Saturday, March 31, 2007

Saturday-11:30am

Just a note.

I went to bed early--for me--but a party started below me (or moved here from the bar maybe) a little after 2am and went on till after 4am. I was wide awake and didn't get to bed till 6am. Only slept till 10am--got up and dressed and all, but feeling queasy from being overly tired, so decided not to try to go with this afternoon. The kids said they'd come over afterwards and show me pictures and tell me all about these two places outside of Moorhead. If they can get decent pictures in the rain? Been drizzling away out there.

Okay--this bad physical cycle can quit any time. I guess the fibro folk call it a flare. Enough already. :)

Friday, March 30, 2007

Friday-2:30pm

Leah came over to work on the business cards. I was pretty useless yesterday. Drained and didn't get any sleep.


She got the business cards done and then tied them on to the little sample packs. Nice.
I was in bed by 11pm and didn't wake up till noon today. It is a rainy, dark day. I have been curled up in my chair with a blanket. Just seem to be on a physical low the past few days. Happens with the fibro. I hope I am feeling up to looking at houses again tomorrow afternoon with Dagan and Leah? We'll see....

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thursday-1:30pm

Had a nice birthday! Dagan and Leah came over after work and brought Burger King over for dinner. Any time I eat restaurant food--(fast or slow-hehe!)--it's a treat for me! Dagan was messing around on the computer and updated my Internet Explorer to a 7, I think? Now everything looks different and I have to learn how to navigate some things a little differently. Feels like I have a new computer again--hehe! Of course, it doesn't take a lot to throw me off when it comes to the land of computers. :)

I tried cleaning the DVD player with the new cleaner--speaking of computers--and it still has little glitches and hesitations. So, I probably need a new DVD/CD thingie for the computer Dagan said. I still wonder if the white power from that crazy humidifier did something to it?

Leah played around with deciding what to do with her new business cards. The leaf punch looked cool, but it would make them difficult to keep in a wallet or a card case because they became kind of 3D. So--we drug out various stamps and decided on the abstract leaf stamp below. We liked emobssing with several of the colors--couldn't choose. So, she is going to just do them in all three different colors--what the heck! Variety is the spice of life, right? :)

Here's the business card embossed with green, burgundy, and brown. You can see the plain cards above. Being "crafty" ladies--couldn't just leave them like that--chuckle! The little packet to the left of the cards has the sample of Basic H inside. After all the cards are embossed, then we'll punch holes in the corner of the packet and the corner of the card and attach them together with twine or embroidery thread.

I have some very thin green embroidery thread, but Leah is going to stop after work today at the hardware store and see if they have any thin twine or string--in a more natural color and something a little thicker than we have here. If not--we can always use the embroidery thread.

Leah has off today again from her Valley Video (the second job) Thursday nights and is going to leave early anyways from the office because she has a few errands to run. After she's done, she'll come over here and work on the business cards since it is Dagan's bowling night anyways. So we will be crafting a bit tonight. :)

I got a real shock last night while Dagan and Leah were here!! I have a pen pal, Cristina, who lives in Argentina--she called me to wish me a happy birthday!! What a wonderful surprise!! We talked once on the phone many years ago. It was so nice to actually hear her voice again!! I am still amazed today! hehe! She is the only International phone caller I have ever had in my life. What a sweet lady and a good friend! Thanks again, Cristina! You really made my birthday special!! :):):)

Dagan and Leah left in time to be home by 8pm for CashWise Delivers to bring groceries between 8-10pm. (They are the ones who checked out that service first and told me about it--and love it, too!) I snooped around online--surfed the web--ha! Watched some TV. Played with Karma. That was my birthday. Was a very good day! Thanks to everybody who remembered me on my birthday--:)

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

My Birthday-Wednesday-3:30pm

Now I won't forget which books I borrowed from Duane--hehe! Just kidding--I do put little post-it notes with his name inside each book and put them in a certain spot where I keep borrowed books. :)

We had a nice chat for about three hours. :) I didn't realize it had been 10 1/2 months since he was here last time! Always nice to visit with Duane. We met in Anthropology class at MSUM and he lives in Detroit Lakes. This is good incentive to get me back on the reading track. I used to read every night before I went to bed but have gotten out of the habit several months ago. Got to get back in the swing of things. And soon it will be nice enough to sit and read on the porch again, too! :)

Here are a few of the little pictures I did on the other end of the sketch book that I mentioned yesterday. All the same picture, a sunset over the ocean, but with different materials.

Holbein watercolors.

Prange oil pastel crayons.

Sennelier pastels.
Creatacolor pastel pencils.

Caran D'Arche watercolor crayons with watercolor brush (hard to control the amount of water with the watercolor brush and I didn't wait long enough for the sections to dry, either--hehe!)
Anyways, you get the drift. There are 12 of them--this is a sampling. The idea was to make them so I'd have an idea of what the different effects would be--but--this is not a good paper for that. It is lumpy, porus, and irregular in consistency and thickness. Very cool paper, but not for comparison purposes--hehe!
Well, it is my birthday today. I can't believe I am 56 years old. Where did the years go? Dagan and Leah wanted to take me out to dinner and it is our usual painting night--but I am having a real noodle of a day. Just been so busy of late--it has caught up with me. I can only push myself for so long any more and the body gets the better of me. So, Dagan and Leah are coming over after work and either bringing or ordering in dinner for all of us, they said. Leah will work on punching the leaf into her business cards--if she likes the look of it. It will be nice to have a little company for a while on my birthday--but I just wasn't up to being out and about today. Not that I am feeling bad--just a little extra sore and that noodle, weak-limbed feeling I get when I've been doing too much. It is a very good birthday, don't get me wrong. Just need it to be a restful one this year. I am very grateful for my wonderful life and all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me. Just plain happy to be alive!! :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tuesday-noon

Okay--a person has to be pretty anal to "doodle" with a ruler--true! Every art class I was in the teacher told me to be braver--bolder--but most of all, "LOOSEN UP!!!"

I said I colored the doodle (made on a piece of watercolor paper, BTW) with these crayons. I shouldn't have said just Lyra, because I also have the Caran D'Ache large set of 84 and the small set of metallics.

They are so easy and quick to use with the watercolor brushes.

I have an assortment of watercolor brushes. You fill them with water and just touch/rub them on the crayons to use. And you can just wipe the brush on a paper towel or a rag to clean it off for the next color. Very handy for crafts! When I want a thinner paint color or wash I just use my small porcelain flower palette and thin it in there first. Anyways, this is what the watercolor brushes look like that I have been talking about for those of you that asked. :)

I have been definitely inspired. I got out this hand made paper journal last night (I think it was made in India?) and started sketching common objects, as suggested on http://www.dannygregory.com/. He wrote a book called Everyday Matters about sketching--releasing the artist inside of you, I guess. I might have to pick that up from Amazon or Barnes & Noble one day here.

On one side of me was the mug I got from Dagan and Leah.

On the other side of my chair was my trusty water bottle I refill all the time.

I used my new set of Staedtler triplus fineliner pens. Was delighted that they didn't feather or bleed on this very porus paper. :) And I was pleased that I did better than I expected with my sketches--no pencil--freehand!! Now that is definitely "looser" for me! hehehe!!
I had made up a piece of cardstock and covered it with that pliable clear packing tape to insert behind what I am working on so that it doesn't bleed on to the next page. I had started on the other end of the journal making quick pages of samples of all my materials--all the same picture--sunset over the water. Maybe I'll have to take a couple shots of those so you get the idea. Anyways, I can work from both ends of the journal, I guess--hehe! What the heck! (Sadly, this is me being bold! chuckle!)
Well, got to get moving. Duane is coming over for another book exchange this afternoon. :) Have a great day!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Monday-4:30pm

I got inspired the last couple days to play around and just be silly with art. Stumbled upon some sites where people post artistic/sketch/collage journals and things like embellished envelopes and letters! This triggered old doodling habits in me. The doodle wasn't even dry yet when I photographed this--hehe! I used the Micron pens and then colored in with Twinkling H2Os and the Lyra Aquacolor crayons and a watercolor brush (the one you fill with water).

I drug out my sketchbooks and collage books last night, too. Saved some blogs to go back and find motivation from and joined a couple of Yahoo Groups. Have been remembering how I used to draw pictures on letters when I was young. Did a lot more doodling and drawing. I didn't think I was any good at it and kind of quit many years ago--but I really had fun doing a "book" for art class at Concordia several years ago. (Wonder where that ended up--the garage?) I don't know why I feel so inspired and motivated by all these people--but I sure do. :)

Meanwhile--yesterday was another warm day around 60 degrees. I had the doors wide open and caught Karma looking for flies...

...and resting--on alert.

Little chillier today. I slept with the window half open, so it got a bit chilly, but not too bad--wasn't much of a breeze my direction. All this nice weather makes one dream of spring!! :)
Leah's business cards came (already! shock--she just ordered them Wednesday night online)--she wants me to check them out for accuracy before Dagan stops by after work to pick them up, so I have to get moving... :)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sunday-5pm

Are you ready to go on a trip with us? hehe! Since this was the first venture Leah and I both took photos. The first place we were supposed to meet the realtor at was in Sabin, Minnesota--south of Moorhead. The directions off of Google had a road that didn't exist--hehe! We got lost. Had to call the realtor twice. Finally arrived. That is her going in the door and Dagan coming up behind her. Both the places we looked at yesterday were empty. This one was right on the road and had a huge farmer's field behind it.

These were the three buildings that went with the place. I think this one was $184, 900. Built in 1928--1.7 acres.

When you walked in they had the laundry in what looked like a former kitchen area. The home has been added on to and remodeled many times, I think. The last owners have tried to update it a lot.

Then you walk into the kitchen. They did have all the appliances and the washer and dryer included.

Leah was taking a picture of me from the kitchen...

...while I was getting ready to take one of her from the dining room--think it was the dining room?

The pictures make the places look better than they do in real life--hehe! Noticed that already. You miss the little details like all the dead flies all over the floor everywhere. She said the flies were there from when they moved out last fall.

From where I was standing amoungst the fly bodies--this is a shot of the living room (and realtor--who didn't seem the least engaged in the tours, BTW.....

...and this is a shot of the stairway to my left. Be very difficult to get furniture up there and around the sharp corner and down this narrow hallway.

There was a small bedroom first, then a bathroom, and then the master bedroom was at the end of the hallway. Here's Dagan and Leah in the master bedroom.

I think this might have been in the other upstairs bedroom--Dagan and I laughing.

Then we discovered why the house had an old damp smell. Good thing you can't get smell-o-vision over the Internet...it gets worse! This was the old basement. The floor tiles were crumbling--had obviously been wet many times.

Then we made our way outside to the outbuildings. This is the inside of the small garge closest to the house. The smell of wet, rotting wood hit you as soon as you opened the door. Obviously the roof leaked--there was a puddle of water on the floor.

This is the inside of the bigger garage. Again--old and damp and dirty. But it was in better shape than what was advertised as a heated, insulated quonset...

I get reactions from old dust, mold, mildew, etc--so I couldn't stay in any of the outbuildings buildings for long and would have a really hard time living in that house--despite all the surface fixing up that they had done. Couldn't hide the old and rotting parts. Definitely not worth that amount of money.

From Sabin--we drove to Hawley. That must have been about 30 minutes from Moorhead? Really about the maximum distance they want to be from work. This house was much smaller--built in 1900--3.84 acres--$119,900. Central AC.

Two car garage. Lots of trees around on the property.

And an old barn.

They had just done some remodeling in the kitchen, it said--had put in new counter tops.

They had turned the downstairs bedroom into a laundry room.

Had two very small bedrooms upstairs--one bathroom downstairs. You can see how small it was up there--Dagan is about 6 feet tall and would have to bend down to use the closet--hehe!

Very old farmhouse basement. Smelled old, musty--but not wet like the other one. Neither place was a keeper, but took you on the tour anyways. In the future, unless the place is one Dagan and Leah have fallen in love with, probably won't show so many pictures--but this was the first outing--so I went crazy--hehe! :)
It was a beautiful day--63 degrees and sunny! We stopped at Duane's House of Pizza on the way home. I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep in my chair yesterday afternoon and woke up at 9 pm!! I had been up working on making cards the night before and hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. With CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome--part of my fibromyalgia) I just can't push myself much anymore--I will collapse--hehe! It was worth it, tho--such fun to be out and about and snooping at property on such a beautiful day.
It rained during the night and this morning. Still looks cloudy and dark, but it hasn't been raining for some time. Nice to be able to sleep with the window partially open! Must be around 60 again today. Beautiful! Early spring, but it always refrshing to have spring arrive. Wonder if it will snow again? :)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Saturday-9:30am

I did organize the new containers yesterday.

The small plastic containers work just fine for a couple of my pen collections.

Got the plastic on the table, too.

Was beautiful out yesterday. I know I saw it was 56 degrees at one point yesterday--could have been warmer than that, don't know. Today is supposed to be warm and sunny again. Warmer! Good day to go walking about outside to look at houses and outbuildings and land. Have a great day! :)


Friday, March 23, 2007

Friday-2pm

Wednesday night Dagan and Leah came over and we ate spaghetti and had some yummy broccoli with it that turned out just right (a trick for me in the microwave). We fiddled around with the concept of hand making some tags with Leah's Shaklee website address on them to attach to the Basic H samples she bought--but the address is so long and it would take so much time to make 100 of them, decided to order some business cards instead. Leah did make a birthday card for her brother Aaron. We watched half of a movie, but then I had glitches--needs to be cleaned. Was a later night than usual for us--Dagan and Leah didn't leave until almost 11pm. We have just been so gabby about all the dreams and plans. :)

Then yesterday Leah had the day off from her second job. She usually gets off from the office job at 1pm on Thursdays, so she did anyways and we went shopping!! A treat for me! :)

First we went to north Fargo to Tochi's. Love this little store!

This tree in their parking lot is a testament to city survival. As we were packing the trunk there was a symphony of little birds sitting in this tree--chirping in joy at the springlike weather we've been having. Made me smile just to hear their delight!

Leah and I both bought a 25 lb bag of Jasmine rice and a large bottle of Tamari sauce. It is so much cheaper at Tochi's.

We headed back to Fargo and stopped at Best Buy to buy a DVD cleaner that we will all use.

Went over to JoAnn's and spent quite a while there. Leah knows a lady who will sew up tote bags for cheap. We have been talking about me having some with long shoulder bag handles so I can put it over my head. That way I could carry a lot more up to my apartment by myself--instead of Dagan and Leah having to haul things up for me. It would give me two hands again kind of, you know? Leah tries to always use cloth bags for shopping. We could keep the long-handled ones in her trunk for when I am with. And with two of them, there will probably always be one in the trunk. :)
I picked out a red duck cloth and a denium. Leah picked out black duck cloth and wants two made, too. I got the 2 inch wide cream colored cotton webbing handle material they had for handles. Leah wanted black and they didn't have any. After asking two different clerks, we found out they don't even carry the 2 inch wide black cotton webbing. We decided to look at Michael's.
I finally got clear plastic for my table. Leah has had some for her table for when we paint and it is so nice not to have to worry about water spots. I had a very thin plastic tablecloth, but it got little tears and holes in it (very easily) and then was useless. The plastic I bought is a little thinner than Leah's but feels very durable. Happy to have it!! Now I don't have to worry when crafting or painting that I will ruin the wood on my oak table! :)

Also picked up a couple of feet of lace for cards. Not thinking--duh! Left them on the table last night and I couldn't find them this morning. Karma had stolen them. Chewed the one end of the white lace.

Leah and I headed over to Michael's, but they don't carry the handle webbing at all. Leah will look online. If she can't find what she wants, she can always buy the cream colored stuff I got. While we were at Michael's we did find a couple more ribbon colors for cheap (that is where we got all the small ribbons) and we got two wider ribbons (sitting on top)--a metallic and a white sheer. Leah had gone back and purchased two more of the holders from K&Krafts!! This is awesome! We can finally see what we have and get to them easily!

By the time I got home I was hobbling around from being on my feet for over three hours. Exhausted! But--such fun!! Good thing I have a day to rest before Saturday! (I am going with Dagan and Leah to look at property in Sabin and in Hawley.)
Today the order came from Cheap Joe's. Leah ordered some containers. The super satchels by ArtBin seem to be being discontinued. They are gone or on clearance online in many places I buy from. So--we bought some up while we could--and they were on sale, too! The two little containers sitting on top--turned out to be smaller than I thought. Not the same size as my others--but I'll use them. Pens and markers still fit in these. :) They were super cheap! Also made by ArtBin. They were wrapped up because they are made of hard plastic and could crack in shipping....

...some interesting packaging paper for you know who! Anything new in Karma's world has to be investigated--chuckle!

Been a busy couple of days! Going to go make some lunch. :)