Ending one year and looking forward to the new

Can you believe that this is the last day of 2014 already? My but a year sure does fly by fast.

It's time to hang up the elf suit and get ready to ring in a brand new year. Of course around here we'll be sleeping long before we roll in to 2015.

How do you plan on celebrating the New Year?

HDR fun

I've always been fascinated by HDR photography. HDR stands for  High Dynamic Range and to briefly explain what it is I took the following from Lifehacker
HDR, as its name implies, is a method that aims to add more "dynamic range" to photographs, where dynamic range is the ratio of light to dark in a photograph. Instead of just taking one photo, HDR uses three photos, taken at different exposures. You can then use image editing software to put those three images together and highlight the best parts of each photo.

Now here I go talking about my new phone again. The camera has a one click edit to turn pictures into HDR pictures.
I took this one of my neighbors back yard. This is the original picture right off the camera with nothing done to it. It was a bit dark and gloomy this morning.

One click and a slight crop later it looked like this.

Granted it's no masterpiece but I love the look. 
If you would like to see some beautiful examples of HDR photography check out the gallery at Captain Kimo's

Just stuff.

Since I've been a wee bit absent for the past few days I thought it would be a good idea to drop in on the blog.

I suppose I could talk about my Christmas but frankly I'd rather not. It's over, time to move on.

The biggest thing I've been doing aside from work is playing with the camera on my phone. 

I took this picture

Then did all the editing in my phone. I straightened it then added a vintage effect and a frame.

Then I went in search of an app to make collages. I found tons of them that were all free and I picked one. I wish I could tell you the name of it but I forget what it is and it's already been deleted from my phone. The app itself was fine but it had pop up ads that were coming up constantly while I was trying to make the collage. Then of course because these ads were coming up unexpectedly I would tap on them by mistake and go to a website to download something that I had absolutely no interest in. The app just wasn't worth keeping with all the frustration. I'll find another one to download and hope they don't do the same thing.

I couldn't resist putting that little crown sticker on Gibbs since he's pretty much king of the castle around here.

O Holy Night

O holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Refrain:
Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night divine
O night, O night divine

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend.

Refrain

Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Refrain

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve

To celebrate Christmas eve I have a very special guest today.

My dear sweet little elf Duke, how I miss him. I do believe though that he had a paw in bringing us Gibbs and he wants us to know that although Gibbs may have his naughty moments, he will catch on. After all didn't he leave the Christmas tree alone the entire time it's been standing?

Gibbs says that he fully intends to make Duke proud and carry out the duties of top dog.

 

From our blog to yours, we wish you a very Happy Christmas Eve.

Noel

Can you believe that Christmas is just a couple days away? There were so many things that I would have liked to have done but it's just not going to happen this year.

I'm not crazy about the angle I took this from or the way the editing looks here on the blog but I do like this little sled that sits on my coffee table. It's supposed to have tea lights in it but that would be another of the things that I just didn't get around to.

phone photo

Aside from being annoyed with Verizon regarding the new phones we ordered I really do like this new one.

The camera on it is pretty amazing and I've been playing with it quite a bit. It has a front and back facing camera as well as a duel mode where you can have both in the same picture. I don't have an example of that but eventually I'll have one for you. 

Today is just a snowman picture. This was taken and edited in my phone.

The phone has all kinds of one click edits and I kind of liked this vintage looking style. 

Joy and magic

Do you feel the magic in the air this time of year? Do you have joy in your heart? If you answered yes then you're doing good. If you answered no then feel free to borrow some magic and joy from me.
See that cute little tree on the spool? That came from my very talented friend Marie.

Not only is today Friday but it's also the day we have our gift exchange and party at work. Of course we have to do our partying while on break but we tend to take frequent breaks.

Elf wishes.

Monday when Gibbs went to the vet he put on his best elf outfit (minus the hat) and had Karen the nice lady at the front desk take his picture. I borrowed the picture from their facebook page

Well now that I have the picture I may as well play with it a bit. I cloned out my feet from the top corner, I added some textures and adjusted some color and lighting.

One last thing, I added a little word art that I had in a scrapbooking folder. The word art came from digivickie who hasn't blogged in a very long time. According do my dashboard, her last post was 3 years ago.

Running out

I'm running out of time, money, patience and energy and if I have to see this commercial many more times I'm going to lose the last marble I've been hanging on to.

Angels among us

Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing o’er the plains,

And the mountains in reply

Echoing their joyous strains.

Every time  you hear a bell, an angel gets it's wings

Luke 2:8-16King James Version (KJV)

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Tagged

Last Monday I had the crafty bug and made this tag.

Now some people probably could have had this put together in a matter of minutes. Me, I take more like an hour or more. I have to pick my papers, rearrange, change my mind and start from scratch. Not only do I have a hard time putting it all together but I make a HUGE mess pulling out papers, glue, scissors, ribbons, stamps inks and assorted other things. For me paper crafting is a very long and messy process.

Today I doubt there will be more messes made. I have some errands to run, a vet visit for Gibbs who is due for another shot and then I really should clean up that mess I made last Monday

The kind of stuff that makes my blood boil

I hate to rant but I've got to get it out of my system before I experience personal spontaneous combustion.

We were due for an upgrade on our cell phones. Since I hated the phone I had I mentioned it to Wade and he told me to go online and see what phones they had. We normally go with whatever is free.

I picked two. One was an iPhone and the other was this.

The iPhone was free this one cost $29.99 but this one came with a free tablet. Nowhere on the page did it say anything more other than you get a free tablet. Wade said go ahead and order them.

A few days later the phones are here but no tablets. (I should have known something was up when it didn't mention them on the final order page)


Wade calls them up to ask why we didn't get them. They tell him that's only when you add a new line. Tell me where does it say that on the page I was ordering from? Nowhere that's where.

So I go looking and on the home page in a selection of scrolling adds I see in the very fine print "New 2 year activation required per device"

First I never even looked at the home page and second I personally think that New 2 year activation required could be misinterpreted by an old older type person such as myself who grew up in the age of rotary phones that sat on the counter.

Had I knows all this I would have gone with the free iPhone. All I can say is Verizon sucks and they should be on Santa's naughty list this year.

Milk carton

Do you remember the milk carton containers I made a while back? Well Monday while I was off I made another one only a little bigger. I needed something to hold a small gift and the milk carton was perfect

FYI

I'm sure you've all noticed that blogs that never had word verification suddenly have it. I was a bit surprised when almost all of the blogs I read put up word verification. I was even more surprised to find out that I had it enabled on my blog.
Now I don't know why it happened but it's there BUT you don't have to use it. I've tried it on other blogs and it works. Just ignore the captcha and submit your comment. It will go through. I think that maybe it only has to by typed by anonymous commenters?

Today's picture is blurry as can be but it makes me laugh

Gibbs apparently thinks he can fly. He does one heck of a takeoff from the couch and he completely avoids the bottom two steps when he comes downstairs. I've also discovered that he has magical powers. He'll run off ahead of me and when I call him he's standing behind me.

Trying something new

As if I don't have enough craft obsessions already, I had to add a new one that I wanted to try. I don't know what I saw or where but something sparked an interest in learning wood burning. I've been debating on whether or not to spend the money for the tool to do it. I finally broke down and bought one.
I found some scrap wood in the basement and gave it a try.

It's a little messy because I tried all the tips that came with the tool to see what they would do. I colored those leaves and holly berries in with a colored pencil.

This was the second try and although the writing is a little on the rough side I thought it was kind of cute so I added a hanger to it.

I need to find some more scrap wood to practice on.

Small wonders

I almost feel like I owe poor Gibbs an apology. I kept telling everyone that I was afraid to put up the tree this year because I just knew he was going to cause trouble.
Notice I said "almost". I won't apologize because I'm sure he's been behaving just to prove me wrong so we're just going to call it even here.

He has been pretty good though. He has made a couple attempts at checking it out but was easily distracted and has for the most part stayed away from it.

That being said I thought I would push my luck and put my snowmen in their traditional spot on the stairs.

I set them up....

...I held my breath. (maybe I should have vacuumed the steps while I was holding my breath)

Aside from a few sniffs he hasn't bothered them at all. I think we are finally coming to an understanding on just who is in charge around here.

Getting there

After much procrastinating on Saturday I did manage to finally decorate the tree.

I started to pull out some of the other decorations but didn't get very far before I gave up.

Sunday I of course was working so nothing got done when I got home even though I had intended to at least try and accomplish something.

Now that I think of it I did accomplish something. I managed to get these pictures off the camera and get them ready for a post.

The list of things I would like to do today is very long but procrastinating is #1 on the list again.

Motion blur

Just about every picture of Gibbs has a bit of motion blur to it

I could try and take pictures while he's sleeping but I'm afraid of waking him up and getting him going again.

Nuttin'

Since I've got nuttin' today I thought this would be the perfect video for my post.

New clothes

Someone got a new sweater and it's not even Christmas yet

He also got another very special outfit but we had a wee bit of a problem sitting still long enough to get a usable picture.

We'll work on that other one and get back to you

Whatcha doing

Hey lady, whatcha doing up there?

Just taking a picture through the rain covered window.

The weather is just making me crazy any more. One day it snows, the next it's 60 degrees and the next it's raining. Pick a weather condition and stick with it already

Oh Christmas tree...

After Oh Christmas tree it should be how lovely are your branches. When you've got a fake tree and you look real close though it's hard to use the word lovely to describe it.

At least at night it doesn't look so bad.

The tree is up but there aren't any ornaments on it yet. So far no major problems with Gibbs. We'll see how it goes once it's decorated. 

Not really breaking the rule

This post was originally scheduled for Wednesday the 26th but due to a glitch it never went live. Now the title is pretty much off but at least I have a post for today.

I have a big rule about not pulling out Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving but it's different when I'm making them then the rule is slightly altered.

With that being said I actually did a wee craft the other day. It actually took me a couple days since I don't get much time to sit and work on things.

I cut and rolled all the paper pieces the one day.

The next day I put it all together.

A little bit of paper, a wood craft stick and a little star and you've got yourself a tree. The only thing I forgot to do was drill a hole to put a string through for hanging.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my U.S. friends I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. For my friends in other parts of the world, I wish you a day filled with happiness.

I'll be heading off to work this morning but I leave you with these thoughts.

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ~Edward Sandford Martin

A THANKSGIVING DINNER

by Maude M. Grant 

Take a turkey, stuff it fat,

Some of this and some of that.

Get some turnips, peel them well.

Cook a big squash in its shell. 

Now potatoes, big and white,

Mash till they are soft and light.

Cranberries, so tart and sweet,

With the turkey we must eat. 

Pickles-yes-and then, oh my!

For a dessert a pumpkin pie,

Golden brown and spicy sweet.

What a fine Thanksgiving treat!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I did with my day off

Oh what FUN I had yesterday. In case you missed it there was a bit of sarcasm in that first sentence.  It was rainy and gloomy and the kind of day I would have liked to have stayed in bed all morning.

But there was a bathroom that needed cleaned and there was a little fur ball that needed to go to the vet. Gibbs was due for a shot plus he also has been scratching at his ears a lot. As you'll see in his health report card he's got an ear infection in both ears. She asked if he had had a bath and gotten water in his ears which he hasn't so not sure how he got the infection but he's got drops now and hopefully the itching will stop soon.

I know I shouldn't compare but I have to say when I took Duke to the vet he was always so good, never made a fuss, never cried or even yelped when he got a shot. Now Gibbs on the other hand is major drama king.  This next picture was taken after we got home as proof that the vet did not murder him.

You would have though he was being brutally attacked when the poor girl tried to take his temperature. More crying and yelping followed when they were checking his ears and one last scream when he got the shot.
If that wasn't enough once we got home, heaven forbid anyone should so much as touch the spot where he got his shot. He retold the entire story of the torture he endured. Oh please, I'm the one who should have been crying since I had to pay the bill.

Looking back

Taking a look back....

One year ago around this time I was doing some crocheting and sewing

This year I haven't been doing any crafting.

Two years ago around this time Duke and I were snuggled in on the couch reading a good book

This year I do all my reading on the kindle and Gibbs can't sit still long enough to share a book. He does however like to chew the pages.

I've got a new schedule at work so I'm a little off right now. I'm working on Sundays and have Mondays off. This is going to take some getting used to

Shuffle off to Buffalo

Anyone up for a road trip?

We can snag a snow plow and head to Buffalo

I bet your wondering why I would want to do something like that when I hate snow so much.  Am I right?

Well I certainly wouldn't be going to see the snow.

You see yesterday was pay day. Can I just say that pay day doesn't hold the same charm when there isn't a check that I can take to the bank. Why no check? They're stuck in Buffalo. It could be a long wait.

Artist

We bought a play yard for Gibbs to keep him confined while we're at work. He's got all the comforts of home in there. He has a little bed, toys, food, water and a pee pad. It's worked quite well.

Don't give me that look. Yes, you do have to go in the play yard when I go to work.

Do you know what Gibbs has to say about that? He says he may have to go in there but it doesn't mean he has to stay in there.

He's a regular little escape artist. Tuesday I came home, walked in the door and imagine my surprise when he came running up to greet me. I assumed that I didn't latch the door on it well enough.  Wednesday same thing, I open the door and there he is. I check the door on the play yard and it's still closed.
I put him back in and watched and waited. He jumped, he barked, he whined. Then he jumped once more and climbed right on out of there. The play yard is maybe a little over 2 feet high. Now that doesn't sound very high but he's not very big.

Time for plan B

Time to play

While the cold winds were blowing and Gibbs was snuggling on the couch with Wade I had a chance to play with some new textures from Shadowhouse Creations.

I took this picture from last year

added a few textures and ended up with this

It's been quite a while since I've played with pictures like this. I had fun.

We knew it would come

Living in Northwestern Pennsylvania one thing that can not be avoided is snow. Whether you love it or hate it makes no difference. The white stuff is inevitable.
It descended upon us last week.

It can be a rough time of year for some. I'm just happy that I'm not a little guy who has to trudge through it trying to find the perfect spot.

He doesn't seem to mind it much. Me, I don't like standing out there while he does his thing.