I have never – in 13 years of living in this area – seen a pelican on the Mississippi River until this past Sunday. He was big. BIG. He surprised me, because he was among a big flock of geese, ducks, swans and seagulls that were resting along the river. Gorgeous.
Every year, several bald eagles migrate south to areas where it’s easier to fish on the ice. Since we live on the Mississippi, we get to host many of them through the winter months. Right now there’s no ice, really, but they’re hanging out, fishing on the inlets of the river and nesting in groupings of trees that are hard to access by people.
We did get down to see them yesterday, and many of my pics turned out just plain crappy. Even with a 12x optical zoom, they’re just specks on a poster sized image. This is the best one I think, that shows the most detail of the bird. I tinkered with it a bit to make it as clear as I could. I’ve got a couple more bird pics I’ll put up tomorrow. Enjoy!
Experience the wonderful new flavor of Gr?pple® brand apples. Imagine the sweet distinctive flavor of Concord grapes combined with the crispness of a fresh, juicy Washington Extra Fancy apple.
Now, instead of buying apples and grapes, dicing up the apples and putting them both in a bowl for munching ( umpteen servings of this for a combined total of around $4), you can have your grapes infused directly into the apple for about $2 (each apple)!
I bought them. I thought they would be really neat to try. They were! And that was the last time I’ll spend $2 for an apple that smells like a grape and tastes – really – like a sweet apple.
What will they think of next?
Here’s the first layer of Joey’s fur. His eyes, nose and mouth are done, although I’ll probably add a smidge more shine to his teeth and tongue. I’m estimating about 3-4 more layers of paint for the fur before he’s completed, but I’ll paint that wet-in-wet and finish his portrait up tomorrow.
View my Custom Dog Portrait category to watch the painting as it has progressed.
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My other Thirteens |
2. The group weight loss blog is OPEN, if you haven’t seen it yet stop over there! There’s 40+ members already, holy MOLY! HTTP://POUNDS2GO.NET
3. My Birthday is 10 days away! I’m going to be 35, for those of you who are wondering. I don’t care what the number is, I care about how I feel. (I say it this way so it excuses me for not even being able to calculate how old I am, and always resorting to the mathematical genius of my hubby and/or daughter. Oy.)
4. I was hired as a (blog/graphic) designer for E.Webscapes. W00T!
5. I didn’t finish Joey yet, got all buried underneath P2G memberships and plugins and stuff, and when I got up today I thought it was Thursday so I started working on this TT. THEN my hubby tells me “It’s Wednesday, honey.” DOH! and YAY! I have almost a whole EXTRA DAY TO DO STUFF!
6. In addition to blog design, this year I’ll be preparing for my first art exhibition, too! Thankfully I can include photgraphy, if I need to fill a bigger space than what I’m seeing in my head. I have 6 paintings planned already, so I’ll probably stop taking custom portrait commissions for a while so I can work on blog designs and paintings. It’s going to be a very creative year!
7. In the midst of the year, I’ll be in a wedding. Rubbing a buddah’s belly. On the East Coast, even! (unless they elope, that is. heh!) The bride and I are going to be hotties, too, because we’re both determined on our skinny programs.
8. We’re also planning to go back to Disneyworld this year. At some point. :biggrin: We are a total Disney family. Did you know that of all the Disney characters, Thumper is my favorite? I am still hoping to get a Thumper tattoo. On my xxxxx xxxxx. (figure that one out. haha!) I’ll get it when my skin is the size it’s meant to be!
9. My weight loss motivation comes from believing with my whole heart that when I reach my goal, someone is going to see me in the grocery store and offer me a million bucks to model bikini’s for them. Yep. That’s exactly how it’s going to happen. I’m sure of it.
10. Our eagles are impressing the hell outta me this year, and I WILL PHOTOGRAPH THEM. They’re only here for the winter – and it’s not too terribly cold out there. I gotta get over to their nesting areas and take pics!
11. We also have to get down to Colorado this year to visit our friends, Clara & Co. We miss them like crazy and it’s our turn for the road trip. She took the trip last time. Catybug is dyyyyying to go see her bestest buddy that moved away.
12. I’m going to be really busy over the next few days, so if I disappear you know why.
IMPORTANT for TT’ers
13. I did a quick check of the Thursday Thirteen blogroll and unfortunately had to remove a whole slew of folks because they did not have the blogroll displayed on their blogs. There was even a blog on there twice that was very obviously not a participant at all. It was a random check of new blogs whose names I haven’t grown accustomed to yet – so please help me out with this. If you are on the blogroll, your blog should be displaying the blogroll. If it doesn’t, I’ve gotta remove you – it’s only fair. You can put it on a page and link to it, but it has to be there, somewhere. On. The. Front. Page. So if you don’t have it displayed, grab the code. If you come across a blog that is on the blogroll but you don’t see the blogroll when you get there? Let me know. It’s not my intention to tick people off, I did it to promote regular visits between everyone and give equal link promotion across the board. /rant.
LINKS TO THIRTEENS I’VE VISITED TODAY:
I’m visiting – just not leaving many comments at the moment! Gotta paint!
Leave your link in comments & I’ll do my bestest to visit over the next few days!
For those playing, claim your blog at Technorati to get on their listing if you haven’t already!
Were the words she said to me today. YEAHHH!!
You’re looking at the blog of the newest designer on staff for E.Webscapes, the most awesomest blog and website design service joint on the web!
Dang. I’m so excited. What a New Year so far, eh? Okay I’ll blog it in the TT Thursday, but you can go see the announcement now, too!!
… Leanne will remain our staff illustrator here at E.Webscapes – but as of today, her responsibilities and talents in her bag-o-tricks have increased! Through several months of working, learning and banging around inside the inner-workings of WordPress and CSS – Leanne was determined to learn how to use her creative skills to design blogs, as well. As an artist, the creative part is like second skin to her – – the technical, back-end work was a bit of a challenge. However, not SO much of a challenge that she couldn’t tackle it – because she has. As a result, we’ve hired her on as a designer for E.Webscapes, as well as an artist. Talk about crazy skills, man! …read it all here!
C’monnnn… everybody has a few Pounds2Go, right? Yeah. You know it.
I’ve got some tweaking to do, some plug-ins to add, some bells and whistles and things – but for right now, the first of the year, it’s time to launch!
If you would like to inquire about a custom illustration, blog or website design, please place your inquiry/order through E.Webscapes. Thank you!
That pretty head up there is my last pic of 2005, I braided Chickeymonkey’s hair lastnight and we all snuggled in the New Year on the couch watching You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Catybug finally made it ’til midnight, too!
So now that I’ve got this clean slate and all, I’m determined to maintain focus – complete all of my projects, kick some serious butt this year artistically, through stylesheets and graphic design, and above all else, with my treadmill! I am nearly finished with the new blog design, and will do my best to go live today, if not tomorrow. Part of the learning curve, you know, making sure things validate in two different browsers. Fun stuff, that is! I’ve already lost 4.5 lbs (as of yesterday), and have some amazing recipes and things to share in the new digs!
I hope you woke up rejuvinated, and you’re just as energetic and ready to go this year as I am!
