What the HECK???? Canadian????

Just a short one for Monday.... Syd walked out of her room tonight with a wool hat on her head, the hair all tucked up into it and her ears sticking out...quite hilarious. For a ten year old she looked really little and her ears cracked me up, she told me she had her thinking cap on and proceeded to make funny faces. She was really making me laugh by hamming it up, trying it this way and that, then she pulled it down over her ears and I said "oh, that looks better" to which she replied "what?? I look like a Canadian!".

No I couldn't figure it out either... all I can gather is the random gene has found her... and I love it!!!!

Happy rest of the week Bloggers!!!!

Before n After... bits n bobs...

We had a massive thunder storm yesterday, but as luck would have it the 

spouse and I had completed our scheduled morning of working in the yard and 

trying to salvage what we have out there. 

I know we both hate yard work because we bitch at each other the whole 

time we're out there. It's a given, day out in the hot sun working the land and

you'd think we were mortal enemies battling it out for plot domination. 

We never work real well together to be honest, now playing that's another

thing, we really enjoy doing fun things together. 

Maybe we should split up the chores and do them separately, teamwork is 

for the Angry Birds when it comes to this blessed Union.

Ash was frightened by the storm when she was out there trying to film the storm 

for Sydney (which was a moot point anyway because Syd was only a mile away experiencing

the same storm at a friends house) you can see the hilarious video on 

my FB page. Yes have you liked me yet? Go on....

I am going to send it to AFV... if I can ever get that upload thing to work! Urgh! 

Anyway, in between yard work and storms and power outages I managed to find 

time to create an ad on FB for my photography site, now worried about the cost 

of this as they make it kinda hokey. Still, I did get nine more likes by this morning! 

I also discovered a new awesome website for Photoshop addicts and enthusiastic

dabblers like moi.... Paint the Moon...check it out. I did this one this morning

in about five seconds flat... yay!! 

So lovely peeps... go have fun in the real world and I'll be talking atchya later. 

Time to head to the mall with my fashionistas.. wish me luck. 

Learn something new every day...

That is Martha Stewart's tag line and look where it got her... yes my friends... a personal fortune, fame and glory (we won't talk about the jail time but I'm sure she learned from that too) so there may be something in this learning something new everyday stuff.

I feel it's becoming my mantra, I've been researching all kinds of things on the web about photography, writing, web-hosting, Photoshop and running a small business, as well as gaining useless knowledge along the way such as apparently William Shakespeare invented the word 'hurry', thanks RedHead Riter. Hmmmm. I'm a mine of information, I feel like John Travolta in Phenomenon (if you haven't seen it, do so, now!). If you don't know the answer to something, then do your homework, track down the people who do have the answer, try to figure it out and don't stop until it clicks. You will find that a lot of smart people want to share what they know, so called experts can't wait to tell you the little tricks of the trade that they have discovered. They know that it's so fulfilling to pass on the knowledge to someone else, there's a joy that comes from seeing a person's reaction... when the light bulb goes off and they feel enlightened. (did you like how I did that?).

Yesterday I was struggling with something in Photoshop and who did I contact? Kim Klassen of course, you HAVE to check out her website, she came back to me lickity split with the answer and voila... I created a new banner for myself. Some of you may be saying well duh, there are plenty of how to posts and videos out there, and you'd be right, but for some reason I hadn't found one that worked for me. I'm more of a hands on figure it out for myself kinda gal and when Kim answered that one question it opened up a world of possibilities for me! Whoop, whoop.... I do all the blog tweaking myself, and I do my photography website myself too. Can't be spending money on expensive designers when I can learn as I go and put together a halfway decent site, IMO.

So my friends, whatchya learn today? What was it that made you open your eyes wider and say.. "aahhh, I never knew that!"????  Do tell.

This pic really has nothing to do with the post, it's just me and a bunch of fantastic bloggers I hung out with in Reno and I'm glad I have this pic to make me smile!!

Thankful Thursday and on this day in history....

So, I'm linking up to Miss Buckle today and expressing my gratitude for some of the fantastic things in my life....

*fresh home grown tomatoes all sweet and delicious

*the opportunity to run my own business and take pictures of fun people

*a friend who likes to call and talk to me for hours at a time

*Amazon.com.... I love Amazon.com

*the amazing things one can learn every day from listening to others

*red, white and blue balloons

ignore the cheesy cns on them!!!! LOL.

And... on this day in history....

July 7th 2010... I lost my job, one I loved. But here we are a year later and all is well. I'm enjoying a new opportunity with new people and a promising future. I also backed into the neighbor's mini van on the same day, I should have known then it was going to be a bad day.

July 7th(ish) 2009.... we came home from a weekend trip to find our house flooded by a faulty water heater, 200 thousand gallons of water later and we were forced into a tiny apartment for six weeks while the house was restored to better than it's former glory... aaahhhh the awsomeness of homeowners insurance.

That's as far back as I can go.... you wanna know why??? because I didn't have a blog before March of 2009 therefore I probably didn't exist!  See, the benefits of a blog, it soooo helps out an old woman like me who can't remember what she did three years ago!!!

Leave a comment... tell me what you're thankful for and what you did on this day in history....thanks!

Pausing for thought....

I know, I know, I'm overloading on pics of the Ashbooger right now but I can't help it she's so darn CUTE!!! She has been hanging with me a lot this summer and I'm totally sucking up every moment because I'm well aware that soon she'll be 10 like Syd and I will not be as uber-cool as I am now.  Also she loves to be in front of the camera so I don't have to beg her to pose, and I love the way she does it so naturally. Sigh... sorry to be such a bore but I love my girls so much it's unbelievable!  Anyway... we're two thirds of the way through this summer and although we've actually done a whole lot it seems like it's flying by too quick. I'm trying to pause a little and savor it before it's too late......

Gasp!!!!!!!!

I don't know that I really need to add anything do I? Hope you all have a great weekend... and enjoy a safe Independence Day on Monday if you happen to be here in the US.  If you're not in the US, have a great day at work on Monday! hee hee.

Randomonium Friday...

Once again I have left a huge gap between this and the previous Randomonium Post... no reason other than that's just the point ... totally Random!! Lets get started shall we????

July 4th is upon us, already? yes I know, this year is careering on by at breakneck speed.... what do you have planned?  We are left kind of at a loose end after original plans with the out-laws were cancelled... much to my youngest's chagrin. Poor baby is terribly upset so in true modern parenting style I am left guilt ridden trying to find a way to make it up to her, I know I should just tell her to hitch up her britches and get on with it but I just can't. I'm a bad mother what can I say!!!!

Can you believe I used the word "chagrin"... no me neither, it always sounds so pretentious to me but it seemed to fit that last piece... y'all know I'm not a fancy nancy word user really; although I LOVE words.

Irrational fear of the week, there's a place across the street from my office that cleans cars, it's an old gas station and looks pretty dicey to put it mildly.  Someone once told me it's a cover for drug pushers... maybe that's where this irrational fear comes in.  I desperately need my car to be cleaned inside and out, it would be so convenient to take it over there but I think they're gonna A) steal my car B) steal some of the useless shit that's in my car C) kill me and stuff me into the back of the car and leave me in an ally to be discovered by a skinny abandoned dog.

Would you like to know what the most useful gadget I have discovered this week is??? "Why yes, yes please" I hear you all cry... it's called PDANet, an app that you can download for your Droid (don't know it it's avail for iPhones, and since I don't have an iPhone I don't care) it enables you to tether your laptop to the internet using your phone, without the pesky fees from the phone company. Why would I need this you ask since my laptop is already equipped with WiFi??? well not everywhere I am has a WiFi hot spot available when I want it. So ... coolio ... I can now connect EVERYWHERE on the planet. Whoopity Whoop Whoop. That is HUGE if you live in the Boondocks of South GA...take it from a gal who knows. It's working very well too, only it scared me because when someone texts you it pops up on your laptop screen and I thought someone was messing with my mind the first time it happened.

I have spent some time this week trying to organize myself in respect to visiting my blog peeps, it's hard to keep up. There are so many GREAT bloggers out there and for some reason my Reader and the list on Blogger are not correlated or something, I feel like I'm only actually seeing a feed from a fraction of the blogs that I really follow. So it's hit and miss but I'm trying... I can also see from my stats on blogger that only a wee fraction of my visitors are commenting. Why? am I not comment worthy? are my visitors all spammers? whatev, please yourselves and if you feel  you would like some banter back and forth I welcome it... :) does that make me sound needy???  I am a little needy at times..... just a tad.

Here's something I would like to share.... created by the daughter #2... so lovely.. complete with magnet on the back to stick to the fridge... nice huh????

She sees hearts in just about everything, lets hope that never changes.

and finally...
I urge those of you who loved and remember Char at Rambins to head over to Beth's blog Be Yourself Everyone Else is Taken and see what she's made to honor Char's memory. Beautiful badges for us to add to our blogs in order that others may also share in the loveliness that was our good friend. Thank you Beth, you're a sweet, kind person and I'm glad to know you.....