Cold and Cozy?

My idea of getting warm and cozy doesn't include having to shovel off a place to sit!

Okay, Cheesehead. You're busted!

You know who you are. The problem is I don't. And you know what? It is kinda freakin' me out. Even if you're not one of the persons I've mentioned in my previous post (and I know you've read it), I'd at least like to know who you are. Just telling me that much will give me an idea of why you're cyber-stalking me. If this post doesn't get you to do that, then I hope it'll maybe make you realize just how creepy you're being. I used to find it amusing. It's not so funny anymore. Note that I was nice enough to leave out your IP address and the day/time of your visit to my blog. The least you could do is return the favor and reveal yourself. (If you don't do so soon, I may not be so nice next time.) My email address is conveniently available on my blog profile! As I've said in the previous post, if you want to know something....JUST FREAKIN' ASK! Obviously if you're finding whatever it is you're looking for on my blog through an internet search, our lives are not all that much of a secret. SO ASK! It's as simple as that. No excuses.

Investigation Station

Lens Day: Futuristic

Entrance to the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum. I miss working there. Heck, I just miss working at all. What I don't miss is the nonprofit funding headaches. Or should I say lack of funding?
Although I'm posting this for "futuristic", I think this sculpture has been with the museum since its beginnings (I believe 10 years ago). But don't quote me on that.
Seriously, folks. If you ever come to town with your kids, I highly recommend a visit to this place! It's a total kid-friendly environment. And the best part is you don't have to tell your little ones "Don't touch that" -- because it's a completely hands-on experience! How cool is that?

Earth Bag Sign/Display Board

Tuesday Challenge: Cardboard

This is a sign/display board that I made for a friend. She and another of her friends started a business selling Earth Bags, which are basically heavy-duty shopping totes for people to use in lieu of the usual paper or plastic bags. They needed a sign to use at the local craft show being held at the Superior Dome this coming weekend, but neither of them were able to get it done. Sooo...they hired me to do it.

We were going to just use poster board to create it, but found a cardboard display board -- like the kind used for science fair projects -- that would work better. (And also serves more than one purpose for them. But I won't go into those details.) We also picked up some acrylic paint in two shades of brown, some glue (as I do in almost all of my projects, I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue!), and some paint brushes. The rest of the stuff I used on the board are things I had around the house: black corrugated cardboard (which I had from when I was heavily into scrapbooking...then got bored with it) to put behind photos of their products and an abbreviated version of their mission statement (which I printed on some leftover letterhead paper I had laying around), and some string (which I have no clue why I have...other than it was in one of the boxes of my mom's stuff that my dad gave me after she passed away. I just don't know why I kept it for so long!). Oh...and some plain black paper that I also had from my scrapbooking days. That was used on the backside of the display board side flaps, just to cover up the board's manufacturer's printing and make it look a little nicer.

I won't go into detail about how much of a pain it was to get the logo and top border design transferred to the display board. Those details also include the reason behind why we couldn't just print their logo off of the computer. Let's just say it was a major headache, to say the least!

So after I got the logo and border penciled into place, I got down to business with the painting (not one of my strengths!). My friend was insistent on covering up as much of the board's "white space" as possible, so I came up with a plan to paint ALL of the "white space". (A surprise to my friend, and a pleasant one at that...much to my relief when I showed her the final product.) To begin with, I sponge-painted (with a sponge I had around the house) the flaps using both shades of brown. That was the EASY part! The hardest part was trying to paint (with crappy brushes by the way) the logo and border so it didn't look TOO sloppy. (Sloppier than it looks now that is.) Obviously, I used the darker brown on the border design at the top and the background for the logo design; the lighter brown for the logo design itself and the background for the top border.

Next came lots of glue: For adding the string to the "handle" of the logo, as well as for outlining the logo's lettering; plus attaching the black paper to the back of the flaps, and the black cardboard to the front of the flaps to serve as a background for the photos and mission statement (both of which I printed myself, as well as some business cards). I also did some outlining with a black Sharpie.

I added the photos and mission statement to the board (using straight pins I also had) to finish the sign/display...at 3:00am yesterday morning! And...WAH-LAH! There you have it: A sign for your Earth Bag (because you KNOW you just HAVE to buy one of those bags now)!

(WHEW! I never thought I'd finish typing! That's a lot of words from li'l ol' me lately!)

Geniuses Only Please

I was checking what Sarala had to say over at blogaway, and saw her recent post about her finding a site that checks the reading level of your blog. (Hers was College/Post Grad by the way.) So I thought I'd have a little fun and check my blog's reading level. I thought for sure it'd say something about being completely illiterate since I don't generally have much to say in my blog posts.

Guess what? I was wrong!

Does this mean most geniuses don't have much to say? Or maybe that my blog posts are so complex that you'd have to be a genius to read between the lines.
(Does anyone else find this just too funny?)

Two Snappers

Photo Friday: Two
Shutterday: Photos of Photographers

11-28-07 Just a quirky little observation since submitting this to Photo Friday.
I've noticed a few IP addresses (not many, mind you) are actually clicking on the image to view it larger. My guess is that these clicks belong to guys. They look at this photo and see the pretty young speciman on the right. (I am pretty sure no one is clicking to get a better view of the snapping turtle.) What do I see when I look at this photo? I see my turtle buddy lazing about on a tree stump, and a camera that is way better than mine.

Photo-Op Goose

(Please scroll down to third photo for Shutterday entry.)

Coming in for a close-up.

This is one goose who's also a ham.

How's my profile?

Shutterday: Neck

Let's Play a Game...

This game is called, "Who in Wisconsin". The rules are simple: I try to guess whoever it is viewing my blog from somewhere in the area between three Wisconsin cities (very rarely is it the same place twice, but is always in the same general area) -- Appleton, Madison and Milwaukee -- and if I guess right, that person has to email me or at least leave a comment on my blog.
Okay. Here are my guesses: Jim and/or Tammy, Jim and/or Jen (different Jim), Bug, Rissi, Callie or JT.
Whoever you are, I don't care if you're reading my blog. It's just driving me nuts seeing so many hits from the same general area, and not knowing who is doing the viewing. Or why for that matter. If it's any of the people I've guessed, I just have one thing to say: If there's something you want to know, all you have to do is ask! It's a little creepy having someone viewing my blog so frequently (more than ANYONE ELSE) and never saying a word. I kinda feel cyber-stalked. Heh heh. (Although, it's really beginning to not be so funny!)

Superior Shots

Dundundun-dah....(drumroll, please)
Consider this the somewhat-official announcement that I've mentioned in a previous post. What is "Superior Shots"? It is a joint effort between myself and Sarala (of blogaway fame). A few days ago, she approached me with the idea of opening up a Cafepress shop together. Not so much to make money as for the collaboration.

Why the name "Superior Shots"? Ummm....why not? Heh heh. Actually, we came up with a few ideas, but the others produced numerous results when doing an online search. Sarala came up with Superior Shots, which seemed to not be quite as popular in the search engines. So that's the one we decided on.

The basic idea behind the shop is for us to design "products featuring photos of the Great Lakes we live near - Lake Michigan and Lake Superior - and of natural beauty in general." We both feel this is a great way to test the waters and see if anyone would buy our stuff. And it's just plain fun to work on a project together.

So...that's pretty much what has been keeping me away from the blog and photomemes. Initially, it was because I was not feeling well. But now that seems to be somewhat resolved. I've spent the last few days working mostly on setting up the Superior Shots shop. And now that we have a few designs and products put together, it's ready for the world to see. (Scary thought for both of us, I think!)

So feel free to take a look and give us some feedback. But, please, be gentle. Our egos are rather fragile. Heh heh. Don't forget to keep checking. We are continually adding new designs, as well as new products to the existing designs.

A Message from Mother Nature?

Thursday Challenge: Communication

I came across this while out for a hike with my friend, Yvonne, today. (And it was SOOOOO good to feel well enough to get back out in the Great Outdoors!)

See Part 2

Bellybutton Soup

Not a very good photo, but you can blame my crappy camera for that. Why am I taking a bad photo of a bowl of soup and posting it online? And what in the hell is "bellybutton soup"?

I'm posting a bad photo of it, 'cause that's all I have to work with. Bellybutton soup is this:

Basically, just take chicken soup stock (with whatever you would make chicken soup with) and add cheese tortellini instead of noodles (or dumplings, or whatever you'd typically use). I add different stuff to mine each time I make it, so trying to post an actual recipe just won't work.

So why is it called "bellybutton soup"? My friend's daughter -- and Hayley's best friend -- gets credit for that. She calls tortellini "bellybuttons", and was at my house the first time I made chicken soup with tortellini. Soooo....she called it "bellybutton soup". Which, by the way, she loves! Hayley won't even try it. In fact, I made it especially for Crystalyn because she spent the night last night. Unfortunately, she had to leave before I returned from a hike and finished making the soup.

Now I'll have to freeze a lot of it. I've just had two bowlfuls and am already getting tired of bellybuttons. Heh heh.

Preoccupation

Just a note to let you know that I haven't forgotten about my blog(s) and photomemes. I'm just a little preoccupied with other things at the moment -- including a HUGE project that I hope to be able to announce formally soon!

I like your haircut!

Two of Hayley's schoolmates, waving hello and commenting on her new (at the time) haircut.
Taken at the International Food Festival.

See It Sunday: Social