Something Blue

Second to last challenge! Patti gave us what should have been an easy one today - "blue". It was just too gloomy all day for anything indoors, but I managed to find these little blue flowers in a planter in our front yard.

fresh and ...

Sitting here watching Hellboy 2, b-o-r-i-n-g, figured I'd get my 2 photos of the day posted while I waste my life away. Ruth's challenge yesterday was "fresh" and today's purchases fit the bill nicely:



My challenge for today was simply to take a B&W photo. I usually convert my color photos to B&W but today I took them in B&W to begin with, just to see if it would make a difference. I don't find it does. This is just a sad little bundle of twigs by the sidewalk, waiting for garbage day.

Learned a new photography term

Thanks Patti, had no idea what "ghetto lighting" was before your challenge. I wonder though, seems like kind of a racist term for it, no? ;)
So I was out yesterday and was only able to take a few quick shots before bed. I kind of like these two, but not sure if they're good or not. The flowers were taken in my bathroom with just the sconce for lighting, and the bottle uses my reading light.

The heat is on

I had an idea for my photo for my challenge today, which was "heat". I wanted sweat on a glass. I tried it with water first and liked the effect. Later I did it with my drink-of-the-day, Cranberry Sangria with Sourpuss Raspberry (slurp!). Problem with the evening drink was that I couldn't leave it sitting there long enough to get really sweaty - I had to drink it!

Anyhoo, I liked 3 of my shots and couldn't chose so I revisted Ruth's challenge from yesterday and combined the 3. :)

Dipstick?

Ruth's challenge for yesterday was diptych or something to that effect, which I just called dipstick because I couldn't remember it for the life of me. Anyway, the idea is to put two similarly themed photos together to present as one. I think...

Ugh, this is not going very well

I can't say I'm enjoying these photo challenges that much, but mainly because I'm my own worst enemy and I want to better myself and be happy with what I get. Yesterday's and today's photos? Bland, dull, meh.

for yesterday's challenge of backlit and/or silhouette, I'm posting 2 because I couldn't pick which one was slightly less dull than the other:





And today's challenge of red & white, found this while at the public pool with Alex' class this morning. It was either this or the Cdn flag. Yay.

Couple of Questions answered

To Ash - I did not plan my reflection in the mirror, and in fact I hadn't even noticed it until you pointed it out, so thanks for that! I had to search for the mirror, I thought for a second there that you were losing it! ;)

To Jessica - The framing of my photos (which I totally copied from Ruth, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!) is something I made in Photoshop. I just created new files and resized them and added layer on top of layer until I liked the result. I made the layers all slightly larger than 4x6 at 300 pixels/inch, so that I could then easily just drop a picture on top of saved final frame. Does that make sense? I can email you the frame if you'd like, it's no big design secret or anything.

Well, it's not like there's an abundance of that around here...

Ruth's challenge for yesterday was "manly" or "masculine" or something to that effect. I used my wide angle lens to take this shot of my brother in his tiny living room. The beer was for effect - his idea - because he's not much of a drinker!

I get there eventually

Poor Carine, she came over on Friday night to scrap, wanting to get me out of my recent scrapbooking funk. I'm sure she thought it was going to be a big flog since I must have stared at this layout for a good 2 hours. But then it started to come together and I managed to finish it before we went to bed. Yay! She wanted to get 3 layouts done but had to settle for two. Too much chattin' going on to make it to 3! Thanks for coming babe, always a good time! :)

Here's mine:

One subject, Two challenges

The day got away from me yesterday and I didn't make it to my photo of the day. So today, I had to do both my challenge from yesterday of "curve" and Patti's challenge of "water. I used our bird bath for both - the curves of the bowl and the reflecting pool of water. Exciting, eh? ;)

New Layout, Old Photos

I finished this layout last night. I was about to put the date on it, as '08, when I started to have a weird feeling these photos were actually from the summer before. Sure enough, I checked the photo file and they are indeed from 2007. Yikes!



Used various rub-ons from my stash for this, which made me happy to be using stuff up.

The journaling is quite small and cramped so in case you're interested, it says:
I love days with just the two of you, when you only have each other to play with. You look out for Breanna, like you did on this scary ride, and you share special moments. You guys found this little frog and enjoyed him so much that you tried to bring him home. Too bad he croaked!

If the story sounds familiar it's because I made a page with photos of this for Breanna's album. :)

That'll do

Ruth's challenge for today was an (ahem) color challenge: white.
Not much inspiration for me on this gloomy, vile day. As we were saying goodbye to sis and Breanna, mother pointed out one of her planters as a potential subject. Thanks mom, that'll do!

Making do

Patti's challenge for today: a row of colorful things. I went out walking with a specific house in mind, but when I got there I found the flowers I intended as my subject had started dying and were not very impressive. So I kept my eyes peeled the whole way home but didn't see anything interesting at all. This is the one thing that fit the challenge, though I don't find this "colorful" in the least. Alas, another failure for me! :)

Prepare to drool!

My challenge for the girls for today was FOOD, basically I wanted photos to make us all salivate. Conveniently enough, we were meeting for sushi so guess what we may all end up with? :)

It was a lovely lunch, as usual, preceeded by a stop at SC for a few odds and ends. Must say there isn't too much that inspires me there lately, I think I've truly reached the saturation point with scrapbook products. I've got to start making a dent in this ridiculous stash of mine so I think I should just stay away from the store for a while.

On the way home we stopped at Rockaberry's so I could pick up the keylime pie Mimi has been asking for lately. Brought it home and had a piece and then Patti stayed for a nice walk. Yay. A gorgeous day, wish they were all like this one.

So with 2 yummy treats today, I wound up with a tie for my photo of the day:

Moi, soaking up some sun before the deluge

Ruth challenged us to a self portrait today. My hair wasn't done, I didn't feel like putting on makeup, but after failing to get a shot for Patti's challenge yesterday, I couldn't skip another day! So I took a couple of quick ones this aft and this one is passable. I know it's not properly lit, but the blown out brightness camouflages my bad skin so I like it that way. :)

Crazy Lady With Camera

I'm sure that's what the drivers and cyclists along Riverside thought this afternoon. I felt very self conscious taking pictures of strangers, I hope no one minded. My challenge to the girls for today was to take a motion shot with either the subject blurred and the background in focus, or vice versa. I'd been wanting to try the panning technique for a while now so I thought I'd give myself a kick in the pants and get it done.

For my first attempt, I'm happy with result. I managed to get pretty decent focus of the moving thing. Thanks lady, whoever you are, for making this shot special and thus my favorite:



It was a tough choice though because I also like how this one turned out. I'd call it "The Passing Lane":

Small is beautiful

Here's my shot for Ruth's "small" challenge for today. There is a tiny little tomato just popping out at the bottom of this bunch. So this is kind of small within small since none of the tomatoes are very big yet. Kind of the Cindy-Lou Hoo of tomatoes. :)

Signs, signs, everywhere signs...

Patti's challenge for today was a photo of a sign with no writing. I believe they're called pictograms, but not sure. Anyhoo, I did a quick trip around the block at lunch time and got this shot:

More satisfying results

Thanks to those who took the time to encourage me after my last layout blog post. I would consider taking a break but I'm afraid I'd never start up again! :) Anyway, summer/fall is my prime scrapping time so I'll stick it out and see how it goes. I made this one on Tuesday night and I'm very happy with the result. As usual, I designed and glued everything and left no room for journaling, so I had to write on the back. I wonder if 50 years from now someone will discover all this journaling on the backs of my pages and actually take the time to read it all...

Unexpected Girliness

My challenge for today's photo was something girly, frilly & feminine. I thought of this jewelery holder that my mother ordered for herself from a catalogue a little while ago. When it arrived, I assumed she had ordered it for me but no, it was for herself. I was so surprised because she has nothing else remotely like this in her room. I love that she broke out of her box and ordered something pretty for herself so spontaneously. Here it is:

Morning Routine

"Routine" was Ruth's photo challenge for today. I had a couple of thoughts - my glass of wine, a shot of my TV - but decided on my morning routine of shreddies and reading the paper. So here it is:

Lost mojo or ...

I was telling Patti yesterday that I'm afraid I'm losing my love of scrapbooking. That's pretty scary and sad for me. I really don't want to stop. I think it's a combination of the loss of the SC community (yes, I know it still technically exists, but it's pretty much dead for me at this point) and to a lesser extent, the issues I'm having with my sister which are making me feel less connected to the kids.

So I forced myself to finish a layout last night and it didn't help my case much. I used a Becky Fleck sketch from her (fairly) recent book, the one with the punch out index cards. I promised myself when I bought it that I would at least use a handful of the sketches. Well, as often happens with me, I wound up struggling with the layout and don't love the end result. I find when I'm not doing my own thing that I'm just trying really hard to make it work the way it's "supposed" to. Sigh.

Anyhoo, here it is. And here's hoping my next layout will be more satisfying and will help with my funk...

Creepy Crawlies

Patti's challenge for today was a bug. I found one in the pool and took tons of shots of it but all were kind of blurry and dull. Just as I was coming in after saying goodbye to Patti (thanks for the walk babe!), I spotted this gross guy on Mimi's car. I like the far away shot better because of the "object in the mirror", but I figured I'd show you the zoom so you'll believe there was actually a bug in the picture. Wouldn't want to be disqualified again... ;)

How many more days of this?

Here's my shot of the day, for my challenge to take a reflection shot. As opposed to reflexion. What can I say, I still have some french school ghosts left in me...



By the time I went out today the weather had turned crappy AGAIN and there wasn't a whole lot of reflection anywhere to be found. I thought this was pretty at least. I have a whole body of water in my backyard and it wasn't reflecting a darn thing. It's at all of 65 degrees by the way, so it'll be a while before I'm inviting people over to swim.

Inspiration let me down today

Ruth's challenge for today was "looking up". Hmmmm... well, I looked up all around my yard, couldn't find anything remotely interesting. Dull, dull, dull. I'll try again tomorrow to see if I can better this one:



This is a shot of our roof, which is slated to be replaced this summer.

Lucky

Spent the day yesterday with my friends Lynn and Tino and their two cutie pie kids. I was spoiled with a lovely sushi lunch and an evil Scores dinner. Got lots of tips and advice for my upcoming trip to Portugal (well, can I really call it upcoming when it's still 4 months away?). A wonderful day all around, and such a beautiful one.

My pal Lynn has mobility issues. She has made tremendous progress to be where she is now, it's incredible. But it's sobering to see how much of an effort even a short walk can be for her. And with daily reminders of brother dearest's struggles, I'm feeling very lucky right now to be in such good health. Instead of moaning about getting myself out for a walk on such a beautiful day, I'll be thanking my lucky stars that I get to indulge it what many others can't.

Texture Test

Patti's photo challenge of the day was "texture". I was out all day at Lynn's, never expected to be there so late, so I had to scurry around her backyard at 8:00pm looking for a shot. This is a piece of her back fence.

Extreme Closeup!

My turn to challenge the girls again, and my challenge was ... well my post title kind of makes that clear. ;)

Here's my less than thrilled subject - dogs really do not like being photographed!
Thanks Jack, you turned your head away for this shot and it wound up being my favorite. A happy accident.

A numerical challenge

Ruth challenge for yesterday's photo : "number(s)".
Hmmm.... I was hoping to come up with some clever, artistic idea, but alas, this is all I could think of:

Bird in Flight Photo Challenge

Curtesy of Patti - ugh!
This was not easy, I just don't have the lens (or talent) for anything decent.
After my first round of attempts I thought this was going to be my best bet. ;)



What? It's kind of a bird! :)

But later in the day I tried again and got this less than stellar shot of a Robin exiting our bird bath:



This was him in full bath mode:



Next time I'll get closer because he didn't seem very afraid of me at all.

You can find Patti's bird here and Ruth's here.

A Breanna Layout

I hate when you only buy 1 piece of paper from a collection but then want to make a 2 page layout with it. I had to try to make it work. Not sure about the result but hey, it's done. The pictures were taken last June after a terrible wind storm. Seems like we're having a lot of those lately. Yet there are still those who deny climate change...

Click on it to see it bigger. :)

First Photo for a Friendly Challenge

Patti, Ruth and I are beginning a month long photo-a-day challenge today. The first one was my challenge: a landscape photo with a dominant foreground item.

My plan for a late afternoon walk with camera in hand didn't quite turned out as expected. The weather turned on us, again, but I forced myself to go anyway and embrace the grey landscapes that I found down by the river.

So here it is, my first photo for our challenge. I've cribbed a bit from Ruth on the presentation side, I like the framed look.



Click to find Ruth's http://clickclicketyclick.blogspot.com/
and Patti's http://photobug-rocklady.blogspot.com/

Couple of Alex Layouts

I’ve been fairly productive this past week, managed to get 3 layouts done. I hope they’ll show bigger if you click on them. First time and all... ;) Here are the 2 I made for Alex' album:


This first one had something bizarre happen to the photos during the scan. Very odd. The photos don't have weird streaky, splotchy stuff going on IRL...



When Alex got his latest pair of glasses (after losing the first pair and breaking the second), he was being his usual uncooperative self about letting me take a picture. So I used Jack as my excuse, because he doesn't often say no to pictures with Jack.

He was so excited to get this pair of glasses. He purposely chose a funkier pair this time, inspired by his latest American Idol fave - Danny Gokey. Cute!!! By the end of the season he had become an Adam fan though, but I'm glad he looked up to someone with glasses for at least a little while. It's so different than when I was a kid and glasses automatically made you a nerd. Now they're actually a desired accessory. Go figure!