Weekly Photo Challenge: Someone You Love

I had no problem deciding what I would photograph for last week's photo challenge at A Step in the Journey.  The challenge was to shoot someone you love.  Okay, I just re-read that sentence and it sounds so morbid!  Haha!  Anyway,  you all know what I'm talking about.  :)

If you haven't yet guessed who I photographed then you are obviously new here...and you haven't read the title of my blog.  :)  Yup, I decided to snap Pacen!  Well, I had a hard time getting this done.  I wanted to get a shot of Pacen doing something he loves.  He loves to hunt and this past weekend was the last couple days of deer season (in Nebraska) and he was busy hunting.  So I drove on over to Harrison and spent the weekend with my family.  Well, Pacen and Gimpy were always gone by 5:30 in the morning so I had to wait til they came back for church to get a picture.  Pacen was in a silly mood so here is what I got.  Not great photos, but definitely Pacen.  :)

 

He looks pretty good in hunter orange, doesn't he?  Okay, okay, maybe I'm slightly biased.  :)  Here is a shot of Pacen and my dad aka Gimpy just before they headed back out after church:

It's amazing how quiet the house is when Pacen isn't around.  :)  Mom and I watched a movie and visited with my sisters and next thing we knew it was dark and almost 5:30.  Pacen had a science project due on Monday and hadn't even started it yet so we were beginning to get antsy.  About 6:00 some headlights started coming up the drive.  It was Pacen and Gimpy and that is when chaos broke loose!

Pacen had shot a doe literally three minutes before his time was up.  We had to hustle around to get pictures and call the check in point that was located 30 minutes away to make sure the guys had time to drive down and check the doe in that evening.

Meanwhile, Pacen somehow managed to get blood ALL OVER himself (except his face).  It almost looked like he had rolled in the darn thing!  He came in the house and Gammy aka my mom, about freaked.  Being a boy he always had to touch everything and she absolutely did not want blood all over her house.  I totally don't blame her.

Well, we finally got Pacen and Gimpy sent to Crawford to check in the deer and we sat down to experiment with Pacen's science project...NOT do it, just make sure his idea would work.  Then it happened.  Raine noticed that Jackson, mom and dad's Jack Russel Terrier, had blood on his head.  Well, Pacen had tossed a piece of gut onto the driveway and Jackson got into it and then he smeared blood all over the carpet!  What a mess!  So, needless to say, this could be Pacen's first AND last deer.  Haha!

Head over to A Step in the Journey and check out some of the other entries.  I highly doubt you see as much blood in other posts as you saw in this one, so go look at all the nice pictures and get this nasty bloody sight out of your minds!  :)

"This is a part of the country and a state where it's unusual if a child doesn't grow up going out with dad and granddad to hunt deer, using a very powerful weapon. It's unusual sometimes not to see kids out in a group that might be wearing camouflage." ~ Bill Sadler

Weekly Photo Challenge: Something You Made

Whew! I finally get to sit down and take a deep breath and relax! It's been a busy few days.

On Saturday night I went to Deadwood, South Dakota with some friends to help my "soulmate", who is one of my best friends, celebrate her birthday, which is actually today. I got entirely way too drunk, which I slightly regretted the next day, but I had a blast! It was high time I went out and tied one on and danced my ass off with friends. (I tried on Halloween weekend, but I only accomplished the dancing my ass off part.)

Now I'm in St. Louis. The whole week. On a business trip. Those are two things I rarely get to say. 1.) I'm in St. Louis and 2.) I'm on a business trip. If I get the Manager's position at the NEA (I had my interview last Tuesday) then I'll get to say that second thing a lot more. :) That was another reason I needed to go on the Deadwood trip. The interview. I freaked out for days before the interview. I cried. A lot. Pathetic. I was a nervous wreck, but I went into that interview with my head high and they had no idea was a mess on the inside. I kept myself together. Whew!

Okay, I suppose I better get on with the reason for this post. Last week's photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey! The theme was "Something you made". I decided to photograph the bracelet I made last weekend. It was my first jewelry attempt. It is a wrap bracelet. I have been seeing them all over the place and I am in love! I have worn mine a lot this past week.

I got the tutorial here, at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

Here it is up close.  It was actually pretty easy to make once I got started and figured out how to control the length of the thread.

If you have a chance head on over to last week's photo challenge and check out all the awesome things people have made (and their cool photos)! 

"Art can't deny craft, but refuses to acknowledge it.  In the end they are still brothers." ~ Christian Barr

"Art vs. craft - eye candy vs. hand and eye candy with purpose." ~ Marlene Fitzgerald-Moore

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shoes

Last week the theme for the weekly photo challenge at A Step in the Journey was "shoes".  Since I'm a girl there is always the assumption that I am obsessed with shoes.  Well, fine.  It may be partially true, but I'm not crazily obsessed.  I do love me a cute pair of heels or some super comfy flats and I definitely love flip-flops, but I don't have an insane number of shoes piled in my closet or under my bed.

My littlest sister, on the other hand, owns way too many shoes.  Way too many sneakers, to be more precise.  She doesn't even run or play basketball.  She just loves sneakers.  One time when we were shopping she saw a pair of expensive white sneakers and was instantly in love with them.  I just looked at her and said, "Raine!  You already own four pairs of white sneakers!"  That didn't sway her.  Like always she came up with some reason why these were different.  To me they looked the same. 

Even though I don't own tons of shoes I still had a hard time trying to decide which shoes to photograph for the challenge.  I have a couple of favorite pairs of heels and a favorite pair of pretty wore out flats.  I finally decided to photograph the pair of shoes that have carried me many miles.  Literally.  They are my running shoes that I purchased last spring.  They got me through a summer of training, a few small races, and my first half-marathon. 

Here they are in action!  :)  When I was taking this picture Pacen walked in, looked at the camera, looked at me on the treadmill, and asked what I was doing.  The whole time he had the "you-are-crazy-mom" look on his face.  :)

Head on over to A Step in the Journey and check out all the shoe photography!!

"I don't know who invented the high heel, but all men owe him a lot." ~ Marilyn Monroe

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sunset

Last Thursday marked a new photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey.  Sunset!  Well, I haven't been able to capture a sunset this week due the fact that the sun is setting so much earlier this time of year  and I've been busy in the evenings.  I'm not done with things until after it has already set.  :(  I would try tonight, but there won't be a visible sunset here because we are having a snow storm.  Ugh!  I did capture a very lovely sunrise this morning though...right before the storm rolled in!  :)

Okay, so I'm going to use a picture I took a few weeks ago when I was driving home from an appointment.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to pull over and take a decent picture so it's a reflection of the sunset in my driver side mirror.  Yes, yes, I know - I should not be driving and taking photos at the same time.  Very dangerous.  *blushing and avoiding eye contact*  :) But the sunset was gorgeous! 

I'd also like to share a picture I took a few years ago in The Bahamas.  I'm not wanting to use it as my challenge photo, but it's one of my favorite sunset pictures.  There's nothing like the sun setting on the Ocean!

And just for the fun of it here is a picture of the sunrise I took this morning.

There are some really great sunset pictures over at A Step in the Journey!  Go check them out!

"If I had a horse, I'd ride off in the sunset, where dreams, and shadows lie. To a life, where pain and sorrow dont exist, and to where hopes, and dreams become reality." ~ Unknown

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Last week's weekly photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey was "silhouette".  I've always liked silhouette photography, but I've never really experimented with it much. 

A few years ago I was sitting on the dock on my dad's pond when Pacen and my boyfriend at the time, were walking past on the hill above.  The sun was at a perfect angle for a silhouette shot so I yelled, "Stop right there boys!"  They stopped and looked at me with expressions that said, "We are busy!  What do you want?".  (Okay, I'm pretty much positive Pacen voiced this annoyance out loud.)  I explained my reason for stopping them and then their expressions changed to, "Ugh!  Not more pictures!"  (He probably voiced this one out loud too!)  Well, the mission they were on was a hunting one.  I don't know what they were hunting for, but they had a couple BB guns with them so I told them to move the guns so I could get them in the shot.  That changed their attitudes and they posed in a proud manner with the barrels of the guns angled so they were noticeable.  I snapped the shot and it has been one of my favorites ever since.  That was the first and last time I really experimented with silhouette photography. 

I am so glad silhouette was one of the challenges on the challenge list!  It was nice to experiment with it again, and to make it even better I was house sitting for a co-worker this weekend who lives in the country so it was the perfect setting for this challenge.  I also got lucky on Saturday evening, as the skies were nice and clear!  Here are some shots I got:

I wanted to get a windmill shot, but the closes one I could find was too far from the road so the picture turned out rather blurry and grainy.  :(  Just in case you were wondering how the shot turned out I took a few years ago, here it is (I did it in black and white):

 

Want to see lots more silhouette photography?  Head on over to A Step in the Journey and check out last week's photo challenge! 

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." ~ Elliott Erwitt

Halloween Mantel and Decor

As I have mentioned once or twice or maybe even a few times, Halloween is my favorite holiday!! :)  I love the eeriness, the mystery, and the fun that's packed into Halloween.  I love to decorate the inside and outside of my house with all kinds of Halloween decor.  This year I didn't do anything outside because I didn't feel like dragging the homemade headstones and spiders down from the garage rafters.  Lazy, I know.  Also, my headstones have seen better days/Octobers.  I need to do some work to them.

The inside of my house is all decked out with pumpkins, spiders, webs, skeletons, skulls, etc.  The dining room portion of my living/dining room is really sporting Halloween spirit.  :)  Even more so this year since I moved my faux fireplace to that side of the room.  Here's a peek at what my dining area and mantel look like during the month of October (not the greatest pictures in the world):

 Here is the dining area.  The lighthouses and such look out of place, but oh well.  I turned my great-grandparent's china hutch into a sort of witch's work area.  There are specimen jars, a voodoo potion book (the real deal), and a picture of Marie Laveau, amongst other things. 

 Here is a closeup of the witch's work area.  There are spiders randomly placed on the cheesecloth, but for some reason you can't see any here.  Note:  This is the ONLY time I allow spiders in my house.  Yes, they are fake, but still really creepy.  Ick!

Here is a close-up of one of the specimen jars.  I made a bunch a couple of years ago using old canning jars and some empty drink bottles.  I used those little foam capsules that expand and turn into a creature when submerged in water.  I chose the bug ones.  I also had some little toy skeletons and rats laying around that I used in other jars.  I tried to make the labels look dirty and old using tea and food coloring.

My mantel!  I covered all the pictures on the South wall with scary pictures I printed off the internet.  You can only see one here and it's the creepy puppet from the Saw movies.  I put candles, fabric, a jack-o-lantern decoration, and some jack-o-lantern lights in the fire area of the fireplace.  The two black thing to the right of that are two vintage-looking frames with a black vintage-looking shawl draped over them.  

 Here is a close-up of one of the mummy heads that scattered on both the mantel and the china hutch.  My friend made them a couple years ago when we hosted our first annual Halloween party (no party this year).  She made them out of styrofoam balls, black tape, cheesecloth dipped in an Elmer's glue/water concoction, and scary-ish googly eyes.  Pretty nifty, eh?  :)

My Grandparents bought me some eyeball lights a couple years ago so I put them in a cloche stand by a skeleton. I made that stand using a cheese dome cloche and a candlestick from Hobby Lobby.  I actually made two.  The other is taller and on the right side of the mantel.  I put a skull and mummy head in it..

 

Close-up of the frames and shawl. 

So there you have it.  Most of my indoor Halloween decor!  Today I'm linking up to Home Stories A 2 Z  Beth is hosting a Halloween Mantel linky party!  Head on over and check out all the awesome decorations and mantels! 

"Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things." ~ Dee Snider

Weekly Photo Challenge: Bokeh

Last week's photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey was "Bokeh".  "What the heck is bokeh?", you ask.  Well, the easy to explain answer is:  it is the blur in a photo.  Many times the background is blurred and sometimes most of the picture is blurred with just a small portion in focus.  There is a great post about bokeh over at The Pioneer Woman.  She has MANY great photography tips and tutorials!  I love experimenting with bokeh.  Here are a few bokeh pictures I have taken in the past couple months:

Some wildflowers in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Horny Toad

My "niece"!  (Not much bokeh in this, but there is a little.)

Go on over to the bokeh photo challenge and check out all the photos!  There are some great ones!!

"You don't take a photograph, you make it. " ~ Ansel Adams

Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange

I missed the last photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey, which was "hands".  I never got around to taking a picture of anyone's or anything's hands.  Things were pretty hectic during the week and I ran my first 1/2 marathon on the 2nd!  Yup!  13.1 miles!  It was a beautiful day in The Black Hills, but a little warm for a long run.  I ended up running it in 1:57:14!  I came in 8th in my division out of 68 and 120th overall out of 537 finishers.  I was pretty happy with that time, especially considering it was my first 1/2.  The last 2 miles felt absolutely awful, but I finished...and I only walked for about 30 seconds during the last 1/2 mile (and while I was drinking at the aid stations).  It felt so great to cross that finish line!  Quinn was waiting at the finish line and she gave me a big hug and cried...making me cry too.  :)

Anyway, this week I am participating in the weekly photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey.  The theme is "orange".  Perfect for this month!  So, on with the show...

Pumpkins at the grocery store.

Halloween sprinkles!

And last, but not least...

My favorite orange cheeks!!  :)

What are you waiting for?  Head on over to a Step in the Journey and check out all the orange pictures!!

"Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow." ~ Wassily Kandinsky

Here is a quote I know my sister, Raine, would love - "Orange is the happiest color." ~  Frank Sinatra (I love the author!) :)

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Mess

The weekly photo challenge last week over at A Step in the Journey was "a mess".  I really haven't been looking forward to this challenge.  I have so many messes right now and it's just plain embarrassing.  I  rearranged my living room a while back and I haven't yet put everything away 'cause I want to change the whole look...pictures and all.  I didn't want to show you that mess cause it's embarrassing that I actually live in it day in and day out.  My kitchen is also slightly messy.  The counter and butcher block tend to be "catch-alls".  I was too embarrassed to show that mess also.  My basement is, you guessed it, a mess.  Not the guest room or bathroom, but the main room, which is pretty small.  It's a mess 'cause the laundry was piled up in front of the washer and dryer and I was working on a project down there on the deep freeze due to the fact that both my kitchen and dining room tables are rather cluttered at the moment.  *Blush*  Once again I was too embarrassed to show that mess. 

I finally decided to take a picture of the mess I have put off cleaning up for around five years.  It's a mess that gets a little worse each year.  It's...(dramatic pause)...the garage. *gasp!*  When I moved into this house five years ago I put some things in the garage and told myself I'd get to them soon.  Well, that didn't happen and every year more things got piled in there.  To top it off we have accumulated numerous bikes, holiday decor, etc.  Here it is...the awful garage disaster:

Oh my!  So many things just thrown in.  There actually is a work table/counter under all that crap to the left.  Yes, there is a hole in the back wall.  My neighbor backed into it one time.  Haven't been able to get it fixed yet. 

Well, I decided this past weekend it was time to clean this mess.  I drug a lot of stuff out of the garage and piled it in the driveway.  I threw a bunch of crap away (2 pickup loads), swept like crazy, and organized.  Here is what my driveway looked like during the clean up:

This isn't nearly as bad as it ended up looking. 

Finally, after 6-7 hours, almost being gassed out by Pacen who was spraying spiders and bees with bug spray, 6-10 squished spiders (of all kinds), some mild screaming and jumping around (spiders), lots of sneezing, a bit of raising my voice at Pacen and his buddy who were constantly in my way, and two trips to the fire pit where I work, I was finished!  Finished and SUPER pleased with myself.  I still have a box of things that I need to get rid of, but I want to see if the local theater company wants it for props and costumes.  I also want to figure out something to do with all the bikes.  They still make the garage crowded.  But I'm happy I have my work counter and I can easily fit my car in there this winter.  Yay!!!  Here is my clean garge:

I feel so relieved to have that mess cleaned up.  Now to tackle the messes in my house.  I did manage to get part of the living room and kitchen cleaned up. 

 "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." ~Phyllis Diller

I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.... I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby." ~ Nancie J. Carmody