2/17 Large Cup of Hot Chocolate

Large Cup of Hot Chocolate

2/17 Photograph Wide

Step Back / Expanded / Vast

This was a fun shot to do today and it was a new skill that I hadn't done before. I had a willing subject and a cute mug. There was some kitchen cleaning that went on to get the shot and then I moved to the other side of the kitchen. When I first started, I had not dropped the aperture to it's lowest and there was quite a difference from f/5.6 to f/3.5 with the background depth of field. I also noticed that once I got closer to the subject, the background blurred even more. And wasn't I lucky to have such a willing subject today?

Top picture f/5.6, 18 mm and bottom f3.5, 23 mm

#2 was home because he got rear-ended last night while trying to stop at a stop light. Of course, it's a new car, but he did great and avoided a bigger impact by pulling into the empty left lane while the person behind him was not so lucky. He did not have any visible damage, but still took it in today to have it checked out. Everything was fine and he is relieved, still kind of scary to have happen.

Went over to my friend S's today for lunch and finished knitting a cowl. Unfortunately, the stitches twisted on the needle and I now have a twisted (warm) cowl. I do have another skein and will be able to make another cowl  to go with the hat. Just crazy that I twisted the initial row and S thought I was going crazy trying to untwist it. Now that I know how easy it is to twist such lightweight yarn, I just have to pay attention to the first row without any distractions.



Dinner tonight was a new macaroni and cheese recipe that my friend T had told me about. I took her recipe and found a copy of it online, Deluxe macaroni and cheese. I lightened it by using light sour cream, 1% cottage cheese, more pasta and a head of broccoli. It was a super, simple recipe and I topped it with parmesan cheese and crushed ritz bacon flavored crackers.  Easier than the skinny taste recipe but I always have the ingredients for the skinny taste recipe on hand.  Seems like a lot of food for three, but the guys end up with lunch for two days.

48/365 Flickr - Drive way reflection #2

2/5 View from Inside

View from The Porch Looking through Icicles

2/5 Photograph I Heart My View

Inside / Step Back / Daily Scene

This is turning out to be daily scene, fresh, fallen snow on the driveway. The morning photos that I took out the front door were drearier looking because I couldn't see the snow and the sky was a dull, gray color.  With the above shot, at least there are icicles for interest in the shot. What you probably don't realize when looking at the pictures is that even after a night/morning of light snow, the branches don't have snow on them. It was really windy today which made for a cold snow blowing experience, I was never sure which way it was going to blow. Usually it would be right back at my face.

Before going outside, I played suzy homemaker and did chores around the house, including making bread. The recipe was from the King Arthur site and it's so easy making the dough in the bread machine and then baking it in the oven.  Then I sat in front of the nice blazing fire and finished up a hat. I was winging it at the end, since I was running out of the red yarn. The hat is suppose to have a full ribbing with a slouched, look to the top, but I like it better with the folded over ribbing. This is the pattern site, Natural Winter Kit, and tomorrow I will start the neck warmer that will be all green. 

I keep the circles picture simple for today and used bell jar tops on a white poster board.  The processing was done in Perfect Suites 9. 

36/365 #5 Kitchen Circles

Obligatory Cat picture - "No, I don't mind if you get on my lap while I am eating." At least it's his cat.

10-21 Counting back to 10-14 Catch up

 Jack-O-Lantern At Night

10/21 Photograph Bats

Animal / Winged / Night

No real pumpkins here this year for Jack-O-Lanterns, but I kept this decoration that my mother-in-law gave us. She decorated on all the holidays and putting this up brings back good memories. I had to take more than one picture of this since the first few shots had a cord showing, a good reminder to look around the frame before taking the shot. 

Farm Stand Fall Offerings

10/20 Photograph At The Market

Shopping / Farmer's Market / Local

I was happy to go back to the farm stand for more pictures. It was chillier and all of the pumpkins were inside. This time I used the 55-250 lens and carefully looked at the surroundings when taking a shot. In the shot above, I had to move to the left to leave out a blue electrical cord to the right of the pole. The set up of the fruits and vegetables was beautifully done. I left with apple cider, an apple pie for the freezer and macintosh apples. I really wanted the cider donuts…..

Autumn Farm Landscape

10/19 Photograph Return

Arrive / Revisit / Depart

The prompt for a return shot made think about what subject I wanted to retake. There are so many photos of my gardens, that I had to think about another location nearby.  We stopped by the ice cream farm on our way into town for errands. I was able to get closer but there was a lot of brush that had grown up during the summer. There was also a wait for the family that took forever by their mini van, the individuals would have been distracting in the picture. Eyes just seem to be naturally drawn to people, even if they are specks. Once again, it was an over cast day. 

Garden Lizard Hanging Around

10/18 Photograph Lingering 

Remain / Stick Around / Dawdle

We mowed and raked but left the gardens and our lizard friend for another week. He is still hanging out in the garden. The yard is not as green as it was when the lizard first hit the blog in May.

Yellow Leaf In The Front

10/17 Photograph In The Front

First / Leading / Ahead

The instructions for this prompt was to have a shallow depth of field. Looking around the yard, there were plenty of colorful subjects but since it is Fall and my driveway was a carpet of leaves, the leaves won. I did have to do some maneuvering to get the brightest and most colorful leaf up front. 

I also wanted to include the wild mums which are growing out over the lawn. They are colorful, even though they won't last once we get regular frosts.

Funky Yellow Gourds

10/17 Photograph Yellow

Hue / Shades / Bright

I was very glad to have taken so many pictures at the farm stand last week! This basket of gourds caught my eye and I used a HDR preset filter in lightroom for the color and clarity. 

It was a day spent in the hospital with no yellow to get a photo. I would have gone for a walk except it was raining and we had no set time when the procedure would be over for my Dad. At least I had my iPhone to keep me busy. 

Pumpkins for Sale

10/15 Photograph Pumpkin Time

Gourd / Pumpkin Patch / Home Grown

I was lucky to have this photo in my files from the farm stand last week. My Mom helped me to narrow down the choices since I had so many good pumpkin photos. This is one of my favorites from the day and I was glad that I was able to use it for a CY365 photo. The other option was that I use my iPhone to take pictures of pumpkins on front porches, but why do that when I had a photo in my file that was perfect.  It got chosen as the CY 365 Photo of the Day with the following comment: 

"The slightly subdued light really says fall to me, not to mention your subject.  I love the different varieties of pumpkin set up in different ways through the frame. Nice shot."

Mom Checking out the Hospital Reports

10/14 Photograph a Warning

Caution / A Sign / Advice

This is a bit far fetched for the prompt, but I had to work with what I had in front of me. I worked in the morning, but my one objective was to get that done and get down to my dad in the hospital. He had a cardiac event and was in the local hospital. They now post all the reports to an online patient connect which we could look at once we got home. It was a long day and it was good to see that my dad was getting good care. 

Collage of random images from this past week.

Where I Stand- June Version

Where I Stand- In front of a basket of clothes

6/20 Photograph Where I Stand

From Above / On a Deck / Wearing Shoes

I hit all three of the prompts today for the CaptureYour365 picture. It was a catch up day for me after me day trip yesterday. A sunny, breezy day perfect for hanging out the clothes.

The first picture that I took just had my sneakers on the deck and the clothes basket, but it was boring. I added the clothes pins for interest. Well that was my Friday, the big excitement was that lobster rolls are now back out our Pizza place on Fridays. I met my husband there for lunch and it was delicious. 

Then back home to clean litter boxes, like I said, the lobster roll was the high point of the day with a close second having the lawn mowed by my son.

Sign Making and Coffee Time

My Homemade Signs

5/30 A Vision Of The Present

Today / On a Sign / Hand Held

Morning Coffee Time

5/31 A Vision of Quiet

In a Cup / Coffee / Peaceful

Today I realized that I need to work more on the technical side of photography. Why? Because I found a button on my camera that I have no idea what it's for. Plus this morning I used my flash and I always feel like I am winging it, just hoping that I have the right setting. I end up doing a lot of screen peeking to see if the picture is coming out. The coffee set up above is my morning routine, coffee while I catch up on the news and all my word games. Moment of truth here, I don't play worlds with friends late at night, I save those games for my breakfast and coffee. 

Yesterday's prompt was good for what I was doing all day, getting ready for our yard sale today. It was the precursor to moving within the next five years. To where? Who knows? We timed the sale for the same day as the Boy scout yard sale and was hoping to have more traffic. I should have contacted the neighbors for neighborhood sale, but I was lazy and did not want to get into changing days. Nothing came back in the house except for the keyboard, beanie babies/stuffed animals, electronic things and the mixer/blender. The skis and snowboard are in the garage ready to go to the ski and skate sale in October, everything else went to Goodwill! It's a lot of work for people who expect to get something for nothing. Not enough of my junk became other people's treasures today.

The weather was so sketchy this morning, nothing on the radar at 6 AM and then all of a sudden, rain. We had to set up in the garage which meant being creative so people wouldn't pick up our stuff! Someone actually did ask if the lawn mowers were for sale! Anyway, back to the weather, I can't believe how gray and cold this spring has been since I have been back. I am not sure if this is the way it always is, or I am just more aware of the lighting now that I am taking a picture everyday. During the yard/garage sale, my sweatshirt was on and off based on whether we had the sun out. To keep warm, there was a pot of coffee going all morning. While waiting for potential customers, my husband and I set up a mini golf tournament. We put a tote out in the yard and used our gap wedges to try to hit a golf ball into it. I lost…..Then we put the chairs out there for an extra bonus. It was good practice. 

Where I Stand

Standing in Front of my Backyard Perennial Garden

5/19 A Vision of Where I Stand

From Above / Words / On a Bench

Don't those violets look pretty? Too bad they are a weed as mentioned in Friday's blog. Today's prompt of where I stand came with the suggestion of taking a picture with words at my feet. No words for me, I  never left home today. This morning I spent re-organizing my kitchen cabinets and pantry along with cleaning off my counters. Not that exciting, but the kitchen is easier to work in now that I have it organized better with my tupperware/plastic containers in a drawer. 

I did try to work on my on-line photography class, however, that required a sunny day which we had in the morning. The assignment was to take a picture of a single subject throughout the day to show the changing light. There wasn't much change when the clouds rolled in and I gave up after the second picture. The afternoon was spent working on the graduation party pictures and then we had the original bisquick quiche for dinner. This is a recipe worth checking out, you can throw anything in it, tonight we had leftover boccoli, a tablespoon of chopped red pepper, turkey ham and cheese. 

While working on the graduation photos, I had to some minimal fix ups, the best was taking off the name from the gas grill cover behind two of the cousins. As tempting as it was to add some fancy lightroom presets, I held back and only did some minor vignetting. This picture below does have two presets for the exposure, Arkham and Tinting Green. Presets are effects to the tones, clarity and colors which are already formulated in a "preset" format which you can apply to your picture. You can always tweak them after you apply them and with lightroom, it's never permanent! This is the front garden, looks much nicer than the photo from this February blog post. 

4/6 Display

Photograph Display

4/6 Photograph in the Window

                                                     Framed / Displayed / Hanging

This prompt had both my husband and I trying to figure out what the subject could be. I made these coasters last November with the intent of hanging them individually on the wall here in Florida. But like most pictures we hang, we just couldn't agree on where. I found this frame in a local store and we used garden wire to hang the coasters on the wire. We now have the coasters on display in our bedroom. It is a creative, easy display. 

 We got up early to play golf and watched the sunrise as we ate breakfast. This was definitely the first birthday where I have been able to go golfing. We had a very nice cook out at my Aunt and Uncle's with my parents in the evening. Then my husband was back to the cold of New England. 

A Story in Three

The Story of my day in Three

3/5 Photograph a Story in Three

A triptych / A comparison / A comparison

Quick blog tonight, too much to d0 and not enough time. The story of three for me today was the packing that I need to be doing, the food that I need to get ready for our long road trip tomorrow and the computer problem that I resolved myself. What is not included in my story of three is the two walks that I took in the woods today with two different friends. The walks were needed for me to get out and relax plus get exercise, I should have brought my camera but it was all about getting some physical activity and friend time in for today. The first morning walk was during the time that my car was getting the snow tires off and my computer being looked at for an error message. After the walk, I get a call from the computer guy telling me that I needed to reformat my hard drive and remove office 2004 because the office 2008 was giving me an error message every time word would close. Too technical to get into in the blog tonight, but what he wanted to do would mean me finding everything I have done picture wise on the computer in the past two weeks and copy it to a flash drive to get the computer back to what it was before I had upgraded it for him to get it back tomorrow to wipe the drive clean, and reload from my back up drive . Then the recommendation was to put a copy of office 2011 on it. I went out and got the Office 2011 and after supper tonight, I downloaded it myself and it works. There is a slight glitch, but it is not an error message and I don't want my computer at the repair shop tomorrow when I need it by 3 pm to hit the road. I can work with what I have now. 

It seems that everything I touched today became a small problem, not huge, just a white whine problem.  ( Want to read something fun? Read these White whine problems)

1. Went to put on my face moisturizer and it squirted on my clean shirt - laundry had to be done

2. Put the tires in the car and noticed that one had worn down treads - new tire bought.

3. iPhone died after morning walk

4. Asked for turkey ham and got turkey pastrami.

5. And yes, the calzone split again.

6. iPhone battery died again after the afternoon walk.

7. The whole computer thing - had to buy office 2011 ( and Mom, don't worry- use the money for an airline ticket!!)

8. I took off the snow tires today and it kept snowing- not much.

Not major problems, just enough for me to have make adjustments to what I should have been doing today. It's all good, I will finally be warm again in 2 days!

Here is a tropical picture to finish off a very cold day.

Keep Going

One Nest for Rent- Immediate Spring Occupancy Availability

2/28 Photograph Keep Going

Persevere / Endure / Press on

Today I met with my friend S who retired from the lab and now works there as a per diem.  We went out to lunch and then furniture/consignment shopping. Our original plan was to go out photo hunting, but it was too chilly. We talked about the prompt and I  wasn't sure where to go with this today, but S saw this nest while we were out shopping and it yelled spring to me. It's been a long, long, cold winter and any sign of spring is welcome. Don't let the blue sky fool you, it was still very cold. The tree that this nest was in is a Peeling Birch, I took a picture of the bark to use for textures. I can either mute it down for an overlay or use the bark design to make a frame which I did for today's flower. 

The shopping was fun because we ended up in stores that we hadn't been in before. And as I am writing this, I am realizing that I forgot to go to one of the consignment shops that we had planned on going to. It's just that once you are on Rte. 4 in Chichester, you have to plan which side of the road that you need to go to because of the traffic. S had never been to the Pawn shop and that's always an interesting place to check out what they have, lot of instruments, tools, DVDs, boats and some camera equipment. Fun to just browse as we were just catching up while getting ideas. A nice way to spend the day. 

Love cats snuggling- it's just so weird.

Came home to check on the cat next door, who is so sweet. I just don't know why anyone gave him up. We had a good routine going, I come in, he meows at me, I feed him and then go to my neighbor's den to read the paper. The cat doesn't even finish his food to come out and sit on my lab where he proceeds to head butt me and beg for patting. Yesterday I brought him a scratching board with cat nip, he loved that. Tonight his family comes home which will make him happy. Meanwhile, I still have my cats to enjoy(?). These two love cats are like this every morning. 

And here is my cooking dilemma, why does my stromboli split? I may need to ask Mrs. Botticelli what I am doing wrong. Probably too much meat, but that is what makes it so tasty! Homemade dough made with basil flavored oil and garlic salt added, nothing too low fat about that. 

Today's flower photo is a Peony. Before my husband's parents's house was sold, I took some plants, this peony and some day lilies. Both do well here and are nice to have. Four more months and they will be blooming again.

Appreciate

My Parents

2/26 Photograph Admire

Appreciate / Like / Respect

I chose this picture of my parents from our outing to Rockport earlier this month. No candids today as suggested in the email for the prompt. After reading the prompt, I knew which picture I would use today and why. I admire and respect my parents for their sense of humor, work ethic, love of family, and for always being there for us. Even with this project, they are always asking what the prompt is for the day and now that I am back to blogging regularly with the picture, my Mom looks forward to reading it every night. Kind of cool to have them still be my fans at my age! I can only hope that I have their energy in 30 years! And yes, this is a repeat picture on the blog, but I do love it.

Well, my job is over. 10 rooms and 2 small hallways stripped of wallpaper and I did 5 of those rooms by myself, although to be fair, three of those rooms were very easy to do without any chemicals or steam. It was nice to work with someone else on the other 6 rooms, especially two of them due to the difficulty of getting the wall paper off. We saved the best for the last, the small kitchen had at least 6 different wallpapers, this was the room that the owners hadn't planned on doing, but I convinced them that it would be good since we were on a roll and at some point would need to be done. I missed getting a picture of one of the layers which definitely had a 60's motif with red flowers, I think it complemented #3 in the photo to the left. What a mess that room turned out to be. There is a lot of wall repair that will need to be done in all of the rooms, and not because of me! Mike did offer to teach me how to "mud" as that takes skill, but I graciously declined his offer. 

Not much time to take pictures today and play with the new flash, so the cats got a night off from having to be my models like poor Mini from the other night. Too much to do tonight between getting caught up with laundry, vacuuming, and cooking dinner plus another glitch in the evening. We had a slight problem with our door knob where the latch would not turn. My son and I took the knob off and still it wouldn't move, so I called a husband to help. Not mine, but a neighbor's husband who is a carpenter/handyman at a prep school nearby. He knew exactly what was wrong, got it open and now I get to replace a door knob tomorrow. I have done it before, hopefully I can do it again. It's nice to be in a neighborhood where we can all help each other out. Right now I am feeding the cat next door, as if I didn't have enough of my own! I bring up the mail, feed the cat and then sit in their den to read the paper and pat the cat. It's a rescue cat and he is such a love, jumps on my lap to be petted and is very friendly. They really picked out a nice cat to have for a pet. I feel so bad when I have to leave. 

Tonight I was late to the blog because I was so busy playing with the edges of the photo below. I used brushes to make the edges and was having fun trying different effects. This is the one that I settled on because I could just keep going trying out all the brushes and I am tired and ready to go to bed. Tomorrow I get to play photographer with my friend T after my trip to Lowes and maybe try to shovel out my storage area to get out tires. So many things to do in so little time!

Anticipated

Spring will be Here Soon

2/24 Photograph Predictable

Expected / Likely / Anticipated

Today's prompt came with a suggestion to divide the photo into three sections, foreground, middleground and background. I think I got it with this budding branch. We get red as our very early spring color with the hardwood buds and young branches. You can see this subtle shade in the late winter forest, just as red is a early color for Fall when we see it first in the trees in the marshes at the end of summer. I had taken some photos this morning and when I downloaded the them into the computer, thought I could do better and took more out on the side of the driveway in the late afternoon. The lighting was very different. My second choice was the photo on the bottom of this collage.

By now, I thought that picking a photo out would be easier for the daily prompt and it's always a surprise when it isn't. What I did like about today's prompt, was that it made me really look at the trees and see the evidence that spring is in the air. Maybe not in the temperatures this week, but all the trees need right now are longer days and more light. I noticed that at it was still kind of light out around 5:45 this evening on my way to yoga, another sign that we coming out of winter.

After going picking up my car at the garage today,  I bought an external flash for the camera at Hunt's Photo in Manchester, a store much smaller than the one in Melrose. My son was shocked that I actually was reading the directions for it, he thought that I should just put the batteries in it and go. But the flashes are bit more sophisticated that what I used 30 years ago. I took a couple of pictures of the cats and already I can see the difference, there is no glare from the eyes and an even color. No direct eyes in this picture to the left, but I do like the even lighting.

Today I spent more time stripping wallpaper and the painter had his helper show up which was unexpected. However, it all worked out well as we made quite a team. Initially, I thought he would do his thing and I would do mine, but he suggested that we work together. Once I saw the room that he had done with his equipment, yes, he did have the spray pump for the Diff, I was all in. We flew through the first two rooms, but got stuck in this one room where the paper came off in two layers. In the hallway, which was small, we finally hit a double layer, I should have taken a picture of the first layer which was a hideous floral with squares and names of flowers, but the horse layer underneath was just as hideous. This horse paper is also under the main hall way paper which I could see after the wall came down, but since the rest of the hallway is in good shape, that paper is staying. Tomorrow we will tackle the small kitchen and bathroom, then I will be just cleaning the walls with the Diff and after that, I think I will be done. Though if the painter wants to hire me........

And on that note, I leave you with this beautiful red petunia with the kkstay texture. It looks like the flower is just hanging in a green space.