Free Apps, Lovely Vlog and My, What a Long Beak You Have!

Thanks for the comments on the new header. Someone said "you are the chick, Jocelyn." No she looks like a spring chick and believe me, I am no spring chicken! Was I ever a chick? No don't think so...I was always told I was born old. My mother has also told me I was a walking health book from the time I started taking Health as a subject in school. When smoking was the rage, she said there was no way they would have gotten away with smoking, not with me in the house.
But little chick is round on the bottom which is a little like me.

Two free apps I'm enjoying and thought I would share with you.
This one is  Cryptic Crossword which is one of Hubby's pastimes and now he's gotten me into them.

 They always seemed very cryptic to me till I actually really tried to work out one and realized I could. But they are more of a brain exercise than crosswords as you have to think of a number of different ways of solving a clue. Here is an example. Sadly, Blogger is blurring the photo but 12 across is the clue "Father's attempt to get pie-crust"  and the answer is "pastry"  as in pa's try.

On second thought, perhaps you have to be nerds like us to like this. :)
And this one which I tested out already called PlantSnap Plant Identification.

I tested it on this little clump of flowers in the backyard.

It immediately provided me with two names for it, one being the Blood Iris.  I was impressed.  This app will be put to good use around the property.  I will be trying it out on trees because we have a lot here I would like to put a name to.
Are you using any apps that the rest of us would enjoy?  With over 2 million available, there have to be more that I could use. Please let me know.  All topics welcome.

Also the world of vlogs keeps on growing.
 I happened upon Rachel and her Youtube vlog called Sew Ray Me. She has been uploading a video every day for the month of June; there is a calming quality to her productions as she shares her daily routine, meals and very talented sewing. Her love of domesticity and contentment with the simple things in her life are absolutely lovely to watch.

Hubby surprised me with this little gift one day. He bought it because the tag said it was an oriole feeder and he knew I've been wanting one. But so far, only hummingbirds have used it and quite frequently so it is a hit with them.  I know nothing about these tiny birds. Can someone identify this one?
They may be tiny but they must win the prize for the longest beaks!

 I've looked at this wall so much and wondered what am I doing??? The good, no great thing is this used up a lot of scraps so a success from that point of view.  So charging onward...I've decided to make a few more blocks of the nine little squares each to even out the rows and I've also picked a kind of neutral grey tone on tone material for the sashing.

That's this one, part of the Uptown Duets by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics. It's pretty with a sort of brownish grey shade if that makes sense.
                              
And Loyal Companion, Miss Murphy, under foot literally in the sewing room. Now I know why I find threads all over the house.  And it's a wonder I haven't killed myself tripping over her!

It would not be Thursday without linking to some blogs that celebrate thankfulness/positivity in our days. Namely Not Afraid of Color, It's A Small Town Life, and Brian's Home Blog. Also linking with Sew Fresh Quilts, Esther's Quilt Blog, Paying Ready Attention, My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts and The Needle and Thread Network.