Saturday: On the Hunt

Late this afternoon, after I spent most of the day in bed with a crushing migraine and then zombified by the migraine medicine, we had an Easter egg hunt in my front yard. Noah and I hid eggs (half real, half plastic filled with candy) for the little ones to find. Kohl and Hannah were precious, looking all over for the eggs, missing the most obvious ones and finding the more difficult ones, running around the entire yard, trying to beat each other to the same egg. Kohl still likes to follow his sister around, so he kept missing eggs because he is always a couple of steps behind her, but we encouraged him to go out on his own a bit, in a different direction, and he found some eggs by himself. That seemed to help him know that doing it alone is better, so he started being more independent. I love when something clicks in a child's head. You can actually see that light in their eyes turn on when they really get a concept. I could see the light go on inside Kohl when he realized he needed to hunt alone.

After their search, they decided to hide eggs and Noah and I had to find them. We raced across the yard "looking" for the eggs that were hidden in the most obvious places. The only bad thing was that Kohl thought it would be great to hide one of the real eggs under the house, so he tossed it under there. We had to crawl under the house to retrieve it, otherwise the smell in a few days would drive me away from my home! That would be bad, wouldn't it?

After Noah and I finished our hunt, the kids ate the real eggs and then decided to hide the plastic ones around the interior of the house for several hours, alternating who got to hide and who got to search. It was adorable.

Trip to Fort Morgan

Geocaching adventures

My parents and I took the kids geocaching today. We had a great time, and found two out of the three we attempted. That's pretty good for us! I took my new camera and snapped a few good shots. Here's one:

It was such a beautiful day! The one cache we didn't find was near the Pitcher Plant Bog, which is a preserved area with the most interesting flowers and plants. Anyway, we thought it was along the main boardwalk, but it turns out the hiding place is a little more hidden. We found the "secret" path and went through the woods but still didn't find the treasure. The kids were real troopers, using sticks to move vines and small tree branches out of the way so that the trail would be easier to navigate. Noah even cleared the path of spider webs because Hannah doesn't like spiders. To tell you the truth, I don't like spiders either! Anyway, it turns out we stopped just short of the cache and our search was not successful. The GPS was a little wonky because of all the trees, I guess. Hannah started getting a blister on her foot, so we decided to turn back, but we decided to come back another day and find it. It was so much fun just to get outside and walk. The weather was amazing, not too hot but not too cool. We brought water with us and just had a great time walking through the woods and along the nature trails.

The blanket I started knitting for Kohl (the pretty one in shades of blue) didn't work out very well. The holes in the pattern didn't line up and it started looking very odd, so I ripped the entire thing and am going to start over. It was actually too small anyway, so it's okay. I'm going to start over, using a larger pattern. I'm afraid all three blankets will not be finished by Christmas, but that's okay. I'm not going to stress about it. That's my new philosophy... I'm not going to stress about anything anymore.

Photos from Vacation

Finally, I'm posting some photos from my vacation! There are just a few here, but I thought I'd share.

My swap stuff

Normally we are supposed to post the things we get in the swap, but I tried a couple of new things for this swap, so I absolutely have to post them! Because this month's swap was a box swap, I decided to try the felted boxes from Mason Dixon Knitting. It was quite successful, especially for my first felted project and also considering that I altered the pattern to fit my needs. Here are some pics of the box I made for the swap.

The first picture shows the box before sewing the sides and the second one is the completed box before felting. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it after the felting process. It looked like a box when it was finished, complete with fairly square corners. Like I said, for a first attempt, I think it turned out pretty nice. Since this box was very small, I decided to do a box within a box, so I went to Michaels and bought this really cool wooden box. The top of the lid was lower than the sides, so it created a nice frame for whatever I wanted to put on the lid. I decided to do a mosaic pattern with letters that spell the word "create" and then some pretty mosaic tiles surrounding it to make it pretty. I painted the entire box black and then used black grout between the mosaic tiles. I placed the felted box inside the wooden box and mailed it to my swap buddy.

This was such a fun swap! I've never had so much fun making something for someone, and Nina was so sweet in her post about it. You can see a nice picture of the felted box and the mosaic box on her blog. I really should have taken pictures of the finished items before sending them off! Must remember that next time!

Anyway, my first attempt to make something out of Mason Dixon Knitting worked out well, and I can't wait to try something else! Oh, and my sister's kids saw the felted box and each of them insisted that I make one for them, so this summer I'm going to do a pencil box for Noah and one for Hannah, and then a small "treasure box" for Kohl. I'll have to adapt the pattern again, but I think I can figure out how to do it!

creating

I've never been a "crafty" person. In fact, I would look at the beautiful things that people made and would envy them their talent, knowing I could never do something so pretty. Recently, I've been trying to be more "crafty" and I must say I'm fairly happy with the results. Of course, I've had my failed attempts, but all in all, it's been a great experience.

I'm so excited about the box swap at Create a Connection this month. I've decided to make the box for my swap buddy. That's all I'm going to say in case she's reading this blog. I want it to be a surprise, Nina! I will post a pic of the finished product at some point, but only when I know it's in her hands!

Here's an interesting result from these attempts to work with my hands. I find the creativity is leaking out onto other aspects of my life. I find myself getting inspired about other things, even writing, while I'm doing crafts. It's just incredible! I love stretching myself creatively. I think it's extremely important to do that, to always continue to try new things and to constantly challenge yourself, especially creatively. It even helps me in my job, which is an added bonus!

yet another new thing

You may have noticed something a little different on one of my sidebars. There is a new section called "My Shop" and it is the only advertising I will ever do on this blog. I found this place online called Zazzle which sounds like a great concept. Tonight I used it to make some greeting cards from my collection of photographs. I really enjoy shooting sunsets and flowers. I know, I know... those are the most common things to photograph, but I just really enjoy those particular subjects.

I haven't tried any products from Zazzle, but I plan to order a few of my cards just to make sure they look right. I don't have any delusions that I'm going to get rich off my greeting cards, but it's just a fun little thing to do, and I can order them for myself, to send to my soldiers! Oh, and the site is having an Earth Day contest, so just for fun I made a designed and entered it. I think I'll even order a shirt with that design on it, because I like it so much. That's it for now. More tomorrow...

Mobile Mardi Gras

I shot this video on my digital camera at the Mystics of Time parade Saturday night. I've never used my digital camera for video before, so it was an interesting experience, to say the least! Anyway, I used Windows Movie Maker to put the clips together and add the titles and credits, just for fun! I thought it might be nice for my friends who are out of town and are missing Mardi Gras to experience the fun a little. Enjoy!

Oh, and Chris... I am aware that the correct French term is actually "Laissez les bons temps rouler" but I found it both ways online and really liked "roulez" better for some reason. So that's why it's spelled that way at the end of the video. I figured I'd better say something about that, otherwise you would be correcting my French, lol.

Well, I'm back...

Okay, so this isn't going to be a long post about my trip, because I don't have time, but if you want to see the pictures from it, go here: http://www.anitahavel.net/photography/ and click on the LA album. I'll probably post a few on here at some point, but I finally learned how to post to the photo album on my official site, so I had to do it! There are some other photos there as well, mostly of family and friends, so have fun looking around if you're bored and have some free time.

The trip was great, and I'll do a long description of it sometime this weekend.

Yet another project...

I was looking around on 43 Things and found the coolest goal. Someone said they wanted to take a photo a day to document their lives. Since I just got the cutest little digital camera that fits in my purse, I decided to make this goal mine. So, of course, I started a new blog with only one purpose, to post my "picture a day." It's on the sidebar titled "My Sites."

Baking can be fun

Let's start off with a confession. I don't cook. I've never really had the patience for it, but this year I wanted to give baking a shot. So I hung out with my mom last night and we did some baking for the people I work with and we really had a great time! I forgot to take pictures of the lemon bars, brownies, and cookies we made, so I can't post them here, but I must admit they turned out pretty good. I might try this baking thing again sometime. I've also volunteered to do some of the cooking for Christmas dinner, so watch out family!

The YA series I've been thinking about is heavy on my mind. I keep thinking I need to start working on it. I've never really tried working on more than one project at once, so I think I might need to think about doing that, since I really want to finish the first Deadlines book and work on the second FaithGirls book. Then there's the little matter of finishing my 2006 NaNo. I guess I have a lot of projects to juggle!

yesterday's geocaching trip

Yesterday I took the kids geocaching again. It was Hannah's first time, she was shopping with her mom when I took Noah and Kohl out for the first time so she missed it. She was a little afraid at first, because she thought we might see raccoons, and she doesn't like their black eyes. She really is the most afraid child I've ever known. But she got over it once she realized we wouldn't let her get hurt, and then she started counting the different types of wildlife we saw. It was cute. We drove all over the place looking for caches. We only actually found 3 yesterday, but we saw some great places that we had never been, so it was totally worth it. The pictures above are all from a park and nature trail in Daphne. It was so pretty down there, and it was such a beautiful day to be outside. We were not able to get to the cache in this location because the city had some construction vehicles and a crew down there, still cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, but we made a note to go back when the construction is finished. There were a few we couldn't find, but we'll go back and check those later too. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I think these trips will become a regular thing, which is good because I do enjoy spending time with the kids.

First geocaching adventure

I finally got my replacement GPS in, and last weekend we went on our first geocaching trip. It was just in time too, because I spent 2 days in bed with a horrible stomach virus, so I was ready for something fun.

We piled into the car, GPS in hand, and started our adventure. The players included my mother, my 10 year old nephew, and my 2 year old nephew. Of course, I was there too. There were several caches located in Fairhope, so we hit those first. They were pretty easy finds, which was very encouraging for our first time out. After finding 3 out of 4, we headed down to the Bay. My GPS told me we could find a couple of caches in the public park. After we hit those, we went to the other bluff and found two more. Now here's something interesting. While walking toward the two caches on the bluff, we came across a butterfly sanctuary. I've lived in this town my entire life and have never noticed this. The sign said it was established several years ago. My mother and I had a lovely time watching the butterflies, and I made a mental note that I should bring a camera on future caching trips. The next cache led us to a Civil War cemetary that is tucked away behind a neighborhood and an old church. After finding the cache, we spent a few minutes looking at the grave markers. I even managed to find a great Southern last name for one of the characters in my NaNo book, so the visit to the cemetary served two purposes.

So anyway, we ended the day with a lot of success, and I can't wait until we go again!

Long time, no post!

I know, it's been several days since I've posted and I'm sorry about that. I have been out of town and Internet access was 9.95 per day! I could have paid it, but refused to on principle. If I'm paying that much to stay in a nice hotel, I deserve free Internet. If Days Inn and Holiday Inn Express can do it, the freaking Sheraton in Atlanta can!

Anyway, I'm going to post several updates on the last week when I get home from work today. And I'll even post some pictures from DragonCon!