felting fun

i could sit around all day and make little people out of felt. from left to right: Little Miss Magic, Mr. Impossible and Little Miss Giggles. i love Little Miss Magic's pigtails.

meet samantha joann

need a lunch bag? or a dollar?

this lunch bag just made me money. or, rather, it will make me money in the next 30 days. how? Target is selling Embark insulated lunch bags for $3.99. inside the bag is a mail-in card for a free 6-issue subscription to Parent magazine. however, since i don't want the magazine, the card states i can mail it in and receive a refund check for the value of the subscription. what's the value? $4.96. yup - by mailing in that card (and waiting for the return check) i got me a free insulated lunch bag AND made some money.

plus, it gave me a good reason to walk through the back-to-school section at target. i do love me some back-to-school supplies.

scenic route

i love to drive. i really do. but my favorite roads are roads that run through farm fields.

shutterfly update

on friday i used the Facebook75 code to receive 75 free prints from shutterfly - but i only had time to upload 30 prints. when i came back on sunday evening, they let me continue to upload another 45 prints for free and finish off the offer. i now love them even more than when i started.

what? did you think i was really going to say they didn't love me anymore?

shutterfly loves me

i posted the bit about 75 free photos from shutterfly, right? and i love shutterfly. i love when they give away free prints - that's actually the only time i've ever used them. not because i don't like the quality (i LOVE the quality), but because i'm cheap. and i like free stuff.

anyway, this time i was a little bummed because i wasn't able to take full advantage of the offer. i really needed to leave & head home for the weekend, so i was only able to send in 30 photos, instead of 75. but still, they're free and i love it.

so today i got an e-mail from shutterfly thanking me for my order & promoting some of their other photo items. and the offer at the bottom of the e-mail? if i set up a free "share site" with them, add some photos to it and invite a few folks to look at them - they'll give me another 60 prints for free.

i think shutterfly loves me as much as i love them.

pierogi drive-by?

last night at the pierogi fest i learned several things.

A. timing is everything. when going to an outdoor festival with thunderstorms looming, time your arrival for immediately following the downpour.

2. timing is everything. when going to an outdoor festival that is taken hostage by its own parade, time your arrival for after the parade is over.

3. mike, melanie & beth are good people.

4. i'm a lynethe's pierogi girl. she has, hands down, the best pierogi at the fest. in fact, she's the only (that i saw) to have mushroom pierogi. and her mushroom pierogi are fabulous.

5. i should make my own pierogi and thereby fix the bacon to potato balance ratio.

6. being at one food-centered festival will breed desires to go to other food-centered festivals.

7. timing is everything. when leaving an outdoor festival on an evening that is hot and sticky, leave in time to stop at the frozen yogurt stand on the return trip.

now i want to go back to the pierogi fest for a drive-by pierogi fix. instead of finding a parking spot, i want to drop off my passenger at 119th. then, as i circle the block a few times, my passenger can go buy pierogis at lynethe's booth. i pick up my passenger, and we head home. eating pierogi all the way, of course.

free photos!

get 75 free prints from Shutterfly this weekend! use promotion cold FACEBOOK75 when you check out, and get up to 75 prints FREE! just pay shipping & handling. the offer ends sunday at 11pm.

local produce

a recent trip to the neighboring town's farmers market netted me some beautiful orange tomatoes and a lilac pepper. i combined them with some nice jalapenos from the grocery store (and a few other items) to make a pretty tasty fresh salsa.


i'd never seen a lilac pepper before, which is why i just had to buy one. it was sweeter than a green bell pepper, and its coloration looks a lot like red onion when it's chopped up.

the lilac pepper is definitely something i'd try growing in my own garden. if, of course, i could hold the motivation long enough to actually plant and care for a garden. :) i'd also plant a variety of colored carrots (did you know you can grow purple carrots? and red carrots? and yellow carrots?) and tomatoes (yellow, pink, etc.). sure, i'd grow some regular stuff, too - cucumbers, radishes, green beans, maybe try for a watermelon. but i like the idea of growing things i can't easily find in the store. it just sounds more fun.

felt necklace charms

i recently acquired a sizable bag of felt (thank you, mom, for cleaning out), and i was antsy to put it to use. so for alicia's birthday, i made a set of felt necklace charms. the charm loops are large enough that they easily slide on & off the necklace, so she can pick whichever one she wants to wear. when i gave it to her (and explained how it worked), she immediately wanted to wear the all-blue flower. apparently blue is still her favorite color. :) personally, i'm partial to the orange and green flower.

and now i want to make more things with felt.

more colors

where the shower curtain in the main bathroom meets the wall.


the second bedroom. the green is on two walls (short wall with the closet door & wall at the head of the bed); the brown is on the other walls.

getting closer ...

six month check

this saturday is my half birthday.

i'm making good progress on this year's list. i've watched 31 johnny depp movies, and i've read 31 chapters. i've gone 31 days without watching Friends, and i've prepared food for someone else 31 times (getting a roommate certainly helped with that!). i've sent 31 pieces of mail, and i've watched 31 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. i've driven 31 miles on US Route 31, and i've played a 31-game series of Phase 10 with liz. i've filled 31 holes, and I've played 31 notes on a musical instrument. i've gone 31 days without leaving dirty dishes in the sink for more than 31 hours. i've listed 31 positive points about my job, and i've printed 31 photos for the photo album.

that's 13 goals that are completely accomplished.

huh, that's 31 backwards, isn't it? neat.

must be productive

i'm antsy.

after all the painting i did last week, i decided to give myself a couple of days off. my body's sore: hands, back, neck, knees. a couple of days of rest would do me good.

but i'm antsy.

i need to be doing something.

so i'm thinking i'll start by finishing the trim in my bedroom and then crack open the brown paint for the walls. i can rest & recuperate next week, right?

partial color palette

i can't promise the colors will be accurate on your monitor, but here's a partial view of our color palette.


the office, my big project this weekend. the darker color is on one wall (with a window); the lighter color is on the other three. i really like the accent wall, and i'm excited about getting some photos & art hung up in here now.


the master bedroom. the darker color is on one wall (at the head of the bed); the lighter color is on the other three. marlana's bedding is purple, and the walls pick up the color beautifully. the linens in her master bath are green & purple, and the walls will be painted green. the vanity cabinet will be painted the darker color from the bedroom.


where the living room (orange) meets the kitchen. there isn't a good place to show where the living room orange meets the living room brown. they only meet in one short corner, and getting a proper photo proved difficult.


where the dining room (top, same color as kitchen) meets the living room.


where the kitchen walls (top) meet the kitchen cabinets. if these colors look familiar, it's because they're practically identical to the highland house. marlana and i both liked the brown-on-brown color scheme, so we kept it. it looks great with the dishes. ;)

the foyer & hall still need paint (a lighter shade of brown), and my bedroom has a couple of walls left to paint brown (also practically identical to the highland house). add in the master bath, and we'll be done. i need to get a photo of the main bathroom, too. it's a beautiful gray, and will have a deep gray cabinet once it's painted. :)

only one season?

i'm aware that it's 3:30 in the morning. and i'm tired. but i've decided that tv shows are much more addictive when you can stream full seasons without commercials. first it was Arrested Development (3 seasons, all watched). then 30 Rock (3 seasons available to stream, all watched). and tonight i finished Better Off Ted ... which only has 1 season available to stream? and only 13 episodes? *sigh* i miss ted.

so i'm watching the pilot of Studio 60. i'll re-watch it later. when i'm awake. and it's more than just background noise.

and of course, there's my absolute obsession with Law & Order. Criminal Intent has six seasons available to stream - i've watched them all. so as i wait for season seven, i figure i'll start watching the original Law & Order. would you believe they've produced 20 seasons & not a single one is available to watch instantly? crazy, right? so i started Special Victims Unit. that, however, is not acceptable for 3:30 in the morning. :)

nerdy shopping

i'll totally admit that i'm a nerdy shopper. i like clipping coupons, and i like shopping when things are one sale. that's pretty much the only way i'll shop at kroger, for instance. i love shopping at kroger, but unless things are on sale i find it to be a little pricey. today, however, i was on a mission. i had a very specific shopping list (taking advantage of their Buy 10, save $5 offer, mostly) and strayed only two times. once because of an unadvertised special for an item i had a coupon for, and a second time because i forgot i was out of croutons. :) regardless, i saved like $35 between coupons and my kroger card. i was quite pleased.

and that unadvertised special i had a coupon for? it gave me a $4 coupon off my next kroger shopping trip. not too shabby of a saturday morning.

five years, really?

last month, my niece turned five.

five.

i'm getting old.

house photos

marlana (with help from her mom & myself) had most of the house painted before we moved in. i figured what was left would give me something to do with my spare time. so, six weeks later i finally picked up a paint brush. :) it's still in progress. however, here are a few pics i can show you.


the view out the peep hole in the front door.


the deck off the dining room during a fabulous rain storm.


and the living room/dining room area. the door with the large window leads to the deck. behind the orange wall is the kitchen.

more photos to come. once it's painted. and when it's clean. :)

my photos are where?

so i'm starting this morning with some job-related activities: proofing the resume, checking the online portfolio, googling my name. it all turned out about how i expected - except i found photos of mine on this wiki page. they lifted the images from my flickr site, which is okay with me. they credit me for the photos and link back to my flickr site. it's kinda cool.

i should really update my flickr site.

colorado

on saturday we took the arial tram ride in estes park. why would we ride a gondola up the side of a mountain?


to feed peanuts to the ground squirrels, of course! while i'm sure it's a huge blow to their natural state, these li'l guys will come right up and take the peanuts from your hand.


that's right, he's eating a peanut he just took from me. or, at least, he's adding it to his already over-stuffed cheeks.


there was a larger squirrel hanging around us, too. he wouldn't take the peanuts from us, but he'd pick 'em up if we tossed them his way.


the top of the mountain also provided a good arial view of the stanley hotel. this one's for you, beth. ;)


and there were mountain views, of course!


a little self-portrait with the mountains behind me.


and a slipping guy who apparently has fingers, but not toes. poor slipping guy.

not colorado

these photos are not colorado. but before getting to colorado, we drove through nebraska. and these photos are from nebraska.

sunday accomplishments

i finished reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm this morning. i followed that up by learning that Shirley Temple did, indeed, star in a movie version of the book. i also learned that the reason i'd not remembered any of the story (even having seen the movie) is that the movie changed pretty much every detail. the movie includes a step-father, pigs & straw hats, tap dancing and a radio show. these things are not in the book. it's been a long time since i've seen the movie ... but i'm guessing that if i watched it again now, i'd be sorely disappointed.

the lawn got a fresh mowing this afternoon. it's been hot & dry, so parts of it didn't meet the blades, but the clover was in need of a good trimming.

we grilled steaks tonight and enjoyed them with some fresh sweet corn and oven-roasted potatoes. all quite tasty. right about now i feel like i could take a nap. that's the sign of a good meal, right?

meeting my new library

i got my library card today and brought home an old, worn copy of Point Counter Point (Aldous Huxley). i love old, worn books. it's a very nice library, and they have a very nice web site to coincide. but i do wish i could create a list of books i want to read in my profile. books that i don't want to put on hold, yet (how many books can i read at a time?), but books that i want to remember that i want to read. i wonder if i'm the only person who would appreciate this function?

spending time freely

one would think that given my current abundance of free time, i would be much better at posting on a regular basis. but, in fact, i've been using that free time to do very little that's blog-worthy. i did take a relaxing trip out to colorado this past week, and i've got a few photos i can post. i'll try to get those up this weekend.

i've recently unearthed a fairly voracious appetite for reading. i'm aware that my reading desires are generally fairly short-lived, so time will tell how long this lasts. but in the past two weeks i've digested four books, and last night i started another. my plans for the weekend also include getting my library card, as i'd like to check out Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and a Huxley novel other than Brave New World.

i love Brave New World. i took it with me on vacation as my backup to a more serious, historical book i was taking. it has apparently been much longer since i've read the book than i remembered, as there was much of the story that i'd forgotten. i thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it, and i'm interested to try out another of his books. i'm hoping for Point Counter Point and maybe his collection of short stories.

last night, however, i decided i should really read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. and, had i looked at it back in january, i would have undoubtedly made this the book i read first this year, as it has exactly 31 chapters and my name is in the title. :) i know i've seen a movie based on the book several times (isn't Shirley Temple in it?), but as of yet the book feels completely new. apparently i don't remember the movie at all, and that's a good thing.

reading isn't, of course, all i've done since moving south. i've also been trying out some new recipes. i'm finding it's much easier to have motivation to cook something new when i've got all day to do it. and since i will eventually have to get a job, i figure i should take advantage of the free-time opportunity while it exists.

now if i could just channel some of the opportunity-based motivation into finishing up some painting that needs to be done ... :)