Drowning in a sea of photos is how I have felt all week.  The gallery project continues and grows, as these things do.  After looking over the gallery folder (nearly 400 photographs) I realized the best thing to do would be to take all the original photos and just start over with them.  Clean them up, recrop them and make new thumbnails, I’m much better at these things than I was, say, 2 years ago when I started out.  The difference has been remarkable, but so far I’m only through the L’s(it must be done alphabetically of course!).

If you want to see the difference yourself, check out my original gallery while you can, as soon as I get through the alphabet, I start replacing them.  And once they’re all spruced up and looking fine, the redesign phase begins.  Haven’t quite decided on the new look for my gallery, but I have some ideas.  But I have heard it doesn’t work perfectly in some versions of IE, that will be the first thing fixed in the new design plans.

I have managed, amid my many logged hours with Facebook, Wordle, and endless Photoshopping this week, to list a few new things and sales are really taking off!  Such a relief, after my long bout with the flu, I was so behind this month, it’s nice to finally see my work paying off again.  My sale section is going fast, I think I may even add a few new things to it.  The less I have to re-shoot with the new camera, the better!

Later this week, you can expect another spotlighted favorite and even a couple handmade treasures you won’t find on Etsy!

You may have seen Wordle before, if not, prepare to waste some time.  It’s a graphic toy for making word collages.  I was playing around with it the other day and I put in a bunch of words that I felt really signified Old but New and this is what I came up with.

So apparently on Facebook, there are a lot of these getting to know you questionnaires floating around.  I’ve received a lot in emails, but never filled one out of my own. After my eyeballs were bleeding from too much photo editing,  I figured for all those people I’ve reconnected with there who don’t know anything about me anymore, I’d actually respond to this one(but not forward it on, I wouldn’t want to perpetuate the cycle).

So here it is, 48 questions, so if you don’t want to know me better than I know myself, tune back in tomorrow, I won’t blame  you.  If you’re still with me, good luck.  The first and last one of these I’ll ever fill out.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
I’m betting I remember this wrong but I think I heard there was a cat named Samantha, and my mother liked the sound of it.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
A few days ago, an incident all too disturbing to sully this with the details of.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Generally, no, but every once in a while I have a good handwriting day.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Roast beef. Or honey roasted ham. I bet they go well together.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No, but I do have 7 nieces and nephews that are pretty rad.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Not likely, I’m rather antisocial.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
How can you even ask this question?

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes, even with 4 bouts of tonsillitis under my belt. No plans of giving them up.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Only if pushed.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Grape Nuts. (But I will eat an entire box of Frosted Flakes dry if you leave them laying around)

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nope.

Don’t you traditionally skip 13?

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Blue Bell vanilla after it’s been blended into a chocolate shake.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Clothes and hair. I don’t like to judge a book by it’s cover, but I always read it first.

15. RED OR PINK?
Surely you mean purple AND blue.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Too often I allow my fears to hold me back.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My real mother, but it’s not the everyday sort of missing. Just wish she could be here.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
I won’t actually be forwarding this to anyone.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Bare feet and a blue skirt.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
My lovebirds. They’re quite excited about something.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Periwinkle.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Gingersnaps.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My mom. It was a couple days ago, I’m not much of a phone talker.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
He’s a super nice guy and an excellent cook. Speaking of, can I come over for dinner?

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Does laughing at my husband while he does the wii fit count as a spectator sport?

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown.

28. EYE COLOR?
The same.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Some days. I feel more like myself in my glasses.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Chicken Fried Steak. *drools*

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Definitely happy endings. Movies where the bad guy wins are dumb.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Mary Poppins I think. I was watching the kiddos.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Gray.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Depends on the location. Better question would be beach or mountains, and mountains win hands down.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs. I’m not a particularly affectionate person though.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
I bet no one does since I’m sending it out to no one. :)

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Everyone?

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Bloom County Babylon, 5 years of basic naughtiness. (A little heavy reading)

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Haven’t seen one of those in a while. I wouldn’t mind one of those with a little mouse hole in the wall and a piece of cheese standing by.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021, but not on the tv, on the laptop between my computer and the boy’s. Ya, we’re that nerdy.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
Oooh, tough one. Maybe rain.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Beatles. But really, if I had to listen to any one band for the rest of my life, it would be Dire Straights.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Cabo San Lucas Mexico. Ahh, Christmas on the beach.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I make the best pig noise you will ever hear.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Dickenson, North Dakota.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Um…I guess I can’t wait to go back and hear myself talk about myself…

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
Freshmen year of high school, school was let out early due to ice and we rode the same bus. Someone asked if we were brother and sister and we said yes. Should I be admitting this?

Some are social butterflies, some are more like hermit crabs.  Last night I was dragged kicking and screaming out of my shell and into the world of Facebook.  By my mother, and I can understand her reasoning, she lives in Tennessee and just wants to keep up with me.  But I have been fighting these things for years.  I have a myspace, but it’s really just a billboard on the path to Old but New, I’ve logged in maybe 10 times in two years.

But Facebook appears to be different to me in a very neat and scary way.  It really does seem to bring people from out of your past and land them on your doorstep.  There’s a little box on the side of the home screen with a constant flow of “People You May Know” and it predicts this with frightening accuracy.  So you can find your best friend from middle school, but you might also be faced with that girl who’s boyfriend you made out with in the 10th grade(This is purely a hypothetical*).

And I can only assume the same is true for them, so I am now “on the radar” so to speak.  I must admit, it’s been pretty cool playing catchup with so many familiar faces though.

I set my status to “caving to the peer pressures of social networking” and my cousin in Tennessee wrote back, “You will never be the same”.   I suspect he’s right.

*No it’s not!

I don’t often visit the user curated Treasury on Etsy, I just never think to,  but I’m very glad I did today, check out this lovely one I’m featured in, just right for almost-March!

Thanks for this gorgeous collection go to totallytwisted, a beaded jewelry designer on Etsy with some quite stunning work.  If only I had that sort of patience!

In other news, a few new items have been added to my sale section if there’s anything you’ve had your eye on for a while.  Now back to my previously scheduled fun with gallery photo editing.