"Pretty Lady"

My slothfulness in not putting any Christmas detritus away today had a bit of an advantage! The power flickered killing my computer and a bunch of things I was doing, so as it rebooted I got up and walked around.

I discovered that the table stashing a bunch of my Christmas stuff was being hit by evening light (or as photographers call it - "Perfect Light" as it is at an angle and makes everything look AWESOME) so I ran and got my camera.

It was a bit dark and my camera wanted to use the flash thus COMPLETELY DEFEATING the purpose of my taking the photograph. With the flash off it was over a 1 second exposure. Handshake for most people comes in to play at 1/60th of a second - thus the photo would be seriously fuzzy. So off to grab my tripod, mounted my camera and set it to an appropriate manual setting – wasting important time as the sun was moving quickly past the table …

Snapped a few shots of my new tree topper since she was what had struck me as looking so lovely in the evening light.

This second shot I put in my first attempt to purchase a tree topper – which for a 10 and a half foot tree – was ridiculously small! My new ‘Pretty Lady’ is a much more of an appropriate size!

Since all of my crystal ornaments were on the tree when she arrived, none of us dared put her on the tree for fear we would shake one of them off and break it – so she has not been on our tree yet.

Can’t wait to see her next year – we have never had a tree topper before …

The Naughty Wise Man ...

I was debating between the title up there and:

"How did they DO That?"

The current title won out because as best that I can recall, I have never actually used the words "naughty" and "wise man" in the same sentence.

I'm all about 'firsts' ... experiencing everything ... living in the moment type of Gal and thought

"Why Not?"



What?


YES I AM LIKE THAT!



I AM!



AM TOO!!!


OK, OK, I'm not at all like that, I am outright lying to you - I just thought it was a catchy phrase!


So - I have come THIS CLOSE to being Sainted this weekend by FINALLY getting my 'UnChristmas On' and putting away decorations.

That I got out of bed yesterday morning to find every single one of my ornaments sitting ... ever so gently ... on a blanket the length of one of the counters in the kitchen had absolutely NOTHING to do with it ... at all ...


OK, I'm lying again ...


And I noticed that things got ... weird ... EVEN FOR ME! Thus another post when I get to it, but today I gathered everything up around the house and put it in the entry as my 'put away staging area' ... if you will.


Because you wouldn't want it where EVERY SINGLE SOUL THAT COMES TO THE DOOR can't tell that you are an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC UN DECORATING GODDESS ... now would you?

And all the thieves and pirates and what not can just take inventory standing right there looking through the door - no muss, no fuss - aren't I just the CONSIDERATE ONE today?

After schlepping every little thing into a pile for viewing by strangers, I started to put away the Origami Nativity because I was not going to transfer it anywhere ... thank you very much. I had broken enough pieces of it (OK, only one - but a COOL one and I got another so I will just shut my mouth now ...) I didn't want to chance a disaster.

It started out smoothly enough. I panicked when I opened the first box and saw all the lovely Styrofoam cutouts since I had no idea what went in which box - but, thankfully there was a lovely photo of the items that came inside the box - thus it was a no brainer ...

Finished the first box and moved on to the second. It all seemed obvious enough and I knew that all the rest of the pieces sitting out belonged inside this set of Styrofoam cut outs and I began.

It was going swimmingly until I hit the last Wise Man. The other pieces were rather distinctive and I could tell where they went - the star ... duh, the angel has a freaking trumpet sticking out - thus the one that took care of that - like I said ... no brainer.

But no matter what I tried - that dang Wise Man would not fit in the last hole! I re-evaluated my placements and decided that, yep - they were all in their proper places.

Look for yourself - tell me that they are not in there "Proper Assigned Rooms" (the 'Naughty guy is the  middle large piece in the left side section on the bottom):

Photographers note: the Nativity is a very white white - which here does not look so - I changed the contrast, saturation, hue and detail to get the white white Nativity pieces to stand out from the white white Styrofoam.

Here I he is face up and WAY bigger than the hole ...

Now tell me HOW is he supposed to fit in there:

I tried sideways one way:

And sideways the other way:

I tried face first ... and he looked, well -

I don't know -

but I told him he had to say

 

"I'm not worthy"

 

three times or I was throwing him away:

I gave up ... I was bluffing about throwing him away anyway ...

I got a bit desperate and did the UNTHINKABLE. I tried to force him in pushing

HARD -

REALLY, REALLY HARD ...

yet, still -

the guy just would not budge!

Here is a lovely close-up of how well my

'forcing him in the dang hole'

 went:

We had a conversation at that point (Gary is out of town for quite some time and I tend to get a wee bit more chatty with inanimate objects when he is gone .... among other things ... yeah, *sigh* pretty much a WHOLE LOT of other things ...):

Me: Dude - what's the deal? I KNOW YOU GO THERE so shape up and GET IN ... um, YOUR ROOM!

Wise Man:

Me: NO? SERIOUSLY! What? Is it that the Angel is blowing a trumpet in your ear? I know that can be annoying as hell (oh, sorry - pardon the french ...) but I didn't pick YOUR ROOM - go ... get ...

Off you go ...

Wise Man:

Me: *sigh* Is it Joseph? In the room on the other side of you? Does he smell? Does he snore? Talk in his sleep?

WHAT?!?


IS!?!


THE?!?


PROBLEM!?!

Wise Man:

Me: *bigger sigh* OK, now I know this might be a delicate subject ... but you can tell me - I WILL NOT JUDGE YOU. Um, did you eat too much over the holidays and gain a few pounds?

Is that all this is about? Because I can understand that and I will help you out - you just need to tell me what the problem is and so I can fix it and ship y'all off into 'outer darkness' or, well, I mean in a trunk in the attic - really - it's rather comfortable up there ...

Wise Man:

Me: I am going to take your silence as one of two things:

a) For some reason you are the type of Wise Man that takes a vow of silence - THUS cannot answer me (if that sort of Wise Man really exists ... AND I THINK NOT - you are just being a butt ...)

or

b) You are just too ashamed to admit to the overindulgence and weight gain.


Thus I have no choice - I am going to do me some RENOVATING!!!


I have JUST THE TOOL to demolish 'Stubborn Wise Man's room:



My trusty barnekniv!!!




What?



You DON'T have a barnekniv?


You don't know what one is?


Well, it is a Norwegian word. You pronounce it: "barn-na-ka-neeeve" (the Norwegians pronounce the 'n' after the 'k').

Translated it means "Child's Knife"



Why YES I did say "Child's Knife".



Is there a problem ...

other than that oxymoron'ish word ...

the safety issues ...

and the fact that Norwegians must be insane to 'arm' three year olds?



NO ...

I am NOT lying to you - translated LITERALLY:

Barne = "Child"
Kniv = "Knife"

I KID YOU NOT.

And they USUALLY do sell them to children, but I thought it was cute (and is rather sharp I am totally dumbfounded to say) so I bought one.

I have some really, really cool knives from Norway - but they don't get much use - which is probably a good thing they are way sharper, way bigger and way, way more menacing looking.

I am more of a barnekniv type of gal anyway - thus I still have the full use and all the pieces of all ten of my fingers ... plus!

It sits on my desk in its place of honor - a beautiful hand made ceramic pot by "Tamiko" - or if you lived in the Mission Bend Ward back some years ago - she went by the name: Marjorie Anderson but has since moved to Idaho.

I absolutely LOVE her work and have many, many of her ceramic items - this one was not for sale - but one day when I was over at her house I talked her into selling it to me!

It is the perfect 'Holder of Many Useful Things" and usually there is a pair of scissors sticking out of it but currently they are playing with my Nativities on the 'Staging Table'.

Gary and Ryan are constantly stealing it to use because it is so handy and it is ALWAYS, ALWAYS in the pot - EXCEPT when THEY use it ... then I have to go foraging for my beloved pal and put him back in place.

I keep telling them that they need their own Barnekniv but they say that a "Child's Knife" is beneath them -

ODD THAT MINE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE ...

And a remodeling we go.

I SIMPLY CANNOT BELIEVE that I have been reduced to this ...

But - JOY! - Lookie:

I am not well versed in "Wise Man Hand Signals" so either he is telling the Angel to "Shut up", giving me the "OK" sign or saying something to me that is inappropriate to print here in this blog ... (which is saying A LOT ...)

I'm sorta leaning a wee bit on the last one but ...

you just NEVER KNOW with Wise Men these days ...

All done! They are trapped! Liking their rooms or not - they are done for the season and on to a very hot, humid hibernation ...

*sigh*

Only Twelve more trunks to go ...

I Wish You Enough ...

While trolling Facebook moments ago I ran across an absolute gem and decided that not only would I 'share' it on Facebook so all my friends could see it - I would put it on my blog. The poem at the end is absolutely ... perfect.

It was attributed to a Facebook site called "Quotes to Steal" ... something I avidly avoid! I am a stickler for giving credit where credit is due so I jumped over to the page to see if I could find the post and see if it was attributed to anyone.

I could not find it.

Thus on to investiGoogling I went!

I found it on Bob Perks website and he is writing it in first person thus I believe it is he who experienced this. Oddly in his writing the parent is a father where as in the post it is a mother - I wonder who and why that change was made?

I have copied it verbatim from his website:

I WISH YOU ENOUGH

Recently in the airport I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together.

They had announced her departure and standing near the security gate, they hugged and he said, "I love you. I wish you enough."

She in turn said, "Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy."

They kissed and she left. He walked over toward the window where I was seated.

Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking,

"Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?"

"Yes, I have," I replied.

Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were limited, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me.

So I knew what this man experiencing.

"Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever goodbye?" I asked.

"I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, the next trip back would be for my funeral," he said.

"When you were saying goodbye I heard you say, "I wish you enough." May I ask what that means?"

He began to smile.

"That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations.

My parents used to say it to everyone."

He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more.

"When we said 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them," he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.

~~~~~

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much

bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye”

~~~~~

He then began to sob and walked away.

Oddly - the last line is not in the Facebook post and is replaced by the following:

They say it takes a minute to find a special person. An hour to appreciate them. A day to love them. And an entire life to forget them.

I think I like that last one better ...

To all you out there in the bits and the bytes and the ether and the nothingness ...

I   WISH   YOU   ENOUGH ...

LAST But Not LEAST ....

Maybe I saved the best for last!

It sure is adorable - so I will decide:

"Why yes, Lori you purposely saved it for last, you clever girl you" ...


I went upstairs Monday evening (yes - this would be New Years Eve - Gary had gone to bed with nary a 'Good Night' and it was not even Eleven O'clock yet ... sad, so very sad - we are getting freaking old ...) so upstairs to find Ryan building his VW Van that Santa gave him for Christmas.

If you recall - I mentioned that with Jessie, traditions were pretty much nil at our house. With her perseverating - which in layman's terms means that she will interrupt you EACH AND EVERY SECOND that you are trying to speak and talk over you until you give up - BECAUSE SHE NEVER WILL - or something like that.

So - no traditions at the Hurst home - unless you call getting so frustrated trying to read Luke on Christmas Eve that you burst out sobbing and lock yourself in the bedroom a 'tradition' - then hells yes! WE HAD A TON OF TRADITIONS!!


But one constant we always had was LEGO!!!

So I consoled myself one Sunday when the talks were on Christmas Traditions making me feel EVER SO HAPPY to be at Church that day - that Lego might not be a

Noble Tradition

or a


Spiritual Tradition

or a


Worthy Tradition

or even a


Recognized Tradition


in reality it is just playing with toys - but


BY GOLLY


IT'S ALL I HAVE -


SO LET ME HAVE MY DAMN TRADITION ALREADY,


OK?


Ahem, sorry about that ...


Thus anyone who wanted to build something had plenty to work on come Christmas Morning and I have decided that since I really never grew up - we shall continue with the Lego tradition forevermore - even though I am rather partial to my Playmobil ...

Thus I will decree that:

WE SHALL HAVE BOTH!!!


SO LET IT BE WRITTEN.


SO LET IT BE DONE.


Ahhh, there!


Decrees aren't really all that hard when you get right down to it, are they?

Ryan amidst the chaos:

He was quite far along by the time I discovered that he was 'building':

Opened the back hatch to show me the 'motor' he had built and installed:

A shot of the back - the first side up - and will you look at that ADORABLE 1962 license plate? I am assuming that is because they LOVE me so much they used my birth year (did I just admit HOW OLD I AM?):

A shot of the table that cleverly turns into a bed. Note the green goblet. It never moves - thus is sitting on the table the entire 'photo session'. It's not like it is going to do tricks or anything - y'all are just going to be seeing A LOT of it ...

A shot of the
SPECTACULAR LAVA LAMP!!

The Van has a LAVA LAMP!!!

I immediately pulled it out and ploinked it down beside Ryan's actual real Lava Lamp - aren't the the

CUTEST COUPLE EVER?

Here is a closeup of the Bitty Lava Lamp -

Sqeee!!!

The Van is getting bigger:

A SIMPLY ADORABLE shot of the double door side of the van and the sink - complete with hanging brush and pan and something else - I forget what ...

While practicing up on my 'focusing skills' - note the CLEAR green goblet through a plastic window - I sneakily kept Ryan in the photos. He does not like me to take photos of him and I rarely get him unawares - but here he thought I was totally focused on the van.

Devious, yes?

Another with the 'sneaky' ...

Apparently I could not get enough practice focusing on that dang green goblet ...

Focusing through another window and CLEARLY showing the sink on the opposite side of the Van.

I ROCK!!!

OK,

OK,

so ...

my camera rocks ...

Kill Joy ...

A lovely aerial view before Ryan started to put on the roof:

A lovely shot of where "Bitty Lava Lamp" Lives ...

AGAIN with the windows - a CLEAR shot out of all three on the side I was photographing - this window is focusing on the closet - there is a VERY SPECIAL T-Shirt hanging in there - and in just a few photographs I make Ryan rip the closet apart so I can take a photo of it.

I KNOW

I KNOW

the SUSPENSE ...

Oh, look!!!

A GREEN GOBLET how ...

unique ...

And a shot of the sink from the front most window - LOVE the cute gold water faucet knobs:

Tell me this isn't just the cutest shirt in the ENTIRE WORLD?

 If everyone in the entire world would wear this shirt at least one day a week -

I predict within two months we would have WORLD PEACE ...

*nods head sagely*

OH!

Lookie!!

A shot through the BACK window of a GREEN GOBLET!!!

Let's call this 'Sneaky Shot of Ryan and that Damn Green Goblet Just Happens to be in the Photo' shall we?

And, why yes -

Ryan DID KEEP THAT STUPID RED THING IN HIS MOUTH THE ENTIRE NIGHT ...

Double Van doors open:

OK,

OK

I GIVE UP -


Something is seriously wrong with me - this one shall be forever called

"That Damn Green Goblet is EVERYWHERE":

AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!

IT!   IS!   EVERYWHERE!

Top on, doors open, partial "World Peace" T-Shirt showing through the window:

All closed up and snuggly - but ...

WAIT - there's more!

Compare this one to the next one and what is different between the two? ...

OK - BIG HINT:

It is NOT the open double doors ... duh ...

Can you see it?


Can you?


Can you?


(Don't you so want to hit me when I get obnoxious like this in my posts?)

Ahhhhh!

SO CUTE!

The VW Van Camper Thingy 

"Pop Up Top"!!!

And since it is so important - and Ryan's most favorite it warranted TWO whole photographs!

The coup de grâce:

The simply ADORABLE front with the

VW Logo!

Photo two of the coup de grâce:

(and look - Ryan is ALMOST smiling - don't tell ...):

The VW Van - finished in all its glory ...

The proud owner.

One of the better picks of presents that I have given him lately I must admit ...

It lived in a place of honor overlooking all the Christmas Festivities - but I believe that Ryan took him to Austin to live in his apartment.

I really haven't dared venture into Ryan's bedroom to check this out since the last time, so I really don't know this for a fact - but he loves it - thus the assumption it went with him.

Gary cleaned his room up this morning before the cleaning lady came so I wouldn't have to. It's not that it was ALL THAT DIRTY - but Ryan had said it was completely clean and when I glanced in one day after he left - I thought that odd since I COULD BARELY SEE HIS CARPETING THROUGH ALL THE CRAP ON THE FLOOR.

If I had done the 'Cleaning-Lady-Is-Coming-Things-Need-To-Be-Put-Away' cleanup? I would have put it all in the garbage -

Gary can be rather insightful at times ...

Well folks ...


I have completely run out of photos for the year 2012 ...



AREN'T YOU ALL FREAKING THRILLED?

Take: 1 Crazy Chick, 1 Crèche, 1 Crystal, 1 Camera and Coruscation and what do you get?

OK - we will eventually get to that title up there - but first I must tell you that I pretty much lied about that One Camera thing.

I would like you to meet the family:

My two tripods are both Manfrotto's and their 'Tripod-Thingy-That-Goes-On-The-Bottom-Of-Your-Camera" are EXACTLY the same - thus I can keep one on each of my big DLSR's and use which ever tripod I want!

Very cool, yes?

 

I sense out there in the ether that y'all are all oh, so very underwhelmed by my tripods - BUT I LOVE THEM!  And trust me - you NEED a good tripod.  The larger one up there has a gun handle grip that lets you move in all directions without all those nasty screws - ever so much nicer than all those dang screws!

 

 

I KNOW - YAWN ....

 

 

But I LOVE THEM!!!

 

 

The smaller Manfrotto is very light and will fit in my backpack - which is a plus ... but if you have a need for an even SMALLER tripod - check out those cuties in the back:

Simply adorable, I know and the two largest of the "Wee Bitty Tripod Family" - with a bit of supervision will actually support my big DLSR's.

I SO KNOW YOU CARE ...

Before we hit the evening of no sleep - I did take a few photos during the day.

 This post will finish out 2012!

THANK HEAVENS!!!

OH!

Crap - I have one more - but it is a cutie THEN I will be done with 2012.

The photos in this post are from Monday - the last day of the year and I decided it was the day to play with my lenses thus I used all my cameras - BUT!

See - here is the sneaky loophole: I used each and every one of the only ONE AT A TIME! 

One Camera! 

Oh, my yes, I am JUST THAT CLEVER ...

Soooo before it got dark and I was too lazy to get up from my desk I took some spectacular photos of one of my new Swarovski Crystal Snowflakes and what I am now calling my "Angel Pile":

 

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this world that captures light like a crystal:

 

The Angels are crowded and bickering - I need to decide which stay and which go into the trunks for the year - decisions, decisions, decisions ...

 

As it got dark - I noticed something over at Gary's computer - it had the prettiest reflection!

 And since it took A HUGE EFFORT, notice WHO IS NOT IN THE REFLECTION (taking the photo)?

 

OOOOH!!!

Oh so very pretty!

Yes?

No?

You don't care?

Whatever - Onto Crèches, Crystals, Cameras, and Coruscation (Don't know what it means?  Took me FOREVER to find a 'C' word for what I was doing - and SO COOL it fits exactly!!! ... Go look it up ...).

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much I absolutely adore it. Sadly during this photo shoot - I knocked over the palm tree (this is why it is not in all the following shots - just some) and it broke into pieces.

I literally sobbed and sobbed my eyes out (did I just admit to that?). It took me two days to figure out that maybe I could purchase a replacement from the place I bought it from ... and I could!

 I have not been as excited to learn this since - well I actually have absolutely no idea, but I was VERY EXCITED ....

We are now back to having a perfect Nativity - Palm Tree and all!

So - I decided to play. The theme for the evening was:

Refraction and Shadows

I started with the Angel since I am rather enamoured with her:

 

I guess I really mean the Angel and her 'star':

Ooooh!  So pretty!  HOW DID YOU DO THAT?  You ask?

 

I might let you know a wee bit later - I have a few more:

 

Sparklies again!  And a HUGE clue as to what I am doing - can you spot it?

Take one Angel, One CRYSTAL Snowflake and shine a light through it and what do you get?

 

Angels, Shadows and SPARKLIES!!!

Another shot of my 'Helper':

OK, and since I KNOW you didn't go look it up:

Coruscate:

cor·us·cate

verb (used without object), cor·us·cat·ed, cor·us·cat·ing.

To emit vivid flashes of light; sparkle; scintillate; gleam.

A very fancy schmancy word for flashlight, don't you think?

~~~~~~~~~~

Moving on ....

I have one Nativity Sparklies and ... um eight Nativity Shadows -


what to do?


What to do?


Should I put the Sparklies first?


In the middle?


At the end?

 

Do you care?

 

OK - in the order they are in my folder (ah, I lied - I'm gonna put the sparklies first ...):

I give you

Rainbow Nativity:

Arched Light Nativity:

Ummmm, I'm at a loss for a name ...

Shadowed Nativity:

Shadowed Family:

The Three Wise Men:

Ummm, The Three Wise Men Part Deux:

Man - I really should NOT have put these in order ...

 

A brief note about the three ALMOST IDENTICAL photos up there (what was I thinking?) ...  Note the blue - I liked it and since the Nativity was white and there was very little color in the photo to begin with, I could change the color of the background using the "Hue and Saturation" tool - just thought I would share ...

 



 

 

Nativity WITH the Palm Tree:

Joseph's Lantern:

 

 

One of my favorites and LAST ONE:

 

Well - that's it!

 

 

Just me (Crazy Chick) , my nativity (Crèche), my Camera, my Snowflake Crystal and Coruscation ...

 

(that's just in case you didn't get the title already ...)

 

 

 

Yawn ....

 

 

 

On to my FINAL post for 2012 ....