girly girl

my grandniece was given the assignment to make an easter bunny collage at school. as you can see, she is a girly girl. her bunny has hair, hairband, earrings, necklace, eyelashes with a special touch on the tips of the eyelash, and a little blush on the cheeks. i especially like the fetching attitude of the bent ear! i don't know how my daughter will cope if she just happens to have a girly girl. i don't think there is much chance; but you never know. my grandniece sometimes comes over to visit and last time she had a bag the size of a small carryon filled with her makeup and her mother's old makeup. BUT, she plays a lot with legos. yeah!

good neighbors

sis and i gave it a try. we would go out, shovel; come in, rest; and repeat. but i could tell we were not making much progress toward getting out even though the snow pile was really getting tall. so i went down and asked the neighbor with his little four wheeler if he could help. and he did. we paid him brownies and some gas money. he was very nice. he said the city working all day (plus yesterday) would only have about an eighth of the city plowed. they don't have the equipment. i think the big highways are probably open. at least we are not trapped in our house anymore. ranch mart is open (so our neighbors tell us) so we could buy food if we need. sort of....ranch mart is a gas station store.

another fun little project

i decided i really couldn't afford a messenger bag, so i decided to make one. ha~ it may or may not work. will test it out in the next few weeks.

Not a care free place to be!

last year it was the rainy spring with flooding....serious flooding and water almost coming into our basement. this year it is a big, big blizzard and if the snow melts quickly; we might have water coming in our basement.

new skill

everyone else probably already new how to do this. but finally i had a new high score so i could try it out. i used keith's instructions plus putting it in photoshop and cropping it to get rid of extra stuff. so here it is....my new high score.

what was cyn thinking?

it was partly my fault ... we were looking for a movie to show the first through fourth graders. when you see disney you think...okay that will work. wall-e is a very good movie. but........... it is a little to sophisticated for first through fourth graders. actually now that i think about it, i think it is more for grown up types. so about one fourth of the kids wound up at my table drawing. sigh.

what was I thinking?

another day with the after school program. i try to think of things to do that are educational, take only a small amount of time, don't use a lot of materials, and that are fun. the one thing that i do that i shouldn't is forget the age of the students. i tried playing the word game where you make up definitions to words to use with the real definition in order to bluff your opponents. what was i thinking? i got questions like....we can't do that, we don't know the definition of the word! i tried to get them to make up a def before looking it up. sigh. some wrote sentences, some stared at their paper, i wrote some, and i will never do that again.

new high score

i am sure that people get lots higher scores, but i just need to record this for my sis to see.

bed making

i always get the pictures in the wrong order! i have trouble making my bed with clean sheets because of the 'great' help. dennis was under the top sheet and sam was poking him from the top. dennis is making his get away. but a few minutes later they were taking up space at the end of the bed as best buddies.

it doesn't matter where dennis is in the house; the minute a snap the sheet to spread it over the bed, he appears. it doesn't do much good to push him off the bed as he jumps up just in time to be covered by the sheet or blanket; then it is toes up with claws out. poor sheets.

superbowl party

well, it is over. my nephew always has a party at his house. he has a big tv etc. so everyone was cheering for the cardinals, therefore, just for fun i decided to cheer the steelers. never has my team ever won. maybe this time doesn't count either because i really wasn't that serious. the last big run by fitzgerald was impressive as was the last td catch by the steelers. the steeler bully act was uncalled for. all in all it was very entertaining. but i won't say anything about cheering for the steelers in this part of the country.

finished canyon

the canyon painting is finished....i think. am starting a new one since i have the paints out!

changes for the new year

when.....the sun is shining in the morning, our living room looks cozy. we have changed things around a bit. we decided we didn't like green. plus, we were trying to work out the best seating without making the space look small. so the little green love seat went to a new home. it blocked the room visually. then two new wicker chairs came which provided the same amount of seating, but took up less space visually and spatially.
sis's chair from nanny came back into the room. then we traded out my old striped green couch (dirty, grungy, and breaking down) for a new tannish couch (covered to keep it nice for company-hey, at least it is not covered in plastic!). i am trying to talk my sis into painting the wall in the kitchen dark blue. we are putting away the green stuff and looking around for blues and golds. we are turning very swedish!.

painting progress

i am finally getting around to working on the foreground. i put it off for a bit. there are a lot of bushes and grasses. i still have to work on the lower right hand corner, but i think it is working out. the brush is rather light and some is golden brownish color, but it can't be lighter than the rock with the sun on it. so am using devious methods to gray down the front and still have it be light. is that an oxymoron. it works though.

it is tradition for the extended family to gather Christmas eve for home made noodle soup --home made noodles...with butterballs. i think the butterballs are actually some bread crumb combo with lots and lots of butter. I have to limit my intake.

my sis and i usually head over to her youngest son's place for opening presents on Christmas morning with the kids. her granddaughter took time out to give the newest kitty in the house a pet. and i love the picture of dad reading his son's homemade Christmas card that went with the homemade tree ornaments.

as i looked out the back window i saw the poor little mini car left over from paintball games.

sister game (friendly) wars

my sis got 143 the other day on the wordsense daily game... it took me a few days to catch her and then on christmas day i got 152. so the glove has been put down. go for it sis.

about winter

It's winter in South Dakota
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below
Oh, how I love South Dakota
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut
Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave South Dakota
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

(given to me by Belle Fourche librarian--she found it on the internet. I don't know the author)

painting at last

i have know since march that i was to paint a picture for my daughter and son-in-law. but, of course, i waited till the last minute. i am progressing though. the paper on top is folded up so you can't see the bottom half of the photo. i think my daughter took it when they were out hiking; but i don't know where they were. you can see that it is not a photo copy. the proportions don't match. and the colors and details are not an exact copy, yet i am sure that you can tell what it is. i need to finish the upper right hand corner next. the paper is different colors because of the folds.

making things

every once in a while my sis and i carry through on our threat....(we could make that). since her daughter-in-law mowed grass for us this summer, we made her a purse. sis did most of the work. i applied the beads. the top part has dragonflies, which robin really likes. (just as i was typing this, she and her family came over and we gave her the purse and she did like it...a lot).

i also bought some christmas greenery...fake.. and candles and made a centerpiece for our table except that i can't put it on the table. dennis the cat thinks it is for his pleasure ....to pull apart. it is coal in your stocking, mr kitty kat!!!!

december fog ....and cold

last weekend was a wonderful autumn day. today winter is slamming down even though winter does not start till the 21st. it is the beginning of a freeze. down to -13* at night. so we are turning up the heat to 68* upstairs and 65* downstairs. it is usually set at 60*. if the electricity should go off. we will be warmer for a few minutes longer. i have my super down sleeping bag i can crawl into. it is for sure a 3 dog night. three cats just wont cut it. sorry cc, dennis, & sam.

taking care of chickens in winter

sis took out the large horse water tank for the winter. the chickens and ducks have two rubber tubs ....small... for the winter which are filled with fresh water every day. you can see why they have to be refilled every day....besides knocking out the frozen water and putting liquid water for them to drink....before the ducks completely muddy it all up.