She's Got Personality

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Non-conformist, Visionary, and Independent

4 Abstract, -6 Islamic, -6 Ukiyo-e, -1 Cubist, -4 Impressionist and -14 Renaissance!

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of what may appear to others as visual realities. Western had been underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. It allowed the progressive thinking artists to show a different side to the world around them. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a 'new kind of art' which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. Abstract artists created art that was diverse and reflected the social and intellectual turmoil in all areas of Western culture.

People that chose abstract art as their preferred artform tend to be visionaries. They see things in the world around them and in people that others may miss because they look beyond what is visual only with the eye. They rely on their inner thoughts and feelings in dealing with the world around them instead of on what they are told they should think and feel. They feel freed from the tendency to be bound by traditional thought and experiences. They look more toward their own ideas and experiences than what they are told by their religious upbringing or from scientific evidence. They tend to like to prove theories themselves instead of relying on the insight or ideas of others. They are not bound by common and mundane, but like to travel and have new experiences. They value intelligence, but they also enjoy a challenge. They can be rather argumentative when they are being forced or feel as if they are being forced to conform.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Alarming ;o)

Well, guess how I spent most of my afternoon . . .
Dealing with an alarm system and trying to get ahold of people who can fix it. Thankfully, all is well now and has been fixed, but golly-gee these systems are a little screwy sometimes.

Anyway, now tonight I get to go to a play with friends (wooo, its a double date-how exciting). We are going to see a community theater production of Arsenic and Old Lace starring the director of our old high school one act plays plus a couple of other productions I have been in. It should be fun.

Chilly

I am cold today--been chilled all day ever since I got out from underneath my warm, cozy covers this morning. (I didn't want to leave them, but I had to go and do things that just aren't getting done all that well today because I never really wanted to leave my warm, cozy bed). We have 3 quilts and one of those warm fuzzy blankets on our bed right now and that sound so nice . . .

I am currently wearing these cozy leg warmers-in fact I did last night, too along with socks and a pair of fuzzy slippers with a blanket wrapper around me as I knit and watched TV

It was 52 in our house this morning when I woke up--I don't know what it was when Dan left for work this morning at 6, but he was cold, too. He even said so and his poor hands and nose were cold, too. I know this would be a fairly easy thing to fix. We could plug in our electric baseboard heaters, but I hate to have to pay for too much electricity as it is only October and we have a whole winter ahead of us.

Soon you will begin to warm our home, won't you?

We were going to bring wood into the basement this week (and still will), but it will take a bit of situating as things with the well and other stuff happened in the basement this summer and the spot where we haul the wood into has some shelves in it at the moment and so an old fruit cellar has to have scary spider webs and nasty things taken out of it to put the shelves into it,blah, blah, blah . . . all fine and good and we even could have brought in a little bit of wood just to last us a few days, but then it rained good and plenty on the wood, so I am cold today . . . not the worst thing ever, but I just wanted to whine for a few minutes.

Thanks!

I think I will make some nice eggs with ham and toast for supper tonight. That sounds warm delicious. mmmm

Changing

It has been chilly here lately. Enough so, that we need to start bringing wood in the house to warm up this week. (Our house has lately been ranging in temperatures between the mid-fifties and mid-sixties) If we weren't such cheapskates we would have already had some kind of heat on for the past few weeks. Instead we have big blankets on the couch, nice fuzzy slippers, and plenty of quilts on the bed. (I think I am going to put the flannel sheets on this week, too).



With the cool days come beautiful colors and the need to get things out of the garden!


I went out on Saturday and picked the remaining butternut squash and gourds. Everytime I thought I was done picking the gourds, it seemed that I would find another couple hiding out under a leaf or in the carrots!


Even Hank got involved!


I also went for a walk out into the pasture to get some pictures of the fall color before the wind blew all of the leaves off of the trees. We have had some wonderful color around here this fall!


Dan worked up on the roof finishing up a small section of siding . . . you never know, someday the whole house might be sided and looking pretty again.


On Saturday I also got a little something in the mail! It's my October sock mailing from Sundara Yarn. This picture doesn't show off the color the best, but it is a beautiful deep purple that has some darker and lighter hues spread throughout. I think these might become some Christmas socks for my mom!


Finally, I have been working on some socks of my own again. I have two skeins of this yarn and I think that these could turn into some nice knee socks. I love having long socks to wear in the winter and fall in our old, drafty house.

Last time I posted it was Summer (I think . . . technically)

Well, it has been a while since I have posted (I am actually at the computer every day, but you know how it goes--the longer you go between posting, the more stupid and guilty you start to feel about not writing anything and so you don't write anything and you see how interesting other people are and that really you don't feel all that interesting and on and on and on) Today I bit the bullet and finally decided to post.

I was sorting through some photos that I have taken and I saw a couple that were noteworthy.
First off-----The Barney.

Barney is now a full-fledged outdoor cat. He doesn't want to believe it, but he is. Last winter he decided to start peeing on our bed in the basement and spraying furniture in the house. Yuck . . . he wanted to be in charge and knew he wasn't, so he started to fight back.
I feel bad (Dan doesn't) sometimes when he is meowing outside, but he has plenty in the out of doors to keep him busy and we hug him and cuddle him and feed him his yummy, yummy food.
When he isn't up whining by us at the house he sleeps in the hay in the barn. I love it when he does that and then comes up to us to get petted and picked up. He smells of dry alfalfa. Mmmmm.

Now for old tires . . .

Remember last Spring when I wrote about going to the scrap metal yard? Well, we took some of the money we got from the metal and were able to get rid of the many, many old tires we had sitting behind our old shop. (This picture doesn't even show all of them)
Soon the old scrap area will be beautiful (or weed filled, whatever) and eventually we will be able to reseed out there and have the area between our barn and shop and stuff like that made back into a little barn yard (maybe even for the dogs to be able to run around in when we are gone for the day!).

Alrighty, I have work to get to, so see you all later. Oh, and knitting has been happening, too. I am working on a fine Christmas present (oh, it is so pretty that I really want to keep it---but I won't---if you are reading this Melissa, I won't tell you what it is, but you probably know that I would be doing something along some lines as I did for Linda and Barb.)

This is why "they" hate "us"

Please, I don't often just put random links here or anything, but please go watch this. It is terrible and awful to watch, but please watch it. You might regret it, but hey, you trust me, right?

Disappointment

Can I tell you something? I am sooooo disappointed.

I was going through all of my picture folders and all of our flash disks and I am missing some stunning pictures that I took about a month ago. I recently started sorting all of my pictures into categories and getting things all updated for the last month and all that and a whole disk of pictures is gone . . . GONE!

Never to be seen again. Erased at some moment thinking that they were safely already put onto a computer or a CD or something. I am very sad. The only picture I have from that disk is this one

Do you see the gorgeous light I was working with? I had pictures of the horses in the tall grass on the back of our property. I had pictures of kittens playing just outside the barn door. I had close ups of these fuzzy thistles with the setting sun warming them and making the beautiful. Those pictures made me happy that we have thistles in our pasture growing out of control in places. It was the only time I was ever happy to see thistles that I can remember.

Will I ever come across the same lighting and time of year again. Maybe, you never know, but once, I happened to take this silouette of myself against our house that turned out so nicely and I have tried and tried and tried to recreate that moment on other farm buildings around our place and I never been able to do it.

Why, why, why . . . oh, the humanity---I took this one picture off of that little disk because I didn't have time to do more.

Can I say it again?

I am soooooooooooooooooo disappointed.

Fun photos of the weekend!

Lot's of chicken

Dunk Tank!

At the parade

Niece and nephews at the picnic table--sippy cups and mac and cheese--what a picnic!

Little Halle on the deck!

Red Rooster Days!

I made this little ad for our chamber of commerce back earlier this summer--whatcha think?
(The rooster isn't mine--it was designed for our city by a guy named Andy Grams and it will be going on the town's new water tower--he did a good job, huh?)

It is Labor Day weekend once again, but around here we know it as Red Rooster Days (and it is the reason I have been so quiet lately). We've been a-printin' banners, a-hangin' art up town in the Ergot Museum, a-updatin' info. on the local cable channel and city website (that's one of my part-time jobs), and a-workin' on puttin' together all sorts of people's frames.

Oh, and I've been a-gettin' ready for comp-ny, too because my brother from ID and his family are coming for a visit this week!

In the meantime,

. . . Lil' Hankers has been growing up.

Isn't he just the sweetest . . .

I think he likes me--okay, I know he likes me and Dan. He braves coming up onto the deck past the big, scary dogs that sometimes like to see if he is a good and tasty morsel just to meow at the door to come inside.

Speaking of big, scary dogs . . .

. . . they can be so vicious sometimes. See how they have crowded up around this guy? I bet they won't let him go until he gives them a belly rub.

Ahhhhh----

Some days just get so busy that it is nice just to sit back and look at pretty pictures.
(stole the good camera again!)
Well, back to the job, grrr (or not grrr, considering the months of Jan-June were really slow!)

A logo

Hey, I am back from my trip and have yet to scan in any photos of our trip (my dad seemed to want his digital camera on his camping trip rather than sending it along on mine--crazy, huh?)

Anyway, this is just a quick post to show a logo I did in photoshop and a brief description of how I did it. (maybe of no interest to anyone, but you never know).

© 2008 elisabeth schmieg and the midwest garden company

I made this logo by combining a couple of photographs. (The cabin in one and trees in another-erasing stuff and layers and all that)



If I remember right after I had done all that:
1. I then went in and upped the contrast
2. Went into the unsharp mask (under filter and then sharpening) and way over did it until it looked neat to me
3. Then did the poster edge filter (under artistic) moving the sliders around until it looked interesting.
4. Lastly, I did the palette knife filter (also under artistic) moving stuff around until I liked it.

I've done a bunch of fun things with these filters layered upon filters actually-

I thought this looked cool, but half the time I don't recall what exactly I did to stuff--I suppose I should write down what my favorite things are to do, but golly I have a bunch of knitting, drawing, musical stuff to do (plus the garden and my 3 part-time jobs---and the dishes (I think I'll do them last--do they make paper pots and pans that I can just through away once i am done cooking?)), so I probably won't get around to it.

Going on Vacay!!!!!

Well, tomorrow morning Dan and I are going to be headed out on a nice little vacation. (Well, not overly little--10 days!!!!!!)

Sometime mid-morning-ish (because when it comes to a vacation who really wants to be up at 4 am and on the road by 5? maybe you do, but not me!) we will drive away into the wild blue yonder. I know, I know gas prices are terrible, but if we want to go out to Glacier National Park and then on to my brother's place in Idaho it is still cheaper to drive than to take the airplane or the train. (crazy, I know it)

Anyway, before I go I thought I would post a couple of pictures of a couple fun items.

First and foremost, I have made and finished my socks from the Lorna's Laces Grumperina colorway that I won this past Spring!

I put a nice little picot edge on the top because I thought it would be pretty.

Here they are in all their glory!!!!

Next, I have now gotten the yarn to make a nice Clapotis. It is Malabrigo in the Loro Barranquero colorway (purchased from the Yarn Country)

Ain't it purty . . .

and a close-up of the gorgeous yarny goodness!

I will be working on this shawl on my trip (along with a cotton market bag, and a bunch of little Viking Hats for the nieces and nephews)

Last, but not least are some photos I took of the dogs a week or so ago playing in the yard. The battery was dying on the camera, so it wasn't wanting to auto focus very well and with the speed that these pups were going I couldn't keep up, but let me tell you even though a couple of these shot are blurry, they are well worth it for the sheer enjoyment that these pups show when they get to wrestle around!

Here they are being pretty sedate . . .

then . . .
they're off!

I think this might be some fancy wresting move that they use on the WWE (is that what it is called? It used to be the WWF back when I was little and I don't keep track of such things)

Now this last one is quite fuzzy, but it is quite a fun one anyway.

Look at the wild looks on those faces.

I think that not long after this dogs went to their separate corners--Dakota goes under the deck and Montana runs to the garage.

Have a good week all-see you again after the 12th (I'm not sure if you will be able to expect photos, though because I don't own my own digital camera and I don't know when we will get the film developed-we just developed a bunch of our film from last fall through the present a few weeks ago)

What can I say about today?

I can't really think of a good title at all for today's post. I don't even know what to say about today, but Nin got me think about some of the famous/semi-famous people I've met (not that I am some great friend of anyone, or have even met people that most everyone else knows-just famous people to me and my kind of ilk I guess) and who I would love to meet.

Now, let's say this first and foremost--I am a lover of blue-grass, old fashioned country, Christian, classical, and any number of other kinds of music that most people don't listen to a whole lot. I don't know most of the music other people my age listen to because Classical Public radio was played in my house from when I was tiny to even today (I don't tend to have the radio on much at my house now, but we almost always have Minnesota Public Radio playing in the gallery).

Soooo . . . I have met various people from different old jug bands from the Twin Cities and that also includes meeting Koerner, Ray, and Glover because my dad used to be in a jug band back in the 60's called Mama's Home Cooking (he played the washtub bass). They have the Battle of the Jug Bands every year down in Minneapolis and my dad always goes to see a bunch of his old friends. Of course, back when I first went to the Battle it was in a VFW (I guess it was an American Legion-according to the history on their site) Hall in Minneapolis and now it has moved to a much fancier location (I haven't been to it since I was in high school though).

Me and Sherwin Linton

I have met Sherwin Linton. He plays all over the state of MN and SD and other places. He and his wife and their band are out playing all over most of the year. He emcees our county fair's talent show every year and I have been known to go up on stage and try to make a bit of a fool of myself strumming my guitar and singing. He seemed to think that I have an alright kind of a voice (my guitar skills need a lot of work, though, I think). Anyway, he knows all sorts of people in the music business as well, including being friends with the Cash family.

Dan and I have been to a couple of Michael Martin Murphy's (caution-music starts playing when you go to this page) concerts. He always is really nice and talks to everyone after the show. (His most famous hit was Wildfire, but he has done a bunch more that people would recognize.) We have a CD of his in which Paulette Carlson sings back up on a couple of songs. Paulette grew up around here and even though I have never met her I worked for her brother and his wife at an apple orchard just a ways from here.

I have been able to shake hands with Osmo Vanska, Lori Line, and the Riders in the Sky. (I have been trying to make the links to these last two here and I am not being allowed to do it. grrr, so you'll just have to look them up if you're interested in them)

Oh, and here's a silly story. Last month, we went down to a graduation party for my cousin's son and I asked my dad to drive around and show me how to get to my grandparent's old place because I couldn't remember how to get there (since I couldn't drive back when they used to live there and couldn't remember the way). We ended up driving into the neighborhood and stopped at an old neighbor of my dad's house. He restores old, old cars (the kind that look more like a buggy than a car) and he had a bunch sitting outside, so we chatted with him for a while. Come to find out that Jay Leno had been at his house the weekend before us. He had been doing an act at one of the casinos North of the Cities and had heard about this guy, so he called him up on his way to the airport and asked to pop in to look at his cars. If only the graduation party had been a week earlier, we would have been there at the same time.

So anyway, those have been my brushes with fame and glory (sound the church bells). Not much in the whole scheme of things, I suppose, but still fun for me!

Someday, though, I would really like to meet and actually chat with Randy Travis. He has led such an interesting life. I would love to meet any number of people, though, I suppose, but I am a true Minnesota girl and try not to bother people if at all possible and figure they would rather not have some little weirdo like me bothering them.

Well, have a great day!

1930's Wife and a Little House!

Well, I'm not quite as bad a wife as I thought I was--(even though I do hate to wash the dishes)

86 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

In other news, Dan and I went to go see Little House on the Prairie (the musical) last night at the Guthrie. It was the second preview night before it opens in a couple of weeks and it is also the premier of the musical with Melissa Gilbert playing Ma.

I heard about it back in late May/early June and thought that I would love to be able to go and see it. I haven't been to a fancy play production since college (although, I did go to the Opera a few years back at the Ordway because my oldest brother was in it--Rigoletto (he didn't play Rigoletto or anything, but it was his first opera as a member of the ensemble (or was it his first? now I can't remember offhand). I went to the old Guthrie back then and saw Much Ado about Nothing (at least that's what I think I saw) with a bunch of my drama friends.

Anyway, Dan thought that he would get us a couple of tickets for my birthday. The tickets went on sale the weekend before my birthday, so we went online and got them (or actually, I went online. Dan doesn't really ever use a computer). Since then I have been excited to go see the musical. We were just a few rows back on the right side of the stage, so we got to see everything nice and close up. It was exciting for me to see Melissa Gilbert in real life (of course, I would have loved to have met her).

My Stetson Man

I also kept thinking before the play that it would have been really cool if her husband, Bruce Boxleitner (I just love the show Scarecrow and Mrs. King and he is also in a fair amount of cool Western movies), would have been there just watching the play like us and then would have come up to Dan and I (because Dan was wearing his usual belt buckle and summer straw cowboy hat along with the leather belt he made) and said something like, "Hey where did you get that leather belt? (or make mention on the beautiful leather purse I was carrying)" and then we would say, "Oh that, Dan made it. He makes all sorts of these kinds of things."



Of course, none of that happened, but gosh-golly-gee it was some good fun going down to the big city to see the world premier of a brand new musical starring Melissa Gilbert! (Okay, we might live in rural MN, but we are only about an hour and a half from the Guthrie--not soooo far)

Ruby Tuesday

Hey, this post has nothing to do with the restaurant (in fact, I never been to a Ruby Tuesday--I've been to TGI Friday's and Applebee's, but never a Ruby Tuesday) nor have I recently acquired a gem mining operation. I don't even own any kind of jewelry with rubies in it (although I do have a necklace with little red glass bead things on it), but it is Tuesday and the song came into my head.

****Warning, this is a bit of a rambling post with no real point to it, but if you want to know what's been up in my life--Read on . . . ****

This past week has been warm, it has also been kinda pretty here and there and I've done a few different things. I will get to them in just a bit, but first let me say a sad little item. If you want you can skip this little emotive piece of stuff and just start reading after the pictures.

It happened a month ago, but it made me very sad and I just didn't know how to say it. You know those precious baby kittens that I posted pictures of--(I always tell myself I shouldn't get so attached to precious babes like that, but I can't help myself)--Well, one day a month ago Dan came running up to the house to telly me that my most favorite little fluff ball was laying in the barn nearly dead, so I ran down, picked up that limp little body and got some liquid and milk replacer down her and she perked up quite nicely. I had her sleep in a little cat carrier in our room for the next couple of days and fed her every little while. She was starting to regain her energy, when all of a sudden one morning when I was feeding her she just died--I cried and cried. She was the sweetest little thing. Well, that same morning two of her siblings (who had been very active and doing well) got very weak and died. We ended up losing 4 of the 5 kittens in about a week's time and I was very sad about it. The symptoms they had were nothing like the common diseases that our kittens have normally had when they have died suddenly, so I think it must have been some congenital defect or something--I just can't figure it out. These little kittens were much smaller than other ones that were born about the same time. In fact the night before these ones died a friend brought some that were about the same age to live at our house (they were never exposed to the other kittens, so it couldn't have been anything that they brought with them) and they are way bigger than the ours. Anyway, of our first little batch of babies that I petted, cared for, and loved to the full all we have left is little Hank.

He's just a precious little ball of fur and now he has five other siblings that play with him and cuddle up with him, thankfully.

At the moment I only have two really good pictures of a kitten a piece, but I will tell you all of their names--Mike, Molly, Mabel, Tom, and Jerry.

Little Miss Mabel looking out the barn door

Little Miss Molly lounging in the barn.

Okay, that sad item took way longer than it should have to talk about. I ramble and ramble sometimes, but I do love my little kitties (and all our animals really) and even though I grew up on this little farm and have had to deal with pets and farm animals dying most of my life, I have a bit of a tender heart. (Don't worry we are well acquainted with our local vet and we make sure our animals get the care that they need--I've been helping give shots to animals since I was in my teens)

Anway, I have also picked beans and peas from the garden . . .

Yellow and green beans, with a pea or two stuck in for good measure!

I call this one-On the Vine-Sugar snap peas are so pretty!

Dan and I went to his aunt and uncle's house for a birthday party. They own an old farm place near this little lake about 1/2 an hour from our place. You walk down this long driveway and come up to the lake where they have an old cabin from, oh, probably the 30's and the part they own is undeveloped whereas the rest of the lake is full of cabins, homes, beaches, and docks. (His aunt's husband's family has owned the property for generations--they even have the original farmhouse back in the woods a ways--I plan to get some good pictures of it sometime, but the mosquitoes were nasty that night and I didn't think traveling further into the woods would be a good idea!)

The sun was shining on the lake real prettily that evening!

On our walk back up to the house I stood back a little ways and took a few shots of Dan, his brother, and his two cousins.

Cord, Tim, Dan and Jason

(I have and idea this picture will be one that his aunt and uncle will especially want to have--their son Cord (he's almost 12) loves hanging out and being one of the big guys and this shows that really well!)

Sooo . . . in lieu of a recent picture

I picked strawberries this morning (my third time this year) at a local farm that has pick your own and decided it was about time I stole my dad's digital camera to take some pictures of kittens and strawberry stuff and the garden, so I did, BUT the little flash card was here at gallery and not in the camera and there are no pictures to show of the exciting goings on at my house (or even of the pile of dirty dishes awaiting me when I get home).

Sooooooo . . .

The first picture my parent's took when they bought our farm house in 1972. It is still the same basic L-shape farm house, but there have been a lot of changes and none of them are finished yet. (Because that is the way it is will old farmhouses-the projects that you are working on never seem to end (we still haven't finished re-siding our house that we started almost 6 years ago (although I don't ever really remember our house being white as it was resided with a gray siding when I was 1)

This picture was taken last Spring. the outbuilding all used to be white with red trim (and I vaguely remember that, but for a few different summers my older brothers had jobs repainting everything red with white trim---more my style as I love the color red)

Oh, there is one recent picture (and this is the reason there wasn't a card in the camera (I took it out so I could upload this picture and send it off))

An old friend from college is getting married at the end of the month and had designed a nice little logo for all of their invites and so on and so forth. He remembered that I knew something about metal stuff (did I tell you I used to work in a bronze foundry doing waxwork one year? That's where I met my husband, Dan. (it's a small foundry that does work for artists and Dan still works there)) and sent me an email wondering if I could make them a medallion for their wedding. Anyway, this is what it looks like in wax. I sent it with Dan this morning to the foundry to get it made into bronze (that's a whole other process-maybe I'll explain it sometime, but it gets a bit tedious) and it should be done by the end of the month.