A Wonderful Gift

 

 

Yesterday I opened up the mailbox and found a package inside. I had been expecting the package, but was a little upset because the package, while relatively flat, had been forced into our mailbox. Luckily we have a large mailbox and it had been put in at as much of an angle as the mailman could manage. The edges were a little bent, but the main package was fine.

I hurried to the house to open the package and assure myself that what was inside wasn't harmed. I was very happy to see that it wasn't. Inside was a wonderful gift from a very talented  artist friend. Her name is Maryanne and she paints beautiful pictures that she shares with us in her blog called Paint Dance. I just love everything she does, but I especially enjoy her bright, colorful, amazing landscapes. She sees everything in her minds eye in wonderful, vivid colors and puts it down on a canvas in a way that makes you want to just walk into the paintings and stay for a while. I have commented a few times on how much I enjoy her work and was ecstatic when she made a very generous offer to send me one of her beautiful canvases. I, of course, immediately said "YES, please!"

I wanted to immediately show off the not one but TWO beautiful paintings she sent me. I wanted to post a picture of them the very moment I got them, but I needed light to get a good photo. Taking a picture indoors was not going to do it. First thing this morning I grabbed the paintings and my camera and went outside.  The photos don't do justice to the paintings. They don't even begin to capture the texture and color of these beautiful pieces of art.

The picture above is of the smaller piece. Maryanne calls it Dappled Light and Shadow. The piece at the bottom of the entry, which is a little larger, is called Banyans on the Bay. Both are sooo gorgeous in person.

Some of my other favorite paintings of hers are: Yellow Springs-the west meadow view, Beach Bums, Tahitian Moon and Halloween at The General Warren Inn. There are many, many more. Go and look in her archives, you won't be sorry!

I wish I had the ability to create such beautiful things, but since I don't I'm glad that I can at least enjoy them!

 

Random Thoughts

Tonight is another night of just random thoughts and links. I have a really cool surprise for tomorrows entry, but I need to take a picture. A picture requires light. While I could take the picture indoors, I think the subject will look nicer under natural light. Intrigued? Let's just say that surprising gifts from really nice people are the best.

Now for the random thoughts:

#1 Wow! Surprisingly there are some people who find my life interesting. Compared to the life I was living, I find my current life to be, not boring exactly, but not as fast paced as I was used to. This is not a bad thing by any means, just different. I'm just surprised that people find my day to day interesting ;p  Still, since people seem interested, I will try to post a little more often about my daily life and the critters who inhabit it.

#2 I'm currently reading (and enjoying) John Scalzi's book The Android's Dream. This book is very different from the other two books of his I have read. I enjoyed Old Man's War and it's sequel The Ghost Brigades, but this current book really gives you a look at the undeniably warped sense of humor that John has. The book starts out with a diplomat killing his extraterrestrial opposite by... wait for it.... farting at him till he has a stroke! Oh, and then dying himself from a heart attack from laughing too hard. From there the story gets weird. I'm about 1/2 way thru and it is great. It helps that I have an odd sense of humor and enjoy the absurd. Still, even with all of the 'funny' stuff going on, John manages to craft a really good Sci-fi story... albeit with a wink and a nod.

#3 I found this link today, and when I clicked through I was amazed. I'm assuming he blows the eggs out first and then uses the dremel on them. How delicate and intricate these are. The patience he must have..... Enjoy!

#4 It's December and Santa is on our minds. Here are a few unusual ones for you to take a look at. I particularly like Scuba Santa LOL!

#5 and finally, because I know that this season, while full of joy and fun, can be a little nerve wracking, I offer up something to help you relax. Click here and pop your way to calmness!

Oops almost forgot #6.... The picture below is one I took when we went to the local  botanical garden. Enjoy!

 

 

A Horsy Post

 

 

 

It has come to my attention (both thru e-mail and comments on my Blogger and AOL Journals) that some of you may be interested in hearing about the horses that I take care of. Before you hear stories about them, first you need to know the cast of characters. Today you get a glimps of all my 'babies' and a little about each. Then, if people seem interested I might do some individual entries.

Only one of these horses belongs to me personally. He is an arabian and his name is Boo. You've seen a few pictures of him over the years. The picture at the top of this post is of my handsome boy. I've owned Boo since he was a baby and he is going to be 18 next year. He is what we call a black bay, but, since he lives in Florida, he is usually sunburned to a lighter brown ;p

The rest of the horses are owned by a very dear friend of mine who I knew before we moved here. Her farm turned out to be right across the road from where I live now, which makes it very convenient for me! She own performing horses, and is often away performing with them. My normal compliment of horses are the ones who stay home when she is away. All of her horses are gray and either Arabians, Andalusians, or an Andalusian crosses. Yep, they are all supposed to look similar.

The cast of Characters that stay here all the time, in addition to my guy,  are:The Five who are retired from the ring for one reason or another (mostly because of age--two are over 30 years old!). They are Ten, Omar, Orin, Mahome, and Abduhl. All five of them are Arabians. The next two are also Arabians, but they are Yearlings (soon to be 2). One is a smokey color, and the other has a pink cast, but both will eventually be gray. They are known as Bebe and Bizou. You probably guessed that Bebe is French for Baby, but Bizou's name means Kiss. Why French names? Because my friend speaks French to her horses as that is her 'first' language. The last two are my andalusian crosses. They are both 2 years old (soon to be 3) and they will start their training this year to join the act. One is an andalusian/percheron cross and the other is an andalusian/quarter horse cross. Their names are French for thunder and lightning: Eclair and Tonnerre. All of these guys are geldings.

Currently my friend is on vacation for 19 days, and in addition to the normal cast of characters I also have 7 extras! The 'young guys' are four geldings known as: Gomlet, Sahab, Bajo, and Gazie. I'm not sure I got the spellings right, but that's how I pronounce them! We also have Alidar who is a little bit older. He is snow white and gorgeous. They are all arabians. The last two are the stallions, Rico and Shagal. Shagal is a smokey gray arabian  and the apple of his mama's eye. My friend has had him since the day he was born and you can tell. He just worships her. Rico is a beautiful andalusian stallion.

So, there you have it. My friend was worried that adding in the extra 7 would be a problem, but really it doesn't take that much extra time to take care of the extras. Everyone is outside in pastures enjoying the Florida winter weather most of the day. The stallions come in at night so I don't have to worry about them getting into trouble, but unless we get a cold snap everyone else is happy in their pastures. We are a little cramped with double the numbers, but with a little shuffling of pastures everyone has a place.

Have I bored you all to death yet? LOL!

Random Thoughts

Tonight you get an issue of Random Thoughts.......

#1. Someone in e-mail mentioned that I don't post often lately, and it's mostly a Wordless Wednesday picture, or some such thing. I don't seem to ever talk about my life anymore.

Whew! I guess that has been true, especially this last year. I've not been very good about posting on a regular basis. Why? My 'real' life just isn't very exciting since I moved out into the country. That is unless you are interested in hay, poop, and assorted boring animal stuff. Mostly I've been taking care of the horses and since that is seven days a week.. well, I don't get to do much else. This person seems to think that would make interesting blog fodder so I guess I could do some of that. If I bore you the little red x is always there!

However, I think that things are going to possibly get a little more blog worthy around here. There is the possibility of a little adventure in the near future. We will see. In the meantime, I am going to start trying to post something --even if it is just random thoughts on life in general-- at least a couple of time a week. Maybe I will find my 'blog bliss' again...

#2 Another person asked in comments about one of my favorite (albeit boring to many people) things. Donna asked about my horses. Everyone is doing great, I'm up to 17 horses right now. I've got a long 'horsy' post that I've been meaning to do for the last week, so stay tuned for that.

#3 I've been decorating for Christmas! On my AOL Journal that is simply a change of colors and the addition of a picture in my All About Me section. I have a couple more things I plan to add to that. My Blogger Blog, on the other hand, got a new heading, new background and pretty green and red fonts. I'll have a few more things to add during the month to both places.

#4 I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but our Blog Father is leaving us. I know many of you, like me, will miss your daily dose of Scalzi. Lucky for us John has a blog out in the 'wilds' of the Blogosphere called The Whatever. I started reading the Whatever soon after I found By The Way. It's a little edgier than BTW, but if you are missing Mr. Scalzi, it's a place to see what he is up to. You won't get Monday Photo shoots, or Weekend Assignments, but you WILL get Athena pictures, pics of the Cats and Dog, the occasional sunset/sunrise picture, and John's take on the world around him. Quick... go... Check it Out... I'll wait.

Lalalalalala.... Oh, your back! Onward to:

#5 Need something to do that will cause you to lose long blocks of time that you will never find again? Do you like Spirograph and kaleidoscope type things? Do you ooh and aah at fireworks? Go here and check this out. Once it loads move your mouse across the open space. Cool, huh? Now, see those circles at the bottom right and left corners? Click them and move your mouse again. Yeah... you can lose some time playing here ;p I don't know if I've ever posted that link before, but I was playing with it earlier today, soooooo.....

#6 Now that I've given you #5, I can safely leave you to play by yourself. Bwahahahahahaha!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Ohhhhh... Shiny!

I am a Geek... No really, you don't need to try to deny it, I know it... In fact, I kind of like it. But, in all of my Geekiness, I am also a little bit of a tightwad. I have been looking at MP3 players now for almost a year. G even tried to buy me one for my birthday in June, but I hadn't found exactly what I wanted yet, so I waited... I looked... I waited... I looked. Finally this week we were in town and I spotted this cute little number.

It had most of what I was looking for. It is almost exactly the size of a shuffle (which I find adorable), but had the things that I wanted that the shuffle didn't. It has 2GB of storage, a clip (like the shuffle), an FM tuner, and a screen so that you can see what is playing and choose something else. That (and the no FM tuner) was the biggest drawback to the shuffle. With the Shuffle, you load it up, and then you listen to it. Your only option being to skip to the next song. Uh No! I have eclectic tastes. Today I want to listen to Country, tomorrow Rock, and the next day some Mannheim Steamroller! But, this little Cutie had a screen, AND the price was right ($20 less than a 1GB Shuffle)... AND it had a screen... AND it had an FM tuner...... AND I wasn't tied to buying my music from ITunes! Not that I have anything against ITunes, I just like options!

The minute I said, "I think this is the one I am going to get" G had it in his hands and headed for the cashier LOL! He even got me the armband and silicone case to go with it so I could walk/jog/exercise while wearing it (Yeah, THAT's going to happen). His only thing was that it only had a small screen that shows the options/what's playing. He wanted me to get one of the players that had the color screen that you could show people pictures with and you could see album art, etc. But, I don't plan to waste any of my song room with picture files, and the biggest draw to this player was the size. It is actually smaller than the picture on the website! A display big enough to show a picture decently would defeat the whole "Look how tiny it is" thing! It is almost exactly the size of a Shuffle if you have seen one of those.

I got it on Tuesday, and I spent the next 2 days ripping all of our CDs to the laptop so I would have music to put on it. I was actually dreading ripping the CDs because I hadn't ripped any music in a couple of years, but I was really pleased with the Windows Media Player. It's come a loooong way since the last time I used it. What you say, the ultimate Geek didn't have all of her music ripped to her laptop?!? Nope, I have a really nice 5 CD player that we've always used to play music with, so I don't usually play music off of the laptop, and if I did I just played it straight from the CD, so I just had no reason to rip any of the CD's. And, I am lazy.... If I don't need to do something... well, you know, I'm lazy!

I'm really happy with my little player, can you tell?? Now I'll have a reason to go out and buy some new music ;p

Let's see if I can dig up a picture to end this entry with. I took this picture during the trip to the zoo that was new to me. I thought he was really handsome. The only touch up work I did was tiny bit of gaussian blur because the background wasn't quite as out of focus as I had planned when I took the picture, a tweek to the levels, and then a quick unsharp mask.

Someone asked how I do the frames, and the answer is... several different ways LOL! This particular frame was done by selecting the edge of the picture and doing a stroke command in black, then making my selection smaller, again doing the stroke command, this time using the eyedropper to choose a little bit of green from the background. One more time of making the selection smaller and one more time with the stroke command, this time with black again. If anyone is really interested, I could do a tutorial here one day on how to do it. I use Photoshop Elements usually, but I find that most of the different programs have similar things, you just sometimes have to look for them.

O.K.... Here he is, Enjoy!