Every Day is Exactly the Same

So...not exactly the same, but most of our winter has been like this: fog, rain, wind, cold. This is a seven day project, one photo taken each day, for seven days in a row, from the same location, showing seven days of our wet, winter weather.

Day One: Not everything is brown & dead here, even in winter, we have a fair amount of green, like these ferns in my yard
Day Two: Foggy & Cold, front yard
Day Three: Foggy & Cold, back yard
Day Four: Budding Branches, Cherry Tree, Signs of Spring?
Day Five: Rain on my window
Day Six: A Bit of Sky among the clouds (this was in the morning, before the clouds unleashed their daily downpour
Day Seven: Bulbs starting to come up, Day Lilies, More Signs of Spring? Maybe I'm just being hopeful...We often have our coldest weather in February (hopefully not in the teens, like last month) & sometimes snow...

Hope you enjoyed these seven days in Tacoma, Washington & that there are signs of Spring in the air for you! SAM

(For any of you wondeing about the Storytelling Saturday, I will be making this a monthly feature & attempting to add a space for you to share any interesting storytelling objects you've stumble accross)

*All photos & text the property of Shelley McElhiney, all rights reserved, please contact for any desired usage.

Brrr...

It's turned very cold (for us, anyway). Not much snow, but very cold:

How about you? Are you experiencing the ice & cold of winter? What's it like where you are?

*All photos & content property of Shelley McElhiney.

New Winter inspired contest

Hi all!

It's time for a new, winter inspired, creativity contest from the YCSI guild. I don't have the photos at this time. You can see the entries on the guild blog If I get these this time, I will post them here. You can come back & vote here or on the guild blog. I can't tell you which one is mine yet. I like the way it turned out. Like everything I have made, it's an unusual design, modern & uses disparate elements. I can't wait to show it to you! The other entries are lovely, as well. Have fun! See you again soon. SAM

PS- The voting widget has a little pop up ad. Close it so you can see all the entries & vote.

I'm in love with my car?

New Year's Confession # 1:

I'm afraid of my car.
Ok, I know I titled this "I'm in love with my car?" & at many times in my life I have been in love with my car. Well, at least as much as a person can be in love with a car. I'm not talking that kind of obsession that many men & even some women have, where the car is all, but just kind of a liking the vehicle you drive, a physical, visual extension of who you are. Take the car in the picture. It's a 66' Mustang in one of my favorite colors & I liked it until it was destroyed by a tree, one winter. We had locus trees by the driveway. These where huge, tall & seemingly strong trees, overlooking our house. The wood was, however absorbent. The trees took in all the moisture & weight of winter snow & broke under the weight. The car took the blows & was destroyed in the process. It was a cool car, won more than a few quarter mile races & had a killer, rockin' stereo, but nothing lasts forever.
I liked the Mini we drove in Germany. I'm sure you've seen these adorable little cars driving about. Many dealerships have opened up in recent years & I've thought about trying another one. We couldn't bring it back with us, it would have cost more than the car was worth to import it to the U. S. It was a fun little car!
I loved the Grand Prix that I had a couple of years ago, until the front end was destroyed in an accident. Maybe we'll get it fixed sometime. It's a pretty hot little car, when the hood isn't bent (& can actually be used)
Which brings me to the current car. I like it, in terms of style. It's an early 90's Mustang, purchased after the Grand Prix was not drivable. It's a nice, pretty blue, though it could use a new paint job. The real issue is that I am now afraid of it. It's not the past issues with cars. It has an issue with power, in that the car will shut off while driving down the road. It will start right back up, but there's a smell of smoke. I have this, hopefully irrational, fear that it will explode in a ball of flames, like some action/adventure flick. My brother actually had the hood of his car catch fire one day, while he was driving. He was fine & the car survived, but maybe this is where the fear comes from!
I've heard that the ignition switch on this particular car has issues, so maybe this is the problem. Whatever it is, we should have it fixed very soon. In the meantime though, here's New Year's confession number 1: I know the song by Queen is "I'm in Love with My Car" but, right now, I'm afraid of my car :{ SAM

Hello, Daylight Savings & other randomness

Hey everyone,
So, first a little about myself. I'm a designer & a writer. I say this, not because I do these things professionally but, because these are things that I love to do & couldn't stop myself from doing, if I wanted to (& I don't). I have my own shop http://www.samsstuff.etsy.com where I share the things that I make, in the hope that, one day, this will be my full time job!
I can also be found on flickr (all kinds of photos, not just things I've made, please take a look), twitter, mycraft, ravellry & craftstylish, as samsstuff.
One of the first things that I wanted to talk about, since we just went through our annual torture, is Daylight Savings Time. Do we really still need to go through this twice a year? We have "modern" lights & electricity. What function does this practivce now serve? Most of us do not live outside (& if we did, we'd probably rise & go to sleep with the sun, so we wouldn't need a system anyway) so why do we need to go through some torturous, antiquated ritual? It really defies logic. We work & go to school at all hours of the day & no longer function only during daylight, plus we have lights & electricity to see & function when it's nighttime. So, my thought is that we should abolish Daylight Savings in all states (some states have already done this, like Arizona). What do you think? Sorry for the rant, I go through this every year, particularly in the spring. We have to force our bodies to adjust & really, for what?
Winter is definitely still here, in the Northwest! Yesterday we had snow again & expect freezing temperatures for the rest of the week. The day before, it was rain, snow, hail & sun, randomly dispersed throughout the day! When will it end. I'm so ready for this to be over!
I have been working on several new projects for my shop & will be posting them, I'm hoping daily. Stop by! I have also been adding vintage items (some of them handmade, by my grandmother!). Multiple item shipping has been reduced!

Winter Madness sale at my shop!

25% off items throughout the store
25% off all headbands

That's it for now. Stop by the shop, let me know what you think about Daylight Savings (& winter) & take care!

SAM