An Aha Moment!

This is the back of our house. This was Halloween night and I know it's dark and difficult to tell anything about it but it's a pretty big house to clean - two story. (*As a side note, one of our neighbors that lives across from the back of our house came over the day after Halloween and told Johnny that it looked like our house was on fire! ha!*) Anyway, most of the time I don't like to clean house but somebody's got to do it and we really can't afford to pay anyone so that leaves me. Sometimes I AM in the mood and actually enjoy it. But I ALWAYS enjoy having and being in a clean house.

Last night, I decided that today I would take Paige to her Mothers' Day Out school and then just come straight back home and use that four hours to clean house. I didn't finish but I did get a lot done. Being surprised about how much I did accomplish, I had an AHA moment! I thought, you know, I could do this every Tuesday (or Thursday) if Emily's working on Thursday and I'm taking her to school. I could come home and clean house and get some things done around here instead of wasting time just looking around, etc. in the area where her school is. Then having that done, I could run any errands or do any shopping with her after I pick her up! What a grand idea!

I still have some cleaning to do but I got most of it done today. I will definitely do this again!

A Shocker!

I shocked my husband today and did some work outside! ha! Just went for a little stroll around the yard to breathe in the cool air (which is now very cold!) and saw so many things that needed to be done outside. So I went into the garage and got the clippers and trimmed the crape myrtles, stacked up the trimmings into a pile, pulled up some dead flowers in a long planter and thew them away, swept the porch, and brought in the outdoor pillows to wash. It was about 45 minutes of work, not much.

But, a SHOCKER to my husband! Gotta love it!

Just a Swangin'

Guess this photo best depicts the broken or fallen swing:( We've gone through two wicker swings, the first one being an antique, and I guess we're just going to give up on wicker as much as I love it. Everything we have on our back screened-in porch that is wicker is just falling apart. The cats are bad to scratch on all the furniture and the weather has worn it out, too.

This happened yesterday very late in the afternoon. Paige and I went to the back porch and were just a swangin' when all of a sudden, the chain and big screw on one side (the side where I was sitting, thank goodness!) just fell out of the ceiling. I was talking to my mother on the phone when it happened. No one was hurt but Paige just cried and cried and cried. I think it scared her so much. I was laughing and she was crying. Now that I think back, we could have had broken legs, etc. and we are very lucky.

My husband and I had been talking about just replacing that swing with a wooden swing and getting new furniture to replace all the worn out wicker.

Since it happened on MY side, it makes me REALLY want to work harder at losing weight!! Ugh!

Maybe Tonight

Didn't get to watch Steve Martin last night. Maybe tonight. Last night had to be clean up junk mail night and just straighten things up in the house some.

A Decorating Tip

A few years ago, I was shopping in a little gift shop and fell in love with these pillar candles. All three of these photos were very difficult to photograph. I need to study more about low light. Anyway, I hope you can see the detail. They are decoupaged with stamps from different countries and I just thought they were beautiful. BUT. . .they were expensive. The shop owner saw me lingering over them and I told her I just loved them but couldn't justify spending that much money on something that would "burn up". So. . . she gave me this little suggestion and I think it's so clever - clever enough that I bought the candles! ha!

Some of you may already know about this little tip but I didn't. She suggested burning the pillar candles down far enough so that you have a hollowed out place deep and wide enough to put either a votive candle or one of these little tea lites and burn them instead. And they come in scents. So you never burn the expensive pillar candle down, just replace the smaller candle. Clever, huh?

Here is a photo of the candle with the smaller candle burning but it looks as if the larger pillar candle is lit. I've had these candles about 4 years or longer and I still love them. I'm not a fabulous decorator by any means but just thought I'd pass along this tip to any of you who didn't know about it and would be interested in using it.

Commitment

I commited to posting a photo every day in 2009 to document my days for the year. This is what I did most of the day today because I had the day off. I was on the computer most of the day. I did take a break when my daughter/granddaughter visited and when I ate and when I went to a Board of Trustees meeting tonight. I have got to quit spending THIS much time on the computer!

But this is an interesting photograph. These colors you see in my wallpaper are really not noticeable just looking at my desktop. That really surprised me but I like it very much. I guess it's just the way the camera captured the color and light reflecting on the screen.

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

One of my blogging friends made a comment a while back that this world of blogging will help you learn things about yourself. I have learned that I am scared of this new technology - scared I will "break" something or do it wrong. I'm slowly peeling off that layer of me and now I'm realizing that with this blog, I have been too haphazard and need to organize better how I learn. I love Bryan Peterson and have these wonderful books by him. My plan is to shoot and study one aspect at a time about photography and as I do, to get to know my camera better and what it will do. And I probably need to get out of my back yard! lol

Now - the country mouse and the city mouse. I am definitely a country mouse. I love living in the country. I do enjoy visiting the city and when I do, I admit I act like someone who doesn't "get out" much because I have fun. But I'm always ready to get back to my peaceful little corner of the world in the country. Yesterday we had a lot of sunshine. The above photo shows what it was like today.

Here's a look at our backyard looking thru the pines down to the lake. I did notice that the very last tree closest to the lake looked like something had knawed on it. My husband said a beaver chewed on it so I plan to photograph that tree. It's pretty interesting how the beaver chewed in a pattern.

Tried to get a little abstract something going on here and played around with this. The yellow color below didn't come through as I remember seeing it. This is the top step leading to mount hubby's tractor.

This is just the garden hose but I thought it was kind of abstract, too, and I love the colors. I never realized the old garden hose had these pretty colors until you get up close and personal.

Then I climbed on the John Deere and shot this hoping it would help you "feel" what it's like to drive a tractor. I've never driven it and I need to do that one day just for the heck of it. I did the old sepia thing again because it's old. This technique I think I've got and it's going to get boring to do it everyday but I do like the look with the tractor, too.

So there you have it - some photos shot in my backyard from this country mouse!

A Restful Day

Since I am still trying to get over my sickness and had nothing that I had to do, I just took it easy today and rested. I was here with just my one dog and three cats, no TV on, and all was peaceful and quiet. I spent the day on the computer and reading about digital photography. The two shots shown here were done playing around with my macro mode and (again) no flash. The top photo is a new keyring I recevied as a gift from some friends that I just love because it has a Yorkie on it. I tried to capture all the cute little charms on it and just let the keys be in a blurred background. I took over a dozen shots of this but was happiest with this one. The bottom photo was also taken in the macro mode. It's the wreath on our front door and I tried to capture the reflection in a prism-like glass of a lamp inside the house. I like the colors and the light and the abstact-like form.