Hair Cut

Time for another self portrait. This is what Jenn looks like with shoulder length hair.

No, I didn't cut it (deep breaths), it's a trick of the way it's laying and the size of the picture. Totally unintentional. I had it in a braid and took it out--then I took these pictures, and when I looked at them bigger, voila, short hair! (I often end up taking photos semi-blind--the screen really doesn't show things well, esp. outside.)

Huh, looks kinda cool, maybe I *should* cut it... ;-)

Changing Perspectives

Here's the picture Khaentlahn put up tonight from a different angle. Then she showed Jacque:
And the flash did something truly weird in this one... Think maybe her camera's faster than mine. ;-) (Please ignore the fact that Sara Michelle Gellar is the most visible thing in these. :) )

And as special bonus cuteness, here's the newest face that Jac worked very hard to make for me tonight:

What I Actually Do...

A couple of images of a tablet weaving that I'm working on currently. I'm feeling a little uninspired today...

Peeking Jac

Jac on the way to a movie tonight, aka Jenn avoids paybacks... :)

Two words...

And, a guest image from Sean's site taken by Ali:

Up Periscope

That's Kyle under that pile of pillows. I'm a one-pillow person (and I usually carry it with me), and there were four on each bed, so--very soon there were EIGHT on the other bed. If I were quicker, you would have seen the peeking out that occurred just previous to this...

This weekend was Chieftains in Three Rivers, so I've been away from my Internet access since Friday at 5. Things got seriously "documenting" rather than "art" this weekend. :)

Under Midwestern Skies...

When I lived in Colorado, one of the things I missed was the great plains sky. It's not that the sky isn't beautiful there, it is, but it's *different.* The clouds look different. I love that sky, too, but I missed this one. :) This is just as I was leaving work tonight. Pulled over to the side of the road and stuck my phone out the window. Be sure to notice the water tower barely visible just to the left of the sunburst.

A different angle on the same cloud formation:


Ahhhh, sunsets . . .

Things = People

More stuff from my desk. Looking at it, I'm a little amazed by how everything I've surrounded myself with has an association with someone.

• The gargoyle is half of a set of bookends. The second half of which lives somewhere in the wilds of Arizona with my very first real boyfriend. It has had a place on every desk I've ever had since then. We actually talked recently, and he still has his half, too. :)
  
• The pencil-holder was a gift from Gary, who I worked with at Cliffs Notes, my first job out of college. It also reminds me of the home place.
• The ruler was a gift someone brought me back from Pennsic.
• The colored pens--well, they're for my making my job easier, sillier, and more fun, but the tie-dye pencil was a gift from my R&L coworkers.
• The Quick Review is one that I worked on with Michele (my first boss) that's about writing.
• The Bawls bottle I love almost purely for itself. It's funny, it's textured, but it also reminds me of morning breaks with Mike and the UNP crew.
• And, of course, the Man of Steel needs no introduction.
  

Crystalline Puddle

Ice in a puddle in my driveway. This one's not cropped or anything, it sprang fully formed from my phone. :)

Another perspective:

My Tree

Prepare for convoluted: When I was in college, the guy I was dating at the time took one of the 300-person biology classes at the University of Nebraska. One of their projects for the semester was to "adopt" a tree. They were to pick one tree out on campus (which has an arboretum, but essentially is one) and watch it. They wrote essays about it, took samples from it, documented its reproductive cycle, well, you get the idea. My bf was a serious overachiever (as if this isn't obvious because I know this much about a class project he was doing at a college that I didn't even go to), and we spent a significant amount of time with that tree that semester.

The building where I work isn't in an industrial park, exactly, but it's definitely not neighborhood-ish. Above is the tree that I can see out Andrew's window. I can't show you, because I can't get it to work with the phone, but right now it's literally the only green thing out the only window I can see from my desk. I've become a little obsessed with it, and I thought I'd take it to a new level. So, in the spirit of Dr. Janovy, expect to see it show up here from time to time.

They've recently chopped the heck out of it, and it's partially tangled in whatever lines are on the telephone poles that go up the street, but the shape of it intrigues me, and it has glimmers of the tenaciousness of those at the treeline in the mountains.

The full introduction to my tree: from the left and the right.

And a couple of close ups:


And don't miss that the sky is so blue today! :)

Did You Ever Look in the Mirror...

"Did you ever look in the mirror so long that your face didn't make sense anymore? It just becomes all these shapes. Just shapes. Not good or bad. " --The Truth about Cats and Dogs

I realized that I'm running out of time this week for a self portrait. And, what better time to do one than on my birthday. I took about 20 pictures--here are a couple (taken by me, with my *phone*).

Jenn at 37:

This one looks the most like me, I think.

There's something about the eyes, here.

Fiber Monkey-ness

Did some organizing today (*gasp*) and took some photos of some of the fibery goodness in my life. This is just some of my collection of colorful yarn in a basket.

An artsy look at my umbrella swift... complete with silk from a current project.

And some shiny silky stuff that I have no idea what I'll ever make out of...

The Big Ape I Sleep With

My early birthday present from Khaentlahn--a big ape. He's got red fur *tipped* with dark brown, and he's holding a heart that says "Love me." He currently lives in my bed.

Down to the wire on these tonight. I took some of the snow earlier (a few of which you'll probably get at the bottom of this post), but I didn't really like them. So, these are pictures from home... I'm sure I made quite a spectacle running about with my camera trying to find something interesting to photograph ten minutes before midnight. [Ed: After I made this post, I looked around and realized that every light in my apartment was on--finding enough light for my phone indoors at night is a challenge.]


When I left the Outlands, the Baron that I worked for sent me a gift. A mold of his hand (no, seriously). It says, "Thanks for giving me a hand" on the stump, and then he signed it. It's cool *and* kinda creepy, but not nearly as creepy as it looks in this picture. :)

Turns out I was a little obsessed with this tree when I was taking snow pictures. :)

Jacque Electric

BONUS PHOTOS... :)

Fun with Jacque, a balloon, and static.


(Khaentlahn's in there, too.)

Light and Shadow

Rubber bands in a box. (Not shot black and white, but with the color removed.)

It's cold here. It was extremely cold this morning--wished for buffalo blankets in the car cold--and as I shivered my way in the door I thought, "No standing in a snow drift taking pictures today." But then the sun came out, as it often does in my world, and reminded me to be warm and enjoy life. So, a couple of silly snow pictures.

A snow DJ?


And mystery tracks in the field behind the parking lot.

No Valentines...

Dear Mr. Landlord, there seems to be something amiss with my mailbox.

The footprints make it appear that my neighbor checked his and left it on the ground. :) I *think* I heard this happen last night--there was a noise that sounded like a really big door slamming. No Valentines for me... :)

This morning all the photos that I saw on my way in yesterday looked even better with the sun shining. We got an additional dusting of what I call "sparkly snow"--a much more Midwestern occurrence. Lighter, more crystalline snow that blows around a lot while it's falling and makes the ground sparkle.


And, look, there's blue sky!

Snow and Trees

This morning the world is frosted with white and I couldn't resist a "snow series." It's like someone somewhere knew I was missing Colorado--complete with the snow blowing over the road in places. This project is taking over my life a little. The whole drive in this morning I was thinking, "That would make a good photo. No, that, right there would be better."

So, "Snow a la Jenn":

This is what happens when it rains, then sleets, then snows.

I really like the dark and light in this one.

This is right outside my door. (It snowed more in Lawrence than in Topeka. All the others are Topeka.)

This one's a good overview of what it really looks like.

I took this for a bird that you can't see in the final version, but it certainly looks like Mr. Tumnus will step out at any moment.

Make My Day

Personalized Valentines from my nephews arrived today and immediately went up on my bulletin board next to my computer. I started to crop out the photos on my desk, then realized the boys were in them. So, this one gets to pretty much represent "family." :) Ethan's is the far left (he's 5), Max's is in the middle (7), and Nick's on the right (3). The photo in the center is one of my favorites--I took it of Max and E with the elephants at the zoo. :) The photo on the left is at Tom's wedding. The three boys are in the center front.

Update: Called to tell them thank you--Max wants to know "Why are little brothers *so* annoying? Tell me, what's good about little brothers?" (I told him that I wouldn't have gotten to spend time with *him* if I hadn't had little brothers.) Ethan went to a "Valentimes party" and got *two* suckers--"Almost all the other cards had Skittles in them, Aunt Jenny, how did they *know* that suckers were my favorite?" And Nick, well, Nick got a *red* sucker, and that was really great! :o)

And, it's snowing. Beautiful heavy flakes of perfect snowball snow (so perfect that I had to throw one while I was cleaning off my car to come home). One of the best parts about snow is how quiet it is while it's snowing. It makes you feel kind of wrapped up in a cocoon of white.

Adventure!

This represents our "adventure" of the day. This is Jacque and the elephants. :) (We stopped by Cabela's for fudge to sustain us.)

In the interest of equal time (or at least a little time) here's some I took of Conner. He moves fast, so they're both a *little* on the blurry side. :) But they're still him, and I like 'em.

We did a couple of puppet plays at the Children's museum, this is Con and "Mr. Happy." (I love the way he's partly obscured by the character and peeking out from below the "stage.")

Trying to get Dad to do something...