The Two Minute Rule

My thoughts tonight have nothing to do with the photo, so I'll address the photo first and fast. I cooked tonight - first time in WEEKS (unless you count the salad I chopped everything up for on Saturday). It was good - felt nice to be back in my kitchen. Made me miss my mom and dad and stopping at their house for dinner and conversation every night on the way to my house when I lived at the farm - loved that! The photo is fuzzy - and it's the only one I actually took today - so - it's what we get.

The two minute rule (from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen - a long time favorite of mine) says that if it only takes two minutes to do, do it right then and there as it would take longer to write it on your list and come back to it later than it would to just do it at the moment.  I've found that rule helps me beat procrastination on little tasks I don't like doing (unloading the dishwasher, folding towels, etc.) as well as forced me to be more thoughtful on items that I should take more time with (don't hit reply immediately on that email - it will take you longer than two minutes to compose a courteous response - even if the sender was less than courteous to me).  However, of late, I've realized that getting back to things I don't reply to in the moment is often impossible and since my life seems to run on email at the moment, I'm trying to discover how to deal with that.  Any suggestions?  Personally - doing away with non-essential email and going to RSS feeds so I can choose what to read and when to read it (and the comments that go along with it) would be my favorite.  I can peruse all the essentials out of 600 blog posts in about 30 minutes.  Try doing that with email. Ugh!  Seriously...thoughts?

A good day today - we started a consulting project for one of our software products.  Some of the changes we should be able to make as a result will be wonderful.  Lindsay and I also played outside while I grilled the pork chops tonight.  She's been weird lately.  She was trying to "sneak" under the desk while I was working at home this morning.  Someone should find a way for me to get through to her that she's 86 pounds of pure Golden Retriever enthusiasm - sneaking isn't really her strong suit. 

I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend and that Monday on a Tuesday (you know you hate those) was not too difficult.  Hope to have art to share tomorrow - that was what today's picture was supposed to be, but instead, too much work to do.

Happy Memorial Day!

We all spent the day in the studio today. Less than five minutes after the door opened and everyone went in, Fluffy was standing at the window "asking" to have the blinds lifted so she could sit on the window sill. Isn't she cute?

I did quite a bit of art today, but my biggest accomplishment was getting a couple of swaps I was coordinating packed up to be mailed out tomorrow.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

In the Studio...Not Long Enough

Had hoped to spend a lot of time in my little studio today - didn't get to spend nearly enough there so didn't actually finish anything. Hopefully can devote part of the day tomorrow to it. Have a wonderful Memorial Day.

Photo Walk at the Art Center

My friend Diana was in Indy today for a class so I met up with her after her class ended and we headed to the Art Center to go on a photo walk.

Folks were setting up for a wedding on the back patio so I grabbed a shot of the wedding photographer taking photos. I wonder if she made her umbrella light reflector thingy??

We walked back through more of the Art Park and found a young family and their photographers (it was a popular place for photographers today). Emma - the little girl - seemed to be a bit over the picture taking portion of the day, but we still grabbed a few shots of her too.

The squirrel was probably my favorite shot of the day. So glad Diana saw him.

We had a photographer kind of conversation about how you make one flower picture stand out over another flower picture. I did my best with this one and it's not too bad. I think I'd still take my rose photo from a few days ago over this one, but it was probably the best edit I got from the day.

We met this cute little guy on our way back to the car. He was flirting with his eyes with Diana so I took a few shots of him looking away. I softened it up a bit because babies should just appear with a bit of a halo I think.

Such a fun way to spend an afternoon!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

It's Friday!! Yeah!! And it's a HOLIDAY WEEKEND!! Bigger YEAH! Had another reservation at Wine and Canvas tonight - we were doing "Picnic in Paris". I got to Sahm's in downtown early enough tonight to enjoy my glass of wine and a little snack for dinner before I had to balance a paint brush amongst it all so that was nice. Love that even the napkins are getting into the theme of race weekend.

So...I finally remembered to snap a pic of the blank canvas before we started - proof that we start these things with a white canvas!

This painting felt a little easier, plus I think since I'd just done one last weekend I wasn't as out of practice so I felt more confident. I was amazed at the number of people who really made their versions different - one woman did hers in all black and white and two of them did their versions with sunsets instead of the cloudy blue sky. I am pretty pleased with the final product. I think this one is going in the studio.

The team and I spent the day at a local conference center getting ready to roll out our big training program for some new software. We worked great together today - it was a lot of fun and although we didn't get everything done, we're well on our way. And we found out today that we are adding a new team member - we had extended an offer to someone on a position we've had open for a while and he has accepted so looking forward to getting to know him and having him join our group.

Good advice for any day

More rain, but at least no thunder and lightning tonight. It's much, much cooler this evening so I lit a bunch of candles after I got home from dinner out with one of my team members - what a lovely evening!

These three candle holders sit on top of the media cabinet between the living and dining room. I love the simplicity of the design - and the message.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!  Big plans?

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday, I wrote about beautiful blue skies...today we have Tornado Warnings.  Proof positive that if you don't like the weather in the midwest, just stick around for a day - it will change.  Most of the center of Indiana was, is, or will be (or some combination of the three) rocked by storms tonight.  As I write this, lightning is crashing, thunder is cracking and yet more rain is falling here at home.  I hope everyone stayed dry and safe tonight.

Thought I'd post another before and after tonight.  I have a hard time figuring out how to capture rain when I'm standing in the dry refuge of my house.  It wasn't raining particularly hard when I took this, but the downspout on the side of my neighbor's house still had a pretty decent amount of water flowing.  I didn't like the photo much in color so I washed it out quite a bit and cropped a little to get rid of what was probably edge of the post on my porch showing on the left-hand side of the frame (the front door was open and Lindsay kept bumping me to try to get me to let her out).  What do you think?

Before

After

Underneath the Same Big Sky

I am, and always have been, a bit of a sucker for a beautiful blue sky.  I have about as many photos taken of blue skies as I do of sunsets over water - another favorite theme.  Cloudy or cloudless - doesn't really bother me all that much.  I think the act of noticing the beauty of a sky has become a bit of an act of prayer for me.  It's a moment to pause and say thanks for this gorgeous world we live in.

We were putting our all into that enjoyment tonight - along with giving a tennis ball some love.  Lindsay and I played outside in the back yard for over an hour tonight.  Okay - in all truth - Lindsay played while I walked around, snapped pictures, threw the ball, and occasionally made her obey some sort of command to get rewarded with the ball.  She was incredibly well cared for these past weeks by, first, my aunt and uncle, and then my mom and dad.  However, the three weeks away have allowed us to slip a bit in the obedience category so there is some resistance going on to behaving and following commands now.  She's getting back into it pretty well though. I punched up some colors and really sharpened this...it seemed more accurate to how it felt outside tonight.  Do you ever edit photos that way - to make it "feel" more like it felt at the moment you took it?

We have bunnies that frequent our back yard area along with kitties, ducks, geese, and that elusive egret that never seems to want to have its photo taken.  Lindsay almost never pays any attention to the bunnies which I find odd.  However, one was hopping near the fence tonight and I got her to focus on it while I grabbed a few photos.  Odd thing...I never thought to take a photo of the bunny that was so close - what is wrong with me?

More flowers blooming...thank goodness for perennials.  Might go grab a few herbs this weekend.  The herbs out of my mom's garden were yummy on my salad this past weekend.  Hate to though as I'll be gone again here shortly.

Did a little more art tonight...Diva's Zentangle Challenge...haven't done one in several weeks.  Nice to get this one knocked out on a Tuesday.

Roses are Red

To say that I've not worked outside this year would be an understatement. If it weren't for Todd, who mows my yard and keeps things trimmed up, the entire place would be grown up in weeds. However, when I got home today, after a heavy downpour had covered everything in raindrops, I noticed that my two rosebushes were blooming. So pretty.  Makes me think of nursery rhymes and songs from the Sound of Music...you know you want to sing along...Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens... 

We're moving...just before I left for California, we found out that my team and I are moving to a new location one floor up in our building. The space is an open space so we're adding cubes for the team. A few team members give up private offices, however we all get windows which are HUGE - literally!! I think everyone will be happy once we get moved. A lot of extra work to get all of it done early this summer though.

My heart and prayers go out to all of those touched by the devastation that has been wrought this year from the severe weather. 

Busy Weekend

I had known for a while this was going to be a busy weekend. It was a good one - but busy!

On Saturday, I was finally able to attend one of Lara William's Zentangle 101 classes. Even though I've gotten the books and been playing around with Zentangle for a while, I still thought taking a class would be beneficial and it definitely was. Lara is cool and I hope to take a couple of her more advanced classes in the future. The class did two tiles together:

That evening, I had booked wine and canvas again. We were doing a piece called Jazz Music. Class was fun - although now that I've done one by myself I know it is definitely more fun to do this with friends. I had to leave a bit early to go pick up Gayle from the airport so I need to finish the edges of the piece a bit more, but here is the painted "sketch" and the almost finished piece. This one had a lot more "measuring" and sketching at the beginning, but the detail work was kind of fun. The swirls of paint coming out of the instrument made all the difference on this one. It had looked terrible before I added those.

Gayle's flight got in a bit later than expected but it's good to know she is home safe and sound now from her big trip.

On Sunday, headed over to mom and dad's with at least two purposes - 1) go to Amanda's graduation party and 2) finally bring Lindsay home. I had told mom I would be over for lunch when we had talked the previous weekend, but she'd forgotten that so she and dad had lunch in town. I threw together a salad with what was available in their fridge - yum!

Amanda graduated from Purdue last weekend so she had a party for all the family this weekend at she and Steve's house. I'm so proud of this young lady. It was a fun time to get all the family together and meet some more of Steve's family before the kids get married in the fall. Amanda still has to work at Purdue some this summer but then is hoping to be working in Indianapolis come this fall. So, so proud of her! Took the opportunity to grab a few other pics while everyone was eating and chatting.

Amanda's little brother Aaron - a student at University of Northwestern Ohio - incredibly proud of this kid too!  Cool shoes!  They have bright yellow soles.

Johnny - Amanda's daddy and my big brother.  Nice hat!  Wonder who got that for him.

Dad and Aaron - I had taken a couple of them "posed" but I ended up liking this one a bit better than those

Dad and Johnny

As I write this, Lindsay is curled up at my feet so I think to say she's happy to be home might be a bit of an understatement. Hope everyone had a great weekend and you're looking forward to a great week.

Treasure Chest

Went out to grab Chinese for dinner...came home with dinner and this cool little treasure box. It was sitting in the window of the consignment shop next to the Chinese place. I've never gone in before - but now I think I'm hooked. Can't wait to figure out what kinds of treasures it will hold.

Before and After

Before

After

I have been taking Elisha Snow's "Photo Finish" class at Big Picture Classes.  Every couple of days we get a fun email featuring a Before and After shot that shows the post-processing she did to the picture and how she improved it.  I thought I'd try one with my little Oracle Guy that was in our conference bag.  I'd love to have one of these in Android flavor - but then I do have an obsessive love of all things Android.  If you've not checked out the site I'm a part-time blogger for yet, check out AndroidGals.com - we just got a cute new face lift.  Anything you'd like to know about Android?  We're always looking for things Gals want more info on related to anything Android.

Sorry - back to the photo. So, I like darker tones in a photo - I'll almost always play those up in post processing.  Underexposing is my norm.  I also love anything with reflection or shadow.  This one had a nice reflection off the glass on the desk.  The second shot is more color accurate too so in general I just like it much better.  I think a lot of post processing is incredibly subjective - but then - all art is completely subjective.

I'm posting from LAX (tethering on my Droid of course) as I'm not going to get in until much later than anticipated so I can't wait until I get home to post and still make it.  Tried both California Pizza Kitchen and Pinkberry today.  CPK was just okay but Pinkberry ROCKS!!!  Maybe I should open up one of these franchises in Indy and quit my day job...hmmmmmmmmm!  Loved the lychee flavored yogurt with fresh raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.  YUMMY!

It feels so good to be posting daily again.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got back into it - Going to have to figure out how to deal with my need to publicly recount some element of my boring days when I'm traveling on vacation in the future - can't go that long without blogging again.  Thanks to all my readers!

Exploring

The word, and concept of, "exploring" is on my heart and mind today - so it's appropriate I did a little exploring today in Long Beach. A girl can only take so much time sitting in a stuffy, dark conference center before she has to get out and try to feel a little sun on her face (although for a place that gets something like 320 days of sunshine a year - I've got to say the weather has been a disappointment this week - although I did find some sun finally this afternoon).

I had picked up a map at the information desk in the hotel (nice hotel - but it's information area doesn't rate the term "concierge") and it featured the "Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse" - sounded like my kind of place. Apparently in California - and perhaps in some other places - these types of shops are pretty common. I've certainly heard about the ones for home supplies sponsored by Habitat for Humanity (so wish we had one of those in Indy) - but I'd never heard of one for art/creativity supplies. It was a cute little place and the owner was incredibly friendly. She gifted me one of her LP record bowls which I'm going to proudly display on my desk! I'll take a photo once it's filled with some appropriate candy.

I also stopped into Lyon's art supply which was just around the corner from the depot (as well as berlin coffee house - yummy white chocolate latte). The art supply store was nice - would have probably bought some of the wonderful papers if I didn't have to try to figure out how to get them home without destroying them. All in all, I did my part to help the California economy a bit today.

I had hoped while I was on this trip that I'd get my Alaska trip posts up. However, realized last night when I sat down to finish my notes that I apparently didn't drop them in Dropbox so will wait until I get home and get those posted.

Doing a Zentangle class AND Wine and Canvas on Saturday!!! I've invited a bunch of friends to come to Wine and Canvas - don't know if anyone is but still looking very forward to the experience -  I hope some of you are joining me! Doing another one next Friday night if anyone wants to join us in Indy. Then picking Gayle up at the airport on Saturday. 

Will be glad to be home, have my dog, celebrate my niece Amanda's graduation from College (was this past weekend but party is this week) and NOT be in an airplane, hotel room, or living out of a suit case for a couple of weeks - yep - that's right - only a couple of weeks...but the next one is a quick girls getaway retreat that promises to be fun and photo worthy!

Bubba Gump's Long Beach

Have you ever visited a Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company?  My first visit to this international chain restaurant was in 1999 with my friend Barb.  We were attending a conference in Breckenridge, CO and happened upon the cute little restaurant.  Bubba's food is tasty (although certainly not the very best seafood I've ever had), but one of the things about Bubba's that I love is the sign system on the tables.  A "Run Forest Run" and "Stop Forest Stop" license plate is on a stand on every table.  If you need something, flip over the "Stop" sign.  Otherwise, servers leave you alone to relax and chat with friends.  While I ended up eating on my own tonight, I've found it a nice place to go with a group of friends to chat.  The fact that Bubba's restaurants are usually situated along waterfronts and many have nice waterfront views (Front Street in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii is my fave thus far) doesn't hurt the desire to sit and chat at all.

The conference I'm attending has been pretty engaging - one of the more engaging I've attended lately. One of the things I didn't think I'd like, but have found I love, are the 30 minute presentations. These force the presenters to focus and only deliver critical information. I've gotten quite a bit more from these quick hit presentations than normally derived from 50 minute or 75 minute presentations. They also have kept food and snacks flowing - a big challenge of recent conferences as well. Our afternoon snack was certainly not healthy, but it took care of all the junk food groups.

Another Day, Another Hotel Room

And...we're back. Or rather, I'm at least back blogging because I've once again stepped away from home. Tonight's photo is the ice bucket in my hotel room in Long Beach, CA. I like the design of it so decided to snap a pic. Plus, the room has one of the worst views I've ever had ... so I'm going to have to get out to grab a decent shot tomorrow.

I have lots of catching up to do - including an entire trip to Alaska!! For now, I'll catch up on the weekend. The Ivy Tech Scholarship Tea was this past Saturday. This is the sixth annual event - and it's always so much fun. My dad was a server for the first time this year.

Isn't he adorable!

The premise of the tea is simple. A hostess invites seven guests to a table. Each pays a fee to sit at the table (or the hostess buys the table). The hostess decorates the table any way she chooses and a lovely group of community leaders serves handmade treats. All the tables and the treats were incredible!

This was the fourth year my mom has been on the committee for the tea and has helped make some of those lovely treats. Isn't she lovely!

On the way home from the tea, I stopped in to check on Gayle's place and her kitties. Kealy was, as usual, not in the mood to have her photo taken. However, Riley posed for a few shots.

I have posted my Alaska pics but am still finishing some journaling from the trip. Hope to start posting all of that tomorrow or the next day.

I hope you all are well. Looking forward to reconnecting over the next few weeks.