Hobbies

In the old days, before there were home computers, I used to have loads of time. I was a stay at home mom and I had HOBBIES. By hobbies, I mean real hobbies like oil painting, sewing, making stained glass pieces and making little tiny things out of fimo clay. I have a whole gallery of tiny little fruits and veggies, bowls, vases, cups, plates, etc. I planned on someday making myself one of those really nice dollhouses and using my little fimo pieces as furnishings. I still have boxes and boxes of do-it-yourself doll house furniture in the garage to put together just for that elusive doll house that I never got.
Well, actually I got one and it was already put together. It just needed to be finished. (much like my real house, haha). However, the siding had been put on upside down by the first owner/builder. I thought everyone knew that siding overlaps from the top so as to keep the rain from getting in between, but apparently some people don't. I tried for years to pretend it was on correctly, but my perfectionism just wouldn't accept it and finally I gave it away. So now I have boxes of dollhouse furniture to be built for a dollhouse I don't have. It's ok. Maybe someday I will get one.
In the meantime, they invented and supplied the world with home computers. Home computers are wonderful, but they sure do suck the time away. I find myself with one hobby now, and that is falling asleep while playing, working and browsing on my computer. I'm going to work on that, though, and try to get back into accomplishing some other things with my time. Wish me luck. My first step in doing that is to clean out my garage from top to bottom so that I can put a studio in the attic. Yay! A studio is a good step toward making hobbies happen. So wish me luck on that, too!
Today was spent putting down gravel at the gate area of the dog's yard. That in itself felt like a great accomplishment. Tomorrow I will get back up in the attic and throw, throw, throw stuff out the window so we can take it to the dump. Fun times!
I will leave you with and idea of just how much free time I actually had before computers. Here are two of my Fimo creations from way back when.


This is a model I made of my son, David, when he was a baby. I love this little guy because he really reminds me of David.



This is a little gingerbread house. I made this and the model of David in 1983 so they have discolored just a little, but they are still in pretty good shape. There used to be a tiny little snowman in the yard. He was an eighth of an inch high and even had a tiny little carrot nose, but he broke off one time when I dropped it and I never found him. I used toothpicks to help create the detail. I used to love working with Fimo clay. You just create and then bake.

Surprise guest.

My daughter had a BBQ recently to celebrate her wedding. There were all the usual guests; family, friends, co-workers. We all had a really nice time.
When I was coming back from watching the kids ride the pony I noticed a quiet guest standing by the path that I hadn't seen before.
Here is his picture.







We couldn't decide it if was "Fry Guy" from McDonald's or "Cousin It" from the Addams Family and he never said.

Maybe you can decide.

Mission 101 progress report.

I originally posted my Mission 101 list here, so I thought I'd post the update here, also.

I so need to update my 101 things list, but I've been working so hard on trying to accomplish some of the goals, that I really haven't had time. In addition to that, I am much too busy playing silly farming games when I do sit down at the computer.
I've been making some pretty good progress in my yard and that is saying a lot. I'm sure I could do a lot more if:
A. I wasn't so tired all the time.
B. I didn't have a computer.
C. I had never started playing Farm Town and other facsimiles.
D. I was younger. (I could do a lot more at 52 than I can at 59.)
E. I made lists and stuck to them. ( I make lists. I really do. I never look at them once they are written.)
F. I was retired and could stay home all day.

Even so, I am making pretty good progress and it's been a pretty good summer. I've noticed however that my social goals are quite lacking in accomplishment. When I take a vacation from my job, I take it to work on my house and yard. I need to learn how to take a vacation to do nothing except go places and see people.

I accidentally saw a good friend of mine in making a simple decision about where to go for lunch. But seeing friends should be planned or included in plans, not accidental. I'm working on that. I have gotten better at getting together with people, but it's a slow process for me. I'm a hermit by nature. I know to some people I seem really social. Even when I take social ability type tests or quizzes I am often labeled an extrovert, but really, I'm not. I answer the questions with what I actually do instead of what I would like to do. When you have kids, you have to learn to be social and include others in your life. That's just how it is. So even though I've learned how to cope and even be fun in social situations, I am by nature a loner and a recluse. (in other words, God gave me kids for a reason?) Who knows? But someday I would still love to live alone.

I have been able to get together with my grandkids more. I also am still working on going to my friends sometimes instead of always wanting them to come here. In other words, getting out of the house. I have a date with my nephew in September sometime to go on a photo shooting drive. I will probably include my friend, Jewel, in that if I can. It will depend on her work schedule and his. I've been taking photos like mad. I love my new camera but already want a newer one. Probably in part because I was duped in getting that one. NEVER do business with TVs Depot. NEVER! It's a fair warning, so heed it!

I was supposed to be blogging regularly and also reading new blogs and commenting. One of the problems I have with that is my name I think. When I click the "next blog" button on Blogspot it sends me to blogs written in Spanish. I think they are basing that on assumptions because of my last name, which is actually Filipino. It's frustrating for me and I give up. Maybe I will just start picking out blogs on my friends's reading list or go to Nablopomo's site and pick some. I really don't have the time to read blogs, though. Or, more accurately, I can't stay awake long enough to read and comment on more than one blog. But I will work on this. I did make comments in both my "t-shirt surgery" community and my 100_Snapshots community, so that counts. I also made some progress on my list and I'm almost done with the first list in 100_Snapshots.

So my non-update is sort of an update after all. I will post an update with my list included when it starts to rain again. I have too much to do outside right now to worry about the inside! House cleaning, inside painting, flooring and all that can wait until the weather turns. I don't want to waste the good weather indoors.
Tags: 101 things in 1001 days, accomplishments, getting there, progress report, update

Blogging.

I SERIOUSLY need to start blogging again. Seriously. I have no idea how I got so far off track. Oh, yeah. Farm town. hmmmm.
Here's a couple of pics I'd like to share.
I've become entranced with taking pictures of the moon. I've been playing with f-stops and shutter speeds and I'm figuring it out. Here are some of the pics.

This first pic I took using my tripod on top of the parking garage at work and using the "night" setting on my camera. I think it was a fluke that it turned out, but I was very excited that my camera had this range.


The reason I think that one was a fluke is because this is what I got the next night taking one at my house with the camera on the tripod out in the middle of my street and still using the "night" preset setting.


I spent some time thinking about it and thought that maybe it was because at my house it is so dark and at the parking garage you have the lights of the city surrounding you. So I tried again at the parking garage but wasn't able to duplicate that first picture. I got the bright light effect of the second picture.

I found that I could always get good detail taking pictures of the day moon, however. This one was taken in early evening before it got dark.


I spent some time playing with the camera in different darkness situations and learning how to set the fstop and shutter speed and then tried again. Originally I just tried setting the shutter speed manually. I got good detail, but the moon is so dark. This one is taken from atop the garage.


So I played a little more. In this one I set both the fstop and the shutter speed manually. But it still turned out quite dark. I knew there must be some way to duplicate that first picture that apparently was quite accidental. This one was taken from my driveway.


Finally, I just took pictures, one at a time, using all different combinations of fstop and shutter speed, until finally...

One turned out


And then another one even closer


So then I tried to get a picture of the moon surrounded by the clouds that were drifting in, but I got this...just the moon.


No matter what combination I tried, I either got ones like the one above, or ones like this, where the clouds show, but the moon is a bright light. So I need to work on that technique and maybe read up about how people go about getting those lovely pictures of the moon surrounded by clouds.


These two pictures are of the planet that was to the left and below the moon and according to the starguide that I use must be Jupiter. Obviously, my camera does not have quite THAT capability, but it was fun trying. I couldn't get my tripod steady enough on the recycling can which is why you see the movement in the light. But hey! I took a picture of the planet Jupiter. haha. I'm sure enjoying my new camera.

What was that again?

These two pictures were not planned. I didn't realize I was getting the "Hooters sign included because I wasn't wearing my glasses. I laughed out loud when I saw what I had. Do any of you see the humor here?