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12/31/09

Good Bye 2009


Typically this is the day most people reflect on the past year.

The good, the bad & the ugly that happened in the past 365 days.

Then make resolutions to do more or do better for the new year.

I thought about doing that.

For about a minute.

Quite honestly, the past year hasn't been all that exciting & not a whole lot has happened.

I was (and still am) unemployed, the girls all turned a year older, (I however, did not. Shut up! I did not turn a year older!!!) and Sean worked his butt off just to keep our heads above water.



What did happen?

We moved out of our cramped 2 bedroom apartment to a house. With a POOL!! Savvy made varsity cheer (not all that unexpected), Dare got new glasses & Roo began an earnest interest in photography, deciding that it just might be the career path she wants to take.

I finally saved up enough money (it took about a year!) to buy the DSLR I'd been coveting, and Sean got a van to use for a taxi.

And of course, I'm thankful we have our health, each other, and family.

As for resolutions ~ well, I've never made one & don't plan on starting now.

I have decided to make more of an effort to eat healthier & loose weight.

And take at least one photo every day.


So, a Happy New Year to all of you & I hope we all have one that is better than the past year.

Remember to celebrate life to it's fullest, but don't forget that waking up with a hangover can be a bitch!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

12/24/09

This is as close to snow as I ever want to get

Look at what I woke up to this morning.....

Frost all over the back yard! I had to throw on a tee-shirt, a long sleeve shirt plus a sweat shirt!! I haven't put on that many clothes in ages!!

Usually, to get a more interesting angle on the shot, I would lay on the ground on my stomach, but there was no way I was going to do that this morning!

I took these about 8:00 this morning. My sidebar weather reporter said it was 38 degrees! I'm so happy that's our low & not our high!!


This is an Arizona white Christmas & I'm so very much okay with that!!

12/22/09

What do you give someone for Christmas when you have no money??

Well, in my case I give the gift of my {limited} talent. I have compiled a {so far} small collection of some of my older photographs to offer up as free desktop wall papers for you!

I am in now way a professional photographer. In fact half my "good" photos happen by accident! But I do have some favorites that make cool wall papers.

This is one of my most favorites! See, I have it on my desktop right now...

So, without further ado, here are the wall papers for your enjoyment ~


{They're not really insane. That just goes with my Blog title!}

12/18/09

Orgami Ornaments


The other day, my sister in law, Shannon, asked me how I made a particular ornament I gave to each of her family members.

Eleven years ago!

She wanted to use some old greeting cards to make new ones.

First, I had to remember what the ornament even looked like! Then I had to figure out where I found the pattern/instructions.

After Shannon described it to me, it all clicked & I remembered them {I even have some I made for my girls!}. Now I just had to remember how the heck to make them & if I even still had the instructions!

I dug through my stacks of binders full of projects I've collected from magazines & from the internet, but with no luck in finding the ornament instructions.

So, I bit the bullet & carefully took apart one that I had so I could figure out how to put it back together! Thankfully it was much easier than I thought. So, here's what I figured I'd do, I will post, right here on this crappy little ol' Blog of mine, how to make these ornaments so if you so desire to make them as well, you can.

What you will need:

*3 pieces of stiff paper ~ card stock, old greeting cards or origami paper
*ruler & scissors
*ribbon
*beads

1. Cut each piece of paper into squares. I cut mine into 6"X6" squares.


2. Fold square into a triangle by bringing the lower corner to the upper corner. If using a printed paper or greeting card, make sure print is on the outside.


3. Fold triangle in half to form a smaller triangle. Crease, then open so you now have the large triangle with a crease in the center.


4. Now you're going to make into a square again. Take a corner from the bottom of the triangle & fold up along the center crease. Do this to both sides of the triangle forming the square.


5. Repeat steps 2-5 with the other 2 pieces of paper.


6. Now to assemble. Take two of the folded papers and slide them together by sliding the two small triangles between the folded paper at the top of the large triangle. This means that the two smaller triangles will slide under the triangle point in the main body of the paper.


7. Add the third piece of paper by repeating the process. You will need to close the box by sliding the small triangles under the third paper. Crease the paper whenever needed as you make the paper fit together.


8. Leave a small opening to add a hanger. To make a hanger, thread some beads into a ribbon or braided rope long enough to fit the length of the ornament plus additional to make a loop & hang below an inch or so.


9. Thread ribbon through opening, then carefully slide all 3 pieces of paper together to close, leaving the loop hanging out the top & a tail at the bottom.

And there you have a unique handmade origami ornament!

12/15/09

Hey, Miss! Can you spare a dollar?

It really bugs me when people, either male or female, hound other people in parking lots for money.

And it really bugs me when there are 2 or 3 of them 'working the lot'.

This morning I came across one in the parking lot of the 99 cent store. It was quite a funny encounter.

I spotted this guy & his buddy when I was parking, bugging shoppers for a buck.

So when he {literally} ran over to my car when I got done shopping, I was prepared.

He never even said what he wanted the dollar for. Just that he had a car.

Yeah, me too. Do I get a buck for that??

Me: Yeah. You & the other 2 or 3 guys asking for a dollar.

Him: No. Really. I do have a car. It's over there.

Me: Sure. You could point to any car in the lot & say it's yours. I wouldn't know.

Him: Want me to prove it to you? Here are my keys. I'll go start it up.

By now I can tell he's getting agitated.

Me: Don't bother. I don't carry cash. {Okay. I did have a dollar but he sure wasn't getting it!}

Him: Sure. Yeah. You don't have any cash. Whatever.

He begins to walk away then turns and starts to say something like you don't have cash, yeah, more like you don't have class.

I guess because I didn't just hand over money to him & his co-beggar?

He stomps off towards the 99 cent store in a tissy fit {so much like a toddler!} and I yell to him:

Hey! You have a nice Holiday!

He turned, started stuttering something incomprehensible & then as I get into the van I yelled

Have a great day, too!

I think I really pissed him off!

12/11/09

Go Elf Yourself!

Remember those emails from a couple years back where your friends put their faces on dancing elf bodies & sent them to you with a Holiday greeting?

Well, one of Jan's co-workers was playing around and was Elfing employees, then Jan Elfed some people, so I decided to Elf the kids.

Take a look. It's so funny. {Unfortunately you have to click the link to view the video. They don't give you an option to add it in the body of your post. Kinda sucks}



They have other movies you can make. Jan made one.

A word of caution, though ~ you just might pee your pants from laughing so hard....


If you need a little Holiday stress relief, I suggest you go Elf yourself. And some friends, too!

12/10/09

They say curiosity killed the cat. This morning, it killed my keyboard.....

I got up this morning & as I do every morning and I went to turn on my laptop. When I opened it, the left hinge was sticking and popping out. So being how I am, I went to work on trying to fix it.

Mind you I have no idea what I was doing.

Which is pretty much how I start fixing any of my computers.

And how I usually end up messing things up.

So, I was messing with the hinge {a screw had come loose} and thought I'd take off the keyboard to check out how it's connected & to clean it.

I got it off all right. Got it cleaned up, too. Only problem is, in the process I broke the cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard!

Lucky for me I had 3 extra keyboards for a PC {don't ask} & one that hooked up via the USB port.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to use a laptop with a PC keyboard??

First off, it feels different. So I keep hitting all the wrong keys.

Worse than I normally do!

Second, every time I have to type something, I start on the laptop keyboard & get 3 words in when I remember it ain't workin'!

It's such a bugger.

I did a Google search on how to fix my keyboard {ain't no fixin' this one} and found an Ebay store that sells keyboards for a little as $12! Lucky for me I have just about that much in my PayPal account so I can get another one.

In the mean time, while I wait for the new keyboard, I have to suffer with adjusting to this one.

The silver lining, though, is I now know how to correctly check, remove & replace my laptop keyboard!

12/7/09

Only A Man Would Do This

Me: Really, Sean? You couldn't put the toilet paper on the roll??? Is it that difficult???

Sean: I did put it on the roll....




12/4/09

The Draft


I really, really, really hate this cold weather.

Which, according to some, really is not all that cold.

And I know.

I grew up in New England.

Winters sucked.

Big time.

In my world, anything below 60 degrees is cold. And every morning this week it's been like 48 degrees!!!

Right now, I'm waiting until it warms up some. It's supposed to be 63 today. Just a tad above warm for me.

I want to spray paint more picture frames. And even though I love the smell of paint, it's probably not a good thing to spray inside. But it's still too cold outside right now.

So, I wait in my cold corner of the house for the sun to come out.

Actually, all the corners are cold.

And near every door and window. One of the drawbacks of renting an old house.

Typically, with rentals around here, the owner has never lived in the house & is very tight with the wallet when it comes to things like, oh, I don't know, making it energy efficient. Our owner did live in the house. For about 6 years.

I guess a cold house in the winter & a hot one in the summer never bothered him.

I guess a huge heating & cooling bill never bothered him, either.

Every door, {and we have 4 that are exit doors & 1 to the garage} have gaps big enough to see light through & allow hot & cold in. They're easy enough to fix with some weather stripping. But one of the doors is a huge arcadia. And let me tell you, it is C.O.L.D. near that sucker. Really, the entire door needs to be pulled and replaced {and right now, I could pull that door out!}. Which we can do, then deduct from the rent.

And is totally great.

If we had the money.

Don't even get me started on the windows. Crap, cheap ones that are probably original to the house. {Which was built in the early 60's}

So, here I sit with cold toes, even though I'm wearing shoes & socks, waiting for the sun to come out so I can do some spray painting, and sit in the sun reading while they dry.

Thank goodness for warm laptops. Otherwise my fingers would be half frozen!!!

12/2/09

Christmas will hit us like a ton of bricks


I used to be so prepared for Christmas. I'd have most of my shopping done and anything I was making either done, or close to it.

Sean was always the one to go out Christmas Eve, after work no less, to do his shopping.

I hate that.

I'm a planner.

A "do it with plenty of time to spare" kinda gal.

Plan ahead. Way ahead.

I must confess, though, last year I was not. at. all. prepared.

I **GASP** shopped Christmas Eve!!

I think this year will, unfortunately, be a repeat.

And time is not the issue. Because, let's face it, I have plenty of that.

No, it will be money. Unfortunately Sean's had a few more bad days/weeks than usual. Which really puts a strain on the worn out ol' wallet.

I'm trying to get the girls (who, like most kids their generation, are very materialistic) to remember that Christmas isn't all about the gifts you get.

It's also about spending time with family.

Just yesterday, Dare & I were going to Target, and she was saying how last year they got "like only 3 presents" and if they were going to get the same this year. (I guess she forgot to count all the gifts from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandmas) I told her she just might get less! Then I had to remind her, again, it's not all about the presents.

I refuse to stress over any of it. It's not worth it.

If we all get only one gift each this year then I will be thankful for that.

Because no matter how many things you have, it doesn't matter one bit if you do not have friends, family & good health to enjoy them with.

Of course if someone wants to get me say, a tripod, or 8 GIG USB flash drive, or even better a zoom lens!!! I won't be doing any complaining!