Even More Portraits

My brother's house has some really great window light. And my brother Jon has a new Great Dane puppy (His name is Huckleberry! How great is that?). And I needed another portrait or two for my window light portrait assignment.
A convergence of good things.
This one's totally for Winnipeg, my other favorite Great Dane. She would love Huckleberry.






I had lots of fun editing the ones of Mindy and Nolan in Photoshop during class today - just learning the power of what can be done there, even with a good picture.

A couple of things:
My class is almost done. In fact, I'm not entirely sure we will have another assignment, per se. So far, I am registered for the Digital Photography II class. So far. You guys really encouraged me and I thank you. I'm not sure how it'll all work out, but for now, I'm in.
Also, I'm loving the eyeliner tips! I'm going to try all of them! And yes...even purple. Probably.

Daily Bliss: Andrew's symphonic band played at Downtown Disney today and I got to sit on the front row. I am so proud of him! He looked so grown up in his cummerbund and tuxedo pants, and they sounded pretty great too.
Wake-Up Playlist: Debussy, Reverie

Update..

Nolan's surgery went very well. They repaired the major hernia and found one more tiny one that they were also able to repair. He's in recovery now and his Mama and Daddy are breathing a sigh of relief.
Thanks for all your prayers.

Collecting

I'm collecting prayers tonight for my tiny nephew.
He goes in for surgery tomorrow morning to repair a hernia (there may be more than one), which I understand is common for preemies. However, common should not be confused with simple.
He's been such a little Superman so far. I'm sure he will come through this amazingly strong, but still...
Would you?
He's scheduled for 7:00 AM tomorrow.

Random Facts

None of these things make a whole blog post on their own, but provide a glimpse into what's going on in our house.

1. I've been thinking about a new cat-eye eyeliner phase, so I bought some felt-tip eyeliner and tried it out.
2. I kept it on while I took a bubble bath and read the Christmas Martha Stewart Living, which - joy of joys! - I did not have to pay for. Thanks Grandma!
3. I only sort of liked the eyeliner.
4. But Martha has some great thoughts on glitter.
5. Girls' morning on Saturday - thrifting and downtown flea market. Starbucks too. Sigh.
6. I made a whole bunch of appetizers for a get-together my mom was hosting. Most of it was just usual stuff, but you need to try this: slather a round of brie (with the rind still on) with sour cherry preserves - the more natural and fruit-chunk-a-licious, the better - and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Bake @ 350 for about 15 or 20 minutes. Serve with crackers. Holy buckets. It was good.
7. Did you notice that I ate cheese? I seem to be able to do that again. It's been a long time, but I'm really loving me some pizza now that it doesn't make me sick!
8. More cooking - I made a four-layer, vegan, red velvet cake for my brother Jon's birthday party. With cream cheese frosting (see #7).
9. I knitted him some bike helmet ear warmers. He seemed to think they'll be useful. I can't find a good link to them to share with you, but you can find them on ravelry if you're a member. Suffice it to say that they slip over the helmet straps and just, well, keep your ears warm. Genius!
10. I volunteered to cut out felt pieces for the Third Grade nativity set project. They all make a nativity set by gluing felt pieces to chunks of 2x4 lumber. It's cute. Andrew made one in third grade. I cut out the pieces that year too.
11. I forgot how long it takes to cut out 48 tiny, pink, round-tipped triangle shapes to go in the ears of the cows.
12. Also, there are pink nostrils to be cut out.
13. I am soooo going to be done with my mandatory volunteer hours for Emma's school after this.
14. Christmas is coming and I'm freaking out just a little bit.

Multi-tasking

Eating a leftover-chili-dog supper
in the (oh-my-aching) back-soothing bath
while hubby listens and sorts
my pro-and-con thoughts
on taking another photography class next semester.

Three birds, one stone.

Bam.

More Portraits, Anyone?

Mindy was kind enough to swing by my house today so I could try to finish up my portrait assignment for tomorrow's class. The weather has not been cooperative - we've had heavy clouds for something like 4 days now! I had a 30-minute time slot, so we had to really slap-dash some pictures together under less-than-ideal conditions.
Surprisingly, these came out really nicely!
Batteries ran out and babies fussed and all sorts of other little things went wrong. Some of these look very different from the others, as I was really looking for a sweet spot in the camera's settings. And once I found it, well, like I said before, the batteries died. So then I spent a while with the next camera looking to get it just right.
In the end, though, in spite of the very different looks some of these have, I really love them all. There were so many good ones, Mindy. I promise you copies of all of them!









Thank you. So. Much. Mindy Sue! You are so beautiful and so is that baby. It was really fun and I can't wait to do a "real" shoot with good lighting! Soon.


On a funny side note, we were really having trouble coming up with an idea for dinner tonight. I haven't been shopping in just forever, I was coming home late from my piano lessons and various other reasons happened that dictated an easy, low-dirty-dish-quotient meal. I had been thinking chili (the cloudy weather has really got me wishing for winter) but the kids all overheard the phone conversation and complained. Somehow, I landed on chili dogs. I was really feeling guilty for picking something so unhealthy. I mean, normally we eat lots of veggies, whole grains and lean proteins. I cook from scratch, for Pete's sake. But I felt a little better when I arrived home, grocery bags in hand.
"What's for dinner, Mom?" is heard even before "hi, Mom!" is heard. I told them we were having chili dogs.

And neither one of them knew what a chili dog was!

Ha! Much less guilt now. I told them what was up. And Emma said it sounded interesting. Of course, they both loved dinner.
Good stuff.

Words

How about a few words today and no pictures? I mean, I've still got the car show pictures to post at some point, but c'mon. This isn't a photography blog, now, is it?
With this tropical system - what is it, Ida? - in place, there has been no light for doing any more of those portraits. I'm starting to get concerned that I won't have what I need for my homework! Aaak! In the meantime, though, I'm building a PVC structure to hold my black backdrop so that I can take it anywhere, baby! Just like I'm some kind of real photographer!
We went to Home Depot last night to buy the pipes for it and the kids were very complain-y. They really hate going to those types of stores. They were behaving in ways that I don't normally see from my children. I was getting a little embarrassed. Then I showed them how the plumbing aisle works. How the boxes of fittings are all color-coded to indicate size and how all the fittings work with all the pipes. Like giant white Legos, kind of. Let me tell you, Emma's eyes lit up. She had Big Plans flooding her little head. It's really fun to find those random objects that spark imagination in your kids. It turned an obligatory, dreary task into a moment of fun and learning. Like magic.
We are finding our magic wherever we can these days.
Chris and I watched a little movie called The Brothers Bloom the other night. I don't typically endorse movies and I don't mean to do so now, but I rather enjoyed it and thought it was imaginative. Here's the thing I really loved about the movie: it presents a question that I ask myself often (not out loud or anything, 'cause people would think I'm nuts) - if you live your life like a story you are writing, is it really authentic? If your actions are dictated by the story you're telling, the character you're playing, instead of arising organically out of who you are, are you being real?
I mean, I live my life like it's a story all the time. I sometimes decide what I want to wear or listen to by deciding what kind of story I want to tell on that day. And I wonder if those things that I do, making decisions like I'm writing fiction, make my life less real. If my actions are dictated by an imaginary storyline, are they really, truly mine? Or are they just part of a character I made up?
It's not like the question really, truly bothers me. It was more like, I was watching that movie, identifying strongly with the female lead character (she's eccentric and she collects hobbies! hello, me!) and thinking, "Hey! I totally get what they're saying here!" in a way that doesn't usually happen.
So. Anyway. Cute movie.
My neck MRI turned up little more than normal wear and tear, which is a good thing. Just a little smidge of something that was caused by the accident, but overall, my biggest problem will be that herniated disc in my low back. That was a relief. It looks like I'll only be in physical therapy another couple of weeks at the most, which is also a relief. I'm looking forward to having my life back. I'm even looking forward to the schedule I'd originally worked for this fall, thinking at the time that it would be nearly an impossible schedule to follow. Turns out, it would be almost a vacation in comparison to what life has brought us.
I don't mean that in a bad way, a woe-is-me-way or any kind of negative way at all. I'm just tired. I'm ready to find my mojo again. I want to feel like I'm creative and spontaneous instead of feeling like I'm ruled by the next item on my list. Constantly. And I want to breathe. I want to have time to shave. Big-time. I want to look forward to Christmas this year instead of dreading the stress and hassle.
Will the End of Physical Therapy mean all those things? Nope. But right now, it feels like a step in the right direction.

Daily Bliss: blossoms on my bean plants and a tomato plant that's thriving!
Wake-Up Playlist: Coldplay, The Scientist