All together again [26 - 30/366]

Dad and Sam (the golden retriever) arrived today. I get a couple of days with them before I head home on Wednesday. It's nice that we're all together.

I've really enjoyed visiting with Aunt Idris and Ron on Saturday and then a wonderful dinner with my friend Julie and the adorable Milo yesterday. The weather has been gorgeous and I've thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

After dad arrived today, he napped a bit as he had driven basically straight through from Indiana. I made lunch and then we headed to the beach to grab these shots. We made dinner (shrimp stuffed flounder - yum!) and now mom and dad are both lounging in their respective chairs while Sam rambles between licking my face and collapsing on the floor next to dad. At moments like these, I'm reminded of the "Happiness is..." series from Peanuts...I'm pretty sure one of them was "Happiness is a dog sleeping at your feet."

I leave you today - and possibly until I'm back home - with a few shots from our trip to the beach today. The first two are HDR shots - the rest are basically straight out of the camera.

Move More, Eat Well, Weeks 3 and 4

As we come to the end of January, I've missed one weekly Move More, Eat Well post already. And that is quite simply because in Week 3 I pretty much fell off the wagon.  I'm trying to get back on again - and being in Florida this week has helped.  Nothing like the call of the ocean and a sun-drenched pool deck to motivate you into action.

I wanted to share with you a link to an article featured on Lifehacker this week about the impact of sedentary living on our lives.  As a person whose job often calls for long periods of sitting on teleconferences and webinars I identify a lot with this article.  The good news...all we have to do is get up and move around at least once per hour and move for 30 sustained minutes at least once per day.

The Squirrels are Watching [26/366]

This gorgeous view is a quick walk behind the swimming pool which is right across from Mom and Dad's lovely place here in Florida. I didn't get a lot of time outside today as I was working a bit today. The rest of the trip is pretty much all vacation.

I did get some time outside today to take in some of the natives though. These guys are everywhere!

And, I'll close this short post today with another beautiful view of the waterway behind the pool.

Greetings from Florida [24 & 25/366]

I am not a car person.  There is humorous story from my college years involving a paper plate and the antics of a bunny rabbit in which I attempted to tell a Ford from a Honda.  You see....I am just not a car girl.  That is, except for this one car.  And, there she is waiting for me after dinner at Mulligan's near Sebastian, Florida.  It's a RED, FORD Mustang.  Now, I'll admit, it's just a rental so our relationship will be short lived, but if I'm going to be cruising up and down the coast of Florida, I might as well be in this beautiful machine.  

I'm enjoying a little fun in the sun with my mom who is staying here for a while.  Today we enjoyed a little beach combing followed by some pool time and just resting and visiting.  A few of my photos from the area last night.

I Burned The Grilled Cheese [21/366]

I'll get to the title (and the oh - so - embarrassing photographic evidence) in a minute (or rather, my friend Gayle will get to it in a guest spot towards the end of the post).  I'm at Gayle's for the weekend - enjoying a weekend of television, movies, and joint computing while we watch South Carolina vote returns (marking the first time in U.S. history that no candidate has won two of the first three primary elections) and talk politics and other current events.

I rarely talk politics.  It's not that I don't care - in fact I care very much. I'm truly passionate about the freedoms provided in our great nation - especially to women - and the foundations of democracy on which those freedoms are built.  Chief amongst those is our right to vote.  As a female who owns property, votes in every election, holds a job outside the home, travels freely without a male escort, and enjoys all of the freedoms afforded an American by the power of a piece of paper - the U.S. Constitution - I am amazed at the power of this democratic nation.

However, I feel about the actual field of knowledge known as politics much like I feel about learning a language. I just feel I can never learn enough to be fluent enough to have an intelligent conversation and part of what I truly worry about politics in America is that we run on emotion rather than intelligent conversation.  Emotion and passion are important, but not more important than logic and reason.  Gayle is far more knowledgeable about politics than I and will gladly talk with me about it and I don't feel like an idiot when we talk and she has to shore up my knowledge on things like brokered conventions, super delegates, why in the world Iowa gets to retain first in the nation status when they can't pull off a certifiable election and all these other adventures we all get to try to bone up on every four years.  Where logic has (finally) reigned in politics a bit this week - SOPA and PIPA bills have been pulled, at least, for now.  I agree that intellectual property needs some new protections - but these actions weren't right.

Okay...back to our normal blog stuff...

Gayle got a new computer that arrived on Friday so we've spent a great deal of time chatting for a few minutes, followed by moments of key and mouse clicking, then more chatting.  She had a Sony Vaio during her graduate program - and now has another one.  And...it's blue...which in this world is a very good thing.

I've spent time getting to know my camera a bit better.  Gayle's cats, Riley and Kealy, are both fun to photograph so they spent much of their day playing model for me.  You'll notice they didn't get too stressed by the activity - Riley never even bothered to open her eyes.

So, back to our title.  In our friendship, Gayle is the politics expert, but I'm the chef.  Even in her kitchen I often make dinner (after all I love to cook and she doesn't).  So, here is Gayle to tell her version of the story behind the title and the photos she had to run to get the camera to take.

Guest Commentary by Gayle: 

So we went to make supper, not a big deal. As usual, Kara took control of my kitchen, which I'm relieved to sacrifice. The sweet potato fries were happily baking in the oven, and the grilled cheese was being produced. First, Kara placed a top piece of bread with butter side down (on the cheese) instead of up. No biggie; she caught it almost immediately and then quickly fixed it with a swift flip. In seeming seconds I look back to see the sandwiches are pretty well on their way to Charred-land! HOW did that happen? Kara is a master in the kitchen! I look over and see the burner is set to "HI" - holy cow! I just couldn't pass up this opportunity, so I sprinted to the living room to grab Kara's camera so there would be proof of this rare debacle. With all of us, it's good to know we're all human. (And yes, the sandwiches were re-made!)

Art Journal Every Day [19 & 20/366]

Last October, I took Julie Balzer's "30 Days In Your Journal" online class. The class was excellent and I really did get into the habit of working in my art journal for 10 - 15 minutes every day. I love Julie's classes - she is a great instructor, hugely interactive in her classrooms.  They are also "forever" access - which is going to be one of my new requirements for any online class I take.  I go back and watch videos from this class regularly - getting to re-watch a technique is like re-reading a book you love - you find some new thing to it every time.  I really dislike classes that you pay for that don't give you "forever" access to them.

This is the first time in a very, very long time that I've been in a regular journaling habit - I normally fall off the wagon - getting bored with it after a few days. But now, with the creativity (and permission I've given myself to not care what the pages look like - they definitely aren't all pretty) of the art journal and the promise I won't make this some long soul searching activity (although some days it is), I've stuck with the habit for four months. I thought I'd share a few of the page elements that I really like thus far.

Art journaling gives me a place to play with my supplies and try out all the inspiring and creative ideas I find without feeling as though I have to "make something" out of it. This page just uses one of the two interlocking stamps we made yesterday in Julie's Stamp Carving 101 class, ...

...and this page let me try out the cool tutorial for making your own paper tape.

I also get to try out things I see on Pinterest.  This pin...

Source: wishstudio.com via Kara on Pinterest

...turned into this painted background for a page (it's the page I started journaling on today so it will get more decoration on it as it goes...

And, I get to turn "mistakes" into something prettier.  Both of these elements didn't go as planned but in the end turned out looking like something artsy and fun.

If you live pretty much anywhere in the Midwest you're going to get some sort of weather other than sunshine and fair winds today and tomorrow. I say, stay safe and make some art. What do you plan to do for this snowy weekend?

Handmade Books and Stamps [18/366]

I went to turn on my blow dryer this morning and it wouldn't come on.  Anyone have any thoughts on why that might have happened? :-)  So, my Crayon Art project now has the cost of a new blow dryer added to it.  Oh well - I still love the piece.

Back to our regularly scheduled post...

I've made a few handmade stamps before.  I enjoyed it so much, I decided to take Julie Balzer's class - Stamp Carving 101.  It started this week.  The introductory lesson was the little heart.  I'm not a big fan of hearts, but I did decide this tag could act as a background in my One Little Word page for January....Not bad in the end (sorry the photo below showing the finished piece in the layout isn't so great - I took it this morning in very dim light).

I'm probably most excited about the fact that Julie suggested (and I'm using) Speedy-Carve (the pink square the stamp is made out of) rather than the grey lino stuff.  Speedy Carve, as the name implies, is so much faster and easier to carve.  The second lesson in the class goes live tomorrow.  Can't wait to see what we're doing next.

I'm also doing a sort of class with Artists of the Round Table using Alisa Golden's book, Making Handmade Books.

This is a rather cool group - you each buy the book and then one or two group members make assignments out of the book and facilitate your work through the book.  Our goal is to make all 100 structures.  We started with two of them which were both fun, quick and easy.

Any big weekend plans?

Project Life Tuesday, Week Two

I started off this week's Project Life on Saturday, gathering up a few items I knew I wanted to include in the layout.  A big part of the week was the arrival of my new D7000.  When I was exploring some of the free printable art and elements at 101 Pretty Printables, I came across the "Hello Lover" printable from Missie Krissie and thought that would be appropriate to add to the layout to celebrate my new arrival.

This was also one of the first times I've used the number/day stickers that come in the Project Life Core Kit.  I saw the idea on someone else's Project Life post to use them like bullets to call attention the little bits from each day.

I used the small squares page protector as well as a 4 x 6 verticals page protector this week.  Last year I was locked into the traditional design, which got really old and boring for me.  I like switching up each week so far and knowing that whatever design decision I make this week, I have to live with next week.  In addition to those two pages there is a 6 x 12 insert with our trip to Ikea and Jungle Jim's.

I cut apart a couple of photos and continued them into the next square to get most of the 4 x 6 width out of the photo - you can see that in the evening photo just above my smiling face.  I also cut apart the car wash photo from last week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday and used it as "background" to fill in the space with some of the other journaling cards.  As you can see, a bit of gluing/taping is still needed to hold everything in place.

You can see the insert with the receipt from Jungle Jim's in this shot and notice that the Hello Lover printable moved over a slot from its original location.

I also did a bit of trimming on the photos of Lindsay and the snow fall in the middle slot at the top.  I also cut down the photo of my camera to just 3 x 4 and will be putting the week number and dates in the little box below it that is cut from one of the Core Kit title cards.  

I'm glad that I only had to use cell phone photos for a couple of weeks.  I am really happy with the way the two trail photos turned out, but most of the others weren't what I like to feature.  Will be nice to get back to regular photos in next week's album.  

I'm getting ready for a good bit of travel so my Project Life posts will most likely have to take a hiatus for a few weeks. 

Lightroom Before & After [17/366]

Tonight was the second (and final) night of the Lightroom class that my friend Diana and I took together here in Indy.  We were both retaking the course because we both took it originally right after we purchased Lightroom, so we didn't know what we'd need to know/want to know/actually use.  We both agreed we got a lot out of both classes.

We focused in tonight's session on the "Develop" module.  In the Develop Module you can adjust exposure, detail (sharpening), tones, highlights, and more.  You can also do graduated filters and adjustment brushes.  That was the part that I really didn't get in the class when I took it the first time - and playing with it on my own hasn't really gotten me there yet, so I was glad to go over all of that again.

I was so excited, that I came home to practice some of what we learned on some of my Alaska photos from my trip with mom and dad last May.  So, a few before and afters.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

And, my personal favorite...BEFORE

AFTER

Best tip of the night...When you're trying to crop a photo in light room and you want to switch the direction of the crop rectangle (so from 4 x 6 switch to 6 x 4), just hit the X key on your keyboard!!!  The backslash key (\) also lets you toggle between before and after views - very, very handy to check your work if you don't like the split screen views or it isn't practical for what you're working on at the moment.

I've got lots of notes.  I hope to get those all typed up and I'll post them here for you if you want to download them.

Hope you had a wonderful Tuesday.