Dictionary leaf tree

Day 4 was a fun finish. I've got Modge Podge everywhere. Gack!

I bought the paper-wrapped wire trees at the thrift store probably close to a year ago for 25 cents each. I made one up with white feathers and it's pretty darned cute. There's a zillion things you could do with them besides hang teeny-tiny Easter eggs on them.

I apologize in advance for the lousy pictures. The lighting in this house stinks after dark and my camera battery is going so that didn't help either.

Today's finish was to attach leaves made out of dictionary pages. This project was finished in about an hour. Check the 31 days tab for more details.

As a bonus, I got the basement straightened out since it seems Grandbaby #1 is coming to visit this weekend.

Joy

Fun with lightening

I love a good lightening storm. Here are a few pictures I managed to take. They would have been better using a tripod, but hey, it's lightening.

How flat thou art

Eastern New Mexico has it's own special beauty.
You can see for absolutely miles.
On a good day on the way to Roswell, you can see the Capitan mountains. They're still a long, long way away.
A little bit of that New Mexico sunset everyone seems to love.
See how different the dirt color is compared to Oklahoma. Really it's just sand and will be gone and replaced in the next big wind.
This is peanut farming country. I love to see the peanut trailers lined up.
You don't see many trees around here.
This old building is on the way to Roswell.
Flat, flat, flat.
This is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail line. I can remember when it was just the Santa Fe and they still used a caboose on the trains.
This is also dairy country. Every where you look there's a dairy, sucking up what little water there is. There are enough dairies to support a cheese plant.
Dry, dry, dry. The average yearly precipitation is 17.17 inches.I've lived in Oklahoma almost four years and daily I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have this opportunity. I love the trees, the water, and the landscape. Every bit of it in sharp contrast to what I lived with for 14 years.

Would I ever move back to NM? Not willingly. I really think it's a nice place to be from and a visit every now and again isn't too bad, but Oklahoma is my home now.

Amazing Monday

Monday's towel. I just love the little duck doing her thing, rain or shine.

I woke up this morning with an "Ick! Monday" attitude. Shame on me.
I ventured out to the laundry room to gather the last load and saw a flock of birds land in the tree. I grabbed the binoculars and was dumb-struck to see approximately 50 Cedar Waxwings. The light wasn't picture friendly so you'll have to take my word for it. I was nearly late to class because I couldn't tear myself away from the backyard.

Then, as I'm walking to the car I spy something that wasn't there yesterday.
I've bemoaned my poor irises and how they haven't bloomed since I transplanted them off the side of the road. This morning I have a pretty white iris which I would swear wasn't anywhere near ready to bloom yesterday. I've got either a purple or blue that's showing color and will bloom soon. Another, color not yet know, has also sprouted up seemingly overnight. Again, I'm amazed.
I snapped this little fellow on the way to school. I never see these in town. I imagine there are too many cats for them to hang around in town.

God gently showed me that this is not at all an icky Monday. Today is a blessing, just like every day. We only need to open our hearts and minds to see the amazing things and appreciate them.

A Rose for Monday

I ran across a set of dish towels my granny embroidered. Somehow I'm missing Wednesday.

It's cloudy and cool here today. The kind of weather that makes you want to curl up with a couple of cats, a blanket, and a good book. Unfortunately, I have class off and on all day and so snuggling with the cats will have to be postponed.

If you want to join Apronista, send me an email and I'll invite you or you can try here.

DH took my dressform and fixed her base. One day during the move from the guest room to the sewing room I shut the door a little too hard and she fell off her base. We knew it was only a matter of time before she'd have to be re-welded and I guess that was the day. It was quite comical to watch him trying to wrestle with her on the floor of the garage while trying to weld. He won the wrestling match and now she's back to being upright again.

Now that she's fixed, I dressed her in aprons and we had a photo shoot. She's a tempermental model though. I'd ask her to stand still and darned if she wouldn't turn just a little to the left or right.

Find more photos like this on The Apronista

Rainy Monday

A puddle in my backyard.


Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Today is a rainy, gloomy kind of day. Only I'm not going to let it be gloomy. After being sick the last few days I'm determined to have a sunshiny kind of day. I'm a firm believer in your day is what you make it and I'm making mine a double order of good day.

So far this morning I've been to the fishing hole and out to the lake. Nothing happening at either place. I hoped to catch a bird or two for the photo project. Maybe later.

I made one of the curtain panels for the man-den. I don't like it and will probably do something different. Maybe it would look better after the second panel is up. I don't know. I'm waffling on this at the moment.

I have a little sewing project to finish and stick in the mail. I have to get it done today. No procrastinating.

Plans to go thrifting are tumbling around in my head so I'll head off to do that in a bit. I need to see if I can find a new old ironing board. Mine seems to have walked off on his shabby green legs. In other words, we can't find it anywhere.

So, what kind of day are you going to have?

New camera

I promised I'd let you know what it was when it got here.

I ended up getting another Kodak. This time an Z812IS.

I love it!

For example...I took these this morning, one right after the other. Look at the color difference. Look how far I can zoom. I love zoom! ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!

Old camera (3.2 MP) with zoom as far as it would go which isn't very far at all.














New camera (8.1 MP) with zoom not as far as it would go and sneezing while taking picture. Image stabilization is a great thing. It's a little distorted, but I was aiming at the gull.













So far I really like it. I've taken enough pictures to finish the rest of the year on my challenge and I'm still snapping stuff.

I wonder what this is?

Could it be something good?

Oh yes, very good.

Run over and look at today's pic of the day. You probably won't be sorry.

Did you vote?

I dashed in from my test at 20 minutes to 7:00, grabbed my DH and off we went to exercise our right to vote.

Normally we vote early in the day or during lunch, today it just didn't work that way. The polling place was busy! We only had to wait about 10 minutes though and were relieved to get our votes in before the time was up.

Evidently the voter turn-out today was huge. I feel sure it wasn't because we had school board elections today. I hope that more people will vote and voice their opinion about how our country is run.

In other news, I ordered my new camera today. It should be in my hot little hands next Monday. I can't wait! You'll have to wait until it comes to find out what it is. :)

What do groundhogs know anyway?

I hope he's wrong. I hope good old Punxsutawney Phil was just grumpy this morning and he really didn't see his shadow. I'd fib if it meant I could go back to bed so what makes me think Phil would do it any differently? I'm ready for warmer weather, flowers, and the sun.

We made it through another week and I'm eternally grateful. DH has bounced back remarkably well. He's still tired, but I suppose we're all tired these days.

I downloaded a new photo editing program that makes my icky pictures somewhat better. Gimp is a snazzy little thing that works just as well as my Paint Shop Pro. The best part is that it's free. Yes, free!

So far I have 33 pictures on my challenge blog. At some point I either need to get a better camera or get a better camera. Mine is just junk when trying to take pictures outside in the sun. Everything is overexposed and there are no manual adjustments. I'm at the mercy of my camera. Today I lost a perfectly wonderful shot of longhorn cattle because it was just as white as could be. Maybe we'll come across a deal too good to pass up. Otherwise, I know what I want for graduation.

In other news, I'm dreaming about reclaiming the basement. I'm trying to decide what colors to paint the rooms. I really want a nice light color for my sewing room. Something neutral, but not boring. I'm going to try to completely outfit the room without buying anything other than paint and mini-blinds. I think I can do it with what I have in storage, the garage, and the guest room. Yes, we're wall-to-wall around here. I believe we also have enough furniture to make a very cozy den while we're at it.

I hope everyone has a stress-free, much blessed weekend.

My personal challenge

I'm challenging myself to do a picture a day in 2008. Come see what I see.

Slipping by

This week is quickly getting away from me. I sure would like to know how it happens so I could work on a plan to keep it from happening again. Futile, I know. Kind of like trying to catch the wind in a bucket.

I've been busy working on the quilt between getting the kids back in school, housekeeping, and getting myself ready for a new semester. My classes start tomorrow!

I've managed to get 3/4 of my house cleaned to the point that I could have company and not feel shame at my poor housekeeping skills. All that's left is the office/school room and the guest room turned sewing room. I fear these two rooms may not get done to my satisfaction since the kids and I are the only ones that really use them and I'm about out of time.

In other news, I have a bad case of Spring fever. Every year it comes earlier and earlier.

2008 is promising to be a year of many changes. We hope to reclaim the basement and remodel the kitchen along with all of the regular maintenance type stuff that goes on in a 78 year old house. So far it looks like I'll graduate with my Bachelor's degree in May. I've got my fingers crossed anyway.