Almost Spring!

The weather is beginning to warm up.  As I tell my mother, soon we will go from the cold winter rains to the cool spring rains and on into the warmer summer rains :-).  I'm already preparing my greenhouse.  I am not planning to do any tomatoes this year.  They just don't get enough sunshine and warmth where we are.  I will do potatoes, peas and beans again.  Also making a reappearance will be chard, kale, spinach, carrots, cucumber and loose leaf lettuce.  I know pumpkins didn't do well last year, but they did excellent the year before, so I will try again.

I have made many updates to my dA page.  All of my old work is up, as well as many new pieces.  The work above, inspired by the recent tragedy in Japan, is an example of one of my recent works.  100% of any profit it might make will go directly to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief for Japan.  Not that I think I am all that as an artist, but, if it made any money, I didn't want to profit from it.

I have been having fun teaching myself various types of fixed-form poetry.  So far, Haiku is my favorite.  I enjoyed not only learning the technical form (which is rather simple to master) but also the traditional subjects and themes prevalent to Eastern forms in general and Haiku in specific.  I think Shakespearean sonnets will become another favorite, but I haven't played with them as much as I want yet.

I have done some beautiful dye work on my homespun yarn recently.  The Easter egg dye, as you see above, comes out beautifully for projects that don't need to be washed often.

I haven't been doing as much on the free samples/sweepstakes front.  Life intruding and all that.  I have not completely abandoned it though and will get into it more again.  Until then, I have nothing to report except to say I have a few small samples coming in here and there that have been useful.

My boyfriend's Uncle Dave had been sick with cancer.  It has been less than a year since he was diagnosed.  They didn't find out what it was in enough time to effectively treat it.  He passed away just this past Wednesday.  He was a neat man and will be missed.  He and his wife Sue took the time to come and visit us and ask about my health and such.  He was really suffering toward the end though and I am glad that is over.

I will try to be better abut updating this blog. 

Crafting Words and Art

Have done a big deviantART update. Unless I come across something forgotten, I am done adding old works. No more backlog! Come see to view new poetry, photography, and pictures of some of my artisan crafts.

I joined some artist groups on dA as well. I am glad I did. Now I can read works of like minded people, discover works I might not have, get critiques, talk with other writers/poets/artists, and join in activities related to these things. so far I have only joined writer & poet groups. I may change that later.

My interest in sampling continues, though I have taken a break from contest entering. I find not the interest or energy to spend 30-45 minutes on it a night. I will get back to it, eventually. I have gotten some great freebies and samples and won some neat prizes. Most memorable: Getting a beautifully packaged pomegranate from POM Wonderful for Ryan, The $100.00 PUMA Giftcard, and the Otter Box Defender Series Hard Case I won just as I was trying to decide whether to buy a dedicated e-book reader or an iPad. Guess who owns a very well protected iPad?!

In other news, Ryan's Uncle Dave is dying of esophagus cancer. He has only months to live. We let him and Aunt Sue borrow one of our lap tops to help entertain him when he feels too I'll to do much. We will miss him when he dies. I am trying to e there for Ryan too as he deals with losing his uncle.

Holidays Over, Back to Routine

I love the holidays, but am so thankful when they were over.  December and January were a whirlwind!  I am just getting back to my crafting, poetry and art.  I have been playing with poetry forms again as well as with the new Bamboo Pen my boyfriend gave me for Christmas.  A new, better camera (also from Ryan) has sparked a renewed interest in photography as well.  Expect to see the results of all these art forms here.

Freebies, samples and sweepstakes are going well.  My two biggest wins were a $100.00 PUMA giftcard in their holiday IWG (instant win game) and two hardcase Otterbox defender series protector cases one for the iphone3 and one for the ipad from AT&T.  They claim the full retail value is $289.00 but I think I could get about $80.00.  Anyway you look at it they were a free prize so that is cool. 
Among other things, I won a Spa Kit from the Dove Buzzwords IWG, free boxes of toaster strudels from Pillsbury, and cough drops from Halls.  For samples I have received everything from a pair of socks to granola bars.  I have a lot of fun with this.  It helps that my good friend Sabrina does the games, samples and such as well.  We enjoy talking about it and comparing samples.

My neighbor and friend Trudy gave me some beautiful merino top roving for Christmas.  I am finally beginning to spin it.  I will photo the resulting yarn and post it.  I also want to finally work with some more henna dyed wool fiber I colored just before the holidays and haven't gotten a chance to spin yet.  I expect good results, the dye gave a full robust rusty orange to the fiber.

My deviantArt page has some new items since I last posted, mostly poetry though there are a few other things.  Check it out if you are interested.  I will be posting a few new pieces I am just finishing within the next week.

In other news the MMO I play had a huge update on the first of February.  Check out www.RuneScape.com if that sort of thing interests you.  That will be easier than me trying to paraphrase here.  I am glad so many people are excited by the changes and don't see them hampering my preferred game play so I don't care, even though the content isn't something I am personally interested in.

Dinner tonight will be marinated chicken breasts cooked with veggies and rice.  Yum.  I have been cutting down the carbs we consume at meals as well as making sure we are eating more veggies.  Not hard for me but sometimes a challenge with Ryan. 

My grandpa Christiansen turns 93 this year.  We are going to take him out to dinner and buy a big cake for him.  Happy birthday grandpa!