Friday site candy

As you know it has been very slow in the travel department so I have been searching for things to occupy my time. I bought a wonderful 96 box set of crayons so I started a quest for coloring pages. I looked at the store and found sticker books with a few coloring pages or activity books. I can't believe children aren't even coloring anymore.... :( Anyway I found this cool website with all kinds of coloring pages from more complex to very simple. Here is the link. They are very nice and has kept me occupied and happy :) Enjoy!

eco-friendly candles

This is a shout out to a co-worker. She makes the most awesome candles. The white ginger being my favorite. She makes Earth friendly soy, natural palm wax and body massage candles. Also available are hand cut recycled glass and hand made gift boxes. Check out her candles here. They are cool and smell great. Sorry for the short post today, it is making up for the super long one yesterday :)

Cool Tech!

I have been looking at a digital reader for about a year now. I have to say they are REALLY cool. The biggest negative however is the price. I will not be buying one at least till the price comes down. There are two major brands the Sony e-reader and the Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is ugly but has some great features. Another negative to the Kindle is incompatibility with a PDF and you can't print your documents. The Sony is sleek, light and can read PDF's. However each digital book seems to cost more than Amazon and Sony's selection is so-so. Bottom line I think I'll wait for Apple to make one or for Sony to get it right. I want a reader that reads it all so far the best product functionality is from the iLiad. This one is even more expensive than the Kindle however and WAY beyond normal means. I love the iLiad's functions and features but it's price point again leaves me waiting for future models and lower prices. Like the iPhone its a great piece of tech but not for that price. Check out these reviews if your interested:

Review1

Review2

Now that you are drooling but agree it isn't worth that price look at the mother of all readers. If you have the money to buy a reader now this is the baby you want. Check out what the manufacturer says:

What can you do with the iLiad?

*Anything you can print from your PC can be read on the iLiad. You can also download books and other information from the internet. You can even receive digital subscriptions to international newspapers on an iLiad.

*The iLiad has a wireless connection to automatically download content and updates over the Internet. You can also connect the iLiad directly to any PC with a USB cable. The iLiad Companion software enables you to easily transfer and manage the documents between your PC and the iLiad.

*The iLiad can hold dozens of books and documents. Memory capacity can be increased simply by inserting a Compact Flash or MMC card, just as with digital camera. You can even insert your USB-stick into the iLiad to quickly read content.

THE iLiad

So in conclusion this is awsome technology but I think I will wait a few more years till I buy my own. But we can still drool over it :)

Finally FRIDAY!!

Finally the daily site candy (also known as lookie here :P). Today's is two fold. One is the Art & Ed from Utrecht. This is an art store I frequent when I go into Portland. This episode is on making an Art Journal. Check it out HERE! The next part is a book should this inspire you to make your own. It is called "The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are", if you follow the link it will take you to good reads where you can see other peoples reviews and a little about the book. I had borrowed this book and loved it so much I had to buy my own copy.

"but I can't draw", " I don't have time" or whatever other lame excuse you might have about an art journal are addressed in this book. I really enjoyed it and since I have finished the book I have tried to put something in my journal daily. I have had the pleasure of watching my skills improve. Check out my journal at 1001journals.com. I will be updating it tonight with all of my pages.

Nathan Update

So I wanted to update everyone on what has been going on. Nathan was able to get a hold of his union's shop steward. This was a VERY good call. The Steward was appalled at how the situation has been handled and action is being taken. We don't know what yet but a meeting is being held on Monday when people in power are going to be in. I will keep you all updated. I still find it sad that the union has to get involved when it never had to get that far. I will keep you all updated.

Don't Support Verizon

I should start this story at the beginning. Nathan (my husband) works for Verizon. Everyone in his team had to switch partners in September. Immediately his new partner started giving him problems. Makes rude harassing statements to women that are very offencive. He has threatened Nathan, supposedly teasingly while holding a rusty old scythe. After this Nathan went to his Supervisor. His supervisor told him too bad you will get a new partner in three months. Over the month of October multiple horrible comments and demeaning remarks have be made about and too Nathan. Finally yesterday his partner yelled at him and threatened to "beat his ass with a baseball bat". Nathan rightly had had enough and went to his supervisor this morning and was told BY A SUPERVISOR that Nathan was being a whining High Schooler and he couldn't babysit. Now Nathan is being investigated because he complained. Complained because he was threatened with bodily harm MULTIPLY TIMES!!!! How could a company allow this? And if that weren't enough his partner during the yelling at him part told Nathan that he was told by the supervisor that Nathan had asked to talk to HR. Which is A none of his business and B didn't even have to do with the situation. Not to mention that the supervisor never acknowledged Nathan or gave him the number he asked for. I am so upset by all this. You hear about this happening sometimes but you think that will never happen, my company has a no harassment policy. Yeah well so dose Verizon, apparently that doesn't mean anything.

Half way there Wednesday

Sorry I missed yesterday. I am working with my husband to create our own Magna for fun. We are quite a bit away from sharing it with anyone. But we have mostly created the major players and working on names and I am working on drawing expression sheets and full body shots of the main characters. The story will be based in the IK world by privateer press. The IK world is a steampunk fantasy world with warjacks (steam powered machines that walk and destroy things, or move heavy things). Kind of hard to describe for those who have never seen it but you can visit Privateer Press and check it out. For those of you within earshot of me can ask me to bring my books so you can see. Now the daily LOOKIE is a digital painter. According to his Deviant Art account he is from Italy and his work is FANTASTIC! Most of his work is from the Iron Kingdoms (IK). I wish I could do this! Very dramatic! Check it out! I will share my own miniature painting soon.

Monday Lookie

Well My work week this week is Mon- Fri then I get a three day weekend whoopee!!! So Today's cool thing to see it Woosie at deviant art. Check it out, absolutely fabulous My Little Pony Conversions! She sculpts clay wings and has a fabulous Captin Jack Sparrow one. Very detailed and wonderful work. She sells them too however it is out of my price league. Untill next time!

Daily Lookie!

I am going to attempt to share one thing i find interesting or inspiring everyday. Well at least tue-sat as those are the days I work and lately the least busy time of day for me. Today's lookie is from Flicker.com. This picture was taken by Pear Biter. He has some great and inspiring pictures. It makes me want to stop my current painting and paint something of his. This one specifically looks straight out of a story book. And for those of you who know me at all that always speaks to me. I love castles, fantasy and magic. Check out his shots here.

Thwack.....ouch. The sound of my head hitting the desk

For those that don't know I am a Travel agent in a Call Center. I also take membership and road side assistance calls. However we are so slow lately. Travel is almost non-existent, people have even slowed calling for free Tour books and maps. I am sitting here now waiting for the clock to tick and falling asleep from lack of ringing. Maybe I should take up knitting, or cross-stitch if this is going to keep up. I can't wait till the "crisis" is over and people in general stop being afraid to leave their town. Gas prices are dropping but people are still not going anywhere. well people continue to break down so I will still have a job. Unfortunately Verizon is starting to talk about layoffs AGAIN!! They just moved his old group to this one less than 6 months ago and they are talking about layoffs again. I keep reminding myself its in Gods hands, God's will be done. I think I need to go pray some more. I not worried so much as angry at Verizon. oh well I need to learn to let go, Until next time.

Holy Scanners Batman!

I have finally broken down and bought a scanner that can scan negatives and slides. I have got to say the Epson Perfection v500 is awesome! I can finally convert the trunks full of slides, and family photos. Hopefully by Christmas I will have all the photos on CD and DVD so other family members can have photos also. Besides it is safer than pictures and negatives sitting in a box under the bed. I have even found a little box of slides that recorded my fathers Junior High graduation. We sure have come a long way with image capturing. I sit here in awe of the difference between the slides my grandfather took and the 10.8 Mega pixel pictures I take.

Drawing

Some of you may know that over the last two years or so I have begun to learn to draw and have started to not completely suck at it. This all started because I want to eventualy do graphic design work. It is what makes me happy. So I have pushed myself I have grown and I have acepted I am an artist however fledling I may be. I am now trying to complete the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. I have completed the first few chapters and I think this is so far an amazing book that everyone should read that wants some drawing skills. You can also keep up on what I am reading at any time by visiting Goodreads.com and making me you friend. Goodreads is one of my favorite sites. Check it out create your own libary or publish some ebooks of your own (haven't tried that yet). So enjoy the site and hopefully I will have some new drawing to show you soon.

Blogging

I am new to this whole Blogging thing. I have trouble remembering to journal more than once a month but I am going to try this anyway. Currently there is nothing remarkable to report however I did recently get endorsed to be allowed to ride a motorcycle, however rumors are flying about layoffs at Verizon again so we won't be purchasing the bike I want. What bike do I want you ask? Well that would be the Piaggio MP3 400. A three wheeled scooter that I am in love with. The other thing I will try and keep up on is what art project I am currently working on or am finished with. You can see past works at http://ladyskye.deviantart.com/. I haven't yet loaded all my Warmachine figures on their yet but I will attempt to blog about that too. Untill next time.