So I went for a walk with my mom this morning to Lion's Den Gorge, a park by Lake Michigan in Ozaukee County. You can see all the pictures here: http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/41st%20birthday/
Here are a few - My favorite shot of the day:
A circle of rocks:
Me:
The rock I took home:
From my parents, a buff (to protect head from sun and mosquitos), headband to deal with sweat while working out, and water bottle as well as paying my joining fee for the gym (obviously not pictures ;-)):
I am a part of a travel scarf swap and that is what I have been working on the rest of the day (there are 12 people in the swap and everyone adds 5 inches to each persons scarf):
In this last one I am adding the fuzzy blue, I'm not done yet:
Over all a pretty good birthday. If it were 20 degrees warmer and sunny, it would have been all that much better. What can you do, this is 50% of my birthdays.
I cannot believe it, I FINALLY got another Etsy treasury. Officially, third time is the charm. Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=54799 The list will expire April 29th at 9:07pm, so after that you won't be able to see it.
So my mom and I went to the Art Museum yesterday since we couldn't really go on Wednesday since she needs to take my one niece to the doctors. It was very nice. Good to see that the Milwaukee Art Museum finally has some new art. One of the pieces I would have loved to have taken home with me. Too bad I didn't have a little notebook with me to write down the information and my memory is worth pennies at best.
So I now have my dad's old office desk in my place. I totally love it. but I have a lot more of organizing work to do. I'll take pictures when I am done. First I need to work on the travel scarf project and finish that, I should be able to do that tonight. Then I have another scarf I have to finish that this girl at work has been waiting forever for. I did warn her ahead of time that she probably won't get it until the weather is warm. I am determined to finish it by Monday. Then I have another scarf I need to start. Then my last scarf will be a scarf for myself out of some fab yarn. After that, I don't want to knit another scarf for as long as I live. I'm not cut out for it. The one exception will be these scarves (these two made for a swap):
So my birthday is Wednesday and my mom and I will go for a walk in the morning and then she has to take my niece to the doctor. I will probably knit the rest of the day. We'll see. I also have off Thursday. I see my doctor for my annual fun, or not always so much fun. Hopefully at some point this week I will see my friend elociNNicole. For work I am bringing in a treat of angel food cake, fat free cool whip, vanilla yogurt, granola, fruit. I hope they enjoy it.
I best go, the morning is getting away from me and I still need to get dressed and eat breakfast.
So I want to look up to see if there a way to do a DIY rain barrel and DIY compost bin. I am not currently composting my kitchen waste that can be composted, but it would do me so much good as my garden soil still needs improvement. Better than buying compost (which I will still need to do for this year). I want to learn how to make my own cleaners as well. There is just so much. Other goals:
Eat no processed foods (shudder, this one is going to be hard) Find out how to recycle prescription bottles. Reduce electric use. Locally, ride my bike or walk where I need to go whenever possible.
This is really just a start. *sigh* It seems a little overwhelming. I have also been watching the cable channel "Planet Green" and they have a lot of information on there. One way to save on electricity is to turn off the TV more often. The channels repeat a lot of shows over and over again and I have been putting shows I have seen on mute and listening to music. I need to turn off the TV.
Anyone with any ideas or links that I might find helpful, please post a comment and let me know. Thank you.
Wooooo, the pictures in the middle worked. Even easier to do than the way I was doing it anyways.
So yesterday I spent most of the day organizing my yarn. I have to show off all of my hard work. To think there is a pretty good amount of yarn I will be donating to Goodwill (partial skeins I'm sure I won't use, yarn that is impossible to work with (don't ever buy chenille or suede yarn, I have no patience for it), etc). I have 4 plastic grocery bags worth of stuff I am donating. Anyways, onto what I am keeping:
Almost everything laid out:
Containers stacked (and each one filled to the absolute brim):
wool bag, novelty yarn bag, scrap bag (can be used for filling for say a certain stuffie I still hope to make for someone's son who was supposed to be my swap partner, but having a baby got in the way (insert rolly eyes)):
All of the yarn I got from Chicago except the large blue/gold ball which I received in a swap (it is fab yarn and I know what I'm doing with it):
The darkest blue yarn is hand spun I received in a swap, the lighter blues are yarns I bought in Chicago, the pink is my own handspun yarn and in the plastic bag is yarn I got from my friend known in Craftster-land as elociNNicole (unfortunately you can't see it real well :-( ):
Last picture, more yarn from Chicago (the big one is Twinkle yarn and I know what I'm doing with it, but one year later still haven't done it *sigh*):
You think that is enough? What I really need is at least one more plastic bin to store my yarn. *sigh* I love my yarn. I didn't even include the roving to make more yarn (though that fits into a very small drawer).
Hopefully I won't have to put the pictures in a separate post because my little experiment of posting pictures in the middle didn't work.
This is my new laptop. Yay!!!!
Some seeds and stuff for my garden this year.
So I have a seed starter kit (I'm sure I need more), a couple of onion sets, plant markers and the seeds I have: Royal Burgundy Beans (they are purple, but I guess once you cook them, they turn green), carrots (I thought maybe if I grow vegetables I don't like, maybe I'll start to like them, we'll see), lettuce (I need more seeds, one packet isn't going to cut it), a couple of different sunflower seed packets, marigolds (suppose to keep creepy bugs away from tomato plants, don't know if it works, but it looks nice), long beans (they look really cool), typical garden bean (I love green beans), scallions (or green onion if you prefer), cilantro (One of the best herbs ever), radishes (again, if I grow it, maybe I'll learn to like it), garlic chives (mmmm), chives (you can never ever have too many).
What is missing is tomatoes. What is wrong with me? I hope to do a mix of seed and seedlings for tomatoes. It is just that you have more choice for tomato varieties if you buy seeds. I also need to make sure I get Basil Spicy Globe seeds too. I grew it one year and it is much spicier than regular basil and my mom can tell you I LOVE strong spicy flavors (but not when it comes to hot pepper type stuff).
I think that is all for now. Right now I am procrastinating from organizing my yarn. I'll get back to it after I post this. Yay, I think. ;-)
So my old computer was being super duper uber slow. Like 10 million years to load a page. I am very happily on a brand spankin new laptop now. HP Pavilion with 320 gigs, the bare minimum this music junkie needs. I do need to invest in an external drive though as I keep my computers for at least 5 years and I'm sure eventually 320 gigs won't be near enough. (*sigh*, again, where are the animated emoticons, I'm dying here ;-)). I will take a picture of it later. I also want to take pics of all the gardening stuff I have gotten so far. Back to the computer, I had someone come over who could transfer my precious files (especially the music ones). They also saved the old computer by cleaning up a lot of the problems with it. It will now find a new home with one of my Mom's friends.
So yeah, I guess I will occasionally be blogging about music too. So far you might be fooled into thinking I only like folk/country/a little pop. My tastes are way all over the board and I can't wait to introduce all of you to more. You may like some and may not like others, but at least you have been exposed. Never hurts to try something new.
Hmmm....I have a request to post some crochet. I am still so so so much more in love with knitting (though it takes me waay forever to knit, I am like the worlds slowest knitter without even trying). I have still been keeping along at trying crochet and trying to challenge myself. After the crochet motif swap recently though, I need a serious break. Let me see if I can find the pictures of the crochet motifs I sent out on the swap on my new computer. .....um....ok....so the pictures are at the top. So, blogger newbie here. how can I add pictures in the middle of a post? Please help. Thanks. Well, anyways, my friend got their wish and that is about the most they will get from me for a while for crochet. Knitting on the other hand....
Ane Brun: I found her several years ago at WMSE. On first listen of her CD A Temporary Dive, there was only three songs I could really get into, the rest didn't appeal to me. Those three songs are "Let Myself Go", "Rubber and Soul" with Teitur, and "This Voice". Lately I have been seriously craving those three songs so much, that I thought I would give the rest another listen. I totally LOVE her now and definitely want more of her music. This is my favorite video, so incredibly beautiful:
There are a ton of YouTube videos. Here is a link to the search for them: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=ane+brun&aq=f
There is also a series of videos called "Behind Closed Doors" which have musicians playing on an elevator. Ane has a few (one is in my April 10th post): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH6CAjBCPgE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8SsB4dNF_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReY-v9L-PRY
She is from Norway, here are some other links for Ane Brun: http://www.anebrun.com/ http://www.myspace.com/anebrun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ane_Brun http://www.alwaysontherun.net/anebrun.htm
Bek-Jean Stewart: Whereas I have been really getting into Ane Brun for the past few days, I have been getting into Bek-Jean Stewart for the past few months. She used to be the lead singer for Australian Band Eva Trout. There aren't a whole lot of videos to choose from here, but this is the song/video that made me first fall in love with Eva Trout(love love love this song) which eventually led to falling in love with Bek-Jean Stewart who eventually had a solo album.
She has blonde hair now and doesn't really look anything now that she does in that video. How I wish there were Bek-Jean Stewart videos, but there are none except for Eva Trout videos. Here is the link to the Eva Trout to search on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=eva+trout&aq=f
Bek-Jean Stewart in general is rock/country. Everyone knows how much I love country music, which is not at all. Truthfully I can listen to some old country and alt country music. I would say Bek-Jean Stewart is more alt country where is country. She has a really fantastic voice, a lot of emotion, and I just really feel her music. A couple of my favorite songs are "Lover Come Over" and "Bleed Like a Woman". You can get her album Juntior Years on Amazon.com or iTunes. Somewhere, I think MySpace, it was mentioned that she is supposed to have a new album out early this year, but I have not been able to find any information on it. That makes me sad, I really really want some new music from her. Bek-Jean Stewart is just phenomonal (and for the family friendly, a tiny amount of Eva Trout and Bek-Jean Stewart songs have swears). Here are the links to her web site and her MySpace: http://www.bekjeanstewart.com/ http://www.myspace.com/bekjeanstewart
Sarah Bettens: I was recently reminiscent of some K's Choice that I really enjoyed and learned that the lead singers name is Sarah Bettens (she and her brother Gert started K's Choice, they are from Belgium) (another dark hair girl that went blonde). She has since released a couple of solo CDs and that her Gert have been working on some new K's Choice music. I actually enjoy seeing all the videos of her on YouTube more than listening to the studio album. This video is just the best though. It is her and her brother Gert performing the song "Next Year" which is a cover of a Foo Fighters (I don't listen to the Foo Fighters, so I have no idea what the orginal is like):
My fave K's Choice song is "Not An Addict": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cklb7L0OA1c
A search of K's Choice videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=k%27s+choice&aq=f
A search for Sarah Bettens videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Sarah+bettens&aq=f I love the song "Come Over Here": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XajbG_sgkjI
Sarah Bettens web site and MySpace: http://www.sarahbettens.com/ http://www.myspace.com/sarahbettens
I really hope all of you check all of this out. It was fun to put together.
I'm silly, trying this out to see how it works. What should happen I think, is that you see the video for Ane Brun. If it doesn't work, I'll be blogging about her and some others tomorrow and will put in links to videos for them. Though it would be great if this works.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
I scored another Etsy treasury. Yay!!! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=51298
Yay, I finally started a blog. At the very least I want to post progress about my garden. Also will be posting about crafting, mainly knitting. I may also be sharing camping adventures and adventures in weight loss. Very much a personal blog indeed. Let us start with my blank slate of a garden. I have some serious plans for my space. The tree will eventually be gone.
