Apr
21
A Relaxing Moment With Pumpkin
Happy Caturday, friends!
Canon 35mm 1.4
Mar
26
My New Rainboots
Sometimes I think “EASILY EXCITED” should be tattooed on my forehead so I don’t alarm people when I gasp about just how incredible the cranberry orange muffin I’m biting into tastes. Or whatever else it is that’s catching my fancy at the moment. (It runs in my family, it seems, and just the other day my dad called me and had me on the phone for three hours while he waited for his new iPad to arrive from FedEx. I can only hope that when I’m 50+ I still find things like this thrilling and exciting.)
But I’ll tell you, my heart fluttered when I found these rain boots in the store a few weeks ago. Tom told me to keep an eye out for “the pair” before our trip to Ireland, but luckily for us it didn’t rain during our three week stay (unheard of!) so I managed to get away without them. But when I saw these babies -it was love at first sight- I tried them on immediately, fell in love, and asked them if they’d like to come home with me. They said yes of course, so I wandered through the store with them on and carried my shoes with me until check out. I’ve been dying to try them out ever since, and do a little rain dance every morning. I’ll even admit to wearing them when there wasn’t a rain cloud in sight.
This weekend Tom and I did a collaborative photoshoot to break them in, he took his first bokehrama (photo #1 is a 4 photo stitch), and I discovered a new found love for levitation photos. I hope your weekend was as grand as ours, or grander!
Photos 1-4, 5&6 taken by Tom.
Photo 1 is a 4 photo stitch.
Photos 7&8 are each a 2 photo stitch.
Feb
25
The Clowder Club Tree House
I came out of the bedroom one day a few weeks ago to discover our three furballs (I affectionately call them the Clowder Club sometimes) hanging out on the top of the cat tree together. I guess it’s now officially their tree house! Happy Caturday!
Feb
24
The Water Is Too Cold In February
My family always tried skating on Lake Michigan every winter. I’d been hoping for a chance this year but it just didn’t get cold enough. Sitting beside the lake yesterday watching the geese come and go, the ducks try to make their way around feathered territory, I imagined being on the lake with Tom. As children we loved it, and we’d come home from such outings and talk to each other about them on the computer. “I wish you were here,” we’d say. I want to go skating with you now that we’re finally together. For new memories and old memories to collide. Red and runny noses, double layered mittens, and blades scraping against the ice. We etched our names into the lake.
Feb
13
The Hardest Part Is Taking The Photo
Happy Monday, everyone! Tom is finally feeling better and up and walking around, so thanks to everyone who sent him well wishes. =) And since I usually share a digest from the Spurred project with you on Mondays, I thought today I’d start answering questions I’ve received regarding the project. If you have any questions you’d like answered- feel free to
Melanie asked, “What was the hardest part about doing a 365 days project?”
The hardest part of this project was, if you can believe it, actually taking a photo every single day. It seems really easy (at least it did to me) but it isn’t. There will be days when you don’t want to take the photo, there will be days where you want to quit (there will be several, actually), and when you’re done the project will leave you feeling photo-ed out for quite a while. For me the difficulty came while trying to relate to the prompt and putting too much expectations on myself. It takes some time to think about shots and how you want to compose them, but when you’re pushing yourself to take an “amazing” shot every single day, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Which is what I was doing, which obviously isn’t going to happen, and so towards the end I just had to let go and shoot whatever came my way.
My favorite photo of this batch is “Dead” because of the light and my least favorite is “Gold” because I wish the quality had been better. I didn’t take my time with that shot at all!
Random tidbit: The “Dance” photo was taken while we were in the car driving. Music was playing and I thought it was just a neat shot.
“Dead” September 10th (Day 253)
“Tranquil” September 11th (Day 254)
“Change” September 12th (Day 255)
“Reality” September 13th (Day 256)
“Dance” September 14th (Day 257)
“Dull” September 15th (Day 258)
“Pleasure” September 16th (Day 259)
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” September 17th (Day 260)
I like to think that I try really hard to better myself all the time. I’m constantly evaluating my habits, my responses, even my thought process sometimes, for ways to improve or ways in which I would like to change. And I admire that immensely when I see it in other people. Tom is one of those people, and so is his mother. She just had her birthday and she is still examining her life, her situations and thinking of ways to improve or make her quality of life better.
“Gold” September 18th (Day 261)
Making homemade waffles for the cookbook.
Feb
06
The Beginning of September
Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was fairly good, but Tom came down with a fever of 102 last Tuesday night and was 101 today. (It broke on Friday but came back Saturday night. We’ll be visiting the clinic today! Just so you don’t think I’m a horrible wife or anything! GEE.) It was a very laid back week of eating light and taking it easy for both of us. Today is also my sister Kait’s (who visited in December) birthday, and we talked for a while this morning. I just can’t believe how fast the years are going. You know how they say the years go by faster and faster the older you get? I really think that’s the truth. I’d like to make an effort to slow down, in life in general and in work.
(Are you ready for a Spurred update? =P )
“Library” September 2nd (Day 245)
Last year when I did my vegan challenge in September I checked out three vegan cookbooks from the library, and haven’t borrowed any since. To celebrate the healthiest year of my life, I went and checked out some more.
“Curl” September 3rd (Day 246)
“Note” September 4th (Day 247)
I left a note for myself to do a photo like this of Atlas with my feet in the frame because I have one of Morn and Pumpkin just like it, and I thought it would be nice to have one of Atlas too.
“Square” September 5th (Day 248)
“Silhouette” September 6th (Day 249)
Morn, Pumpkin, and Atlas gazing out the window.
“Journal” September 7th (Day 250)
Work out log!
“Falling” September 8th (Day 251)
“Favorite” September 9th (Day 252)
Gluten free fries.
Jan
26
Mansions of Madness
Mansions of Madness was probably the craziest game that we played when our guests were here for Christmas and the New Year. It took us quite a while to get set up, and if I’m totally honest, I have a really hard time sitting and listening (and or reading) instruction manuals of any kind. I’m more of a learn as I go, hands on kind of lady. When I build those do-it-yourself tables/chairs/cabinetry, I always look at the pictures and have to tell myself to read the instructions too. I rarely do, but haven’t ever had a problem so far. Once we fumbled our way through an initial play through of the game, we had so much fun that we played it three more times. (It’s a 3-4 hour game!) It’s set in the 1930s, and you start off as a team of detectives and you is to run through the mansion collecting clues to discover the objective to win. (It changes each time!) One time we had to escape the mansion alive (we failed), another time it was to defeat the hardest monsters, and you can change the layout of the mansion every time too so it was really a new experience every time! And each character is extremely different so you really have to work together to win. And the best part is that one player is the game master (much like D&D) and his objective is different every time too, but it’s always against yours. Now I don’t want to bore your head off talking about games, so I’ll leave you with some photos (of course).
Photos 7, 8, & 10 were taken by my sister Kait.
Jan
12
August Flashback
I think it’s probably natural to feel a little “lost” after completing two year long projects in a row. I find myself thinking, and almost in a panic, “Oh my gosh, I should be taking photos of something, but what!” And then I realize, there are no prompts, I don’t have to do any self portraits, I can just relax and take photos of whatever I want. Yes, perfect, this is relaxing and just what I need. But then I think it might not be so bad if I started a 52 weeks project. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM? Projects are fantastic. They help us get out of our comfort zones, they give us inspiration and motivation and we meet cool new people and take photos we never would have taken otherwise. But I’ve overloaded myself with projects the last few years that I promised myself this year I would take it easy(ier). So even though right now I feel like I have no direction, and during the time of the day I spent mulling over ideas and taking a shot for two years I simply wander around with my camera feeling helpless, I’m going to roll with it. Because it will pass, and it won’t be so scary after a while.
“Far” August 6th (Day 218)
“Macro” August 7th (Day 219)
This isn’t a macro shot. It isn’t even shot with my macro lens, but it’s not every day you get a chance to photograph a salt water aquarium so we’re going to roll with it.
“Soft” August 8th (Day 220)
“Clean” August 9th (Day 221)
“Key” August 10th (Day 222)
Do you see those rubber bands hanging on the key ring? Those were for when I went running. Until this month I was strapping my iPhone to the treadmill with a rubber band or two so it would stay put while I ran, and so I left the rubber bands with the gym key so I wouldn’t forget. For my birthday this year I was given an iPod nano, which clips to my clothes, and I no longer need to MacGyver my iPhone to the treadmill. But when I look back on this photo in a few years after I’ve forgotten, I will laugh at the two/three years I spent collecting rubber bands from every asparagus bundle we brought home from the grocery store, forgetting them and only realizing once already in the gym and coming all the way back to get some, having them snap mid run- all just so I could listen to some music while I ran.
“Stretch” August 11th (Day 223)
Usually I can’t handle spicy foods at all and as Tom made this chili we both thought there was no way I’d manage. “Mild” doesn’t mean squat. Okay, maybe mild means, “Sara’s mouth will explode and everyone else will wear confused looks on their faces, take another bite and conclude it’s not really spicy at all.” Because that’s usually what happens.
Except that I used to love chili dogs when I was younger. (Probably a result of being a Sonic the Hedgehog kid. I can’t believe I just admitted that.) So even now I will stretch my tolerance for spice a little bit as long as it’s in chili. And this chili was perfection.
“Stripes” August 12th (Day 224)
“Silence” August 13th (Day 225)
“Silence, peasant. You will provide me with a cushion.”
Sometimes I like to imagine what Morn and Pumpkin might be saying to each other.
“Night” August 14th (Day 226)
“Beautiful” August 15th (Day 227)
Jan
09
Friends For Christmas
You know that saying about time and having fun? Well, it’s definitely true. Two weeks ago when my sister and friends came to visit it really felt like they were here for two days instead of five. We got each other games for Christmas and I believe we tried every single one (OK- we didn’t get to Killer Bunnies or Riley’s Glee board game) and even some we played twice! My favorites of the bunch were Munchkin, Pandemic, and Mansions of Madness (which will have a post all it’s own). It’s so easy to get caught up in technology these days and forget that a world exists beyond our phones or computers, so it was really nice to play a game that didn’t involve a screen other than a paper one. (D&D reference, for the win!) Of course we took some time to play some good old fashioned Dungeons & Dragons. It the first time in a long time I wasn’t the DM so I got to play and have my character do ridiculous things and really have fun with it. (My sister and I played characters with a relationship similar to Shawn and Gus in the TV comedy show Psych, if you watch that.) And yes, in that last picture Pumpkin AND Atlas are sitting on her lap while we play. Cat lady runs in our blood.
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