helpful cat: 

What I wanted to do is try and see how that piece of cloth folds up into something that might be used as headwear.

What I ended up doing for a bit was petting the cat, who instantly appeared when I put the fabric on the floor, sat down and started to groom herself. Because that's what you do. Right?

(I did get to try out stuff a while later, when she decided that there's other places more worthy of her being there...)

And with this, I wish you a nice weekend and (if you have it) a nice bank holiday on Monday!  

Things I did today? Had coffee. (Obviously.) Got blood drawn for a check-up of hormone levels (we will see if there's some adjustment needed, or if things have become stable inside the "good values" area). Served the cat more food. Sorted through the things I used at the demonstration last Sunday, to tidy them up and make life easier when the next demo starts.

Looked through some books for research purposes. Had lunch and more coffee. Repaired my phone (the bottom module was broken, so it was only charging very, very, veeeeeery slowly). Found out I also have to replace the SD-Card (it has digested some pictures, it's not supposed to do that). 

Admired the first flower of my passionfruit plant:

I doubt that there will be actual fruit coming from this, as it's the only one for now - there's a second bud on the plant, but it is still closed.

Then there was some organisatorial stuff for the next European Textile Forum. Since our long-time trusty catering company does not exist anymore, gettting the group fed has turned out to be a little tricky, so I'm still looking for a good successor to Frau Schröder (who was fonder of canned pineapple than I am, but that was never a real problem). There was also some work done on the CfP (which is due out soon, very soon).  

And now? Some emails to take care of - and then we're having a public holiday on Monday, it being Pentecost, so I'm already looking forward to a long weekend...

Tick season is here again - at least in our area it has started, the cat brought the first illegal passenger back home weeks ago.

In case you're in an area with ticks, check if your vaccination is still valid... and in case you're in Germany and in a region with ticks, you might want to check out the project by the RKI Germany, which is collecting ticks for a survey about species (including new ones settling in here) and the pathogens they might carry.

You find more information on the site about the Zeckenatlas Deutschland, including info on how to send in the little bastards. 

It's a holiday today, so you get this picture of a sleepy cat: 

Advertisement is an art unto itself - you want to be visible, and you want people to hear about your things, but you don't want to get on their nerves too much. (At least I don't, as I feel annoyed sometimes by too much explanations of how good something is... and I don't want to be that seller.)

Ads can be an art themselves, too, and especially older ads are quite interesting to look at. They do reflect the time they were made in, and sometimes they look weird and funny to our eyes, with different backgrounds and different lifestyles. And, in some cases, a bit more knowledge about what might be a good idea and what might not be one. (Radioactive potions, anyone?)

In case you, like me, enjoy looking at old ads once in a while, the Internet Archive has you covered. Here's their selection of advertising art from magazines. Enjoy! 

Even though this was a sort-of-shortened week, I'm feeling more than ready for the weekend... which will include some work as well, as there's some membrane thread work scheduled to happen. 

Before I go to have a coffee and a little break, though, here's a few more pictures for you, from the recent trip to Lisboa (more or less):

Today was a day where I tried to finally take care of a stack of small tasks, some of which had already been on the to-do-list for a good while, and some that had just come up quite recently. It feels nice, somehow, to do those maintenance tasks! Some of it was writing mails, some was sorting through files, some was trying to figure out new software. There's been a change in my newsletter thingie not-so-recently, and I was looking to acquaint myself with some of the features of the new version, but when it was time to send the last few newsletters... well, I didn't get around to do it. Today, I finally managed to sit down with it and we had some quality time, so to say. 

Now I think I might test it with the current newsletter - and if it works well, I will switch over to the new version. Hopefully it will! 

Apart from all this, there's also been some conference preparation and pre-packing prep today. I'll be off to a EuroWeb workshop on Tuesday, where I will be meeting a number of my lovely colleagues for discussions about making, wearing, and displaying textiles and the body. I will also try very hard to stay within the 15 minutes timeslot for my presentation - talking (shortly) about subtle movements in crafts, especially in relation to teaching things. It's a fascinating topic for this meeting, and I am so much looking forward to it.

My going there, however, means that you'll be treated, again, to a few days of blog silence while I am off. Starting on Monday, as that is a public holiday - I'll be back on the blog on Wednesday, May 10. I hope you'll be able to enjoy a few lovely spring days until then, too!