Saturday, July 7, 2012

blog #501 >> Update!

Alright, I'm going to try this one more time. Last time I tried to post a blog, it completely erased it half-way through, and I gave up. But I do have a lot of stuff backed up... so here it goes.

Here's the homemade yogurt I made last weekend. It turned out fantastic! I love that creamy-buttery layer it gets on top. It's so much better than store bought! But ironically, you need to buy yogurt to use as a starter to make yogurt, so now I've got a LOT of yogurt. Looks like I'll be making some Ottoman Empire soup with the starter, and eating the tasty homemade stuff for breakfast.



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And these are the swell little vintage spice jars Trina gave me. I LOVE them! And my dad was able to repaint the lids for me. They cleaned up beautifully, and I've got them all filled and put neatly away.


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This is the Jabba the Hut piñata that I made for my nephew Charlie's Star Wars birthday party.
It was a huge hit!




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And here are the cutest shoes in the world that I found at an antique store while shopping with my mom. I was just so happy that they fit!


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I also seem to have found a new favorite Dickens novel! Dickens is hit-and-miss with me, I either love it or hate it. The Pickwick Papers was meandering, Great Expectations was a little disappointing, (there wasn't really a likeable character in the entire book, and they all deserved their fate.) Hard Times was a bit depressing, (if you want to read a good book about the northern mill towns, and the southern farming cities, North and South is a much better choice.) A Tale of Two Cities, I've always kinda liked, it's epic. And The Old Curiosity Shop was my old favorite, since it has such interesting characters. But Bleak House wins over the others by far. It's exciting, interesting, epic, with interesting likable heroes, and treacherous villains. I had watched the BBC presentation a while ago, and loved it, and I finally got the book from the library. And of course, the book is even better than the mini-series. I'm getting close to the end. I've signed up for Paper Back Swap, so I'm going to try to get Bleak House from that site. I've already sent two books off, and so far it's been a pretty fun site. It's a website where you can trade books with people all over America. You can read more about it here.  Alright, I'm going to get back to reading now... Good night!



Saturday, May 5, 2012

blog #500 >> Minecraft Farm & More!

It's true, I've been consumed by the vortex known as Minecraft. I keep on thinking I'll burn myself out with it, but instead I just keep on thinking of bigger and better things to build now that I've gathered enough resources. But since it's been an eternity since I've blogged, and I don't really want MORE Minecraft pics at the top on the page. I'm going to post about a couple of other things first.

One of my current projects, (outside of spending hours on Minecraft) has been creating these vintage bumper stickers for my car Florence. In light of the upcoming election, I thought a political sticker would be fun. And since nobody likes Nixon, and Kennedy is a little too early for my car, I've decided to go with the classic, "LBJ for the USA" sticker from the Lyndon B. Johnson era. I also found these fantastic travel stickers, including the "I was there!" New York World's Fair 1964-65. I can't wait to print them up, and laminate them to some magnet sheets. That way I can switch them out with others when I get tired of them.
Here's an old Rambler that still has the original sticker!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/exuberance/5720764496/

And besides being obsessed with Minecraft, I've been a crazy pinning fool on Pintrest. Ever since Google Reader took away it's sharing feature, Pintrest has been my new stand by for those five minute breaks at work. 500MG file downloading? Let's kill a little time on Pintrest! Here are a few of my favorites from my "In the Closet" board.

Matthew Williamson Lace pearl beaded dress from Polyvore (sold out)
p.s. Polyvore is fun!!!

Rieker Mirjam shoes from Zappos $100
50's Mauve Mohair Cape from Sally Jane Vintage $52

Shoulder garden from Some Girls Wander
(I love this look! I need more flower pins though)
Edith Pinafore from Alice Nightingale $90
(I love everything in this shop!)

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And last but not least, my amazing Minecraft farm. I've spent weeks on this! It's my greatest Minecraft achievement yet!


My Minecraft farm! Complete with green houses, barn, silo, windmill, water
wheel, water tower, automatic wheat farm, automatic sugarcane farm,
animals, and so much more!
Automatic wheat farm and power house.
Inside mechanics of automatic wheat farm.
Storage room in power house.
Barn and silo.
Inside barn.
Water tower to feed water wheel.
Water wheel to feed automatic wheat farm and automatic sugar cane farm.
Windmill... I couldn't figure out how to make it spin, but maybe someday.
And that's pretty much all I've got for now...
T

Monday, February 13, 2012

blog #499 >> Pintrest Update!

I'm really just posting this here so I can pin it to Pintrest.
I'm updating my "In the Kitchen" board. I'm switching it from both cute kitchens and delicious food, to just cute kitchens. Then I'm starting a new board called "In the Recipe Box" for awesome eats. So if you're missing my food pins, you'll need to start following my new board. Or if you're not on Pintrest, sign-up! 'Cause you're really missing out!
Cheers!
T

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Here's an example of the delicious things you can see on my "In the Recipe Box" board.
It's a Home Made Mushroom Soup. I tried it. It's AMAZING! You can see the recipe here on Season with Spice. Or see the pin here on Pintrest.


And here's an example of the swell stuff you can see on my "In the Kitchen" board.
Image found on Interior Home Designz. Or here on Pintrest.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

blog #498 >> White Chocolate Strawberry Cookies

Look! I did something other than play Minecraft!
I made this delicious cookies!
I found the recipe here at the Picky Palate blog.
See, this is why I LOVE Pintrest!
Cheers!
T

Saturday, February 11, 2012

blog #497 >> It's all about MINECRAFT!!!!

It's been brought to my attention, that I haven't blogged in a very long time. There is actually a very simple explanation for this... I've discovered MINECRAFT!!!!

Now, it's not (entirely true) that I don't do other things. I've still been baking cookies, cleaning house, reading, visiting friends, and such; it's just whenever I get on the computer, I see Minecraft, and think, I'll do that instead of going to Google Reader, Etsy, Hulu, Facebook, Blogger, or whatever else I was going to do. (I've still be spending gross amounts of time on Pintrest though.) And then before I know it, the evening has completely slipped away. Funny how computers are like that. Well, today I finally figured out how to take screen shots of my little Minecraft world, so now I can finally show off what has been devouring my time like a pack of famished zombies being chased by a creeper.

I have to admit though, the first few days of playing were far from fun.
I logged in, created my first world, and it was lovely! It had green trees, little hills, a nice lake of water. It really was a nice world. Then I tried to go exploring, but I couldn't move. I could only look around and jump! I spent half of my first day just trying to figure out how to walk! I just stood there jumping up and down like an idiot. I actually had to google search "How to walk in Minecraft." It's the "w" button!!! What game uses "w" for walking?!?! I obviously don't play many computer games. Plants vs. Zombies and Chess are about it.
So, after I got walking figured out, that only left a me a few minutes to dig myself into a little safety hole, and hide away for the night. (The monsters come out at night and they sound really scary.) Well, then I forgot which way was out, and I ended up digging myself even deeper into my safety hole. And by the time I got out, it was almost night time again! So I dug myself back in. Now you would think that a game that appears to use less then 20 pixels per inch would load really quickly. This would be a false assumption. It had been stalling off and on all day, but then it completely locked up. So I did the smart thing to do. I pressed every button on my keyboard to wake it up... this isn't actually the smart thing to do. Because when my processor finally caught up with itself, it did everything I had previously entered into the keyboard. Unfortunately, this random series of movements caused me to break free from my little safety hole in the middle of the night, and there were LOTS of monsters outside just waiting to eat me. There was no avoiding it then. I was dead. A creeper blew me up into little bits while his spider and zombie friends watched on with glee. It was sad.
But oh well, I'll just reincarnate back at my starting point. Nope, not this time. I had accidently created my world on "Hardcore Mode." This was quite unfortunate because, I'm not really hardcore about anything. And once you die on "Hardcore Mode" you lose your world. There are also lots more monsters in "Hardcore Mode." "Alright," I thought, "I'll just create a new world, and make sure it's not on 'Hardcore Mode.'" I created a new world, and it was a dismal site. It was a tiny little ice burg of snow, completely surrounded with water, and it had one little tree growing on it. I'll make another world... this one was little better. So after about 10 worlds, I finally found one to my liking.
I started out pretty good in this world. I learned that you can't build a tower up to cloud level and jump off without dying... actually, I'm not sure why I ever thought that I could jump and survive. And then I started to get hungry... but I had nothing to eat! Quick! Kill a pig!!! I killed a pig, only it wasn't a pig, it was a pink sheep. What type of game has pink sheep that look like pigs! It seems like some type of cruel and unusual trick! Alright, I've got to find a real pig, or a cow, or a chicken or something... at last a real pig! I harvested my well earned pork chop. But how do I eat it? I've positively no idea. I just went around hitting things with my pork chop! Back to MinecraftWiki! (I'm not sure how you would ever in a million years figure out how to play this game without this site.) Oh, it's the OTHER button. That's right, mice have two of them. Got it.

This is when things started getting better, and after making a crafting table and a few tools, I was really getting the hang of it. However, I still don't like fighting monsters. I have absolutely no skill at it. I usually just jump up and down, flailing my arms about wildly, hoping to hit something. This is not a very good tactic. I've also found that my little guy can run quite quickly, and if necessary, outrun nearly any opponent. What I lack in courage, I make up with cowardice, or self preservation as I prefer to call it. Normally I keep it on "Easy Mode," or if I'm building and don't want to worry about monsters at all, I'll play on "Peaceful Mode." I have no sense of gaming pride, and I'm not ashamed to take the easy way out. "I'm dying!!! What do I do?" "Turn it on 'Peaceful Mode!'" Instant healing!
So, now that I'm not struggling to stay alive, the game is REALLY fun! Mostly, I just like collecting, crafting, and building cool things.

This is my first house, the Hobbit hole, and then I built all this other stuff.


The Tree House

The Farm

The Boat Dock (To take me to...)

The Watch Tower

The Pit Mine
(It has a glass top, you just can't see it.)

The Great Room
(That's inside the pit mine. I also have an underground forest, garden, and roller coaster down here.)

The Storage Room

The Reading Room

The Dungeon/Portal Room
(And the "Nether World" isn't nearly as scary as the abandoned mine shaft where it spits me back!)

The Desert Yurt



The Mushroom House

I've build lots of other stuff too, but I think I've already posted enough pics.

And now I think I've proven that fact that I'm a complete NERD!!!
T

Monday, January 2, 2012

blog #496 >> 2011 Books in Review

I wish I had more time to read! There are so many more books out there just waiting to be opened! But I've got a whole another year ahead of my to work on reading some more.

Listed below are my books in review:
2011 Reading List

Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi
1/11 ***
(Such an odd little story!)



Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift
1/11 ***





Jane Eyre
Chralotte Brontë
1/11 *****





The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1/11 *****





The Inferno
Dante Alighieri
2/11 **

(This book wasn't actually even worth reading. It was just page after page of pain and despair... What's this page about? Well, it's about despair. And the next one? Um, it's about despair too.... despair, despair, despair. I was going to read the entire "Divine Comedy," but "The Inferno" didn't make me want to read any more of it.)



The House of Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne
2/11 *****
(I've never read anything I didn't like by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but this is my favorite of his books so far.)




Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray
4/11 *****





Lady Susan
Jane Austen
5/11 ***
(While"Persuasion" is my favorite of the Jane Austen novels, "Lady Susan" is my least favorite. What a hussy!?!?!")



And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
5/11 *****






4:50 From Paddington
Agatha Christie
5/11 *****




The Little Prince
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
5/11 *****




The Body in the Library
Agatha Christie
5/11 ****




Portrait of a President
William Manchester
6/11 ***
(Despite the fact that William Manchester is my favorite biographer, this is not his best work. His later works are definitely better!)



The Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens
7/11 ***
(Dickens is hit or miss with me, and this one missed the mark. It's like a meandering brook that never goes anywhere!)



Miss Marple The Complete Short Stories
Agatha Christie
8/11 *****
(But oh, how I adore Miss. Marple! When I grow up I want to be just like her!)




The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger
8/11 ***





A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Madeleine L'Engle
8/11 ***





The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro
8/11 *****





Dead Man's Mirror
Agatha Christie
8/11 ****





Wives and Daughters
Elizabeth Gaskell
9/11 *****





The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
9/11 ****






The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne
10/11 *****





Dracula
Bram Stoker
10/11 *****
(I liked it so much more than I thought I would, but I promise this is the only book about vampires I will ever read.)




Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
11/11 *****
(I love this book so much I read it again! ...and again, and again, and again, and again...)



The Call of the Wild
Jack London
11/11 *****





White Fang
Jack London
11/11 *****





The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
11/11 *****
(I really do adore this book... a lot!)




Agnes Grey
Anne Brontë
12/11 ****





A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens

12/11 *****
(Dickens at his best! A must read each and every Christmas!)



Old Christmas
Washington Irving
12/11 ***





His Last Bow
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
12/11 *****





See 2010 Reading List Here
See 2009 Reading List Here