My Favorite FOOD!

I found all of these coffee typographies on the web…

 

Coffee comes from the coffee bean. A bean is a vegetable. So…Coffee must be a vegetable juice!

Kampen Restoration: TUB & TILE

I was pinteresting this morning while I could not sleep and I found this blog posting. The Melaleuca Tub & Tile is AMAZING!  Click on the link to read the actual blog posting...

http://kampenrestoration.blogspot.ca/2012/07/tub-tile.html

This was in our house…

WARNING:  Do Not Proceed if you are squeamish…

Let’s just say that I was not pleased when I saw movement over by the big windows in the dining room.  I was vacuuming and all I saw was a flash of black and it looked like a snake head.

I summoned the snake killing beast before I stepped any closer.  This beast, whom I affectionately call Boone, has killed many a snake, frog, salamander, mouse and pack rat.  In short, he is my buddy and he protects me from all things that are creepy!

He took care of a nasty pack rat one day and he was so proud.  He has also been caught on camera gnawing on a snake after it scared the tar out of me.  I took a pictures of him just so I could show Warren & Hunter what a good boy he is.  You can see the pack rat for yourself…

Boone was very happy to assist me!  He came over and we tried to find it – whatever it was.  When I could not find it right away I began to get a little concerned….and then it moved!  It jumped up in the window and I grabbed my camera to take a picture so I had proof!  This is what I saw…

Can you say, “OMG – ucky!”  I am so glad that it was not a snake but I was not pleased with his presence in the house.  After I snapped a couple pictures I said, “Boone!  Get it!!!!”

And the girl and her dog lived happily ever after.

Can Anyone Guess What Animal Made These Tracks?

Any ideas about what animal may have made these squiggly tracks?  I will give you a couple of hints:  1)  The tracks are made on top of cement, 2)  The white stuff is snow and 3) this is a bicycle track next to it for reference in the picture below.

Stay tuned next week for the answer…

A Pinterest Post from Sidwell Design & Photography

Perpetual Calendar\Journal – This is a really cute idea!  It would be a great idea for anyone who journals but it could be used for a lot of things.  A couple of things that come to my brain are:

Use it to make notes on pictures you have taken for blogging or anything else.  Once you download the pictures you can look at the date and go back to your note to refresh your memory.  This would come in really handy for people like me since I have been such an infrequent blogger.  On the other hand, this would give me something else that I would have to keep up with – NOT!  And, I should not forget to mention that I wouldn’t be able to find it!

How about a gratitude journal?  It would also serve as a good way to keep track of clients – like a rolodex.  Or, you could keep track of everything your new baby does each and every day.  I’m sure the ideas are limitless like my pile of index cards!  Since I have more projects started than I will probably ever finish in my lifetime I will not start another – that is, unless I find out that someone else could use one as a gift!

Another thing I dread…

I dread love hearing the words, “I need a haircut”, especially when the words roll out of my husband’s mouth.  After years of having me buzz cut his hair and Hunter’s I was able to convince him that getting a buzz for $5.00 in Prineville made more sense than torturing allowing me to do it for them.  And, I didn’t have get to clean everything up either.  I was certainly all for $5 buzz cuts . 

We get moved over here to Bend and the only $5 buzz cut is at Phagan’s Beauty College.  Of course that is only on Tuesdays and Thursdays during business hours.  Well, good luck with getting Warren in before 5!

So, I am resigned blessed to cutting Warren’s hair again (unless I whine loud enough and long enough… then, I can get him to go to Supercuts for $12 with a $2 coupon).  Since whining is isn’t an option this is my future for the time being.

Wish me luck in finding the $5 buzz cut in Bend, Oregon that fits my hubby’s time table…

Rags by Sock Monkey: t-shirt shag rug tutorial

I have been Pinteresting and I found this awesome rug!  My sister Sheree & I have been struggling with the whole weaving on a hula hoop without really getting anything that looks good.  I think this may be the solution!

I have included the picture from the blog http://ragsbysockmonkey.blogspot.com to show the end result.  Check out the link below to go directly to the page with instructions for the rug. 

The only thing that I will change is the way the “rags” are secured.  Instead of just pulling them through I think I will also add a knot or two.  This should secure the rags so I can wash the rug.

This should be easy peasy (in theory).  My main colors I have now are red, black, navy and white.  I think I can make this 2 t-shirt panels (from a 2XL shirt) and create a good size rug.

This looks like fun so I wanted to make sure I put it on my blog to share with my family and friends!

Rags by Sock Monkey: t-shirt shag rug tutorial

Vindication?

Check out this video that has gone viral.  If things don’t work or don’t look right please go to the bottom of this email and go to my blog via the link.    – I will reserve my comments until after you have watched it…

All I can say is, “WOW!”  I often wonder how to get through to our child and this is inspiring on so many levels.  I can see how many would think that this man is vindictive and childish but I can also see that this man has had ENOUGH! 

It is sure funny that those “things” we provide them with to have access to the internet come back and bite us in the butt.  I would not shoot the laptop just because I can use it and I would hate to shoot all that money.  In my case I can just cut off the child's access to our internet that we also pay for every month.  See, there it is again – we provide those items.  What they don’t think about is that if we provide those items we can also take them away.  This father in the video did just that – he took it away!

I remember being a selfish little teen idiot myself.  I was mean and spiteful to my parents and I thought everything was about me.  I guess it is something all kids go through but it is getting seriously out of hand now days.  I  don’t remember calling my parents names and going out into the public square to announce that they were lazy “bad words”.  I don’t remember wanting to shoot everyone in my school.  I do remember being one of those mean girls at school and now I hate that I was that way; it was my defense mechanism to keep people away and get through school.

Being one of those mean girls has come back to haunt me every now and then since Facebook has come on scene.  People still assume that you are the same person you were in high school because that is what they remember.  Thankfully I am a fairly well adjusted person because my parents raised me well and they loved me enough to be stern and follow through with punishments that were well deserved on my part.  The embarrassment of reliving my “mean girl” status is also deserved but it is also uncomfortable and a sore reminder of the person I was in school.

What are the sore reminders that today’s kids will be reliving in 20 or 30 years?  It won’t just be their actions in public or private that certain people will remember – it will also be documentation that they are piling up everywhere with social media.  I will use Facebook as an example since that is what I am familiar with and what is used on this video.  Time and time again I see people writing things on FB that they would never say to a person’s face.  Venting about your boss or the company you work for are swimming in a deadly area of water.  People assume that no one will hold them accountable for what they write of FB and that is why they don’t use the filter that normally works on the mouth. 

How about the flagrant cursing that family and friends are the audience to.  If you are a nice young lady looking for a job in an office environment and you swear like a longshoreman on FB you might be ruled out before you ever even get in the door for an interview.  I know that I don’t want one of my mother’s sorority friends to say something derogatory about me to her based on my postings – it would be embarrassing to both of us and especially hurtful to my mother.

You also have to realize that everyone knows someone that knows you!  If you are on FB and the person is friends with you on FB they can log in and show that “other” person everything you have done on FB – they can even print it out in living color to be distributed at the office party 2 years from now!  It can even be used in court to prove the person you really are when you think that no one is looking…  Here’s another one for you – your kids can see it and so can their friends and the rest of your family.  Maybe not now but maybe in 2 years when it is very inconvenient for you. 

At some point we move from being a selfish autonomous person to being concerned about other’s thoughts and feelings…at least we hope!  I do see several people that produce an attitude or say things that are less than becoming of them on FB and I know that I think twice about them and wonder why they cannot just be nice.  I had to learn to be nice in order to get along in the world.  Unfortunately, it took more than a couple of hard lessons and embarrassment before I started behaving like I should have been all along.  Looking back I am sure that it affected promotions and relationships at work in a significantly negative way.  In the end, it is just not worth it.  You’ve got to think about what you should be doing differently today instead of wondering what would have happened after you have lost your job or been embarrassed for something that is impossible to change.

Of course there is always KARMA and you know what they say about her!

OK – I guess I can get off my soapbox now.  I am happy to report that all of those lessons have served me well.  If nothing else I am very aware of my actions and even though it is always a “work in progress” I feel positive about the way I treat others.  I try to keep improving – especially in those areas that have become habit.  If I feel better about my actions I feel better about myself and every little bit helps!  I wish this was the solution to all my “ISSUES”…

Now, what to do about the mounds of paper that need to be entered and filed?

photoboother.com - create photobooth strips from your digital pictures

Talk about fun!  Check out this website that turns your photos in to photo strips.  I think I will be using this for some really interesting photos.  Here is the photo strip I just created by grabbing some pics off my computer.

They turned out really good so give it a shot by clicking on this link.
http://photoboother.com/

To font or not?

I always like playing around with fonts.  This particular font is called “Snickles” and it was free.  Of course I found it through Pinterest.This font is simply titled “Kool”.  I really like this font and it is titled “5th Grade Cursive”.

I have always liked fonts as far back as I can remember and I wish I had this “Banff” font when I used to write term papers in college with the Word Perfect program.

“Bleeding Cowboys" is the name of this font and for some reason it always reminds me of Prineville.

This font is called “Biondi” and I also use this one often.

Then we have the “Segoe Print” and the “Segoe Script” which my long time friend Simone turned me onto.  I love using both of these for personal emails.  I plan on using this script in one of my sales flyers soon since I think it gives a friendly feel to the advertisement.  Some fonts like “Ariel” just seem to be over used in print.  Times New Roman” seems to be used for headlines in the newspaper and Franklin Gothic Demi gets used a lot too.

I am now using “Brady Hand ITC” but I aspire to make my own font out of my handwriting.  There are several websites that you can print out a form and put your own handwritten letters into these little boxes and fax or scan it back.  Once you send it in they produce your own font and send you the file to enter into your windows font file.  No more settling for fonts like “Garamond” when you can have your very own handwriting.  There is a caveat to this though (here comes that “hindsight” thing again)… I have completed this form and had my font file returned but I didn’t like it anymore that this “Verdana” font.  It looked all funky like this “Bigtop” font.  Instead of writing smoothly in one motion like creating items on a “to do” list it was cramped and the letters didn’t all line up on the bottom.  It was kind of yucky like I think this “Freestyle” font is .  You have to put each letter in an individual box and make sure that it all lines up perfectly.  Of course I did not do this since my handwriting doesn’t look right when I have to force it.  I like my handwriting whether it is cursive or print.  It just kind of flows like this “College-Black” but it is not near as fancy.

Maybe I will just stick with downloading fonts that I find appealing like this “Book Antiqua” or the most recent find "Franchise”.  FRANCHISE LOOKS GOOD IN ALL CAPS but I also like it with upper & lower case.

I guess “Snickles”wins out for today.+I must get going so I can get some actual work done.  Just one last tip…if you are getting this in an email and you cannot see all of the font changes you may have to actually go to my blog.  Sometimes the email is funny like that and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on this messy post .

Tat Tat until next time…

Kinda cute…

Almost every day I drive down Neff Road to take Hunter to school.  On my way I always admire this one property on the north side.  It has a pond and a beautiful selection of trees of in the distance.  The real eye catcher is the red Adirondack chairs that they have sitting out by the pond; the backs face the road and I just love the setting.

Of course I had to stop and take a picture while everything was green.  It is cold here now and all of the chairs are tipped forward.  The leaves have fallen from the trees and the grass is brown.  I keep waiting for the snow to fly so I can get a winter picture but no dice so far.  Until then I will just keep thinking about what the people who sit in the three adult and two child size chairs are doing while it is so cold outside and their chairs are turned over…

Have you seen the funny tree in Bend?

We were on our way to a football game at Cascade Middle School a few months ago and I come through the traffic circle at Century Drive and Mt. Washington Drive and there it was.  It (the tree)is just up off to the right as you squirt out onto Mt.Washington Drive. If you are turning left towards the middle school you may miss it.It is a curious thing since I have never seen a Ponderosa Pine with such straight branches.  It is also TALL like a GIANT tree; especially when you compare it to the pine trees around it. Of course I did not take these pictures while driving but I did want some pictures of this oddity so I took these before a basketball game when we were over on the west side again.

I was kind of wondering how many people outside of Bend, Oregon have these sort of trees in their area…?

I’m sure that you may have guessed by now but I want to share anyway .  Take a look at this next picture…

It is a cell phone tower!

After realizing what it was I recall a bunch of articles in The Bulletin some time back when cell phones were becoming the thing to have.  There was something to the effect of Bend not approving another cell tower unless in blended in with the esthetics of the area.  I lived in Prineville and didn’t really give it much thought and I am sure that I never read a follow up article showing the outcome.I think I would have remembered seeing this giant tree before . 

I don’t get over that way much so I don’t think I will ever get used to seeing this tree.  I did want to blog about it though while I was thinking of it once again.