“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost
Showing posts with label cold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Extreme Weather

Remember the Polar Vortex we had a few years back? Well it has returned!





It's official!!!



Minnesota can now lay claim to some of the most extreme weather in all of the USA! And just to prove it, the temperature is supposed to be 37 degrees on Saturday. It will feel like spring!



It must be bad, even the USPS isn't delivering the mail today. I'm very happy I closed my shop for the week!  Due to projected deteriorating weather conditions, USPS  delivery operations are suspended Wed Jan 30, for the following locations:
 * No. Dakota * So. Dakota * Eastern Mont. * Iowa * Minnesota * Portions of E. Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. 

It is the coldest cold I've ever felt. My office is freezing even with the space heater blasting under my desk. Now excuse me while I get a hot cup of tea, a blankie and a cat.

😼☕🐱 Stay safe and warm out there! 😼☕🐱
Diane




Saturday, January 13, 2018

January Thoughts, It Could Be Worse

Hello friends. Well here we are once again, the beginning of a new year. I started preparing for the new year back in the old year during the month of November. My computer was almost 9 years old and seemed to be really slowing down, so my Christmas present to myself was a new PC and it was lightening fast!

I moved all my images and files over to the new PC and customized everything the way I wanted. And loaded all the programs and browsers and etc, etc. I started to feel at home and thought how much progress I would make by being ready to really get going on loading new listings on my online shop, it took no time to upload photos etc...

And it worked great!! For about two months... and then Christmas eve day I was checking some emails and all the sudden it just blinked. Then it gave me the blue/black screen with the weird message about go to HP something or other... and of course I thought oh it's some spam thing. So I googled on my phone and sure enough it was a valid Hewlett Packard message that basically told me how to run a couple of tests on my PC, which I did. Sadly it told me that the hard drive was dead, well it didn't say dead, but that's basically what it meant. I have to say, I almost cried!

Fortunately it was still within the 90 day return period and Costco took it back and refunded my money. Of course I then promptly turned around and bought another HP, slightly different but almost identical to the other one.

So I had to start all over with moving the files etc. It was not nearly as much fun as the first time! I have most everything moved over and customized again and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't just quit on my again. A tech friend of mine says that it happens now and then. Guess I've been lucky all these years!



My best laid plans have been derailed temporarily but I'm starting to get  back on track again. Besides it's been too cold to do much else than work on indoor projects so I'm trying to make the best of it. If anything catastrophic happens with this PC I will be saying goodbye to any more HP computers.

Sorry to complain, I know that some of you have been going through much worse things than just technical failures. Chuck Lorre, one of the producers of the Big Bang Theory always  writes a little post after each of the shows, I of course have to pause our DVR and read them.  He wrote one not long ago about Complaining, and I tend to agree that it's our human nature to complain. Even though we sometimes say "I can't complain." in response to "How are things with you?", we generally then follow up with a list of complaints anyway. We are flawed and whiny humans....
xo Diane

So, how are things with you?



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Craving Warm



You know that I crave cute stuff, but after this week, I'm craving warm more than anything else. I'm not alone, most of the country is in the deep freeze and it's only November! Why are we having January weather so soon? Oh that's right, it's climate change. We never really thought it would happen, but voila, here it is. We're not debating that here today though, we're just here to warm our frozen fingers and toes.

Gather near my virtual fire and gaze upon these warm and cuddly images.....











Lovely!!




M O S E S - хозяин








Cozy Christmas Pictures - Cozy Decorating Ideas - Country Living











The essence of coziness...yessss!!!





Fall table decor













Cozy Christmas Pictures - Cozy Decorating Ideas - Country Living







Fall Candles





#3 How an autumn day makes me feel - ready to cozy up with a book by the fire..
#winter rachelhannah92: Happy vibes & love ✯☽ | Endless Winter 01





Fall table








November is the month of Thankfulness, and I am truly thankful for my warm friends, family, home and kitties. Thank you all for visiting me today. I hope wherever you are, you're staying warm and cozy!
~~~~ Diane ~~~~







Sunday, January 5, 2014

Get Ready!


The Polar Vortex is on its way!!!  Schools have been canceled state wide and even some business's have chosen to stay closed.  We haven't seen the likes of this kind of cold in over ten years!







We are staying in the house on Monday! All day. No we will not be going out for a walk, maybe to get the mail or paper, if those brave souls get through their deliveries. It wouldn't bother me in the least if they just stayed home too! The high on Monday is supposed to be -15, yes MINUS 15 degrees. With the wind chill that makes it about 27 degrees below zero! 


It's C-C-C-Cold!
See the X!! Minnesota is underneath it!



cat hat



Bundle up, hunker down and have a big mug of hot chocolate!

Hot chocolate






Cold photo maxinecold.jpg






Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Winter's here and it's cold as ... well, you get the picture!



Love it..too cold

The upside, I'll have plenty of time to catch up on everyone's blogs!
Stay warm out there!! ~~ Diane


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Winter Weary Doldrums . . .

Yes, I am finally at that point where I am getting tired of winter.  Mainly I am tired of this bitter, nasty cold and biting winds that have been hanging around here for the past week. It has finally warmed up to +10F/-12C degrees outside. Yesterday was a shocking -7F/-22C degrees.  I know some of you further north had even colder temperatures.




The thing is, where the heck is the snow?  Ours has almost melted away from our warmer weather a few weeks ago.  Now we have ugly brown patches and plants sticking out from the snow.  I fear for my poor garden.  Will anything survive the freeze-drying atmosphere? We had a dusting of snow overnight, but not enough to make any real difference, just a nuisance snow. I want real snow, pretty snow that blankets and protects my plants and makes my yard look beautiful. Oh well, we can't control nature, it does what it does.  So what's a person supposed to do?


Regular photo setting

Enhanced with color levels.
Backlighting


Well, since it's way to cold to go outside, frostbite in five minutes cold, I will catch you up on what I have been doing. I have been messing around with my new camera that I got for Christmas. Trying all sorts of weird settings to see what it will do.  Trying to perfect my product photos for my shop.  I even pulled out my water colors for a few minutes the other day and painted a snow man. I started working on taxes and organizing receipts and doing inventory for my shop. Which makes me want to cry, I hate that kind of stuff.  I've also been paying bills, reading about how to improve my shop, reading all the millions of topics on the Etsy forums. Have you ever looked at all that mess those comments and suggestions?  It makes a person want to take up drinking!

product photos

pinecone reindeer


My poor car is finally out of the shop and after thousands of dollars, I can drive it again.  It's still better than a new car payment! Still seeing the bill is a real bummer. The other fun thing I have been doing is trying to figure out how to set up a Google+ account and business page. I have run across of few of you good folks out there.  Thanks for your kind comments, I'm glad to know that I am not the only one that finds this new fangled technology somewhat confusing. If you are not familiar with the word "fangled", then you know I am much older than you! Anyway if you are a Google+ enthusiast please "Circle" me and "Plus" me and pass my shop page around to your friends that might be interested in my stuff.  It is on the right side of the page, just under my bio.



etsy type look



I plussed myself, I'm sure that is against Google+ etiquette! Also sometime soon, I am going to do a give-away of something from my shop or inventory. I still haven't decided yet what that will be. I'm still making it through everyone's blogs, if I haven't been there to visit lately, I apologize.  I will get there eventually. Meanwhile I will be trying to work myself out of the winter-weary-doldrums!


soft effect

toy camera effect

What do you do to get through the long winters?





Thursday, January 3, 2013

What People Do Here For Fun!

This is what people do in Minnesota for fun! Not me, I'm not crazy or brave enough! Look at this posted on YouTube. I had to laugh when I saw some of the East Coast Plungers the other day, they didn't even get their hair wet!  Now this is a Polar Bear Plunge! There were many other videos posted from previous years that included the screaming as people jumped in, I found this one for this year. Just use your imagination for what they were saying as they got out of the water! By the way, the ice they pulled out of the hole was about 20 inches thick.

Published on Jan 1, 2013
Nearly 800 brave souls jumped into frigid Lake Minnetonka today. Air temp -5 Fahrenheit, -21 Celsius. Several exchange students and friends jumped with the group. The first jumper is on his 23rd year. Bill Wenmark is one of the founders of this great event.







Have any of you brave souls ever done anything like this!??!!


Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Wish Fulfilled . . .

A few days ago I posted about wishing for snow. As you will see in the pictures below, my wish has been fulfilled! Before we had the snow, we had a couple of beautiful days.

Dot enjoying the sun.

We went from a balmy 50 degrees and sunny...

To a little snow ....

And then more snow.


Guy and Dot checked out the snow, well Dot stood next to the door, Guy got right into it!



When I enlarged the picture, I noticed he was licking the snow off his nose. I could have never planned that! This is the first heavy snow he has seen and he is begging to go out again!




My little Norwegian Forest Cat, seems to be taking it all in. Happy as can be to be out in the snow!






What better way to welcome in our first big snow of the season with the 
Norse Lullaby by Eugene Field.  Illustrated by Lois Maloy.
















Hope you enjoyed the snow! I already did all the shoveling, or should I say the first shoveling.  I'm sure I will need to do a bit more. I love it though! It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas!