daylight

According to Weather Underground Length Of Visible Light: 24h 00m. How about that? and I believe it.. I think that's why I'm still up! It says the sun rises at 4:20 AM AKDT and the sun sets at 11:40 PM AKDT, but honestly.. I could cut grass right now and not cut my foot off! But.. I might would wake the neighbors.

There are lots of things inspiring me right now and I feel pulled in so many directions!
1. I have two knitting WIP; two socks at a time on circulars and a felted market bag.. neither even close to completion.
2. I have 3 outfits yet to cut out and sew for our darling neice.
3. I have been commission to make a window seat cushion. (Guess that should be at the top of my list!)
4. All the wonderful tutorials.. like at lynda.com and over at NAPP!! I could watch and participate 24/7 ..
5. I truly need to SCRAP! My poor mother's pictures are waiting on me... and I just can't get enough of the gallery over at SIStv ! Loads of wonderful layouts and inspiration for scrapping :)

And that's just the fun stuff!!!

I also need to:
1. Get my carpets cleaned.
2. Mow the lawn. I think that's going to be a weekly thing.. but actually, I really enjoy it :)
3. Organize the everything room.. *sigh* It really is a everything room.. guest bed, 2 computers, 2 desk areas, filing cabinet, piano, scraping area/sewing area... I've crammed quite a bit in here... and it drives me NUTS! Why do I do this to myself???
4. I need to strip the paint off the front walkway, stain and seal it.
5. Transplant a few perennials.

Ok.. so that's a big enough list for now :) I will leave you with some edits I've worked on.

Ps. Guess who is having a blogiversary this week??? I think I feel the need for my very first RAK ;)

55mm pic & edit

This is the original.. I'm still learning about editing photos in Photoshop. I think it is an on going process. If you click on the pictures, you will see a bigger difference. Looking at them here, I really don't see much of a difference.

I was going for a subtle difference. Don't know that I've achieved the effect I necessarily wanted, but I do kinda like the result. I still may play around with it more.

I do like the picture, though. What do you think?

Have you ever been to a Drive-In?

This was my first time going to a Drive-In. And you want to know what was funny about it? I went to see Indiana Jones.. why is that so funny? I was in Indiana to see a Drive-IN..

What a treat! You gotta get there early to get the first row and if you bring kids they had a volley ball net set up in an extra-extra large sand box. Don't think I've ever seen a sand box so big! They also had a small putting green for some minature golf. Other kids brought football and tossed it around. Fun! Fun!

The party we were with brought their own drinks, snacks, lawn chairs, blankets.. you name it. They had van that had seats that open to the back.. Way fun! and if you wanted to sit in your car to hear the show (which we did).. You can tune in to a local FM station and you have it there in your car.

One tip! If you are going to watch from your vehicle.. clean the windsheild before the show starts!

So that's about it with the trip to Indiana... other stuff we did? We went downtown and shopped at the Mall. I went to a photography store. Hal went to cigar stores. I went to Lane Bryant's, Hobby Lobby, World Plus, fabric stores... and that's about it. It was good times.

Now it is time to stay home and enjoy the Alaskan summer! Fishing, gardening, scrapping, grilling, hiking, walking, Saturday markets, etc....

Stay tuned! :)

Indianapolis Zoo

The Zoo was terrific in every since of the word! I fully enjoyed myself and was also a little terrified at times.

Terrified = snakes! I didn't take any pictures and had to walk as quickly as possible through that area.

Our nephew thought he wasn't scared of sharks and wanted to pet the baby sharks... but when we got to that area, he just couldn't do it... maybe he felt like I did about the snakes!

So what did we do at the Zoo!

We saw most all the mammals they had.
We saw the desert area... lizards.. yikes.. not fond of reptiles..
Rode the train.

The nephew & niece rode the ponies.
I think the only portion we didn't visit was the petting zoo.. but by the time we got around to it.. they so needed a nap!

I enjoyed the butterflies most of all. It was so pretty in there and so relaxing and so warm... just makes you feel happy and good.

They had to check our clothing before we went outside. I thought that was pretty cool.

And then there was the loveliest garden, just like out of an English countryside... Very manicured and very elegant. LOVED IT!

There were statues like this little prince charming waiting for his princess kiss all over the gardens. I could imagine all sorts of goings on there...

I didn't get a picture of the overall look of the place... but I did have two little monsters to keep up with.

Going to Indy was a welcomed change and I enjoyed every minute of it. But now that summer is approaching, don't think I'll be leaving until the fall for another trip.

I have a little bit more to tell about my trip... but I'll do that later.

Ps. My father-in-law let me play with a micro-Nikkor 55mm lens for as long as I want. I've been playing and I will show some of my photos and edits soon. :)

The Main Attraction

This picture isn't the greatest, but it'll do.
My dh took it with his phone..
and I'm sure glad I didn't bring my Nikon
because it would have gotten soaked, or beaten up pretty bad.
We knew a rain storm was coming, we just didn't know when.
During Robert Randolph's performance the sky was putting on
a light show all on its own...
and we thought for a little while the clouds were heading away from us.
But no such luck!
Into EC's performance it started sprinkling and I put a t-shirt dh had bought
around my shoulders hoping it would take care of my back.
We were just under the pavilion, but not far enough out of harms way.
The lightening and thunder was pretty cool.
We just don't get storms like that here in this part of Alaska.
And just as he started singing Wonderful Tonight,
the sky fell and it was falling sideways, but we didn't care
We just cuddled up close and enjoyed the music.
Then... I thought it was over but the crowd was going wild with chanting
for another song.. so he came out and did Layla, Awesome!!
I had binoculars for the most part and EC just seems to do everything so effortlessly.
His music is simply amazing! He did do a couple acoustic ones (those are my favs!)
Have you seen Crossroads? You've got to rent the DVD's!! Fantastic..
Ok.. anyways... the show is over.. and people are running like mad to get to their cars.
We parked a mile away and that ain't no exaggeration!
We get bottlenecked in the masses and I had to find a way out!
I was getting anxious, panicky and very mad, it was go and stop.. like the hwy in winter!!
I had Hal's hand, he had his mother's hand, and she had Hal's sister's hand...
I found a way through some trees and I'm shorter than them.. and I took off..
I didn't know they were gettin' hit by tree limbs.. but I did get us outa Dodge!!
We finally got to the the rental and we were beyond soaked! and a little chilly.
It wasn't as warm in Indiana as I would have liked it to have been.
I was hopin' for some good deep heat to the bone warm... didn't really get it.
We actually got outa there pretty quick.. on to the road I mean.
But getting home... that's a whole other story!

Opening Act - Robert Randolph & the Family Band

These guys were awesome! Click the link and listen to another song. Love their sound! Do you like a little organ music, steel guitar, drums? Believe it or not.. this sounds like church music to me. I grew up in a southern apostolic pentecostal church. Reminds me of home and people worshiping God, running aisles, dancing and clapping their hands. Music like this makes ya wanna move :)

Robert Randolph and the Family Band was the opening act for Eric Clapton on Friday, May 30th in Noblesville, IN. AND WOW WHAT A SHOW!!! Not only did we have the light show under the pavilion, we had a lightening storm outside. I really enjoyed it! I've maybe seen lightening once in my 6 years of living in Alaska! The lightening was quite spectacular and even in rhythm at times. :)

More about the night later... gotta get back to the pile of work on my desk!

ONCE: Falling Slowly

I watched this movie on the plane Saturday on our flight back to Anchorage. If you haven't seen it and are in the mood for some awesome guitar and piano sounds, watch it! Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard sing in such beautiful harmony. I bought the soundtrack yesterday and I absolutely love it!

The trip was great.... but more to come on that later :)