38 posts tagged “nikon d80”

Tuesdays things:
-negative-
*I have bunches of housework and no energy
*cold gray weather
*feeling overwhelmed
*I think my cat scratch on my cuticle is getting infected
*my nose is getting stopped up
*my ears are ringing
*throat is scratchy
*sleeping is not easy

+positive+
*I may be sick, but it is not terrible, no fever, aches, etc
*my camera bag should be coming in the mail today
*there is a nice warm fire burning in the wood stove
*the yard looks pretty when it is frozen
*hot coffee to be followed by hot chocolate
*I have enough housework done to keep up on the progress of last week
*I have so many pictures edited and ready to upload
*I have been sketching so many new ideas for scenes to photograph
*big hugs from Mr. L before he leaves for work.

As I was melting into my squishy purple couch sipping my strawberry raspberry smoothie this morning, I saw through the slit in the drapes the color of the sky. I opened the drapes wider to show Mr. L we were both amazed at the color. Similar to the sculpture above, so red and orange and purple. There is a storm rolling in, and it made for quite a show during sunrise. I am glad I did not miss it.

The news talks about the jobless rates in my state, the highest it has been in a very long time. It makes me think of all the people I know out of a job. How many jobs are laying across corporate chopping blocks. It frightens me. They say this is only the beginning. I wonder how far it will go, will I have to find work again? Would I even be able to find a job?

When I went to the local food bank they were so delighted I wanted to volunteer. Each day there are a few more families filling out the paperwork to be accepted into the food program. The demand is higher than it has been in a long time. That is what Lois told me when showing me where I would work. Two days a month, and on call because I live so close. The vast majority of the employees, volunteers, are retired folks. I will be considered young blood. That is always nice to feel when you are 35 almost 36. I also gave a check, not much because we are worried about Mr. L losing his job and have been squirreling away a few dollars here and there trying to build a savings account we have never had before. They say you should have three months salary in savings, at the rate I am at now, that will be accomplished in a year and a half. I just heard that food banks in my area are suffering. Two had to close down in Tacoma last week. Others have bare shelves and empty crates in giant freezers where turkeys are usually overflowing for Thanksgiving dinners. It makes me so sad. We are all tightening our belts.

I am already started in my daily chores, my dishes are running, and I have a load of clothes that need to get thrown in the dryer. I need to get started in the soap making process. I am running very close to deadline. It takes three weeks to cure. I need to start today to give myself a little time in the end to wrap and plan. I am also planning on giving boxes of home made cookies to each of my family members along with a bundle of soap. I like a homemade Christmas. Plus, all these gifts should make my home smell SO yummy. ;-) I am probably going to wrap some bars of soap in saran wrap and place them in the big box of free soap at the food bank. Everyone deserves some indulgence sometimes, and a thick rich homemade bar of soap may be a mood lifter for a stranger, my soap is really that good.

I am off to conquer more chores and make soap after lunch today.

Find your local food bank.
Keep a jar for donations in the office at work.
Buy a couple extra boxes of cereal when they are on sale,
find coupons for baby formula and animal food
Collect spare change from everyone you know
even the most humble of donations helps.

Most of all, be truly grateful for what you have.
 

Tuesdays things:
Ghastly-
*the smell coming from the general sink area in the kitchen
*not being able to bend well
*my piles of stuff that are growing again
*oh my goodness, another not so lovely smell and it is me, I need a shower
*teacher kind of skipped over my bad picture in class last night, I wanted tips dang it!

Glorious-
*not letting my brain think and getting on my bicycle and riding to yoga class
*finding out that for every time i ride my bike to class I get $1 credit to my account.
*marathon of csi ny right now
*having energy for cleaning today, I think
*left over zucchini lasagna
*kittens
*fire in the fireplace
*bills paid
*got the number for the food bank down the street, hoping to donate my time, and more
*the word cozy
*the video that stephel posted
*breathing deeper than I have since I can ever remmember

Compliment time,
Lavender, you are Great at making lists!
Thanks Me, I really am.

Lists. if you pick up any note pad around my house (there are many) you will notice two things about them.
1. they are cute, I only purchase cute pads of paper
*hello kitty
*sweet looking monsters
*ugly ones too (even though they really are cute)
*cartoons
*teddy bears with terrible messages translated from Korean to English
2. the top page always has some sort of a list on the front page
*grocery
*non grocery
*to do
*web sites to visit
*musicians I want to look up
*things I would like to photograph when it stops raining

I write lists. My head is so very scattered, sometimes I can only spit out one word to sum up an:
*image
*thought
*monster
*protector
*projects

I need to get these things on paper and out of my head so I can
*think,
*function
*plan
*do

sometimes the lists are long and crossed off, some are short and clean. I like coming across the long and crossed off ones, makes me feel like I did something. Feels good.

When I pack for a vacation, it is a series of three lists.
*basics, like 3 pairs pants, 6 undies, 6 shirts, 2 sweatshirts etc...
*it graduates to specifics like Gap jeans with hole in pocket, gap jeans with scuffed seam, new jeans etc. they get crossed off as I pack each item.
*then it is a list by the door Blue bag, pillows, black bag, camera bag etc. These get crossed off as they enter the trunk of the car.

What I have done this week:
*count down to election
*cried when it was all done
*laundry (I cleaned it all!)
*dishes
*created grocery list and menu
*blogged
*edited new batch of photos with a more critical eye
*watched tons of bad TV
*created a monster and a protector
*emailed friends
*writing more things on a long list of holiday to do's

things to do today:
*put the last of the laundry away
*make a creamy red pepper soup
*fill a box of give aways from laundry room
*create something (I feel like hand sewing something today, maybe a sweet collar with vintage things)
*drink some tea while creating something

1. strawberries covered in chocolate
2. a room filled with laughter
3. warm apple crisp (I made it!)
4. sleeping in
5. hot coffee
6. fire in the wood stove
7. autumn colors
8. cinnamon rolls
9. the sound of rain pounding on the roof
10. soft kittens
11. funny TV shows
12. sweatshirts
13. tall striped socks
14. clean sheets
15. kicking fallen leaves with your husband in the woods
16. mushrooms growing everywhere
17. cinnamon
18. reading books while husband watches football
19. cuddling on the couch
20. flannel pajamas
21. hot soup and heavy bread
22. looking at other peoples photos and actually squirming in my seat because I love the image so much and want to grab Ruby and try to get that myself
23. silence
24. being by myself
25. slippers


I will leave it at that for now

I will be out for another walk today. The weather has been so beautiful. So sunny. I have some fun new ideas to try with cutting shapes in leaves, I like this idea, but have not executed it the way I want it to look. I bought a tool that may help me. That also sparked another idea.

I love the feeling I get when under the branches of maple trees lately. It feels like a different world, casting a yellow hue on everything.

I am feeling really sleepy and nothing is coming to mind to say. I got a new pillow, a buckwheat pillow, so it will take a little time to get used to it. Have been having some sleeping problems for well over a week now. I go to sleep fine but wake up in the middle somewhere and can't get to sleep. Strange dreams are perplexing me. My head is all mixed up, can't really think straight, or crooked for that matter.

to do list for today
*upload photos from nieces birthday party
*buy a couple months unlimited classes for yoga studio and sign up for workshops
*dishes
*nap
*autumn walk in the rare sunshine, maybe the unreal colors of the leaves will wake me up a bit

Okay people, I am getting to my breaking point with the politics. I can't stand to watch another commercial for Governor, senate, land commissioner, representatives, etc. GAH! I don't want any of these liars to have the jobs they want! The governor race especially. Two years ago these two went at it, Current governor won by 123 votes. They are going after each other like fight cocks in a ring. GAH! I am so sick of getting my mail and having a huge stack of political ads to throw in the recycle bin! It is like they are telling me, Here, you recycle this! 13 days..... I hate hearing all the half truth ads, short sound bites that can be distorted in SO many ways. I am SICK of it!!!!

That said I saw something really funny, and if I saw the whole story, I would have captured it all in pictures. While on my walk, I saw a sleek tabby cat climb around a hedge dividing two houses. It went straight for the garden to do his business, right under a McCain Palin yard sign, I though this was a little funny, but did not snap a picture of a cat taking a shit in a garden, then he headed back to his yard, and towards the front steps of the door where there was an Obama sign taped to the window. Ha! I was sad I did not take the picture after seeing that.

Okay, I feel better now, well until I see another political ad filled with half truths and manipulated statements.

I am looking forward to: (trying to trick myself into loving housework)
*having left over roasted veggie soup with a nice chunk of sourdough from great harvest (best bread EVER) for lunch
*seeing what I captured on my walk in the sun yesterday, I will upload those today
*maybe a walk in the rain soaked streets
*cleaning the kitchen so that is shines bright and clean
*washing the bathroom for the same effect, then showering in the clean smelling room

So Vox won't let me delete a couple of accidental downloads here. There are more photos here than I wanted, sorry.
daily compliment:
Lavender, you have a big heart
Thanks me.

Some more of the lovely couple, there was a false labor yesterday, we thought Lily was going to be here today. She still one more week and a day or two. So funny, I was looking through the photos and two shots of the same angle of the belly look very different, I think Lily was working her angles from the inside! Ha!

So I had lofty ideas about laundry day yesterday. I did no laundry. not one towel, not one load, not one hanged item. so maybe today will be different. I hope so, I need to find some motivation, like an actor "what is my motivation?" I look around for some director to say what needs to be done and only finds sleeping kittens and myself. I must find a way to motivate myself. When I was a kid, I remember my mom telling me to clean my room. I would go in and get on the floor to take all the stuff out from under my bed, lay my head on the pale pink carpet and go to sleep. I would be so overwhelmed I would just put myself to sleep. I do the same now. I create lists of step by step plans, set timers for 15 minutes, and nothing gets done. I don't know why I feel this brick wall between me and a clean house. A wall between me and an exercise routine.
sigh... I whine about this too much.
Here are 13 things that will stand between me and laundry:
1. nap
2. sudoku
3. watching re-runs on TV
4. vox
5. editing photos
6. getting dressed
7. writing a list of things I need to do
8. grocery list and menu created
9. making a cup of hot cocoa and sipping it slowly
10. flickr
11. making feathers on a stick move for Luna
12. kitchen cleaning
13. pay bills


 

Compliment of the day:
Lavender you do not see people as better or worse than each other
Thanks me! I really do believe we are all just people, nobody is below me and nobody above. 

Here is my patriotic post? Not really, just a set of red white and blue photos, and my take on the VP debates last night. But purely superficially, nothing real heavy.

I am going to be completely honest with you, I am disappointed that Mrs. Palin did not mess up and look like a deer in headlights, that was what I was hoping. Not because of any specific agenda or reason other than it would have been funny. I don't really think either one "won" the debate. I did get to see Palin speak and read what her advisers told her to say. She has kind of been hidden from public and I really want to hear what she has to say. But that's not going to happen, she is well rehearsed in what to say and not.
I do want to say that by the second half of the debate I was thoroughly sick of her accent though. I wanted to scratch my ears out of the sides of my head. Her Folksy speak drives me bananas. Not for the reason you probably think, but because she thinks that is who America is. I am offended by being lumped into the category of Hockey mom (I am not a mom, and I don't know the first thing about hockey besides it is on ice and it looks really mean) and my husband has been reduced to "joe six-pack" my husband does not come home and drink a six pack of beer. That would make him an alcoholic. I am offended that she uses the folksy speak and says that speaks to all Americans. No sweetie, you are offending the lot of us who are intelligent, who read, who makes up a lot of America. We are a nation of really good people who need to be spoken to with respect because a lot of us are very respectable.
So I interpret this as her talking down to America. I want someone to talk to me, with real words. Is that too much to ask?

Compliment of the day:
Lavender, I am proud of you not being disappointed in yourself while practicing yoga and keeping a positive attitude about it all.
Thank you Me, I am trying to incorporate that into other parts of my life.

I am deceptive, I am tall and thinnish. People have always thought I was athletic. This could not be further than the truth. I get winded while walking up a flight of stairs (I can hear that gasp Heartshapedsky! ;P) I am not coordinated enough to walk side by side with someone without clumsily bumping into them. You see, my story of athleticism starts here ~~~~~~~scooby doo waves into flashback~~~~~~~~
I was in elementary school, and was teased because I was SO incredibly skinny (do not have mouthful of liquid when clicking this link, it is my napoleon dynamite shot) I had no muscle mass. No strength. I was unaware of this, because the other kids I played with at home were all younger than me (I was fast at home) and they were all related to me and just as skinny. So in school I thought I was able, and soon realized, I was not. This was a crushing blow. So I became scared to do anything, because I could not succeed.
~~~~flash forward to high school~~~~
In jr. high I grew from 4' 4" tall to 5' tall. When I entered High school in 10th grade I was 5' 4" tall. Then during the summer I moved in with my father and got all that delicious food filled with no nutrition, I grew 5 inches, in three months. it hurt SO bad! I wrapped my knees tight with ace bandages at night so that the growing pains would not wake me up in the night. I would grow out of a pair of pants within 2 weeks. My step mom learned to keep reciepts and returned most of these clothes. The thing is that I barely gained weight. I was at the 80lb mark at 5'9". By the time I graduated high school I was 5' 11 3/4" tall and 98lbs (I told everyone I was over 100lbs though).
So My whole point is that I grew so quickly that I got tendanitis all over my body. My tendons are TIGHT. This makes yoga tough for me, I am not very bendy.... at all. But I am giving myself a pass, I can change this unbendiness with yoga practice. If I am critical of myself because I cannot sit at a 90 degree angle then I will not be able to change this. I am the only one in a class of 23, sitting straight up when everybody is bending over their legs at varrying lengths. But nobody is judging me in class, so why should I? So I will continue even though I think my sweet teacher Anne is trying to kill me with kind words and gentle movements.

Today I need to get everything out of the living room around the woodstove, the chimbley sweeps are coming over to clean out our woodstove and chimbley. So I will have this song stuck in my head all day long.