Sunday, December 23, 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Holiday Blues

#70

I've been trying to get into the holiday spirit by reading holiday romances and listening to holiday music (mostly from Glee). I'm not sure if it's really working yet but I'll keep trying. I think I'm going to have to bake some cookies this week. That might help.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

On the Tree

Our holiday tree is a small three foot fake tree that sits on top of a table. The decorations are mostly handmade. Some I made. Some family members made and some I got in a craft swap several years ago. Here are some pics from the tree...

 decoration

snowflake decoration

birdie

The first one is from a swap, the second is from family and the third is one that I made a few years ago. Sometimes I miss having the room for a big tree but mostly I'm just grateful for what we have.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Scenes From My Desk

my desk isn't a permanent thing. I have to set it up in the living room in front of the couch daily if I want to use it. It isn't ideal but it is better than not having one at all. Of course my daughter likes to leave her things on it as well and the cat thinks it is hers. So I share. Here are a few shots of the space from last night... invader kitty stuff kindle love

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Missing

bells
Obviously I haven't been using this blog since this summer. I kind of just dropped out of everything for a while really. I flaked out of the last of the online classes I was taking. I'm not sure what happened really. Maybe what always happens. I just lost interest. I'm going to be making an attempt to revive this place though. I've been taking daily photos again though I haven't been doing much of any art beyond that.

I have been writing though. I did NaNoWriMo this year and finished! Well I reached 50,000 words anyway. I didn't actually finish my novel I think I'm only about half way done. Maybe two thirds. I'm actually trying to focus on writing at this point in time. It was always my first love. I'm going to keep up with the photography too though. I love that and it doesn't have to take a lot of time out of my day. I'm hoping to get back into some art stuff with the new year but I'm not going to push it. I want to focus on writing. It's too easy for me to get derailed and I don't want to do that this time.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Flowers and Thoughts

more random neighborhood flowers random neighborhood flowers

Just a couple pics taken with my point and shoot on a walk to the bank last week. The day wasn't too hot which was nice since this errand needed to be done and we don't have a car and the walk is a half an hour each way. There weren't a lot of flowers still around and most I saw were starting to fade now that we're deep into summer now. We haven't been getting a lot of rain either which isn't helping things.
I wish I was more in the mood to take photos or to make art of any sort but I'm in some sort of downswing and I'll I want to do lately is read. So I've been reading a lot. I seem to feel this way a lot in summer, part of it is the heat and part of it...I don't know. Maybe all the craziness that is going on in the world lately.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Thoughts on Inner Excavation Chapter 6

The title of Chapter 6 is: I open my heart. The idea here is to be creative with someone else or in a group. I see people talking about getting together with a friend and doing one of the exercises, but besides my husband I don't really have any friends around here and not even all that many online. I could have put in a request for someone to work with over in the Flickr group but honestly I just couldn't bring myself to do that. It reminds me too much of school when no one wanted me as a lab partner or when no one wanted me to be in some other sort of group some teacher or other tried to split us up in during some class or other. I didn't like it then and I don't feel up to it now.

I thought about trying to do something with my husband but he's busy and works third shift so trying to get together for this sort of thing during the week just doesn't work. I find trying to work in a group or with a partner I don't know well and trust to be very triggery. So in the interest in taking care of myself I'm pretty much skipping this week's stuff.

I like working alone. I'm very much an introvert and I'm okay with that. Maybe later during the weekend or next week the husband and I can get together and take portraits of each other but I'm not going to stress if it doesn't happen. I've had fun with this read along of Inner Excavation and I feel I already did a lot of work with it.

This week has been stressful. Between bank error issues (resolved thankfully) and a heat wave that only just broke, I haven't been feeling very creative or motivated to go outside and take photos (or go outside at all during the day.) I have been putting in some good reading time though, so that's been fun. I'm almost finished with Laura Anne Gilman's Retrievers series and have been totally loving it.

I've also done a bit of embroidery work on my whale art quilt. I do love playing with fun threads.

time to sew

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Slice of Life Photos

I'm taking Darrah Parker's Slice of Life Project e-course at the moment. Here are some photos that I've taken so far for this project...

books and journals

brushes

tea

breakfast

popcorn

laundry time

dishes done

on the line

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Photos from Week 5 of Inner Excavation

I'm not really new to taking self-portraits. I've been playing around with them here and there for years. This year I committed to taking at least one each Sunday of 2012 and I've been documenting that journey in this Flickr set.

Back in May I took the You Are Your Own Muse: Re-Writing The Story e-course run by Vivienne McMaster. It was awesome and so liberating. You can see the set of photos I took during that time here on Flickr.

So this chapter for Inner Excavation really isn't new for me. I even played around with the mirror meditation work a bit when I took Liz Lamoreux's Create Space course a little while ago.

I've been trying to figure out a way to go deeper with this chapter but I haven't figured that out yet. I have been taking mirror portraits and shadow photos though and here are a few that I've taken this week so far...

shadow

legs

starting the day

tired again

Art Quilt in Progress...

current project

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Finishing Chapter 4: I See Me

Well I finished up my work with chapter 4 of Inner Excavation this past weekend.

Here is the chapter page in my journal:


I see me

I played around with the "Where I Stand" Prompt but this time I did so with my Instax camera.
where i stand instax

I tucked these inside the envelope on this page:
where i stand

I had a couple other pages of photos and added some poem notes to those pages as well. Some of that content is a bit to personal to share here though so I won't be adding those pictures. All in all I enjoyed Chapter 4 a lot.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Playing Around With Paint

3 small paintings

I still haven't done the writing bits I've been planning to do this week for Inner Excavation but I did play around with paints late into the night. I'll get to the writing soon. Sometimes I just don't feel like words I guess. Or maybe I'm afraid of them.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

What I've Been Up To...

stretch

I've been working on week four of the Inner Excavate-along and taking pictures for the first week of the Slice of Life Project. I've also been dealing with a chronic pain issue flare up in my right arm/shoulder area, which has cut down on my online and art time. It's also cutting down on the amount of pictures I'm taking at the moment.

For week four of Inner Excavation: I see me I'm working on body photos that I will later couple with some poetry bits and I'm also working on a series of "Where I Stand" photos with the twist of those being taken with my instax camera. I'll probably do a bit of writing for those too once this pain flare up passes.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

I Gather....

 More for Week Three of Inner Excavation:

These are some of the things I gather into my world...

Words
 i gather words Collage

Supplies
i gather supplies Collage

Sacred Space
sacred space Collage

Inner Excavation: Week Three

I'm not finished playing around with week three yet but so far this is what I have done:

Here's the section page I made for the journal I'm using for this adventure:
i gather


I started the week with many "on the ground" photos:

on the ground Collage
The whole set can be seen here on Flickr.

I also wrote a poem note sort of thing and combined it with a picture:
poem note moment

I've also been writing some other poem bits that I'm not sharing here right now. My plans for the rest of the week are some photos of what I gather to me and more poetry. Then I'll put it all in my journal book when I'm done.
 I'm really enjoying this adventure.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

That Kind of Day

IMG_2729

I'm feeling very stressed today. I've taken many pictures to help keep myself from completely falling apart. It is helping a bit. I'm hoping to relax and read for much of the rest of the evening. Wish me luck in making that happen.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Inner Excavation Week Two

First up is the chapter page in my journal for the project... page for chapter 2 work

This one is a collage type thing consisting of copies of photos and journal entries from 1992 when I spent a semester abroad in London. I also made side trips to Scotland, Wales and the Island of Rhodes in Greece. The text says: "Once upon a time I had adventures" This is in contrast to my life now and really my life in general except for that time period. I'm mostly a homebody. One might say that these days I'm borderline agoraphobic. But one time I did have adventures, small ones but they were mine.
i used to have adventures

The last one is about my dad who passed away three years ago. It is also about dreams left behind and about him discouraging me against following my own dreams.
swallowed dreams

You can click on the pictures to see bigger versions at Flickr.

Instant Fun

A couple of weeks ago I treated myself to a new toy... instaxluv

and a new book...
 bookluv
I've been having a bit of fun experimenting with it. My daughter is fascinated by it since she's new to the whole concept, having only been exposed to digital cameras before this.
new toy time plus tea

I need to scan in some of the pictures I've taken with the my new instax. It's not a Polaroid but it is still fun. My first camera was a Polaroid back in the late 70s early 80s. Looking through my old photo albums when I was a kid it seems several family members had them since many of the pictures of my are Polaroids. Maybe I'll scan some of those in and share them at some point.

Scenes from My Birthday

I turned 41 last Wednesday and we had a small gathering with family... birthday Collage

Monday, June 18, 2012

Take a Walk...

Thursday June 14, 2012 I did the "Take a Walk" prompt from Inner Excavation... I took a walk downtown with my husband and daughter. Daughter needed her new glasses adjusted so we all walked down together (we don't have a car) and I took pictures along the way...
scenes from downtown  Collage downtown art Collage flower Collage

and then I did a a two page spread in the journal book I'm keeping for the read-along.

take a walk...

 It was a lot of fun. I love being behind the camera. It really forces me to focus outside of myself and notice the world around me.

 I almost forget my favorite photo of the bunch... snail!

This little guy I spotted on a very damp stone wall under a railroad bridge. It stinks like crazy under there and the wall oozes water or something I probably don't want to know about, but this little one seems to like it.

The whole set of photos from the photo walk is here in this set on Flickr.

I also ended up doing a small collage for chapter one last night:

collage

That completes my work with chapter one.

This week work with Chapter 2 starts. I'm so excited!