Monday, April 29, 2013

Project Update

Hello one and all! Today is a lovely, sunny, warmish spring day! (Yes I did say spring, I think it's finally here!!!!!)
The Summer Project is going very well so far. Didn't work on them for most of the week, but we were out there on Saturday doing some more heating, squeezing, filing, and small tweaks that needed to be adjusted.  . . . . . it's really hard not telling you all what we're doing!
So, I think we'll turn this into a little contest! 
If you would like to send in your guess as to what our project is, please leave a comment in any of the Summer Project Posts.
The next post will include another picture, as well as what the prize for the contest is going to be. 
We would love to hear from you, and please spread the word to your friends, we are always eager to 'meet' more people! :)

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Summer Project Intro

     Snow is melting, sunshine is beginning to feel warm again, geese have returned, and little green spikes are peeking through the dirt in many gardens!
It's time to begin planning for summer projects.
And if you happen to be us (or, you know, not us but like us:), have been planning for months already, and just can't wait anymore? Then your summer projects might just get started before summer even gets here!
Ours did.
Today, in fact.
Smiley
Here is the main ingredient . . . item. . . .part? . . .whatever - this is the main bit of our project.
Once it has gone through all the tweaking, smashing, melting, flattening, and various other small things here and there, it is going to look completely different.
They are going to be so COOL!
But we're not going to tell you what they are.
Smiley
Yet, that is. I promise we'll tell you later on, but right now we're having so much fun we're going to keep it a secret.
Updates will follow as progress is made, accompanied with pictures . . . which I may or may not make incredibly vague and abstract just to keep you all guessing!

Business Speak and Pencil Smudges

 Never in my life did I expect to be taking a business class. . . . . you see, I'm the type of person that is likely to get an idea, do a little research, and then jump right on in up to my eyeballs without coming up with a thorough, concise plan. Which is maybe why I've never attempted to start an actual business. . . .
My inner person/voice/alter ego/what-have-you is of the 'Plan? Why ever would you need a plan?' sort of opinion, which I promptly tried to ignore and reason that it would be good for me.
This all came about when I enrolled in a new course last month. One that came with an extra set of assignments to form a solid Business Plan and everything that goes with it.
*First Thought: Business planning? Hmm, sure, why not? It might come in handy.
**Second Thought: Well, I don't really need to do it, it is optional. . . . 
***Third Thought: Really ought to do this. Who knows, it might be needed after all, and the feedback would be good. . . .

*This was before even looking at the business sections
**After reading through the first business assignment and getting thoroughly confused.
***After reconsidering and slogging halfway through the assignment.

I had actually decided to forget about it entirely, simply send in my completed assignments and forgo the business section. . . . and then I found myself toting around a notebook and a sharpie, jotting down notes and phrases, attempting to pull together a reasonable sounding Executive Summary.
It was only 500 words, after all, how hard could it be?
.     .     .     .     .
Turns out, it can be kind of difficult. . . at least, it was for me. My artist brain (read; disorganized and loosely wired) goes into panic attacks and refuses to work properly when confronted with the idea of neatly organized, structured items all lined up in orderly columns, making complete sense (the entire way through!) and coming to a definite, reasonable point.
Not entirely sure if it was stubbornness or determination that set me down with a notebook and my computer (and finally a quick trip to Google to take a look at examples). But the end result was a fairly orderly Summary that was at least understandable and outlined the points that I thought were important. 
We'll see how accurate it really was when my grades are assigned.

When business terms and theoretical musings become too much, there is always room to distract one's self with dragons:)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

A Grand Fall Adventure - Part 3

I realized this morning that if I were to insert as many pictures from our trip as I could .  .  .  . this was going to be a really long series of posts. So I may just fast-forward through things so you don't have to endure the photographic results of a week and a half.
We'll start off with some pictures of the cemetery that was up the hill from the church. In the middle of cake baking, mixing up frosting, and decorating, a few of us decided to take a walk up to the cemetery.
And while taking a walk through a cemetery may seem a little odd to some of you, it isn't as creepy as it might sound, very nice and peaceful actually.

 See, that's not so bad, right? A pleasant scene overlooking a peaceful cemetery. Notice the elegantly tinted fall leaves offering shade.

 When I die I want to be buried by trees, it is so charming and pretty looking . . . okay, that is starting to sound a little bit weirder. . . 


 See? We've managed to retain a peaceful setting, nothing creepy or threatening. (Of course, if it had been rainy and foggy and dark, I would have totally posted those pictures. . . because I'm fascinating that way:)

The peaceful atmosphere dissolved somewhat when we discovered an innocent looking little hole. Upon further investigation we came to the quick conclusion that it was a hornets nest. 
The increasing numbers of buzzing, striped hornets that kept coming out of the hole might have been a bit of a clue . . .