myklia's life, in pictures and words

CocoRosie

2010-06-20T20:35:00.002-05:00

So it has been a million years (or 6 months?) since I have had a blog post. Silly me. CocoRosie is worth the time and effort though. So I saw CocoRosie last night (June 19th 2010) at the Barrymore theater in Madison Wisconsin. I was really dreading the idea of driving back to Milwaukee late at night (as I get sleepy and sleepy behind the wheel is not a good idea). I thought of camping near Madison, but there weren't any reservable spots left so I had to take my chances. Luckily I found one Saturday morning, set up camp, wrote a poem for CocoRosie (which I put on my poetry blog)and then knitted. I left the campground about 10 after 6pm assuming that they would open the doors at 7pm. When I got there, no one was waiting outside, but shortly after a group came in to get their tickets. We were told we needed to wait outside and told where to start the line outside. I was first and this group of young people were second. I got to talking to the one woman Jodi, who I found out was the mom of the younger girl and Jodi is closer to my age. Her daughter had a couple of friends there as well. It was her daughters 18th birthday that day. I hung out with them during the duration of the concert and Jodi and I plan on staying in touch and being friends. That was an unexpected and wonderful surprise.

Diane Cluck opened for CocoRosie. I had heard of her, but not heard her. I really loved her. She does folk music, but it is the kind of folk that I like (folk music can be really hit or miss for me). I got to meet her briefly after her performance and after the CocoRosie concert. Jodi and I managed to stand right by the stage right in front of where Bianca stands. It was amazing. Everyone loves Bianca. I just don't know what it is about her. Sierra was just so bright and energized. Almost all of my favorite songs were played. During the song "Hopscotch" they did the hand clap game all little girls do (pictured below). They have a beat box guy who did a solo performance that was nothing short of stunning. I don't know what details to go into, the whole night was amazing. I will say I was surprised to learn that Bianca plays so many wind instruments. Yep, I'm majorly in love.

Here are the pictures:

You can find all the pictures at Flickr.

And a video I made of them performing "Werewolf".

CocoRosie - Werewolf - Madison June 19 2010 from Jeanette Alred on Vimeo.

Ikea fun

2010-01-18T14:55:00.003-06:00

There is still a bookcase I want at Ikea, but this is what I have so far. Most of it I got yesterday and one thing last month.

What I got last month was another pendant lamp to put overhead in my craft room. I already have one exactly like it in my dining area.

My new desk lamp that desperately needed. I spend most of my time at my desk on my laptop and crafting. The lighting in my craft room has been extremely poor. Really makes it hard to read or focus on what I am doing with knitting. I have a picture at night (before cleaning my desk) and next day in day light (after cleaning my desk).

My new TV stand, I have been wanting this for some time. Something to hold my TV, stereo and related components and still look beautiful. At some point I want to get an LCD TV. Aesthetically it will look better and the picture will be better.

My infamous new lamp shade:

Other small stuff. Salad spinner, mouse pads for work, lint roller, batteries. I know all exciting, not.

Some picture frames (with some gorgeous pictures I received in a swap). I need to measure all my artwork now and pick up more frames next time I am there.

I hope for one more trip after tax refund to get the bookcase I want. I will get the black/brown color.
This:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50103086
or this:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40047675

As for moving again, I keep on changing my mind. Stay tuned to see what happens, but if I do move, it will probably be next fall once gardening season is over. Of course if my alcoholic neighbor tries to be buddies with me again now that his girlfriend left him, I might move sooner. I have seen him once and it seems as if he will leave me alone. Nice guy with a bad problem. Too bad.

Otherwise, enjoying my last day of my 4 day weekend.

Christmas, Bill, Power Down

2010-01-09T18:37:00.005-06:00

Silly Latisse commercial, I wouldn't pay one cent for some crap to make my eye lashes fuller and longer. Ok anyways....not what this blog is about.

Christmas was good this year. Always better than the cold and snow that accompanies it. I'm sure I am going to forget something, but here goes.

Family:
Parents: Knitting book
Sister: While you were Sleeping DVD (and there was something else I can't think of. Um....)
Nieces: Michaels gift cards and Michelle also gave me a beautiful ornament from a German shopping place in Chicago (unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, but I didn't get pictures of everything)
Aunt Sue and Phil: A beautiful ornament and the proceeds help reforest America.
Aunt Carol: $25 (pictured below will be a picture of what I bought).

Friends:
Paula: Fingerless gloves (you know how long I have been begging for some), cookies, and A Christmas Story Fudge (A Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland and Paula lives near there and Cleveland has preserved the house and has a museum for the movies and Paula was able to get this for me). I feel like I'm missing something here. I hope not.
Bonnie: A $30 gift certificate for Paradise Fibers. The choices were endless so it was super hard to decide. I have pictures of what I got below.
Jillian: Well we will be exchanging music and poetry throughout the year. I do have something(s) in mind for an actual gift for Christmas and birthday, but I haven't gotten it yet.
Nicole: This girl is generous with me year round. I am not worthy. We haven't gotten together yet, but I am no where near close to doing all for her that I want to. I know one thing though, a carder. I got one half of a carder from my friend Sarah and Nicole miraculously found a matching half. When I get the second half and play with it, that will be a new blog post.

Pictures of stuff from Paula:

Pictures of what I got from Paradise Fibers, roving (to make yarn) and yarn:

The artwork I got with money from Aunt Carol (hopefully people don't mind seeing an artful nude)Art by Krystyna81:

My parents got themselves a new dog for Christmas. His name is Bill and we love him so much (and I'm not a dog person):

Power Down:
There is a power down movement starting where people are choosing every Saturday to live without TV, Computer, things electronic. The extent people want to do it is completely up to them. I really love this idea as I want to be earth friendly but I haven't done it for the last couple of weeks. It is challenging, I have a hard time living in silence. If I had people to hang out with in person I think it would make it much easier. I thought about learning instruments. I have a couple of guitars and I want a mandolin, but then I quickly realized I usually have a lot of crafting to do so I can't play an instrument and craft at the same time. I think this will be easier in the summertime when I can get out more. I really hate winter. Not really sure what to do for now. If anyone wants to come over and hang out on Saturdays and join me, let me know. I'll be happy to turn off the TV and/or computer and sit and chat, cook, craft. Need people.

Ok, I think that is it for now. Next weekend I have some fun things in store, so more about that afterwords. Yay!!!!

Winter/Christmas

2009-12-13T12:03:00.002-06:00

Dear god it is here again....winter. All my Facebook friends are probably well sick of my hate of snow by now. I must have some form of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Snow is pretty and all, but I enjoy it much more in pictures than in reality. So lets see...I don't really have any desire to live in Florida, southern California wouldn't be too bad though I'm not sure about earthquakes and wild fires but am sure about beaches and sun, Hawaii would be a dream but I would feel so isolated it would be hard to always want to come back and visit. Where I REALLY want to live is in New York City. Sure there is still cold and snow but I wouldn't need a car so I wouldn't have to drive in the snow. What New York City has going for it is cultural diversity and just all the offerings and activities of a big city. I had always considered myself a half city/half country girl. After living in Cedarburg for four years I realize I am probably 80 to 90% city and 10 to 20% country. The country part of me likes to drive country roads and go camping. Outside of that I really really want to be in the city. I am just not really able to justify the funds to move back to downtown Milwaukee or for that matter New York City. I think I should make a definite goal to visit New York since I have never been there to see what I think of it in person and the reality of living there. Not just be a tourist.

Christmas doesn't depress me so much (whereas winter really depresses me). The most exciting thing this winter will be my parents new greyhound dog, though he may not be there before Christmas (we can always hope). I am not a dog person by any means, but since my parents started researching greyhounds and I have learned more about them, they sound like really great dogs!!! Here is the link to their new dog.

I hope that by no later than this Friday or Saturday to get all my Christmas stuff out. Hopefully sooner. I'm not doing so good at being productive this weekend. I better get with it. :-)

The holidays

2009-11-28T07:35:00.002-06:00

Well turkey day was interesting this year. It had been a couple of years since I cooked the turkey so I looked up cooking times to refresh my memory. I found a web site that said to cook at 325 degrees for 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 hours. WRONG!!! About 2 hours after that the turkey was ready. Rather than wait 2 more hours to eat we all decided we like turkey for leftovers better anyways and ate everything else. So a kind of turkeyless thanksgiving. I thought it was fun. I like all the other stuff (especially stuffing) better anyways. Then we watched A Christmas Story. My sister had to work during the day and nieces at night. So after my twin nieces went to work my sister came over and had dinner. By then the turkey was done so she did have some. She got most of the turkey leftovers and I got most of the stuffing leftovers. I thought it was a very good day. I don't have a picture of the turkey because of the issues we had. Here are a couple of other pictures:

Some more pictures of a morning commute. Try not to get too bored with my obsession. ;-)

This weekend will be going for a walk with my mom and then making my holiday CDs. Hopefully I will have them in the mail some time this week.

The night sky 11-16-09

2009-11-16T19:09:00.002-06:00

I just want to post a couple of pictures I took tonight of the really cool sky.
See all the pictures here:
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/blog%20pics/night%20sky%2011-16-09/

You can barely see the star in the upper left hand corner:

Keep in mind that the only camera I have right now is my cell phone camera. I try to do what I can.

Weekend Novemer 14 and 15 2009

2009-11-16T04:56:00.003-06:00

I had a pretty good weekend. I started off Saturday with a great haircut and then I went to a friend's house. We knew each other in high school and every so often in the last 5 years or so(?)we have run into each other, but never too much more than "hi, how are you" because I think it was usually crowded situations. They didn't lend themselves to really sitting and talking. I found her on Facebook and we have reconnected. I went to her house to pick up one carder and hung out for a while with her and her two children and had breakfast and great conversation. It was really wonderful.

After that I had ummm...girl business, but then after that I went to Zine Fest in the Riverwest neighborhood. Zines are like little homemade magazines. A lot of creativity and range of subjects. Really fantastic!!! I then went to Whole Foods and did some shopping there (I am not often in that part of town, so it is a treat for me). After that I went to Trader Joe's because they were selling pre-brined fresh turkeys. I picked one up for Thanksgiving. Should be good.

Yesterday I went to a bio poetics class about how science can influence poetry. It was really fun and we even had a biology student who also likes poetry attend the class so she had a different perspective to offer. I found out I am a syllable counting geek. I have always liked haiku's, but now have fallen in love with Fibonacci poems. There was much else discussed too.

Onto a couple of pictures. My haircut:

Zines I got at Zine Fest:

A Fabonacci is supposed to start with a zero, so a sigh will serve as my zero. Here is my poem:

*sigh*

I

One

Alone

Wanting you

You not wanting me

But I want to make you happy

You don't know me but I want you to give me a chance

You don't know that I am peace, calm, happiness, laughter, creative, hard working, and love

You are sunshine in a smile, beautiful eyes gleaming, great energy to light the world, a loving soul, warm as a summer day, I want you

************************************************************

Ok, I better go, still much to do before I leave work this morning.

Fantastic Friday Morning Commute

2009-11-13T20:20:00.002-06:00

I worked 2 hours late last night because I knew I was going to have over 300 bills today, which is a lot and it required that much prep time to make today go smoothly. When I woke up I knew I was well prepared for the day so I woke up and went to work stress free and felt fantastic. I first stopped at my favorite bagel shop to get my favorite bagel sandwich which I always get to go. When I was driving to work there was such a beautiful sunrise and great music coming on in my shuffle.

Anyone who knows me knows I love taking pictures of my commute which is mostly country roads. I was stopped when I took these pictures. Some are a little blurry, but that is because my cell phone camera likes to do that, not because I was speeding by. Sometimes I like that effect even though I wasn't trying for it. Onto the pictures:

On Wasaukee Rd just south of Mequon Rd:

Wasaukee Rd and Donges Bay Rd:

Wasaukee Rd and Brown Deer Rd:

Park Place Rd just off of Bradley Rd:

At my parking spot at work:

And finally, my favorite bagel sandwich:

Now some of the music I was listening to:
The The "Uncertain Smile"

So it seems like I can only get "One Minute" by The Album Leaf as background music to something else and why not the surfer guy. I LOVE watching surfers and I love the sun sand and beach and track is a great background to this clip.

Of course my girl Bek-Jean Stewart, here as lead singer of Eva Trout, these days she is skinny sporting blond hair and is drummer for a band called The Leisure Suit which contains band members of Eva Trout. They all seem to be a close bunch. I really just love Bek-Jean Stewart. All her music, Eva Trout and her solo music, has so much heart. There are the pop songs, but there is some very deep stuff as well. Anyways, LOVE this song:

This song didn't come up in my shuffle, but should have. It was hard to find a decent version with an embed code, but this isn't too bad, performed live by Aimee Mann. "Coming Up Close" by Til Tuesday:

One other picture taken over a week ago that I like:

Hopefully more pictures by Sunday night, I have a great busy weekend ahead.

Fiber Fest!!!

2009-11-10T19:10:00.002-06:00

My friend Nicole has my number alright!!! Such amazing gorgeous yarn!!!! Nice and sparkly. Also some soap to try out as I am looking for good soaps to shower with (though the UNSCENTED Dove is working good, but the SCENTED Dove made me near sick). I would eventually like all vegan handmade unscented soap (unless it is a nice natural lavender scent). Anyways, onto fiber goodness to make yarn with. Yay!!!

The group shot:

Individual shots:

Whenever I get around to spinning them I'll post pictures. Will be a while yet.

I never mentioned that I have also entered the realm of dying roving:

I will be spinning up some of this one this week:

Yay!!!

A fantastic walk

2009-11-07T13:22:00.002-06:00

Well the plan was to stay at home and do nothing but knit all day, but then I noticed it was getting over 60 degrees and it was sunny out. I HAD to go for a walk. First I opened almost every window in my apartment. mmmm....Fresh air. I went to Garrison's Glen in Ozaukee County on Pioneer Road about 1/2 mile west of Hwy 43. It is pretty much a prairie with some trees around the edge and a few trees on the inside. It looks deceptively small, but it isn't huge either. Really cool meandering trails, almost like a maze. I highly recommend going, it is quite pleasant. All the pictures are here.

Onto the pictures:

I think this milkweed would make great yarn. I should look up to see if it has been done. (yay, someone has done it.)

An Amazing Commute

2009-11-06T19:35:00.002-06:00

I really had the most amazing commute tonight!!! A fiery sunset, country roads, and fantastic music!!!! Oh wow!!! So I couldn't really get a picture of the fiery sky because I was driving and a car was riding my tail, so I couldn't slow down or stop a second to get a picture. Anyways, I have a couple pictures I took when I went to the grocery store. After the pictures is a video of the song I was listening to on my way home. It is "Moon Dream" by Desolation Wilderness. The video shows them performing it live, but I listened to the studio version which is a little better. It really was a great soundtrack to the drive.

Video:

Enjoy!!!

Breast Cancer Awareness hat

2009-11-06T19:25:00.002-06:00

First off, I'm not really proud of this hat, but the idea was there. I really just used the wrong chart for something the size of a hat. The idea was that I would wear this hat on "wear Pink to work day" for breast cancer awareness. I HATE the color pink, so this was my contribution, but the hat turned out a little too large. When we had our bake sale to raise money for breast cancer I contributed this hat. Someone donated $5 to get it, so I am happy for that. Next year I plan on doing more knitting and NO baking. I will need to create my own hat friendly chart for the ribbon. Not sure yet if I'll do all hats, all dishcloths, or a mix. Right now I am thinking a mix. Anyways, here is the hat (not the best picture).

What is going on

2009-11-02T05:18:00.003-06:00

I think I need to rethink my idea of a blog post. Instead of writing a book on everything since I last wrote, just simply write a few things every couple of days or so and offer a couple of pictures (I love pictures).

Today is busiest day of month at work today, so it means I will be working late today. This month I will attempt NaNoWriMo (that would be National Novel Writing Month). Really, I am most comfortable writing poetry and non fiction, so this is a real challenge for me. I'm going to try it. I won't lose too much sleep if I don't succeed, but my plan is still to succeed. I am already way behind because I was trying to do research for things I don't know much about, but a friend suggested putting in "place markers" and then go back in December and do the research for the details. The idea this month is to get as much written down as possible.

Work has been insane, but we won't talk about that. I feel like there is tons more to speak of, but I am drawing a blank this morning. Oh well, later.

Some pictures:
If you listen to NPR you may have heard This American Life hosted by Ira Glass. I got to see him speak and then I met him in person afterwords. What an amazing man.

As I was driving home from work one day:

As I was driving to work one day:

On my last camping trip at Harrington Beach State Park, I am amazed I got this picture, I love it:

Have a good day all.

Plastic, food, and other projects

2009-08-16T10:43:00.003-05:00

The plastic thing is a bust for me for now. Sounds like my aunt is doing fantastic. Not really something to do on the spur of the moment for me. This will be an eventual gradual goal to reduce the amount of plastic. I was at Whole Foods on Friday and they even had a ton of plastic packaging including cheese. What a bummer. So how can you get cheese not in plastic? I think some are wrapped in foil if I remember correctly. I may have to explore that. I still did make some changes listed in my last post.

As many of you know I have gone vegetarian, though I am changing that to pescatarian (where the only meat you eat is fish and seafood). I am still for the most part not missing meat, though burgers do smell good. This is part a health decision, but it also more environmentally friendly to stop eating meat, though some would debate that, but it is where I stand. My other issue with meat is not knowing how it was raised. If I absolutely knew the animals were raised in humane conditions it wouldn't be such a problem, but still, I have other reasons for going meat free. I still haven't bought organic cage free eggs. It is so much more expensive, but I do believe this is a change I need to make.

Another food goal is cutting out high fructose corn syrup. I think this will do more for my health than cutting out meat. There is soooo much stuff with the junk in it, even some spaghetti sauces. Thankfully my tomatoes are finally starting to turn color so hopefully soon I'll have enough to make my own spaghetti sauce, sugar free. What is with people putting sugar in spaghetti sauce? It tastes fanstastic without it.

Speaking of tomatoes, look at my beauties:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................

When I was in door county, Gretchen at Whitefish Bay Farm taught me how to spin better on my drop spindle. Here is the result (sorry the picture is really bad, but when I am done with the project I'll get better pictures):

Believe me, it is sooo much better than what I was doing. Even my mom noticed how incredibly much better it is. There is still room for improvement. The yellow/red one is done spinning and I am working on the blue/orange one. Gretchen also told me how to ply using a drop spindle, so I will eventually ply those two different colorways together. I think it will turn out really cool.

I still haven't edited all my July pictures from our family get togethers and camping trip. Who knows, maybe some time before 2010 I'll get to it.

Day one of reducing plastic

2009-08-11T04:22:00.002-05:00

So there are things I can do for this week and things I am not yet able to do. It is no longer a week without plastic, but a week of reducing plastic. I'm afraid so far I like my bread in plastic. I would like to know what the other alternatives are to storing bread and how did people store bread before plastic? So far my food transportation is best in plastic, mostly because I won't have money until Friday to buy a more earth friendly alternative. I do want to stop using my glad containers though. I no longer microwave in my plastic containers. I can bring a ceramic plate to work to eat on for this week, but eventually I would like my permanent container to be something safe to transport, microwave, and eat in.

Changes I made:
Drinking out of a ceramic cup
Eating on real plates
Using real silverware
Using my soap saver to scrub and clean my body with
Using my shampoo soap bar
I changed to using only bar soap in general some time ago, I no longer buy liquid soap.

Last night I tried the shampoo soap bar for the first time. It seemed to lather up fine. My hair felt different afterwords than it does with my shampoo. Now that my hair is dry, I think my hair looks soooo much better. Too bad no one will really tell because it is too hot and I need to put my hair back in a pony tail. I definitely recommend it. After this week I still want to use up what I have left of my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in plastic, why let them go to waste. Once those are used up then I am done with that. That makes me really happy. Last night I made a tomato tart, plastic free (oops, come to think of it though the cheese was in plastic, but what can I do?). Very yummy. Now how does one find cheese plastic free? Possibly at the Whole Foods cheese counter I could probably get my cheese without plastic. Whole Foods also has bulk bins for things like rice, flour, beans, etc and they have brown paper bags to put them in. Now I just realized the pie crust for the tart also was in plastic. I can make my own crust in the future though, I have done it before.

Some more links (found in the comment section of the Readymade article):
Bank/Earth/Self
Fake Plastic Fish

The Readymade Blog of one week without plastic:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 5

Ok, so I couldn't immediately find the link for day one, but now Readymade is doing an experiment of a week without processed food, another noble goal I would like to do, though I think winter would be a challenge. Anyways, All the posts for a week without processed foods (first) and a week without plastic (further down the page) are all on one page, so maybe just go here:

Readymade, a week without feature

Now I should say, that even though I am not doing as much this week because of money, lack of solutions right now, etc, I eventually plan on doing more. Like I have said before, it will be a process of attrition. When I need to replace plastic items, I will look for non plastic solutions.

Plastic continued

2009-08-09T11:02:00.002-05:00

First of all, look at the planet green channel for ideas about being more environmentally green:
Planet Green

Today they had a show on that showed the result of plastic pollution (though I only caught part of it, but it was powerful) called Hawaii: Message in the Waves. It is a VERY sobering show that should be watched by everyone in the world.

With all this I realize that my week without plastic will simply be trying to reasonably reduce plastic as much as possible. As I need to replace the plastic I have, then I'll replace it with non plastic things. You know my hair brush is plastic? Are there non plastic ones out there? Man, to think 100 years ago there was no plastic. How do we go back???

Anyways some more links:

Etsy search for soap savers
No Impact Man
Home made cleaning products
Plastic Free Blog

I have yet to read the plastic free blog, just found it just now, but from a brief glimpse it looks like getting rid of plastic by attrition which is what I would like to do, but I wonder how people really really reduce it. I have yet to read and learn more about it. As I find links, I will share them.

Living without plastic

2009-08-08T14:51:00.000-05:00

My Aunt Sue and I are going to try going plastic free for a week inspired by ReadyMade. I think this is mostly doable, but have realized that this will be impossible for me at the moment, but I'll get to that later. I am not worried about things like computers and tvs and refrigerators and other appliances that are a part of our everyday life. I think about all the things I am going to cover here.

Water

So this is a couple of examples of how I keep my water:

Yes, it is all plastic. The way to go plastic free with water is to drink from the tap and in the city of Milwaukee, the tap water tastes just fine and if I lived there I would drink it. I live in Cedarburg and the tap water tastes horrible. If I didn't rent, I could get a water filtration system. There are some that can be added onto the faucet, but I can't use them on my faucets. What I do is get the refillable gallons of water at the grocery store. You fill the same water gallon jugs every week at the water dispenser. Most grocery stores have these. I then fill my two gallon water holder in my fridge with the spicket dispenser. My water bottle I'm sure is BPA free one, but for this week I will drink out of my ceramic mugs. My method of getting water, though it involves plastic, is not changing for the week.

Food packaging

I had to think about the food I am going to eat. So much food comes in plastic. The bread I eat, the mayo in the fridge, just everything!!!!

You can see honey and spices too. I do have some spices in glass containers. The place to buy those is in downtown Milwaukee, I'm not there much. As I finish using my spices in the plastic containers, I will convert to the glass container ones. I don't know what to do about milk. They used to be available in cardboard containers, but I don't think so anymore. There is an expensive brand that comes in glass and I think that is hormone free. I will consider it for future milk purchaces. I am not wasting the milk currently in my fridge because it is in plastic. I think you can find honey in glass jars. For bread, I need to explore making my own, but for now I will take the bread I have and transfer it to a brown paper lunch bag. Oh what else? There is sooo much. *sigh* I'm still using my honey that is in plastic. When I need to buy more, then I'll get glass.

Now for the produce. Mostly you can avoid buying things in the plastic bags. Buy it where you can pick and choose how many and what you want. Don't put them in the little plastic bags. There are solutions at Craftster and Etsy. Buy the produce loose. After it is rung up at the register, then put them in your own reusable produce bags.

Food Storage, transportation, untensils:

Here are some of my food containers:

About 99% plastic. This week's solution is to have sandwiches and wrap in parchment paper and carry lunch bags. Currently I am in a personal swap with someone to get reusable lunch bags, but I won't have them this week. Those lunch bags can be thrown in my compost if I can't reuse them. I have heard there are glass containers available now, but I haven't seen them, but I haven't been to places where I can find them. There are also tiffin containers (though the metal ones cannot be microwaved and others are supposed to be microwavable plastic, but I still wonder how safe it is. For my flour and sugar etc I can get ceramic containers like at Crate and Barrel.

Bath and Laundry

I recently made my own laundry detergent using this recipe (scroll down) and it works. There are many other cleaning recipes on this site. For shampooing you can use a shampoo shower bar (I have one, not used it yet because I was using up what I have, but for my week I will try it out). Instead of using body wash and plastic scrubber I use this:

It is a crochet bag with soap inside. I haven't checked, but you might be able to find the crochet bag on Etsy (search for soap saver). I made this one myself. If you are in my family, this may be in your future. Brushing teeth, hmmm.... I am still using my plastic toothbrush with toothpaste still in plastic (yes, you can brush teeth with baking soda, but ick).

I really need to go now. There may be a part two of this and may blog during the week how it is going. There is more I want to blog about and I'll do that tomorrow. Tonight I'll be on WMSE from 6-9pm central time. Tune in if you read this in time. This is why I need to get going, need to do my hair and find a decent shirt to wear. Please please please leave comments and questions, I am sure I have only scratched the surface.

Where have I been??

2009-07-13T21:38:00.000-05:00

I have been super busy. Still trying to finish up a craft swap. There was my Dad's retirement party which was also a bit of a family reunion. I really really want to work on editing my pictures and posting the best ones before I leave for camping on Saturday. Once I come back from camping I will have tons more pictures. I wish I could have a vacation before and after my vacation, or perhaps I could win the lottery I never enter. ;-) I hope to have another update before Saturday, but no guarantees.

Pictures and the name myklia

2009-06-22T20:37:00.000-05:00

So I took a bunch of pictures and then edited them to be internet friendly. One day later I decide to upload them to my Photobucket so I can blog about them. A lot of frog pictures and pictures of the new campground at Harrington Beach State Park. Now it seems the edited pictures have disappeared so I have to redo it. You have no idea how much I hate that process. *sigh* I hope to get them up some time this week.

In the meantime I thought I would give you the story behind the name "myklia". I have always loved unique names and have always wanted to create one. Time and time again I would find whatever name I created already existed. Then I created (or so I thought I did) the name myklia. At the time (somewhere around 1994 to 1996, don't remember exactly) I did not find that the name existed. I thought I finally stumbled onto something. This name has been true and loyal to me for years.

One time though an internet friend in Toronto said that they saw my name on a license plate. This is not someone who would lie to me or play a joke on me and I thought that maybe they got the name from me using it on the web.

Fast forward several years later and I now see on the internet someone that goes by "Myklia G". From what very very little I can learn about her, I suspect it is her real name and she has probably had before I "created" it. I think it could be fun to talk to her and learn how she got the name. Myklia G, if you are out there reading this, feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. Sorry if I accidentally stepped on your name.

There is another name I have gone by and that is "Anika". When I started to DJ at WMSE in Milwaukee I went by the DJ name "Jeanette Rose", my real first and middle name. I didn't want to use my last name because there can be some creepy male (and occasionally female) listeners. I was on early Sunday morning.

There was this druggie who called the DJs before me and me all the time. He would always talk about what drugs he was on and what he had been up to in the week which could involve arrest or rehab. One time he was saying where he lived and it was only a couple of blocks from the station. I was a little freaked out. I thought that this guy is so drugged out that if I change my DJ name he won't realize it is the same DJ, but think a new DJ came on the air. Didn't work though. Fortunately he never tried to find me or meet me. When I was looking for a new name I looked at baby name books (I own them even though I'll likely never have a child because I love to look at all the names, weird, I know) and I came across "Anika" according to this book it was African meaning "beauty beyond reproach" and I felt it described the music I was playing at the time (a lot of ethereal gothic music and Cocteau Twins).

Maybe at some point I'll feel motivated to work on the pictures again. My niece Kimmie was with us and I was going to have a picture taken of my mom, myself, and Kimmie all together, but I forgot. Oh well, maybe next time. I enjoyed having her with us.

A different walk, craft room, yarn

2009-06-20T13:18:00.001-05:00

My mom and I went for a run/walk this morning. It was very small. No more than 20 to 30 runners and my mom and I the only two walkers. It was nice (and far too hot). I forgot to take pictures, but it really wasn't picture worthy anyways.

Here is one picture of my craft room. A little music section. I'm thinking I should let the cord from the headphones hang down and then you can see the headphones better. Let me know what you think. I got the album purse from LouraPalmr (craftster.org) in a swap. That is a vinyl album silkscreened with stars and a headphone image. I have never used it because it is too nice to use. The picture does not do it justice. It is artwork to me. I hope LouraPalmr doesn't mind. Below that is a WMSE calendar (WMSE is the radio station I used to DJ at). How cool.

I went to Grafton Yarn Store yesterday to look for sock yarn. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I didn't leave empty handed:

All wound up in center pull ball. Night picture and day picture:

Tomorrow, mom, niece and myself will be hiking and checking out a new campground at a state park. Hopefully I'll get some pictures. Gah, then it is back to work on Monday. I think I need another week or two off. :-P

hair, gift, african music, walk

2009-06-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Suddenly I can think of more pictures I want to take. Oh well, next blog post.

So to start off, I just got my haircut this morning. Have yet another new hairdresser. Have been going to the same place and every time I get a new hairdresser and then request them the next time, they have left the place. Makes me wonder. No matter, I still get great hair cuts there. It isn't exactly as I envisioned in my head, but with the quirks of my hair, I don't think it can be. That said, I am very happy with it. Even a complimentary application of lip gloss afterwards (which of course is already worn off).

My friend Nicole is one of the most giving people in the universe. Don't believe me? Look at this:

This is gorgeous colorful roving used to spin yarn. Something I am going to need to do very soon for a swap partner (but not with this roving). I haven't spun yarn for a really long time (too busy at work and too many other things going on). I totally love this. She sent this out of the blue for no reason. Thanks so much Nicole.

My mom and I went to a free outdoor concert last night at River Rhythms in Downtown Milwaukee. Every Wednesday in Pere Marquette park is a series of free concerts called River Rhythms. Last night we saw Oumar Sagna and Sindoolaa African Music Band. Here are some pictures from the fabulous upbeat show:

They had a dancer there as well as you can see in one of the pictures.

Here is the link for all the pictures in this last week's walk:
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/walks%202009/walk%206-14-09/

These are some of the best pictures yet. You will see my tree, a frog, a deer, and just plain old beauty:

Whew!!! I think I best go and actually get some more work done on my craft room.
Enjoy!!!

Brianna's art, loferl, Rapunzel

2009-06-11T04:48:00.000-05:00

There are a couple of pictures I forgot to include in my last post (imagine that). This is more artwork for my craft room and it is done by my niece Brianna. I LOVE this artwork and am so happy to have it.

There is a woman whose family is part of a Bavarian dance group and they lost their last knitter who made these:

I found out it is called a loferl. This is part of a split sock. There is no pattern, but I will be working on figuring it out. This week at work has been mega busy and extra long hours, so I hope I can get some time this weekend to start writing the pattern up. I need to work on these sooner than later so the dance group has them by German Fest. Most of it I am sure I can figure out and I had an epiphany about about the upper part that I was unsure about. My friend Nicole will be helping out as well. This is really exciting and fun. I just wish I could quit my job for a while and work on this.

I did a couple of Rapunzel scarves for the Friends of Craftster Raffle swap. The theme is Fourth of July. My first Rapunzel scarf has a 4th of July wire garland as a part of it. Extremely hard to work with in the scarf and I definitely don't recommend it and I won't be doing it again. On that note, it is cute and did turn out.

My second Rapunzel scarf I call my "Fireworks" Rapunzel scarf. It was really meant to be a traditional Rapunzel scarf like the one above (minus wire garland), but with a lot fun fibers and reminiscent of fireworks. However it happend, some of my yarn ended way too early and I ended up with a really long tail at one end. I consider this a very happy accident. It is like a fireworks explosion at one end. How awesome. I don't want to give it away now, but will. LOVE this scarf.

This definitely gives me inspiration for future Rapunzel scarf designing. I totally love it.

Hopefully next blog will be Saturday or Sunday. Should be having walk on Saturday and take picture of my favorite tree and who knows what treasures will be found at the beach.

Craft room, rummage, GD, Etsy, out w/mom 6-6-09

2009-06-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures. No really, a ton of pictures. Now not every picture of the 53 new pictures will be posted here. Go to my Photobucket and look in the albums of Blog Pics, Craft Room, RF truck pull, and walks 2009.

Craft Room & rummage sale finds:
As I mentioned last week, I am collecting frames for artwork/photographs that I have from people. I will be posting all of those pictures.

I received this in a swap. I was sooo excited about it:

This I got from Etsy seller jkldesign. I really love her artwork, this is a print:

These are some photographs that my Craftster.org friend mochaxlight (she follows my blog, you should check out her blog, she is taking photos every day, and unlike me, she is good at it):

These next few photographs are from Craftster.org member rlynn that she sent me in a swap. I love vintage carnivals. This was her first attempt at artsy photos and man does she have some talent.

Now for the rummage sale finds. The first one is related to my art framing project:

Now a note on my framing project. I am not a framer. I tried watching YouTube for mat cutting and all videos were from same source using specialized tools. I think since this is for my funky creative craft room, I will make mats out of card stock and/or watercolor paper. It may take some creativity to make it all work. If anyone has any ideas and/or links for me, please let me know. Thanks.

Other rummage treasures:

One of my recent craft projects are granny daughters for a swap. It is the first round of a granny square:

I scored another Etsy treasury. It will expire Tuesday evening and then the link won't work anymore. I actually tried to take a picture of it on my laptop:

My mom and I had lunch at a bar and grill in Cedarburg called Mortons. Fab food and some very interesting atmosphere:

We recommend getting one meal for two people. The food was really really good.

We saw a truck pull in the back parking lot of the fitness center we go to. It was young guys vs the old guys:

The old guys won!!! I was kinda routing for the younger guys. Oh well.

Of course mom and I went on our weekly walk. We saw some birds that we weren't exactly sure what they were, but unfortunately the pictures didn't really come out (not a surprise). Of course I have my tree. There were 25 pictures total today (actually more, but I edited out some).
Tree:

Gorgeous trail:

Some mystery plants, if you can help identify, we would appreciate it (firts two are same plants, different views to help identify):

A rock in driftwood. So super cool:

And because I can't help myself and because this blog isn't just picture heavy enough already, some other favorites:

Believe it or not, there are still more walk pictures.

One link I have not yet shared because I don't use it all the time is my flickr. Some pictures are public, but many are private. Feel free to contact me if you want to become friends so you can see my private pictures. It is helpful though if I kinda know who you are either in personal life or Craftster (or if I happen to know you from wherever, let me know). If you are family, you will definitely want to do this. There are pics of my nieces and other family members. Some of my other internet friends are still welcome to become a friend. Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anikaice/

I think that is it for now. Whew!!! I would love to hear from all of you.

Dinner, walk, and loferl

2009-05-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to dinner with some coworkers. Every year MilwaukeeDowntown.com has a dining week. The idea is you get a gourmet dinner, usually worth between $30 to $40 for $20. It is a fun way to experience gourmet food at a more affordable price. Now not all the places I would consider gourmet, like the restaurant "Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery", but most of them are pretty classy. Last year we went to a place called Yanni's (no relation to the musician) that was super gourmet and classy atmosphere. We were spoiled rotton, had a fabulous waitor and really really great food. Unfortunately in the last year they closed. So sad.

This year we went to a seafood restaurant called Rip Tide in the Third Ward neighborhood of downtown. They charge the typical high prices for their seafood, but of course we were getting the $20 deal. My appetizer was shrimp cocktail that was very delicious. The entree I had was the crab cake dinner. I LOVE crab cakes and theirs wasn't bad. The ramoulade sauce was very good and had just the right kick. They also had cooked vegetables, but they weren't seasoned and I am not really that into veggies. There were also red potatoes that were really yummy. I dipped my cut up potatoes in the leftover ramoulade sauce and enjoyed it very much. I wish I had thought of taking pictures of the food. My coworkers were camera shy so I didn't get a picture of all of us. Too bad, I was wearing a cute shirt, earrings, and eye shadow (though you probably wouldn't have been able to see the eye shadow). Even straightened my hair. I need to do all of this on a daily basis, then maybe I will be able to get a date. ;-)

Now for the restaurant itself. NOISY!!!! Then you get to hear over the loud speaker "Smith party of 2". Really super annoying. It is also over the loud speakers outside. Definitely a casual bar atmosphere which really isn't my thing so much. So I wouldn't half mind going back (if for no other reason, I LOVE seafood), but maybe when it is warmer out and sitting outside.

Here are the pictures I did take, of the sign of the resaurant and of the outside of the restaurant. You see how close we were to the river and to the Hoan Bridge.

Now, my favorite pictures of today's walk with my mom:

I had an interesting thing happen this week. Our company has like an online classified ads viewable only within the company system. Someone needed an experienced knitter. Her family is part of a Bavarian dance group that will perform at German Fest. They lost their knitter that made one part (the calf part) of their split socks I later learned is called loferl. She didn't have a pattern, but will be sending it to me, so I can try to figure out the pattern and hopefully my friend Nicole and I will be able to knit some for the group (Some of the boys need a bigger size and they wouldn't mind having some backups). I am mostly German, but I really don't know much about my German heritage. I don't know if our family is remotely Bavarian or not, but I really love learning more about it. I will keep all of you updated on what happens.

The plan for this weekend is to finish my Granny Daughters (the first round of a granny square) for a craft swap and do two rapunzel scarves for another swap. All of this should be fairly quick (I hope). Then I want to work on dishcloths for my aunts and a spider scarf for a personal swap. I will post pictures of things as I am able to. I still haven't taken any pictures of the art and photography I want to put on my walls. Sometime I will.

Have a great weekend everyone!!! :-D

Downy Woodpecker

2009-05-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

The myster bird at the feeder is, as far as I can tell, is the Downy Woodpecker, there is a chance it could be the Hairy Woodpecker, but I feel like it is the Downy Woodpecker. Any birders out there?

Garden, walk, and Goodwill

2009-05-26T16:12:00.000-05:00

So this post has been a long time coming. I was really hoping to do it a couple of days ago, but better late than never. I didn't finish my garden until today. To view all the garden pictures (and if you click on the pictures you can see my comments and most of them have comments) go here: http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/Garden%202009/

This is my DIY compost bin, holes drilled by my dad:

The process of getting rid of weeds. One section done and one being worked on:

Section in the process of getting weeds out and the other section that was yet to go:

One of the beetles living in my garden:

Plants in (though some you can't see because they are seeds in the ground, go to photo album link above for full descriptions of everything, I figure this post will be long enough as it is):

Finally for the "garden" pics, this one is really of an interesting bird at my bird feeder. Anyone know what this bird is, I would love to know:

Again, see all the pictures and descriptions at the link above.

My favorite pictures from this last weeks walk:

Ok, I actually have more favorites than that, see all the pictures here: http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/walks%202009/

Finally, I went to Goodwill today to pick up some stuff. I needed sunglasses, a trellis like structure for my green beans, and some picture frames. I have a bit of artsy photographs received in crafting swaps and some artwork from Etsy and from my niece Brianna that I need framed. This will all be for my craft room. Whatever frame isn't already silverish, I will probably spray paint a silver/pewter color to make the mish mosh a little more cohesive. I still need a lot more frames.

So of course to start of are the picture frames. The first pictures are ones from Goodwill and the second are a couple of frames I got from my mom. She has another one that I think I will take. It is beautiful and will add to the eclectic nature of my craft room that I am going for.

My "trellis". I need to do a bit more work in making this more secure in the ground and then make it "artsy" as well as add wires horizontally to make it even more practical for being a trellis.

And finally me in my new sunglasses from Goodwill. I went to Cousins to get lunch and saw a couple of ladies in the parking lot and had them take a picture of me. I'm sure they thought I was totally and completely nuts. They didn't seem like the type to have a sense of humor. Oh well, I thought it was fun.

So now I am thinking I should take a picture of the photographs and artwork I want to put on my walls for all of you to see. I will try to do that within the next week.

So more pictures than chat today, but that is just fine sometimes. I will leave you with the million ways of learning about me/keeping up with me on the internet:
Photobucket
Twitter
Facebook
Listography
Craftster.org
Etsy favorites

Current Etsy treasury focused on Coney Island. Will expire on Thursday morning May 28th. After that it will disappear into cyberspace.

Am I missing any Nicole???

(now I hope I don't have any grammatical/spelling errors since I rushed through this, please forgive me if I do )

Coming up...

2009-05-23T17:26:00.000-05:00

Took pictures on my Mom and I's walk today. We also went Stein's Garden where I bought more plants, mostly tomato plants. Also got a couple of pepper plants and a zucchini plant. Tomorrow I still have another section to weed out and then I still have many many seeds to plant (in a previous blog post in April). Also still have onions to plant. Yummm.....

I hope to take pictures tomorrow so you can see my hard work. Will post pictures of the walk and garden tomorrow or Monday. I received my yarn to start a spider scarf for a personal swap. I am excited about it, but some parts look complicated. I feel experienced enough now I feel like I should be able to figure anything out. If nothing else, I'll call 911 (my friend Nicole who has already done this, she really needs to live closer to me, oh well ;) ).

Below, I added to my list of facts about me, also found here: http://listography.com/myklia
That listography site is bound to become a new addiction, so be sure to check it every so often.

So all this is upcoming on my blog. For now I am dirty, tired, and hungry. :)

Finally pictures of the walk

2009-05-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

These were taken at Lions Den Gorge park in Ozaukee, WI

A Red Tanger bird:

My fave tree on a sunny day finally getting some leaves:

I love this picture:

Finally pictures of the beach and/or water:

Now for the swap. The idea is that you craft for someone else based on the 100 things about themselves. You craft 5 points. A large is 3 points, a medium is 2 points, and a small is 1 point. So you could do 5 smalls, or 2 mediums and 1 small, however you wish to craft those 5 points. It should be fun and shouldn't be too stressful.

I took more pictures of birds and garden, but will have to wait for when I have the time and patience to upload and edit them. Off to bed soon.

Walk and 100 things about me

2009-05-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

Ok, computer needs a "rest", hope to still post pictures on the walk in an hour or so. For now, I am joining a swap called "100 things about me". Here is most of the list. Will write more about it later, maybe.

1. I love music
2. I knit
3. I do basic beading
4. I crochet a little
5. I have no poly clay talent, gave up on it
8. I love to garden
9. Been getting into birds lately
10. Love hiking
11. Love camping
12. Love biking
13. Trying to lose weight
14. Fave colors are turquois blue, aqua blue, Robin's egg blue, orange, light/lime green, yellow, red
15. Don't like pastels though
16. I love deer heads (fake ones)
17. Obsessed with Ferris Wheels
18. Love taking photos (not so good at it)
19. Hate editing and uploading photos
20. Love nature
21. Love fish (eating them ), pretty to look at too
22. On computer way too much
23. Love art
24. Hate work
25. Hate snow
26. Want to learn to surf
27. Would love to live in southern California or Hawaii (would be happy here if we had warm sunny weather year round)
28. Want to be more eco friendly
29. Want to visit the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State
30. I am agnostic
31. I am a progressive liberal
32. I love frogs
33. I love beluga whales
34. I love trains
35. I hat flying, but I love airports and watching airplanes.
36. I hate squirrels (wouldn't be so bad if they left my bird feeders alone)
37. I love mid-century modern
38. I love cooking
39. I am single
40. I used to be a college radio DJ
41. I once was 7 years old
42. I am shy in person
43. I want more real life friends
44. I love the book Blankets by Craig Thompson
45. I wish I was more artistic and be able to paint, draw, and do sculptures.
46. I love Etsy
47. I love magazines (ReadyMade, Dwell, Clear and other alternative fashion magazines, City, Surface)
48. Favorite yarn fiber is cotton.
49. I love Chicago
50. Nina's is my fave yarn shop in Chicago
51. I love the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago
52. I love sushi
53. I love middle eastern food
54. I spin yarn
55. Loopy is my 2nd fave yarn shop in Chicago
56. I have had a ring fetish lately
57. I love jewelry
58. I love poetry
59. I love handspun yarn
60. I love Calvin & Hobbes
61. I love vintage, especially 1970s
62. I have a bag addiction
63. I love other people's photography
64. I love men's watches
65. I love cloche hats
66. I love making dishcloths
67. Jamie Oliver rocks
68. So does Alton Brown
69. I am diabetic
70. I love ceramics (I don't make them though)
71. I love rain
72. I love fog
73. I love vintage carnivals
74. I love beaches (not the movie)
75. I love Lake Michigan
76. I love handmade soap
77. I love seafood
78. I love swimming
79. I love circles
80. I love glass arts (I don't do them)
81. I love lifting weights
82. I love bowls
83. I love goodwill
84. I love vintage shoes
85. I love clouds
86. I love rocks
87. I love trees
88. I love jackets
89. I love origami
90. I love the movies
* Lost in Translation
* Metropolis (the 1927 movie)
* Chunking Express
91. I love sculptures
92. I love terreriums
93. I wish I could sew
94. I love caplets
95. I love armwarmers
96. I love record players (and vinyl albums)
97. I am funky eclectic eccentric
98. I love sunrises
99. I love cuff links (weird, I know)
100. I love handmade books
* I love the show Democracy Now
* I love old blues/country music (like 1920s to 1940s)
*I wish there was a Honda Element Hybrid
* I LOVE driving country roads
* I miss my grandpa (who instilled my love of country roads)
* I love road trips, preferably on back country roads.
* I want to visit New England and eat seafood
* I want to go to Coney Island
* I want to go on the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island.
* I also want to go to the Santa Monica Pier
* I love Ferris Wheels (worth mentioning a second time ;-))
* I love ethnic and/or unique restaurants
* I also love some local hole in the wall type restaurants.
* I would love to have sit down dinner parties if only I had friends that would enjoy them.
* I would love to create a recipe and then win a recipe contest
* I hate Disney except for Fantasia and Peter Pan. I like Stitch himself, but not the movies.
* My mom and I try to take walks weekly in the summer and go camping a couple of times.
* I am not into skulls or pirates
* When I lose weight I want to be a high heel junkie
* I need sunglasses
* I would love to go to scandanavia and learn all the languages plus hang out with the Sami peolple.
* I love a lot of scandanavian music.
* I love pure authentic ethnic music.
* I hate it when people spell "a lot" like one word instead of two, the way it should be.
* I hate it when people confuse "lose" vs "loose".
*I HATE the color pink
* I don't drink or smoke and I have never done an illegal drug.
* Despite the previous, not all the music I listen to is clean.
* I love photo booth pictures, but I have never been in one.
* I love cats but I am allergic to them
* I am not a dog person
* I wish I could be vegetarian, but I like meat too much.
* I love robots
* I want to learn more origami and how to do paper sculptures
* I don't enjoy scrapbooking
* I would love to learn how to work with metal for both jewelry making and making sculptures
* I love silver, but not so much into gold
* I love hoodies, but it is hard to find cool ones that fit my large size. I love some of the really unique designs out there.
* I have no idea how many things this is about me now. I didn't realize there was so much and I'm sure there is more.

I am no longer keeping up with numbers, but this is a lot and this is fun to do.

Don't drink, don't smoke, I have never done an illegal drug in my life, but the music I listen to wouldn't reflect that.
I have never been drunk
If I were ever get married (doesn't seem so likely)I would want the wedding to be barefoot on a beach, totally DIY, with a Hawaiian theme
I really want to learn how to knit socks
I wear black socks for work and white socks on the weekends and for working out.
I would love bicycle accessories.
I would love armwarmers even more.
I want to start wearing more make-up (natural only) and wear more earrings.
I love hoopy earrings most and dangly earrings second most.
I love dragonflies and damselflies & once had a dragonfly land and hang out on me.
I once had a praying mantis land and hang out on me.
I have been on the Dennis Sullivan Schooner and LOVED it.
I hate tie dye and wish it would disappear completely.
I hate polo shirts, especially the ones with busy designs.
I love shamrock shakes.
I love mint ice cream.
I love peppermint.
I do Universal Jigsaw every morning.
I love blood oranges
I love Orange Crush soda (though I rarely drink it because not so good for a diabetic)
I love Sprecher Root Beer (again, drink rarely because not so good for me).
I don't like clowns or poppits
I want to learn how to make my own eco cleaning products and eco make-up and beauty care products.
I love to give cats tummy rubs if they let me.
I don't like dogs
I love rodents
I am part city girl and part country girl
I love blank sketch books though I rarely use them, just admire them, but I would love to use them.
I like to write a lot, but I speak little
I love handmade gifts (or craft supplies)
I love big bodies of water
I think it would be cool to travel on a barge.
I hate the color pink
Despite that, I am girly girl
I still love camping though
I wish I could afford to buy a house.
I want a nice yard and patio.

Still here

2009-05-18T06:15:00.001-05:00

This evening I'll post some of the pictures of the walk that my mom and I went on in Lion's Den Gorge. This time it was sunny out and I have some picture of a red tanger bird. Super gorgeous.

Yesterday was working on pulling on weeds to clear out a garden bed for planting. I still have one more to do. I am super sore and aching today. I didn't take any pictures. Maybe I will tonight. Show off my hard work even though it doesn't look interesting. ;-)

life

2009-05-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

Eh, cruddy day today, but I'm chilled out now. Had my eye doctor appointment yesterday. Apparently I am getting old (since when? I feel like I'm 25)? I am a little farsighted. So once in a blue moon I might need to wear 1.25 reading glasses, something I have already started anyways. Only really need them if the lighting is bad. Now try driving with dilated eyes while wearing blueblockers. I don't recommend it. Oooh, headache!! Yick!! Next year's appointment I will make sure I wear "normal" sunglasses.

Etsy treasury didn't get too many hits. Oh well. I thought it was a fun one.

Oh, this last Sunday saw Star Trek with the family. I really loved it. Not much else to say for now I guess.

Another video for "Balloon Ranger"

2009-05-10T12:59:00.000-05:00

I can't seem to find anywhere where you can listen to the whole song in good quality. Sorry.

Again....

2009-05-10T12:52:00.000-05:00

This is the last Etsy treasury for a while, I promise. It is inspired by the Ane Brun song Balloon Ranger: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=57482

Unfortunately the video starts in the middle of the song and doesn't give you as good a feel for the song as the album:

I will be seeing the new Star Trek later today with family. I look forward to it.

Yarn swift and ball winder, music

2009-05-09T10:14:00.000-05:00

So my friend elociNNicole (Nicole) made me a yarn swift and gave me ball winder for my birthday. I am really really amazed by all this. I don't know how I have lived my whole life without this. It was so quick and easy to use. You should have seen my previous methods for winding yarn into center pull balls with my hands. This is soooooooooo much better. Some pictures to demonstrate:

The swift, the yarn, and the ball winder:

Process of winding yarn around the swift:

Yarn now completely around swift:

I forgot to take a before shot of the yarn initially attached to the ball winder. The yarn is thread through the metal loops and the center pull part attached to the top of the winder. Almost done here:

A gorgeous center pull ball of yarn at the ready for someone's travel scarf (*cough* mochaxlight *cough*):

On Thursday my mom and I got to see a couple of great bands at the Cedarburg Cultural Center. We saw the bands Longacre (also at myspace.com/longacremusic) and Testa Rosa. The sounds are different from each other. Longacre is like mystical folk music to me (though they are more broad than that, hard to describe) and Testa Rosa is definitely like 1960s pop for modern day, but again, more than that. Definitely check out their music. I really love both bands.

Willy Porter tells us how to rob a bank. Look on the right side of the page and choose the song "How to Rob a Bank".

That does it for today. Just pretty much plan on crafting today and hope some of my packages will come in already. :-P Waited long enough already.

More stuff birthday related and not and dork commentary

2009-05-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

First, some things I have recently received. I hadn't posted about the super cute ugly doll I got from my niece Michelle when she was in New York. I LOVE, super duper LOVE, ugly dolls. This is officially my fourth one. She wasn't sure what else to give me, but I really love this.

What goes better with a yarn swift than a yarn ball winder. I hope to try this out on Saturday and take pictures while I'm at it so all you non yarnies get an idea what it is about.

This is a ring I got from Etsy.com I super love these big chunky rings.

Song I have been stuck on for the past couple of days. Now this is not the official video nor is it the actual band in the video, but the song is the orignal album version that I have been listening to:

Pretty convincing. I need to create a playlist for my iPod with Switchfoot, Lifehouse, and James. I think it would be pretty awesome.

I commonly refer to myself as a dork. My version of a dork is someone who is social, but not afraid to be their quirky self. I definitely march to the beat of my own drum. Yesterday, two things happened. One, I'm not sure how we got into this, my co worker was saying she would NEVER call herself a dork and I said I am a total dork. When I got home I looked at the Craftster swaps (a very dangerous place to be, for me anyways ;-)) and saw there was a "Geek Chic" swap ( http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=302572.0 ). There is even a link in there to wikipedia about geek chic (about half way down the page).

So this lead me to wondering what would be considered the difference between a geek, a nerd and a dork and I found this: http://militantgeek.com/2006/12/21/geek-vs-nerd-vs-dork/
Other pages I looked at seem to pretty much confirm this assessment. My conclusion is I am not a geek, nerd, or a dork. I am not completely normal either. Then I thought about eccentric vs eclectic and the best description was in the second post on this page by VenusEnvy: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=36715
I would say I am eccentric mostly, but a little eclectic too. The only thing is the word eccentric makes think of a crazy cat lady in her house coat which I definitely am not. Even so, I pretty much fit the description, internally anyways. Just the fact that I researched all of this I think makes me pretty darn eccentric. Oh well, someone has to take on that roll, may as well be me. ;-)

Have a great evening all.

Time flies

2009-05-05T21:50:00.000-05:00

There is much I was going to say tonight, but perhaps tomorrow morning. I did update my profile. To see my fave colors and such though you have to go to my Craftster profile.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=profile

You know, I hope the link works. hmmm....

The birthday never ends

2009-05-04T18:25:00.000-05:00

So I just got a fab gift from my friend elociNNicole:

It is a yarn swift. I hope at some point to show it in action. Here is a web site showing it in action:
http://www.craftydiversions.com/patterns/homemade_yarn_swift.htm

They neighbors next door are having a big birthday party for their son. They are mexican and can you say Chorizo!!! mmmmmmm.....wish I was a part of that party. What is this about me wanting to stop eating meat except fish and seafood?? Wonder if it is possible. mmmmmmm....chorizo!!!

Weekend and new coat and chair

2009-05-03T18:08:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm....let's see, I finished a beaded bracelet, frogged a scarf and restarted it, helped my mom's friend on her computer. Yeah, I know, so exciting. My sister turned 40 on Friday, that was fun. mmmm....pizza and cake. Onto the details and pictures.

The bracelet is an extra for the Friends of Craftster Raffle swap. My "winner" will be getting those two scarves I made. Since I figured out who my winner is, I found they love jewelry and the colors of yellow and orange (two colors amongst many that I really love). So here is the bracelet:

Coat I bought last Thursday that I LOVE:

Excuse my beautilicious just finished working out look. I don't think it really becomes me. I needed a good in between weather jacket and I didn't really have one. This is a find!!!

I helped my mom's friend with my old computer and she gave me money to buy a plastic adirondack chair I have really really been wanting (sure, I want a nice real one made of wood, but this will do and it is just as comfy and I still love it).

Just excuse the fact that I was in the middle of talking when my mom took the picture. Also ignore my weed filled garden. Must get on cleaning that out. Almost time to plant. Yay!!!

Yep, so that is my weekend. :-)

This weekend

2009-05-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today is the weather I should have had on my birthday.

Yep, another Etsy Treasury, I'm obsessed: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=55833
It expires Monday at 9:59am at which point the link won't work.

I already did my laundry today. Played the how many clothes can I fit in a washer game so I can just do one load. What a dork I am.

Rest of the weekend will be crafting my little heart out. I'll post pictures as I finish things. Right now it is beading, but the rest of the weekend will be knitting.

Birthday Girl

2009-04-29T22:15:00.000-05:00

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.

Etsy, birthday, computer/craft room

2009-04-27T05:34:00.000-05:00

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.

Earth Day more thought about

2009-04-23T05:59:00.000-05:00

So I have been reading through this: http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/04/make-a-simple-green-resolution-and-win/#comment-17675

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.

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T06:42:00.001-05:00

2009-04-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

Song I am currently stuck on. It is so beautiful and loving. All love should be this way. Ane Brun "Don't Leave":

Treat for elociNNicole (and anyone else reading)

2009-04-20T18:56:00.000-05:00

Enjoy!!!

I think I need more yarn

2009-04-20T05:25:00.000-05:00

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).

Laptop and garden

2009-04-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

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. ;-)

A little distraction with computers

2009-04-17T21:22:00.000-05:00

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, Bek-Jean Stewart, and Sarah Bettens

2009-04-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

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.

Ane Brun

2009-04-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-04-09T05:50:00.001-05:00

I scored another Etsy treasury. Yay!!!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=51298

try try again

2009-04-08T21:35:00.001-05:00

hmmm...pics didn't work. I'll try one again. Ok, now I know what I am doing wrong. Whew!!

A Start

2009-04-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

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.