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Heater Day Has Come

Published by Sula H.

Finally! Heater day has come, and that’s supposed to be good news. Probably because of the recent chill, they decided to turn on the heat a day earlier than usual. After all,  remember – in China the heating system is regulated corporately, which means no one can individually control it, and it usually is turned on on November 15, and will last until March 15 – no matter whether you’re home or not, or whether it’s cold or not; the heat will be on. Except that my radiators have no sign of heat – yet. So I’m still hoping and wishing, and I’m very thankful that the last few days the weather has warmed up a little again. Still, I want a comfy home, and that means I’ll have to keep an eye on my radiators these days.

By the way, talking about keeping an eye on things – I saw one yesterday. A tree shaker, that is. Remember Saturday’s post? And yesterday, I was out on my bike, enjoying the sunshine and what not, when all of a sudden, there he was. Except, he wasn’t actually shaking the tree – so on that I was wrong – but he was hitting it with a stick. So, now I have to change the terminology and call them “tree hitters” instead. And I have to change the job description, too, because that tree hitter didn’t work on campus, that’s for sure. Rather he was out in the countryside, which means tree hitters are everywhere in this area, not just on our campus. Nonetheless, the result is the same – the trees are without leaves, and I’m not happy with that. Yesterday, however, that tree hitter wasn’t happy with me (I was trying to take a picture of him so I could show you, but for some strange reason he didn’t like that at all, so again no picture!

Treasure Sunday: November 13th

Published by Sula H.

I got you another collection of beautiful gems today. Starting with this one …

You Are A Miracle by Gabi
Every time I look at this page, it takes my breath away. I love the composition, the brush work, the pops of colors, and the delicate feel of this page. Even the stitches add to the overall beauty of this page.

Snow Day by WendyW
Admitted, I picked a layout by WendyW earlier, but I’m just in love with this page. Her composition is beautiful, her shadowing impeccable, her clustering looks so realistic, and just looking at this page I can feel the atmosphere of a beautiful winter’s day.

Right Now by jennyf29
On to a really fun page. I love the dirt/paint splashes which makes you feel like you’re really in the dirt of the game when looking at this page. But I also love the overall composition, and that acrylic alpha she used for the title.

Geek Chic by gonewiththewind
Gonewiththewind has a fun page this week that I’d like to point out. Not only did she scrap a great photo, but I also love her clustering, and the playful feel of this page.

Magical by alannabanana
This page jumped at me in the gallery because of its gorgeous clustering. I also love the soft color scheme, which is perfect for scrapping the photo she chose.

Thankful by Tine
Next up is a really simple page, but I still keep coming back to it, because of that pretty clustering the created, and the beautiful job of shadowing that cluster, and I love how she created a photoless page, even using a frame.

Barred Owl by LovelyMissKait
Last, but not least is this page, about which I love the artistic feel, the brush work, the paint splats, the pops of yellow, and how she incorporated the paper strips and pieces into the foliage cluster. The way she did her title also is quite fun.

Well, this is it for this week, and I hope you like my choices just as much as I do. I hope I got you inspired once more to kick your scrapping skills up a notch. On that note, I wish everyone a great start into the new week!

P2D: Quietude

Published by Sula H.

I want to show you another Paper to Digi sample. For this one, I used teapot2angel’s “She” …

… and turned it into a digital layout:

I loved the various paper pieces about the traditional scrapbook page, and the overall composition worked really well for a digital page, in my opinion.

Anyways, if you haven’t tried your hand at P2D yet, don’t miss out on all the fun and inspiration that is out there!

Saturday Feature: The Mystery of the Leafless Trees

Published by Sula H.

I figured it out! I discovered the secret to the question that has puzzled me for such a long time (even in one of my last posts): The question as to why the trees on campus only have green leaves, or no leaves; and why there are never any leaves on the ground that crunch so wonderfully when you walk. (With all my “grown-up-ness,” I love crunching leaves!) The answer to that question: It’s the tree shakers.

What? You don’t know what tree shakers are!?

Well, let me enlighten you: Tree shakers are the people who shake the trees to make all the leaves fall off. Makes sense, right?

Our tree shakers work on campus to keep the grounds clean and tidy (and they do a meticulous job at that, I assure you), and you could either call them gardeners, maintenance people, or – as a matter of fact – tree shakers. So, believe me or not, in China you can actually make a living with shaking trees. (Or, at least it’ll be part of your job description to put it more correctly). And not only do the tree shakers shake the trees to make all the leaves fall off – as soon as the leaves hit the ground, they also gather them together and dispose of them. That’s why there’s neither colorful leaves on trees, nor colorful leaves on the ground. (Except for when you are really lucky and get to the tree before they do. That’s why in autumn you always need to keep an eye open.) So, sad as it is, the answer is that simple: Our lack of autumn splendor is all the tree shakers’ fault!

I wish I had a photo to show you the tree shaker people in action, but I don’t, because I never knew we had tree shaker people until earlier this week, when we were puzzled by a leafless tree that only hours earlier had been in full autumn splendor. That’s when my friends told me about the tree shakers, and now I know.

See this photo?

I took this picture earlier this week, and that tree still had lots of pretty leaves. But yesterday, when I was crawling through the shrubbery for another photo shoot with a friend, that tree was empty; leafless; desolate. And on the ground, we found this …

The evidence of the tree shakers. We, however, took our revenge!

On that note: Happy fall, y’all!

(And here are a couple more pictures …)

Saying Thanks

And today I’m thankful for a good long talk with my friends at lunch, and that it’s the weekend, and that I got to play some tennis.

And I’m thankful that it’s only 2 more days till heater day! (Though supposedly it was turned on last night, but I don’t feel no nothing about the heat in my radiators.)