A Georgia Angel

Today has been a very quiet day.  We’ve just been lazing around, not doing much of anything.  I’ve been catching up on some of my computer time since we have been in and out so much over the past several days.

Friday night, I made a spur of the moment decision to go watch the fireworks.  Quite frankly, I hate the noise of fireworks.  I always have.  I remember going to the Plaza with my mom, my best friend and her parents.  We all rode in the same car.  I would cower in the back of the car, petrified of the noise.

Every year, the Band of the Air Force Reserve plays at the local Stadium to celebrate July 4th.  This year, Diamond Rio, played too.  Cost to attend the concert?  FREE.  Did I go?  NO.  I stay away from the big crowds.

But, I did find a nice little spot away from the crowd.  When I got there, there were about 25 cars already there, but it wasn’t crowded.  I found us a little spot out of the way, and sat back hoping that I had made a wise decision.  Leah has only seen fireworks once and it was rainy and cold that night.  I fixed her up a spot in the back of the Explorer with a soft blanket and she had her nintendo game to keep her occupied.  I set up my camera and tripod, checked the settings, and made sure the camera remote was easy to find in the dark.  I’ve never taken fireworks photos before, so I was excited at the opportunity to be able to try it out.

Leah kept asking every, as children usually do, “Is it dark enough yet for the fireworks?”  ”Have they started yet?”  Well, wouldn’t you know it, she passed out before the fireworks started.

I had to wake Leah up.  She roused up long enough to say “pretty” and then passed back out again.  So I just sat by myself and happily clicked away at the camera.

So, all in all, my photos turned out pretty good.  Two things, I was parked right under power lines, so you can see a black streak on the left, and the fireworks were just above the tree line, so some of the displays were cut off on the bottom.

But the big thing I liked the best, I didn’t have to hear the noise.  It was a very faintly muted pop.  That suited me just fine.

Fireworks July 2010

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Technorati Tags: Celebrations, fireworks, July 4th, Photography

I have been wanting to play around with Artiseer, so last night I tried it out.  Boredom has set in, and usually when that happens, my creative side shows up.  Not always a welcome pair, because when I want the creativity to be there, it doesn’t always come to me.  Recently, I took some photos of flowers over at my doctor’s office.  It was around mid-afternoon, hot and muggy, and I think I sweated off another couple of pounds taking the photos.  Here are the ones I used in the Artiseer program.

This is how they turned out.  Click the thumbnail for a larger image.

This last one I used a burlap background that I had made a long time ago, then used the suggested settings for the colors.  Easy as pie.

I’m working on freshening up my blog design, so if things look a little wonky, just bear with me and hopefully I’ll have everything put back in order soon.

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Wednesday Edition

PHOTOS taken by my 6 year old

Click here to view other participants hosted by Kdubs @  Wordless Wednesday.

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Technorati Tags: Memes, Photography, wednesday meme, Wednesday Memes, wednesday's meme, Wordless Wednesday

I do.  It’s a passion to blog, and to do it for free (well most of us do anyway).  We spend hours hours glued to the computer screen scrolling through posts looking for common interests, or a giggle, tips or hints on how to do something better, or even learn something new.  For me,  a confirmed homebody, reading mom blogs is my virtual window to the world.  I can keep up with the hottest products under review, or the newest and best books to read, and of course parenting advice.  It is a whole world all it’s own, and I’m thankful for it.  It keeps me occupied and out of trouble, more or less.

I do have moments where I neglect my blogs, right now my Princess in Training blog is sorely in need of fresh content and maintenance.  But for the most part, I like to blog regularly, I like to keep it real, but also simple, because that’s the way I live my personal life.

I have wanted to start a group on Facebook for a while that listed all my friends blogs, and their friends, and their friends, and so forth.  Last night, I did just that.  Maybe it ‘s a little redundant with all the blog hops and follows, but I’m bored, and I need something creative to do.  But I hope it takes off and we get hundreds of members.  So come on over and check out the Facebook group, We ♥ Mom Bloggers, and join in.  Then invite all your mom blogs friends to come by and join too.

Hope to see you there!

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I learned something new today.  Now granted, I don’t know everything, but I’m always surprised for some strange reason, when I discover that I have learned something new.  I have been blog hopping today and leaving comments.  I’m not always much of a commenter.  I have trouble coming up with different things to say that are sincere or thoughtful.  I don’t think it’s fair to the author of the blog that I’m visiting, if I just say “stopping by to say hi, have a nice day”.  Although I have done that before just to let them know that I stopped by and left a comment.  Today, I’ve actually found some blogs that have inspired me to write what I call “sincere” comments, and I hope those that I have visited think so too.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking those one line comments.  I love getting comments from my few readers, even if that’s all they do is just say “hi, I wuz here”.

Okay, now I’m gallivanting around and not even telling you what I learned today.  One of the frustrating things I find when leaving comments is that I go to the trouble of leaving a nice, thoughtful comment, and then it doesn’t go anywhere when I press submit.  There are several blogs that I try leaving comments and it never shows up.  It’s not even blogs where the posts have to be pre-approved before they show up.  Late last night, I was trying to leave a comment on a blog that I hadn’t been to in a while, and then remembered why I stopped coming by.  My comment post would never show up.  So, it occurred to me, a light bulb literally went on hovering above my head… maybe it’s the way I’m leaving my name in the boxes you have to fill out.  I always sign my name “Karen ~Georgia Angel” instead of “Karen @ Georgia Angel”.  So I tried signing it “Karen, Georgia Angel”, and lo and behold, it worked.  YAY!  The excitement abounds, well, sorta, my pulse raced a little, lol.

I’ve been struggling all week with a reoccurring thought in my head that I’ve “lost” my happiness.  It’s true, I haven’t been happy in a while.  Not one little moment in any given day could I name something that made me happy, not even the cheerfulness of my 6 year old.  In fact, that was beginning to grate on my nerves.  There’s nothing worse than a mama with scrapped nerves, let me tell you.

So, I am here to say that I have had 2 happy moments today.  The first I have already described.  The other came in the middle of the night.  It sounds a little weird, I know, and it’s not what you might think.  I posted before that I was intending to sell some of my craft kits.  I found 40 of them stashed in boxes in my garage.  I knew I had a lot, but 40?  WOW.  Anyway, I started posting them online last week, 1 person was interested, but never followed through.  Last night, I saw a twitter from Simply Organized about a #TwagSale starting today.  So, I got motivated and started posting the rest of my kits online to prepare for the TwagSale.  After I got about 7 of them loaded on Robins Yard Sales, I received an IM from a lady saying she was interested in all that I had and wanted a price for the lot.  I was very surprised, nothing like that ever happens to me.  I told her how many kits I had, and she didn’t hesitate.  I quoted her a price (after calling my mother to seek advice–yeah, I know, lame) and she didn’t even haggle.  She agreed right away, and I told her she had made my day.  She came over today, brought cash, took away the boxes and I am now X amount of dollars richer and a little more clutter free.  Yep, money CAN make you happy sometimes.  Now I am properly motivated to finish decluttering my craft stuff and the toys.

Hope you are having a great Saturday and see you around the blogosphere.

P.S.  I posted the Deal of the Day on my AVON blog today, it was a beautiful pair of earrings.  If I still wore earrings, I would probably buy them.  Although it does say they are available in clipons.  I just might order them, you can’t beat the  price.

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Wow, the blogging world has changed in just a few short months.  I’ve been trying to catch up on my blog reading, and the blog hops and memes have exploded.  I love memes.  I wish I could sit and blog about the memes all day long.  Here are just a few that I have come across so far.

Follow Along Fridays
Hosted by Amber @ The Mom Road

Friendly Friday Follow
Hosted by Emma @ Toddler Awesome

Fun Follow Friday
Hosted by Stacie @ Simply Stacie
and  My Wee View

Hosted by The Girl Creative

Friday-Follow me.
Stephanie at Babes Rockin Mami,
Michelle at Mommy Loves Stilettos,
and Laura at Vodka Logic

Follow Me Fridays
Hosted by Tara @  Trendy Treehouse

Friday Blog Hop
Hosted by Home Grown Families
and Mama to 3 Blessings

Follow Me Friday
Hosted by Still on the Verge

Blog Hop Friday
Hosted by My New Life as Mom

Flog Your Blog Friday
Hosted by MummyTime

Friendly Friday
Hosted by Thanks Mail Carrier

Social Parade
Hosted by Smart and Trendy Moms

Follow Friday 40 and Over
Hosted by Never Growing Old

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Technorati Tags: Blog Hop Friday, Flog Your Blog Friday, Follow Along Friday, Follow Me Friday, Follow Me Fridays, Friday Blog Hop, Friday Follow, Friendly Friday, Friendly Friday Follow, Fun Follow Friday, New Friend Friday, Social Parade

I’m sitting here on a Thursday night, watching the USA network, and multitasking… browsing the internet for blogs and meeting new twitter friends.  The urge to write is there, the idea isn’t.  Of course, all of this is compounded by lack of sleep this week and a pounding headache.  So then an idea hit me…. I’m always full of ideas…  ideas that I never really act on.  Would that be called idea fail?  Or is it just a lack of follow-through?  So I thought I would list some of my 101 Ideas and see where it leads, or what conclusions I come to.  Here they are, in no particular order.

Idea 1.  Start a home business making handcrafted items…  I actually did this at one time making treetop angels and antique angel pins.  Worked really hard and sold them all, then gave it up.  Never felt like I was successful.

Idea 2.  Start a home business designing web pages… I designed a few simple web pages for other people.  Had lots of ideas about how to advertise frugally, but never got around to it.

Idea 3.  Start a home business selling products, like Avon, or candles, or jewelry… I’ve been thinking about this for years and I finally took one small step a few weeks ago and signed up to sell Avon.  I’ve had one customer, and only because my gracious upline leader shared an order with me.

Idea 4.  Make my own clothes…   I buy the material and the patterns, and they are still sitting in a pile next to the dust-covered sewing machine.

Idea 5.  Make clothes for my 6 year old… I started a dress, and it actually made it through the sewing machine process, then didn’t finish it.

Idea 6.  Get really excited over something, anything.  Nope, doesn’t happen.

Idea 7.  Get involved in sports.  I signed Leah up for baseball and soccer, but refused to participate.

Idea 8.  Excercise.  Daily.  Nope, not gonna happen.

Idea 9.  Clean house.  Daily.  Every other day?  Not gonna happen either.

Idea 10.  Effectively encourage my daughter to eat meats and veggies.  I don’t know how she does it, but she is more stubborn than I am when it comes to food, and she has been that way since she was an infant.

Idea 11.  Become a better cook.  I hate cooking, but I sure do get awful hungry.

Idea 12.  Learn to mow the lawn.  Allergy haven.  I can’t breathe just thinking about it.

Idea 13.  Change the battery in the smoke alarm that keeps beeping at me.  The last time I tried to do that the alarm went off and liked to scared the heebie jeebies out of me.

Idea 14.  Plant flowers.  Now my head hurts from imagining the amount of dirt involved.

Idea 15.  Start wearing jewelry and makeup again.  Who is it that I have to dress up for?  Oh wait, I may have to go back to working in a real office again.  Hmmm, better think more on that one.

Idea 16.  Join a local mom’s group.  Hey, I actually did this one.  I’m one of the playgroup coordinators and will be the new party planner starting next month.  Okay, this could be working.

Idea 17.  Cut off TV cable service.  Financially, this is a very practical idea.  But some days it’s my only window to the world around me.

Idea 18.  Have a garage sale.  I always start thinking about this too late in the season, when it’s really too hot.

Idea 19.  Sell some of my “stuff” online.  I posted some of my craft kits and only got one nibble.  I even reduced the price, she said she would call to set up a meet.  Someone called me at 8:30 am on Sunday morning.  I blearily looked at the phone and hit the “ignore” button.  I don’t do business before 11:00 am and I’ve had my Dr. Pepper on Sunday mornings.  Sorry, I guess I lost that sale.  Whoever it was didn’t even bother to leave a message.  Maybe they embarrassed themselves by calling so early.

Idea 20.  Listen to my daughter more.  I’ve gotten in trouble by not listening to her (she thought I was agreeing to getting some bunnies), but she just chatters at me non-stop.  And just not at me, just talks constantly.  I have no idea where she gets it from.  Again, like No. 19, don’t talk to me before I’ve had my Dr. Pepper and make sure it’s closer to noon.  What’s odd, is I have to have noise during the day, the TV or the radio, or even the sound of the ceiling fan, but I cannot take her little voice sing-songing…  all … day … long.

Idea 21.  Stop eating junk food and quit drinking Dr. Peppers.  My sanity might come in question, or I might have to take up smoking again.

Idea 22.  Start using coupons.  I’m such a picky shopper, and I never find coupons for products/brands that I like to buy.  I did find 2 coupons to buy something for Leah this week…  $2 off a Wubbzy DVD and a buy 1 get 1 free Littlest Pet Shop.  She has watched that DVD over and over every day since she got it, and the little pet has not been out of her sight.  She even sleeps with it.

Idea 23.  Watch more comedies on TV.  I do have a sense of humor, honest, I really do.  But for some reason, I haven’t enjoyed a comedy show or movie in I don’t know when.  I can’t bear to watch them.  Why do I think they are all stupid and not funny?

Idea 24.  Quit watching soaps.  There isn’t anything better to watch in the daytime.  I don’t watch talk shows, and I can only watch HLN’s repeats so many times.

Idea 25.  Go to the beach.  Just pack a bag and go.  When I make spontaneous decisions like that, they always turn out badly.  But what could be the harm, really?  My biggest fear is that my car would break down.  But I need a vacation, badly.  All this back and forth is giving me whiplash.

Idea 26.  Stop the madness of playing facebook games.  LOLOLOLOLOLOL, yeah, right.

Idea 27.  Clean out the pantry and the fridge/freezer.  Well, that would tell me where I’ve wasted all my money.

Idea 28.  Find a man.  Tried that 2 years ago and it went bad within a year.

Idea 29.  Part 2 of No 28—Get Married.  I’m twice divorced.  Why do I think it would get any better a third time around?

Idea 30.  Enter more blog giveaways or do product reviews.  You know, I like the idea.  I actually follow a lot of giveaway and review blogs, but don’t participate.  Weird.  I’ll even retweet about the giveaways, but won’t officially enter.  Even more weird.

Okay, so maybe the title of this post should be 101 excuses why I don’t reach out and snatch up those things that I want to do.  It’s after midnight now and my sinuses are killing me.  We’ve had a week of rain here in Middle Georgia and I think the lack of sleep and the atmosphere is finally catching up with me.  More to come!

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