Hobbies - Siri (Holm) Lawson/Warsailors.com

I received a fantastic Christmas gift a few years ago, a computerized sewing machine! (See link below). I have never been very interested in sewing; knitting has always been my "thing". But with a machine like this not even I can resist the urge to sew. All I need to do is push a button and the machine sews all kinds of beautiful embroidery designs, including lace, all by itself, while I cook supper or get a pile of ironing done. As a result I have discovered a creativity I never even knew I possessed. There's hardly a towel or pillow case etc. etc. in this house that does not have some sort of embroidery design or monogram on it, and many a friend in various parts of the world has received this type of home-made gifts.

If I don't feel like sewing I can go to my "junk closet" which is full of empty cardboard boxes and all kinds of junk that normal people throw in the trash. Once I'm through embellishing these items with wall paper scraps, fabric, paint, ribbons, buttons etc. nobody can guess what they started out as.

I must admit though, that since my son plonked his old computer down on my kitchen desk a few years ago (in the hope of making me "more technologically advanced" as he put it), and then convinced me to get a web page going, my sewing machine and junk closet have both been somewhat neglected. At some point in the course of this new computer career, "Photoshop" was installed on my computer (which, by the way has now been upgraded to a new big screen mac), and through playing with it on my own, and visiting some of the tutorials and misc. web design sites listed below, as well as reading the books that came with the program, I obtained some new skills that I wanted to incorporate into my website, hence its present look.

As a direct result of this I now have a new hobby, if it can be called that; "quest" might be a better word. The majority of my time is currently spent telling the story of the Norwegian Merchant Mariners of WW II, see my ship lists.

	Janome Online My sewing machine. Products, project ideas, discussion forum etc.	Elna U.S.A. Lots of sewing ideas
	Allfreesewing Free patterns.	Sewing.org Includes projects for kids.
	Craftsy.com A little bit of everything	Simplicity.com More projects
	Arts & Crafts for kids	More crafts for kids
And lots more - just Google it!

Photoshop & Adobe GoLive Tutorials:
	Adobe Photoshop Tutorials Adobe's own website, photoshop tips and tutorials, Adobe products, including Adobe GoLive which I use for this webpage. (The site also has various discussion forums that can be read without obtaining "membership").	Hands-On Training By DocOzone. For the more advanced I would say – download the entire thing and browse and learn off line. Also has a very informative forum where people leave their questions and get advice on Photoshop problems.
	Magic's Photoshop Tutorials Lots of projects, from scanning to Interfaces.	Planet Photoshop
	Jay Arraich's Photoshop tutorials I really like this one, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, you might learn something here.
I won't go on, as each of the above will lead you to others that will keep you busy learning for a long, long time!
*Backgrounds & Graphics:*
	Links to free Graphics Anne K. Sorknes has collected her favourite links to free backgrounds, and she has good taste. Plenty to choose from here, I've included 2 of them below:	Backgrounds by Marie Backgrounds for weddings, birthdays, children, all Holidays, Native American, animals and on it goes. The Classic Painter's Sets are absolutely gorgeous! Click on "Background sets" to see all the options.
	Eos Clip Art Beautiful seamless background patterns and textures for web pages, desktops and email. Highly recommended if you don't want to make your own. Also has buttons and bars, text graphics and borders.	Again, this is just a small example of what is available.
Fonts:
	Free PC Fonts Links to a variety of downloadable fonts.	MacFonts.com The premiere site for all your Mac font needs.
	Fonts & Things	The FreeSite.com Freebie Font Recources, a long list of links to websites with free fonts.
Flags:
	World Flag Database Includes historical flags and contains basic information on the country, including its formal name, capital city, area, population, currency, languages, and religions. The flags include the national and state flags, ensigns, and sub-national flags. Where countries have changed their flags in the last few years the old flag is also shown.
	Flags of Norway Includes historical flag, municipality flags, history etc. etc. From Flags of the World.	3D Animated Flags Features waving, transparent flags from all over the world. Choose small, medium or large. Includes information on each country.