Alyssa Turns 15!

My cousin turned 15 on February 28th. She's the baby of the grandkids on my dad's side and it seems so crazy she's almost old enough to drive. I still remember when she was born and we were all at the hospital. lol. I sound so old. Next, I'll be calling her and telling her, "When I was your age we didn't have cars..."

So to celebrate her birthday, I made her a handbag with my birthday present, a sewing machine! My birthday was the 15th of February and I was pumped my parents gave me a sewing machine. This handbag was my 2nd sewing project. My goal is to have an Eco Friendly handbag business (in addition to photography). Not bad for my first one :)

My Familia is Awesome!

The grocery stores just recently started stocking California Oranges and they're 99¢ each! I called my family and whined that I wanted Oranges from Papi's tree so my wonderful Aunt Ester went to Papi and told him what I wanted. He climbed up into the tree (his 80th birthday is in June) and picked me his last two oranges. Then, my Aunt Ester shipped them out to me. I received them in 2 days! I was so excited I took them to work to brag before I ate them. They tasted even sweeter knowing all the trouble my family went through so I could eat them!

My Bulbs Have Sprouted!

A few of my Crocus’s had sprouted about a month ago but then stopped growing. With the warm weather the past few days they have finally decided to start growing again and they passed the message along to the other bulbs that it was time for them to grow too. Here’s a picture of them today that I took with my camera and an older picture of them poking through the snow that I took in the morning with my phone on my way to work. I planted over 100 bulbs (Crocus, Daffodil and Tulip) in 6ft x 10ft area. With a tree taking up the center of it. It’s my first time ever planting them so I’m hoping I did it right. So far so good!

Looking For Spring...

It seems that Spring is starting to make it’s appearance. As you can see, the animals are starting to come back out and the temperatures are getting warmer. As I write this I’m sitting in my apartment with the windows wide open and it feels great to have the cool breeze sweep out all of the stale winter air. It’s 60 degrees! Can you believe it? Yesterday it almost reached 70. The dogs are loving it too since now we go on longer walks and they can sit at the window and bark at all of the other dogs walking by in the evenings. Everyone is outside enjoying the change in weather. I even saw kids playing with water guns yesterday on my way home from work.

These are pictures of my latest bird feeder guest. No exactly what I was hoping for when I set it up but it was still pretty entertaining. As long as the rabbits and deer don’t eat my flowers when they bloom I won’t mind the extra visitors.

I'm Back!

I celebrated my 27th birthday this weekend and one of the things I have decided to do this new year in my life is to not let myself be held back by fear. One thing that I have been wanting to do but was too chicken was go down the Toboggan Shoots in the the Cleveland Metroparks. Well, in celebration of my new goal in life, Derrick and I went Tobogganing in the Metroparks today. It was a total blast! My knuckles rubbed against the concrete walls and were skinned open but other than needing to buy a new pair of gloves, I'm ok. Hope you enjoy the video!

Snow Day!

Today is my first Snow Day! Not only are all of the schools closed, most businesses are too. My boss called this morning to let me know the office would be closed. So what have I done all day? I watched the birds outside my window. Today was a special day because there were 3 new types of birds at my feeder. A Tufted Titmouse (which flew away when I got my camera), a bird I'm having problems identifying and finally...Cardinals! I have been impatiently waiting for Cardinals to find my bird feeder and then, in the middle of a snow storm, they appeared. I have 2 pairs that have been eating at my feeder today. When I saw them I was so excited I didn't want to get my camera because I was afraid I'd scare them away. Derrick said it was crazy not to try to photograph them and he was right (as usual, but don't tell him that). This picture is through my bedroom window.

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So This is What Cold Feels Like

This is an actual temperature reading from The Weather Channel on my phone. I've learned that wind chill really makes a difference, even when it's -12 degrees outside.

When I lived in California I always asked people, "What does below 20 feel like?" No matter what they said to me I just didn't really understand. Well now I understand and I'm going to try my best to explain it to you.

Imagine what it feels like when it's late at night and you walk from inside somewhere to your car and the wind cuts through your clothes. When you get inside your car you clench up and shiver a little bit and wait for the car to warm up so you can turn the heater on. Your nose, fingers and thighs are cold. Can you think of a time when you felt that cold? Now think of what the cold air feels like on your face when you open the freezer and how your fingers feel when you reach inside and grab some ice cream.

Cold weather (at least to me from a Ohioan standpoint) kinda feels like a combo of those two sensations. After a certain point, the only difference is how long it takes before your hands go numb. For example, the other day at work it was around 12 degrees. I was outside shoveling a path to our office door when my ear started to feel like something was stabbing it. I thought one of my bobby-pins fell out of my hair and was poking me so I went inside to fix it. My bobby-pins were exactly where I put them that morning. The stabbing feeling was my ear freezing. That happened in about 5-10 minutes. Another day, I took my dog outside at it was around 5 degrees. My fingers went numb in 30 seconds.

The average temperature of a household freezer is 0 degrees or slightly below. (Thanks Google for your access to random statistics). I've experience -34. One thing I've also learned is cold weather is all relative. When living in CA I thought 65 was cold and anything in the 50's was freezing. Now that I live in Ohio in the middle of winter, if the temperature rose to 50 today I would go outside without a sweater on. However, if it was August in Ohio and the temperature all of a sudden dropped to 50 I would wear my winter coat.

I'm not sure if my blood had actually thickened (I could Google it), but to me it seems if you just keep an open mind and go with the flow (and pray your heater works) the cold isn't so bad after all.

But that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to Spring :)

More Birds

I'm really enjoying trying to identify the different birds I photograph. The people down the street from me have tons of bird feeders and their apartment faces the woods. When I walked the dogs in the morning last weekend I couldn't believe how many different birds I saw! I ran back to my apartment and grabbed my camera. It was freezing but I captured some cool pictures :)

Female Northern Cardinal

House Sparrows
Downy Woodpecker

Blue Jay
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Winter Birds

I've developed a new hobby for the winter since it's too cold to go outside for long periods of time, bird watching. I have a bird feeder outside my window and now that it's freezing cold outside and everything is covered in snow, the birds have decided to grace me with their presence. I've been using different websites to identify the birds in my apartment complex. This morning I started using www.whatbird.wbu.com which is really helpful. Here's a couple birds from this morning.

Dark-Eyed Junco

Black-Capped Chickadee

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I Love Snow!

Happy New Year! It's been snowing for over 24 hours and now we have about 1 1/2 feet of snow. I love it! Derrick, who is totally awesome, held the rope attached to my toboggan and ran down the street with it so I could go sledding. Then, he compacted this 5 foot pile of snow and held my toboggan on it while I climbed up and sat on it. Once I was ready, he let go and I went sliding down the hill and down the street. It was so much fun! I can't wait for tomorrow because I have the day off so I can play all day. A picture is worth 1,000 words so here's some from today :)

My Morning Commute (I wasn't driving)

The MetroParks
The river by the marina and a picnic table.



Target Parking Lot


Our Apartment Complex
The bushes look like gumdrops!


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