I have never made a New Year's Resolution. I think they are kind of dumb. And 21 days into the new year is about the time you hear people saying "well I've already broken my new years resolution". But guess what? I've made two resolutions and am still very much on top of them.
Last fall I noticed that I was starting to become addicted to this game on Facebook. It was not healthy. I was losing sleep and more importantly (and the reason why I stopped playing it) was because I felt my children were being neglected. I noticed this in December and decided that this was going to be my first New Year's Resolution: to stop playing Frontierville. And I have... very successfully. And I know my boys are happy too.
The second resolution I've mentioned before but not in "resolution" terms. I joined the group 365: The 2011 Edition on Flickr. I have been a member of the Flickr community for a few years now and I have challenged myself to take a picture a day for 365 days which started January 1st. AND along with each post I have to write a description of the picture, a journal if you will, of my day encapsulated in that one photo. I will never run out of things to photograph, my challenge is "which ONE PHOTO do I choose out of all the ones I've taken today?" I think my favorite one was yesterday's picture:
And this was the description:
What a fun relaxing day at home. Since Wednesday's are so busy for this household I usually take Thursday's to relax, get the house picked up, do laundry, catch up on my knitting, etc.
Today Jacob helped me sort through the old sewing stuff that was given to me yesterday (see #018/365) and it was a blast!! These are the 5 wooden spools of thread I just fell in love with. All the buttons in the background were mine already.
And description from #018/365
I had a few errands to run around town today and one of them was to go to our local (extremely little... I mean little hole-in-the-wall) thrift store. I was looking for large glass containers to display my old wooden spools of thread in.
One of the church ladies was volunteering there so I told her what I was looking for. As we chatted I told her that I collected old buttons, spools of thread, etc. She then asked me if I knew Mr. such-and-such. (I knew OF him but not personally). She said that he was downsizing because his wife had died a year ago. He had a lot of his mother's old buttons, etc. and was looking for a good home for them. WOW! JACKPOT! I told her I was definitely interested.
And, well, to make a long story short, Jacob and I spent the next 45 minutes at his house visiting with him and looking at his mother's old sewing stuff. He ended up giving everything to me!
There weren't a lot of buttons but A LOT of thread! He was such a sweet man, he was in his 80's and moving to be closer to family.
And the picture to go along with 018/365 entitled Small Towns Are Wonderful
So if I've been neglecting this blog it's because I'm crazy about Flickr again.
Since joining the Flickr community a few years ago I have seen other peoples photos that I may have never gotten the chance to see had I not joined. For those of you that don't know what Flickr is it's an online photography community where one can share as many or as few of your photos (with friends and strangers) as you like. You decide. For us photographers it's a way to share ideas and tips and to see photos from around the world. There are literally thousands of groups in this community that one can join. The number is limitless. Right now I'm in 74 groups but it changes as my interests change.
When I look at other members photos I continue to find new groups to explore. These groups also serve as great inspiration to get out there and try new things. I have found two groups that are going to be very challenging yet very rewarding at the same time. I'm going to tell you about one group in this post. The group is called "Strangers". This is so far out of my comfort zone I can't even tell you! The idea is to get out there and ask strangers if you can take their picture. But it's more than just click and run. It's a chance to get to know people that you may not otherwise talk to. So far I've talked to and taken 7 strangers photos; I'm trying to get up to 100. I would especially like to thank the four women I met yesterday at the Williamsburg Antique Mall. They were all very sweet, open and honest with me. This is Ronda (L) and Donna (R):
I am really enjoying my new camera. But along with taking pictures comes editing and then sometimes playing around with images. I guess that's another part of my creativity, shoot then sometimes manipulate. While revisiting my old photoshop program I stumbled upon another "filter" that I had not played around with before but love it. My favorite flower is the Black-Eyed Susan so I found an old picture and manipulated it.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season without being too stressed out. Christmas is over and now we are looking ahead to 2011. I'm not sure what made me decide to buy another camera a few weeks ago but I did. Now mind you with me being the frugal person I am I read up on different cameras and searched for deals and finally found the perfect little camera. I have two really nice cameras but they are both too big to put in my pocket and go. This is what I wanted: a small compact camera BUT one that gave me the same quality as my two nicer cameras.
It seems like every time I buy a new camera I remember how much joy photography brings me. I get excited about taking pictures again. I tend to look at objects, buildings, nature, everything differently. I like taking extreme close-up shots, that way it's a mystery as to what it is. I also like to play with different angles. Most people take pictures straight on. Not me. I will lie on my back to get a different view of something.
I have been a member of the Flickr Community for a few years now. Flickr is a website that lets you download your pictures, organize them, share them with other people and join groups if you would like other people to see your work. There are literally thousands of groups you can download your photos into. You name it, they got a group for it. Some of the groups I'm in are What's Your Angle Buddy?, License Plates, Sharpie Artists, Amish, Chicks With Cameras, the list goes on and on. I think I'm in about 55+ groups as of today. When I first joined Flickr I wanted to get my pictures out there so I could see what other people thought of my work... I don't care so much about that anymore.
I know there are other people out there, like me, that just enjoy looking at photographs. I believe every photograph tells a story and this is why I decided to join this group on Flickr called 365: the 2011 edition. It is just what it's name implies. I will take a picture a day for the entire year. I have a few Flickr friends that have done this before and I had such a good time following their journey. Now it's my turn.
You can find me at http://flickr.com/photos/photographybykim/
It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you "Be of good cheer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It's the hap- happiest season of all
There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When love ones are near
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When love ones are near
It's the most wonderful time
It's the most wonderful time
It's the most wonderful time
It's the most wonderful time of the year
written in 1963 by Eddie Pola and George Wyle
9 days until Christmas!
It's coming along just fine, thank you. A few days ago I told you that I had cleaned out my old stash of yarn in order to upgrade and I found a few UFO's in my bin so I'm trying to get these done before I continue on with my socks. I will probably finish this scarf tonight (YIPPEE!)
I couldn't tell you what kind of yarn or what weight it is. It's probably a bulky weight as I'm using size 8 needles and it is rather thick feeling which I love.
I said I wasn't going to post a picture of my socks until I finished both of them. Well since I started these "other" half finished projects I'm dying to show the world my first pair of socks (1/2 finished)
I am starting to add SOCK knitting to my collection of knitting books but the one that I've found most helpful is a leaflet by Leisure Arts called I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks by Cindy Guggemos. My green socks, which I've named Frolicking In The Grass on Ravelry, is just the basic sock pattern. But I was so excited about these pair of socks I started another pair... just a little more difficult. This pattern is called the Syncopated Rib Socks and I picked out bold colors for this.
And here's a closer picture to show the detail of the leg. The pattern is fairly easy, you just have to keep track of what row you're on.
I have already picked out yarn for my third pair of socks but I will not, I repeat I will not, start these until either my first or second pair of socks is complete.
Happy knitting everyone!
I had decided that I would post a Christmas photo every day counting down the days til Christmas. I love photography and I consider it my first hobby. I have oodles of pictures that I'd like to share and I thought if I did a Friday Photo every week it would keep me on track. But the more I sifted through them I decided that there were just too many to limit myself to ONE a week.
So (back to my story) I picked my 13 photos for the countdown to Christmas and started editing them. I forgot how much fun photoshopping is! (Is photoshopping a word?) Now mind you I don't have any type of fancy-schmancy programs but the one I do have is simple and works for me.
This is my original photo:
I painted these ornaments a few years ago and hung them from our chandelier in our dining room. I was very pleased with how each one of them turned out. Because our walls are white it gives the photo a simple elegant feel. Little did I know that these white walls would lend themselves to fun times when altering them:
For each of these pictures I only adjusted the hue. I did not adjust for saturation, brightness or contrast.
12 days until Christmas!
