While we were out

Yesterday wasn't too bad weather wise. Still a bit on the cool side but not too bad. While Gibbs was out taking care of business I walked around the yard to see what I could take a picture of. It was slim pickins but I did manage to get a few.

So as not to overload you all in one day I'll spread it out and I'll start with your favorite subject.

Gibbs.

These are straight off the camera. All I did was crop to put 4 together. I took Sandra's advice and put the camera on the sport mode, focused and then kept clicking.

Excuses

The reason why my post was so pitiful yesterday was because of our day on Saturday. Wade and I went out to dinner and to do some shopping. Most of the trip was fine but it was the events at Walmart that left me frustrated, stressed and very annoyed. I won't go in to the whole story because it's rather long but if it weren't for the fact that I really wanted a particular item and the efforts of 2 different managers I would have walked out. Good help is so hard to find these days.

What was the item I really wanted? It was this.

Did I need this? Nope. I did want it though and the price was incredible. I just couldn't pass it up. After the ordeal to get it the 2nd manager that I went and found even gave me an additional discount on it. 
I haven't had much time to play with it yet and it's a bit dark and drab around here any way. I'm looking forward to some nice weather so I can go out and put it to the test.

I did discover the feature that lets you focus on a subject and blur the background and it allows you to choose how much blur you want. I need a  better setting to try this out in but I think I'll like this.

I took a picture of this hanging on my wall

Then for fun I did some editing to it.

Yes I did try it out on Gibbs but he wouldn't sit still or show his face. I know you like to see Gibbs but I'll wait till I can get something better than his blurry furry butt.

oh brother

I've got nothing for today. Friday it was 75 and yesterday we were getting snow. We did a bunch of running around and by the time I got to sit down ad chill I just didn't have it in me to come up with a proper post. Hopefully I'll have something tomorrow

Would you believe

Yesterday, February 23, 2017, it was actually 75 degrees.

Right there in the top left corner of that little screen it shows the temperature.

Sunday the temperature is supposed to be a more seasonable 39. Even that though isn't as cold as what it should be this time of year. I'm not complaining mind you but it's just crazy how the temperatures are all over the place.

Funny

I've got nothing so I'm sharing things I found on facebook that made me laugh.

Repost

The following thoughts from last year on this date are just as true today as they were then...

From Feb. 23, 2016

The blog title was I hate being a responsible adult

It's what keeps me from calling off and staying home to play in my craft room

Just Gibbs

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods" – Christopher Hitchens

“I don’t understand people who don’t touch their pets. Their cat or dog is called a pet for a reason.” – Jarod Kintz (author, This Book is Not FOR SALE)

When Irish eyes are smiling

It's probably their day off and they're in the craft room.

My eyes aren't totally Irish, they have a little German and Slovak in them as well but they were smiling all the same while I was playing in the craft room. I was working on a St. Patrick's Day craft that I saw on Pinterest. The tutorial for this project came from The Craft Patch. I didn't do mine exactly like hers but I used what I had and made it my own.

Here's one from a different angle so you can see the different papers better. I didn't have double sided paper so instead I cut twice as many strips for each size and then glued 2 back to back to make a double sided paper. I also used a larger circle on the back for a sturdier base to glue everything down to. Since it would be showing I covered it with glittery green foam. Then I made a smaller circle of the same foam for the front center.

And a close up of the center because it's glittery and I like sparkly.

All in a days work

Saturday when I was off I went out and got new shoes for work. I used to buy cheap ones because they get ruined pretty quick with grease spots while I'm frying donuts. I can no longer wear cheap shoes when I'm on my feet all day long. I pay the extra price for the sake of my feet, back and legs. In an attempt to try and keep them from getting ruined the first day out I protected them with coffee filters while I was doing donuts. Notice the left one already has grease spots on it. My shoes stayed clean though.

Aside from my regular work yesterday I also had two cakes to do. The first one, the customer wanted to know if I could draw water with a boat and fish in the water. I told her I could but it would pretty much look like a kids drawing. So then she asked if I could put an actual photo on the cake that she had.  I taped aluminum foil to the back of the picture since I didn't know if the frosting would seep through the photo paper. It worked out pretty good. That's one ugly fish in the picture.

The second one they just asked for bright colors of my choosing. I chose yellow.  Apparently Uga is what the grandkids call the lady having the birthday.

It's about time

Time is free,

but it's priceless.

You can't own it,

but you can use it

You can't keep it,

but you can spend it.

Once you've lost it

you can never get it back.

 Harvey Mackay

 

 

Saturday was a beautiful day. It was 54 degrees by 10 am. Now I know to those of you who live in warm climates that sounds pretty cold but to me it was like heaven. 

Gibbs and I went for a walk, then I took my camera out to the back yard. There's still nothing but dead stuff but....

 

....the sky was blue

and I found a splash of red from these berries hanging among the bare branches of the forsythia

 

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_time.html

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/earlnighti159029.html?src=t_time

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/earlnighti159029.html?src=t_time

Taking the day off

Be back tomorrow.

Finished

Back on January 12th, in this post I talked about pulling out the knitting loom and making a scarf. I finally finished it just last week. I had made good progress with it and then it sat for a long time untouched. I'm famous for doing that.

I originally planned to make it an infinity scarf but after taking it off the loom and attempting to join the ends I gave up and decided it would just be a regular scarf.

Java

As promised (or maybe threatened) I've got my coffee cup drawings.

For these I used markers, black micron pen and colored pencil. When I was done I dabbed on some embossing ink, sprinkled on embossing powder and heat embossed them for a nice finish

I had one more sketched out with pencil but never got any further with it.

Play time

On Monday I was confined to the house for a bit because my vehicle was getting new tires put on. I also had to make a trip to the bank since after three failed attempts at my pin number, I was locked out on my bank card. While I was waiting for the garage to do the tires, I did a little playing in the craft room.

These are just some drawings on little papers that I'll put in the mini books. The size is 2.5" x 2.75".

I did them with watercolor colored pencils then outlined with a black Micron pen. I also added some paint using various methods. On the flower I used some glittery nail polish and extreme glitter paint on the leaves. The tree and bird got a bit of extreme glitter paint.

A closer look at the flower.

Tomorrow I'll show you a couple other ones I did.

Happy Valentine's Day

I couldn't let the day go by without wishing all my wonderful friends a Happy Valentine's Day.  I even have gifts for you.

A index card that I made last year

 
I put my heart out there with a few hugs and kisses

 I got you this lovely bouquet of flowers

And they were sold out of the fancy Valentine boxes so I got you these Hershey miniatures because who doesn't like chocolate.

Last but not least a gift from Gibbs. He sends you his cute face and lots of love

Happy Valentine's Day

A post about Nothing

Last night I did Nothing to prepare for today's post. This morning I've spent a couple hours working on Nothing.

So now I would like to introduce you to Nothing.

Yes, I know he's rather ugly and odd looking but Nothing's perfect 

From the past

For today's post I went back through some old photos again. It's been a long time since I've had a cat and this is the last one who lived here.

His name was Pringle

He was my buddy, my pal and a real sweetheart. This picture was taken in May of 2008 and I think it was around December of that year that he got out on a very cold winter night and never came back home. I would like to think that someone took him in and he lives in the lap of luxury but I'll never know for sure.

Clearance

I think I'll pass on this bargain

TGIG

No, that is not a typo in my title. Even though I'm thinking "thank goodness it's Friday" here on the blog I give you "Thank goodness it's Gibbs"

Edible arrangement

A couple weeks ago when I was in Wal-mart I wandered down the Valentines isle. They had some candy bouquets that were rather cute but in my opinion a little too expensive. You know me, not only am I cheap but I look at things and say "I can make that myself" So that's what I did.

In fact I made 2.

I already had the vases, the red tissue paper and the skewers. All I had to buy was the candy. You can use any kind of container you want and put in as many or as few pieces of candy as you like. Simply tape the skewers to the back of the candy and then build your arrangement.

I had considered doing a tutorial for the mini books that I showed you on this post but It took a ton of pictures and I didn't think I could put it together without making it sound totally confusing. If anyone is interested in how to fold the paper to make these books I did find a drawing (click here) that explains it pretty well. You could also find several versions on Pinterest by searching for folded paper mini book

More zoo

Life is pretty boring right now. It consists of going to work and coming home and doing very little. That doesn't help much when you need blog material. That is why I decided I would show  you more zoo pictures.

Well isn't he just all cute and cuddly. OK so maybe not. I'm sure his mother thinks he's sweet though.

The lama in front looks to be snickering about something. The one behind him has it's face to the wall like it just got a whiff of something foul. Do you suppose...?

I just loved this pose.

Lions and tigers and giraffes?

Project declutter has moved in to my craft room. That's a tough room to do because not only do I have a hard time getting rid of things in there, I also get easily distracted.

Yesterday I worked on cleaning up some shelves. I was going through a bunch of old CD's to see what was there. I found several with photos on them so I had to see what they were. They went back to 2008. Apparently in September of 2008 I decided to go to the zoo. I remember that day too. It was just me and my camera and I had fun.

I saw lions and tigers and giraffes. I did see bears too but I didn't have any good pictures of them so I'm substituting a giraffe.

I'm here...

...to say I won't be here today. As it turns out though, just by coming here to say that, I really am here. That pretty much makes this whole thing a great big lie.
I think I just gave myself a headache too.

Tiny books

So far this year I have worked on project declutter almost every day. I've already gotten rid of quite a bit of stuff. Yesterday while getting my daily dose of clutter busting I came across a couple of things that helped with my daily creativity effort. (That one isn't going as well as the clutter busting)

I found a 2016 calendar that I never used. I bought it, stashed it and forgot about it. The other thing was a little tiny book that you make out of one single piece of paper then decorate however you choose. The one I found had apparently been a dog toy because the edges were all chewed up.

I thought I would take the pages from the calendar and use those to make new books. I have one completed and 2 others the book is made but they haven't been decorated yet.

Here is all three

Pardon the pictures, the lighting was terrible since it was another grey and cloudy day.

The finished book. Here is the front and the first two inside pages

The next two sets of pages

 The back and a view from above

The finished size of the book is determined by the size of paper you use. This one I used a piece of paper that was 7 1/2 inches by 11 inches. For decorating the inside I just went with gluing in some scrapbook papers and words. There are no limits to how you decorate these

For lack of something better

A few things I found on facebook recently

To remain totally fair to all my readers, all men may replace the word men with women.

Running low

I'm running low on blo ideas and material. Last resort I played with an old picture in photo director.
It's not much but here it is

I only saw one squirrel when I was walking but now there are 4

bus stop photography

The last  couple days after work I've been stuck behind the same bus that makes tons of stops. I've made a game of it to take a picture at each stop.

Tuesday it was blue skies in one direction and very wintery looking in the other. I liked the snow on these trees

Yesterday the sun was shining and the skies were a beautiful shade of blue. 

A bit of a glare from the window on the right there.

Now I wonder what kind of weather we'll have today when Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his home. Will he see his shadow or not?