April Showers Bring May Morels!

For anyone familiar with the taste of morel mushrooms, it doesn't get any better than this - we found three morel mushrooms growing in our very own yard this last weekend! We had them for dinner on Tuesday. Yummy! We love them so much, that tomorrow we are driving out to Muscoda, Wisconsin which proclaims itself the "Morel Mushroom Capital of the World" for their weekend Morel Festival. It is our first time there for this event and we cannot wait to experience it. Of course, between that and the first major flea market of the season on Sunday leaves me with very little art studio time this weekend.

My blog redesign will be taking place within the next few weeks, so watch for that. I cannot wait! I've been experimenting with my new Quickutz Revolution (which I absolutely love, by the way). Unfortunately, Quickutz has announced (this week) that they are discontinuing the Revolution and coming out with a new die cut machine called the Epic. Good grief. Don't worry, Cuttlebug fans, I still love my Bug, but find that the Revolution works a little easier on some dies than the Bug, but that just means that they complement each other well. I really love the magnetic plate on the Revolution and the machine works really smoothly. The buzz on the chats is about a new 12" die machine, but I don't feel the need for that as I don't do scrapbooking besides digital, and I try to limit the size to 6x6 or 8x8. 12x12 is just too huge for my storage abilities. I am still selling my Spellbinders machine (see info below), so if anyone is interested, let me know. My next step is listing it on eBay. There are so many people that swear by their Spellbinder machine. I did not like it, but that's me. This arts and crafts thing is very personal!

Enjoy,
-Roberta

ARGH! with iPhoto

I am battling with iPhoto '09. You see, normally I like to wait for several months (typically at least 6 months) until I get a software upgrade. I didn't wait with the new iLife '09 for Mac. NO - this time I had to get it right away when it came out... so now iPhoto is making me nuts with this new feature that should be wonderful - the upload to Flickr. I import photos from my camera into iPhoto, then can upload them right into Flickr. Great, right? Not so! I've got photos disappearing from Flickr. Photos disappearing from iPhoto. YIKES! The Apple discussion board seems to have a few bugs reported with iPhoto '09. Nothing dreadfully bad. I mean, I have my time capsule back up so I can recover any "misplaced" photos. Its the hassle. I am so used to no hassle with my Mac. Happiness, almost bliss! So much for the wonderful upload feature. I'll have to do it the old fashioned way which takes just a few seconds more. Hopefully soon they will have it resolved. Ok - enough ranting and raving for now. I am attaching (hopefully it won't disappear!) a photo of a lovely flower with the dreadful name of deadnettle. They bloom from spring through fall. (I do love flowers!)

Enjoy,
-Roberta

Warmer days

Now that Spring is officially here, Summer is not far behind. Memorial Day is right around the corner for us - it seems early this year being that it will be on May 25th. I so need a day off of work. I have no plans for that weekend yet, but this weekend is of course Mother's Day, so Marc's Mom is coming for dinner. If the weather permits, we will grill & eat outside. We grilled the other day, but have not eaten out on the patio yet this year. The following weekend is the Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda. We hope to go out there to check it out. We've not been to that before, but as we love Morels, we want to go and see what their festival is like. This tiny town calls itself the Morel Mushroom capital of the world. How cool is that? LOL! No, seriously, if you've never tried a morel mushroom, you do not know what you're missing - they are absolutely delicious! I used to forage for them in the woods with my Father when I was young in the spring time. They are hard to find, but worth the time to look for them. They sell them in Muscoda, so we do not have to tromp through the woods looking for them. They can be expensive, so we will see what they cost there. I've been told by a gentleman that I work with who's familiar with the morel hunting & the fesitval that the weather we've been having is ideal for the mushrooms, so we should have a good crop this year. Wonderful! I will keep you posted and I'll post photos too (as long as I remember to bring the camera - my memory's been haywire lately). I just love the daffodils in bloom right now. They are so beautiful. I have planted more and more of them these past few years after I first planted tulips when we moved here several years ago only to find that the deer just love to munch the tulips to the ground. They don't touch the daffodils. We have so many deer here, it's crazy, since I live in the city.

Enjoy,
-Roberta

rainy spring days

good news is that it's spring. bad news is that it's raining. pouring actually. its muddy messy outside. the daffodils are sprouting up several inches just today. didn't see many birds. too cold, windy wet outside. pour things. when it does warm up and get sunny everything is going to start blooming. can't wait.

i also can't wait for september. i am going to walt disney world after all. they have the free dining plan going on and its such a deal we could not pass it up. we are going on the cheap this time. staying at the pop century. this is my first time there going with the disney package. i hope it is an enjoyable trip. problem is, with the dining plan being free at that time, every restaurant is booked! i did manage to make all but one reservation. we are going to get to eat at the california grill and artist point. very nice! i'm not booking any tours this time, but we will definitely go to the not so scary halloween party. that was so much fun when we went two years ago. i'm a big disney villain fan and that is too much fun. i love the fireworks. they were set to the music of the nightmare before christmas. my all time favorite. i never get tired of that movie. 

i did get sweeney todd, barber of seville, but haven't watched it yet. maybe this weekend. i have a stampin' up party to go to on saturday. i'm looking forward to that. not spending the money, but getting more stuff! i've got to make the time this weekend to work on my projects. still torn between my stamping, quilting, and working on my digital projects. now that i've reinstalled adobe elements 6 it is working much better. i also want to work on iweb to get my dot mac site set up. my playtime is never long enough. it is my last photoshop elements class coming up on monday night. one of the other students wants me to bring in some of my digital work to show her. i'd better do up some more pages so i can put them into a book to show. it takes me about an hour or more to make one page. just think, after my next trip i'll have more photos to play with! working with the photos gives me ideas of what to take photos of in the future. you know, what works and what doesn't. 

gotta love it

today was finally pretty nice outside. a bit wet because of the melting snow, but spring is definitely in the air. 

i finally went out and got myself a bamboo fun pen tablet today. if you are thinking about getting one, run out right now and get yourself one! don't wait. i just installed the software and set it up and oh my god! its fabulous. fun. i may never use my mouse again. it comes with a pen/tablet and mouse. i can't wait to try it out with my digital endeavors. speaking of which, i had my first photoshop/photoshop elements class on monday. it was informative. a bit tedious, but i'll definitely learn what i need to know. i'm not sure why they say its for photoshop, we are using elements. i know they aren't that much different, but we are using basic aspects of the program. i am toying with the idea of getting photoshop cs3. i can get it at a discount with my bamboo fun tablet. cool. i've just got to stay home all weekend and hole myself up in the office with the mac, scanner, bamboo fun tablet & printer. i can't wait. 

speaking of cool technology, i went and got my time capsule yesterday. i've finally joined the network world. wireless. cool again. lovely little time capsule works with time keeper in osx leopard to keep my information backed up. thank you, apple. i just love everything apple. i always wonder what they will come up with next. i just wish i could use a mac at work instead of my old pc. hopefully i'll get a bigger monitor at work, at least. the one i have is so small. i can't hardly see it, especially in comparison to the beautiful mac i have at home. :)

i found the most wonderful magazine at the bookstore: digital studio. it is just full of ideas similar to what i want to be able to do with all of this digital equipment. beautiful things. creative things. just fabulous. now i just have to get busy and just do it!

spring around the corner

i saw my first robins this morning. two of them. they looked quite happy to be here considering it is all of 36 degrees outside. all the birds seem very active. singing pretty. spring is in the air. the snow is melting very slowly. i'm glad because with the two dogs, the backyard can be pretty nasty this time of year. jac hates it so. he doesn't like it wet either.

blue monday

it is raining...very yucky outside today. supposed to turn to snow & sleet. i am so ready for spring. couldn't sleep well last night. i did get a little bit of studio time yesterday and saturday. its never as long as i wish it was. i am so happy working in my studio. problem is that i get sidetracked. all the pretty things to play around with in there. i go from one project to the next. need to focus...get some things done. i signed up with etsy this weekend. very cool website. lots of pretty things out there. 

i played some more with my digital projects. i have a school photo showing a one room school house with the students and teacher outside along with report cards from 1927 in kentucky. they made a nice digital piece. 

must remain focused...

got my font library today. installed fonts. seems like there's not as many as it boasted. not sure why. i could see myself becoming a font junkie. i love fonts. they are each so cool. of course, some are boring. i like the unique ones. i love serifs. not everyone has an appreciation for fonts and writing. there is a beauty in writing. that's why i've dabeled in calligraphy. i am ok at it, but find i do not have enough patience. you have to have great patience to do calligraphy. my friend linda does beautiful calligraphy (see her website under "links for artistic inspiration"). she tells me i need to practice. 

i don't like to practice - i like to experiment. i like being on the edge, not following the rules. i don't follow recipes...not to the letter anyway. i take a recipe and make it my own by adding an ingredient i think i'd like better or leaving something i don't care for out... or just to be different. my art is that way too. my life is that way. except maybe for driving. i try to obey the rules then! its difficult to improvise when you're driving. 

maybe what you drive is improvising. i used to love really cool sports cars (ok, i still do) but now i opt for something more practical. because i need to haul my dogs around, i love a hatchback. i've got my subaru outback sport and its been a great car for the past 9 years. i've never had a car that long. ever. even new cars i've tired of them and got a new one to replace it. the only car that's come close was my mazda rx7 - before my son totaled it. oh well. that was a very long time ago. i'm sure my next car will be a subaru, but the one i've got now has a lot of life left in it - and no rust.