look to the light / warm rays

Shutter Sisters posted a blog about using available light in your home. Tracey gave great tips for shooting indoors. First she said "get to know the light in your home" and "rearrange your routines" in order to use the great light for your photos. Not only does the natural light allow for great photos, it lifts my mood. I have always done my ironing in the basement, but since she moved out I now do my ironing upstairs – in her room – enjoying the morning light

 / finished up classes at 2 pm today and headed to a friends pool for some rays of sunshine – a last chance for some semblance of a tan.
Well the photos don't go so well together, but I guess we were both "looking to the light"

Hearts-a'burstin / still life 4

This unique plant grows naturally in our backyard. You know it's fall when the hearts start bursting with love. / don't critique it yet - i'm not finished

today / one year ago

Relaxing Sunday. It was such a wonderful day of reading out on my deck - started out cool enough for my sweater but I soon peeled off that layer and enjoyed the sun against my skin. / i have no photo today but looked back to what i was shooting just one year ago. this photo was taken at the GA fair on this exact date one year ago. what a fun night. i miss claire.

sunbeam / birds on a wire

I really have no words for today. It's was a good day of getting stuff done around the house and yard. I didn't get a photo from her today so I chose a random photo from her flickr site and not until I placed it with mine that I took this morning did I see the crazy similarities - even down to the angle of the rays coming into the angle of the wire. Another pleasant surprise. / there's a blackout in Athens. haha go dawgs!
"Just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a love - born of God's care for every need." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

reading / listening

When I picked up this book I didn't know that it was the last of a series. hahaha (I've never read the others) but it seems like it holds together on it's own (I'm not very far in to it). At work we have a "library" of books that people bring in and I needed something to read today so I chose this - The Careful Use of Compliments. I make sure I get outside for a short break everyday. We have a beautiful courtyard to sit in and on a day like today of course I can't resist. OH the breeze, the sun - perfect... looks like she had the same idea / just had to have a starbucks today between classes. i try to limit my visits there through the week but it was just so nice out i couldn't resist. chai soy latte please, and on my ipod: dear ms. leading by the dear hunter, this is it, this is it by as cities burn, jesus christ by brand new, act appalled by circa survive, don't let them see you cry by manchester orchestra
What was your last favorite read? / What's on your ipod?

Tin Drum / Kirby

Had lunch with my friend Trevor at Tin Drum today. The Cripsy Chicken Salad with ginger dressing is so yummy. Talked of dreams of travel and how so many of the young people in our office are going to all these exotic places - Japan, Greece, Eygpt, Scotland, China... Guess they are just foot-loose and fancy-free. Well, now is my time. I wish to go to Greece or Provence for my 50th. / kirby is sick. i don't know what to do ]: kirby can't die on me. kirby is my beloved, hand-me-down 1996 green jeep

the cuckoo / the owl

The cuckoo sings again / i bought that vintage owl necklace i was wanting. it won't replace my mom's panda but it will be a nice change to wear. i wear my mom's old panda necklace all the time (think she had it when she was about 16) and it i get compliments on it everytime - can you see it behind the owl?

constancy

I had to look for something on my computer tonight, and I had to hunt deep. But I came upon a surprise deep with those folders on the back-up drive - these sweet little pictures. There was folder titled "My catalog" , she had photos of her "products" and her "bio" photo, etc. haha When she was young she was very much into nature and was creating a little catalog of things she made out of natural things - little animals out of pinecones and such - she was always creating. She made this scan of her hand holding a zinnia and was going to use it in the catalog somehow. (Look at that cute little turtle ring). And there is my little creative soul posing, not a pretty pose, but so natural. The meaning of a red zinnia is "constancy" (the quality of being enduring and unchanging). I'm so glad I found these pictures tonight (even though it sort of made me cry for those long lost, innocent days). She is still a creative soul and my constant source of pride and joy.

dots of color / not just black & white

If I had not posted this myself I would have never believed it. There was a big bag of gumdrops on sale yesterday at CVS - the spice kind i couldn't resist. I took my photo this morning before work and she sent hers earlier than usual, around 2. I definitely smiled —clear we had cheery colors on our minds. "Paint a rainbow inside of you, paint a rainbow, let your smile shine through. When it's cold and gray, push the clouds away, paint a rainbow in your heart." / mixing colors today — i can make any color i want with just 5 colors in a tube— i love the feel of paint

gathering light

This is her page today. Posted in response to Shutter Sisters . I took this self portrait (using a  tripod of course) as part of a school assignment last year. This would have looked entirely different taken in the day time, the background is totally obscure in the darkness. (btw, it was 30 degrees outside that night!)

a cup of blessing

This is my page tonight. I have been frustrated with her not doing her photography and I realized I really have no right to speak of this because I have not been doing my work either. So it's time I get busy.
I started this project in the spring when all the new growth was about us and then when the weather turned too hot and the flowers stopped blooming, I stopped working on it. Well now I am seeing beauty in the decay. My plan is to sell prints without quotes on etsy (the above two, with quotes, make wonderful desktop images).
"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

sanctuary / shelter

I was amazed when I saw the similarity in these images today.
"A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul." - Phillip Moffitt

patience / wishes

This is embarrassing - these one-sided posts. But here I am with nothing to show and nothing to say either.
"Our patience will achieve more than our force." - Edmund Burke /

i bought a watch today at potter's house, a local thrift store. the battery was dead and i could choose any time i wanted to have on its face forever. two dollars seems a small price to pay for eternal wishes. 11:11, always."

True story: mom posts the blog with a one-sided photo, a little frustrated that she didn't get an image from daughter... again. She wishes she didn't have to remind her to send a photo each day, but she decides that she just needs to be patient with daughter - knows she is busy with school work and has little time for this blog. Maybe once a day is too much to expect. So she's getting ready to turn in for the night and a beep comes on her phone - email coming through. As she is reading the email from her daughter, she looks at the clock, it is 11:11pm. How crazy is that? A smile comes across her face. Goodnight.

Never forget /

Shutter Sisters posed this question today, "Do you have a photo that captures a conversation that you or the subject want to never forget?" All the post were sweet and tender but it immediately made me think of this photo on the left. Every time I look at this photo I smile, even laugh out loud again. My daughter was completing her senior focus project for photography and did a series on Alice Wonderland interpretations. Here we were having a "Mad Tea Party" and I was the Mad Hatter (haha, because I'm short and have crazy hair). This set up was in our backyard and we were just shooting away (she had a timer on the camera). We looked and noticed that there were some people up there, we just starting dying laughing for what they must think of their crazy neighbors. It all paid off because she got a fantastic final photo (the one on the right) and a 100 on her project.
So this wasn't really a conversation that I never want to forget but an occasion that represents the many times we've had fun shooting photos together. I am always overjoyed to be a part of her activities and shooting is a time we tend to bond so well - our creative minds work together and feed off each other - we're a good team... mother and daughter.

pure fun /

Those guitars in the corner keep calling me. I think I'll just pick one up and practice a little bit for when she comes home. I miss touring in our "Rock Band" with her. It was one of the times I felt a small part of her world - what great times we had playing for hours - earning "money" and gaining "fans".

memories / treasures

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." ~John Muir Still savoring the memories of the weekend where I found much relaxation. It was so nice to be in the midst of nature, falling asleep to the bubbling creek, waking to the cool fresh air... / Finding someone else’s treasures and making them your own is better than searching for something new any day.

extremes

beauty all around this weekend - views from the smallest house, my tent at Flintrock campground in Boone, NC, to the largest house, The Biltmore in Asheville, SC
solo post tonight

morning view / my view

view from my window this beautiful morning - the crepe myrtle is still bursting in bloom / my still life drawing in progress

her / me

Sunday in Athens. She didn't straighten her hair and it looked so pretty / "What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." - Henry David Thoreau I finally got around to editing my "growing up" series and I'm happy with them.

homemade /

Monday night dinners aren't the same without her /

vintage shops / art gallery

Today we did her favorite thing - shop vintage stores. I bought her some cool vintage tumblers for the dorm (I had some like them growing up - haha guess I'm that old) / It was nice to have her visit. We went to the Georgia Museum of Art and I also showed her the student work. (Sorry I don't know who to credit on this incredible wire boot) Oh yeah and she took me shopping. : )

home / a place to call home

Funny, I still expect to see her green jeep in the driveway, or if it's not there I start to question "where is she off to now?" / i love it here but...
"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

setting sun / sun rising

The sun is setting sooner these days. I look forward to my nice "sun spot" to read when I come home from work - it has shifted. / bright and early, morning sun to wake me up
footnote - i will admit i selected an image from another day to fit with my daughters of today. couldn't resist : )

pattern behavior

i see this every day but never quite noticed it like this /our room is all the rave. i decorated my bare, cement walls with decals from ELLYNELLY.ETSY.COM

dappled light / night shadows

"A dapple of light seems such a small thing but in the darkness it is a star shining bright..." This is what I see when I come down the stairs in the morning. Such a simple thing, but it makes me smile. / still life for drawing class. I'm anxious to work on something besides white cups - give me some color!

restful /

nothing better than a hammock, a good book, AND a day off work : ) / day off, but still work to be completed. this graphite is messy : (