Taking a Plunge

I decided to try something new and start selling things online. I opened an Etsy shop.

My Etsy shop:

I’m working on some jewelry I’m going to put up, but it’s mostly some of my photos right now. I’m trying to decide how much to put into all this, because I don’t know if any of it will sell or not. It’s something I’d love to do, but I also don’t want to stay broke because I put all my money into it. So, we’ll see. It’s fun, anyway.

I’ve been using Flickr some for photos. I tend to upload more there than my photoblog. I’m not sure how much I’ll keep using my photoblog, now that I’m getting into Flickr.

I need to get a front page up for my site. If you go to wovenandspun.net, there’s nothing there. I want to make it a basic page that directs you to other pages, gives you options between my blog, my photos, etc. I pretty much know how I want it to look, and it’s pretty basic, so I really should take a bit of time to get that done. Soon after that, I’d also like to make my own layout for my blog, though I do think this one’s cute. I’m learning web design. I really should design my blog myself.

Besides all that, I haven’t been up to a whole lot lately. I’m getting over flu/respiratory/sinus stuff, so I haven’t felt up to a lot lately. I’m getting much better, though, which feels nice! Hopefully I will therefore have more to talk about on here, and will update more.

A New Year

So I barely post for months, and now three posts in just a few hours. I wrote this post for HSA though, and thought I’d come share it here too.

I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions, per se. However, at the start of this new year, I have been rather contemplative and have several goals I’m working toward.

In general, I’m working at becoming more disciplined, both in my spiritual life and in other areas. I’m trying to become more diligent in studying the Word, memorizing Scripture, and generally reading, watching, and listening to more things that are edifying. I want to be more purposeful in studying and improving in the things I’m interested in, such as web design and photography.

To sum it up, I want to spend my time wisely, to live to the fullest serving God and others, to grow and advance, both in my walk with God and in my hobbies and interests. I want to be able to look back at the end of this year and see ways I’ve done these things, to see ways I’ve grown and changed and things I’ve learned.

It’s also been a time of reminiscing, thinking over ways I’ve changed over the last year, and even two years. I can see ways I’ve examined standards and preferences we have, and adopted my own. Not that I didn’t do that before, but I’ve fine-tuned them a lot in the past year. Though, in some ways, I feel like I’m turning into an old fogey, especially when I realize I’m almost 24.

Oh, and another thing I want to work on this year: getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. I had started getting to bed and getting up earlier several months ago, but, well, old habits die hard.

Birthday Present

My early birthday present:

Isn’t it pretty? I got it a couple of weeks ago, before I went to the wedding. I was trying to make myself a skirt, but was having issues with the machine we already had. My parents were already going to get it for me for my birthday, so they got it early. I like it a lot, though I haven’t gotten to use it much yet.

My Life Through Trips and Pictures

To update on a few things from my life in the past several months…

Okay, so to pick up where I left off back in August…

I went to Dallas back in August, to meet up with some friends from HSA. Spent time with lots of awesome people and went to some fun places. I had met a lot of them in person already and knew them well, and I got to meet new people too. We played Ultimate Frisbee and Capture the Flag, went roller skating, went to downtown Dallas, and just generally had fun hanging out and talking. And…I got to fly for the first time and loved it!

In case anyone is really interested, here are my pictures from that trip:

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4
Album 5
Album 6

In September, we evacuated for Hurricane Ike. We stayed with family in north Louisiana. Thankfully, we had little damage done to our house and yard. We were without water for a few days, but really fared better than so many people. The following are pictures showing what Wal-mart looked like when we got home:

Wal-mart after Ike

Then a couple of weeks ago, I flew up to Little Rock to see a couple of HSA friends get married. I’m so glad I was able to make it to their wedding! I’m friends with both the bride and the groom, and they really mean a lot to me. I’m so happy for them, and their wedding was beautiful. She made a beautiful bride too. While there, I stayed with my aunt for several days, and got to see my cousin and her new baby.

Wedding pictures
Baby cousin pictures

So yeah, I like taking a lot of pictures. If anyone is interested, I can be found here on Flickr.

Right now, I’m working on designing a website for my dad’s company, and want to learn and do more with web design. I’m also very interested in photography, as you may have guessed, and I want to improve my skills in that area a lot this year as well. I have a photoblog here.

I also hope to blog more this year, so hopefully you’ll all hear from me more often in the coming months.

A Comedic Genius

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of Dick van Dyke. I grew up watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins, and loved the Dick van Dyke show. The following are a few of my favorite clips. This first one was posted on YouTube yesterday by the fantastic Daniel Gardner:

Seeing bamboo always makes me chuckle as I think of this favorite:

Then being paired with the “practically perfect in every way” Julie Andrews led to some fantastic scenes:

And “The Art of Slapstick” is a classic as well:

Watching clips like these can never fail to make me laugh.

Pictures and Stuff

I uploaded some pictures today on Flickr, and I’m starting to update my photoblog more again.

Also, I ordered a new lens the other night! A Canon 50mm f1.8. It’s supposed to be here Wednesday, and I’m really looking forward to playing around with it and learning to use it.

In other news, I’ve been doing some work at my dad’s office whenever they need help with the computers. I got all the internet and networking issues smoothed out a while back, and fixed some issues so they could access their office computer remotely. But they just bought a new building and moved over to the new place, and got a different internet service and new equipment. Which meant I was back at the beginning and got to set it all up again. It was touch and go for a while there, but it’s all working now. It can get frustrating at times, when I don’t know what’s wrong and can’t find a logical explanation, and I still have a lot to learn. But I do enjoy it.

Not much else to report right now, really. I’ve been sick a lot lately with sinus and cold type stuff, but I think I’m over most of it now. Still pretty tired, and still fighting weed pollen allergies. I’m praying for a good hard freeze early this year, to kill all the ragweed. I always feel so much better when it dies off.

Blog stuff

I really do plan on using this thing more. I’ve been putting it off until I redesign the site, make my own layout and such, and, well, I just haven’t gotten to that yet. I should go ahead and start using it again anyway. Maybe I’ll post a longer update later.

Meanwhile…I’ve started a photoblog.I think that’s a good way to share pictures with people who want to see them, and to encourage me to work at it more. It will also be neat to look back over later, after I’ve been doing this for a while, and hopefully see how I’ve improved over time. I have so much to learn, but I’m enjoying it!

I’m also working on learning more web design. I’m currently working on a blog for Caroline, learning to make my own Wordpress templates. I need to learn more PHP so I can code more stuff myself, but this is a good way to get started. I’m really enjoying it, and would love to do more with it.

Of shoes and hair…

It’s really quite insulting to be walking through the mall and have someone offer to straighten your hair. There’s a kiosk at our mall that sells hair straighteners, and there’s always someone standing there offering to straighten people’s hair. Said person always asks me. I like my hair the way it is, thank you very much! I’m going to tell her that someday. Instead, I usually get perturbed, say “No thank you,” and keep walking. But someday…

Also, I finally found shoes! Two pair, at that! I like them. I’ve been having the hardest time finding something besides Riley shoes or running shoes. Slipons seem to be the fashion, and they’re really cute, but I need a strap to hold them on my feet. I have high arches, narrow heels, and problems with the tendons in my right foot. All that makes it very hard to find shoes. But I got smart tonight and checked the girls’ sizes at Payless. I wear women’s 7 to 7.5, and I found a girls’ 4.5 is about that size too, and fits perfectly. Most of the girls’ shoes have straps. So I found shoes. It’s such a relief to have that over with.

Seriously, anyone who enjoys shoe shopping must have perfect feet that can wear anything.

Pictures!

I put up some pictures from my new camera! See here if interested. I love my new camera.

Yay!

I got a camera on ebay tonight! I’m so excited! It’s a Canon 20D, and I really got a great deal on it. It comes with a lens and seven filters. I can’t wait to get it! It’s a better camera than I was hoping to get. It’s discontinued now because Canon upgraded, but it’s in the pro-sumer line, which is a step up from the amateur cameras I was looking at. I found it an hour before the auction ended, and really didn’t expect to get it. I was pretty excited at the thought of getting an SLR at all, but this is better than what I thought I’d get! I’ve been really enjoying learning more about photography and taking photos with my point and shoot. It will be a lot of fun to take it to a whole new level and start learning so much more.