Friday, February 26, 2010

The Hunt for Red October

195 there's a story here

WoW what an afternoon! Even when I tried to prepare myself, I failed..... okay let's start from the beginning.

I am doing a newborn photo shoot tomorrow and need a bean bag chair. I knew I would eventually need to find a bean bag, but I was waiting til I actually had my first newborn BOOKED, and that happens to be tomorrow WOO HOO! I had already looked online a while ago when I made my list of 'to get' items. I knew Target had a vinyl one (why vinyl you ask? because babies make messes and vinyl is easy to clean) but online it said it was an online only item. Well crap, I was afraid the search would be a pain. So on my way to work this morning I compiled a list of places to CALL while at work to save myself from running all over town. First call: Target because A - I love target, I'm a target girl and B - because it is a block from my work. Here's the conversation:
me: Hi I'm calling to see if you have any bean bags
her: um....
me: oh sorry I mean bean bag CHAIRS (i did the same with with someone else, I forget there are things called bean bags that aren't bean bag chairs, hee hee)
her: oh hold on I'll check......
::hold music::
her: yes we do! they are in the furniture department and there are also some in the kids decor area
me: thanks!

Sweet!! So that was easy, my list goes into the shred it box, since I won't be needing to call anywhere else. Now fast forward about 3 hours later to when I am finished working my half day. I go to target, thinking this afternoon is going to be an easy one, pick up a few items I need all in one place and head home to get some house work done. I pull down the furniture aisle... YuP there's the bean bags, but I forgot to mention I was looking for the vinyl bean bags... hmmm should I just get this one or attempt to locate a vinyl one? Well it was only about 12:15, I had some time. I could do some more searching and if nothing comes up I could just pick up the non-vinyl one at any target. At this point I was kicking myself for not asking for a vinyl one and not continuing my search via phone this morning.

Thank goodness for google text! I have internet on my phone, but by the time I open up the internet, go to google and type in the store I'm looking for then somehow locate a phone number on their website, the weekend would be over. So instead I use the wonderful google text feature. If you haven't used it and have unlimited texts, I highly recommend it. I first tried wal-mart because it was right across the highway. If you know me very well, you know I do NOT shop at wal-mart, besides the fact there are really none in the cities (I work in a suburb hence why there is one in this town) I just don't like shopping there. BUT when I am looking for something, I am willing to open my search to wal-mart. So I text "wal-mart 55369" to google (just a six letter number that spells google) and 2 seconds later I get a text back giving me the address and phone number of a few wal-marts near that zip code. For some reason the text sent me the tire and auto number and the photo dept number. So I try the first number, tire and auto... it rings and rings. I hang up. Then I try the photo number and get a snotty "hello, photo" (probably a teenager) I explain I'm trying to reach the main number and she says to hold on... I hold then the line dies. Grrrreat! Oh well, I'm right here so I'll just go in. No luck there.

Back in my car, google texting Kohl's: Nope, Bed, Bath, & Beyond: Nope, Home Goods: Nope, Sam's: Nope (that was a kyle find while I was also texting him). Oh and with all the google texting comes memorizing numbers then calling them to find out. I needed to get a few things at JoAnn's so all this continued on my way to JoAnn's. BabiesRUs: Nope, ToysRUs: Nope (I actually just wanted to call toys r us but I had to call babies r us first to get the toys number). Ah made it to JoAnn's, got a few items, checked for bean bags, nope. Party City was near by so I stopped in there, hey I was up for anything. No luck there, but she recommended Wal-Mart, I said "I just came from there" she suggested elk river or coon rapids. I'm thinking "okay lady I live near Minneapolis, I'm not going out to the boonies" if you don't know elk river and coon rapids are also suburbs, my goal was to get CLOSER to home on this wild goose chase for a bean bag chair. So I call another wal-mart, which is in Brooklyn Center... I get hung up on (that's wally world for me) and call back. Then she says no they don't have any. I was headed toward Brooklyn Center just in case at this point and decided just to head toward home and hit the Target by our house. Along the way Kyle had suggested to maybe just get the cloth bean bag chair from target and spray it with scotch guard. This idea was looking like the winner. I made it to Brooklyn Park and saw a target so I got off the highway. This target is kinda in a ghetto area, kinda where we used to live. I remembered there was a Big Lots nearby, so I thought I will try ONE more store then just get the bean bag at target. Big Lots HAD some!!!! Well they had the ones that have the back built into them, which wasn't going to work, besides they were three times the price as the target one. Sutherland's was right next door, so I dropped in there. The sales guy proceeded to list other stores to try, and my response after each one "nope, they don't have them, neither do they, not there either" I told him it's okay, not to waste his time thinking, it was going on three hours of me trying to find what I was looking for.

SO I pulled into target, it's almost 3:00, and had decided I earned some chocolate after all this and was getting a Mounds bar when I checked out! I walked back to the furniture department, which this wasn't a super target so the lay out is a little different. I walk down the aisle and there are the purple princess $25 bean bags... AHHH that is not what I wanted, I wanted the plain jane red $19.99 bean bag!!!! Oh you've got to be kidding me. So I walk around looking for the kids decor area hoping that maybe they just have them there. I see a worker who asks what I am looking for, I state bean bag chairs and she says "yeah we don't really have any, we carry those during back to school" for one I KNOW they have them because I just came from a target that did, and I see that they do have some already, just not the one I want. I go back to the furniture aisle and there is the tag for the red bean bag chair I want... it's shelf sitting empty. I go to a red phone, call for an assistant and ask for them to check the back for this red bean bag. HALLELUJAH!! They have some in back!!!! My hunt is over and I could have saved myself an afternoon, just by getting the first red bean bag I saw at 12:15. Oh well, you live you learn.

but oh wait it's not over yet....

I was almost home and was thinking about this cute little blue rug I got at the first target and thought "you know what, I think I would prefer that in green, kinda like grass. then I can use it with boys and girls. I wonder if they have green" so I stopped at the target near our house to exchange the one I got. I left my blue one at the customer service desk and told the lady I wanted to make sure they had the one I wanted before I exchanged. So I walked to the back. Again a different style target so everything is in different places. Hmmm this is odd I don't see the kid decor section anywhere and that's where this rug was. So I went back up to the front and told her I couldn't find where they were. She scanned the blue one I brought in and said "well it says we have two" I told her I was wanting green so she looked that up, well first she could just find the various sizes then said "they are usually just one number off so let me try a few numbers" after finding that they had purple ones and pink ones she finally came to green "yes it says we have two" hmmmm "did you look along the back wall? they might be there" I said yes but that I'd go back and look again. This time I continued on PAST where it should have been with the bedding and bath and finally found the kids decor aisle near the toys. Well I can understand putting it by the toys since it's kids, but seriously every other store I had been in today had them near the bedding and bath section. Oh well, there it was and I was calling it a day!!!!
green rug

Now I'm home!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

It comes every year

It's the end of February...
pistol

everyone gets to be a little cranky. Maybe it's the lingering winter or that some people didn't have a valentine. I'm starting to think that they put Valentine's Day where they did because everyone gets a little depressed this time of year. I know, I know that has nothing to do with the REAL meaning of St. Valentine's Day But it's a thought, why else did they put a cheery holiday in this icy, sluggy, winter depression month.

boat in water heartland
We woke up to zero degrees yesterday.... it just dropped down out of no where. Personally I kinda liked it. I feel like the winter has gone by fast. Maybe it's my new love for a winter activity that I haven't got to do very much or the thought of not being able to do it once the snow is all gone. Or maybe it's that my head has been a little fuzzy the past few weeks since my husband has gone back to school.

Kyle started grad school a few weeks ago, wow it's been a month actually, and it almost feels like I've lost my best friend. Well okay NOT completely, there's still harpo - hee hee. We're just used to spending every minute together, focused on each other. We had a nice talk this weekend, ideas to make it better. Like only one social event a weekend and that we are going to designate one night just to us :-D that made me happier.

Speaking of Harpo, he is so funny! We captured him being a bum on the couch the other day....
sitting comfy

Of course he didn't sit like that on his own, we were playing around and he ended up like that and he stayed there. For quite a while too.
pot belly boy

I had a similar picture to those above when he was just a few months old. I'll have to scan it in because well, my computer crashed in 2007 and I lost 5 months of pictures. It was a horrible moment, very upsetting. But luckily I had made Harpo's scrap book before hand so I have a printed out copy of that picture I'm thinking of.
sleep by knee

He loves us, and we love him!
petal

Warm Wishes and HAPPY February!

Monday, February 22, 2010

A little bit of Minnesota

My friend, Kim, was asking me all these random Minnesota trivia questions... and I realized, I don't really know that much about Minnesota. As far as all those random facts you learn in grade school. Which I never learned because well I was learning about Missouri :-)

So I thought I'd take some time to do a little research. I just love Wikipedia!

Capital: St. Paul
Okay I knew this one, since yes I have been to the state capital building



Nicknames: Land of 10,000 lakes, The Gopher State, Land of Sky-Blue Waters, Bread and Butter State, North Star State
I also knew these, well all except the last two

the loon

Bird: Common Loon
I actually thought of this, how could I have forgotten? My mom is always asking about them and they are also on our driver's licenses

Flower: Pink & white lady slipper
Okay what is this?

Tree: Red Pine aka Norway Pine

Population of the State: 5,266,214
Of the Twin Cities: 2,803,221 - largest metro
Of Minneapolis: 390,131 - largest city
Of my town- St. Louis Park: 44,126

Some other crazy state symbols:
Butterfly:
Monarch
Drink: Milk
Fish: Walleye
Fruit: Honeycrisp Apple - this doesn't surprise me as I had heard that the UofM invented this apple and people go nuts up here for these honeycrisp apples
Gemstone: Lake Superior agate
Muffin: Blueberry - I looove blueberries!
Mushroom: Murel - state's have a 'state mushroom'? interesting...
Sport: Ice Hockey - ::eye roll:: this doesn't surprise me
Song: "Hail! Minnesota"

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Week 27

Week 27 blogsize

#183: USA: Kyle and I spent our valentines day being lazy, going out to eat at a local hole in the wall and GROCERY SHOPPING! I couldn't pass up this photo op since the Olympics had just started. Nice job coca-cola or should I say Cub Foods stockers.

#184: Mmmmm Oreo's :-)

#185: Harpo has such beautiful eyelashes!

#186: Certificate paper: It's official! I registered my photography name with the state. In order to 'officially' make it official, I have to publish the certificate in two consecutive issues of my local newspaper, once I get it back from the secretary of state.

#187: Backyard Winter: This is a winter version of our backyard. I also love the sun rays beaming down and Harpo in the very corner of the frame, he's loyally always be my side.

#188: Flower: The flowers Kyle got me for Valentines day opened up nicely so I had to play around with them.

#189: Wabasha Eagle: I had an amazing morning with a meetup group (Twin Cities Photography group). We went to Red Wing and Wabasha to capture the eagles. I was lucky enough to notice this guy on my way out, this ended up being the closest shot I got. My first time shooting birds and it was super fun!

Warm Wishes!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Eagles of Wabasha

I recently stumbled upon a Twin Cities Photography group through MeetUp.com I went to my first social gathering the other night at a local bar/bowling alley down the road from me. And they happen to have another activity today that I joined in on. Today's meetup was "The Eagles of Red Wing". Red Wing is about an hour and a half from my house and the meet up time was set for 6:45am. Which is why I waited til the last minute to decide if I was going to go or not... that meant I needed to get up at 4:45, which I have a hard enough time making it to work by 8am. But I knew I would be kicking myself if I didn't, and getting up in the morning for something you're excited for isn't that bad. I remember as a kid and having to get drug out of bed for family vacations. Even though I'd be stumbling down the hallway with my pillow in tow, bumping into my zombie brothers, it was still fun knowing we were going on a trip. And that's how this morning was, my alarm went off and I had the familiar feel of "no not again, just a little bit longer" then looked at my alarm and had a weird feeling of "why is my alarm going off at 4:45am?!?" then a happy feeling of "AH yes, I'm going to shoot eagles today" and that got me up real quick. Even though I set all my camera stuff out ready to go the night before, I still managed to take forever and pulled out of the garage at 5:22am, that's twenty two minutes AFTER I was wanting to. But it ended up being perfect timing.

Driving to a photo spot, is much like hunting. I got up before the sun, to be in place before the sun, to 'shoot' these creatures. I changed my mind about wearing my snow pants because I didn't want to be too noisy. It's the excitement of the 'hunt' but unlike hunting my shooting doesn't kill them, but helps preserve their beautiful being :-)
morning 1

We met at Colvill park in Red Wing.
morning trees

It was a beautiful calm morning, but the sun never really came out. I actually started to get discouraged because we saw maybe two eagles fly overhead. And they were flying too fast for me to get one and it was too dark for my pictures to turn out.

After a little wait time, about four of us decided to we travel 40 minutes south to another spot called Read's Landing which is just north of Wabasha. We had heard before hand that Colvill Park hasn't had much turn out, but since it was our designated meet spot, we met up there anyway.
photog guys

Read's Landing was much more successful. (look in the trees)
the other side

Granted they were on the other side of the river and my camera lens only reaches so far (it was zoom out in the photo above to give you perspective)... it was still a super fun experience.
soaring trees

They were EVERYWHERE! It was awesome!
soaring trees 2

The eagles come to Wabasha to eat. When winter comes they head south looking for food and Wabasha is one of the first places they come to with open water. They don't like to go farther than they need to which is why they usually stop here. It is the connection of two rivers which causes the water to remain open. read more
fly like an eagle

There was a little spot in the water that they kept landing on, probably hunting for fish.
landing spot

A little later in our watch a crow stole the spot while one was out fishing. I don't think the eagles like this because they kept swarming around it waiting for the crow to leave, it was funny. The crow would not budge.
fight for the spot

I call this one FG Eagle, because it reminds me of the Fair Grove Eagles signs all through my high school :-P
FGEagle

After my face was frozen and my index finger went numb, a few of us headed back to our cars and decided to migrate even farther south.
railroad eagle

Not much farther, we just went the four miles into the town of Wabasha, near the National Eagle Center. Hoping to get to a narrower spot in the river and get us closer to the eagles.
red barn

We saw a few more here
w eagles post

Nearly 100 bald eagles live in the town of Wabasha and can be seen year round.
w eagles

All adult eagles (both males and females) have white heads and white tales, that they get in their fourth or fifth year of life. read more
w eagles 2

It began to snow on us and after over 200 pictures we figured we'd had enough eagle time.
river in wabasha

So me and two others walked back into the little town and decided to stop and get some coffee at a little cafe.
snowy wabasha

We had a nice chat and warmed up. Then we headed our separate directions. I had a 2 hour drive ahead of me so I moseyed on out of Wabasha. I kept my eye to the east looking for birds in the trees and happened upon a few flying near a pull off area, right near where we stopped in Reads Landing.
before I leave

There he was on the west side of the river just perched up in a tree.
heading out

I got closer and closer, I was actually hoping he'd fly away so I could get some close shots of one flying.
snowy eagle
But he just sat there, posing for me :-)
close up

Warm Wishes!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Backyard Winter

I was talking to some friends today about gardening and plants. It made me very excited about spring... well about the fact that spring will be here someday, hopefully sooner than later. And I thought about how last spring was my FIRST spring as a homeowner and we got to learn all about gardening and planting things. I wasn't very happy that I didn't have much luck with the bulbs I planted the fall before, and even more upset that I had to wait a WHOLE year to get the chance to watch them come up again. But it's almost here, and I can't wait. I just hope my hydrangeas do better than last year, I'll be sure to water them this summer.

I thought I would get out and get some more pictures of all our snow. A lot of people (those that don't live in Minnesota, or have never visited Minnesota in the winter) don't understand that we have snow ALL winter long, it doesn't melt. It just piles on top of each snowfall, until about mid-March (if we're lucky) it melts away. Granted we do have a few days here and there starting February where it gets above freezing and slowly melts, but it never completely leaves until, well about April.

So here is the grand tour of my winter-fied backyard. Buckle your safety belts, it's a long tour, lol. Harpo has also incorporated this tour into a game "can you find me?"
backyard winter

We keep a path shoveled for harpo and I clean off the steps as well. Although I'm not sure why I try and keep the bottom step clean because it's lower than the snow line.
backyard winter steps

Harpo has a path going around the back yard in a circle.
backyard winter harpo path

Then he has a poop spot back by the side of the garage. Here he is probably saying "hey what are you doing in my poop spot?"
backyard winter harpo backpath

We don't have a gutter on the very backside of the add on room, so lots of icicles tend to form there. It's pretty cool standing in our living room looking at the window on a day like today when it's slowly melting and just watching the water trickle down the icicle.
backyard winter sunflare

I pull the patio table up close in hopes to provide Harpo a dry area to wait if he's needing back inside. It's proven to work and he uses it quite often. Here I am having him "stay" for the picture.
harpo's wait spot

I first caught him licking the table. He's a special dog, but we love him :-)
harpos wait lick

That concludes the backyard tour, whew it was lengthy huh?

Look at this cool ice sculpture formation that is being made on our porch
backyard winter ice sculpture

Pretty interesting how it does that.
backyard winter icicle

And in closing, I have one more bit of news to share
186 business certificate

I mailed my certificate to register my business name :-D


Warm Wishes!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Where have I been?

Sorry I have been neglecting my blog lately. I guess I just haven't really had anything exciting to blog about.

I've been knitting more lately, keeping up with my CSI's AND working on my photography business. Oh boy, I just said it... business.

It's been a lot of talk lately, business that is, between Kyle and I. And it's starting out slow, which is the best way to start I hear. There are a lot of pieces involved, which I guess I never really thought of until, well until I found out. I have been spending some time fixing up my photography blog, which is serving as my main website for now. Go ahead check it out if you'd like: daisyjane photography Once/If things get rolling I plan to have a 'real' website, not just this free blogger stuff... which btw I do love! But I hope to eventually have a photography website to showcase my business better. It just seems so funny to call it that since, well it's fun and I enjoy doing it.

But don't worry I won't neglect my daily blogging life... (haha as if there are actually people reading this) well that is if I ever get a life :-P but I'm sure as soon as spring arrives I'll have lots more exciting things to share. For now, it's just a snow covered, white world out there.

front of house snow b&w

Warm Wishes!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Week 26

Week 26 blogsize

#176: Chicken in a Biskit: It had been FOREVER since I had had Chicken in a Biskit.. honestly they weren't as good as I remember them being as a child. But hey it was the super-bowl and we were entitled to eat junk. Although my stomach felt like crap that evening from eating bad.

#177: Snow boots: Living in Minnesota means having shovel snow a LOT in the winter. We got about 6 inches this day, and it was still falling as I was shoveling.

#178: Clock: I just couldn't think of anything to take a picture of this day and I knew I wanted some shapes to fit this weeks theme... so I settled for this clock we have on our bookshelf.

#179: On the move Harpo: I had some other photos for this day, but I couldn't NOT choose this one. It shows Harpo's personality so well when he's having fun! He loves running all over the living room, on the floor on the couch, on the floor, making circles, it's pretty funny.

#180: Lunch: Very exciting lunch this day, lol. I ran out of cheese singles for my normal turkey sandwich so I improvised and made a turkey 'wrap' with string cheese.

#181: Valentines Day Flowers: Kyle brought me home a lovely arrangement for valentines day!! I got to practice my old floral arranging skills, not sure how much I learned from those classes years ago.

#182: I had a maternity shoot this day. The trees were absolutely gorgeous this morning. The fog from the night before left a beautiful white coating of frost on everything. Great timing for a photo shoot.

Warm Wishes!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Winter Bordom

I've been 'bored' a lot lately. Not sure why cuz I seem to keep myself busy. Whether it's knitting, keeping up with television shows, playing on the computer, reading blogs, taking pictures, reading books, or trying to work out. I still feel like I have a lot of free time.

I also feel like I'm running low on ideas for my 365 project. Hence this weeks selection you will see this weekend.

But today I wanted to share with you my new invention, not like it hasn't been made before... but I don't think I have ever made it before. I give you the Turkey WrapUp:
sandwich variation

We need to go grocery shopping this weekend. I actually did have bread this day, but no cheese slices. So I improvised by tearing a piece of string cheese in two and using a fajita wrap instead of bread :-)

Sometimes it helps just to spice things up in life :-P

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

January Textures

Jennifer of iffles.com is hosting various monthly photography themes. Last month her theme was textures. I actually got picked for one of her favorites, go ahead check it out.

So I wanted to share my photos from January that fit this texture theme!
flakey bark crop

flakey tree crop1
156 its whats for dinner

frozen falls close

149 cow tutorial

148 knitted hat

February's theme is Shapes. Go ahead and join in if you want, the flickr group link is here.

Warm Wishes!
All images are copyright of Daisy Simpson. It is unlawful and illegal to copy, scan, alter or edit the images in any way. This depreciates the photos value as well as my reputation, I take great care in capturing and editing each image and they are each important to me. Thank you for respecting my passion and my copyright.