I Will Compost

Growing up, my Grandmother was (and still is, really) the MOTHER of THE friggin EARTH! She still lives in the little two story (if you include the basement) yellow house on a corner, at the bottom of a hill in a well-established neighborhood in Bellevue, Nebraska.

Her garden was always bigger than my backyard alone. I remember spending hours outside with a big lime green 1970's Tupperware bowl picking berries, cherries (until the cherry tree had to get chopped), tomatoes and yummy zucchini. It was so much fun! The window over her kitchen sink faced the back garden; I remember how the sun reflected off of her face as she'd gaze peacefully out it. She always had a bucket or two on her counter for compost. Growing up, I never knew what compost was, I just knew that their was forever a huge pile of randomness behind the shed made of chicken wire that we'd help heap into the garden on the few occasions we were there for spring planting.

Over the past few days, feeding all the animals, I've realized how much I really do waste. (two lizards, one guinea pig, Manny's hamster, three mice, and a tank full of feeder crickets). I seem to always complain about NOT having a garden in my little 12x15 backyard because the soil is so useless. I have lived in this apartment for the past three summers. the first summer I planted all kinds of goodness, most of it died by the end of month two. Apparently, somebody dumped oil in the backyard, along with some sort of grass/ weed killer. The second summer I didn't do much because Cierra and I both had surgery. I laid yummy flagstone and completely scraped the top layer of dirt off, replacing it with manure. This summer, I kept it clean ran a soil-test again, AND it STILL has a super high PH. I dug it under with more manure, and an ammonium sulphate mixture. I covered that with thick cedar shavings and called it a summer. :o(

Well, earlier this week, the light finally went off-DUH! Why aren't you composting Jen? So today, I started researching compost tumblers and compost barrels, they are kinda pricey and take up a lot of room, remember, my backyard is TINY! I am just gonna buy 6 dollar, 5ft. twine of chicken wire and do it like my Grandmother did for years! (She upgraded to a fancy schmancy tumbler about 8 years ago).

I've been collecting all the vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and shredded newspaper in a holed Rubbermaid container for a few days now.. it is getting full. I will compost...THAT is my contribution to the environment (even though it has it's roots in my want and need for a bea-u-ti-mous garden of my own)!

Photoshop Project is D.O.N.E.

Here is the finished product... I'll post a couple component pics below along with the first step in blending the skull and face. I'm sleepy and am pretty sure this'll land me an A, and be a good start to my class portfolio. It took me FOREVER to blend th two, so it didn't look too wierd. 'Secretos De Los Muertos' means Secrets of the dead. I got this idea off a painting that Manny did titled the same. Photoshop is alot like he airbrushes-- layer after layer after layer!

Cliff's Collage

I'm about a week behind in posting. Here is a collage of pictures from our little mini trip to Cliff's last Sunday. It was a good day, besides the fact that I got sooooo sick after eating NASTY nachos! I have to point out the necklace Cierra made me to go with my 'earrings'. She ROCKS! My kid jewelry is cooler than your kid jewelry! HA!

Meet Rosy Brown

So, we had a hamster, Lola for about 8 days when she caught 'wet tail'. Wet tail is a fatal disease common among Teddy Bear Hamsters. It was a fiasco and Cierra cried the whole way to the pet store to return Lola. I felt soooooo BAD! Once we got there, the lady took a look at her and said it hadn't advanced much and she had a REALLY good chance of making it. We left that day with three mice to calm Cierra down(Chaster, Ruby and Snowflake). Mice are really fun to watch!

In the days following, we called to check on Lola. She was doing really well.

Sunday, after a full day at the amusement park, I thought it's be a good idea to go check on Lola. When we got there, the Manager told us that she didn't make it...

Cierra pulled on my shirt and asked, "What does 'didn't make it' mean mom?".

I told her that Lola went to Hamster Heaven and died at which point her eyes promptly filled with tears.

"We didn't even get to bury her", Cierra cried.

The Manager took Cierra by the hand and showed her the newest teddybear hamsters.

Cierra pulled away, looked her dead in the eyes and said, "I do NOT want another hamster from here!"

The lady pushed the hamster bin back gently and let out a nice big sigh.

Cierra took her hand and said, "What bout one of THOSE!" (pointing at the guinea pigs)

Long story short, the lady traded our dead hamspter for Ms. Rosy Brown, our new guinea pig. I had a 20% off coupon and used it toward a cage package. Not gonna lie, I really couldn't afford it otherwise. Rosy is THE best pet ever. She's super chill and SMART!

Y Ms. Rosy Brown Y
I'll get better pictures at some point, but these work for now!
:o)

Update to my madness

So, a couple days ago the lady (that I did pics of tattoo), shot me an e-mail to thank me. She even referenced me on her Myspace. She's officially forgiven (not that I really stay mad for long anyway). I haven't felt like getting on the computer lately, so I am officially behind in my bloggage, my house is a little cleaner though.... lol

Manny is sick and my head is throbbing (PLEASE just be sleep related). Hoping to wake-up bright eyed n' ready to tackle my Photoshop class tomorrow!

Recent Pictures

Lilly;s flowers Emma walkin' her Daddy
Lilly's wish
Ric at Shop: Mermaid Half Sleeve 1st session by Manny...
Manny workin on Ric

My new RAGING PET PEEVE!

Lately, I've been doing a lot more photo- schtuff. I love it! I pour myself into it and LOVE being able to fudge around in Photoshop with the photographs. I've only gotten paid for a few 'jobs' and mainly use what I do now as a 'portfolio builder'. My name is not on my photographs, I try to give people what they want, but still get the shots I want as an artist. The problem is, even though I don't charge, I still mentally put a worth to the shoots that I do. The only people who truly comment, and give me good and bad feedback are Manny, the guys at the shop, Valency and Cierra. That being said, I've developed a raging new pet peeve!

I'll tell you the recent couple of things that have really BUGGED!

Instance Numbero UNO:

First, I did a shoot for my hairdresser, who is fabulous in her own right. She has two little girls and I wanted to do a shoot with them to build the 'children's' section of my portfolio. She asked me the night before the shoot if I could do the whole family, with the agreement that we'd trade for hair. Yay! Trade! It makes the world go around! I get my hair cut and high/ low lighted every two months by her. I was stoked! (A couple of the pics are posted in the blog above)

So I did the 180 picture shoot with them at the duck pond, everything went well. I just had my hair appointment Tuesday... I still paid 70 bucks. Apparently she forgot to mention that the 'trade' was for the 15$ haircut portion of 'hair'. Wow, thanks? I think..... I kinda thought my work was worth a lot more than that, but whatever.

I only put about 25 to 30 jpegs on the disk for her, meh.

The icing on the cake..... absolutely NO feedback. No nothing.....


Instance Numbero Two-O

I was runnin' the counter at the shop on Tuesday and one of the ladies getting worked on asked me to take her pictures during the whole process. Manny was telling her about my pictures. (I bring my camera to the shop frequently to get pictures of the guys' work for publications). She is in the process of getting a half sleeve- I totally understand wanting to document that part of your life. Your skin will never be the same! :o) Anyway, I snapped some for her and got her e-mail address to e-mail them. (A couple of the cool ones are posted in the blog above this).

The VERY next day, she called me to ask if I sent them yet. She tried to play it off like she 'may have accidentally erased them'. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little bugged. I told her flat out, "No, I didn't even have the chance to upload them yet"! (uhhhh, a full 24 hours hadn't even passed yet). I was parked at my computer for five hours last night after Cierra went to bed, so I got them all 'fixed' and e-mailed to her. I am bugged about that whole thing, because if you are gonna call me to nudge me, then at least have the common courtesy to shoot me an e-mail that you got them.... grrrrrr.

Oh well, that is how it goes, I suppose.

_____________________________

I'm going to bed, I go to school with Cierra on Friday mornings to help out! Another early morning, long day ahead!

More Photoshop

Here's what I've been working on. I am, however throwing in the towel... and GOING TO BED! original

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A Little Bit of Everything

ME:

Today was really good and busy! This morning I had coffee with Valency, at Satellite. (This is becoming a Wed. morning tradition). I had a large skinny Hazelnut Latte-- Good thing I chose LARGE!

Stopped by Urban Outfitters for about ten minutes, and FELL IN LOVE! They have such great toys and chach-kis! I tried the new Betsy Johnson Perfume. It is a little more powdery than I usually like, but absolutely adore this fragrance! After that, I went to the shop and scrubbed like crazy. We pretty much spent the day cleaning. My throat kinda hurts from Clorox fumes. Oh well. It is coming together and looking great!

CIERRA:

Cierra is doing good. School is going smoothly and we are gonna do the Fair thing on Sunday. I will definitely take pictures!

My scanner isn't working and I can't figure it out. When I do, I'll blog some pictures Cierra drew for me. They are heavenly! She is starting to add a lot of detail to her little sketches.
Kid Art Rocks! On that note, I want to organize an artshow at her school. It will appropriately be called "Kid Art Rocks 2008". It is looking good at this point! I'll keep you all posted!

DRAGONS:

So, I tried tricking my anorexic dragon into eating crickets. I put three wax worms in her pellet food dish with three calcium dusted crickets (that I cut the back legs off of, so they'd look like worms). SHE STILL didn't touch the damn crickets. I am so BUGGED at her right now! lol I tortured those pour crickets for nothing. Why can't she just put them out of their misery and EAT THEM?????

I can feed her meal worms, because they are nutritionally close to crickets, but there is a meal worm shortage EVERYWHERE, until the end of next week sometime!

Christmas List

Cierra informed me yesterday that she wants an underwater camera and a telescope for Christmas. Okay, Future Scientists of America! lol

I started scopin them out on Amazon (telescopes). Anyone have any input? I want to make sure it is good enough to see the good stuff, without costing too much money!

Faces

Cierra thinks it's funny to make messed up faces when I have the camera. She goes untill I say either laugh, or say 'ewe'. This was an ewe face lol

Lizard Stuff

The other day we came home to see LaVern shedding like we've NEVER seen! She's that fatty of the two! You can see the difference in her growing 'beard' if you compare to anorexic Shirley under this picture being fed by dropper...
Every morning and night I blend up some babyfood, romaine, dandelion greens, veggies and her calorie boosting with vi tams supplement (specifically for 'calorie deficient' dragons). She's getting quite good at it. I don't have to force her anymore, which is a good thing. She still won't touch the crickets. I keep a bearded dragon pellet available all day and night for her as well as her cut greens. Today I bought a couple of wax worms and put them in her pellet food. She ate them, a long with some of her pellets. I think I found an in! Wax worms are high in fat, but if I can get her weight up, maybe she'll FINALLY be interested in crickets. sigh... this is gettin to be a lot of work!When she's done... she's done. She'll close her mouth at start walkin around. Sometime I can talk her into more- lol. Cierra finds it wildly entertaining.

Photoshopage/ Shoot from last weekend

I photoshopped around with some pictures from the photo shoot I did last weekend. Original's are shown first!

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Some pictures I took today at CTC...

Manny- Mark (and his beard)
Steve shaving Mark (don't ask) lol-
Andrew's backpiece that Jason's working on- (jason pictured at bottom)-
Jason-

Flower and misc. stuff.

Here's a picture of the flowers that Manny sent me yesterday. :O)

Sooooooo gorgeous! They smell up my whole living room!

Cierra drawin'

She didn't know I was takin her picture, till this one. lol

Bridal Makeover

Bridal Makeover went very well today! Only took me 45minutes (she didn't need falsies) and she tipped me ten bucks! Whoo Hoo! It was pretty funny because I did her makeup at a family salon named Estelle's. I was the only white girl in the shop, and definitely the only tattooed person. The older ladies were whispering, I think they were a little scared. LOL

I am the miracle-worker with my kit- yes... yes I am tootin my own horn!

By the end of the make-over the owner asked me if she could keep my business cards at the front counter, because Irene looked AMAZING! he he

I used MAC studio fix foundation (had to mix two colors). I used a super sheer yellow based concealer before and after foundation to cancel out red spots. Very light pink blush with a highlighter by Prescriptives on the high points of her cheeks.

Super Smoky Eyes: eyeshadow based was MAC eggshell 'paints'. I used Lancome brown artliner, with Lancome 'eggplant' eye shadow smudged over to soften the line. The inner-corner of her eyes are 'pink icing'- MAC, contour is 'beauty mark'- MAC. Lancome 'plum' lip liner all over the lip with pale pink gloss over. Lancome Curve Virtuose Deep Black Mascara.

Early Start

Today started entirely too early!

Took Cierra to school, n' took myself to school.
I nearly gave my Instructor a heart attack-lol. We had to manipulate the tie of this gay looking cartoon character, so I decorated the tie the way I was supposed to, except changed the colors.

I then used my pen tool to script "I Like Boys" on the cartoon dudes gay tie. I'd attach it, but it's a PS file (needa "stumble" across Photoshop CS 3 for my computer) lol I made another copy of the 'correct' way as well. Long story short she kinda gasped and smirked. When I showed her the right one, she appreciated it. Now the OLD guy next to me calls me 'Trouble'. When I say old... he truly is ( late 70's maybe). I call him Vern, even though it isn't his name. Old men make me laugh. Anyway, next week, we are going to start manipulating photos of our own. I'll be sure to post before and afters of the good ones!

When I was done with class, Manny took me for a surprise ride on his bike. It was the PERFECT day for it! We ended up stopping to eat at Perico's on Yale. The he dropped me off at home, so I could go to school and pick up Cierra. Utterly perfect! swoon

I picked Cierra up early from school because the lizards Dr.'s appointment was at 4pm in Edgewood (Zoo Animal Hospital). He gave Shirley (my sick beardy), an antibiotic and a de-wormer. He told me to immediately separate them, and to keep Shirley's tank temp higher than normal, so she can get better. When reptiles are stressed, they will not eat and she was showing classic 'failure to thrive' signs of being stressed. Lavern has almost doubled her in size, so she was getting trampled.

I had an extra UVB bulb, and traded in my current 40 w ceramic bulb for a 150w ceramic bulb. The tank was only 30 bucks (Clarks), and is 30" long. Got home and had to re-arrange everything for the newest tank- sheesh! There are fish and lizards everywhere! lol