366: Day 60 ~ Happy Leap Day!

Three good things: cracking up with my kid over this photo shoot, beautiful snow falling all morning, and then, quickly melting before it makes a mess. 

366: Day 59

Three good things: a full day of school for the kid, an interesting show from this crow, who had stolen some kid's lunch and was dropping it on the pavement in front of me trying to open the container, and having time to read a few tips and tricks out of my photoshop book. 

Texture Tuesday: White

Time for Texture Tuesday! Kim's theme this week is "white". I wasn't sure I could "do" white... but then I had two photos after all. Or three, what the heck, the last one uses Kim's new "happy heart" texture.  They are mostly white. The first photo has one of Kim Klassen's textures on it - "shine" and the second one has "shine", "siena" and "finale". Thanks for looking! 

366: Day 58

Three good things: Sunshine. Saving Daisy the dog from getting run over and finding her owners. Sending the kid back to school again. 

Beyond Layers ~ Day 13: Simple Truths

Today, Kim asked us to list 10 Truths about ourselves, along with a picture. Here's the truth about me, I have trees in my hair. Oh, wait, that's not what she asked for. Truths, not fairy tales.

1. My favorite colors are jewel tones, the colors of the sky at sunset.

2. If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be somewhere with more sunshine than Seattle, but all the beauty of the Pacific Northwest on a sunny day. Plus, there would be water and a kayak with my name on it.

3. I homeschool my kid, which looks an awful lot like regular school half the week and unschooling the rest of the week. He's growing up to be an amazing person, but I worry about him getting into college. I try to tell myself that all mothers have the same worry, no matter what school they go to.

4. I'm kind of a geek. I like my gadgets, I like to code in HTML, I am so enjoying deconstructing layers in Photoshop, I spend way too much time on the internet. I've been known to have the laptop, the kindle fire and the iPhone all going on at one time. Sometimes you just need multiple screens!

5. I'm a craft supply hoarder. I have a whole studio in the backyard devoted to melting glass and jewelry making. I have a whole basement full of yarns, clay, fabric, paints, brushes, gel medium. I have a whole *basket full* of gel medium. And a wall full of beads. And another wall full of glass rods. I have two sewing machines that I don't know how to use. Also, I create more art in my head than ever sees the full light of day.

6. I bought myself a guitar, but I don't know how to play it. It sits in a stand in my living room mocking me.

7. I am a bit of a political junkie, a progressive dreamer, a feminist, equal rights, a free-choice, peace-loving, live and let live kind of person. I do not wear tie-dye.

8. I'm a food freak. I'm all about home-grown, local farmer grown, seasonal, humane, non-gmo, organic whole foods. Plus coffee. Espresso, really. I can't eat gluten anymore, and so I don't bake much anymore, something I've always loved. I have planted 6 fruit trees in my front yard and have 4 raised beds in my back yard. I love to pick lettuce right out of the garden for salad, and the strawberries? O.M.G. there are no better strawberries than the ones you grow yourself.

9. I love books. My guilty pleasure is vampire and werewolf and shape-shifter stories. I read history books for pleasure too, though admittedly, they help me to fall asleep. There are piles of books all over my house, art books, garden books, chicken-raising books, bird books, school books, cookbooks. And magazines. Way too many magazines.

10. I am blessed beyond belief with an amazing husband who spoils me, a beautiful child who makes me laugh and makes my heart ache with love, a big dopey happy dog, and a possessive cat, and a coop full of happy chickens who give us fresh eggs and a whole lot of entertainment.

366: Day 57

Three good things: 1. Getting your photo of the day in just before the deadline. 2. Being able to laugh at your own silly creations. 3. Having your son think it's really, really cool, anyway. "Look Mom! Ghost-sheep!!!" Love that boy of mine. (Three photos from today, a barn, some sheep sitting around telling each other stories, and an old tractor wheel.)

Oh, ok, here is something much better for today's shot. How easy it comes when you stop trying so hard.

More Birds from Yesterday

I decided the crow needed a crown after all.

and my favorite sweet little gull of the bunch:

and here is an older one that I never posted on here, there are several photos in this one, a sunset, the white line on a paved road, some scratches, the crow:

366: Day 56

Three good things: feeding birds at the lake, taking 471 photos, and a boy on the mend. 

366: Day 55

We are getting out of the house tonight, going to see a show at the Children's Theatre, "A Single Shard". We are excited about it, we read the book a couple months ago... but nervous about exposure to more germs. We have to get back to real life sometime. Wish us luck.

Here's today's photo: "Peekaboo!"

Happy Fence Friday

Fence Friday, huh? Why not? Lots and lots over at Flickr if you want to look: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fencedfriday/ and http://www.flickr.com/groups/fence_friday/.

366: Day 54

Three good things: Spring is coming... I saw crocuses blooming today... I met the funniest sea gull today.

366: Day 53

One good thing: my sister brought my newest niece into the world today, welcome, baby Sydney Jean, we love you already!

Another good thing: my lens arrived!

And another good thing - the minute I stepped out the door with it, this beautiful cooper's hawk sharp-shinned hawk was just sitting there waiting for me.

366: Day 52

They say fake it 'til you make it... well, I got nothing but a couple of photos, faux sunshine and happiness.

Texture Tuesday

It's time for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday again - I missed it last week for some reason, what was going on last Tuesday? Oh, Valentine's Day. Oh well! This week we are supposed to use Kim's "Felicity" texture - I've used it on all the photos in the past few days, but this one is my favorite, I think.... Next week we are supposed to do something based on the color white. Hmn... that's a bit of a challenge... for me. Maybe I can get out of the house finally and go hunting for something good. Anyway, thanks for looking, and go see Kim's post for more participants, there are always some wonderful phtotos :)

366: Day 51

Three good things. Three. Well. Let's see. One: I do not have the flu, that's one person in the family who doesn't have it. Yet. Two: Ok, this is good, I ordered a new lens for my camera, and a new strap, and a remote for it. And Three: Well, it looks like there is a 100% chance that I'll be home when it arrives since everyone here is sick and not going anywhere anytime soon.

366: Day 50

Three good things: chickens, tulips, and finding some tiny spring buds forming. And also, gluten free teriyaki sauce; it's been a year since I had teriyaki. And a boy who had a few smiles to spare over gluten-free chicken noodle soup; I wasn't sure I'd see a smile out of him today.

366: Day 49

I'm having a tough time with the positive thoughts these days... 2012 has been really difficult so far. My kid has been sick since January 11th. He's gotten better a few times, only to get sick again as soon as we go back out in public. Right now he is snoring on the couch after moaning in pain after hours of emptying his stomach every half hour. Poor baby. I should be thankful that he's snoring peacefully. I should be thankful that he's got a raging fever, so that I know his body is fighting it this time. I should be thankful that it's a school break now and he has time to recover before we go back... and I am. But I'm really tired. It would be nice to use our season passes to the ski mountain. It would be nice to maybe go on a little road trip and find some sunshine. It would be nice to go out somewhere besides the drug store or doctors office or grocery store. It would be nice to have something to photograph besides tulips and chickens. It would be nice to think that thinking and listing positive thoughts brought only good things into a person's life. It worked for a little bit, but I'm discouraged right now. And I know my kid is too.

366: Day 48

Three good things: it's the weekend, it's a long weekend, we have no plans at all.

Beyond Layers: Getting Painterly

Well. Painterly is what I'm mostly always going for, so I was thrilled with this week's lesson. Painterly in a mixed media kind of way though, not a fine art kind of way... which is how I feel the tulips came out... and maybe the gull too? I don't know. I was tempted to brighten the flowers, add some script or something mixed media-ish... but I refrained. Probably because I kind of did that yesterday and had lots of fun already. How many ways can I alter that tulip photo? That's a good question, I bet I could do a different treatment every day of the year. But, don't worry, I won't!

Here are my finished images, the tulips and the gull.

and here are my source images so you can see the difference. I think the best thing I learned was about sharpening the image ahead of time to get a more painterly feel out of it. 

 

Thanks for looking :)

366: Day 47

1. Not the candy heart photo I had in my mind. 
2. Better late than never.
3. Now they can get eaten.

More Tulips

Another tulip creation, I'm having fun with these. 

366: Day 46

Three good things: color... making my own texture layers... sunshine. 

366: Day 45

Happy Valentines Day, I hope you were showered with love too.

366: Day 44

Lulu has gone broody on me, trying to hatch eggs that are not even there because I stole them out from under her. I keep booting her out of the egg box, sending her outside to play. She keeps going back to the egg box. She seems a little confused about what's going on, giving me this look.

366: Day 43

Three things: clean windows, buying a fun, rustic @ sign statue thing at the antique store, and finding gluten-free chicken nuggets at a crunchy organic restaurant.

366: Day 42

1.) State Cup Semi-finals. So proud of our boys, they kept it clean even when the other team did not.
2.) Soccer is done! Soccer is done!! Soccer is DONE!!!
3.) Tryouts for next year are 12 weeks away.

366: Day 41

Three things I'd like to do: learn to play the guitar, learn to make sushi, travel to somewhere tropical and beautiful, with snorkeling, kayaking, and fru-fru drinks with umbrellas in them.  

366: Day 40

Three good things: fancy pants coffee (I've been waiting a year for this to come back!), a joking-around kid, and funny friends.

Sunbreak

A couple more photos from our brief sun-break today - too bad none of the hundred shots of rainbow came out any better than the one on my cell phone!