Days kinda start quietly here but then get really hectic and I tend to leave the photo-taking towards the latter part of the day so I don’t do well on the photos.
Nathaniel’s gotten a bit smitten with TV and asks to have it on first thing. Not good, I know. But he looks cute watching it.
I am not worried yet since he wasn’t interested at all two months ago so I will see if it passes.
Dad came over today while Nathaniel napped and mom and I ran out for a super-quick errand. More on that later.
Then they left and I worked and went to pickup david and then had to rush to work so they came back to be with the kids. I snapped this before I left.
And now I am rushing out to be with Jake. It’s our anniversary. I love him. so. much. I ordered these rings a few months ago and they finally arrived and I adore them.
Off to get ready. A lot more tomorrow, I promise. December daily page two is half done so that’s coming tomorrow, too.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that my rings came. I love love love them.
2. I am grateful that I got to go to work and change my machines. It was a task I’d been putting off for two years. Feels great to have it be done.
3. I am grateful for my husband today and everyday. Happy 16 years, my love. To many many many more.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. getting a silly band at school {* his pick for the journal}
2. eating a gingerbread man at school
3. spending time with opapa and amore and daddy.
My friends Kathy and Nicholas have been trying to get me to read Hunger Games for several weeks/months now. I knew it would be a super-quick read so I purposefully left it for a time when I felt like I was in need of a good story. But once I finished months of book club reads, I decided it was time to reward myself.
And I was rewarded. I read the whole book in about 10 hours. While I didn’t think it was nearly as good as Twilight (I was told it would be similarly fun read) I did really enjoy it and I’m saving book two and three for when I am in a slump (or just can’t resist reading them.)
Well here we are! One of the things I realized as I went through my books from the last two years is that I like having a combination of photos, stories and crafty stuff. So this year I will make a conscious effort to do that.
I wanted to start the book with the holiday spirit in our house. I took photos of all the stuff we have up and made a little collage. And so it begins…
and for the back, I love that pajama fabric so I just sewed on a tree and decorated it and sewed the pages together.
and another look:
And there you are. Day one.
Happy December!!
We started the day all tired. Even David’s been sleeping later in the mornings. Maybe it’s the winter sluggishness. I spent most of the day lying and trying to get stuff done. I did manage to do my December Daily and work out. Other than that, there wasn’t much personal stuff accomplished. Just a bunch of work.
As I took shots of my first December Daily page, Nathaniel crouched and kept touching my page.
He is the king of facial expressions. Well he and his brother both are.
After I picked David up, we rushed to the doctor for his flu shot and by the time we came home, Jake was already here so as it’s my new goal, I asked him to take some photos of us. Most of them didn’t come out but we got one.
And I loved Nathaniel’s smile in this one.
David kept making super weird faces in most of them. So I asked him to give me a smile, too.
And there we are. Tonight’s book club night so I am trying to rush through my list before I have to leave. Off to light candles now. As I start my december daily posts, I’m thinking I won’t email those if you’re subscribed to me by email. They are often photo heavy and I don’t want to clutter your mailbox more. So come on over to visit the site and see them.
Love December!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that December is here. This is a very special time of the year for me and I am trying to enjoy each moment.
2. I am grateful that I have book club tonight.
3. I am grateful that my parents are here to enjoy a little bit of the season with us.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. having a piece of chocolate {* his pick for the journal}
2. getting a new book
3. singing in music class at school
A new month means a new write.click.scrapbook gallery. This month’s challenge is Holiday Food & Drink . You can see the full gallery here!
Journaling Reads:
I generally have a long list of things to try each December. Since you enjoyed the baking so much in 2008, I thought it would be fun for us to create our own cookies and decorate them with all sorts of fun icing. We brought some cutters from Target and made the cookie dough and waited overnight. As I had predicted, you loved every step of the way and spent hours decorating every cookie differently. Look at how pretty they look! And they tasted absolutely delicious, too. I predict more cooking in our future. December 2009.
Details:
Back in October, I did a guest post for shutter sisters and I wanted to put a copy of the text here for posterity.
I’ve had a lot of cameras in my life but most of them were point-and-shoot. Right before my son was born, I decided I wanted the new Canon digital SLR. It was really expensive and I had no photography training at all. I loved taking photos but I didn’t know anything about aperture, lenses, or even the settings on an SLR. After months of pondering, I decided I was going to get it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I knew that was a sign.
Right before I bought the camera, my husband and I went to Venice Beach with his 35mm and he taught me the basics: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. I am a computer programmer, so understanding the technical bits wasn’t too hard for me. What I needed to work on is what I call the magic of photography: seeing the light and developing my eye. Over the years, I realized that I was improving but I wasn’t consistent and I couldn’t tell if my better photos were due to luck or because I was getting better at photography.
This is when I started the daily practice.
For the last three years, I’ve been taking photos every single day. Every day. Bar none. Some days it’s photos of my children or backyard and other days it’s more interesting things like views of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge or the redwood trees. I’ll admit that most days it’s flowers. I’ve taken hundreds of photos of flowers. And tens of thousands of photos of my kids. And while the subject matter might be boring to others (and sometimes even for me) it’s done much to improve my photography.
The daily practice means that I can notice subtle changes in light better. I take many of my photos in the same area: my house and its vicinity. So, I am quite familiar with it and I can now notice the slight changes in light due to weather, time of day, or other factors. This has helped me figure out how to pay attention to the light. What different types of light does to the photo. It’s also meant that I can experiment with different shots at the same light and see what happens.
The daily practice means I can focus on the photography more. I am not just grabbing my camera when I am trying to capture an important moment. When you’re trying to “catch” a moment, you don’t always have time to play with the settings in your camera. You are focusing on getting the picture, not optimizing the quality of the photo. Whereas, on many days, I am taking my photos during a perfectly ordinary moment. There’s no butterfly that’s about to fly away. I can slow down and adjust my settings. I can play with the aperture and see the effects of depth of field. I can focus on the photography and not on getting the shot.
The daily practice means I can develop my personal style. I take a lot of photos of my kids. Every night I download these photos and go through them. I notice which shots are technically better than others. But I also notice which shots are more interesting to me. What photo stirs emotions and why. For example, through taking these shots I’ve discovered that I favor closeups. I like photos where my kids are looking down and there’s a hint of a smile or acknowledgment of the photographer but it’s not posed. I favor the right over the left. Small, subtle differences that make my photos mine. Seeing the pictures night after night helps me notice patterns. Notice changes. Improvements.
I know that the idea of taking photos every day might seem overwhelming and too time-consuming but, like most things, the biggest part is showing up. Just getting up and doing it. Starting the habit of carrying your camera around with you. Choosing a special time in the day to snap the photo. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. You can do more focused efforts like choosing a month to specifically address aperture and another month to do portraits only, etc. Or you can just snap something everyday and look and learn from what you get each night. The most important part is to just do it. Grab that camera and take photographs. Again and again and again.
Until it becomes a daily practice.
On a much more personal and practical note, the daily practice has also meant that I’ve captured thousands of our ordinary moments. What makes us who we are and the reality of our daily life. I know that regardless of how great I get at photography, I will cherish this more than all else.
Please share with us one of those ordinary day captures from your own life as we celebrate the daily practice. And if you have any tips, tricks, or insights on keeping up with your own photography practice, let’s hear them!
The little boy is still not sleeping well. Now he’s got a cold again, likely from my parents I imagine. He was up all night and then I had to go to a school open house for David and he didn’t take his nap so my parents just played with him while I was gone. Then they left, I put him down and worked and exercised.
Day 60 baby!
And then he woke up and played while I worked more. He loves TV and asks me to put Sprout on pretty much all the time. He doesn’t sit and watch but likes it on.
And he likes to chew on his lips. Been doing this a lot lately. He’s so so cute.
Then we went to get David who is also so so cute.
And sweet and kind and generous. A little more work, some food and my parents came over to spend some more time with the kids. Then the kids went to bed, I hung out with my parents and now they’re off and I am trying to finish this post before I watch some GLEE!! Then I will write up all of David’s advent tags and try to do a few more of my list items. December starts tomorrow and I am not ready. But I am also super excited. Bring it on! I will do just fine.
I haven’t crafted in almost a week. Can’t wait to get my hands on my December Daily album.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I exercised 2.5 miles today: my longest in a while. I was getting worried that it might not happen again.
2. I am grateful that December starts tomorrow. Let the holidays and joy begin. My mom bought me a wonderful duvet cover today for the holidays. I will wash and put it on in the morning first thing.
3. I am grateful for every moment I get to spend with my family while they are here.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. being the star of the day {* his pick for the journal}
2. opapa coming to play with me
3. reading my gingerbread man book again at school
After two weeks of semi-holidays, half-days, weird schedules it was odd to have a normal schedule of David going to school and me working all day. But it was also wonderful. I remembered how much I’ve come to cherish the quiet time and the ability to think and organize my day. I worked while Nathaniel played quietly.
And a little “not quietly” too.
While he napped, I worked out and worked some more. And relaxed a tiny bit. I am still organizing my days and my 2011 plans. Especially since December is coming in one more day.
We then went to get David and I snapped one photo of him, too.
I also spent a bit of time redoing some of the blog. There will be some more changes but I wanted to mention two things. One is that you can now subscribe to a specific RSS feed if you like. So if you only want to get my scrapbooking posts, you can subscribe just to that. Look left for the links and leave a comment if you can’t find them. Two, I did the same thing for my email subscriptions so if you’re subbed to my posts by email, you can choose the categories you want. It’s a tiny bit more complicated there but you can. Just click on the link that comes in the email and it will take you to a screen where you can adjust them.
Let me know if this makes no sense 🙂
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got more art for my scrappy space. I love happy art, especially by artists i love and admire. today’s art was by Donna Downey.
2. I am grateful that I have a guest post at shutter sisters today. I love guesting there and reading all the comments.
3. I am grateful that the cleaning lady came and that we got the gutters cleaned. I hate arranging all that but I love having it done.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. having my teacher read the gingerbread man book to us {* his pick for the journal}
2. checking out a book from the library (berenstain bears)
3. being selected as star of the day for school tomorrow
This morning was extra-nice because Jake let me sleep in and when I came downstairs, he was snuggled up on the couch with Nathaniel. I should have snapped a photo right there. But I didn’t. Bad me. David slept until past 7am. I’ve never seen that before. So it was an oddly quiet morning.
I spent the morning reading and hanging out with the boys and snapped a few photos.
Even though the little one gave me attitude.
And looks. Enough-already looks.
But I am glad I snapped them cause it’s all I got to take. I then left with my parents for some shopping for my dad and then we all met to have lunch and Jake went to work and the rest of us walked around the mall to help my parents with a few more items. I also came home with some goodies that I am very thankful for. Now I get to relax, make a plan for the week, read my book and go to sleep. Not super productive but quite wonderful nonetheless.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that my dad bought me a wonderful new machine and it will help a lot with exercising and I also got a new pair of sneakers too which I am very thankful for.
2. I am grateful that I broke down all the boxes sitting in my garage. It’s one of my least favorite things to do but I am always happy when it’s done.
3. I am grateful that I am finally enjoying my book. Almost halfway through as well. It’s been a long time since I finished a book and I get depressed when this happens so I am hoping it will move faster now that I am enjoying it so much more.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing at the apple store {* his pick for the journal}
2. going to a restaurant with amore and opapa
3. having opapa tell me a story
This is with A Million Memories February Kit.
Many people ask me how I can work from home.
There are a lot of stressful moments and sometimes
I get worn out, but then you come over and give me
one of those magical smiles and I am filled with joy
and gratitude to get to see those smiles all day long.
Most of today was spent whining and pouting and being sleepy. Here’s to doing better tomorrow. I even did a lousy job of taking photos. As in not taking them all day and remembering once the light was pretty much gone. The big boy tried to be great about it anyway.
And the little one was already eating dinner.
Oh well, some days are just like that. I hope your Saturday was better than mine.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I cleaned up my scrap table all over. It feels so inviting now.
2. I am grateful that I got the angel painting I ordered. I absolutely love it.
3. I am grateful that I exercised today. I’ve been feeling really unmotivated lately but I am still trying to do it despite the lack of desire.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing wii {* his pick for the journal}
2. playing didj
3. coloring
After Jake and I came home from the movies last night, we found my parents like this on the couch. It was only 9:15am. They are still very jet lagged.
My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the fact that I get the next day off. When I worked on Wall Street, we used to have to go to work on Friday and it was so depressing. Now I get it off and I love love this extra day. All the thanksgiving events are over and since I hate shopping, black Friday is not an event for me. I just spend the day snuggling up with my kids and doing absolutely nothing. In fact, I told myself that this whole weekend will just be watching movies, reading books, and family time. Nothing on my todo list. I get the weekend off.
Unfortunately, Jake had to go to work today but he decided it would be fun to take David along, so they both woke up at 4am and went to the city. Jake was worried David might misbehave but I knew better of course. He was perfect. As he often is.
So the morning was just Nathaniel and me. I don’t think I ever saw him pickup this doll before. We’d gotten it years ago for David. At the time he was having some major speech issues and they’d told us to get him a doll. So we did. Anyhow, Nathaniel picked it up, so I snapped a photo.
And then he kissed the doll’s head. I couldn’t believe it. Never did that before. No idea where he got it.
He then continued to make a mess around the house.
In the meantime I changed my lens as I mentioned last night that I might. With my old camera (canon 20d) I used to use the 50mm 1.8 but then when I bought the full-frame 5d mark ii, I also bought a 85mm 1.8 and that’s what I usually use. It’s medium telephoto which means it is hard to get wide photos in a small space. And since I wanted my tree in our photos, I decided for the holidays I’d switch back to the 50mm. And here’s the tree.
I don’t like this lens’s portraits nearly as much but I think it’s an ok compromise for the holidays. I might go back, I haven’t decided yet. To be fair, this one’s also badly focused.
Nathaniel’s learned all about TV and likes it on. He doesn’t sit and watch often but i think he likes the noise like I do.
He also likes graham crackers almost as much as I do.
My mom came over early morning and we tackled David’s room. It was a huge mess so we picked everything up and moved everything around and did a fantastic job. Now I have room to fit a table there which is what I wanted to do. We did it while Nathaniel was napping and by the time David made it home, we were done. And he loved it!
My mom left shortly after and I worked out and Jake went out to work so I just snuggled with the boys and read my book. Little boy was really happy.
And the big boy sat with me and played on the computer.
And now they’re eating dinner and will be heading to bed, soon. David’s been up since 4am. My mom is about come over again so she can sit (or sleep?) while we go see another movie. Yey for getting to go on so many date nights.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that it was a quiet and wonderfully relaxing day.
2. I am grateful that we cleaned up David’s room. It was a big project I was dreading.
3. I am grateful that I exercised today. I was so tired and wanted to just be lazy but I got up and did it anyway.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. going to work with daddy {* his pick for the journal}
2. playing on the computer
3. playing with nathaniel
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projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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