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Begin
wed 1 apr 2009 | |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090401.html | |
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Yep. I'm so confident that April is going to be such a better month than March was, I impulsively signed up for a blog posting month! And to prove that April is going to be better... Today I got a raise! Yay me! :) Also, I hit 60 postcards sent at PostCrossing! This means I can have 8 postcards traveling instead of just 7. Yay! Let's see, what else? Oh yeah. Since I've not typed here in millenia, I have much to tell you about. Like our new garden plot that we won in the community garden. And my current crocheting project. But, you'll have to wait patiently for those typings. Because I kinda ran out of time this evening. ha! oh well. :) |
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Snuggles
thurs 2 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090402.html |
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Snuggles are security blankets for shelter animals. You make a little blanket, send it to a participating shelter, and they give it to one of the cats or dogs, and the kitty or doggy gets to lie on a blanket instead of cold concrete or steel. So, YAY. I am so happy that I can crochet for an animal charity. I just kind of jumped into my Snuggle project. I designed the little blanket, kind of based on the scarf that I want to make people for xmas. And since I wanted to use the eco-cotton string, which is not as fat as the other string I used (for the dishcloths), I'm using a smaller crochet hook. I just didn't realize it would take soooooooo much longer with the small hook! I estimate that it will take me a month to finish this 18 inch square cat blanket. In my wanderings, I have recently discovered it normally takes a person two or three hours to finish their cat blankets! laughs. oh well! I'll figure it out eventually. I've also learned that you can crochet with two strings at the same time, to give the thing some more bulk. I'm going to try that next, I think. But I've still got a week or so to go before my first Snuggle is done. I really love the colour of the string I'm using, it's dark blue with strands of purple and dark green. I'll get some pictures when it's done! |
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Meta
fri 3 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090403.html |
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It's kinda like "bogged down" or "blah". Things rot in a bog, and there aren't even any cute little frogs. I tried avoiding the word. Until about last year, I refered to this website as an "online journal". But that doesn't really fit... a journal is something you write or draw that is private. This -- a blog -- is typed to an audience. So, yeah. I use the word "blog" now, because I do like to name things correctly. And I do get interested when real life conversations include the word. I do love blogs. I just wish the word was something different! :)
Got a busy weekend ahead of me. Stay Tuned! |
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busy saturday
sat 4 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090404.html |
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The one place that I actually wanted to go... to check out our new garden plot at the community garden. It's a bit over a mile away, but I had to drive because Significant Other is sporting crutches these days. And unfortunately, he wasn't able to get out to the plot because it had rained and the ground was too soft for the crutches. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to figure out which plot was ours. laughs. I had forgotten the map of where our plot is supposed to be and the actual plots aren't numbered or marked in any way. So I had to guess which way to point my camera. And I guessed wrong. So, yeah. I'm not going to show the photo of our neighbor's garden plot. It was mostly just mulched down, a few "weeds" growing at the edges. Not very exciting, after all. Seeing people out at their own plots, the dogs waiting for them at the sidelines, that was nice. I suppose I'll have to go out and buy some seeds or something soon... |
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PostCrossing
sun 5 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090405.html |
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This is my current favorite postcard that I send out to people...
... but I've been sending out a lot of photos of flowers lately. I'm eager for some more spring, I suppose. As I said the other day, I've hit 60 postcards sent, and now I'm up to 62. That's a lot of postcards, and to tell the truth I'm starting to get bored with my current stash. I've got a decent collection of stock art (bought and paid for), and I will occasionally make a new postcard from that. But I'd much rather make postcards out of my own photographs. Yesterday, when I was running hither and yon about town, I did carry my camera around with me. But I was too distracted by my stupid errands to actually look around for photo opportunities! I see stuff to take a picture of, when I Don't have my camera! |
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monday chat
mon 6 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090406.html |
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And I also wondered, since I am walking south in the afternoons, if I will get a tan only on my right side. haha, that would be funny. Significant Other was saying the other day that Clif bars are the perfect food. You don't have to cook them or prepare them in any way. You just rip open the packaging and you've got most of a meal. Plus they're vegan. My new favorite "food" is vegetable juice. I don't get V8, I just get the store brand in a plastic jug. And it says "vegan" right there on the front of the label! I love it when my foods say vegan. I always check the ingredients. The one you have to watch out for is "natural flavoring" because that can be just about anything. "Artificial" flavors are okay, because they are always made in a lab... vegan, just not necessarily healthy. Just a bit of vegan trivia for you! :) |
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tuesday chat
tue 7 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090407.html |
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oh well. I spent some time reading, instead. And then I thought I would be able to finish the book. But I didn't. oh well. It's just a bunch of unfinished projects around here. Including the blog, I suppose. I just can't think up anything interesting that I want to type about. foo. |
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wednesday chat
wed 8 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090408.html |
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The new computers are Macs. And the last time I touched a product of Apple, I was in high school. And that was about... uh... oh my gods almost 20 years ago! jeez, I'm old! ;) Anyway. I don't have any problems playing with computers. I'm not scared of pushing that button or clicking that thingee over there. But I'm sure if a Mac person were to watch me, they would think me extremely pathetic. They tell me that Macs are so much more user friendly and I just have to think "more simple". or something. But I've got a lifetime's experience with PCs. I know DOS, for pete's sake! Sweet TRS-DOS! and I've got a bit of Unix under my belt. remember vi? I do! And they want me to think more simple?! bahaha! |
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Booking Through Thursday
thurs 9 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090409.html |
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oh jeez! I am currently reading zero books. Because I just finished the one book I was reading. And neither of those situations are normal for me! I usually average three books at a time. The low is two and the high is five. I keep all of my books next to my bed on my journal stand. (at work, I read my Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. and when I read downstairs it's usually other magazines.) The book I just finished was The Years Best SF #5. I was trying to decide if I wanted to read #6 next, or a free ebook I got by Charles de Lint. and just now, I've downloaded Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. And I've not even looked at my list of dead tree books. My "To Be Read" Pile... just never shrinks, no matter how many books I read, since I'm always adding new ones! |
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friday chat
fri 10 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090410.html |
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Song on the Internet radio: wooh, wooh, I'm just human, I'm just human... M: Yeah, me too. pause. big boss: Me too, I'm just human! pause. me: I'm not! someone: *gasp* I knew it! |
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saturday chat
sat 11 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090411.html |
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But this afternoon, SO took me out to buy a bike! It's olive green! Yeah. okay. I paid way too much for a bike that happened to be green *snort*... but it also has fenders (no splashing from puddles!) and a place to put a front basket thingee. And about a million gears which I'll probably never use! And a free 100 mile tune-up! Yeah. Okay. I still paid way too much for it! laugh. I'll probably be pretty mad when it gets stolen. oh well. I'll get pictures at some point. Right now it's sitting in the entry way of our apartment, taking up too much space. But the whole point of the bike is so I can go out to our garden plot without too much trouble. It's a bit over a mile away, but in a different direction than the day job. The walking back and forth to work, plus standing on concrete all day annoys my feet sometimes, despite two layers of gel pads in my shoes and heavy socks. Biking a few times a week should help! |
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First Snuggle Done
sun 12 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090412.html |
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Boo and Twitch: *sniff* *sniff* I think there's one more carrot bit laying around here somewhere...
Twitch: ha! *munch, munch*
heh. anyway. That blue thing is my first
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gram
mon 13 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090413.html |
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Jan's Corner: Corinne Goecker enjoys retirement, but remembers her days at POW camp Corinne Goecker is my grandma! It's a neat article, tho I've heard most of her stories already. :) |
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a list
tue 14 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090414.html |
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∞ I'm vegan! ∞ I make homemade bread in the bread machine! and I take my lunch to work every day. ∞ I have worms to compost almost all of our organic trash! ∞ I am providing a home for Twitch and Boo, who had languished for months at the humane society. (okay, maybe not "languished", but it _was_ months and months!) ∞ I do not buy chopped-up-dead-tree bedding for them, instead I shred newspapers. ∞ I hope to be proud of my biking, very soon. (I've not ridden the new bike anywhere yet!) But I am proud of the fact that my car stays mostly parked. Walking to work, occasionally stopping at the store on the way home, is very good. ∞ My crafty pursuits lately: the postcards and the crocheting and my homemade paper journals. |
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wednesday chat
wed 15 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090415.html |
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Tax Day, huh? I've already got my state refund back, still waiting on the federal. Together, they'll pay for the new bike, which is nice. :) I have not started a new crochet project, yet. I do have one picked out, but it looks complicated. So I decided to get some reading done this week. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I don't know why I keep this book around. It has incomprehensible war and sports references. And a belief in superstitious stuff, just annoys me, anymore. bah. And a Charles De Lint book. I forget the title. Had heard so much good stuff about this author, I figured I'd read a free ebook. Unfortunately he writes fantasy, and I like science fiction. And I'm just not very interested. So. Maybe I should just go back to the crochet! |
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not drawing
thurs 16 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090416.html |
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Yep. I hate drawing. But I love to say, "I drew that!" a love-hate thing. And I guess it's not so much that I hate drawing. It's more that I hate the moments before I'm actually drawing. When I'm trying to figure out what to draw. Anyway. I think it was in March that I said I was going to do a drawing month. And I started out drawing every day. Then I missed a few days. Then I started colouring with my new markers. Then I ran out of clip art to colour. And so I quit. And now I don't want to draw. Except I do want to draw. *rolls eyes* |
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ugh
fri 17 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090417.html |
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yeah, whatever. My Mom sent us some easter candy. so I've been munching on that. And I've not been sleeping well. Probably because I'm eating candy right before bed time. So I'm drinking coffee at work too. Except the coffee at work is like sludge. I have to water it down and add chocolate and add mumble mumble. What? um. sugar? yes. sugar. and lots-of-it. And, yeah, of course it has to all catch up with me on a friday. Uuuuggghhhhh! |
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sweet weekend
sat 18 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090418.html |
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I got out of bed when I felt like it, about 9am. I made some postcards, but there was no rush. I finished binding my March paper journal, but in the middle of that job, I stopped to put my bike lock bracket on my bike. I've been online most of the afternoon, and now it's evening... and I've Still got All day Tomorrow to play! :) |
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projects
sun 19 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090419.html |
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I got a postcard trade organized to go out the door on monday morning, parking ticket notwithstanding. oops. I started working on my monthly pc exchange. I bound up my march paper journal, and made a cover and bound the february journal, too. Finishing the journals felt really good. I don't know why I procrastinate doing that. I have a couple months from 2008 that still need to be bound, but I'm officially caught up on 2009. Until the end of April that is! ;) Got some reading done. Finished that stupid War of Art book. And worked my way through a couple magazines... which are starting to pile up again. I also did some organizing with my crochet stuff. I typed up all the projects I've competed. And, looking at the lame plastic bags I'm keeping my string in... I've decided that my next crochet project will be a bag! The directions are printed up, all ready and waiting for me to begin. |
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monday
mon 20 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090420.html |
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I have yet to determine if the pills will work. But I don't want to type about that. This is the current state of the tiny garden out our back door...
I've planted nothing and pulled no "weeds" yet this year. 'cause I'm lazy like that. The green spikey things are the irises. They've not really grown much, most of that is just left over from last year. The green thing in the exact middle of the photo is my lupine. This is it's second year, and it's much bigger this year. Hopefully it will bloom... purple flowers. :) And the mess of yellow at the top is last year's kale which fell over as soon as it got it's buds. (a lack of sun, very tall plants and the so-called dirt is only a few inches deep) The bees love the flowers and I'm excited to see several different kinds of bees humming around the flowers! I am disappointed that there's no parsley. My plants gave off millions of seeds last year and I was really hoping for babies. but no. You can't see that my Shooting Star is blooming. They are small and hidden behind the lupine. It's a native wildflower that I planted last year. I probably should start thinking about our garden plot. I'm just not as enthusiastic as I wish I were about it. |
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tuesday
tues 21 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090421.html |
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So here's another photo for you. Same garden, this is the native wildflower I got last year from Saturday Market... the Shooting Star.
These guys are pretty small... you have to look carefully for them in the wild. The leaves are at the bottom, flush against the ground, and the single stem is oh, maybe 6 inches tall. They are strictly spring time flowers, the hot dry summer kills them off. |
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Earth Day
wed 22 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090422.html |
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um, yeah. Enjoy it while it's still livable, huh! :|
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E Day Cont
thurs 23 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090423.html |
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Last year, I typed a little bit about how I feel about Earth Day, it's the very first entry on this page: April 2008 I continue to be highly frustrated at the lack of environmental actions... Everyone thinks recycling is a good idea, but we still make and buy anything and everything plastic. The plastic blows down into the oceans, and how big is the Pacific Garbage Patch now? Everyone thinks that using less fossil fuels is probably a good idea. But turning off our lights for an hour in the evening is a really big deal? And it takes way too much time to walk to the store on the corner, right? Everyone thinks that cruelty to animals is wrong. And yet it's perfectly fine to torture and murder some cows and chickens and pigs for your meals. Even when it's an environmental disaster, every which way. So, yeah, I am increasingly indifferent towards "Earth Day". |
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wildlife list
fri 24 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090424.html |
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∞ Mallard Ducks! I walk for a short bit along the creek near my home. ∞ Eurasian Wigeons. um, I think. There's just a boy and a girl hanging out in the creek. They are smaller than the Mallards, the boy has a rusty red head and a white line on his shoulder. the girl is just brown. ∞ One morning I saw a heron... she was fishing for some breakfast, but she missed. heh. ∞ When the sidewalk is wet, I see worms, snails and a slug. I do not step on them. Occasionally I will move a worm or two back into the grass. Because I love worms! ∞ Nutria. I think these guys are preciously cute, but everyone complains that they are "vicious". Apparently there's a 10$ bounty on their poor little heads. An invasive species. ∞ Barn Swallows. I enjoy their twittering voices. ∞ Crows. I always see crows! ∞ And Squirrels, fed by our neighbor. ∞ Some kind of little blackish bird I can't identify! ha, maybe a grackle. I keep looking for them in my field guide but nobody really matches up! ∞ myriad little birds that I can hear but not see, in the mornings. |
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community garden
sat 25 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090425.html |
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All of the neighboring plots are all nice brown dirt with nice rows of little growing things. Our plot is all over grown, with trash and rock piles and stupid bamboo sticks laying about. sighs. Should have started earlier, thats for sure, the "weeds" would not have been so bad. The trash and junk was left by the former occupant, and I don't know what we're supposed to do with it! Oh well. Significant Other "broke ground" and started digging up the plants in one corner. And I mostly just watched him. It's hard work! And I didn't feel the need to exert myself since I have a day job that requires the use of my hands and heavy lifting! heh. Anyway. The plot is 20x30 feet, and SO dug up about a 10x10 section. We brought a few seeds to plant, but we hadn't removed any of the weeds. And I wanted to leave before either of us hurt ourselves!! |
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Postcards
sun 26 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090426.html |
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I always make a new postcard for my monthly exchange. Well... except for last month, when I was forced to buy postcards because my creativity wasn't working. And this month, it took longer to design my pc... I couldn't decide which photo to use, or how much zoom to use. I had to go through all of my millions of fonts to find one that I liked. I had to figure out what to say on the back. It just took forever. And usually I just whip up a postcard in just a few minutes! Literally! Minutes! That's the thing I really love about my homemade postcards. Now that I've gotten to know my desktop publishing software and I have a bunch of templates set up... once I've got a decent photo (or drawing), the postcards practically make themselves! And once the page comes out of the printer, I write on the back and cut it down and stick a postage stamp on it... I've got a nice little sense of accomplishment! :) Plus, there's the occasional mailbox happiness when someone else sends me a postcard! My mom sent me a postcard this week and the design absolutely delighted me...
I want to draw something like that! |
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books
mon 27 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090427.html |
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The book I just finished was Charles de Lint's Spiritwalk (out of print). eh, it was okay. The story was good and the writing was good... it's just that it was definitely Fantasy, and I couldn't get into the story because of that. Fictionwise was having a wish list sale, so I got a couple ebooks today... Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Catherynne Valente's Palimpsest. Yeah, both Fantasy. ha. I was excited to see the Catherynne Valente book (the other week), because I love the Orphan's Tales books. And I've been meaning to read Coraline for ages... It looked delightfully creepy. :) Actually, I've been meaning to read anything by Neil Gaiman, several people have recommended him to me. I do continue to be sad about how little reading I'm able to get done. Can barely even read 200 pages in a week! two or three books in a month? I love my day job, but it sure gets in the way of my reading time! :) |
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crochet
tues 28 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090428.html |
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It's my first go at crocheting "in the round". Rather than going back and forth in lines, I'm making progressively bigger circles.
And I had the worst time getting started on the tiniest circle! It was only three chain stitches big, and when I joined them into a circle, I couldn't figure out where to put the stitches for the next round. it just looked like a tiny pile of string! So, okay. I started over, and this time I watched carefully as I joined my chain, to see where the stitches are. But they disappeared again into a tiny pile! Eventually I just marked the chains with these tiny little clippy thingees that I got with my original crocheting kit. It still looked like a tiny pile when I joined the circle, but I just stuck my hook into the loops where the clippies were. I've gotten a little bit farther than the photo shows, and my circle is seriously curling, darn it. Hopefully it won't matter too much! |
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biking
wed 29 apr 2009 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090429.html |
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I am a bit intimidated by having to ride on the street. One of the three streets I use has a bike lane, and the street I live on is nice and wide and not too busy. But on the one busy street, I have to ride up on the sidewalk. bleh. And having to cross the streets with the car traffic isn't fun either. I'm just waiting to hit a curb wrong or turn too quickly or something and go crashing down! It really has been a long time since I've ridden a bike and I'm pretty unsteady! The people at work admired my bike and told me I had to get a bell. The bike people ring at the walking people as they pass them on the bike path! :) |
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thursday
thurs 30 apr 2009 | ||
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090430.html | ||
So, April's done. And, if you can believe it, I've signed up for another Blog Posting Month for May as well. And then I remembered I'm going out of town for a day in May, so that may or may not work out! ha. Anyway. I really really want to get going on my drawing again. I have totally avoided doing any kind of art for ages! To get myself motivated, I've bought a new book... just a silly kids book that looked colourful and fun: The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas
And I'm going to put in another order for markers at my day job. A rather large order... I just started picking out colours I wanted, and I couldn't stop! Technically, my out of town trip is a business trip. But conveniently it's an Art Trip as well. :D :D :D And I really should get some kind of drawing practice done, before I take an Art Trip, right?! |
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