Before and afters

I did a little bit of playing around with a picture I took of Amanda when she was over doing the decorating. I wasn't going for photographic excellence when I took this picture...lol.


I'm sure that this look may not be to every one's liking but it suited me. Looking at it this small kind of makes her eyes look a little freaky but in the bigger version they look much better.
That's pretty much all I have for tonight. I'm still slacking on trying to put together all of those post ideas I have. Maybe I should just let Duke take over until after the holidays :)

Catching up

For my post today I thought I would do a little bit of catching up on what's been happening around here.
First of all, Thanksgiving day. I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but we don't have a huge celebration. It's just me, Wade, and my kids for dinner. It's nice and quiet and relaxed. Mainly just lots of eating. Just because it's small doesn't mean we don't dress for the occasion though. This was a black tie affair.


You'll remember me saying that Friday after work Amanda was coming over to make me holly and jolly. She did a great job of decorating the house and Duke was an excellent supervisor.


Wade's contribution was to put the angel on the top of the tree.


I'm still curious as to why he was looking up her skirt with a flashlight.

Except for the gifts that have yet to be bought all that's left is the waiting.

Isn't it just the most wonderful time of the year.

Lucky Dog

Hooray for me, I'm a lucky dog. Do you know why I'm so lucky?
Look at the picture and see if you can guess.

It's my new collar wear. Mom made those for me today. I was watching her cut and sew but I had no idea it was for ME. I got so excited when she took my collar off and slipped one of these on. So what do you think? Am I styling?

Black Friday

I was on a roll with posting every day until yesterday. I had all day since we really don't have a huge celebration for Thanksgiving. It was just me, Wade, Amanda and Brad. Oh and Duke, of course. Truth is, I just didn't feel like it. I skipped the blog post, and I only did about half the drops I normally do.
I'm back today for black Friday though. So what did I do today? Was it shopping? NO WAY! I had to work but even if I hadn't I would not be caught dead in the stores today. I prefer to do my shopping on line these days.

I got this text message the other day from my daughter.

So after work I came home to get holly and jolly. I may not be any hollier or jollier than I was before but I got a lot of pictures that I'll be able to post...lol
I'll try and get back into full swing with a better post starting tomorrow. I'm also going to see if I can beat my record for consecutive posts. I love a challenge.

I'm in love with a site that I'm talking about

I'm in love with a site that I'm talking about. I'm in love with a site and I just have to shout. Catchy tune huh? But it doesn't sound quite right.
Oh well, on with the post. I found a site the other day that I instantly fell in love with. It's called Peacefully Folding Blog It's loaded with inspiration for someone who loves loves loves crafty things but can't come up with ideas on her own. Hey that's me! Anyway, you'll find all kinds of origami projects here, as well as some other great projects to make from paper. Some of them are her own and some are links to other sites.
I found these really cool paper flowers. The tutorial for making these is at Sunshine Memories

I made a couple just to try it out. I think I'm in a major crafty mood now. You go check out the links and I'm going to go do something crafty.
Have a great night.

Sometimes I get too caught up in all the things I don't have in life. I'm not rich. I don't have a fancy house. My hair is straight, my clothes are old. You get the picture. Basically, I'm a whiner. Aren't we all at times? Today I thought I would take some time to think about all the things I should be thankful for. With Thanksgiving just a couple days away, what better time.
I thought instead of doing the typical list I would name some of the things that I normally complain about and find the good in them.

1. What better place to start than with my job. It doesn't pay enough and the people make me crazy. Thankfully I have a job. Too many people are out of work these days.

2. My roof is in desperate need of repairs but the cost is just not in the budget. At least I have a roof over my head. With the economy the way it's been, many are losing their homes.

3. The couch that has a blanket covering it to hide the hole in the cushion from a dog my daughter used to have. No it's not beautiful but I still have a comfortable place to sit.

4. The pile of dirty dishes sitting on my counter. Thankfully I had something to eat.

5. The pile of bills that came in the mail. Not one of them says past due.

6. The pig stye that is also known as my sons bedroom. Thankfully that one means that he came home from Iraq alive.

7. The aching back that I always have (due to scoliosis) Thankfully I can still get out of bed every day and FEEL every ache.

8. All the things that I want but can't afford to buy. If I had everything I wanted what would there be to dream about?

9. The carpet in the dining room that has been pulled up at the edge and chewed on. That means I have a cute adorable furry little Duke who entertains me on a regular basis. (double points on this one because thankfully he no longer does this)

10. The family that irritates and annoys me on a regular basis. I have people who love me.

I'm sure I could go on but after listing 10 I'm starting to feel like a real schmuck for being such a whiner...lol

HP touchsmart 600 giveaway, don't forget

Hey everyone I just wanted to remind you about getting in on the giveaway for the HP touchsmart computer.
Who wouldn't love to have this either for themselves or for a fantastic Christmas gift. I know that there are tons of entries in for this but someones gotta win it. Who knows it could be you. Or if could be me.

So here's what you need to do. First hop on over to Jolly Mom's blog to get all the details and get in on this fantastic giveaway. If you would like to see what this computer is like you can check it out here http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart

Now what are you waiting for, get over there now.

That reminds me of...

My weekly edition of "That reminds me of..." was interrupted last Sunday by my shopping trip. I'm back this week though with another photo that reminds me of one of you.
Can anyone guess who it might be? Do you think that maybe it's you?

This week's picture reminds me of a blogger who posts lots of beautiful pictures. I've seen many great pictures of fall foliage on her blog so when I spotted this picture in the file I knew exactly who my choice would be.
The picture you see here reminds me of Diane from My world through photography.
You should hop on over there and check out some of her pictures. If you like her work, she also has an etsy store you can find that right here

Question and Answer

Question:
How do you know when a person has either run out of ideas for blog posts, or is not fully prepared to post the ideas they have come up with?


Answer:
When they take a screen shot of their Entrecard stats and use it as the subject for their post.

I know this is really pitiful but I have a semi good excuse for doing it, in my opinion anyway. I've posted every day so far this month and I didn't want to stop the roll I'm on.
Check out the card drops though. The high points are falling about mid week and lows are on the weekends. You can't see it in the picture but my personal drops are exactly the same every single day. Day in and day out I do the same amount. Yes I'm compulsive, so what. What does all this tell me? It tells me that while I'm sitting at home being compulsive about my blog and my drops, other people are out doing fun stuff on the weekends. What about you? What are you doing with your weekend?

The Duke

Hello everybody. It's Dukey Day on mom's blog. Mom said I was supposed to post this at 7:00 p.m. but I'm a dog and no one ever taught me how to tell time. Dad always says he has to watch wheel at seven and he's not watching it anymore so I think I'm late.
Last Saturday the sun was shining and it was so warm that mom and I went outside with her camera. I don't usually sit very still for her but she bought me a new bone to play with so I gave her a break.

I bet you can't see me in the bottom picture because I scrunched way down and hid in the grass.

See you all next time

Thanks a million

Today's post is full of thanks. That does seem fitting seeing as how Thanksgiving is just a week away.
To start with I must thank some wonderful people for thinking of me when they were passing on some awards.

First off from Katherine at The Queen Speaks who honored me with the "One lovely blog" award. I have to say that I just love visiting Katherine's blog. There are times when I'm reading her posts that I almost feel like her words could have come from my own mouth. OK so maybe she puts it all together a little better than I do but at least I think the same way she does. If you aren't familiar with her blog, I recommend that you go visit her. Thanks again Katherine. You're the best.


The best blog award came to me this time from two different people. First I received it from Kim at Scrappin Life I just found Kim's blog not too long ago. Right off the bat I knew I liked it. She's one talented lady that's for sure. Thanks so much for thinking of me Kim.

I also received this one from Vanilla Seven and I'm sure you all know that blog. If you don't, you better get over there right now. The photography on that blog is astounding. I can only hope that some day I can do half as well. Aside from the great photos it's just one of those blogs were you just always feel welcome and right at home. Thank you very much Vanilla Seven for including me in your list of recipients.


I'm not going to follow the rules this time around because I just recently passed both of these on but anyone who stops by here is welcome to grab either award. I love you all.

Now I also need to thank one more person and that would be Roschelle from Inconsequential logic Roschelle recently had a contest giveaway on her blog and guess who won? Yep I sure did. I won "The everything blogging book". Thank you so much Roschelle, I was so excited.

If you haven't stopped by to visit these bloggers yet today, why not pop in on them and say hello.

Win an HP TouchSmart 600 Computer

That's right. You could win of these bad boys for yourself. I Read about it first on Mike's Blog Marketing tips and I can't pass this one up. But because I love you all so much I want you to have a chance too.

Jolly Mom will be doing this great giveaway starting next Monday November 23. You can either wait until then to go check it out, but why wait. If you go now you can get in some extra entries by blogging about it and adding a banner about it. You'll see mine over to the right.

I won't keep you any longer because I know you are dieing to get over there so the link to the post you'll want to read is here

Show and tell

First off I should say sorry for all the pictures but I had to show it all.

When we got to Volant it was a little early so we had some time to kill before the shops opened. Just our luck we saw a sign advertising a craft sale. We almost didn't stop because it was in someones house but then we decided why not. This woman had her garage set up with all kinds of great stuff and the prices could NOT be beat.

This was a little ornament that I bought for 50 cents.

Found these battery operated tea lights in one of the Volant shops

This I bought at the craft sale that lady was having. I left the price tag on her so you could see how much I paid for her

Yep that says $5.00

This I found in one of the Volant shops. I just loved it. They had it in two different sizes. I bought the bigger one. This will fit right in to the collection of snowmen that I have

After I paid for Frosty's magic hat we discovered that we had totally missed the upstairs of this shop. Well we couldn't miss a thing so up the stairs we went. After looking around back to the register to pay for this great find.

I did bring home one other thing that I really hadn't bargained for.

Yep, that's a hole in the knee of the best pair of jeans I own. No, it wasn't there when I left home. We were walking along having a great time and I wasn't paying attention to the fact that Volant does not have the most even sidewalks. Next thing I knew I was picking myself up off the ground. At least I saved the camera. I ended up with a ruined pair of jeans and a scraped up knee. It didn't seem too bad at the time but boy was it sore the next day. Apparently a fall to the ground requires the use of several muscles that I must not use frequently enough, because I'm also quite sore in a couple other places....lol Ah but it was all worth it.

Have a great night

Volant Village Shops

My shopping trip yesterday was to Volant which is located in Pennsylvania half way between Erie and Pittsburgh. I heard about this place over a year ago and have been wanting to go but Wade being the shopping enthusiast that he ISN'T I knew that I wouldn't be able to thoroughly enjoy it unless I found someone else to go with me. My day finally came, I found someone who was equally as thrilled as I was about checking the place out. VICTORY IS MINE!

When we arrived we were greeted by this friendly little fellow. He was sunning himself on a picnic table and I had to get a shot of him. I found out from someone else who I saw later taking his picture that he's a regular and hangs out at one of the shops which is actually a huge barn. How cool is that? Later while we were shopping in the barn this guy was also doing a little browsing.


Here are just a few of the pictures that I took while walking through the town. I love this place. I want to go back.


My favorite picture from the day has to be this one. This sign just cracked me up


I did buy several things but I'm going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow. I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of my purchases yet.

Blogus Interuptus

Please hear what I am not saying

Originally, I had intended to post the typical light hearted, nonsense type post that you most likely have become accustomed to finding here. However, in the course of my travels today, I stumbled upon something that I must share with you instead.
Please hear what I am not saying is the title of one of the best poems I have ever read. It was written by Charles C. Finn in September 1966. The author handed it out to his students when he was beginning his career as a high school teacher. Over the years, this poem, has made an incredible journey. The websites home page dubs this as "a poem with a life of it's own".
I encourage you to stop by and read this poem for yourself. I assure you that you won't be sorry. While there you may want to also read the stories of the poems journey.
If you do read Please hear what I am not saying I would love to know what you thought of it. In my opinion this is a poem that is about all of us at some point in our life.

Time Travel

Did you ever wish that you could travel back in time? Or, into the future even? I did a little bit of time travel today. I went back one year ago. The exact date was November 10th 2008. So are you curious as to how I accomplished this? I'm sure that you probably already know my secret. It was, of course, through pictures. I went to a folder of pictures that were taken on that date. Most of the photos were taken at work and all I can say is it must have been a really slow day, because there were some pretty goofy ones. I found a picture of a toy truck that must have been forgotten by it's owner.


I did a little bit of a psycho looking edit to it and gave it my interpretation of time travel by 18 wheeler...lol
Another one of the pictures I found was this.

Yes, that is Duke and yes that is snow. We had quite the snow fall on that day.
So in conclusion what did I learn from my travel through time? Well I learned that Friday the 13th isn't always unlucky. I think we are pretty lucky to not have that snow this year (yet).
Hope everyone is enjoying their evening and having a LUCKY Friday the 13th.

Where have you been?

Last month when we drove to St. Mary's Pennsylvania I snapped a few pictures along the way.
When I looked at this one it just made me think of the question, where have you been? Put a camera in my hand and I'll take a picture of anything whether it's good or not.



We pulled over so Wade could run in a store for a pack of cigarettes and while I was waiting I snapped this picture.


I'm not sure if this is someones house or something else but I love the looks of it. Had to take a picture of it this time.

So that's all I've got today. I do have several ideas for posts the only problem is it involves taking some pictures first. Tomorrow is Friday though so maybe I'll have the extra time to do them. Have a great night and wonderful day tomorrow.

Dukey Day

Mom decided to give me another shot at blogging since you all left such nice comments on my last post.
Mom said that maybe I should call this a PUPlic service announcement. It's all about chewing. Like the picture says "A dogs gotta chew what a dogs gotta chew"

All the things in this picture with me are toys that are ok to chew. You can see that I play with my toys a lot. I loveeeeeeeee to chew and shake, then chew some more. There are things that a dog should never chew though.

Don't ever chew on mom's shoes

Don't worry, I didn't chew on these. I learned my lesson a long time ago when I first lived here that shoes were not toys. I just wanted to pass on what I learned.

I wish mom would change her mind though cuz it sure was fun playing with them shoes.

Bye everyone, maybe I'll get to blog again next week.

I shot a jerky and I enjoyed it

A couple weeks ago instead of being a good witch, I was an evil one and instead of staying home and passing out candy for Halloween I went out shopping and bought myself a treat. I've been wanting a food dehydrator for awhile now. I used to have one in a previous life, however I lost custody of it when I divorced my first husband. I guess just because I had given it to him as a gift one year, he thought it belonged to him. Whatever!
Anyway I went out shopping and found this one on sale. So I bought it. It even came with a bonus jerky shooter.


So what's a jerky shooter? Well it's a gun type device used to make hamburg jerky. Years ago, we had made hamburg jerky and I love it.

So you start with a pound of extra lean hamburg and these two little packets. One is a seasoning and the other is a cure. I'm planning a trip to Gander Mountain because I hear they have all kinds of different seasonings for this stuff.

Once you mix the two packets with the burger then you stuff it into the shooter. (excuse the bad picture I was trying to take it with one hand while I was holding the jerky shooter with the other)

After you stuff that full you pull the trigger and out comes jerky. Yeah!!!

Just fill those trays up, plug in the dehydrator and you're all set. I used a little over a pound of meat and got about 40 pieces of jerky out of it. I managed to get a picture of the last few pieces before it was all gone.

Positively negative

EXACTLY!

I'm sure that makes no sense whatsoever but that's OK because neither does anything else.
I started my rounds on all your wonderful blogs today and managed to read and comment on about the first three or four. After that, I only read. I'm afraid that I just don't have it in me today to do all the comments. I promise I will get back to my regular routine, just not today.

Now I've got something to give you. This is one of those things that at the time seemed really cool when I was doing it, and maybe it is. But, in my current state, I'm just not seeing it anymore...lol I don't know if you would consider this an overlay or more of a template. I'll try to explain how I used them without being too confusing. Each overlay/template/whatever it is consists of shapes in 3 different colors (white, gray, black) First I selected just the black and then added one color to that, then I did the same with each of the other colors. Maybe you can get the idea of what I just said by the example in the preview.


The download I have for you today has eleven of these thing a ma jigs and three actual papers that I made using them. Being the total ditz that I am none of the papers that are shown in the preview are included. I guess after I did them I deleted them because I can't find them anywhere.
I think maybe I should just go to bed now and try again tomorrow.
Oh DUH!!!!!!!!!!! I guess you might want the link for the whosey whatsits huh? Download it right HERE



FYI spell check seems to have a problem with the word whosey but not whatsits. Go figure.

That reminds me of...

It's time for my weekly addition of "That reminds me of..." Can you guess who this picture reminds me of?

When I first looked at this picture right away I knew that it reminded me of January's Scraps of Life Mainly, it made me think of her because of the Monday Mellow Yellow posts that she does. After thinking about it for a bit though I realized that the picture is bright and cheery just like she is. So yep, that's who this one reminds me of.

You can teach an old dog new tricks

Sorry to disappoint you but this isn't another Duke post. It isn't even Duke who learned the new trick. It's me, yes me. I learned a new trick. I'm sharing it with you today because I think it is so darn cool and yet oh so easy.
First let me tell you where I heard about this. I get a newsletter from Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics One of the more recent ones talked about cropping. They suggested cropping from vertical to horizontal or horizontal to vertical (whichever the case may be). There were some examples of what a difference it made in the final photo. Let me just say WOW I liked it.
Here are a couple of my examples for you. Now on the after picture I also did some additional editing but even without it, there was a big improvement. At least I think so anyway.


My first example is a horizontal shot of the cat I used to have. Not a very good picture really but heck he was a pretty cat.



Now when I cropped, I turned it vertical. Then of course I changed it to black and white and probably several something elses that I can't remember. What do you think? Better?


This next one is a picture of me :) Why I'm posting this I'm not sure because I hate pictures of me. But, I really like what I ended up with. Now before you look at the picture I want you to pretend that you don't see any gray hair. What was I thinking when I let myself be photographed without coloring my hair first? OMG



Again I went from horizontal to vertical and you wouldn't believe that this is the same picture. Now again I did a whole lot of editing after I cropped and can't for the life of me remember exactly what I did but this is what I ended up with. So what do you think?




So give this a try on some of your pictures. Turn landscapes into portraits and portraits into landscapes.

Just as a side note here, when you do something like this, save your originals that way you can always go back to it if you decide you don't like your edit so much after all. I've done some edits late at night that, at the time, I thought looked spectacular. The next morning? Not so good.

Duke wanted me to add here that he is a little upset with me right now. He thinks that since the title of my post was "You can teach an old dog new tricks" I should have included at least one picture of a dog.

Sorry Duke, maybe next time. This post is mom's

Honor or Shame

This post is being written with mixed emotions. On the one hand I feel deeply honored and grateful that some wonderful people felt that I was worthy of an award. On the other I am a bit ashamed to say that it's been quite some time since a couple of these awards were given to me. Furthermore, there were also a couple other awards that were given to me, but, it's been so long that I can not remember what they were or who gave them to me. So to those of you who aren't mentioned here, please know that I greatly appreciated the fact that you thought of me. Please except my humble apologies for being so absent minded. At times I feel overwhelmed by all the things I need and want to accomplish in a day and some things just get lost in the chaos.

Most recently I was given the Best Blog Award by not one but two wonderful people. First it was given to me by DigiVickie and also by Surviving Motherhood...barely
Both of these women are not only wonderful people but also full of talent, charm and personality. I truly love them both. (I'm not just saying that about Tanyia because she's my sister either...lol)


So the rules to this award are as follows
Accept the award and post it on your blog along with the name and link of the person who passed it on to you.
Choose 15 blogs that you have recently discovered and you think are great.
I don't always follow rules so I'm not going to go with 15 but here are my choices
Sugar the Golden Retriever
Duck and Wheel with String
The Queen Speaks
Mature not Senile
Allotments4you



My next award comes from Theresa's Treasures and I want to thank her so much for passing this on to me. I can only hope that since it was back on Oct 26Th that she passed this on, that she still wants to include me in on her circle of friends.

My list of recipients for this award would take me all weekend to type out since there are so many of you that I now consider to be my friends. Every one of you who stops by here mean so much to me that I want All of you to have this one. You are the best.

Finally, dear Kat, I do so apologize for taking forever to thank you officially for this wonderful award. Kat's blog Candles, crafts and whatnot is such a wonderful place to visit. If you haven't been there before you really should check it out.

The rules to this award are much the same as the first one. Again I'm going to cheat and pass it on to each and every one of you who bless me each day with your warm, witty and wonderful comments.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend. Hugs to you all.

The sub

Mom sent me to fill in for her tonight. She says she's got nothing. Whatever that means. So what do you want to talk about today? I could chew your ear off if you want me to. Don't tell mom though because I chewed the eyes off my new stuffed toy and she didn't seem real impressed. Well mom will be back tomorrow and I think I'm going to go see if she wants to play with my new eyeless, unstuffed toy. Oh yeah after I chewed the eyes off of it, I shook the stuffing out of it too :)

What do you see?

Today I'm going to cheat and post something that a friend sent me in my email.

Take a look at this picture:
What do you see?
When you have your answer, check the explanation that follows.



You saw a couple in an intimate pose, right?
Interestingly, research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such a scenario. What they will see, however, is the nine dolphins in the picture. So, I guess we've already proven you're not a young innocent child. Now, if it's hard for you to find the dolphins within 6 seconds, your mind is so corrupted that you probably need help.

OK, here's help: look at the space between her right arm and her head, the tail is on her neck, follow it up. Look at her left hip, follow the shaded part down, it's another one, and on his shoulder? Oh, sure, some of you see them now. Perverts....lol

Couldn't pass this one up

What do you think of my album cover? It's for my new rock band, pretty cool huh.

OK so I saw this on Donna's blog Cute as a buggy (linked to her post) She got it from The bee
Now if you know me at all this is right up my alley. I love to play around with stuff like this. I followed the directions almost exactly. The only thing I did different was I got my picture from Free range stock The photographer/artist for this particular photo is listed as Chance Agrella. So go check it out for yourself and give it a try.