hoo-RAH

I have not been shooting many pictures lately, because I could not locate the charger to my camera... The reason I could not locate it is because I am a flighty, creative, packrat. I get in a creative mood doing something and to make room to do it I move things out of the way and inevitably bury something important. Apparently the important thing was the charger more than a month ago.

Now it is found and the peasants can rejoice and I can charge my camera batteries!!

I have been not taking pictures so as not to deplete my battery entirely and it has been very frustrating. I feel a strange and overly dramatic sense of relief.

I'm odd, I know it.. I'm ok with it.

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QotD: Stop Me If You've Heard This One

What's the infamous story people tell about you? 
Submitted by Cherney.

 

In the true style of tales about your childhood, and why you should never say anything in front of a toddler you don't want repeated.... 

When I was about  3 or so , I was in the car with my Mother, and a School bus made a left turn from the left lane in front of my Mother who was in the left turn lane. In frustration and anger, she said "Oh you F*&king School bus."  A few days later we were in the car again, this time with my Maternal Grandmother, and when a big yellow bus went past I excitedly exclaimed, "Look! There goes the F*&king school bus"

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QotD: Just Skimming

When skimming a magazine (or book or newspaper) do you flip through the pages from front to back or back to front?
Submitted by enSue.

depends on what magazine it is.. one I buy for purposely, like Family Fun or Practical Horseman I read  the features that interest me in the order they interest me.then I flip from back to front to be sure I've caught everything, If someone passes along a womens magazine or something to me I usually flip back to front.

I don't read newspapers usually, but if I do I read front pages of sections.

And I cant read a book anyway but front to back.. I dont want to know the end before I read and I never read the last page first.

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QotD: First Signs O' Spring

What, to you, is the first sign of spring? Have you seen it yet?
Submitted by Spy.

For me the first sign of Spring is not a sight, its a less tangible feeling in the air. The way the first sign of Autumn is a cool crisp clear day with a cool breeze, the first sign of Spring for me is the opposite its this warm breeze that feels unlike the winter air, There is a warmth to teh breeze and a moist new smell to teh air that has been buried in the snow and winter chill...

... and it is definitely here.

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QotD: I Dunno, Where Do You Want To Go?

When you go out to eat, how do you pick where to go?
Submitted by Kristine.

  Choice is determined by whether or not the kids are with me and what I have for available cash, and why we are going out. with children we usually hit McDonalds, and if I'm alone I usually hit the health food store for a cheese and veggie sandwich on sourdough bread. Or taco bell for a chicken Gordita. On adult birthdays we hit the local steak place for free birthday dinner, and on kids birthdays we hit the local pizza joint.

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QotD: Luck O' The Irish

You've found the fabled pot o' gold.  How will you spend it?
Submitted by Red Pen.

get out of debt, pay off our house,  Pay the kids school tuition and bank it for college for the kids. 

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QotD: Three Wishes!

If you could have three wishes from a genie, what would they be? 
Submitted by tatteredhalo.

For my children to grow up Happy, For them to be healthy. hmmm.... to be out of debt.

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QotD: One Month Left!

When do you file your taxes?  Do you do it yourself or get outside help?

Since we have a business we have our taxes done for us.. Thank God!!! I cant Imagine having to do our taxes ourselves with all the business stuff....

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QotD: Dude Where's My Keys?

What's the story behind a time when you got locked out?

I dont know that its a hugely exciting story.. at any rate, I grew up around Peoria IL, and during college I did an internship at a horse farm just north of Milwaukee WI, (that would be a four hour drive) . The First weekend at the farm I loaded up my laundry into my little grey Plymouth Horizon (actually my Dad's car) and I drove from the house to the main barn so I could look up a laundromat in the phone book. I ran inside got the information I needed and ran back out to the car only to discover that locking the car door was so ingrained in my being courtesy of my father who locks every door to everything, that I had locked my keys in the car...... and I had left it running.

That was the night I learned to break into the car with a wire hanger. It was a skill that served me well many many times after that. Usually the hardest part of breaking into that car was finding the wire.

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QotD: Thanks But No Thanks

How do you handle phone calls from telemarketers?

I politely tell them I'm not interested.

If they do not stop their spiel and thank me and hang up, I interrupt them and say I really am not interested.

If they persist I say, "please get your supervisor on the phone I would like to speak with them." they usually hang up at that.

More often then not If I am polite they are polite and they wish me a good day and we all move on with our lives. It's a crummy job and if I had to do that to feed my children I would not want people to cuss and swear at me for it.

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QotD: Famous Last Words

What will be your famous last words?

Submitted by ngocaroo.

If I see it coming and it is my fault.. (like a car accident) they will most likely be "well crap".

I'd like to say I'd be more eloquent..  but I doubt it.

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QotD: MmmCookies

Did you order Girl Scout cookies this year?  What kind?

Of Course!! Thin Mints... and ThankYou's, which will probably be teacher gifts at the end of the year.

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QotD: Wise Words

What's one of your favorite quotes? 
Submitted by Georgie-boy. 

  there are so many. but

 I love this one

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply, Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God. I try not to loose sight of this quote.

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Vox Hunt: Couldn't Get Through It

Book: Show us a book you started reading but never finished.

They were marching somewhere...  and I was so tired of reading chapter-long descriptions of trees....

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Book 2)

J.R.R. Tolkien

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QotD: Recess!

What was your favorite game to play at recess in grade school? 
Submitted by Elisheva Chana.

I don't remember.. I remember liking the monkey bars, but that isn't really a game, I'm not playground game athletic, so I don't remember liking any game a whole lot.

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QotD: Chores

Which household chores do you most/least enjoy?
Submitted by falcon.kmc.

I hate drying the dishes.. I prefer the drip dry method.. and while cleaning the toilet, itself,  isn't high on my list cleaning the Bathroom is pretty gratifying, its a small room and it looks so nice when it is clean.

Still, I'd rather clean the barn than the anything in the house.

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QotD: Mmm...Snacks

What are your three favorite snacks?
Submitted by Sunscreem.

celery, anything chocolate, beef jerky... 

does that make me weird? er?

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What I have so far...

These are the first ones I've tried,  the pictures aren't very good, and the little bugger is not glazed yet.

The one I think is the best, he does have a bubble in one wing and I couldn't get his body to puff out.

crane.jpg

And here is the group, all but the very first two.. they were cracked on all the fold lines so I mushed them back up rather than backing them.

cranes.jpg

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QotD: Totally Obsessed

What is your current obsession(s)?
Submitted by eijsr.

making origami cranes out of polymer clay

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Polymer Clay

When I was in high school, I made a rose out of a mud clay or play dough or something, and it impressed my Mom. My Mother went to an art store and came home with a box of Sculpey I really liked working with it.. I made quite a few roses, I was frustrated by the difficulty supporting the sculpey as it baked, so my flowers would not be squashed on one side. I was also frustrated by painting the sculpey, rather than having it colored somehow, the paint didnt look the way I wanted and frankly, I've never been good at painting...  (well I made one thing at camp look the way I envisioned it.. but I ruined it last year while we where moving. Tempera paint and a sink full of hot dirty dish water are not a good mix)

Before long homework, work and school plays took over all the time I had.. I didn't get to play with my clay and really learn, and when I had questions about it I didn't know where to go for the answers. This was long before we all had Internet at home. I only knew what internet was because my Dad had it at work. There was not the wealth on information out there that there is now. So my clay was pulled out once in a while.. I would fiddle with it and sometimes I would bake it sometimes it was only stress relief and I'd mush it all up again.

Fast Forward to married life  ...One day I went into our local art store and there, low and behold was colored polymer clay. Fimo to be exact. So I bought a few colors...  Only to learn later that I still didn't know the ins and outs of working with polymer clay, I didn't know how to blend two pinks to get he look I wanted, or how not to over blend, so I had swirls rather than mud. I made a few beads, but I could not get the pinks to blend in a natural way so I could make roses I was happy with. mostly the clay sat around. 

Forward again. I lost the hoof off of a model horse. after a few days of thought.. I decided to go buy some polymer clay to make a new one. My first polymer clay mold was of a model horse hoof.  this lead me to play with the clay a little more but mostly my time was consumed by the bigger of the little ones.. and creatively I was spending my energies on photography,  knitting,  sewing etc. (jack of all trades/crafts master of none)

phototree.jpg

After J was born I started to get more into Photography;One day on a photography mb someone asked if anyone was making photo tiles from clay.  After reading some instructions, and seeing a few pictures I thought it looked like a fun craft to try. I made my Grandmothers little brass wire trees with picture tile ornaments for Christmas 2004. Then I began to refine the photo tiles,  and as people saw ones I had made as gifts I began to get requests to sell them. And so now I do.

I have recently been looking for a way to seal the tiles to make them sturdier, for people who might want to have them on keychains and such, And I have discovered a wealth on information out there from PC artists, plus some techniques I'm like to try, but what I found most inspiring was this.

Polymer Peace Cranes Origami Cranes, something I have been making since the Fourth Grade, made from Polymer Clay...  I never could figure out how to protect the paper cranes to use them as ornaments, and now.. I'm so inspired by the mix of the this medium with this one of my favorite crafts!! I have already made a couple.. and one of them looks pretty decent... now I just need to learn to make more exciting "papers" .

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