photo challenge Wednesday!

I'm challenging you! and myself. You didn't see any great resolution post from me for a reason. Too much pressure, too much failure smacking in the face in the first month of the year. No resolutions.

But, I did decide to challenge myself to a photo project.

You have probably heard people talk of 365 photo projects. Pretty easy to explain, take 1 photo every single day for a year. I actually did this for the first at least 2 years of the twins' life without even knowing it had an organized name! Oh, how I wish I knew even 1/10 of what I know about photography back in Nov 2005!! The biggest thing I wish I knew was that there are newborn photographers who would have come to the house! Being a month early, I kept them inside and out of public places until the passed their due date at least. (It was 6 weeks actually, They only went to their own doctor appts until then. We skipped family Thanksgiving (4 days old) and Christmas, too! Oh wait, I take that back... we took them for pictures with St Nick at about 3 weeks old. He was outside in a glass gazebo palace in Corning NY - the Crystal City - and when we went, there were no other children around at all!) How I wish I had snuggly squishy newborn photos like I see my photographer friends take! Oh well... not having more kids just to do that! So, I will be content with my own newborn shots of them!

But, a 365 project is not my challange. (Too many other people doing it... you know me, I hate being like everyone else)

Anyway... back to the actual challenge. It's pretty simple. Take a family snapshot once a month this year. That's it. Grab your tripod (or set the camera on the end table), set the timer and get your whole family in one photo per month. Or, grab a friend or relative to snap something for you! Or, squish your faces together closely and have the person with the longest arms reach out and take the photo of yourselves!

We've actually got a head start on ours... (we have several good shots from each of these occasions, but I'll just put up one)

Nov 2009, taken by my mom:


Dec 2009, taken by my Aunt Lila: I know Gretchen & I aren't looking in this one, but I thought it was cool how much the pose looks like the month earlier's pose

I don't *think* they're antiques

I don't really know a lot about antiques, except that pretty much, if it came out of my grandmother's house it is probably worth money since no one would buy things that odd or ugly if they weren't valuable. I also know that when people list buttons on freecycle or craigslist, they always make a big deal about how there are no antique ones in the bunch blah blah blah... with this knowledge, I may have made a costly crafting mistake today.

This morning Gretchen and I shopped at AC Moore before her haircut. We bought glitter glue, sequins in Valentine's shapes, new Crayola markers, a mambajamba container of foam sticker hearts in all shapes and sizes and a 1 lb bag of "paper scraps". (Yes, I have tons of paper here, but this bag ended up being the only item we were buying that wasn't on sale already, so we got to use our 40% off coupon on it. Besides, when you have sequins, glitter glue, markers etc... you need cool small pieces of various colored paper, too!)

Then, she got her haircut which was fun. We were the only ones in there and 2 stylists were there. They put Nickelodeon on for Gretchen and after Teresa finished her haircut, we stayed another half hour just visiting. I love adult conversation!!!!!

Picked up Carl. Then home for nap.

After nap...... she knew we could break out the crafts. I had also found a pile of popsicle sticks which for some reason reminded me I saw a pile of buttons on the garage floor. Yes, on the floor in a nice circular pile. I saw them this morning when I was out there grabbing a pair of boots to drop the kids off at school in...... we got something like 18 feet of rain last night. I remembered thinking, "who would sweep them into a circle and then just leave them on the garage floor?" BAH! I crack myself up! We all know it wasn't Carl who did it. Turns out, there was broken glass in the pile, too... ah ha. This was my cute, old, little Ball canning jar of old buttons. No clue how it got broken in the garage, but oh well, I scooped up a bunch of buttons, picked out the shards of glass (and shook them well enough to get any leftover pieces - I know my mother is going to question me on this one) and gave them to Gretchen.

She was in heaven with her glitter glue, the popsicle sticks, sequins and these buttons. We're going to add magnet strips onto the back and give them as gifts. Of course, my favorite button (the red plaid one.. the one she picked up and said, "Mommy, this one is just like a picnic blanket!") she said needed to go on Lindy's magnet. Oh well - she did pick some other really cool ones for mine. And we found one with a piece of the red plaid on it for mine as well.

This one is mine:
she didn't designate the top one, but the bottom one - with the red plaid button - is for Lindy:



So, these buttons might have been worth something before we glitter glued them... but now, after Gretchen has finished with them - they are priceless!

Happy Birthday, Beth Ann!

We love you!!! Happy 50th!!!!! (hey, I just realized, the twins turned 50 months old on 1/20. I know no one counts in months, but in this case, it's cool!)

...a few photos with the twins...

Nov 2006, Gretchen & Carl's first Candy Making/first birthday party!

Sept 2007

December 2009, taken by Gretchen (cropped my me)

sneak peek Sunday

OK, that sounds better than just plain old "photo Sunday". Anyway, ......

photo Sunday

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

She hates things in her hair. She allowed me approximately 6 seconds to snap the first photo before yanking them out. We're going to get her haircut tomorrow after dropping off Carl.

a loaner from a friend!

One of my camera club member's has generously loaned me his older camera so I can get the kids' Valentine's shots! I actually asked him if he'd come over and take them, but he offered me his good camera. No way! But, when he offered me his older D100 (2002, 6mp - but very nice camera!! It was super fancy in it's day!) I agreed. He brought it to me last night at the camera club meeting.

Oh - we do a 50/50 raffle at each meeting. They draw one number to win the 50, and a second number to win $1 as a silly prize. Well, the last few meetings, someone thought it would be nice to mix things up some and they started drawing the $1 ticket first. I know it sounds petty, but I casually mentioned it at a board meeting - that all the tickets sold should be eligible for the large prize. By drawing the $1 first, that person has no chance of winning the 50/50 pot that they bought their ticket to win. I don't buy tickets because I never have cash in my purse. But, last night, the lady selling tickets approached me and asked me again which order to draw them in. (I didn't think it was that tricky, you follow my logic, don't you?) Since I had gotten Carl's haircut earlier in the day, I did have change in my purse, so I bought 6 tickets for $5. Do you know my mother? She wins tons of stuff. Well, she must have been thinking about me as I handed that $5 to Linda last night, because I won the 50/50! And let me tell you - I was very happy they didn't draw the $1 winner first last night!!! I won $50! Nice down payment on my camera repair.

The estimate for repair came back at $169.22. That is well below the limit I had in mind for not being worth repairing. If it had been $250, I would have not repaired and put that money towards the replacement. But, $170 is only 20% of the cost of a new one... so that sure didn't make sense right now. I will be happy to have my camera back in working order! I don't need big purchase guilt right now!

So, I of course, had to practice with the camera this morning so I can be ready to do the Valentine's 5th annual shots maybe Saturday morning. It was actually starting to sprinkle, but Gretchen had been bugging me soooooo much to color with sidewalk chalk. When it started to sprinkle at 9am, she cried, "Oh! Now my perfect day is just ruined!" So, we actually went out in the rain to color... and shut her up. Of course, she complained out there that her hands were cold. We stayed out about a half hour, then I convinced her to go back inside.

sidewalk chalk fun... Carl looks really sick, doesn't he???

Got some shots of Carl's sunglasses to share, too!

the sickness soap opera

Like mercury through the thermometer, so are the days of our January....

if you are following our sick kid drama you'll love hearing that I have yet another pillow currently in the washing machine. (fyi: pillows don't wash well. I need to do some pillow research to see if they make machine washable ones. If not, I might find some waterproof material and make cases for the new pillows I am going to have to buy.) Why am I washing another pillow? Because the boy woke up in a puddle of throw up.

His temp is only 99.2*, but his eyes are tired looking. I actually thought about cleaning him up and sending him to school and acting surprised if they called me. Only for a minute. (It does mean another therapy session cancelled. grrr) I gave him a shower and washed his hair twice... and now it's dry and he still smells of puke! Oh, sorry, it's early in the morning - hope you've had your coffee and aren't eating some yummy danish while reading this. Man, I don't have any danish.

My guess is, he coughed until he threw up. Now, he's happily playing, bouncing around in his Tigger sweatshirt looking completely adorable. Oh - I finally got his hair cut yesterday!! He almost needed one when we headed home for Christmas, but then once we got back here he was too sick to take. Maybe he was yesterday, too. We were literally the only ones in the salon. There was even only our hairdresser. I learned she normally has Wednesdays off - so that was good to learn. I'll keep that in mind for future appt days. I think they do a great job - none of you have ever confessed you think the kids' hair looks bad. A good cut and they are fast. Not bad for $13!

Well, Gretchen is bugging for fresh air. Might do us all some good. It's supposed to rain today, so if we want to take a short walk, we'd better go now.