Friday?

Is it really Friday? It doesn't feel like Friday.

Too much drama at work this past week left me feeling drained by the end of each day. All my plans this past week for homework and studying went out the window, along with all my plans for making dinner, eating dinner and pretty much everything else I would normally do.

Add to that the instant chilly weather (about a 20 degree drop between Monday and Tuesday) and the fact that the furnace has not yet been turned on, it was just easier to sit near the portable heater and watch the cats play the most entertaining game of "How close can kitty get to the heater."

This past week has been a blur and now surprisingly it is Friday. The idea of homework & studying sounded good for a moment but the night is turning chilly and I must take the space-heater into the other room.

And since every blog post deserves a picture, here is one from April. Same kitties, same heater, just a different month. :-)

[Things I ♥ Thursday] Baby Chucks

Need I say more?

1. Converse, 2. more macro fun....., 3. 209/365 - It's a very fragile world, she told us, so walk carefully everywhere you go & we promised to remember for as long as we could., 4. Baby Converse :-)

Created with fd's Flickr Toys
All photos in this mosaic © their respective owners.

Wordless Wednesday: iMeow

Got Knitting?

See this?

This may end up being a Christmas present. I am not sure.

I have this silly notion that maybe I will make Christmas gifts this year. This is nothing new. I have made many presents in the past. But I have never knitted a gift before. Crochet, yes. Knitting, no. But for some reason I thought it would be fun to knit. I don't know why I thought it would be fun, you see I am an extremely slooow knitter and it is already the beginning of November.

I had figured it wouldn't be too bad. I could knit while watching television in the evenings. Then I remembered that due to my online class, my television viewing has been reduced to almost none. But being me, I decided to give it a go and cast-on Sunday evening. I knitted as fast as I could, in between trick-or-treaters, eating dinner and while watching The Walking Dead (awesome show by the way). As you can see by the picture, I didn't get very far. I was able to get a little bit further on Monday (but not by much) before I heard the textbook call my name. Hopefully today will be better.

[Things I ♥ Thursday] Trick-or-Treaters

I grew up in a neighborhood where my brother and I were (for the longest time) the only kids on the street. It was the kind of neighborhood where the houses have lots of space in between and the next kid lived quite a ways down the road.

On Halloween we were lucky if we even got one trick-or-treater. Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood consisted of me and my brother walking across the road to the house at the top of the hill, where Mr. Ryan would open a bag of candy corn and dump half the contents into my brother's bag and the other half into mine.

Now that I am grown, I have always looked forward to kids coming to my door on Halloween. But no matter where we have lived, we were lucky to get even one much less two trick-or-treaters at our door. That is until we bought our house last year. Last Halloween we had over 50 kids come to our door! I spent more on candy than I did my phone bill! I am excited to see how this year will be. Only a few more days until I find out!

1. Ruby Slippers, 2. Lonely at the Big Top, 3. trick or treat!, 4. What are you going to BEE for Halloween :o)

Created with fd's Flickr Toys
All photos in this mosaic © their respective owners.

Wordless Wednesday: Princess Moody-Pants

I lost him in the mosh pit

I have always considered myself to be an indie/electronic/songs you hear on commercials type of girl. Well lately anyway. Growing up none of the songs I listened to were on any commercials much less played on the radio. But it's not just this type of music that I like. I do have my goth (with just that little bit of punk) side that got me through those teenage years. It's all still there. It comes out occasionally.

So when the husband called on Sunday and said he got free VIP tickets to KFMA's Fall Ball 2010, I said sure, why not. I don't know who's playing but if the tickets are free, I am there.

We had to wait until he got off of work so by the time we got there we had already missed Suicidal Tendencies (one of the bands we had hoped to see), Authority Zero & Circa Survive. Sick Puppies was the band that was on the stage when we got there and I have to say that I was really impressed. They put on a great show and their bassist rocks! She was awesome!

As for A Day to Remember...well all I remember is the huge mosh pit. The band wanted to have the largest pit and the crowd obliged. I of course being short (and old) moved AWAY from the pit, and in the process lost sight of the husband. I figured he had gone into the pit and I was right. A couple of songs later he arrived, dusty and happy with beer in hand. That pit got him all the way to the front of the stage.

Now on to Bush. Let me just say....Bush was amazing! They put on a really good show. I have to say that Gwen Stefani sure is a lucky gal cause her hubby sure is a cutie (just don't tell the husband I said that).  He reminds me a bit (and I am dating myself here) of Michael Hutchence. What with the hair and the way he danced. Total flashback.

Then there were the Deftones. Yeah, I didn't like 'em. Definitely not a band that sounds good live. After a few songs we made our way out of the crowd and headed home.

Definitely all in all it was an awesome way to spend a Sunday night.

[Things I ♥ Thursday] The changing leaves of autumn

I have always loved the changing colors of the season. The beautiful oranges and reds and yes even the yellows. Growing up in the Southwest I have never experienced the changing of the colors first hand. I would love to one day watch as the colors changed each day. I don't even know how fast they change. Do they change fast? Slow? Does it happen overnight or does it take weeks?

Today it feels like fall. There is a chill in the air that makes me excited for the season that lies ahead. The heat of summer is (hopefully) gone and with that each day is just a little different than the one that came before.

1. Choose, 2. Autumn Colors, 3. Finally, 4. #290/365

Created with fd's Flickr Toys
All photos in this mosaic © their respective owners.

Wordless Wednesday: Caution...

less

My new class has begun.

That means less photo editing, less Flickr, less crocheting, less knitting, less Facebook, less FrontierVille, less Dexter (just started season 3) and less blogging. Basically less of everything that I am used to doing in the few short hours I have at home.

And just so that this post will have more.... Here are a few recently uploaded Project 365 photos.

one thousand and one

I cannot believe my photo has been viewed over 1000 times!

Who thought that a simple photo of a piece of birthday cake would be so popular? I for one never did. Not only does it have 1001 views on Flickr, but the photo has exploded all over Tumblr.

Hmmmm.....If I had known people would like it so much maybe I would have put a watermark on it. What is it they say? Hindsight is always 20/20? Well it is too late to worry about it now.

Here's a weird coincidence. I just noticed I also have a total of 1001 photos in my Flickr account. I think I may have a new favorite number. :-)

And to think this all came about just because the husband had a birthday. :-)

RED [the movie]

While shopping today for his weekly comic book fix the husband was able to pick up a couple of advanced screening passes to the new Bruce Willis movie, RED. Since these passes require you to get to the theatre early and wait with the hope that there will be seats available by the time you get to the door, we left shortly after work to head down to the University. Where, while standing in line with a bunch of college students, I came to the realization that I was old enough to be their Mom.

sigh....

But back to the movie. I have to say I loved it! It caught my attention and held it all the way to the end. It was funny too. John Malkovich steals the show and Helen Mirren was fabulous. Definitely a movie that I would recommend to anyone to go and see (even my Mom).

If you want to see it the movie opens this Friday (10/15) and stars Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss and Mary-Louis Parker.

on hold

After completing my last class I decided that I would wait until after I was finished with jury duty to start again. Well that time has come. So last week I ordered my textbook and on Monday I purchased my class with plans to begin the course that night. But wait.....this course is not like my previous courses where I was able to start as soon as I purchased the class. Nope, I have to wait at least 3-days for someone to activate my class. So here I wait. And let me tell you....for a procrastinator such as myself having to wait when I am actually in the mood to start something is not really a good thing.

One can never have enough socks

I have always wanted to try my hand at knitting socks. Some of the yarn colorways are so pretty and the idea of a quick smaller project appeals to me. But one problem I have is that I am super picky when it comes to socks. I can't bear to wear lumpy bumpy socks.

But just maybe if I try really hard I can handle lumpy bumpy socks. Maybe they will not even be lumpy bumpy and I just have a pre-conceived notion when it comes to hand-knitted socks.

So say I get over my lumpy bumpy sock issues. What about stretching? I am worried that the socks will stretch out. Does sock yarn stretch out?

I think the main issue that has kept me from knitting socks is that I would be afraid to wear them. I worry about them getting worn out after spending so much time to make them.

So a question to all of you sock knitting gurus....What do I need to know before I start?

Are they lumpy? Bumpy? Comfortable? Does sock yarn stretch out or does it bounce back? Do they wear out quickly?

Ummmm...sorry, I guess that is more than one question. :-)

photo credits: ashrillcaramel, bergensann, tiennieknits, villapeikko

Today I could have taken a picture of a pumpkin

I will let you in on a little secret about myself.

For a person who takes a ton of photos, I sure do get embarrassed taking photos in public. I don't know why. I don't remember feeling this way when I was younger. I don't think I can blame it all on me and my idiosyncrasy though. Some places don't like for you to take photos.

But today...today I blame the pumpkins.

Today has turned into a rainy day

It is so dark that it makes me feel as though autumn may soon be on it's way. But I can only fool myself into thinking that for a short while. Because although today may be a nice day (although still warm) I am sure the temperature will rise once again.

The dark skies have turned me lazy today. I had such plans for the weekend. Well I always have huge plans for the weekends but I never seem to accomplish them all. Maybe I set the bar too high? Maybe I just have way too many "To-Do's" on my To-Do list.

One of the things on my To-Do list is to finally catch up with uploading my daily Project 365 photos.

I am so behind in uploading. The year is almost over and my uploads are only up to April. I never did finish uploading all my photos from 2009. It bothers me that I take a photo a day but then I never do anything with it. I think 3 years may be my limit. With work & my studies I don't know if I can do it another year. But I am so used to taking a photo a day I really don't see myself stopping. Maybe next year I can do something like 365 days of clouds. I like clouds. But what happens on those days when there are no clouds?

Since I did create this blog to share my stuff I guess that is what I should do. So without further ado....here are my photos for the first 3 months of 2010. :-)

Blog hop

I think I may be doing some blog hopping this weekend. Anyone want to join me?

So very different

MCR has a new song.

All I can say, is it is not what one would expect from My Chemical Romance. But once you hear....

Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)

....it will be stuck in your brain till the end of time.

 

 

Here is just a little taste of what is to come. What do you think?

hmmm...

I wonder if this would actually work. ;-)

To tatt or not to tatt

Tatting that is.

Years ago I tried tatting (using a shuttle) but was unsuccessful. I couldn't figure out how to use the shuttle at all. I came across this post back in August which in turn led me to this video tutorial on needle tatting. Now this I can do! Now to just find the time to start.

The last week

This week is my last week for jury duty. I cannot believe it has been 4 months already. Although it was an inconvenience to go to jury duty twice a week, I think it may be hard to go back to work on a daily basis. Plus there are some people that I really enjoyed visiting with each week. It will be nice to finally get closer to getting caught up at work and now that I won't have to worry about this extra weekly commitment I can continue with my education. Now if only I could have a couple of days of vacation. With only working 3 days a week for the past 4 months I doubt my boss would agree to me taking time off from work.

Deceptive Beauty

When we bought our house it came with two very ugly bushes in the backyard. We knew that eventually they would have to go but it was not a task that was on the top of the list. It has been a very rainy spring and the bushes started to turn from brown to green and the white bottle brush type flowers turned a pretty purple color.

I have lived in the desert my entire life. I have heard of Buffel Grass and knew it was bad (it kills the native plants and is very quick to burn) but never knew what it looked like.

I took this photo back in April. It is now September. It was not until I got this month's electric bill (that happened to include a photo of what to look for) that I found out that this bushy plant is the dreaded Buffel grass. I had seen this bushy plant everywhere and never knew what I was looking at. I think I will digging out this weed a lot sooner than I had planned.

Waiting for yarn

I have never purchased yarn online before. I am the type of person that has to feel something in my hands, stand there and stare at it awhile and then take days, weeks or even months to make a decision. I like the instant gratification of the purchase (even if it took me months to make it).

One of my current yarny projects  uses a lot of colors. I finally found a yarn that I liked and ended up buying all the colors in that line that were available at the time. I have never worked on a yarny project with so many colors before, but I decided I wanted to have even more colors. Because 12 different colors is just not enough. This yarn comes in 11 more colors but they are not sold in the store. Well maybe they are but not at any of the stores I went to. Which is surprising since this particular yarn is a big box store type of yarn, not a specialty yarn and not one that I would expect a store to have in limited supply.

So I searched online. I was excited to find that in addition to the usual big box stores (I'm talking Michael's or Joann's here), that Hancock Fabrics also carried this particular brand of yarn. I was excited because there is a store located within walking distance from my house. Even though we moved into our house a year ago, I have never been into this particular store. I called the store to see if they carried this particular brand in the store and was told that they did. I went last week. They had nothing. Seriously, I mean....nothing. And I am not just talking yarn here. The store was pretty bare. Maybe I shouldn't have looked at the website before I went. I had such high expectations and was pretty disappointed in what I saw.

So I took the plunge, I figured since I am familiar with the yarn it would not stress me out to actually buy it online. So I did. Now I wait. But I don't like waiting. It stresses me out.