Dances of Dreams

St John's Wort Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:26:06 PDT

If I am not mistaking, the flowers below are called St John's wort. These flowers are just so pretty, unlike their name. I have heard of health benefits from St John's wort plant, but finally saw the flowers.

There is all kind of information about St John's wort online if you are interested in knowing more. I just want to feature these beautiful flowers.

I first saw these flowers in the garden section of home goods store, and just couldn't part way with them. They had rows and row of these flowers on display, which was just breath taking to see.

I love how the "whiskers" spreading all around the seed and the flower petals. Hopefully I will to see them again this year, and maybe even bring a pot home to grow.

Get a dose of sun shine at Mellow Yellow!

Visit other entries at Macro Monday!

Scenic Sunday--Beautiful Pond

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 04:02:00 PDT

These pictures were taken late last fall, when the pond was still set up for showing. They got lost in my archives. My organization skill is not organized enough yet, especially on the computer or technology part of the spectrum.

This view was from the inside of the flower house looking out to the road. Living in middle of the city, Belle Isle was my sanctuary during the warmer months. It is a great place to spend the day to just be with nature, or humans if you so choose.

I'm a city person at heart, but I do like to spend time outside and with nature. It always seems to refresh my spirit, and charges up my perspective. There are a few nature parks around Metro Detroit that we go on occasion, but Belle Isle is where I like most.

See more entries at Scenic Sunday!

Sky Watch--Just Enjoy

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:24:22 PST

Another beautiful week we had around here in Metro Detroit. The sky was blue with gorgeous white cloud on most days. I have been out and about in our backyard for some clean-ups since I am so ready to get my hands in the dirt.

The sky above me was just fantastic to see.

When the sky was this dramatic, would you not taking the pictures? Or when the sky was just dazzling with just a few clouds, would you just ignore its beauty?

The cloud rushed in to town with such a vigorous manner on one afternoon. I love seeing the cloud like this in their strong profile. It's such a rush to see this amazing sky.

While pulling out garbage from my fence, I saw this scenery as I looked up. It had just a touch of white cloud passing through, but the barren branches enhanced my view.

I'm known for not taking just one picture! In fact, I have to snap a few for "in case" situation. This view was slightly on my left side, and I have to admit it is fabulous.

Enjoy other entries at Sky Watch Friday!

Wordless Wednesday--Curly Cabbage

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:11:40 PST

See more entries at Watery Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesday!

Bright Like The Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:46:47 PST

Spring is in the air, and I can actually feel it today. It is much lighter at 6:00 in the morning now than it was last week. When I woke up today, I didn't have to turn on the light. It was a good feeling.

I can't wait to start growing flowers in our garden. These sun flowers were from last year, and the pictures were taken after the rain.

I am trying to perfect my shots of bees and water drops, but none of which I am good at yet, but it is that push that keeps life more interesting.

I'm so ready for spring. I want to see new life around me, and I want to smell the fragrant of spring also. Wishing everyone a happy week!

Get a dose of sun shine at Mellow Yellow!

Visit Macro Monday!

Scenic Sunday--In The Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:46:19 PST

We saw a small building on Belle Isle island last time we visited, and out of curiosity we went in to see. It was a little museum sort of thing since it took the kids less than five minutes to go through it.

There was not much in this building just yet, but in times, I think they will build it up. This was just a part of a long hallway.

There were a few spots where the kids could get their hands on and touch things, but there were not enough to keep them entertained for a while.

These were the two picture boards with all the mussel shells and information that caught my eyes. I didn't know Detroit had so many different types of mussels like this. It was great to see.

See more entries at Scenic Sunday!

Sky Watch--Trees in Sepia Tone

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:48:22 PST

These pictures below have just gray sky, very gloomy and depressing. To make them more interesting, I change them to sepia tone, and I like the effect they took on.

I haven't done the Sepia Scenes meme for a while, so it is fun to see something different.

The sky was gray with just a touch of white cloud behind this tree. Though I like to see the sky in colors, but I assure you, there is no color in this picture above.

I took this photo behind a Middle School when the dark cloud was moving in. In this sepia tone, the cloud looked like smoke or fog making it mysterious.

To see more entries, visit MaryT at Sepia Scenes.

Or look at colorful sky pictures at Sky Watch

Dressing Up My Home Address

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:47:12 PST

Many of the houses on my block display their addresses with numbers right on the wall of their house. Mine is no different, and throughout the year the numbers are pretty beaten looking. To dress up my house for spring, I'm looking for a replacement.

There are so many styles and designs to choose from for a simple number, not to mention the address plagues. I am one of those shoppers that can't decide on what I want, unless I look inside my wallet. Even with the financial part in mind, I find myself looking at address signs. There are too many choices to narrow down.

Image Source

Usually, I will look and look until the children run out of patience waiting for me to make a decision. I have to take into consideration of my location if I go with an address plaque or an address sign. I do want my house to stand out, but I also don't want the neighbor kids have a chance to destroy it.

I often take me a few trips to the store before I can decide on what I want. I'm still looking to replace my address numbers, and I have set my mind on two styles, but I will wait until the snow melts first.

Colorful Pansies

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:00 PST

I read somewhere that you can keep pansies indoor during the winter, and so I did. I bought a flower pot and put it on my window sill in the mud room where there would be some sun coming though.

However, the plant became stringy for the lack of sun light, and I found out that pansies didn't smell that great either. The pansies you see below were from the past summer .

As for me, I love lavender, violet, or purple so obviously I chose these colors for my winter experience and cheer ups. They didn't survive indoor long afterward.

Amanda at Self Sagacity had a post on how to Encourage Pansies growing, and had many pansies in different colors. I might want to try and grow these in the summer.

See more entries at Outdoor Wednesday

Time to Pass Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:34:29 PST

So far this year, I have received three awards for Dances Of Dreams, but I have acknowledge "out loud" just yet. I think now is the time to do so because I want to thank my blogging friends, and introduce them, if you haven't meet them yet, to you.

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Update--On March 4, 2010, JonJon Rosaleen at The Passage of Life passed on this Beautiful Blogger Award to me.

If you haven't met JonJon yet, give her a visit at The Passage of Life. She has a beautiful blog, and is very friendly blogger.

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On February 26, 2020, I received the Sunshine Award, and the Beautiful Blogger Award, from John at Making Nothing Online. John also has two other blogs, the English Wilderness, and the Daily Photo Gallery.

If you haven't been at John's blogs yet, give him a visit!

Thank you John for the shout out! I'm touched!

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On February 7, 2010, I received the Appreciation Award from Carmen at Carmen's Chronicles. If you haven't been to Carmen's blog, you're really missing out on the multi-talents that she has. She write wonderful post on places that she have visited, pens up some beautiful poems, and take some beautiful pictures of her travel.

Visit her and you will find out what a terrific lady she is. Thank you Carmen; I appreciate you too!

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On Feb. 3rd, 2010, I received the One Lovely Blog Award from wenn at Experiences. Wenn will tempt you in with her delicious looking food photos, share with you places that she has visited, and beautiful pictures.

Thank you wenn for thinking of me, and always supporting me.

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On January 31st, 2010, the Kreativ Blogger Award was given to me from Naqvee at When Almighty Desires. Naqvee writes some amazing and thought provoking posts at times even though she is quite young.

Thank you Naqvee for your continuing support and thinking of me!

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Now, that was easy to list all my blogging friends who pass on these awards. The hardest part for me is to pick which blog to give to. On top of it, I know some don't do awards on their blogs or they already have received these awards too.

So what to do, what to do? This is one of most difficult part for me, probably that's why it took me so long to post this.

I am going to break the rules here, and just acknowledge John, Carmen, Wenn and Naqvee for giving me these awards. I'll leave them here for any of my blogging friends who want to pick them up!

One Beautiful Yellow Flower

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:32:22 PST

The name of this flower temporary escapes my mind. I had it at the top of my thinking corner, but once I uploaded the pictures, I couldn't recall its name.

Now if you want me to look it up, I could too. But how would I describe it? Yellow colors and many petals? Do you know how many yellow petal flowers out there? It would take hours to find the result!

This is another beautiful flower at the Belle Isle Conservatory! I know this flower isn't the Rose of Sharon. It looks similar, but it has a different name! For goodness sake, it has just come back to me, it is HIBISCUS!

Have you experienced forgetfulness moment like me?

Get a dose of sun shine at Mellow Yellow!

Visit Macro Monday

Scenic Sunday--Statue

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:25:11 PST

This was one of many statues at Belle Isle. I love looking at powerful expression of emotions from statue like this. No, not gargoyles though; they are too scary for me.

I am not quite sure if this was a ram or not. It is kind of difficult to tell when I can't see the face. If I remember correctly, this statue stayed in the circle of Belle Isle near where the zoo used to be. From the main road, you can actually make a turn and go to the zoo without circling around the island.

From this picture, you can tell that I had to look way way up, but still I can't clearly see the face. Maybe when summer comes around, I will have a better chance, but then again, maybe not, since with warmer weather there will be more people around too. I'm strange that way!

See more entries at Scenic Sunday!

Sky Watch--With a Robin

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:46:49 PST

I don't know why but I have seen so many robins around here lately. The weather is still cold, and snowy, but robins come out in groups. They are fatter than I have seen them in the summer, and are not that scare to fly away when they see people.

There was a group of these chubby robins perching on the tree in the parking lot where I picked up the children from school. However, I only wanted to focus on just this one, and tried to avoid their bombs on my head.

I was looking for sky picture, but this robin came into sight, so I was distracted. Anyway, it still showed the beautiful blue sky in the back ground, and the robin was a bonus.

A few days ago, I saw another group of robin near home, all fluffy and chubby like this one in the pictures. They were tearing the dried flower branches along the fence and flied away. This ritual went on for a while.

Not only robins gathering dried branches, but squirrels too. I actually watched them struggling to pull the dried leaves and branches away from the fence. I'm thinking that robins are building their nests since Spring is almost here. Could it be?

See other pictures of Sky Watch here!

Wordless Outdoor Wednesday--My Dancing Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:06:48 PST

See more entries at Outdoor Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesday!

Meeting Up

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:03:05 PST

I am from a large family, and we are all over the country such as from Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey, and Michigan to California. With far distance like this, we hardly get to see each other. There are many nieces and nephews that I haven't even met yet.

Picture Courtesy of trattoriaacqua.com

When talking about a family reunion, it's even harder to decide where to meet up. However, since our mother is already in her 80, and live in California; we decide to round up at San Diego banquet rooms, where traveling will be at a minimum for our mom

The last time we got together weren't a pleasant one, but were with tears and sadness in saying goodbye to our dad. That sad memory stayed with us, thus we want to have a happy one with our mom this time.

Having decided on a place, we are now looking in our schedule to pick a day that would be best for everyone.

IVR Consulting for Small Business

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:01:03 PST

My neighbor runs a small business selling healthy low sodium salt foods online, and in a store. Together with her husband, they try to make ends meet.

Since there are only two people working in the office, and one of them often have to go out on errands such as picking up the kids from school, or mailing out orders, or buying products; they both have to carry two cell phones every where they go. In their own words, "there isn't enough man power to go around."

It was the biggest problem for them, so they are looking into Small Business IVR Consulting to help with the many aspects of running a small store efficiently. It is not feasible for them to hire help since the nature of their business changes every day, and having an employee would only bring up many other expenses than what they need right now.

I am hoping that things would work out better for them and that they would find an answer to their dilemma.

The Latest in Liposuction

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:00:31 PST

Every woman in this world wants to be beautiful, and conscious about her look. We all at one time or another, hear of liposuction, but not too many of us would want to go through that procedure. Nowadays, the best Chicago lipo is introduced the revolutionary VASER Lipo system, and it is less invasive.

This VASER Lipo sculpts specific body area such as the face, chin, stomach, and back. It uses ultrasound energy to burn the fat with very little damage to other tissues around the area. This procedure uses local anesthesia and is an out-patient treatment. The benefits of VASER Lipo causes less swelling and bruising than traditional liposuction.

The MiRandiance Aesthetic Medical Center is located in Chicago and is led by Dr. Tal Raine, who has over 25 years of experiences in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He is an expert in VASER Lipo, and is also training other surgeons to get the best result out of system.

If you ever want to improve your look with the latest technology, check out VASER Lipo system.

Yellow Dahlia

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:18:37 PST

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We met in a classroom full of people
You, me, from the same sort of town
Like a magnet, the eyes fixed
And it was the moment lightening hit!

You shone like the sun on dark days
Lift me out under heavy rain cloud
Show kindness and a tender loving touch
Beautified the world all around

What was it that drawn us both
As we lingered in each other look
And each day pushed slowly forward
One step forth but then ten steps back
Then remained just looks between us
You stayed you, and I just am...

Get a dose of sun shine at Mellow Yellow!

Visit Macro Monday

Sky Watch--Hang Over

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:25:38 PST

We were blessed this week, with beautiful sunny days, and blue sky. The white clouds were so white that you could even see them moving slowly by. Sometimes, the clouds stopped, and hung over the tree branches.

Now if the weather were a bit warmer, I would pull out my garden chair, sit and watch the sky with a glass of lemonade. But here in Michigan it was too cold for me to do so. I must move around to keep warm.

Looking through the bare branches became a joy for me now! I like it, and I am sure when the leaves grow back I would wish to see through the tree again. Just like when it is too hot, I wish for cooler temperature, and when it is too cold, I want warm sun light.

Just thought I show you my "hang over" clouds today, not the "hang over" that you were thinking. Lent season has just begun for me, and I don't drink so there will be no "hang over" on that part. I think I'm drunk just writing this post! (Rainfield's fault!)

Have a great Friday!

Wordless Wednesday--Courting

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:04:41 PST

Lockers For the Gym Area

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:37:17 PST

Last year, I signed my son up at a private soccer club since he outgrew the AYSO in our local area. He loves soccer, and I want him to have the opportunity to develop his skills. The price for a year is double the AYSO fee, but it was worth my effort.

Image From morelockers.com

We are now playing against other private clubs, which we have to travel to the other team's home turf some time, and it is wonderful to see that some of these clubs provide their players with individual locker to keep their personal things. These lockers are similar to those school lockers, and gym lockers, but the ones for the coaches are wooden lockers, which are quite impressive.

Our club is very new, and it is geared toward lower income families. We don't have our own place for holding winter games yet. The club mission is affordable prices at higher caliber for players. We currently rent two fields from the city for our soccer games during spring and fall.

As we grow, the official wants to acquire a building to hold games and practices for the players, especially during the winter. At such time, I'm sure they will also look into lockers for sale to put the finishing touch in the gym area.

Having Fun With Sports Betting

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:38:37 PST

I have two lady friends that are absolutely into sports, especially football and baseball, which for me, I have no interest or glue of what is going on at all. Watching these games with them left me very frustrated. Baseball is too slow for me, and football is all about players piling up on top of each other.

Now, for those sport fanatics out there, don't be too fast in chopping my head off. I understand that football and baseball are American favorite pass time, but really, no one has ever explained the principles of the games to me in ways that I could understand. Everyone is talking in a foreign language such as fumble, stealing bases, or something else.

Creative Commons-Photo Source

I get lost when my friend talked about sports betting! They listed out the numbers of win, lost, and tie of the teams they are betting on. I couldn't remember what I did yesterday, but they could recall the exact numbers, which I really admire and wish to have a young brain.

Seeing my frustrations when we hang out together, my friends suggested to me to check out this page online: How to Bet on Sports. From this article, I understand a few rules where you have to take things like injuries, weather conditions, and point differentiates/averages into account.

Though my friends don't use money for their sport betting games, but they do it for serious fun such as who would have to buy dinner or drinks when we get together. I have a bit more knowledge now, and maybe I will try to bet with them next time, but don't count on me winning anything with these ladies yet.

Yellow Sun Flower

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:25:17 PST

This was my yellow sun flower from the summer. I guess I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt again. Once the flowers bloomed, we had plenty of visitors. The buzzing never seemed to stop.

I bought a bag of sun flower seeds, kept it over night in a dam paper towel, and planted them in our garden. They took root really fast and grew into these beautiful flowers.

This bag of seeds came with different colors of sun flowers, but the yellow ones were classic. These sun flowers were on a smaller size than others were, but they were amazing to have in our small garden.

Get a dose of sun shine at Mellow Yellow!

Visit Macro Monday

Join the new meme Photo Time, post a picture and link it up!

Scenic Sunday--Flowers Field

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:20:00 PST

This was a beautiful field of red and yellow mums at the Conservatory. These photos were taken in late November. They probably changed these flowers already, but I didn't have a chance to visit it since.

These vibrant colors were just incredible to see. Walking into this part of the Conservatory was always a pleasant surprise. They had different flowers at different time of the year.

Hopefully we will have an early Spring, and I will get a chance to go back soon. For now, my archive is what keeps my memory alive.

Happy Valentine's Day!

See more entries at Scenic Sunday!

The Amazing Colors of the Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Icy BC) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:32:00 PST

I took these pictures about two weeks ago, on our way to my son's school for Family Math Night. Of course, I had to look for a decent place to pull over and took the pictures while the little boy complained that we would be late.

I assured him that we had plenty of time since we left early just for occasion like this. I knew he just wanted to see his friends, and wanted to get there before them.

I could have sat by the road side and looked at this scenery happily for a long time. It was just so beautiful, even with all the buildings and power lines in my sight.

Well, having a little boy in the car I just had to snap as many pictures as I could, and moved on. I had not seen such beautiful colors before. It looked so magical, and dreamy.

When we got to my son's school, I was rewarded with this beautiful sky. It had the same hanging colors cloud, but the sky had a brighter look.

I was happy that these three pictures came out decent.