selaura

Having completed the Epic Anniversary Cake O Doom and have spent the last week recovering from my exertions, I am now back online and appalled at the amount of things I need to look at to catch up with DA!  EEEP!   I think the cake turned out pretty well.  My parents definitely deserved the effort I put into it.

I'm going to be very busy the next couple of weeks, baking and frosting and carving and decorating!!  I'm making a cake for my parents 60th anniversary.  But....did I choose to do a "traditional" anniversary cake!?   OH NO!!!  I have committed myself to making a mountain scene of Chapman Dam in Colorado.  It's near the small town of Meredith and is where my parents have gone camping every year since they were married!   It's really a pretty spot, with a waterfall and pool.   But, that means much baking and making!  LOL  I will probably post a pic here when it is done.  NOW..... to work!!!

I have ventured into the world of scanning slides!  My Mom has tons of old slides from the 50s through the 70s that we want to put into digital format.  I need to get a little more than 200 of them done very quickly because my Mom and Dad's 60th anniversary is coming up in a month!!  

Luckily, I have a WONDERFUL friend named Brad who allowed me to borrow his Plustek OpticFilm 7500 Slide and Negative scanner!  Unfortunately, the infrared properties are not usable without an upgrade to the sw, which has to be registered.  Since I don't want to use up his registrations, I am not using that function. However, that said, even without the dust and scratch removal software, I'm getting really great quality from this machine!!!  Definitely want one sometime in the future.  The only catch is that I really should upgrade my computer at the same time!!! lol  I am not an MMO gamer, so finding a program that actually taxes my system is really unusual.  But I really do love this little scanner!!  SO MANY of these pictures have not seen the light of a projector in years!!!  It's really great to get them into digital format where they can be disseminated among the family and viewed easily.  

Well, I better get back to work!!  These slides aren't going to do themselves!!!  I only have about 100 more to do!

This summer has had a bit more pain than I planned on.  My headache has been really gross and the allergies and extreme heat haven't helped.  Needless to say, with that combination, my time on the computer and outdoors has been extremely limited.  However, I do have a few new offerings that I put up the other day and I hope that everyone enjoys them.  I look forward to cooler fall days and more good headache days.  I am currently working on a collage for the Fall Gallery Walk.  Gordon Sherman, the printmaking teacher at FHSU, printed up a bunch of "doors" that people could pick up at the Arts Council and decorate however they wished.  I picked one up and have been printing out photos in black and white, coloring them with graphite, inks, and markers, then cutting them up.  it should be interesting.  I will be sure to post a pic when I'm done.  I plan to use them in a "stained glass" effect, using rolled up tinfoil for the leading.  I hope it turns out cool.  

Just got an XBox 360 Kinect so that I can do more interactive exercising indoors.  Rhiannon has been monopolizing it today, but I plan to play with it when she and Bryan are at school during the week!  Should be a good incentive to get moving!  We have the Sports game, the Animal game and whatever came with it.  

I'm enjoying my birthday present from everyone in the family, a Nook Color!!!  It's SO wonderful to download books whenever I need something to read without having to run to the library!  LOVE IT!  

We are preparing to move soon.  Soon being relative.  Probably next year, but with the immensity of the task, I feel like we have to start working on it NOW!  LOL  I am pretty sure we're going to Vancouver, BC or the Seattle area, unless we get a REALLY good job offer in KC/Denver/Kearney/Topeka areas.  We shall see what the next year brings.

It has been a busy month for me.  I had a wedding cake to make and, unfortunately, my head has been especially bitchy lately.  I think I may have had 5 days in the last 4 weeks where I didn't feel like just laying down and sleeping til the pain subsided.  Problem is, the pain is not subsiding.  I may have hit another place where I have to get used to the increased pain level, as the migraine meds that used to take the edge off aren't doing the job anymore.  Of course, that has meant a LOT less computer activity than usual.  I have been taking a few pictures off and on, but not doing much with them.  I also have picked up a couple of the ladder-like grab bars from the Giant Stride that used to be set up at my parent's house.   Before they had it, it was at the country one room schoolhouse just up the road a bit.  I remember playing on it, we called it the "bean bonger" because if you weren't really careful you would get one of those bars whacking you in the head when you let go to stop riding!  LOL We had DANGEROUS toys when I was little.   But, damn, were they fun!   I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I want to make them into something to hang on the wall, for sure.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see preservationinpink.files.wordp… a picture of what it is.   Remember, those things they are holding onto are solid iron.   Like I said, much fun, but dangerous as heck!  

I really have to clean house today.  The kitchen is still a disaster, the living room pretty close to a disaster, though I did get the bathroom cleaned.   I also have to get a bunch of stuff boxed up in preparation for eventually having to move, though I don't know if that will happen this year or next year.   I also need to really work on scraping the texture off the kitchen ceiling and then painting the kitchen.  We also have all the ceilings in the house to paint and the 2 bedrooms and the computer room walls.  The computer room will be a pain since it's completely stuffed with bookcases, desks, art supplies, etc.  We also have 2 outdoor lights to install, a hall light to repair and we need to buy 2 ceiling fans and another ceiling light before we sell the house.   Ay yi yi!!!!   I freak out at the very notion of getting things ready to sell the house, even as I welcome the thought  of getting the heck out of Hays.   

Somehow, I think DA will suffer in this chaos of my life!  LOL