Tag: Snow Crystal

Standing Out In A Crowd

I have to make yet another trip to the store today. This time, it wasn’t my fault.

I was putting together my table saw stand yesterday, managing to do a whole lot of guessing because the instructions were absolute crap and would have about the same understanding even if I were reading it in the other languages, getting my first project wound because I didn’t have the right tool to hold a nearly microscopic lock nut in place while tightening and having the pliers slip and pinch the hell out of my finger (said wound is now an ugly blood blister in the most inconvenient place on my finger of my dominant hand and felt like a cross between a bad cut and a burn it was so sensitive), only to find out when it was all done that the bolts provided to actually attach a saw to the stand were too big.

This is for a stand that is the same brand as the saw and every comment I found said that it works with my saw. Well, it does. Technically. Because it fits the stand and is within the weight tolerance. I just need different bolts. FUN!

This means that I might, just might, be able to actually do something building like later today. Maybe. And very, very carefully. With fingers and toes crossed that the project wound I got yesterday is the worst I’ll see for this entire project. Because… power tools and saws.

While I sit over here and whine about stupid instructions, wrong bolts, and manufacturers not providing the tools for weird specialty parts, please enjoy some of the last snowy pictures I have. I doubt I’ll have many more past the ones I’ve already taken. I’m so ready to be done being cold.

Beautiful Broken Imperfection

This one really stuck out to me. The fact that it was this lone snowflake caught in that space. That it was either broken or partly melted or some combination. That it was determinedly hanging on. That even imperfect, it was still amazingly beautiful. To me, it is one of those images that can hold so much meaning beyond just being a pretty picture.

Broken Snowflake

Any bets on whether or not my craft room actually gets finished today like it is supposed to? Yeah, I probably wouldn’t take that bet either, but I sure do have my fingers crossed.

Supposedly, the doors are getting installed today. One of which I had to change because, shocker! They didn’t get what I asked for ordered in time. I could either wait another week or just change what they installed. I opted to change it. I don’t love it, but I really want to be done. It might end up being a blessing in disguise, so I’m not overly upset, though I’m irritated as all hell that they waited so long to order when they knew this was coming up.

They are also supposed to finish up any other details like outlet covers and, I’m really hoping this is on them, installing the can lights. They also have an electrical issue they need to fix.

When they were getting all that in place before the drywall got put up, the outlet that our sump pump plugs into quit working because of something they did. They fixed it and it wasn’t a huge deal. Until we realized that another part of the electrical that runs through the basement also wasn’t working, but it isn’t something we use often so we didn’t catch it. I can only hope the issue is at the main breaker box and not some funky thing they did that is now hiding behind drywall.

Overall, it doesn’t make me feel too confident that I’m not going to have issues later after they are long gone.

I’m just hoping that today goes smoothly and I can get these people the hell out of my house once and for all.

Playing With Snowflakes

I’ve been wanting to play around with a better technique of getting really great shots of individual snowflakes and their crystalline structure. With the snow coming down like crazy and my front porch protected, I thought it’d be a great time to try to play.

Unfortunately, my first thought to capture the flakes individually didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. I’d taken a piece of glass outside and let it sit for a little while to try and acclimate to the temperatures, but either I didn’t let it sit long enough, or it pulled too much heat from my hands when I was trying to hold it out to capture the flakes because they melted too quickly for any of the individual flakes to last very long at all. I also noticed that they tended to break apart pretty quickly on that solid surface.

I’d had a towel with me to dry the glass off in between attempts and I noticed that any of the flakes that landed on the towel, and even my gloves, never really melted away or broke apart. I want to play with this idea more, but my battery died before I could explore it much and the few shots I got, while so much better, didn’t have great flakes to share.

This was the best from a too short play session. Sadly, I think the snow is now done for a while, so I’ll have to shift my focus to something else.

Maybe some more frozen bubbles if the weather decides to cooperate soon. It’s funny, MCG’s mom sent me a video of someone doing these asking me to do them sometime. I had a good laugh while pointing her to my photo albums that had the images of the ones I’ve done so far. I love the fact that I’m getting along so well with her as it looks more and more likely that she will become MC’s mother-in-law at some point in the next few years.

Makes life so much easier for everyone if I can manage to maintain that, but next year when MCG comes here for college will be a pretty hardcore test. I am really looking forward to having MCG here, though. Of course, so is MC. I’m pretty sure he is counting down the days.

Imperfections

I have officially completed all edits and proofreading corrections on my book. Now I’m just waiting for my cover designer to request my files and get started. I will announce a release date as soon as I have a more solid confirmation as to when this will be ready.

Flaky

Managed a grocery run in between storms. This is getting insane. My kids have been out of school because of weather nearly as often as they have been in school. AND we have yet another round coming later in the week. BG has had her Wednesday dance class canceled 3 consecutive weeks and will FINALLY get to go tonight. I am officially ready for spring, but can we skip the storms this year?

Hanging Out

I’ll be working on cake the next several days. BG decided that she really did want the pointe costume cake so I’m all in on working on it. It will be another ambitious project, but having done a costume cake twice now, I have some confidence that this will turn out pretty good. I don’t have to have this done until the first of next week, but BG has a shopping thing with a friend over the weekend and I need to get as much done before then as possible.

Today’s to do list:

Make up 2 batches of fondant
Make batch of royal icing
Use royal icing to make tiara (template already drawn and ready to go)
Work on more sequins pieces if I have time

Non-Cake To Do: Run through L’s proofread notes and make any changes. Since she said there really wasn’t much, I don’t think that is going to take a whole lot of time (fingers crossed). Get it ready and send off to Hubby for the final read through. ALMOST THERE!!

Frozen Bubbles

I first experimented with taking photos of frozen bubbles last year. At the time, I was somewhat pleased by the results, especially because I’d never done it before. But, I didn’t have my macro lens yet so what I got wasn’t actually all that good. When I went to play again the other day and seeing the images on my tiny camera screen or on my phone, I didn’t think these were going to come out all that much better. Until I got them on my computer. Dang! What a world of difference!

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Beauty In The Details

The snow we got the other day was so perfect. It was crazy cold and the snow wasn’t heavy and wet, so what fell was full of perfect snow crystals. This is one of several crazy cool shots that show the intricacies of snowflakes. The shot itself isn’t perfect, but I adore that snowflake in the middle. I kind of kicked myself for taking time out of working on edits to take photos, but… worth it! And… I GOT MY EDITS DONE!

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