31/365 Homework

Joshua is in the 2nd grade and really doesn't enjoy homework. Can you tell?



Working on his spelling words. He had to write them in alphabetical order.

And just because I wanted record of his handwriting at 7 years old.

Woohoo! One month down, 11 more to go!

I'm looking forward to participating in Willette's Joy of Love class for the month of February. There is still time to sign up, if you haven't already. Go here: http://www.willettedesigns.com/?page_id=2780

30/365 Promise

The weather was gorgeous again today. Right around 70 degrees. We took advantage of the nice weather by cleaning up the leaves and pine needles in the yard. I also noticed several promising signs of spring, including buds on my neighbor's dogwood tree and this one in our backyard.

29/365

It's been beautiful here the last few days and looks like it will continue for at least a few more. Sunny and in the 60s. I love it. Matthew loves it too. He loves to be outside. Riding his bike or ripstik. Playing baseball or basketball. Building forts in trees with friends.

28/365

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments on my post yesterday!

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Before & After

I don't usually do this but I always enjoy looking at before and afters so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a shot.


SOOC, just converted to jpeg.


It was a very cloudy/dark day so I overexposed a bit. Apparently, a bit too much. Good thing I shoot in RAW, huh?

Decreased exposure and upped blacks just a tad in ARC:


Definitely better. Next, I just adjusted the slider in Levels, as well as used the black and white droppers. Upped contrast a bit, ran an Urban Grit action on just the building and the building's reflection, cloned out some of the sand behind the building and the metal boxes on the pole, sharpened and cropped. It took maybe 10 minutes total.

After:

27/365

I owe my love for reading to my dad. When my sister and I were in elementary school, he was the one to get up with us. He is a morning person and my mom, like me, is not. As my sister and I were eating breakfast, he would sit and read to us. Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Chronicles of Narnia. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And many others I don't remember. Some of the books were difficult and he would stop and explains things to us. Let us ask questions. I don't remember when he stopped reading to us. Maybe when I started middle school and my schedule was different than my sister's. I will have to ask her if she remembers.

I remember when he took us to get our very own library cards. I don't remember how old I was but it was very exciting to me. I could check out books all by myself. We lived only a few blocks from the library, in a small town. When I got a bit older, I could walk or ride my bike there by myself. I would take a backpack along to hold the books I wanted. It would be full when I came home and I read through them and then went back for more.

My dad is also a writer. When I was in high school, he would often ask me to proof read what he'd written. He doesn't know this, but it meant a lot to me that he trusted me to do it and valued my opinion.

I love that my kids love reading too. Well, 2 of them anyway. My 11 year old would rather be out doing than sitting still and reading. But he's getting there. I love that I've been able to share some of my favorite books growing up with my daughter and that she loves them too.



Have y'all read these books yet? I guess they're technically for teens but I know quite a few adults who have or are reading them. I started Catching Fire yesterday and finished it this morning. They're tense, shocking, suspenseful...... I can't put them down.




Today is my awesome SIL's birthday. Happy Birthday Becky! I love you!!

26/365 My first Kiss

Okay, technically, it isn't my first. I ordered a set of mini kisses last month. But this is my first full sized Kiss album. I liked the mini kisses. They were cute and very well done. I LOVE the full size album. This is a 10x10 leather album with 34 spreads (68 sides). They are kinda pricey so it's doubtful that I'll ever sell another one but oh, how I love it.





Product photography is definitely NOT my thing and I apologize for the poor quality of these. I'm going to take a few of the pages as well but the bride hasn't seen this yet, and I don't want her to see it on here first, so I am not going to post them now. If you want to see them, let me know :-)

25/365

It's dark, cold and rainy today. Since I wasn't finding any inspiration at home, and it hadn't started raining yet, I decided to stop by one of my favorite locations after running to the store. I love that it's less than 5 minutes from my house. I was hoping to find some evidence that spring is coming but I guess it's too early (and has been too cold). I've noticed this little building/shed there before but never really paid any attention to it. Next time I go, I will have to see how to get over to it. I didn't stay long today-I kept seeing people who then had disappeared when I looked for them again. It was kinda freaking me out. LOL

24/365 Writing

A few days ago, a friend posted on facebook that she had just finished a paper she had to write for a class and then asked if it was weird that she enjoyed writing it. I told her that no, it's not weird at all. And that got me thinking. I used to enjoy writing too. As a matter of fact, I still have every paper I'd written between 7th grade and college. So, that is my photo for today ;)

The red folder has personal writing as well as 7th-11th grade. The blue contains my senior year in high school and college. I read them now and 1. don't even remember writing some of it and 2. Am amazed....most of them are actually decent. I don't feel like I could successfully write much of anything now. I don't like that feeling. Not at all :(

23/365

Matthew, Em and I played a few hands of Skip-Bo this afternoon.

22/365 Leo

Leo is my friend Bobbie's cat. He's not feeling real well lately :( Hope he feels better soon.

21/365

Joshua loves Fridays. Because it means no homework. He really, really doesn't like homework. No homework means he gets to play on the computer sooner.

20/365

I took these yesterday afternoon but didn't have a chance to post them. As soon as I got them off the camera, we had to leave for a doctor appointment, where we ended up waiting an hour before we got in to see him. Right after that, we picked Joe up from work. After dropping Joe and the boys off at home, Em and I headed to the high school for orientation. I still can't believe my baby's going to high school in the fall....

Anyway, I was inspired by Mrs. Fun and ordered a bunch of personal prints on Monday. They arrived yesterday. Now, to figure out what to do with them. :)

19/365 The dreaded Self Portrait

It's been so long since I've done a SP, I had a hard time remembering how! LOL. I have always avoided smiling in photos, so that was new for me too. But thanks to my super sweet friend Shannon for giving me the push to get this done today.

So here I am, wrinkles, grey hair, goofy smile.....but straight teeth!

18/365

I had an orthodontist appointment this morning. At my last appointment, they told me to make this one early in the day so I could get the braces off if they had enough time.

I made the appointment for 9:30. The braces came off :-)

They give everyone balloons and a popcorn box filled with goodies when you get your braces off. I go back on Thursday to get my retainer.

I think I'll have a bag of popcorn for lunch today..... ;-)


I will take a picture of me soon. Hopefully the sun will come back in the next few days.

17/365 Cookie

Meet Cookie. He belongs to Joshua. He's spent every night with Josh since he got Cookie 3 years ago. He's well loved and it shows.



It's not much but it'll have to work for today. I spent the afternoon working on getting pictures ready to order in an attempt to get them off the computer and onto the walls or where ever we decide to put them. I almost forgot to take a picture today because I was busy with that project. I've got 83 ordered and 100s more that need to be but will have to wait. Thanks for the inspiration Mrs. Fun!

16/365 Science Fair

The entire 8th grade is required to do a Science Fair project. Emaleigh was not happy about it until she found a subject she found interesting. She decided to do hers on optical illusions and whether or not age or gender make a difference in what is seen. The presentation/display board is due on Tuesday so she spent the afternoon printing everything out and arranging it before gluing it all down.

15/365

Joshua's room is like a parking lot...

In other news, today is Joe's birthday and we're going out without kids!

14/365

It's still too cold to shoot outside so I decided to try to work with window light (inspired by another 365'er) and Em. Still really wishing for a wider lens. Someday.....

13/365

Snow Day #4.....even the dog is getting tired of this.



"Seriously? Why are you bugging me?"

The kids already have Friday and Monday off so they won't be going back to school until Tuesday. A week off school because of snow is a foreign concept for us. We're from Michigan. There, if it snows a lot, you might get one day off. I don't remember ever getting more than 2 in a row and that was rare. Here, they don't have the equipment to deal with snow and ice removal. So we have to wait for it to melt. It's supposed to get up into the high 50s this weekend, so that should take care of the remaining ice.

12/365 Snow Day, part 3 boredom

We're on day 3 stuck at home because of the snow/ice. Pretty much just the ice now. It looks like they might go back to school tomorrow, with a 2 hour delay. Maybe.

So today I made cookies with the help of Matthew and my super sweet neighbor. I had to go borrow some butter from Jen. LOL.


Angry Birds is a good time passer (waster?) when bored. I am determined to do away with those darn pigs!

11/365 Snow day, part 2

The snow is still with us, although we haven't gotten any more since yesterday morning. Now, though, it's turned into ice and everything is quite slippery. So school is out again today. Joe had to go back to work so it's just me and the kids hanging out today.


Joshua loves playing the Lego games he got for Christmas.


One of the bushes in the front yard.

It's supposed to get warm enough to melt some of it during the day today but it'll freeze again tonight.

10/365 Snow Day!

We woke up this morning to several inches of snow. The last measurement taken by my neighbor was 6 inches. That's a lot for down here. Everything is canceled today.


The view down my street at 8:30 this morning.




Of course, Joshua had to go out and play in it :-)


Wish I could get rid of that snow flake in front of his eye....oh well.




Still wishing for that wide angle lens....


The only way to complete a morning spent in the snow ;-)

9/365 Winter Storm

We're supposed to be getting a winter "storm" tonight/tomorrow with 3 inches of snow, possibly some sleet, maybe some ice. I'm surprised we haven't been called yet to tell us school is canceled for tomorrow. I've been to the store to get the milk. Cookies are in the oven. I'm all set to snuggle on the couch with a blanket and a good book.


9/365

I've already finished The Hunger Games. I requested Chasing Fire and Mockingjay (the 2nd and 3rd books in the trilogy) from the library but I guess they only had Mockingjay available. So I've started The Help while I wait for Chasing Fire.

8/365 Lunch Date

Joe is sick today and Matthew is at a friend's. It was 1:30 and I realized I hadn't eaten anything yet today. But I didn't want another peanut butter sandwich. I was also frustrated with a project I'm working on and felt the need to get out of the house! So Em, Josh and I went to McDonald's for some lunch. I debated with myself for several minutes before leaving about whether or not to bring the camera. In the end, I brought it. I need to get in the habit of taking it with me but what to carry it in is a problem. I have a backpack camera bag, which is great for taking on vacation or somewhere I'll be walking around a lot. But kind of bulky to take to the store or to eat. The camera does fit in my purse but nothing else will fit in well with it and there is no padding/protection. Anyone want to donate a cute camera bag? ;-)




I couldn't decide between these 2 photos so I went with both. It's my project and I'll make up the rules as I go along ;-)

Joshua and his favorite activity.

We also made a quick trip the the library. Now we're home and I have to get back to work on the album-and figure out what in the world I did. Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

7/365

My youngest after school today.

This isn't what I was planning for today but there's always tomorrow, right?

6/365 Competition

Seriously?!?! It just doesn't seem right. {Sigh}

5/365

The only way I can keep everyone's schedules straight and remember what's happening is to write it on the calendar. Without it, I would be lost. There are a few things for next week that haven't made it on but this month isn't looking too crazy yet. But in another month or so, when baseball starts again, it'll be filled right up.

4/365

Matthew is home sick today. He's got a head ache and he woke up at 1am from pain in his leg. I'm guessing the leg is growing pains. He's had a cold for a few days, so that's probably where the head ache is coming from. Hoping my boy's smiles return soon-I hate it when he doesn't feel well. :-( He's such a sweetie though. He let me drag him outside on the deck to get a quick shot of him.

{Inspire}

3/365 Inspire

I had a photo all ready to go for today and then the mail came. I asked for this for Christmas but didn't get it. So I bought it for myself with some of my Christmas money. Can't wait till I have a few minutes to sit down and look through it. A goal of mine is to one day be good enough to get into Inspire, Volume 2 (or Volume 3, 4, 5....however long it takes).

A Look into the Past

2/365 One room schoolhouse from Spartenburg County (c. 1875-1905)

Emaleigh had to go on a personal field trip for her honors science class so we decided to go to the South Carolina State Museum today. Em and I both love history, so we really enjoyed the 4th floor, which included this schoolhouse and other examples of how life used to be.