Photos: Open drawers

I have a cake to make, so I must get to that soon.
I have decided to make this King Arthur Flour chocolate cake.
I wanted to be able to leave this cake in the 9x13 for transport, so I figured King Arthur was my fellow for a no brainer excellent cake.

But first, my Joy of Love Photo Challenge of the day!
This was a challenge for me!!
Today was "What you love to hate"
I don't hate much around the house.
Sounds tend to bother me more than visual things.
But, taking a picture of a sound....yeah!

So I happened upon this:

I really liked the morning sun shining in on those crammed full open drawers, but my camera did not!
I am finding out that natural light is good, but harsh light is not.

I re-focused and found that my camera chose to look at the sun bunnies flying through the air.

Not the look I was going for!!

Ahhh, here we are again without the bunnies!

But it was still too harsh!


Just then the guilty party who had left these drawers open burst into the room!
He quickly rushed over, still wrapped in his blanket to try and close them.

NO, I cried...leave 'em open!!!
Those kids, they just can't recognize creativity in action.


Click...hmmmm.

Still not quite right.

So, I closed the curtains all together and refocused again.

Ahhhh, there we go! That will do it.
In focus, nice light, clear image.

Now where is that kid...he needs to come close these drawers!!!

photo post

Joy of Love Day 4 challenge...What they wear!

With the onset of very chilly weather including ice (but NO SNOW) Shelby had the opportunity to wear her pink parka!!

She is not too fond of it and shed it quickly in favor of braving the frozen grass in what God gave her.

I was proud to be finished with this assignment so early in the day, but then came across something else I couldn't resist.
As far as I know my husband doesn't plan on leaving the house today, but he always gets dressed from head to toe. (say I, sitting here still in my cozy pj's and comfy socks at 11AM)

We gathered together in our family room on this "snow" day for our Bible reading time. We are behind a bit and figured this was and excellent time to play catch up with everyone home today because of the snow.
My husband began by settling in a cozy corner of the couch and propping his feet on the coffee table.
Don't worry, this is acceptable behavior at our house.
I happened to be sitting on the floor when he did this and halted all progress when I whipped out my big camera to capture this "what he wears" image.


So, if he does happen to go out today...he is ready for anything.
Me on the other hand...not so much!!

Oh, just for fun...here is the best of my snow day photos!
I imagined frollicking children and shivering puppy toes.

Nope!! Just a little covering of ice is all we got!


I suppose I better go rustle up some grub around here.
See ya tomorrow!!

Then and Now Photo post

I attend a "Survey of the Bible" class each Thursday.
We have made it to Joshua chapter 5 as of today.
It is slow going, which matters not to me.
Oh wait I forgot to say we have been meeting for two and a half years and have just now made it to Joshua.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua!
Divide 5 books over 2 years, multiply that by the remaining 61 books, divided in a likewise manner and I think I will be about 64 when we get to Revelation.

Well over 7/8 of the class participants are in within this age, if not older and I love it.
Each first Thursday of the month we have what we call an eatin' meetin'.
Meaning we meet, study and eat!
My class buddies know I will always bring something colorful...usually a vegetable.
And, more likely than not it will be considered "healthy". Luckily I am a good cook so they put up with my food nazi ways.

Okay...that combined with my photo assignment of the day led me to these next pictures.
The assignment from The Joy of Love was Then and Now.
I thought to myself as I was making my dish that the cilantro was in a then and now situation right then and there. It had gone from growing in my garden to chopped wonderfulness in my salsa!
Then:


Now:

This concoction is a simple salsa made with a can of rotel tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and a squeeze of lime. Also in the dish, some simply saute'd shrimp cooked with the same spices, and a a quarter of a finely diced red bell pepper.

Then I decided to stir it all around.

See, the thing is, I had 3 avocados which were ripe and ready for using which made me think of using them in a "salsa" of sorts. I waited to put the avocado in until just before serving so it was nice and bright and healthy looking. hee hee. (no photo of the final product sorry)
Someone actually did peer over my shoulder today as I was cutting and say...uh huh just as I thought...something healthy, looks good.
HA!!
I am also desperate to use my cilantro and save it from frostbite!!!

Woohoo, dish for eatin' meetin' done and photo assignment done too!!
But then I came upstairs and logged onto the internet for posting my photo and realized once again that the assignment is to capture moments of those you love!
And as much as I love cilantro and avocado, it just didn't fit into the photo stream. I would have looked like a heartless loser compared to all those cute baby to child and puppy to dog photos.
So, it was back to square one.
Then I remembered a tattered and well loved book the kids and I had come across a few days ago.
It was a little bound book made by my oldest child when he was about 6.

An idea hit me and I went to his room in search of a recent drawing.
I then combined the two for quite a successful then and now!

I like how his little people haven't changed all that much, but the subject matter sure has!!
All those dynamic lines are weapons being shot.

That page there says my mom does different things. Maybe this is laundry??

Here are a few others carefully written in his choppy boy writing.
My mom loves the color green.
My mom always loves me.
My mom is best at loveing my family.
My mom has lots of dress's.

Oh, there is one other I simply must share with you.

We laughed and laughed!
That says... my mom is nice.

I ask you...do I look nice???
And that other blue figure there is little brother.
He doesn't look like I have been being nice to him either!

I am happy to say every other picture of the book shows bright smiling faces... less we all feel the need to drag him off for evaluation!
But the very last page in the book is my absolute favorite.
It simply says...
My mom is so smart.
She even knows times.
Ahhhhhh ha ha ha! I wish I could say that I do.
Math is not one of my talents, unless fingers or a calculator are involved.

The sweet innocence of youth.

I am sure I had impressed him with an amazing 2x2 problem, or 1x1.
You know the simple ones that you can use your fingers for!!!

We are hoping for snow around here.
I will keep ya posted.

I like pie too!!

I have begun to take photos of many assorted things through the day as they present themselves, never knowing if anything really good will come of my efforts, or if anything better will come along. (That is why you get bubble gum chewing birds.)

So many days when evening comes along, I am sorting through lots and lots of bad pictures hoping for something to post.

For that reason I say to you...don't judge me that my picture today is of my hair color chemical mixing.

I mean, when I took the camera out to record this, I felt certain nothing else good would come along and I needed something to post!!!


You may wonder... why post it if you have taken photos of other things?
Well, why not? I have taken the time to take 'em, why not post 'em, strange as they may be.
And, I also thought...what if I like this hair color and can't remember what I bought, then I will have this image to remind me.
And I do like it. It is subtle and most people probably won't notice the change, but I do and I feel so much better about this color situation. Whew!


I headed outside today in the brisk wind, and I mean brisk (24 degrees, wind chill around 18, that is brisk for us here in TEXAS!!) to go fetch the mail and came across my neighbor walking her teeny- tiny, itsy-bitsy dog. I mean, I don't even think this dog is an entire handful.
I asked her if I could take his picture and of course she agreed.
Here is little Darby.
I actually took the time to change all of my settings before laying in the road to capture this bitty little thing, ignoring the quiet sniggering of my neighbor as I talked quickly and nervously through it.

In a perfect world, the leash would be removed so as to not draw our eyes out of the picture. Just pretend for me okay?

Face into the wind, eyes watering from sun and chill.

But, smiling???

I am including this one in hopes that you can see how little he is.

Maybe 9 inches tall to the top of his fuzzy ears!

And my last shots for the day are to fulfill my February photo challenge assignment.
Day 2: How they look!

I think it is amazing how kids can contort their bodies into strange and impossible ways and do all sorts of things.
So this is my version of how she looks... folded up doing homework.

I couldn't resist getting in a little closer so you could see what she is writing.

I like pie.
The last one..."I like to be right."
Ha ha ha, don't we all.

My new lens was delayed because of the weather. Bummer!

I hope you aren't bored with photo posts and will stick with me through this learning my camera portion of my life. It is pretty important to me!
Catch ya tomorrow!

Photo post

Well, I find that I signed up to receive daily email prompts for a month long photo project.
I did this late at night without thoroughly reading what it was actually all about!
I just thought, whoa...cool, a photo a day project this will help me find inspiration.
And it might yet!
However the point is to record the ones you love in the month of February.
Well, since it is not my M.O. to display the ones I love here, this will be quite a challenge!
I might just make it a personal project and post here if it ends up being something usable.
Okay with you???
Today's project was capture "the things they do".
So here ya go on that one.
This is my big boy with his fingers flying away on the keyboard at about 9:13 this evening.

Yes, I do know the exact time because I had just been in harassing my middle child to take his picture too, and it was 9:11 and I specifically remember telling him that he had 4 minutes to lights out!!

So there!




You see this??

It is my still very sick computer that my husband is now on one week later and still no full solution status.
Looks like something out of Tron!
I did not choose this bells and whistles computer with the fun lights, though secretly I have come to enjoy it!

I just wanted someplace to check email and do a little blogging.
I don't need anything special.
No, I don't! Now I am back in the position of jockeying for time on this old beast.
I am so very thankful that we have "backup" and I don't have to be completely disconnected from the web!


I really, really liked my tan boots in the snow picture from last week and felt equally compelled today to share this rainboots in the clover picture.

Don't look too closely as I am pretty sure that is not at all clover!

I found a button on the photo program that I had lost!
LOST, and now it is found. Not the new program with a book that I need to read. No, the program that was accused to causing my nice new blue light computer to crash...program!

It lets me mess with the colors, intensity, saturation, and contrast. It does a full over the full photo job and is fun to play with!
I bet you noticed that you got a visual dose of this tool at work today.

Here is one last photo today!
I call it "lichen".

Is that even lichen? Or, maybe it is moss?
I don't know, whatever I just like the look of it and wasn't sure if anything more interesting would be seen in my lens today.

Speaking of lenses, my new one should be here tomorrow!!!!!
Did I tell you I got a new lens? I can't remember!

Hey, I got a new lens! Remember all those earrings I was making?
Well, I made and sold and saved and finally decided to spend, on a lens.

It is a 50mm f/1.8, know any more than you did before???

When it gets here I will take a picture with it and you will be amazed and hopefully I can explain why I am so excited to have it.
I mean, I hope you will be amazed. I hope I can take a picture which will cause you amazement.

Hey, ya know what else??
I came across and amazing deal on Food Network magazine and ordered that too.
It seems like it was around 10 bucks for the year!
Oh, I love me some Food Network and hope to have that arriving soon so that we can have some fresh food ideas around here as well.
I commit to preparing at least one recipe from each issue and blogging it!
I commit to it, right now.
I think I better slow down on all these commitments and get some laundry done!
See ya tomorrow!

P.S.
For Rachel

Squeamish photo post

I saw a bird chewing gum today!!

I know that sounds crazy, trust me I know!!
Here is what happened.

I was driving out of my neighborhood, headed out to do errands!
I had to stop by the bank, go to Sally to choose a new color, go to Sam's to pick up various and sundry exceedingly large items and to visit a friend who is home-bound.

I had a few other things that I probably could have done and will probably wish tomorrow when it is pouring rain that I had done, but it was more important to me to spend my "away from home time" today with this friend.
I basically only have 5 hours when I leave from home to accomplish all that needs to happen or bad things will occur.
Bad as in, little doggie left in a crate bad...need I say more??

Wow, what was I typing about??
This is my brain folks!

Bird, large bird...got it.

He was quite a large bird, which is why he caught my eye as I was driving by.
I stopped, put my van in reverse...hoping that the extra movement wouldn't scare him off, and backed up.
I had put my camera in the van today in hopes that my friend may have something interesting to photograph at her house. I put the van quickly in park and leaned over to get my camera bag while talking quietly to my new bird friend asking him not to move.

He swiveled his head to check me out.

I was so nervous about him leaving that I was a mess trying to get all my settings right on my camera.
I stopped talking to him and began confusingly talking to myself.

"Check the ISO, okay checking the ISO...oh no...it is very cloudy is 100 gonna be enough, oh it is already on 100 I am gonna just leave it there so that I can check the next thing, what is the next thing....uhhhhh, uhhhhh, oh never mind what is next how about is he in focus."
I put the camera up to my face and clicked.

and clicked and clicked.
And began my dialog to myself again.
"Oh no, he is so far away there is just no way he is gonna be clear enough especially with that stinky plant there. I wonder if that plant is a male or a female?? I know I can crop the picture but if I could only get closer then I could see if it were focused better. If I take the time to change my lens will he fly away?? I am gonna change my lens, careful now Jennifer, don't drop anything, be gentle, changing the lens don't leave birdie, stay there and let me take your picture beautiful birdie. Okay there we go lens is changed now to try to focus again, hurry hurry hurry he is gonna fly away and all will be lost"
click click click
Some time when I was changing my lens must have been when he dropped his bubble gum.

Just look at him there staring curiously at it!

I tried to focus even better, though shaking with anticipation of a good shot. I should have just calmed down and taken a big deep breath and focused on getting it right.
I was just so scared that he was gonna fly off.
I know now that one great shot would have been better than 15 not so great ones.

Living.
Learning.

The next time I looked through my lens this is what I saw!!

Whoa! He has got some of that really stretchy gum!!!

The kind you can just pull and pull and it doesn't break it just gets longer and longer.

Click, click, click!
I started to get nervous about how this looked, me parked at a wonky angle in front of my neighbors house taking pictures with my telephoto lens. I gently capped my lens and stowed my camera back in the bag.

I then removed my foot from the brake...
(because when you are rushing to take a photo of a gorgeous red tail hawk {my son who is supposed to be doing his math homework but is stalling and looking over my shoulder informed me of this fact} it is important to put your vehicle in park and keep the foot on the break, you know just in case that park gear on your van decides to stop working on the last day of the month)
... put my van into drive and went along my merry way.

And you know what else besides gum chewing hawks happened today??
Sally was personally there to talk me through the whole professional haircolor process and gave me a coupon for free highlights.
I bought 12 things at Sam's and it all only cost .37 cents.
My broken leg friend miraculously recovered and skipped to the door to greet me, then we ran out the door to go make snowmen!

If only I had taken the time to notice as I was taking the first photo,

a little squirrel leg and tail with a large bird of some kind standing on it the better to disembowel it, I may not have continued shooting and had to make up some sort of story to make this a bearable thing to write about.
Disembowelment of any sort tends to make me squeamish. I can't even do the holiday turkey!!

And furthermore...
Seeing him enjoy his ultra stretchy gum did not make me want to have any.
In fact, I don't think I will be chewing any pink bubblicious for some time now.

Ha, who needs inspiration for photo taking when there is so much just right around the corner from my own home!!

Photos

Hard finding inspiration today!

I have 4 minutes til I have to walk out the door, so this will be quick.

I asked my son to let me take some pictures of him where there was sun and shadow.

They were a good use of time experimenting.



It is clean the hamster cage day, today...so here is Storm being babysat by Daddy!!


I had him for awhile but handed him over in favor of the camera!

I just love a colorful game controller held in the hands of a little girl!


Done.
Whew!