the year that was...

Year 2009 was full of many things. Wow. It's a lot to look back on, and some of it I just want to sweep under a rug. There were many good things, but all I can seem to focus on is the heartbreak. But looking though all my files, I saw many things I had forgotten about.

The laundry room renovation and new tile.

My man with the muscles digging this huge stump out of our front yard.

Learning to take pictures with my awesome new camera.

Bethy visited! Yay!

Our nephew Harrison turned two, and it was a Batman themed party.

Isn't my mom pretty? Totally.

Such a majestic dog, our sweet Phoebe.

Lucy is quite the comedian.

Charlie is too. A comedian, I mean. Isn't he a man to love?

Practicing with Snoopy in the carseat. It was one happy moment in time. Okay, so I probably shouldn't stop with this photo, but it's the last one that loaded.

Our pastor was talking last week about finding a new beginning, and a new year is often when people make resolutions and start things. My husband is all geared up for saving money this year and beginning a new budget. I just want to finish things. I want our adoption to be finished, I want to get my book finished and published. I want to finish my job with my head held high and find a new one. Well, I guess that's a new start. I will be beginning a new job somewhere at sometime who knows when and that will be something new to conquer.

Here's to 2010 and what it can bring.

proof...here's proof

Yes, I love to take pictures, and I have filed up an entire SD card with images of nature: flowers, leaves, plants, etc. The colors of fall are amazing, and are only around for a brief time.

Lovely. So lovely. Lovely, that is, until they fall.


My husband has been working on the yard recently and has been doing such a great job. He has asked me a couple of times to help out, and here's proof that I have indeed been outside, helping. He said that since I love the trees so much, I should be in charge of collecting their droppings. It's a small price to pay to have the trees, so I put on my old silver sparkly tennis shoes and a sweatshirt, which I didn't need once it got hot, and got out there. Yup, I spent time with my lovely trees. The Queen of the Indoors is slowly expanding her kingdom.

I blew leaves! (such a great action shot, taken by my hubsie.) Many, many, many leaves. Many little gum balls from the sour gum tree. Doggie doo mixed with leaves and sour gum balls. Two and a half hours of blowing leaves down toward the curb. These pictures were taken within the first 15 minutes, when I was still having fun. At the end of the night I could barely lift my water glass with my right arm.

What I never understood about leaf blowers is this: it takes muscle to move them forward. It's basic physics, I guess. In order for the leaves to continue moving down the yard toward the street, I have to keep walking forward, while the air wants to press me back. It's not a great amount of pressure, but you notice it more when you do take a couple of steps backwards and the air helps you. It's propelling itself backwards, while you (and your wimpy arm muscle) are making it go forward.

Here I am digging up a hydrangea plant and moving it down the yard to another spot. I dug things up, people. I know you can't believe it, but this fall I have been kinda helpful. Not extremely helpful, mind you, but somewhat helpful.

Okay, so you have proof that while I may love the indoors and taking pictures, I can assist in some ways outside. I may have to hand my title to someone else, if this helpfulness keeps up. We'll see. Most likely, you will see more pictures of lovely leaves, and less of me working, but you never know when I might help again. It's a mystery.

a walk around the neighborhood

Today we walked around the neighborhood and looked at some yards and landscaping. Our yard is in great need of work and Charlie started today by digging out some stumps left from plants we cut down. But we took the walk to look at what other people have done in their yards. I found several little gems of things that I liked and saw these flowers.

This blue one was one of my favorites. There is a teeny tiny bee on the center one. He was friendly.

I hate these plants (cope berry bushes?) but the berries are pretty.

I have no idea what the little purple berries are, but they seemed happy and friendly in the sunshine.

I have been enjoying my new camera lens (18-200) and learning how to work it, and I think I have finally figured out how to work the macro setting. I still can't get as close as I can with the standard 18-55 lens. I do love the softness of the bokeh. Lovely. Double click on these photos and you can see them in all their large glory. Such loveliness.

spiderman, spiderman

I came outside the other day and stretched between a tree and our ivy plants was this huge spider web, floating in the air. It was about 12 inches across and a foot and a half long. Today when it was raining, all the little droplets were stuck to it and it was really pretty.

It was hard to get a picture, because the camera wants to focus on the background and I wasn't sure how close I wanted to get to the web. I did not see the spider, and since I didn't know his whereabouts, I didn't want to get get close. I took three pictures and then went back inside.

Just thought I would show what has been the prettiest part of the last two weeks. It has been completely rainy here, and the one day that was sunny was soooo hot we'd all rather have the rain. But then today it rained and the temperature dropped. Not so great.

I suppose I could be philosophical about how hard the spider worked or how intricate the web was, or something, but I am not in that place. I could write about how dedicated the spider was, but really, he's just trying to catch some food and as soon as it stops raining, I am going to take a stick and knock it down. I have no love for spiders and my husband is scared of them, so it becomes my job to kill him. In fact, he hasn't really gotten that close to the web.

I am grumpy, can you tell? Things aren't happening that I want to happen, and other things that aren't that great ARE happening, and I wish they wouldn't. Life is confusing and I am tired of being in the rain.

Sunshine is much better for my psyche.

good things

My husband loves candles during the fall/winter. He doesn't like them any other time, really, but about this time every year he starts smelling candles in every store we visit. Yesterday, we were in TJ Maxx and Target and he was sniffing his way down the aisle of candles, trying to find one for fall. He likes the house to smell like pumpkin pie and baked goods, and around Christmas I like the cranberry ones or pine scented ones.

Let me also admit that finding a candle is a challenge for us, because I am extremely sensitive to scents. Anything really strongly floral or fake smelling (like beach scented candles?) give me a headache. It's one of the major reasons I don't wear perfume. Usually, citrus scented things are okay, but those aren't the scents for fall. We normally compromise a little and don't burn them for too long, but just enough to get the smell.


I was trying out my new camera lens (sigma 18-200 OS, in case you care) and took this photo of some sticks in a vase. I love the way the warm wall color makes me think of fall, and trees losing their leaves. If you've read my blog for any length of time, or even think really about the title, you know that I love trees, in any state, except chopped down. Each season with trees is interesting for me, from the sprouting to blooming to lush green summer fullness to the warm colors they display in fall. I love trees. Seriously.

I love pumpkin pie and chai lattes, mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, carving pumpkins, decorating my Christmas tree and shopping for presents. Fall is full of fun and cooler weather, my birthday (and the New Moon movie), and shopping. Did I mention the shopping?

Oh, and the most amazing thing happened the other day. After reading the Nester's guest post from a blogger who was having her house foreclosed upon, I wished there was something I could do. There really wasn't, of course, since I don't know this person in real life and my little contribution wouldn't have helped them keep their house. BUT, when I went to the grocery store a couple of hours later, the Urban Ministries program was collecting food for their food bank and listing the kinds of people they helped. People who had lost their housing was one of the groups they mentioned! So I shopped around the store and included several extra cans of things I was buying for the Urban Ministries. And after I bought my groceries, I took my bag back to the little man who was manning the table and he was so cute! Old and crinkled, but talking to people about donating to the Urban Ministries. I felt so good about helping, even though it wasn't helping the Nester's Guest Blogger, but it would help someone in my community. And it's so easy when stores put out collection baskets, because you can shop and hand the stuff off right then. Such a great idea!

Maybe that wasn't the most amazing story you've ever heard, but it made me feel good to help out a little. It didn't cost me much and I felt so good about contributing. You can too, you know! Buy a can of soup for someone in need, if you can, of course. There was a time in my life when I was on the other end and the church was bringing our family groceries. It all cycles around. Do what you can, when you can.

That's a good motto: do what you can, when you can.

not on automatic III

This week's lesson at A Familiar Path was about using the white balance options on your camera. I didn't know that adjusting the white balance can help you take better indoor photos, because there are some times when you just can't go outside. I chose to take some pictures in my den, which has windows along one side, but the light is hard to capture. I wanted to show how my crazy short haircut has grown out nicely, and I didn't have anyone else to photograph, so I also used the automatic timer on these.

This first picture is just on automatic. I am out of focus and the flash popped on. Ick.

My camera has several settings for white balance: incandescent, fluorescent, direct sun, flash, cloudy and shade. You can set each of these from the range of -3 to +3. Curious, I tried the shade setting first. See below.

I like the expression on my face, but I am quite yellow. Then I tried the fluorescent, even thought I didn't have any fluorescent lights on. Below, I am blue. The star streaks of light to the left are fun, though.


It seemed to me that since I had incandescent light behind me, I should try that. I didn't know what the numbers really mean, so I tried it to +3. Better, since I'm not blue, but not quite right.

Curious, I tried setting it to -3. I like the one below the best. It's still not completely wonderful, but I enjoyed the experiment and the fact that there are so many options when taking pictures indoors. It takes a cooperative model, though, to let you play with all of it. I don't know how Chickadee does it with a baby!



Well, the other point to this was to show that my haircut is really nice at this length. It only took me a month to get it to a stage where it is a good look. I have received many compliments on my new hair recently, and we all like compliments, right?!

not on automatic II

This week we were to try our Macro setting and our automatic timer. I have to admit, I have always loved the Macro setting, because I love to take photos of flowers, and I did in this case. These roses are from the dozen that my husband bought me for our anniversary. (Remember, I am taking my photos with a Nikon D80.)


Here is my automatic timer photo. My friend Beth and I wandered around our old college campus and had a great time. We found a little brick wall that I could set my camera on and used the automatic timer. You can frame photos with the timer by having someone stand in the field of vision where you want them. In this case, I had Beth sit so I could focus the camera and then I ran in and joined her. I think it turned out well.

Hope you enjoy!

not on automatic

I forced my friend Bethany to let me take pictures of her the other day, without makeup and with no real primping. She was less than thrilled, but let me do it, and several of them turned out very well. She's such a pretty girl and don't you just love those curls?


So, Chickadee, from A Familiar Path is doing a photo series teaching us how to use the different settings on our cameras. This week's challenge was to take photos on any other setting but automatic, so I chose the portrait setting. (We're supposed to say what kind of camera we have: a Nikon D80.) I like the way Bethany is in focus, but the plants behind her are not. If I had used Auto, I think everything would be in focus, but I didn't take shots to test that theory. This was also taken on an overcast day, because it was actually about 12:30 and the sun would have been really drastic at that time of day.


This is my momma. Isn't she beautiful? I mean, come on, that woman is gorgeous! I also used the portrait setting with mom, and I took this picture in her garage, of all places. But it was really sunny overhead and by being in the shade it offered this great light. Love it.

Hope you enjoy these! I am learning how to use my new camera and am loving it. I wondered how I would feel about lugging it around NYC, because it was heavier than your average point and shoot camera. I carried a similar camera around in London and hardly ever hung it around my neck due to the weight, but my solution for NYC was to have Charlie carry the camera and camera bag, and for me to ask for it when I wanted. I carried my purse, with a water bottle. Did you want to know all that? Probably not. But all that to say that I love my new camera and I did carry it a lot, and didn't mind the weight. It just takes such great pictures.

I'm in love with a boy named Nikon. I say Nikon is a boy, because it is. What say you?