Round Up! and success!!

Thanks for sticking with me here, friends and strangers.
My life got hectic for awhile and they are slowly on their way back to normal when I realized I haven't blogged in forever! My life got hectic, and my sewing kept up! I've made drapes, aprons, clutches, bandanas, toys, and much more since my last post!
I hope I will soon have the smarts to start tutorials on here and share them with my sewing lovers! I made a couple fortune cookies today for the first time. It took me awhile to figure out how to fold them and everything, some look better than the others. ;)
I would really hope all my readers are keeping up with facebook and my flickr account (the links can be found on this blog). Those are the sites I keep up with the most! Blogging being a second place holder and twitter being next..... myspace being absolute last :\ I don't log on too much and I find when I do log on, I'm on a guest computer and don't have my pictures available to upload.
ALSO! Got some exciting news, check out etsy.com on July 2, 2010 to see my products featured in the pet showcase!! It will be my first time being featured in a showcase and I am very excited! Hopefully it will not be the last!
With the July 4th weekend coming up I wish you all a safe and fun holiday! I'll be BBQing but taking it easy though. No parties this year for me!! Enjoy yourselfs!
Love, Jessica of Stitches and Spools

PS: Let's hear it for the whale ban staying in tact!!!!! The week long meeting in Morocco is finally over and the whale ban hasn't been touched. For those of you who voiced your opinion to help the whales, thank you! I did it as well, but one person is nothing compared to millions. (I believe I talked about this in my last post). So obviously I don't feel personally responsible but I am glad that we could come together as conservationists and help keep this ban in tact.
Don't let anyone fool you. Japan claimed to want to lift the ban in efforts to "conserve" the whales. Here's the thing, Japan, Norway and Iceland are the three countries that continue to participate in whaling through-out the 24 year ban. It has been argued that lifting the ban will allow for stricter regulations for whaling. That does not seem to make sense to me. If Japan is concerned about the conservation of whales, why do they need someone to regulate it? If they are so concerned, can't they regulate it themselves? Hmmmm....
The New York Times reported that failure to lift the ban will "leave management of whale populations in the hands of hunters. A compromise plan...would have allowed the three countries to resume commercial whaling but at significantly lower levels and under tight monitoring."
Why does Japan, Norway and Iceland want this? They are big countries... they can monitor themselves. They are the three countries that continue to hunt for whales regardless of the world's opinion. Their whaling includes endangered whales by the way. I thought hunting endarged animals was a criminal offense?
What the eyes of the uninformed reader fail to see are scientific findings that whale populations are too low to continue commercial whaling. The lifting of the ban would simply give those three countries the legitimacy they desire in light of declining whale populations.
Since the ban has been in tact, whaling catches fell to well below ten thousand a year by 1985 from a high of 70,000 a year in the 1960's.
Without mentioning that little fact, several pro-whaling blinded reports mentioned that 33,000 whales have been killed since the ban took effect in 1986. Wow, 33,000 in 24 years?! That means an average of 1375 whaling captures a year!!!!! But no, no improvement at all since the ban. 1375 captured whales a year? Or 70,0000 captured whales a year? Hmmm....
A repealing on the ban would have led to a tremendous increase in whaling. Not a "controlled" or reduction in hunting. Norways "quotas" of whale hunters went from zero in 1990 to to nearly one thousand in 2010. Obviously they had no intention of using the repeal to "conserve."
Anyway, that was my final rant on the subject. It has been passed and it is reason to celebrate!!! If this happens to ever be brought up again you can count on me to be there to defend it. I just hope everyone who never thought of this topic before now has both sides of the story in mind if it is ever brought up again.