Jury Duty

I spent the day at jury duty yesterday.  I was not selected but I do have this terrible picture of the beautiful octagon floor tiles to show for it.  I have gotten a little better about carrying around my camera and feel fairly comfortable taking it out in public to shoot photos.  The thing is I'm usually with my kids and not sitting in a government building.  You would think I'd be more at ease using a small camera phone but something about it makes me feel sneaky, like I'm going to get caught.

I'd started playing around with the photo effects.  I love the names like glimmer, twilight and vintage.

Here is one I simply cropped.


Same photo, uncropped with the bleak effect.



While on the subject of my phone, I've this love/hate relationship with it lately.   It started doing some funky things the other day so I got a little paranoid and changed the passwords on all my accounts.  My phone did not like that and it decided to stop talking to me.  After multiple trips to the Verizon store and several hard restarts later we are back on speaking terms.

The thing that bothered me so much was how anxious I felt without it.  I was not missing anything important but in the last few months I've gotten use to having my e-mail at my fingertips and I was having withdrawals.  As much as I love technology this was a good lesson in taking a step back and reminding myself that I need to unplug from time to time.

I also take back what I said the other day about loving any excuse to go downtown.  Jury duty is not really how I love spending my day off.

Gettin My Grill On

1/25s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

I'm not a big fan of cooking chicken but when I do I really go for it.  I've decided that bulk cooking is the way to go for easy, healthy cooking.  Lately I've been watching the ads for the natural chicken to go on sale at my grocery store then I buy like I'm feeding a football team.  Seriously, I bought 3 family packs this weekend.  I marinated them then grilled them up on Sunday.  I'll cut some into strips for fajitas/sandwiches/wraps and the rest I'll chop for salads/quesadillas/burritos/pot pies.  Then I just freeze a serving size in ziploc bags and I'm good for then next month or two.

I realize many people do this already but I'm just now catching on to the once a month cooking thing.  Tomorrow night I'm going to throw some over pasta with pesto sauce.  Yum.

Another manual photo.
One of these days I'll take a photo class but in the mean time my strategy is to shoot, make adjustments, and keep shooting.  If I'm way off I'll take a photo using auto and check to see what the settings were.  In the photo above I had the aperture and speed right but I needed to boost the ISO to 400 to get the right amount of light. 

New Kicks

Pomegranate

Still working on my manual settings.  I love the colors in this shot.  Green + purple + gold = pretty.  I also took some pictures of a pretty red pomegranate but this one in decay is so much more interesting. 

These photography shots are pretty random, I know, but with all the craziness of starting work and school this daily photo assignment gives me something small to check off my list.  I'd love to have time to sew new dresses for school or knit another sweater but one photo a day (at least) is about all I can manage right now. 

Paint

 Working on last minute presents for my mom's birthday.  What a bright and colorful subject.  These were taken on full manual mode instead of my regular aperture or speed setting. Getting better but I have a looong way to go.

Sunset

I take a lot of pictures of my kids and close up pictures of the things that I make so today I decided to grab my other lens and head out at sunset.  We were right in the middle of making dinner so I didn't go further than my back porch but just these few photos make me want to take more.
 

Meet The Teacher Day

School starts on Monday but today we got to go in to meet the teachers and see the classrooms.  Ava's teacher was friendly, well organized and served us pancakes.  You can't ask for more than that.

Fourth Grader

We know Erin's teacher because Ava was in her class a few years ago.  She is awesome and we are all happy to have her again.  Erin made quite an impression this morning when she wrote her name in cursive to sign in.
 
First Grader

It was a great summer but they are excited to be going back to school.  Two more days then it's back to making lunches in the morning and helping with homework at night.  The freedom of summer is good but the structure of school is good too.  I just hope this year does not go as quickly as the last.  They are getting too big too fast.

I've been trying to take more pictures for The August Break this month, so hear it is.  Random I know but life with kids is just upside down some days.

Back To School

I've been back to work for a few days now and kids started today.  Unfortunately the AC is out in my room and I've been melting.  Despite the heat, I love the start to a new school year.  Nothing beats a bouquet of freshly sharpened #2 pencils.

Old Ford

 
Taking pictures everyday gets difficult when you feel like you keep photographing the same thing over and over.  Today I walked a few feet down the alley and found this old truck.  I think I snapped less than a dozen pictures but a new subject was refreshing.

Little House/Garden

Hellloooo!

I am a big fan of the photos (content... etc) over at Enjoying the Small Things.  I followed Kelle's link (here) to learn how she enlarges her photos.  After a little fumbling around... Success!  That is me with computers.  I don't usually get things the first time, but here is one situation where my stubbornness works to my advantage. I will get this even if it means we're eating cereal for dinner. 

I also finally got rid of the gray boarder around my pictures.  That has been bugging me for awhile now. 

So, there you have it.  Me.  Practically life sized (I'm small). 

Also note the new Citron I'm sport'n in the photo.  I had to take a pic so I could update my Raverly page (click here to read more about this knitting pattern).  Look at me being all productive.  I think I'll go take a nap.

By the way Kelle's post today had me laughing and crying within the same minute.  Click here to read for yourself, trust me it's worth it.

Creativity Boot Camp: Update

Poetry.

Self portraits.

Creativity Boot Camp is kicking my butt.  It has really been a challenge to push myself in new directions.  I have enjoyed Meagan and the guest posts encouragement though, especially today.  I'm not sure I know anyone who loves taking pictures of themselves but it makes me sad to think that the girls will have a million pictures of themselves and only a handful of their mom (and dad, sorry Jeff). 

I'm going to try to take more self portraits even though they can be incredibly tough to scroll through.  I hope that being more comfortable with how I look will set a good example for my girls.  Of all the gifts I could give them, self acceptance is right up there at the top.

And speaking of gifts, I also wrote this Haiku for Erin this week. It was so much more fun than I thought it would be.  I loved how some of the other boot campers used photos for inspirations.  It was a perfect place to start.  Really, what is less intimidating than birthday cake?

The Sunday Creative: Open

"Open"
Today is the first day of The Sunday Creative, found over at Meagan's blog Madeline Bea (here). Each Sunday there will be a word prompt to spark our creativity. I am a little torn between photography and sketching. Sketching once a week, even for 5 minutes with my girls would be a wonderful creative project we could do together. But I had so much fun during Meagan's Creativity Boot Camp that I can't help but take pictures of the word prompt. For example, I'm shucking corn for dinner and looking at the cool patterns in the husk thinking, this would be a good picture for "open". So who knows which direction I'll go, but either way I'm excited to participate.

I drew some simple line boxes to get started in my sketchbook journal. The girls and I did a little brainstorming before we started drawing and we talked about the word open and what it made us think of. We got passed just a picture of an open door and talked about a butterfly opening it's wings, opening a present and a dinosaur with an open mouth. I thought they did a great job with the prompt but honestly I was just happy to have them participate.

Creativity Boot Camp - Day 13

"Smile"

Although I love taking pictures of my girls smiles I thought it fitting to begin and end with a self portrait. Feeling a bit more comfortable in front of the camera now.

Creativity Boot Camp - Day 12

"Smooth"

Another prompt that took me a few days. I love how the colors in this glass vase look like water.

Creativity Boot Camp - Day 11

"Hush"
This one took me a couple of days. "Hush" is has been difficult for me to find lately. I looked outside at sunset, the library, even searched the house in the early hours of the morning. Today I was putting away laundry and I thought the light in the bedroom was really beautiful. I was doing chores, not reading, but if I had time to read this would be a nice place to do it. In fact I see this picture and think, I need to get my hair cut. Floor mopped, rugs steamed, bags of out grown clothes delivered. Waiting for the "hush".

Creativity Boot Camp - Day 10

"Full Bodied"

Not may favorite photo of the course. These prompts just seem to keep getting harder. I'm not really a still life sort of gal.
Besides the creative prompt we were also given the assignment to focus on our senses. How much do we really see, touch, smell, taste and hear the everyday world around us? The mornings are easy, a nice quiet house and a warm cup of coffee, I am generally pretty good at appreciating this time to myself.

Once the girls are up though life starts moves at a faster pace. Erin's day always begins and ends with a snuggle. She rolls out of bed and crawls up on my lap. I'll gladly put down whatever I'm doing for a little cozy time. Snuggles are always followed for a request for breakfast.

I skipped the cereal this morning and scooped myself some lemon yogurt topped with blueberries. My senses were singing. It was delicious.

After breakfast I headed out to the garden. The zucchini plants fruitless so I'm attempting to hand pollinate them, but that is another story. Anyway, they are surprisingly sharp little plants and I think I may have to add garden gloves to my list of sewing projects.

The day got busy after that with play dates, swim lessons and running errands. I did spend a chunk of time making lasagna, listening to jazz and sipping wine. Not what I normally do on a Tuesday but I was already going to make the lasagna so I just followed Madeline's orders and took it a step further. It took longer than I had planned and I was in a bit of a hurry but I tried to focus on slowing down, breathing and enjoying it. I substituted the chard from our garden instead of frozen spinach which made me appreciate the meal even more.

Finally I ended my day with a fresh bar of lemongrass soap and a shower. Oh, there is nothing like a fresh bar of handmade soap. If I were to rate myself on the days assignment I'd give myself a C+. My day did involve some amazing smells, delicious food, great music, laughter, hugs and sweet faces but I have a feeling I'm missing the subtle things. I'm going to keep trying to slow down, slow down and enjoy more.