12/31 Party Time

New Year Back Yard Fire Works

12/31 Photograph Party

Celebration / Shindig / Bash

365 photos completed for 2014! Definitely a reason for a celebration! The only month that I found hard was the last month, but I managed to have a photo for each day. More about 2015 plans in my 1/1/2015 post. Without a tripod, freezing temps and being on a deck so close to the action, I am very pleased with this shot for the last CY365 photo of 2014.

Another very cold day and I was so glad that the annual bonfire New Year's party was going to be held indoors. No snow on the ground and with a forecast of 11 degrees, it was just a better idea to not have a the bonfire. Even our cats were cold and hanging out by the wood stove today. Whenever we go near the stove to add wood, the sound of the door opening is like the sound of a can opener on a tuna can, one of them comes running for attention. 

With the cold weather, I really did not want to go outside, but my friend C from the lab sent a message for a walk and I made the right decision. I did go for another longer walk which was good considering all the food that I managed to try at the party. 

Today, I updated the operating system for the Mac to OSx Yosemite which took awhile. After reading some of the reviews, I wasn't sure how it would go and right now, I can say that I like it for integration with the iPhone and iPad. Plus, I had to upgrade for a new photo editing program that I would like to try and there always seem to be a point where software is made for the newer operating systems and won't work with what you have. 

We had fun at the party tonight and stayed till Midnight! That doesn't happen often!

Seriously, I am looking at my phone? But not looking at messages, just checking the photo I had just taken.

Happy New Year! 

12/28 Up in the Air

Chickadee 

12/28 Photograph Up in The Air

Throw / Airborne / A Flurry

The prompt directions were all about movement in the air and there was nothing fluffy about the snow

on the ground to be able to throw it in the air. The next best thing were the birds at the bird feeder, but with the low light due to the lack of sun, I was unable to increase the shutter speed to catch birds in flight. After going through a bunch of photos that I took, this was the best. I cropped it to zoom in on the bird.

 One of my New Year resolutions is to be brutal in picking photos and to delete, delete and delete photos from my hard drive that aren't worth printing/saving. I will need to go back in my files to take care of what I have already to free up some space. And yes, I have not been keeping up with the blog due to vacation, Christmas and calendar photo collages. My goal is to be caught up by tomorrow night and I am posting them by date so they will be behind this post.

I have 4 more days of this year's 365 project and I have decided to do it again through the Captureyour365 website and also do one on a Flickr group. There will be times when the photo is the same and other times when I just want to try something different for the Flickr group. I am hoping that I get more critical comments than the "I love…." comments that are on the CY365 group.

Tonight, I did try some lighting effects with the camera and the Christmas tree. I used a higher aperture to make the lights have points like stars and then I also used the tripod to make the zoomed out effects.
The zoomed out is just like it sounds, focus with a low ISO, high aperture so you have a longer shutter speed and just zoom out the lens while the shutter is open. Pretty cool effects!

12/24 & 12/25 Capturing Holiday Photos

 Naughty or Nice? Shorter or Taller?

12/24 Photograph Naughty or Nice

Visits with Santa / On the List?/ Decisions

No Santa visiting here, just an older brother who wants to be the tall one for a change. A keeper for sure.

Christmas tree decorating pictures.

The End Result of Photography Lessons

12/25 Photograph Aftermath

Outcome / Results / End

My niece who is a photographer and I had our picture taken over at least 5 times before we were happy with the result, so picky, I know. But this is one of the first shots that we didn't like. Can you tell why? And I have to admit, I did some photoshopping of the wrinkles around my eyes.

The calendars that I worked on for gifts worked out well and here is a copy of our December collage.

Christmas through the years with choice pictures from this year. 

12/22 & 12/23 Christmas Prep

Stockings Ready to be Filled

12/22 Photograph Ready to be Filled

Set / Waiting / In Place

The stockings have all been found and just ready to be filled. However, after 30 years of marriage, the same question is asked each year. " Do we wrap the stocking gifts?" The answer is now yes, even the gum, deodorant and socks get wrapped. However, scratch tickets are not.

Sad Santa Cat

12/23 Photograph Sad Santa

Eyes / Hat / Pet

A couple of first times for us this year. Tonight we decorated the Christmas tree for the first time without our oldest there to listen to all the jokes about the number of ornaments he has. We couldn't find the "You're 23" ornament. This is the one tradition that we have always enjoyed as a family and some of our comments about the ornaments are just weird. For example, I keep a lacy candy cane that a former co-worker gave me out of duty, everyone else got elaborate ornaments and I got a small, kind of tacky ornament. But it makes us happy to put it in the back of the tree every year without fail. There was a nascar ornament that joined it, but is now with my oldest to enjoy.

This year we had an artificial tree for the first time, it had belonged to my in-laws and I threw on a strand of colored lights since it only had white. The lights made it ours, since we have always had colored lights on the tree. The best part of the tree is that we don't have to worry about the cats drinking the water plus it's a lot cleaner. The cats are always intrigued by the addition of a tree to their environment which made today's picture easier even though we still had to hold Punk's head. And what animal wouldn't look sad with a santa hat on?

12/20 and 12/21 Holiday Treats

Candy Canes ( Off-Prompt)

12/20 Photography With The Tree

Presents / Under The Tree / In the Tree

Better than Homemade, New Holiday Addiction

12/21 Photograph In The Kitchen

Preparing / Home-Cooked / Baking

I had missed the Candy Cane prompt of taking pictures of candy canes so I picked up a box to use for stocking stuffers. I used the same set up of lights that I had for the Santa Claus pictures. At that point, we didn't have our tree up and there no presents wrapped to take pictures of and that led me to the off prompt for the day. Every year, I swear that I will be ready earlier and I never follow through on that resolution. I was lucky on the 20th that my husband and two sons went out to the movies giving me plenty of time to organize and wrap the gifts. 

For homemade, this may be a slacker picture, but honestly, these are the best crackers ever! Nabisco has a good thing going, however, they were in short supply and this picture is of me taking the last 2. The week before, my aunt sent me a picture of her buying the last 2 at Publix. I even saw the Nabisco rep in a store on Christmas eve morning and he couldn't help me out, seriously, I felt like an addict looking for my next "fix". On his recommendation, I took home the bacon flavored ritz, but sadly, they don't come close. In the 365 gallery there were all these kitchen pictures of baking, aprons and then there I am with my box of crackers. Mine was original.

It was too early for my holiday cooking, that happens on 12/23 and 12/24. Treats don't last long here.

12/19 Santa Anyone?

Santa Meet-Up

12/19 Photograph You Better Watch Out

Santa / Ornament / Ho Ho Ho

Golfing Santa and Skiing Santa met up in front of the Christmas tree to discuss who was going to take the 12/25 Early AM shift.  Okay, they weren't in front of the tree, just a strand of colored lights that I put on the counter about 2 feet behind the Santa's to get the Bokeh effect. I have a couple of these Santas and it's enough of a collection for me. These two represent the two big gifts that my my husband and I "gave" to each other, he has a ski pass and I have a golf membership. Works for me.

In the top photo, they almost look like real people talking to each other. It was a hard choice picking the Santa photo for the day with so many choices.

12/18 Evening Lights

Evening Christmas Tree Lights

12/18 Photograph Shimmering

Bright / Glowing / Sparkling

Home to where we still have snow in the backyard! We decided that our in-law's Christmas tree which we have used for a porch decoration will be our tree this year. The original plan was to put a tree up after Thanksgiving, but losing power for a few days, set us back and this is going to work out fine. In the mean tie, the picture works for the prompt and I like the light reflecting on the windows with the snow in the background. The outside tree was just plain looking in comparison to the reflections that I got on this shot. 

The outside tree where I used extensive deductive reasoning to find a blown fuse in the bottom strand of lights. It was replaced twice before we finally went out and bought another strand.  It must have been that one blue light…..

12/16 Lighted Snowflakes

Snowflake Lights by Pool

12/16 Photograph Lights

Outside / Inside / Twinkling

No fancy bokeh, starbursts or zoomed out effects for my light picture today. Just working with what I have. I do like this shot of the decorations by the pool,a  simple composition with nice reflections.  

This is what we have going at our condo for holiday lights, a strand hanging out on the porch for added holiday ambience.

View from inside and outside of our lights- No expense spared….

12/8 Favorite Ornament

Favorite Ornaments

12/8 Photograph a Favorite Ornament

Yours / Beloved / Cherished

Before I came back to Florida, I had looked at the prompts for the two weeks that I would be away from home and took a few pictures. No bokeh here, just three of my favorite ornaments. These three ornaments are hanging on our two little trees that we keep in our family room that stay up longer than our Christmas tree. I made these ornaments over 30 years ago, the year I got married and looking at them reminds me of a time of hope and dreams. Just looking at the small stitches and remembering when my eyes didn't get tired and when we didn't have iphones, ipads or lap tops and stitched instead during the evening. I hope that when the time comes, that my sons enjoy the ornament's representation of Christmas.

12/7 Holiday Lights at Dusk

Holiday Lights at Dusk

12 /7 Photography Moonlit

Shimmering / Glistening / Radiant

This photo was taken out the kitchen window of the lights hanging on our porch. The colorful bokeh on the bottom is a reflection of the lights I have on our back sitting area overlooking the river. I did have some moon shots, but I like the color of sky in this photo.

Moon shots from porch window

Today after golfing in the morning, I procrastinated and read a book while waiting for the Patriot's game at night. I was easily distracted by the dolphins and thought that I would get some action shots, but they were just hanging out in the river catching fish and mocking me with occasional lame dives. 

I sat outside on the grass by the water and it was relaxing just watching the dolphins and the birds. It got windy in the afternoon, but that didn't stop the daily, afternoon bird gathering on the lines out front. Each afternoon, I feel like I am in an Alfred Hitchcock remake of the birds. I can hear the birds on the line and it's just like the movie. At least they aren't dive bombing. They are on the line for about 30 minutes and drink from the puddles and then they are gone.

I took another picture for the #mystillsundaycompetition on Instagram and included the bell picture in a simple holiday collage of pictures taken here.

12/6 Holiday Parade

Santa on a Firetruck

12/6  Photograph Giving

Gifts / Packgages / Donating

This was suppose to be a self-portrait for today's Captureyour365 prompt and I just went off-prompt since today had other better photo opportunities. I experienced my first Florida holiday parade where there were boats, stuffed alligators, candy thrown to children and a marching band on a float. It was unlike any other holiday parade that I have ever experienced up North. We had fun waiting for the parade to start and made "friends" with two 6th grade girls who shared their candy with us. 

After returning from the parade, I found out that my neighbor was Santa which made today's pick for picture of the day easier. One of the best floats was the local library float throwing out books to the kids, now that's a good way to get rid of the excess books! I love this photo and will use it at some point for a prompt. 

Starting a book at the parade.

All kinds of advertising going on at the parade.

Nothing says Christmas, more than Guinness?

12/3 Creating Holiday Spirit Away From Home

 Creating Holiday Spirit Away from Home

12/3 Photography Construction

Put Together / Planning / Assembly

Back in Florida for our last vacation of the year to enjoy a Holiday boat parade next week. I brought these lights down thinking they would make a pretty decoration in an empty vase. However, I guess I should have looked at the length of the lights as 20 ft was too long for this vase. They ended up over the doorway out in our porch area and this picture below is the light's reflection in the outside window.

This morning I left at 5 AM and was glad that my husband was driving through the icy, snowy crap on the roads to get to the airport. I thought that it wouldn't be a full flight, but I underestimated the power of Disney at the holidays and there were at least 20 kids on the flight. I felt bad for the two guys who got stuck with a talkative 6 year old the whole flight, damn you mother for not completing the toy story download on his device! The Orlando flights are such a cluster since the families who get on near the end don't get seats together and then the stewardesses start asking customers to give up seats. Just because they spent $3000 to bring their family to the happiest place on earth and didn't pay an extra $13 for their plane ticket for early boarding, shouldn't be a problem for the rest of us. It's always an interesting flight! Just glad that I get from point A to point B and that I have ear buds to listen to music. 

Got to Florida and golfed with my Uncle for 18 holes where we took a cart. It was a perfect day to golf, not too hot, not too cool and a light breeze. My Aunt cooked a delicious dinner, using a new recipe, One-Pot Taco Casserole. Such a good, healthy and filling dinner, I found the recipe and have it pinned to my interest board. Then it was an early night to bed after such an early start. 

And for those who occasionally read this blog and have suggested that this become a crazy cat lady blog…..I leave you with this photo of Mini from the night before. 

12/1 Christmas Bell

Christmas Bell

12/1 Photograph With Bells On

Decorations / Tradition / Ringing

The list is up for December for Captureyour365 and after today, it's going to be difficult to get decoration shots. I did more than just this photo above to hopefully have some photos in the "bank"for the holiday prompts. One of the suggestions for today's prompt was to photograph red, which I thought this one photo below was too much red. 

I also did a texture photo for a simple, "my stillSunday competition" on Instagram hosted by KimKlassen.com..

After a week of holiday eating, a simple bowl of oatmeal with fruit is all I wanted for breakfast. The dunkin donuts for breakfast was not really a treat over the weekend.

It was a busy day getting my out-of-state Christmas shopping done and then wrapped to be sent out to Iowa. While out, I picked up a couple of candles to replace what we used last week. I ended up with two hunks of wax since the wicks were missing. They were brought back today and it was funny to me, but would have been embarrassing if I given them as a gift.