Two Peas Challenge

This week's photo challenge is "hobby". My 1st hobby is photography but the 2nd runner up is gardening so I had a photo that combined the two in one. In 2007 I was in the City Garden Tour, I displayed many of my garden photos during that day. My garden shed was my main photo display you can see the easels sitting outside with my garden photographs on them and the inside of the shed had many, many more along with cut out cookies in flower and bug shapes compliments of my sisters, they were a big hit. I also thought a glimpse into summer would be fun right now during the cold winter days. This photo is the only one I took during the tour, I should have thought of picking up my camera while the garden was crawling with people.

Two Peas Photography Challenge

Last week's Two Peas Photography Challenge was Technology. I couldn't think of a thing to take a picture of so I skipped it. This morning on my way to work it hit me, this is Technology that I see everyday. I love the way it looks in the early morning with the dark blue sky the lights shining through the steam and the silhouette of the trees and buildings. Last week Monday it was this view with frost covering everything and the lights shined straight up in the air due to the extreme cold temperatures, I was kicking myself for my camera that day. This morning I just happen to have my camera in the seat next to me all seat belted in (you never know, I don't want it to go flying) call me weird it's okay. So I stopped along side the road and fired off a few pics.

Then when I got to work this shot was calling my name so you get a bonus pic.

More wedding

I took lots of pictures but this is all you get to see.... sorry. Take my word for it, it is beautiful, the bride said so, and if the bride's happy we're happy.

The start of a busy week. We had another wedding to decorate for this week. The winter weddings are my favorite but geeze they are cold.

I love the snow, snowflakes, white, silver, ice blue.... but let's do it in the summer!!

Wall Art for sure

This SOOC picture is a pretty amazing frosty winter landscape.... yep that's Shawna and Mike's house back there. If you zoom in on the picture you can see the ladder leaned up against the garage roof and Josh, Jake and Jett are in the bathtub.... you boys better close the curtains!! Just kidding Josh, we really can't see you but I'll put on my really big zoom lens and see if I can then. :)

But this Photoshop Tuesday version is awesome. I darkened the blacks, lightened the whites, changed to black and white, added a grain, cropped into a fun long print and then put a scratched texture behind the image for depth and old feel. I'm thinking this might have to be printed and hung on my wall. WOW

Between

Road and snowmobile trail between home and the shack. I can't wait until it's warm enough to walk this road again.

Sleepy Sunday

Yesterday we went to a benefit that included bowling 3 games. I haven't bowled in years (besides Wii), we had a great time and I forgot how uncomfortable those shoes are!! I kicked serious butt our first game.... how I haven't a clue. Then the next 2 games were pretty normal but Shawna on the other hand got a fabulous prize for her bowling skills. I'm not kidding she got a prize bucket with so much stuff in it.... good, fun stuff. I was jealous then we found out that she got the worst score not only out of the 4 of us but out of the entire shift of bowlers..... poor girl she was heart broken. Shawna I will bowl with you any day, we may not have been the fastest best team (Team - HemRau, not to be confused with Hemroids), but we looked damn good and I think we had the biggest fan club!! Thanks for a great time.

Well with the fun starting at 2 in the afternoon we didn't leave until after 10.... you would think that it's probably time to go home, right? Not when your JOHN, he thinks he still needs to have another drink so we stop at another bar. Why he decided to drink Bloody Mary's is beyond me but he did and we got home after 1AM. Well morning came very early for poor John since we had a date with my Dad and Joanne for 8AM breakfast. I still couldn't let him drive to breakfast b/c Adam and I thought he was still drunk, he was so funny. After breakfast we got home and this is where they crashed.

By the way that's Adam and Michele in the chair and John on the couch.... now that I look at this picture she kinda looks like me but trust me Adam wouldn't be snuggling with his mommy anymore!!

Who's Michelle? Adam's new squeeze. She's a very cute polite young lady, we can't figure out what she sees in Adam yet!! :)

Distressed-a-holic

I'll have to post some pictures of what our house looked liked when we first moved here, it's come a longggggg way. Anyway in 1991 we enclosed the outside porch into living space. We loved our porch but with the family getting bigger we needed all the space we could get. The one side of the porch added onto the living room. I came home from work and the carpenter and John were working on gutting everything so when I looked through the hole in the wall I seen vaulted ceilings....... hummmmm

Me - "hey hunny can I have a vaulted ceiling in this new part?"

John - "NO"

Carpenter (friend) - "Yes"

Me - "Okay, I'll take a vaulted ceiling"

Well at that time we tore all the old porch floorboards off, planed them down and used them on this ceiling/beam, it was like keeping a piece of the old porch with the house. So now that it's 17 years later and the roof leaked just about every time it rained the boards were water stained and ugly. I mentioned a few months back about us removing them and drywalling instead. WOW did I get an earful from my sisters, daughter and niece so we opted to keep them, but I'd have to do something to clean them up. John was busy outside this morning so I grabbed some paint and did a test section..... good thing I liked it b/c I didn't have much choice if I didn't. Here is the picture of before with stains and all.

I kinda gave you a sneak peak on the bottom of the beam, I forgot to take a before picture soon enough.... I plan to distress it with creating divots, sanded areas and a warm stain. I'll update with the finished product in a few days. I like it a lot already.

Old Fashion

It's a tad chilly outside again so we opted to stay home curled up on the couch. After our throw together supper I requested a drink to celebrate the week. John has been working on mastering the Old Fashion from scratch for me. He has taken lessons from the neighbor, bought a grinder thing-a-ma-gig, experimented with different whiskey, uses an orange for flavor and color.... and by George I think he's got it.

Cheers! (glasses clinking) or as they say in Mexico "Saaa-lllllute"

Confused?

Does this photo confuse you? Good because that is how I feel. I'm really sorry if I am boring you with my feelings but this is my blog for what is happening in my life and right now it's not all sunshine and roses. There are stages of grief for losing someone very close to you and I remember very well those stages. I am going through them with the MAYBE loss of my job and right now I am at the confused stage.

I remember when Mom died I was at the anger stage and didn't realize it until I was alone in my truck driving down Broadway returning a movie. There was an older couple walking down the sidewalk holding hands. I wanted to run them both over with my truck, seriously I thought if my mom and dad could no longer hold hands and grow old together than why should they be able to. ANGER STAGE... it happens but thank goodness it only lasted a little while.

I am so confused as to what my job is, if I'm gonna have a job, what am I gonna do if I don't have a job, why do I feel so loyal to my job yet, how am I ever going to sell this house, how can I live somewhere else for the week and here on the weekends, how can I drive more than 15 minutes to work, what if I don't have a job to go to. There are so many questions right now and there are no answers. Don't worry I'm not gonna run over any old people :)

Am I looking up or down, is this photo taken looking up the tree or down or is it looking across a branch.... right now I don't even know.

Same view

As I'm flying home today I watch the sunset thinking about home, thinking about the reality that I have to start dealing with again. Thinking about what direction I will be taking and what John and I will be faced with in 53 days. As I'm staring into the sunset from way high above the clouds thinking of our future John is at home looking into the same sunset thinking of me knowing that I would be performing balancing acts to get this awesome shot of the sunsetting. He knew right then what to do for US..... he grabbed my camera and took about 10 shots hoping that I would be happy with at least one of them and he would be able to give me happiness when I got home. I haven't taught him how to even turn the new camera on so this is pretty amazing, he is pretty amazing!

We all know that God will take care of us and guide us when we are faced with challenges, we just need to see the signs he gives to us. John and I will be okay we will make the right decisions together, we just don't know what they are right now.

More frost

Seriously, what is wrong with this photo?

I can't figure it out, what did I do wrong? I had my white balance set to cloudy which should have been correct since it was outside and the sun wasn't shining. The exposure is correct and the focus is right on for landscape..... I thought it wasn't savable, it looks like a scene from a really old bad scary movie.... the blue tone is enough to make me puke so I thought this would be good for Photoshop Tuesday.

It's not as pretty as it should be but at least now I can look at it.

Monday Frost

I went to work early this morning and the frost was beautiful. The lights in town were shining straight up in the air because of the cold, the view was breathtaking and here I am without a camera. Well I had to travel today so I was back home before 8AM and snapped this photo out the patio door just before I had to leave for the airport.

Since I'm blogging this after I got back I can tell you that my flights were on time and un-eventful to Huntsville.

Winter White

Do you feel like all you see is white? I'm going to work on a color for every month of the year, this month is white. Of course white is so boring that I had to throw in a fun crop.

I'm off to Huntsville, Alabama for the next 3 days. Friday when I talked with them they had 20 degrees above zero and they were wearing long underwear 24/7, seeze it's gonna feel like a heat wave for me.

Waffles, waffles, waffles

Our overnight visitor begs for waffles every time she spends the night, of course I think Adam may have something to do with it. Last night we told El that when she wakes up at 6AM she is to crawl in bed with Adam, he has lots of room in bed with him and he would love to have you snuggle with him..... so this morning it was a little later than 6 but El wakes up and sneaks into Adam's bed, he scoots over and she lays there staring at him. He couldn't take it "Elly go find Grandma". She did and then the waffle chant started, I stuck to my guns and told her I would only make pancakes.... yep only pancakes that is all she is getting, no waffles this time. Here is a picture of Miss E eating her pancakes

Okay so I made her waffles... she says when I called her to the kitchen. "Seriously Grandma..... you made waffles? I would have eaten pancakes" I love this kid, she ate one whole waffle, of course with butter and sugar, just like Grandma. About 2 hours later she wanted another one, she loves her waffles.

Blueberry Celebration

We had a celebration tonight for blueberry. Blueberry had it's very first picture taken today, I'm kinda jealous that it wasn't me taking it. ;) Blueberry wiggled enough for the doctor to know that blueberry will be wearing lots of PINK.

Blueberry is a girl

Shannon washed all the newborn baby girl clothes from Elly and had them packed in a tote for Lynn. They both had fun going through them, a little excitement and some tears of remembrance when El was little.

This face shows the excitement for all of us

To see pictures of blueberry check out Lynn's blog.

Texture

This week for the 2009 Photography Challenge it's Texture. It states my favorite color and for this week it also gives me comfort. Here is my texture pic for the week.

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you have been sending my way, we all need to be thankful for the things we do have during these tough times, and all of you helped me to remember my own reasons to be thankful, so Thank you I love you all.

Thoughts for today - Yesterday was a hard day but today I would have to say was much worse. Yesterday we all were in shock and didn't put any thoughts into what needs to happen, today as I sit at my desk and look at everything around me and realize it all has to move up north. I look into production and envision all the machines, carts, boxes, clocks, paperwork..... have to move out, this building needs to be empty. How does this happen, I can't even imagine the hard work that is going to be done in a very short time. During our consolidation up north I may or may not have a job along with everyone else. None of us know what the next step is. It could be they offer us a job 45 miles from here, it could be they keep us here to clear out the building for a short amount of time, it could be we apply for a job at our other facilities that are 90 miles from here. It could be there is nothing for you.... Some say we are lucky we have 60 days and some say it's better to be walked out the door that day, I'm not really sure which way would be better since I think they both kinda suck. I am a very dedicated loyal employee and the closing of this building and the leaving of my work family that is already gone and others who are about to leave has and will crush me but I will survive, I'm just stubborn like that.

Many tears

Today I have cried many, many tears. Today was my 25th Anniversary at my place of employment they shower you with brownies, check, vacation days, and a jacket....but today was also the announcement that our doors will be closing in 60 days. At this point I'm feeling the shock as most people did today. That is all for tonight!

Freeze dried Flower

On my walk around the garden I found one freeze dried flower.

SOOC

Changed to sepia, unsharpened mask, cropped closer, added rough texture, added carved texture, stamped, added black frame and added a frame inside the picture.

Adam's cars

I was trying to find something to line up tonight so I could do my own try at aperature and then it hit me..... Adam's room. Those of you that sees Adam's room, or my living room and hallway in years past, this is how his cars look everyday and if Josh, Jake or Jett come over they run to see Adam's cars. They play with them but are always careful to put them back in the same spot but he always knows someone touched them. Here is my take at small and large f-stops using Adam's car collection.

Winter beauty

Since winter is beginning to feel really long already I had to push myself into finding beauty in all it's coldness. I took the camera and went for a walk around my gardens to see what struck me as interesting. The lens I was using is a 50mm which is the most like how a human eye sees.

I wanted to practice with aperture. Aperture is the amount of light getting into the camera. The size of the aperture effects the amount of the scene that will have sharp focus known as depth of field. Aperture is indicated by f-stops, which on many cameras (even point and shoots) you can set your f-stop.

If you want to stray away from the automatic setting on your camera read this, otherwise you can skip this next paragraph.

Using a small aperture or large f-stop (f16) brings the entire photo in focus, it's like looking with your eyes wide open. With a large aperture or small f-stop (f4) the main item you are looking at is the only item in focus, like squinting your eyes and then everything behind and in front of the item starts to get blurry. On all cameras there is a dial that lets you choose portrait (usually a side view of a head) with this chosen your f-stop is going to be small so the item the camera hits for focus is clear and the rest is somewhat out of focus, the smaller f-stop is found by choosing the tulip icon, meaning macro. The other setting is landscape (usually a mountain with a sun) with this chosen your f-stop is large so the entire scene is in focus. A mistake many people make is choosing the portrait setting for all people.... If your taking pictures of a group of people at different depths use the landscape setting otherwise the closest person will be in focus and the others will be slightly blurred. To try this line up a bunch of the same items like 5 pairs of shoes, put your camera on the macro setting (or to the manual AV setting) stand on one end of the row and focus the camera on the beginning of the row and then again at the middle of the row. You will be amazed with how interesting this knowledge will help you love your pictures.

This is a grapevine wreath that is weathering on a bench. The only item in focus is the little curl in the branch. The rest of the wreath is slightly out of focus and the back of the bench is so far out of focus that you wouldn't even know it was a bench unless I told you. Too bad at the time I didn't realize I would go here or I could have taken a picture with a large f-stop to show you the difference.

F-stop 1.2

Shutter speed 1/1600 sec

ISO 100

And just because I wanted to see this little curl closer here is a bonus picture. This is the same photo just cropped closer and changed to sepia.

Let me know if you like the challenges, I'll try to give you more. If you try this please post your pictures on your blog I'd love to see them. Speaking of your blogs.... my niece told me a story last night that made me giggle so hard that I have to share. She sees Patti, yes you Patti, in the grocery store and all excited and giddy says "Hi, how are you?".... Patti says "fine" and they part. My niece thinks.... hummm what happened? Oh that's right I don't know her in real life only blog life, she has no idea who I am. So Patti the overly friendly girl in the grocery store is my niece Shawna and she loves your blog.

Full Moon

Tonight is a full moon and I cannot get a decent picture of the moon ever. this is the best that I could do. The sky was so blue with that white ball raising up over the horizon. It's also very cold out there without any clouds. The moon came up so early, it wasn't even dark outside yet and look how high he is.

Lynn and I went shopping for maternity clothes today, just let me tell you the sales they have right now will make you buy things that you really don't need. As John would tell me I have waaaayyyy to many coats and shoes.... well guess what I bought? Don't just walk.... run to the stores and get these fabulous deals, you may just come home with some fun shoes yourself, a girl can never have too many shoes. Lynn did get some fun clothes and we had a blast putting the fake belly on her to see if she had room to grow. The belly only adds 3 months so with one shirt I added a 2nd belly so she could envision the summer months of her pregnancy. She was shocked and doesn't think her belly could get that big..... ummmm yeah sweetie I think it can, and it will. We had a good day shopping and I'm glad she wanted to shop with her mom for this new step in her life. Now let's fill out those shirts little blueberry!!

Salad

A salad is sooooo good and soooo easy so why don't we eat them more often.

Yummy stuff but ignore all the dressing I'm a two dressing girl and my eyes were way bigger than my stomach but it maked a great picture.

Start... Ready, Set, Go

I visit a photography website that has created 52 different ideas for a 2009 Photography Challenge. I thought I'd try to play along with them so here's my photo for Start....Ready, Set, Go. I would have loved to have had this taken on the road but with my work schedule this week and the bitter cold I had to settle for my living room.

Start.....Ready, Set, Go

For the new year we all make some resolutions and these are mine - A healthier life style

1 - Get more exercise

2- Eat more vegetables

3 - Eat less junk

4 - Have less stress

5 - Drink more water and less Mt. Dew

So let's recap since we are only 8 days into the year....

1 - I can't walk, sit, stand, lay, do jumping jacks, stand on my head, ride in a car, blog.....without sever pain from my tailbone. Ibuprofen is my friend doing sit ups are painful just thinkin' about it.

2 - I bought the stuff for making salads for one night this week but tonight I went to dinner with customers... yeah no salad tonight, but the 2 Margaritas were green

3 - Wednesday night John and I split a single serving of Combos for supper... come on we split it that's gotta' count for something.

4 - See Wednesday's post....I'm thinking this is not gonna happen for awhile

5 - Ummmm yeah, let's not talk about this :(

Black Wednesday

The way the economy is going businesses are forced to make some very difficult changes. Today at work we cut 37 people. Every one's job is at risk and it's hard to be comfortable until the day is over. I still have my job but my heart goes out to those who do not. My prayers to the families effected today and anyone having to go through these cut backs. The production floor refers to this day as Black Wednesday.

January 7th has other meaning to our family that I'd rather not elaborate on, our prayers are with them today also.

Greener Acres is the place to be

Remolding is not the life for me

Insulation spreading out so far and wide

Keep these new improvements, just give me the old farm house.

New York is where I'd rather stay

I get allergic smelling drywall dust

I just adore a finished view

Darling, I love you,but give me a finished livingroom.

I'm faint!

The paint!

Fresh air!

New chairs!

You are my wife, good bye unfinished life!

Greener Acres, we are there!!!

Photoshop Tuesday and Self Portrait Tuesday all in one - Cropped photo, brightened eyes, removed dark circles under my eyes, added old texture, muted colors, burned edges of photo, added frames and stamped. Tonight did for the first time the adding of textures and brightened eyes, the rest I have done several times.

Here it is SOOC

I always thought Eva was all dolled up on this picture and Eddie was in bibs but when I looked it up he is in a suit and she's in her grubby clothes with all her bling still on. John doesn't even own a suit so this is as dressed up as I can get him.

Bad Adam

It's a good thing this kid is good 99% of the time because that 1% is enough for me, BOYS!!

He really is a good kid and when he screws up it's usually innocent stuff that he knows better but that devil in him makes him do it. He can sit and have normal conversation with us and take his punishment like a man. He also knows his mom is a freak and makes him do dumb stuff but he loves me and does it for me. This storyboard tells the whole story....

Sun or Star

John is better today, I had a very rough night. The ibuprofen wasn't even touching the pain today. I walked terrible and bending over was horrible and of course that's when you drop everything. We were in the grocery store and I dropped a box of Frosted Flakes so I bend over to pick it up and it's taking me about a minute to even touch the box, as John was standing there watching me.... I hear this voice from behind me "for god's sake help the poor woman".... it was my sister-in-law Jeannie yelling at John. Then he says.... "it's more fun watching her" we all got a good giggle out of my lack of flexibility. I guess this is my payback for not being a very good nurse when he needed me. After the grocery store John and I were both beat and I couldn't take the pain anymore so I took a Vicatin that I had left from my foot surgery. I don't like taking them because when I take them I'm usually up for 2-3 days straight, my eyelids won't even think about shutting, we'll see what happens tonight. Tomorrow at work should be great.... I'm thinking I'll have to put my desk on stilts so I can stand.

I didn't wander outside at all to take a picture so this is from the patio door, I was trying to turn the sun into a star with different settings.

Why did I have to say that?

So yesterday I said I make a better patient than nurse..... now why did I say that because today I'm the patient but John is not better. Except there is one difference between the two of us, I don't have the flu. So let's go back to this morning about 1:50am, yeap that's when I woke up and realized that Adam was not home. He is never late for curfew so I called his phone, no answer. Here's my message "Hey buddy it's your mother and she's worried about you, where are you? Call home so I know your okay". Now I lay there worrying but since he's a good kid the phone woke him up and about 10 minutes later he's home apologizing for being late and having us worry, along with the movie they were watching and what happened and how the sledding hill was fun, it's really cold outside, I froze my fingers, the movie was really good you should rent it, I'm really sorry I was late, everyone else fell asleep too...... remember he's a yacker when he gets home..... okay, okay Adam it's 2am go to bed. Now I try to go back to sleep and my belly is rumbling and making strange noises.... oh no I think not the flu. Just like that I had to go to the bathroom.... I make a dash for the hallway and down the steps like I have done many, many times before in my life. Except this time I slip on about the 2nd step, both feet and legs fly up above my head and down on my butt I land.... bounce up on my feet again and slip the same way and land again on my butt just a couple steps lower. Thank goodness I just put the handrail back up yesterday or I wouldn't of had anything to grab for. I don't know how I did it but I caught myself on about the 3rd bounce and stumbled down the remaining 3 or 4 steps on my feet, all the while screaming owie, owie, owie, owie.... Remember what it is that I got up for so my mad dash didn't stop just because of a little fall. John comes downstairs in a hurry chasing me asking if I'm okay.... how the hell do I know I can't think about that right now. I hurt so bad I can hardly move, sit or stand so I go back to bed to try to go to sleep, it's not working I am in pain so I go get a ice pack and line my pj's, just what I want a frozen badonkadonk. I still am in pain so I go for some ibuprofen... John is now on the couch and nagging at me to eat something with them (I do that to him all the time, payback). Now Adam is yelling down the steps.... do you guys know it's really early in the morning? Mom.... what Adam.... did you fall down the steps?.... go back to bed Adam. Finally the frozen butt and the pills took over to allow me to sleep for a few hours. Now it's morning and I can't move, I must have cracked my tailbone because it's almost like a pass out pain for me. I am okay as long as I stand or lay down, it's kinda like a steady aching but if I sit down HOLY MOLY. I have rug burns on my legs and hands trying to catch myself in mid bounce. I didn't ever get the flu but John still has it today so with him laying on the couch all day and me pacing the floors we make a great old couple. Damn 40's!!

I can't possibly stand all night long so I tried to sit on the chair and just about passed out and it's even a cushioned chair. So I made a donut out of a blanket and I'm sitting on that along with pain pills I'll make it through this..... I can't even laugh or god forbid sneeze.....Seriously I hit my butt so hard I cracked it..... LOL really..... wanna see?

Hee hee hee. Gottcha' I bet I have fallen down these steps 3 times already.... not as bad as this time though. One time I was 9 months pregnant with Shannon and I bounced down every step on my butt waiting at the bottom for my water to break... nope not for another 3 weeks. I don't think anyone else has ever fallen down them, so I photoshopped my own Uppercase Living words for my steps. You can see my brand new paint job, this is the yellowy color that goes down the steps and continues on the beams between the dining and living rooms. I guess I won't be finishing up my painting jobs anytime soon now. It takes a long time for a tailbone to heal... I did this same thing one year on the ice at church.

2 Months

Garrett came to visit today, he is growing so fast. He likes to lay on the floor and have you talk to him. He turned 2 months old yesterday and is starting to smile and coo back at you. When Shan went to pick up Elly from school I stripped him down and got some pictures with just his hat on. Of course his little mouth is open again.

Take down the old, ring in the new

There weren't many Christmas decorations to take down today but these Santa cups are among the few things I put up. My grandma Kellnhofer had cups like these in her china cabinet all year long. I remember looking at them, of course never being able to touch them. When we moved Grandma out of her house I'm sure we all wanted them and it was hard for her to chose who should get them.... well I didn't. So now every time I find one I have to buy it just so my grandchildren can look, and touch them. These may not be Grandmas but they bring back the same memories for me.

I am so happy to be doing potd for 2009. Let's hope that I do as well if not better than last year. My photography has gotten better and I can tell just by going back a year ago that this project has helped me. I know by word of mouth there have been more and more people looking at my blog. I welcome everyone to stop by and take a look, if you would like to leave a comment I love hearing from all of you. You may have noticed the copyright statement on the right side of this blog. I had an incident in the last couple of days with my past picture(s) being used in advertisement format without my permission, please respect my photos for all copyright laws and contact me if you would like to use them in anyway. I do enjoy taking them however it is my equipment, creativity and time. I will be more than happy to work something out, just send me an e-mail. Thank you