~ news ~

As you may have noticed from my previous posts, my older daughter, H. and her daughter M. are staying with us for a while.  This means I will be taking more and more photos of my grandbaby, M. and sharing them here. B. is a bit confused when I'm called "Grandma", and always says, "You're not Grandma!", but overall we are adjusting the the change.  Aunt B. looks forward to the days that M. is here to see her when she gets home, and M. is always full of smiles when we walk in the door.  Here they are playing with hats...

Both girls have been a bit under the weather lately, and B. learned how to take her own temperature...

I have completed more of my December Daily album, but it's status is still incomplete!  I believe I've passed the halfway mark, and I'm needing to print (and/or reprint) some photos in order to finish.  I will finish!!  And when I complete it, I will share.

I am participating in a blog hop on Wednesday!  My first.  It's a One Little Word blog hop, and I will unveil my January page.  But...it's not done!  YIKES!  I'm having a difficult time fitting it all in -- balancing it all, if you will.  ;-) This 365 photo project is kicking my butt!  Since I was explored (six times in one week!) I really dislike posting photos that are not very good, even more than I did before.  Some sort of pressure that I am putting on myself (as usual) and it's really silly!  Same with the OLW project.  It should be quite easy.  I'm having problems making decisions like...Should I hand write it, or type it up?  Should I use a grey background for the assignment pieces, or white?  Should I write in grey or orange ink?  Etc.  Just when I think I've made a decision, I change my mind again.  I've done the same little 2.5x3.5 quote insert at least 8 times, and I'm still not sure it's right!  I do have one of the quote inserts completed (I think there will be two).  I have it basically planned out, but I haven't found the proper amount of time to implement. I haven't been able to make simple decisions -- pretty much about color, so it's holding me back.  It's so unbelievably silly!!!  I stayed up until 2 AM working on it Saturday night -- plenty of time for a person that can make decisions to complete it, but alas, not I!  Maybe my word should have been decide! :-)

I do know these things:
Orange and grey will be the main colors.
I enjoy the project, just not the decisions.
Next month will be easier, because the basic color decisions will have been made.
I am excited about the blog hop!  (So come back and visit Wednesday morning by 8 am)!

~ explored ~

Busy, busy, busy around here!  I've done a few of my December Daily pages, but I'm still not done!  I will finish!!  :-)  The good weather that we were having when I last posted has left us, and we are experiencing full on winter!  The girls have enjoyed playing outside on occasion.  More snow predicted for later this week!

12/365

M & B on sled

M saying "cheese"

 The last two days I've had photos "explored" on flickr.  This is all new to me, and kinda silly, but also kinda fun!  I find it interesting that I would consider both shots "over done" or a bit cliche.  But, oh well, I'll take it! Here are the two photos.

~ minimal liquid ~  16/365 and 2/52 weeks (theme "liquid") and "minimal" for We're Here! group

 ~ bright & colourful ~  17/365 and "bright and colourful for We're Here! and 112 pictures in 2012

I cannot leave you without a B. story.  She loves pistachios!  I have photos of her eating them.  She can even say the word, and it's quite cute!  Last night, we were watching Pinocchio and B. looked up at us and said, "Can I have some Pitocchios?"

~ a walk ~

Just a quick one tonight to share a few photos.  My family and I went for a walk this evening.  For one, to get the girls out -- they needed to run.  :-) Also, I wanted to try to capture a sunset using one of the new lens filters that I received as a Christmas gift from my soul mate!

Bundled B.

Merry M.

going...

going...

gone

For some reason the photo below has been getting a lot of love over on flickr.  We had a few hours without a child yesterday so my man drove me around town to try to find a photo for theme 1 of my 52 weeks group (My Town).  I took several photos, including this one, using my new lens hoods (also from my sweetie)!

~ alliant building ~ 7/365

Finally, I did do some work on my still unfinished December Daily album this weekend, as well as gathered a few items for my OLW project (yes that meant a trip to my LSS)!  I will post photos of both projects sooner rather than later (I hope)!

~ mostly photos ~

Just a quick post to share some photos that I like from  the last week and a half or so.  The first comes from Christmas Eve at my folks.  This is my mother, B., and my granddaughter, M., waving out the door as SANTA left!  Yes, my mother arranged for Santa to visit the girls on Christmas Eve!!!  She's amazing!  Shortly after this photo was taken, Bea yelled, "Bye Santa....hey...yook at the yights!"  She really wanted Santa to see Grandma's outdoor Christmas lights!

The next three are from Christmas Day at the other grandma's house.  The first is B. looking at her new dollhouse!  She loves it!  We are working on finding a way to get it to our house so that she can play with it more often (it's so big, we really don't have the space).  

Did you know that the next Olympic sport is nearly-naked iPadding?  ;-)  This is a sight frequently seen in our home, however this shot was captured on Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Cousins, all on iPads, the younger brother more concerned with what his older brother is doing than with the iPad itself (as is usually the case).

Below you will find days 2 and 3 of my 365 adventure (I shared day one here).  I must admit that I am already just taking random, unplanned shots that may or may not work!  That's not a good start to the year!  Day two was going to be me standing on my piano bench in brightly colored socks and PJ bottoms.  However, B kept climbing onto the bench!  So, for the first Bench Monday of the year (and photo 2/365), I submitted a black & white of B's tiny toes.

2/365

Tuesday was my first day back at work and it was long and busy (and the alarm clock was not welcome)!  The three of us went grocery shopping after work and I snapped this "number" shot for the We're Here! flickr group that I am a member of.  As it was my only shot of the day, it is also my day 3 of 365.  There is something about this iPhone shot that I do like.  It could be better, but the green and numbers make me happy in some way.  :-)

3/365

OLW update.  I decided to use the photo of my necklace as my title page for my One Little Word book.  After going back and forth about using PSE for the word "balance" or printing it without the word and adding some sticker alphas, I (think I) settled on the PSE version.  For some reason when I upload this photo it looks like the necklace is gold, but it is silver.  Not really sure why.  :-(  Anyway, a funny story.  I went to pick up my photos and Walgreens and they questioned if this was a photo that I took or if it was professional.  It even had "pro release" written on the front of the envelope, questioning if I needed a release from the professional that took the photo.  I know that it is just because of the overlay, but I still said, "Thank you" when he said that it looked professional!

In the same vain, a few weeks ago I received a flickr email from Getty Images, asking if I would like to license some of my photos (chosen by them through my flickr photostream) for commercial use.   Getty Images is an "invitation-only service for Flickr members to license their photos for commercial use" (quote from the email).  They found six photos in my my photostream that they thought I should license.  I had to fill out a bunch of forms (W2-type stuff) and I still need to get releases for five of the photos (because they have people in them) before they can be placed on their website for sale.   I didn't do much with it until the last week or so, but one of my photos (that didn't need a photo release because there are no people) is currently "for sale", which just cracks me up. 

4/365

Finally, today is Gwamma's birthday.  Among other things, Gwamma got soft pink jammies for her birthday and I got photo four for my 365 project.

~ balance ~

Happy New Year!

I've started many new projects today!  Last year at this time I began my first 365 (photo a day) project on flickr.  I failed in August.  When I say "failed" I mean that I didn't complete the project, started missing days and gave up.  However, I did (virtually) meet some wonderful people along the way!  Many of them completed their 365's yesterday and are beginning a new one today.  I, too, am beginning again, today!  I am hopeful that I will succeed this year.  Many of the people that I met through the 2011 project, are also doing a 52 week project (one photo per week).  I'm doing that, too!  The social aspect of these flickr groups are really powerful, encouraging, and helpful along the way.  I'm very excited for these two projects!  I will continue to participate in several other groups like 112 pictures in 2012 (I failed at that one last year, too) and one of my favorites, the group We're Here!  I think both of those groups will help move the 365 project along and I will be less likely to get into a rut.  I will overlap photos for these projects as needed.  That should make it more manageable.  Now that I know a bit more about myself and the groups and how it all works, I think I have an advantage as I begin this year.  Overall, my goal is to have fun and learn a little more about photography along the way.

Another project that I started today is called One Little Word 2012.  This is an online class, taught by Ali Edwards through Big Picture Classes.  The basic idea is that you choose a word for the year (or let the word choose you).  This is a word to "focus on, meditate on, and reflect upon" throughout the year.  This year long class guides you through the year with your word by providing monthly prompts to help you get to know your word, focus or refocus around the word, and make your word more visible in your life.  I'm super excited to begin this project!!

I had a difficult time choosing my word!  If you know me at all you know that I have a difficult time making decisions or making up my mind sometimes!  Well, this was no exception!  I thought about the word "present" or "presence".  I thought this might be a good word for me because sometimes I am not "present" with my family like I should be.  Instead of being present, I will be thinking about work, photos, scrapbooking, you name it!  I can't tell you how many times B has come over to me and shut my computer for me!!!  But the word I kept coming back to was "balance".

In my work, it is important to create the perfect balance when providing instruction for students.  That's where I first met my word.  I found myself, over the last year, using the word "balance" a lot when discussing professional books that I was reading, when coaching other teachers, or when working on other projects with my colleagues.

Then I had the miscarriage, another encounter with the word.

After I miscarried my mother gave me a necklace.  The necklace had a gem on it and a round, silver charm with a symbol on it.  My mom isn't really into zodiac signs, but the symbol on the charm is the libra "sign" (which happens to be my sign).  I looked up more information on the symbol and it lead me to read about what a Libra "is".  "Balance" kept coming up.  Here is one example of what I saw when I searched:

Part of balance in my life is balancing work and play, creative times and family times, and realizing that balance doesn't always mean "equal".  Another part is related to food and exercise, which includes a balance of good food and fun food!  :-)  And still another is related to my first encounter with the word, as it pertains to balanced instruction within my professional life.  So, balance it is.

My first photo of the year, taken with my new macro lens, "balance" :

the necklace that inspired my OLW

I think I might be using this photo on the cover page of my OLW project as well.  I will share my pages as I finalize them.

Oh, and by the way....I have NOT finished my Dec. Daily project!  I've had an extra busy winter break that has put me a bit behind!  I will not allow it to go onto the "failed in 2011" list!  :-)