Winter Whites

Project 365 January 17 - 23

January 17 - Stark Raving Magnificent - Today's prompt asked us to explore simplicity.  The beauty that can be found in starkness and negative space.  The icicles that hang outside my bedroom window this morning were glowing pink from the sunrise.  Simple, pure and beautiful.  I set up my shot so that the negative space- the bare tree branches, would be out of focus, and your eye would be pulled towards the pink icicles. 

January 18 - The Center of Attention - Step Into the Light - How often do we as women put everything else before ourselves?  Where are you on your own list?  The prompt today asked us to photograph something that has been the center of our attention photographically speaking.  My weekly self portrait has been a constant in my 365 project.  So I did a selfie.  I am super proud to say that Tracey Clark, founder of Shutter Sisters, commented on this picture!  Yippee, gold star for me!

January 19 - A Different Kind of Story - Today's story should have been about the fun we had going to McDonald's and playing with cousin Jack for his birthday.  It was, but the story had a different ending than you would expect.  After we got home, The Little Man started to run a fever, and complained of a sore tummy.  I suspected strep, so off to the clinic we went.  Sure enough - strep throat.  Another round of antibiotics for the poor Little Man. 

January 20 - Frosty - Today's prompt was frosty.  This is a picture of me scraping the front windshield of my mini van.  Something I find myself doing more mornings than not. 

January 21 - Winter's Pull - Today I explored the idea of winter's pull.  In the winter you have to look a little harder to find the beauty.   What around me, on this snowy, cold, wind blown day was I drawn to?  What did I find beautiful.  The green barn on the way to Milton caught my eye.  I love the muted shades of blue and green.  I also love the way the roadside weeds and wire fence frame the picture. 

As well I went for a walk, down the street to my neighbours garden.  Her garden has interest all year long.  It's so inviting, I never pass by without wanting to explore it some more.  I love that she has so much colour even in the middle of winter. 

January 22 - Centerpiece - What's sitting on your kitchen table right now?  Is it full of clutter and junk or do you have a centerpiece that celebrates the importance of family meals.  Most days my table has a basket of napkins, a couple of empty plastic cups and a cat or two on top of it.  Today though, for the Kids birthday, the table has a chocolate cake, powdered donuts and pretty gerbra daisies. 

January 23 - High Strung - Today's Picture Winter prompt asked us to photograph something that was strung up around the house.  Garland, lights, whatever.  I stretched the prompt a little and submitted this picture of Charlie's hand and the guitar strings.  One of the strings had been tighten too far, and it snapped.  High Strung for sure.

To play fair, I also submitted this picture of the garland from Kenzie's party.  In real life the colours were bolder and more garish.  I toned down the colours, and warmed them up a bit.  Tracey commented that she thought the picture was pretty, soft like a water colour.  Yippee - another gold star!

fifteen - happy birthday Kid

Fifteen.  My daughter is fifteen.  A couple of things baffle me about her being fifteen.  First, I never expected it to go by so quickly.  Second, I am a little surprised that I can call her a friend.  Don't get me wrong.  I am her Mom first and foremost.  But when I consider the qualities that I look for in a friend, she has them all.  I am lucky to have her in my life.  She is a joy to watch grow up. 

The boys were going to Monster Jam at night, so for her birthday, her brothers wanted to take her out on daytime dates.  Her thirteen year old brother asked her out to Tim Hortons.  He told her in his sweet way that she could choose anything that she wanted.  Josh paid for their "date" with his Christmas money.  Not to be outdone, The Little Man offered to take his big sister to the "slushie" store (the convience store) to pick out whatever candy she wanted.  He paid for their date with Dad's money.  Which is better than how he originally was planning on paying for his "date" - with his sister's birthday money!

While the boys were at Monster Jam, The Kid had some friends over to help celebrate her birthday.  I stayed up in my room, but I did hear lots of giggling from the basement. 

balloons



The Dancing Kitteh shirt I ordered online for her.  She is big fan of Ray William Johnson or " =3 "



Blowing out her candles on her ice cream cake. 



Gerbra daisies for my girl.



Project 365 January 10 - 16

January 10 - Balance -  Today's Picture Winter prompt explored the idea of balance.  My personal opinion is that balance is a myth.  When I strive for balance, I feel off centered and wobbly.  Instead of balance, my goal is to prioritize my life.  I try to give my full attention to what is most important, and then move on.  What if I have two or more areas of my life that need priority?  I still need to choose what, at the moment do I need to focus on, what is more important,  because spreading myself too thin just burns me out. 



January 11 - Heartwarming - Hearts are a universal symbol of love.  Today's Picture Winter prompt asked us to shoot a photo that warms your heart.  Okay, time for another confession.  This picture was actually taken the day before....but just the day before.  The Kid found this strawberry in the basket.  Of course I had to capture it before she shared it with the Little Man. 

January 12 - Signs of Life - caution this next picture/story may cause some viewers to weep (Mom) viewer discretion is advised - Sometimes in the winter life feels dormant.  Even in the middle of winter, greater things are working in ways unseen.  Today's prompt had us looking for the magic of life.  Of hope.  Searching for signs of life.  This Christmas cactus was my grandmother's.  When she passed away, I asked if I could have it.  I wanted something that would continue to grow and thrive - just like my love for my grandma. 

January 13 - Controlled Chaos #1 - The challenge of any Mom's life is to control the chaos.  Most days after school, our house is the hang out.  This doesn't bother me.  Truth be known, I kind of like it.  However, what does drive me up the wall is the front hallway after six kids take off their winter wear, drop their backpacks and head downstairs to play video games.  My stress level melts away a little more with each pair of boots I line up.  All about (barely) controlled chaos.

Controlled Chaos #2 - Today's prompt had us looking for controlled chaos in our lives.  I have been working hard on studying for my GED, and today I worked on algebra.  I realized that algebra is all about  controlling chaos.  If you have a system - or formula, than even the most tricky problems have a solution. 

January 14 - Beyond the Chill - Winter Berries - The challenge today was to move beyond the frost and seek the beauty that exists just beyond it - for it is there.  I knew that I wanted to shoot the berries that grow on the chain link fence in the backyard. They keep their bold red colour, warning of their poisonous nature all winter long. I included fence post to give the picture some interest.  I added noise to further blur the background, and pull your eye to the bright red.

January 15 - Cooling It - Evoking a feeling from a picture isn't always easy.  The right colour, cast in a picture, can help to elicit the mood.  Warm golds bring out autumn's harvest, fresh greens speak of spring's new beginnings and cool blue-greens and purples make a picture feel frosty.  Today we explored how "cool" we could be - adding photo editing effects to cool down our images.  The first shot I took was out my car window.  I liked the way the snow had melted to water droplets on the window, but you could still see the snow outside.  I wasn't sure if this abstract image was the kind that Tracey was prompting us for - and so I was super excited when she commented on my photo. 

Below, was my second attempt at cooling down an image. It was taken at night, with the floodlights casting a warm glow on Ireland House.  A pretty picture, but it too lacked a "cool" winter mood.  I converted the image to black and white, and cooled down the colour temperature.  I was happy with the results, but was surprised that it was the first image that the forum preferred.  I suppose it goes to show you that you shouldn't  second guess yourself.

January 16 - Wrapped up -The challenge today was to consider ways you can evoke some kind of emotion in a picture incorporating a towel, or towels. Tracey encouraged us to share a feeling of being taken care of.  I remembered how I loved bathing my babies, and wrapping them up in a fluffy towel.  They were so small, sweet and fragile.  I wanted to symbolize this feeling.  What is more fragile than eggs?  I used three eggs, one to symbolize each of my kids.  An all white picture is tough.  Getting the different shades of white, without making the whole picture a dingy grey.  I am proud of the way it turned out. 

A Graduation Gift

I wanted to give myself a gift for completing my 365 project.  At first I was thinking that I would get a new lens or a point and shoot camera as my Nikon is big and bulky to carry around all the time.  Then I thought that I would turn my 365 into a book or a calendar.  In the end, I decided that I would treat myself to poster sized enlargements of some of my favorite prints.  I ordered the enlargements from mpix, and bought some frames from Ikea. 

I was thrilled when the prints arrived.  Mpix was fast, and the quality of the pictures is great.  The Ikea frames were a bit of a challenge, but I love the look of the frame and the tulips together. 

To see my vision, larger than life for the first time was amazing.  It filled my heart with pride.  I love my new art.  I am so proud of my accomplishment, in just a week, I will have completed my first 365.  Will I do another?  Wait and see....

99+ bottles of beer....

On our way to my sister-in-law's house for dinner on Sunday night, we saw this convoy of  massive beer vats.  The vats are en route, slowly inching their way  to the Molson brewery near Pearson airport.  Their average speed 1.5km/hr.  Part of the reason they are moving so slowly is because power lines and traffic lights have to be moved to allow passage of the convoy. 
I had heard about this on the news, and was hoping to catch sight of it, but I was still surprised at just how enormous the vats were. 

365 Project January 4 - 9

January 4 - A Little Sunshine - Searching for a little colour-therapy today, I cut into the pineapple that was sitting on the counter.  The yellow center reminded me of the sun.  The juicy fruit reminded me of summer days at the beach.

January 5 - Intended for Everyday Use - Okay, so I don't do laundry everyday.  I could, but I don't.  The Picture Winter prompt for today encouraged us to look for items that make our everyday lives better.   If laundry is my nemesis, than my washing machine is my best ally.

January 6 - Cracked Open - "There is a crack in everything.  That's how the light gets in." — Leonard Cohen.  

January 6 - Hidden Beauty -  I went looking for the hidden beauty of winter today.  I found this little chickadee hiding in the cedar trees.  I think that birds and toddlers have to be that hardest subject to photograph.  So, I get my picture, upload and edit it, then I realize that the prompt from Picture Winter asked for Quiet Beauty, not hidden beauty.  Oh well, I submitted it anyway. 

January 8 - Texture Seekers -When I go shopping in the winter I have to take off my gloves.  I need to shop with my hands, and feel all the different textures of the fabrics. You could say that I am a texture junkie.  I love the chunky texture of this yarn when it has been knit.  When Picture Winter asked for us to photograph texture, I knew that this unfinished project was what I wanted to capture.  Don't you want to just touch it too?

January 9 - Bundled Up - I bought myself new slippers the other day.  I always seem to have cold feet, hands.  Actually my nose and bum are also generally colder than the rest of my body as well. 

365 Project December 28 - January 3

I'm just a little sad that I am getting near the end of my 365.  Actually the project was going to be 52 weeks.  I took a picture the first two weeks (January 6th and 12th.) I realized pretty early on that it was going to be easier for me to be committed to taking a picture every day, rather than once a week.  It was too convenient for me to put off capturing an image tomorrow.   To help keep the momentum going into the home stretch I started Project Winter.  Project Winter is an online class taught by Tracey Clark the founder of the Shutter Sister Website.  I am very excited to be involved with this project. 

December 28 - Long and Lean - Hubby bought me these jeans for Christmas, but they didn't fit!  Too Big - yippee!  That's right Long and Lean baby!

December 29 - New Hiding Spot - We used our Christmas money to buy a new couch for the basement.  This meant that we had two couches to find a new home for.  The big red couch from Ikea, was pushed up against the wall.  The tiny little space in between wall and couch became the perfect new hiding spot for the Little Man. 

December 30 - Morning Frost - I woke up to a world covered in frost.  The beauty of it left me awe struck.  Try as I might, I don't think that the emotion I felt is captured in these images. 

December 31 - Weekly Self Portrait - His Shirt - Today marks our 20th anniversary.  Not our wedding anniversary, but the day that we first started dating.   This shirt was the first gift that I gave him.  Twenty years, I can't believe it.  Here's to twenty more - love ya babe. 

January 1 - A New Year - I wanted to show the new year in numbers for my 365.  It was a lucky find, to see that the numbers on the dart board would work.  One of my hopes/goals for 2011, is that my heart and mind are open to see my lucky finds. 



January 2 - A Breath of Fresh Air - (Project Winter #2 - I started a day late) - The kids and I went for a winter walk today.  It felt really good.  I didn't realize how cooped up we all felt until The Little Man remarked on the way there, "You know Mom, it's not just the trailer I like about camping, it's the fun of being outside."

January 3 - All The Possibilities - ( Project Winter #3) - I actually took these pictures before I read the prompt from Tracey.  For me a sunrise reminds me of all the possibilities.  Morning is a time for fresh starts and new beginnings.  The problem?  I couldn't decide on which image I liked better.  The first shows a brighter sky, with more shades of blue.  The second is a little under exposed, but I like the silhouettes of the bare branches against the backdrop of sky and clouds.  What do you think?  Either way, I need to clean my lens.