Lactomangulation

I love randomness! And that is why "lactomangulation" is probably one of my favorite words. And it is a real word, in the urban dictionary anyway. :) Lactomangulation:  1. The act of making a mess of opening a cardboard milk carton, forcing you to use scissors to cut the innappropriate corner. Bloke 1- "So, how was your day?" Bloke 2- "Terrible. Plagued by lactomangulation, and my dog died." 2. When you are trying to open up a carton of milk and it is so difficult that you either shred it or have to resort to the "illegal" side "Oh man, you sure lactomangulated that carton of milk!"

Photoshop

I pretty much always Photoshop all the pictures I post here. Some people don't really understand what Photoshop can do, so I thought I'd show you.

You might be wondering why I would Photoshop a regular picture. You may understand why I would Photoshop a photo of, say, a person. After all, Photoshop can remove pimples, whiten teeth, fix stray hairs etc. 

Or a dark photo. You can really brighten it up in Photoshop.

But what about a picture of trees that looks good already? Can it be improved?

See for yourself.

This is a picture straight off the camera. It's pretty. But wait til you scroll down and see the Photoshopped version!

Ta-da!

This is the same picture, but with a little tweaking, the colors just pop! And comparing the two, I think the first one seems really flat.

You learn something every day. ;)

The Christmas Story

Hey everyone!
I just watched this video three times in a row, and it just got better each time! It's such a happy version of the Christmas story!
Watch it here.

Air Plants Galore!

Some of you may know my love (obsession) for plants. And some of you may know that one of my favorite plants is this baby:

It's a Tillandsia air plant! I've had this one for about six months or so ... possibly. Something like that. Anyway, what's so cool about these plants is that they don't live in the dirt! They get most of their moisture and nutrients right through the air (!).

(Btw, this plant is getting ready to flower! I can tell because the center has been growing taller and wobbly, and I can tell it's forming a bud!)

All I have to do to care for it, is run it under water once or twice a week. I often forget, but it doesn't really care. It's not picky at all! The only other thing it needs is a little bit of sun. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

So anyway, this Christmas I was SUPER excited when I opened a box and found, not one, but FIVE new air plants!!! :D

I'll show 'em to you.

This one looks more purple in person, which I think is really cool. :)

This one is cute! It's smaller and curlier, and its actually kinda grey colored, with a little green at the base.

I'm very excited about this next one. Because it's flowering!!

Isn't it pretty? And for those of you who are curious, no the flower doesn't smell like anything. But it makes up for that with coolness. :)



I think this one is probably my favorite. Just because it's so unlike any of the others I have! And you all know how much I love different. Plus it's the smallest. And I love little things.

 And this is the last one, and the biggest. It really reminds me of Florida, and palm trees and spiky bushes and good stuff like that. :)

I noticed something very interesting about that last one. When I looked really close, I found what looks like baby air plants! (Btw, I found out that baby air plants are called pups! :)

Super macro shot:

 I'm not really sure if they are pups, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on them! I took two off (pictured below), but I left one of them on, seeing as it might do better living on its mother plant. I'm so excited to see if they are pups and if they grow or not! :)

 Just to show how small they are:

 Oh, and of course, I had to find a super pretty display for all my new treasures! Here tis:

Closer up:



I really don't know a lot about air plants, but I'm very interested in them. I think I may do a report on them for school ... that's one advantage to being homeschooled, sometimes you get to pick what you want to study! :)
If I find out anything super cool, I'll try to write about it here. And I will probably keep you posted on the pups, and on my old plant's coming flower.

So, what was your favorite Christmas present?

P.S. Click here to visit the shop where Mom bought these. The lady who runs the shop is super nice and easy to work with. And all my plants are so healthy and beautiful! I think her prices are very reasonable too.  Maybe you should get a plant or two? :)

A Turned Christmas

Most of you probably know that my brother is seriously into turning wood on his lathe.

This Christmas he made me an amazing present using that lathe! Two bowls!

OK, so there is more to it than that. :)

Put the bowls together and you get a box shaped like an acorn!!

Did that just blow your mind, or what??

My bro is so talented. :)

Bright winter

The String Thing

One of our family Christmas traditions is called The String Thing. I know, catchy name, right?

Every Christmas morning (except that one Christmas when "Santa" got out of bed too late ...), the kids wake up to find that a giant spider has invaded the house!!

OK, so not really. But there's yarn strung everywhere, and it does look kinda like a giant spider web ... kinda.

Yarn is wrapped around everything.

Piano leg:



 

Da poochie kept tripping over the yarn, and she kinda got stuck a couple times... we actually had to rescue her on occasion. :)

So what happens now, you might wonder.

We get one end of the yarn and wrap it into a ball as we follow the yarn, of course!



And at the end of the yarn, a family gift awaits. :)

But it's not *quite* as easy as that. Dad, the official yarn wrapper, ALWAYS adds a twist.

So this year, we were coming up to the freezer. The yarn went in, but didn't come out ... or so it appeared.

Just then Dad said, "Well sorry, but this year it's a little lame. I didn't have enough time to do better." Or something to that effect.

Hmmmmm.

Yeah right.

So we opened the freezer, and yup, the yarn went out through a concealed exit. And then it went around the basement, all concealed behind rugs and stuff. And THEN. The yarn went through a tiny hole, which happened to lead upstairs into the garage. Uh-huh.

Now if we had followed the proper String Thing rules, we would have had to unroll the ENTIRE ball of yarn, pull it through the tiny hole and roll it up again.

But Dad had mercy.

He told us just to go to the garage and follow the string from there.

And we found our gift. Yay! We each got a bag of candy. To ourselves. Mmmmm. :)

Oh, and that might have been the end of this blog post, but just as I was writing that, it struck me how it's a little like the Christmas story.

How the Magi had to follow the star.

 And how at the end they found such a precious gift.

I hope you all have had an amazingly wonderful Christmas!

Btw, let me know if you have any crazy or fun family traditions! Please?

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Ridiculous Elssa

My sister's dog is ridiculous.

Today I walked into the computer room to find ...

poochie chillin' on the desk chair.

Hmmmmm.

:)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Last week we went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I loved it! Of course, there were a few things I would've done differently, but it's like that with pretty much any movie. Over all it was really great!! I just got so ridiculously happy at the beginning, when Lucy and Edmund got back into Narnia and saw Caspian again. *Happy sigh* I do so love Narnia!

And I really hope lots of people go to see this movie. I kind of think of it as telling Hollywood that we want more good Christian movies. And I think the more people that go to see this movie, the more Hollywood will get the message.

Anyway, in honor of the movie, I drew a picture of Aslan in my art journal! I took some pics as I went along, so you can see the progress. :)

Btw, it's done in color pencil, in case you were wondering.

 The finished picture:

And a closeup:

The Tale of the Tiny Christmas Tree

You know Christmas is sneaking up on you when it's in one week and you don't have a Christmas tree!

Fortunately we have one now, but we didn't three days ago! o_O

 So we were driving up to Lowes to buy a tree on Thursday night. Laughingly I asked if anyone thought Lowes would be sold out of trees.
Little did I know ...
We walked into the tree section. And. There were TWO. Christmas. Trees. Left. They were OK ... from the waist up. But below that? The branches were bare. The needles departed. *Grin*
So we turned to the tiny tree section. Tiny, as in not even shoulder high on me. Mmmm-hmmmmm ...
*Snicker*
It was so pitiful and ridiculous and hilarious! I just started laughing, as my bro picked up the tree with one [ONE] hand and ran [RAN] out to the van. Hehe!
This thing strikes me as quite hilarious. I mean, just look at the pitiful, adorable thing! That's me (and Elssa) standing next to it, and it makes me look like a giant. :) And yes, I'm standing RIGHT next to it, not closer to the camera. :)

Merry Week Before Christmas everyone!!

Wally World Shopper

Yesterday in Walmart I saw lady with short gray hair. And she was quite the character! Especially her outift.

--- Purple ear muffs




--- Black leather jacket






--- Gray plaid shorts. Ummmm? Shorts? In, ummm winter? In THIS state??? o_O







--- Knee high socks with Christmas trees on them



--- Tennis shoes


This lady was a very brisk shopper. She seemed very in control, doing the power walk up and down isles. And such a character demanded her own personal page in my journal! I rather approve of ridiculosity.

So ummmm ... does anyone else find it creepy that I journaled about a complete stranger? No? *Whew* Good!

Mittens

Wait. What's this? TWO posts in one day??

"Oh my goodness gracious, Inna, what is up with that?!"

"Oh my goodness gracious, blog reader, I just happened to have two blog worthy things today! So deal with it!"

:)

*Ahem* I just finished knitting a new pair of mittens! And now I'm going to work on a hat. And the hat will be an amazing lemongrass color that looks stunning with the plummy purple. 

And if you don't believe me, you'll just have to hope I post a picture of my finished hat and mittens together!

They'll look great with my new black winter coat. (Which I got for $5 dollars. *Happy sigh* I do so love the Salvation Army)

[Edit: Never did make the hat. Oops. :P]

A frosty morning ...

Calligraphy

I've been working on a time line of the reformation for school this week, and I had a lot of fun with the calligraphy and art! Wanna see it? 

OK. :)

Note: yes, the time line goes on waaaay farther to the right. :-/

                                                                             Closer up:



Just writing two words and decorating it took close to an hour. I can't imagine copying the whole Bible!

Wow.

Epic typo!

I was just reading in a history book about Jan Hus, and I found a super epic typo!

"When he refused to renounce his books and errors, he was throne into prison."

A picture for proof:

Hehehe!! Ahhh! That's good. "Throne" into prison, eh?
Might as well say "he was the ornate seat a King or Queen sits on for formal occasions, usually placed on a raised dais in the throne room into prison."
:)

Something stupid

Note to self: when suffering from severe cases of cabin fever (and it's not even December! *gulp*)claustrophobia and frustration, doing something stupid usually helps to relieve the pent up tension.
Especially if that stupid something is decided upon spontaneously at approximately 10:00 p.m.
And especially if that stupid something includes recruiting an unnamed brother/partner in crime, rolling up your pants, taking off your socks, and charging barefoot into the blizzardly night. Much hysteria and screeching are, unfortunately, unavoidable.

Opa

I just love this picture! It looks like it should be from an old WWII magazine. I love all their jolly grins and they guy wagging his finger, "Tut, tut!"

Oh, and the doctor using a giant needle to mock puncture a dude? Yeah. That's Opa, my grandpa. :) And yes he was a real doctor.

Stuff and randoms...

Ahhh sad day. I wanted to take some pictures of things to post about, but my sister took all of her cameras with her today so I am left without a way to take pics! Ugh. What kind of sister takes her OWN cameras ... well, uh. Yeah. I guess it kinda makes sense. Never mind. :)
So anyways. It's time for a new post, but since I can't post any pictures that I've taken, I'll post some stuff and randoms for your entertainment. :)

1. This video is pretty sweet. :)

2. Ever wondered how to get to the USA from China?? Well wonder no more. My brother showed me how on Google Maps. And I shall tell you. After a lot of "Turn left on ramp blah blah blah" and "Take the exit" and stuff like that, the directions say this (and I kid you NOT):
"Turn left at Kuilima Dr.
Turn right.
Kayak across the Pacific Ocean"

*Pause*

Erm ... what was that last one again??? o_O
*Bursts out laughing*
That's epic. :-D

3. Ever heard of a Gerenuk? No?
I hadn't either.
But it's a real animal! Isn't it cute??? I gasped when I saw a picture of it for the first time. Just look at those stick legs!

4. While we're on the subject of weird animals, how about an Okapi? I just love crazy animals. :)

 5. And one last crazy animal for you. The Zedonk. And no, I am not making this up. And no, neither did Dr. Seuss. A Zedonk is half zebra, half donkey. And my reaction is half "o_O" and half "Awwwee". :)

(All the animal pics I got off of Google)

6. Watch this flash mob! Just in case you are totally out of the loop, a flash mob is basically when hundreds of people rehearse a performance of some kind, usually a silly song or dance, in secret. And then they go into a random place like a park or train station and start performing! It's HILARIOUS to watch people's reactions!!!! I was sitting at the computer all by myself watching this one, giggling out loud. Wheeeee!!!! XD
Totally and seriously want to be in a flash mob. Really badly! I just love all the energy, the randomness and the happiness! Hahahah! :)

What's the pointe?

Yay!!! My new Pointe shoes came in! Aren't they pretty pretty pretty??

This is how they came:

 And this is after Mom sewed the ribbons and elastic on!

 And such a momentous occasion deserved an entry in my art journal. But, since it's an art journal, I can't just write about it! So I drew a picture instead. :)

My old Pointe shoes still fit really well, but I still needed new ones. Wanna know why?
Okee-dokes. I'll show you.
Compare my old shoes (on the left ... OK, yeah. Duh. That's kinda obvious!) to my new ones. The toe box (It's the hard box that you put your toes into, and it supports your feet) on my old shoes was getting really worn out. As you can tell, it looks kinda mushy and flattened out. And that's bad, cuz then it doesn't support my feet anymore! *Gasp!*

 And also, the shank (stiff leather part on bottom of the shoe that also plays a big part in supporting the foot) was really worn out. As you can see, I could bend it really far (Makes me think of a noodle).

 And my new ones can't do that.The shank is much stiffer and therefore gives more support!
I keep talking about support, and you might be wondering. Basically if the shoe supports you, it takes almost all of the weight and pressure. If it doesn't, your feet take the pressure. Let's just say, ouch!

 So that's why I needed new ones.
And while we're on the subject of Pointe, did you ever wonder how Pointe shoes are made? Well wonder no more. Ta-da!

Oh, and while we're still on the subject of Pointe, I'll show you two of my favorite pictures from this summer! :) My sis took some pics of me on Pointe for my birthday present.

Note to self: when being too lazy to put tights on all the way for pictures, rolling up your jeans and waddling around with the tights on your knees works quite well. Just be sure to crop in the picture.