Jan 27 - terra cotta Ganesh

from my trip to India

Jan 26 - view from my studio

repainted the window frame in my studio and hung some sheers (I'd like more light, but I also like the privacy of sheers) . More studio pictures are on my other blog.

Jan 25 - old 45s

If you saw Ugly Betty on Thursday, you'll know why I thought it was funny when I discovered this 45 on the top of my pile of records in my studio. The second one is taken with my camera color set to sepia - I am really liking that setting and expect to take lots more pics that way.

photoshop fun

as in the previous post, I'm tired of taking pictures inside....so, I thought I'd play with a picture of my eyes.

Here's what my eyes look like:
here's what I wish they looked like:

I mentioned I liked green, right?

Too Cold here

It's too cold here to go outside and take pictures (think 10), and I'm getting real tired of looking around my house to find something to photograph.

I've decided to share two of my favorite photos taken in Siesta Key, Florida....where it is warm and the sun shines and someday I can hope to retire there.

Jan 21: where I live

this is about 3 minutes from my house.... I loved the way the sky looked in the first one - the second picture is on the other side of the road.

Jan 20 : self portrait

Saturday, Jan 19: Erie Canal Bridge

This bridge is behind one of the thrift stores I frequent. I thought it was just a closed off vehicle bridge, but upon closer inspection, it is a bridge to get to the Erie Canal path. I plan on returning when it's more than 12 outside.

Jan 18 - Harvey at the window

My dog-like cat spends a lot of time looking out the window. After my childhood cat got hit and killed by a passing car, I don't like letting the cats outside. Harvey spends a lot of time looking out the window. I spend a lot of time trying to quickly capture it before he runs off to find one of his toy mice... of course for me to toss and him to fetch :)

I'm no sports photographer

I suppose it's ok that I'm not a good sports photographer since the only sport I am really fanatical about is lacrosse (which much to my dismay, neither of my children want to play).

Emily had her first basketball game yesterday.

This is how most of the photos come out with some kind of eerie shadow in them. The ball looks kind of cool in this picture and I like the red/white/blue. I'm still not sure if I am just trying to make my camera do things it is not intended to do, but I sure have tried a whole lot of settings on the thing!

So, after the ghostly images of basketball situation, I started taking pictures of other things.

This window looks really cool. Trust me, there is no blue sky - there must be some kind of film on it.
I started thinking hmmm, maybe I should take sign pictures. That or I was ready to go.
Travis' hands. He didn't want his picture taken and I was trying to be all tricky and aim it in his direction without him knowing. I was really happy with the results of my non-effort to frame everything just right.
Here's Travis again waving his hands in front of his face.

Jan 17 - thrift store finds

Inspired by Cindy, I did some thrift store shopping yesterday - VOA, Salvation Army, and Reflections(a consignment store). I didn't score anything too wonderful, which is always the way if you go out thrifting and want to...but I did get some good stuff. Not pictured are the items I found for my lovely children or something for my valentine's secret sister.

Old carnation bowls were too gorgeous to resist at 49cents each!
Vintage ornaments - they always tape over the box, it looks kind of cool in the photo.
Vintage books to use in my art.
A large shallow glass dish that is the perfect vessel for displaying some of my sea shells.

Roses - Jan 16

I got some lovely roses and was trying to get close up pictures of one of them. That wasn't working out too well in the "in focus" department. I think maybe I'm trying to force my camera to do things it just won't and need to start saving for an SLR.

I really like the black and white altered photos though.

Tuesday, Jan 15 - Whiskers

Whiskers is our really fat cat. She wasn't that way when we got her from the humane society, you could actually see her ribs. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the diet I was feeding her was making her this fat. She used to weigh 24lbs. She's down to 21 now due to the dietary changes we had to make for Harvey.

Monday - like comparing apples to oranges

I really like the way this photo came out.
Lucky me, I am not one of those parents who has to bribe their kids to eat their fruits/vegetables - they actually ask for them. My son used to dump out his whole bag of Halloween candy and eat the apple from the fire department first.

I skipped Saturday and on to Sunday

Friday nights frustration seemed to ooze into Saturday and I didn't take any pictures on Saturday (that and I hadn't realized my battery was dead and it sat on the charger instead of being in my camera).
Harvey
The worlds most expensive cat...just cost us over $1500 due to a urinary track blockage. We've changed his diet quite drastically and he's doing well now. If you look at his front paws, you'll see they had to shave them to put in IVs.
He is the coolest cat ever - he fetches things (especially his pink mouse) and just overall acts more dog-like than cat-like.

Jan 12 - The Track Meet

My son is in Indoor Track. While I support him in his efforts, I must say this sport is boring enough to make your eyes bleed. See this? that's the action... an ungodly amount of teenagers sitting around. People walk across the track while runners are competing !

I got really frustrated with my camera and not being able to make it do what I want.... I know it has a "burstable" setting, so I should be able to take a series of photos click,click, click and catch runners, right? um, no... they usually end up looking like this...which is kind of cool in an abstract art kind of way, but not at all what I was going for.

January 10th, 2008: The birthday boy

Birthday cake doesn't get eaten in my house. There. I said it. I spend a lot of time making cakes (I made great ones when the kids were smaller with all kinds of candies and shapes, no one asks for them any more boohoo). Now I make the cake, we all have a piece then and the rest goes forgotten until I throw it all out.
So, Jody asked for cupcakes for his bday. Here he is blowing out the candles. We usually use number candles, but in 15yrs of birthdays, the "3" seems to have gone missing. I thought I picked out plain ole boring candles (for emergencies such as numbers missing).


It turns out...they were "magic" candles which continuosly re-light themselves and put a ton of smoke in the room. Look at the smoke - do not look at the desk I am trying to organize while trying to get tax stuff together. Or the curtains I haven't finished altering so they look right. Or the laundry on the loveseat.
The Birthday Boy.

Kitchenaid and cupcakes 1-9-08

My kitchenaid and I have become friends again since Christmas time. I really think leaving it out on the counter makes a difference in how much I use it. If only I could figure out how to keep the counter "decluttered" looking without it on there. Perhaps it's a lost cause in my house.

January 8, 2008

A totally gorgeous day in western NY. In Rochester they said the high was like 67, but my Jeep said it was warmer than that - and since we're about 25miles south of Rochester I'm sure it was right. After working in the yard raking leaves (kind of missed that time in November!) we went to Ontario Pathways. The sky was really greyed out most of the day, but overall it was such a gorgeously warm day. It might not seem like a big deal to be in the 60s, but normally the high is in the 20s !

We discovered this waterfall along the way. The last time we were here, it was just a trickle and looking nothing like it does in this pic.

I love this picture of the water. It is the shadow of the trees and the leaves you see are actually settled in the water.

More little waterfalls off of the big one.

Close up of the water. I swear it looks like beer.

This is what I was standing on. I take a lot of these kind of pictures because I love the texture.

This is one tree. I like the contrast of the bark. When the picture is bigger it looks like crackle paint on the left.

Tree roots. I think I am going to experiment with making this one black and white.

Fallen tree - cool,eh?


Here's a photo from my backyard. Oh look, we had 5 minutes of actual sunshine ! there are big, dirty piles of snow everywhere. I always think that's so weird when it's almost 70degrees.

Way more than one picture today ! I can't wait until it is nice all of the time here. It is so scenic here when it's nice and not a speck like NY City (which is what everyone thinks it is when you say you live in NY).

January 7, 2008

I've left up my Christmas wreath. This is the first wreath I've made myself with the trimmed off pieces from the tree. Every year I want to and can't figure it out. The internet is a wonderful thing and I just looked up how to do it.

I really like how you can see the reflection of the door in this picture. It was oddly warm (60s) on Monday and we beat records.

January 6, 2008

"Ain't no sunshine in New York" for weeks and weeks now this is how the sky has looked. I have not done anything to this photo except resize it to post online. It looks black and white though, eh? Grey skies, no sunshine...a wonder people aren't a lot more depressed. I know for sure it makes me depressed with no sun. I bet there have only been 5 days with 20minutes max of sun since November.

January 5, 2008

I'm a bit behind in actually posting pictures as I've been buried knee deep in organizing my art studio. I'm trying to be really vicious and get rid of supplies I haven't used in a long time. For example, I have a ton of yarn and haven't really knit much in 2 years - time to find a charity to give that yarn to !

This photo is of my ornamental cabbage. I cannot believed it has survived the winter so far.

January 4, 2008

Self Portraits
Let's start off by saying that I am not photogenic. I was going to try out my little tripod my daughter got me for Christmas, but before I knew it, the alloted 20 minutes of actual sunshine we get here in NY was gone. So, I did the tried and true 'hold the camera out in front of you' instead. I was stunned that I actually liked so many of the pictures and have posted three instead of the requisite one.

I like this one because I think this is how I usually look (yep, a bit of a smirk).
I like this one because my eyes look really big and I like the contrast of how I look without glasses. Maybe if I hadn't waited for 20 minutes to get someone at LensCrafters to help me and then left when they wouldn't, I'd know how I'd look in contacts all the time, eh?
I like this one because I think I look really young - any guesses on how old I am ?! hehe

Perhaps I will start doing a self portrait every Saturday this year... hmmmmm