Friday

Sorry - just messing around with blogspot to see if I could delete a previous post. I don't see any way to do it though. I'll update with a real post this evening :)

January 29 - Game night

Game night went very well! Kristi made a fabulous meatloaf for dinner then we played Wii (Mario Party). I so want one of those! LOL It was SO much fun! Tia had a controller that wasn't hooked up to anything but insisted she was winning. When it was time to jump so the character could jump up and hit the dice above his/her head, Tia would stand in the middle of the floor and jump up and down! Then yell, I did it I did it!!

Oh she's a cutie! And so much attitude! (Yeah, she has a messy face, it was at the end of dinner and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture that little attitude, messy face and all!)

Jan - 28 (28/365) Making Cake

We are going to my daughters house tomorrow night for game night. She is making meatloaf and mashed potatoes, yum. She a fabulous cook! Tonight we made cupcakes to take tomorrow. As Jackie was whipping up the batter Skyler suggested a photo of the beaters. They were whipping around on high so I never thought I would actually get the shot!

Good idea Skyler! We then frosted them with bright pink, strawberry frosting and of course had to try one ;)

Jan 27 (27/365) Tea Time

Normally on Tuesday night I teach/demonstrate a layout or technique for my online scrapbooking group. I rush home, get through dinner and dishes then quick upstairs to get the layout ready to go and get prepared for class time. Tuesdays are pretty rushed for me so my son, Mark asked if he could come over and make dinner for us and bring a new game to play with Skyler. How sweet is that!? Well, Skylers mom called at the last second wanting to take Skyler so he missed out on the fun, but I enjoyed dinner with Mark and getting to visit with him. I didn't play the game lol I'm just not into that anime role playing stuff. I don't understand it and Mark gets annoyed with all the questions! LOL (See Skylers blog to find out what he did tonight :)

I've not been feeling well at all the last two days. While I was making a cup of hot mint tea I thought this would make a great photo for today! I tried to catch the hot steam rising from the cup, but I didn't do a very good job at it. I think it would have worked better with the white wall (or better yet, something dark) as the background instead of the sink. I'm not sure, I'll have to try it again.

This was the second photo I took. Again I was trying to catch the steam and thought perhaps the counter top would show the steam better. Nope.

This is such a yummy and aromatic tea! I get it from my favorite little coffee shop. Jerry, the owner, knows me pretty well and recommended it and he was so right. (sip) mmmmm Now to find the Tylenol.....

Jan 26 - Finding Cheer in the Gloom

It is so gray and gloomy outside right now. The snow is black from the sand and exhaust, the skies are gray and the days are cold. These brightly colored pencils sitting on my desk just called to be my blog post for today! LOL

I wondered when I took the photo if I should put them all points up or down, but in the end I decided I liked the mixture!

Through Skys Eyes blog

Ok, so Skyler (9 yo) wants to join in the fun. I'm trying to encourage him to use his imagination. He is fantastic with figures and logic but, he struggles with fantasy and silly imagination. He also struggles with writing down his thoughts. The one thing he's looking for with his blog is positive feedback. I know all of you are very busy, but if you have time could you please take a sec and encourage his attempts?

Thanks!!

January 24 (24/365)

I love when my kids come to see me :) They hate it when I get out the camera! LOL This is my oldest son. He is annoyed with me and laughing that I'll take a photo of anything.

Mark just turned 22 and has the most amazing eyes I've ever seen. They are a gorgeous almost sea green with gold and brown flecks. Maybe I'll be able to talk him into a close up of him actually looking at me instead of trying to ignore me. He's such a doll and amazingly mischievous! He is the first to pull pranks and the first to fall on the floor in laughter afterwords! When he was about three, he rolled his plastic snake up in the toilet paper roll... then waited! He would also sneak in the bathroom, turn off the light, and when I would say (patiently from inside the shower) Mark, please turn on the light. He would respond with - 'It's not me mommy!" and then run from the room leaving me with shampoo in my hair and standing in the shower in the dark! LOL His sense of humor and amazingly kind heart are what I love most about him. I'm so proud of him.

January 23 (23/365)

I have some plant clippings from a huge plant I have at work. I put them in water this summer and I just keep watering them. It amazes me that it's growing like wild! No dirt, just stuffed in a jar and watered when I think about it lol

All of a sudden, just today, I noticed how much it has grown! It is taking over the small corner shelf I have it on!

It is such a nice dash of color against my red Coke stand :)

January 22 (22/365) - San Diego Snowman

Whew, finally I have a minute to download the photos from my camera. We had everyone over for home made lasagna. Just as my daughter, her husband and their kids were leaving, the suspension spring broke on their car! That means they are all staying here tonight! I've been able to spend time with them every night this week, which has been nice. They grow so fast.

Family friend, Desi, went to California to see her grandmother this past week. She got back today and was super glad to be home. She joined us for dinner and surprised me with this delightful little snowglobe.

It's a San Diego Snowman!!! Took me a second to 'get it' lol There is a little floating hat, carrot nose, eyes etc floating around in there. Really made me laugh!

It's just silly.

January 21 (21/365)

This is my little 4 mo old grandson. He was talking to me and got so excited! He's starting to goo and giggle; such a fun age! He makes all kinds of noises now and he just kicks and wiggles when he sees me.

I don't know what he was telling me here, but he meant it!
(Baby Robbie)

PS I took it grayscale because as a very Irish/Scottish baby, he is very splotchy lol Plus, he is a serious slobberpuss. I'm not going to take the time to edit any of the photos I'm uploading tonight. I just plain don't have the time.

Off to my next item on my todo list :)

January 20th (20/365)

Have you played electronic Life? The kids got it out and played it tonight; what a cute game! I like that there was no way to cheat!

Hahaha, no scrapbooking photo tonight ;) Actually, I have one, but this turned out much better.

January 19 (19/365) Silver Mesh

I have this tiny silver mesh sitting on my desk. It's been here all week and I've wanted to do a photo of the day (pod) with it. Tonight, I finally did. These tiny little pink punched flowers have a glitter center. They are less than 1/2" across, more like 3/8". So I put down corresponding pattern paper, wadded up the mesh and added a couple of the flowers. I only took two tries and figured they were about as good as it was going to get! LOL This is me trying to be creative with dof and silver mesh ;)

(This is the second photo)

January 18 (18/365) Ice Cream

The last couple of days have been just gorgeous. Although it has only been about 20°F, it feels so wonderful out there! We have gone 60°+ degrees difference in just a couple of days! Last week were were close to -40° F!

Now, the snow is melting and people were running around in just jackets! I asked the boys what treat they would like tonight and it was unanimous, ice cream hands down! Neapolitan fit the bill as one wanted chocolate and the other vanilla lol

January 17 (17/365) Abandoned Car

Everytime my husband and I drive by this old car, he comments on it and has wanted a photo of it all snow covered. Well, here it is. I don't know what kind of car it is or anything, but I did like the photo we ended up with. Both front doors are open and it is full of snow. The backdoor is missing, as you can see. There are a couple of other photos of it, but I'm only going to include one more in this post.

January 16 (16/356) Filet de'Chocolat

One of the things I most enjoy about my husband is his delightful and playful sense of humor. He loves to surprise me. Tonight he came home from the store (he's the cook in my house - and VERY good at it!) and tossed something at me. I caught it and then caught the twinkle in his eye. This is what he'd tossed me!

He's so silly and so much fun. So for tonight I'm sharing with all of you... a smile :)

January 15 (15/365) Budweiser Plant (Fargo, ND)

This is not smoke, it's steam. Normally it is barely noticeable, however; with this amazingly bitter cold weather, the steam dwarfed this massive plant! You can just barely see the Budweiser sign on the right side of the building.

I took this photo from the passenger seat while we were heading down the interstate!!

January 14 (14/365) Snow pics

I know I said I wouldn't take many more snow photos. However, it's really hard to do when there is SO much snow everywhere! Our weather was even on Good Morning Amercia and been in the national news!

I ended up with several different photos for today. Like Andrea (I think it was Andrea), I don't take a whole bunch of photos. I take a couple of a specific subject (usually) and then pick the best one of that.

I had such a hard time picking tonight! I loved the softness in this photo. It's a river, frozen over and covered in snow. It's such a soft photo. The reality is that it's around -30° outside and so bitter cold it's hard to breathe! Such harsh weather; sharp and bitter cold. To look at it though, it's breath taking and soft and beautiful! There is a river under all that snow. The rivers here move very slowly and freeze over. It always amazes me that there are fish in there! I'm hoping to get out and get some good photos of ice fishing this winter. If I can find the intestinal fortitude to walk out on that ice!

The last photo below is the same as the photo for today (above), I just sharpened it a little to add texture and remove the softness.

January 13 - 2009 13/365

Every Tuesday I create a layout or share a scrap booking technique for my online group. That means Tuesdays are very difficult for me to work all day, get home, cook dinner, clean up, plan for and teach the class, and get a creative photo! I'm just not that good lol So, you will get a lot of scrapbooking related photos on Tuesdays. This is the layout I made from a sketch I drew last week.

January 12 - 2009 12/365

What do you get when you have several feet of snow and a prairie full of rabbits? Stripped bushes, many tiny prints and a whole lot of little round droppings. They are everywhere. Right now there is so much snow that they are, undoubtedly, having a hard time.

We are supposed to hit as low as minus 40 this week! Minus Forty!!! Next week it looks like it will be +30F, that's a 70 degree difference in just one week! The odd thing is, we just go with it. We live by the weather channel though. I get up, check the weather, and dress for the day. I take a coat, wear layers and try to avoid the wind. You never want to get caught out in the cold. With temps that low, one wouldn't make it long.

I was going to take more photos tonight as the snow is so white and fluffy and the wind is just blowing it everywhere, but it is moist snow and I was afraid it would stick to the lens and it's dark around here by 5. Besides, it's unbelievably cold! LOL

Want to see what our roads look like? Click here to see the news broadcast from last night!

January 11 - 2009 11/365

We spent a good two hours together today. I bought him a wood burning kit and we did our first project. He was a natural! Skyler moved the wood burning tool very slowly and carefully along the lines. By the end, he was bored with it. However, he finished the project and was very proud of his work and so was I!

January 10 - 2009 10/365

My husband heard about this on the news today and picked me up after work so we could go see it and get some pictures.

It is very overcast and gray today, which is a shame because this sculpture is pretty amazing. Jerry Roiger of Fargo is a wood carver. He used the snow in his backyard and carved this into it. It took him about fifteen hours over five days with the help of his wife, Marlynda. You can tell by garage and car in the background how massive this sculpture actually is. I'm going to try to go over tomorrow night and get a photo of it in the dark when it is all lit up.
According to the Fargo Forum newspaper, Jerry Roiger has been waiting for enough snow to get to do this; calling it a Mount Rushmore style salute to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Here is the article in the Forum (local paper).
Here it is all lit up at night.

January 9 - 2009 9/365

I'm working on a website for a friend of mine. I went over and got some pics of her office and her working today. I won't bore you with those :) I saw this flower sitting there. It was so bright and cheerful, I just had to snap a photo! What a ray of sunshine in such a gray, cloudy and cold day!

January 8 - 2009 8/365

Okay, to make up for the previous two posts, I really put some thought into todays photos. I wanted texture and something different. I've taken snow, trees, and scrapbooking stuff.

Here is a rock. I believe it is 'fools gold' (iron pyrite). I've had it since I was very, very young. I loved it and kept it out on my dresser to show my friends my 'gold'. I love the texture and lines and ... all of it. It is sparkly and heavy and so full of detai and texture. That's what I love most; all of the angles and texture and color in one simple rock. A simple photo could never do it justice. I took several/many photos and played with the background.

I started out with playing with dop, but I really didn't like it that way. I added more light and went for a clean, sharp photo instead.

January 7 - 2009 7/365

People tend to photograph what is around them. Be prepared to see a lot of scrapbooking items! This is very sparkly embossing powder. You sprinkle it over the top of a freshly stamped image and then heat it up with a small heat gun. It is amazing stuff and I just love it. The photo doesn't do it justice, I'll work on that.

January 6 - 2009 6/365

Tuesdays are always hardest for me so expect a pretty lame photo on Tuesdays lol I work a full day then go home, do dinner and dishes (and other family obligations) and then I teach a scrapbooking layout or technique via my webcam. After all of that fun and creativity, taking a fun photo is pretty unlikely.

My daughter collects M&M guys. I went in to talk to her and this one caught my attention and made smile after a tough day.... so I took a photo of it!

Problems

I've been trying for two days to upload photos and I'm getting the message that there is an internal error in my file. I've tried files at work and at home and several types of files and still I get the error message. I was finally able to upload to my other blog just today so I'll try tonight from home. Hopefully it will let me upload so I can post the pics and get caught up.

Gotta love technology! LOL

Winter Fingers - Jan 5, 2009 (5/365)

Ok, I know I said I wouldn't post any more winter photos, but it's really hard to do when every where I turn, it's winter! We are supposed to get up to about 19F tomorrow. It will be nice to be above zero. It's been so cold! Yesterday it was minus 30F!!! My skin would just sting when I walked from the building to the car! It's so cold it can knock the breath right out of you! At that kind of cold the snow crunches under my feet as I walk and you can see the air as the moisture freezes in it. It makes for a diamond dust all around. It's beautiful and oh so dangerous. I guess we are getting more snow this weekend. So it looks like ya'll are stuck with seeing more snow photos!

We finished the night playing Wii bowling. I won one and lost one. I can't believe how much fun that is to play! Real bowling kills my damaged shoulder, Wii bowling just reminds me how much I need to get to the gym!

January 4 - 2009 (4/365)

Well my week off of work has come to an end. All of my Christmas stuff is put away, the house is cleaned, china hutch contents are all dusted, new cutter files are uploaded, layouts are done, I started on a brand new adventure (this blog) and I'm ready to face the new year.

My 2009 horoscope predicted that I would enter the new year with a renewed creativity. Guess we'll find out. My photo for today is two photos! I couldn't decide. My first choice was the brads photo, but I liked the stamps one too.

The first photo is a stack of stamps, a pair of tweezers, and a paper piercer. All are scrapbooking tools. The second is a tiny box of brads. They are so bright and colorful. They make very cheerful additions. Technically, not a great photo. However, I couldn't scrapbook without them. They are clearly one of my most favorite embellishments. I spent my free time today catching up on some layouts. I promise to not post a scrapbooking related photo tomorrow!

January 3, 2009 - Gingerbread House

It's snowing again here in Fargo. Great big, fluffy flakes. It was very tempting to go out and play in it and get pictures. However, I figure I've already done one snow photo, that's enough for the week ;)

I am photographing my scrapbooking layouts today and getting them uploaded to my other blog. I thought as long as I'm sharing pics of the layouts there, I should do it here too! This is a gingerbread house paper piecing. I designed it, cut it out, decorated it and put it together on a scrapbook page. If you click on the pic, you'll go to my blog and see the whole layout. I'm not usually one for glitter, but this adorable little house just begged to be sparkled!

January 2 - 2009

My grandson spent the night last night. He is so playful and silly. This isn't a great photo technically, but I just love it! He was blowing through a big foam ball. The little whistle it produced made him giggle.

Side note: My oldest son comments, a lot, how I let this little guy get away with way more than I ever let him (my son). I have to agree! I'm wiser now. And it's not my job to be tough with him, it's his moms! It's my job to love him and giggle with him and just enjoy being with him. It's his moms job to make sure he doesn't make messes or wear mismatched clothes! At my house, it's okay to eat the frosting when we are baking cookies, tell really terrible jokes 20 times, and eat cupcakes for breakfast! It's my job to teach him how much fun a Grandma is, so that when he has children, maybe some of that will be shared with them. Ahh hindsight....

January 1 - 2009

Went out with the camera today. We’ve had record breaking snow in Fargo, ND this year! This is the playground at a local park.

Here are a few of the other photos I took today:

Flickr

Webshots

Welcome

I belong to an online photography group. This year we have a goal to take one photograph a day and share it on our 365 blogs. I've created this blog just for that purpose!

I will not post photos of clients here. Just random captures of my day, how I'm feeling, the weather, and what is going on around me. I hope you enjoy them!

Photo A day!

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