31/365: Hidden Away



This little piece of beauty is actually tucked away in our guest closet. At least it gets to enjoy some great light!

30/365: Backyard Texture



When we were landscaping our back yard we were very conscious of how bleak the winter landscape can look here in Spokane. Ornamental grasses were the perfect solution as they add lovely texture all winter long.

29/365: Blue Suede Shoes



My husband doesn't care for these shoes. I, however, think they're adorable. They have character (without having "characters"!! Something that is very important to me, and will be for as long as I get to control the wardrobe choices) and the little guy likes to wear them. So, we just try to choose them when daddy is not around.

28/365: Candy!




We had a little photo shoot for The Light Workshop contest. "I" was totally not thrilled with the process until I pulled out the suckers. I think this was actually his first experience with them... what a way to start, huh?

27/365: Bathroom Niche



This is one of my favorite little spots in the house. I like to think it is reflective of me. I just watched an Oprah on "finding your personal style". They were speaking about fashion... and I am pretty far from dressing with "style" every day... but I do think I have my decorating style figured out. Clean and traditional, but still soft with a touch of romanticism.
I think I am starting to get sentimental about leaving; as we most likely will in the next several months. It seems like a good idea to capture my favorite spots around the house during this project so that I'll have plenty of pictures all in one place (the eventual coffee table book.) I have considered making a book specifically for the house... but that is seeming a little ambitious!

26/365: My Lunch



Salvaged from yesterday's fridge pillaging: my lunch. Sure to make anyone feel better about whatever healthier option they had. It was cheesy and yummy though!
I heard a news clip this morning that some British researchers have calculated the last Monday of January to be "the most depressing day of the year." Does that explain my day yesterday? :)

25/365: Monday Me



I used to take class 5-6 times per week. This morning, I gave myself "class" (half of barre) in my living room, holding onto the entertainment center, on the carpet, while my kiddo played under my feet... for the first time in months. A 34-week pregnant belly is not extremely graceful, but it felt so good to stretch and really use my feet.

(Ignore the rest if you don't want to hear my whining! I'm just documenting it for myself so that next time I have a bad day I can look back and remember that they do happen every so often.)

After "class" I shimmied myself into non-pregnancy tights and swtiched out into pointe shoes. I was hoping "I" would quietly entertain himself. No such luck. The dogs were constantly underfoot so I confined them in their crate (which met with much whining... in fact, they whined the entire time I was trying to get the shot). "I" seemed to be quietly playing downstairs but eventually it turns out that he
1) pulled half of his toys off of their shelves and randomly dumped them on the floor 2) took the box of leftover pizza out of the fridge, picked off the olives and spread crumbs all over the kitchen floor
... after I cleaned up the downstairs mess and got him a "squeezy yogurt" snack he came upstairs and...
3) left the drippy yogurt container on his window seat cushion 4) pulled out most of his books and toys and artfully arranged them around his room 5) pulled a cord out of his warm window covering...
after I cleaned up the upstairs I deposited him on the couch watching the Leap Frog Letter Factory movie and went to console myself in the shower. I came back to find he had...
6) ripped apart a page in one of our really nice pop up books.
Can I be done single parenting yet???

On a more photography related note... I have added yet another item to the wishlist for our next house. A room large enough to accomplish a picture like this, with good light and no big furniture to contend with! We'll see how close I come to getting that wish granted.

24/365: Not Quite Monday



It's "not quite Monday" so here is a "not quite self-portrait." :)

23/365: Contemplative



After we finished taking pictures he got to play on the playground for awhile. We have talked about not crawling up the slides (using the stairs instead) but he decided to try it anyway and ended up falling off kind of sideways, but face first as well. After brushing off the barkdust and wiping away a couple tears he agreed to my suggestion of only using the stairs and stuck to those instructions for the rest of the time we were at the park. Natural consequences are good teachers, it's just too bad that they are sometimes painful!

22/365: Owen



This one drives me bonkers. Seriously, crazy every day. He does have an excuse for his inability to listen (Unspecified Epilepsy- medicated twice a day) but my life would be so much simpler if I could count on him to remember at lunch time that I just taught him at breakfast (and every meal previously) that he isn't allowed to try to steal from the table... He is definitely one of those lessons in patience!

21/365: Doorknobs



Many of the details that I love about our home are original features that have managed to stick around, unscathed and through countless owners, since the house was built in 1902.
Just because I think it is interesting, here is an early record of ownership for our house:

In 1904 J. Fred Wilson bought this house from F.D. Allen. Frank Potts, a commercial traveler, purchased the property two years later, owning it until 1907. D.H. Stetler then bought the house, but quickly sold it to R.L. Rutter in 1908. William McDonald purchased the house in 1916. In 1919 E.A. McGoldrick bought the property. Nellie Irene Paulson purchased the house in 1934. Reed Klapp bought the house in 1947, owning it until 1978.

I wonder what the lives were like of the people who lived here before us. How many babies were born here? How many different colors has the exterior been painted? Who first decided to paint the woodwork in the kitchen? What prompted Mr. Klapp to spend over 30 years in a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom home? This house has seen a lot of living. We've had 4 wonderful years here and I will be sad to leave it when we move.

20/365: My Little Man




I have so many hopes and dreams for this little one!

On another note... how do you choose between color or B&W if you like them both?

19/365: Toys at Naptime



I think the bulldozer enjoys naptime just about as much as I do.

18/365: Monday Me



Isn't it funny how you can start out intending to shoot one thing, but end up with something else and still be happy with the picture? I had intended to get a shot that I could crop to just my eye, but no matter how many times I changed the crop I couldn't find one I was happy with. So, this is what I ended up with.
I recently browsed an article about how it is not always necessary to have the whole face in a shot. You can story tell with only part of the face. It is fun; learning to let your pictures tell a story.

17/365: 2 Hour Scarf



So... this is supposed to be a 2 hr scarf project. And maybe it is for some people, but not for me, mostly because I can't sit still knitting for 2 hours in a row! I started it before Christmas, knit on it a bit during a long car drive, knit a couple rows watching tv each of several nights over the past month and am finally ready to cast off tonight. A totally easy knitting project, in case you are interested. "The Eleventh Hour Scarf"

16/365: Window Watchers



They were actually intently focused on watching a squirrel digging multiple holes in the side yard in search of a hidden nut... but "Squirrel!" as a title just didn't seem to mesh with the pp'ing very well.

15/365: Lunchtime



He adores dipping things. Today I had given him crackers as part of his lunch, and as always he requested "hummus?" instead of eating the crackers plain. "I" doesn't like having dirty hands (my non-messy little boy!) which explains the crazy finger positions.

14/365: Movies, Actions!



I was thinking of just skipping a photo for today, as I'm most excited about my editing advancements. But I decided that the goal is a picture a day... which meant I should actually get out the camera!
One of the few things I like about my husband being away for weeks at a time is that I get complete control of the Netflix que! Last week was Julie and Julia (cute!) and today The Family Stone arrived in my mailbox. It might not get watched for several days as I have a hard time sitting down to watch a movie by myself, but at least I know it's there for me.



Yesterday's pic. I have been trying to help a friend figure out how to load actions onto her Mac and PSE 8... it hasn't been going so well. However, the experience has inspired me to re-figure it out for my system and I started with the CoffeeShop Creamy Chocolate B&W action. I love how she posts tutorials on how you can recreate the same look without using the action; totally fits with my goal of understanding B&W conversions!



My baby boy at 3 months. How quickly time flies... Shot with my Canon P&S, in the pre DSLR days :)

13/365: Ellie



It has been a low energy day, which matches the light outside perfectly. I can't get over how different this winter is from last. This year it is almost continually gray and dreary... kind of feels like home (Portland, OR).
I'm running low on cooperative human subjects, so I enlisted our almost 6 year old Jack Russell Terrier, Ellie. She wasn't sure about the whole experience. Silly little dog.

12/365: Haircut



Why is it that I always feel compelled to put more effort into my hair and makeup when I'm going to spend time at the salon? Shouldn't I just be happy to go in looking all disheveled and leave looking put together?? Maybe I feel the need to prove to my new hair stylist that I can actually do something with my hair other than pull it back in a ponytail!
At any rate, I'm off to have a haircut in about an hour and am looking forward to the scalp and shoulder massage, ahh...

11/365: Monday Me





Just me. No makeup (ok- chapstick), no editing (except removal of a couple pregnancy blemishes- love that spot healing tool!), no idea what I was doing.
Oh! I did use a gray card for the first time to meter. Look at this project turning me into a more proficient photographer already :)

10/365: Who doesn't love chocolate cookies?



This afternoon we attended the birthday party of a little friend who is turning 3. Of course "I" announced "need to go potty!" just as they were cutting the cake and our subsequent restroom break was not a quick one. By the time we returned to the party all that was left of the cake were some crumbs. Sad! I assured my little guy that we would find something to make up for the missed cake when we got home. He was pacified with an organic Cookie Monster cookie (todays cookie had the letter U on it... in case you were wondering!) and I had a couple of Dark Chocolate covered Shortbread Cookies from Trader Joe's. Oh, how glad am I that I passed my gestational diabetes screening recently!

9/365: Snow?



Last year we had 5 feet of snow on the ground at one time. This year, well...
I think this shot says a lot about why shooting a toddler at 1.8 takes some skill!

8/365: Another Goal



I've come up with another goal for 2010... to feel comfortable with black and white conversions. I used to convert about half of my pictures to B&W without a care in the world.... then I learned that there are actually points that make a photo "correctly" converted. Enter my deep seated perfectionism and I am now firmly a color photographer! But, I love B&W's, so I am going to take the time to research and figure this out.
"I" would have rather been doing anything besides having his picture taken today. Here, he is "looking at the light" (I was using my speedlight to bounce flash) which netted me a total of about 4 shots before he resumed his incessant wiggling. When is it that kids get to the pose-able stage again???

7/365: Baby Preperations



"I" and I hit up Old Navy today to check out their big post-holiday clearance sale. We found this sweet little one piece and 5 pairs of socks for a grand total of less than $9.00!
In other fabulous news I figured out where we will be storing all the new baby's clothing. There is absolutely no space in "I"'s closet and I wanted everything upstairs with easy access to the changing table in "I"'s room. This afternoon I realized that the modular storage unit we moved to the upstairs landing (from the office- we replaced it with an even larger one!) will be perfect. I already have bins for most of the cubbies and I will be able to separate the clothing into type. Oh, it makes my OCD so happy to have a solution for that problem!
To top off the day, we picked up Delish for lunch. I hadn't stopped by in months and it was even better than I remembered. Mmm.

6/365: Late Afternoon Light



We had a sunny day! "I" has been having a better day as well, thank goodness.
I love when the warm sun streams through the windows of the house in the late afternoon. It always invites me to curl up on the couch for a nap.

5/365: Dichotomy

Here is today. "I" is either bright and bursting with energy, bouncing off the walls and uncontrollable...



...or lapsed into a state of sadness over the tiniest insult, such as the denial of continually holding the tube of "Thomas" toothpaste.



He definitely understands that something is different. Hopefully in a few days he'll be adjusted to the new state of his universe and accept that Dada will be home eventually, and in the mean time life will continue on. My fingers and toes are crossed. Mama wants to take some pictures of happy times on sunny days!

4/365: Monday Me



On Mondays I will post a picture of me. Obviously, they won't always be of my face :) Self portraits aren't easy to accomplish. I hopped up and down off of the bed about 30 times checking exposure and focus... not extremely gracefully I might add.

3/365: Anniversary Bouquet



6 years today!

2/365: Lake Coeur d'Alene



I need to figure out if there is a way to avoid blowing the background, while still keeping my subjects properly exposed!
We went to Coeur d'Alene for lunch and to visit their indoor "farmer's market". While at lunch a group of 3 ladies sat behind us and one of them grated on B's nerves so badly that he had a hard time focusing on a conversation with me. Admittedly, she was an interesting personality! The farmer's market was a little dissapointing, with only about 5 stands. We did end up coming home with some amazing fresh cinnamon bread and a loaf of herb-garlic bread to go with tonight's lasanga. B is loading up the freezer for me so I won't have to cook much while he is gone, aww.

1/365: Organization

Today was all about organization. I started out the day in the guest closet. Since we moved in, in March of 2006, it has been unorganized and a dumping ground for things that have no where else to go. We purchased several bins and I sorted through everything with the mindset of "If I haven't used this since I put it in here, I'm probably not going to!" This resulted in a small pile of trash, a huge pile of items to donate and small pile of stuff to organize and put back in the closet. It still isn't really pretty, but for the first time ever it is now possible to walk in and access everything without having to first move numerous items out of the way.
We also took down all of the Christmas decorations and put the house back in order. For the first time ever this was a 1 afternoon process. B even took down the outside lights as well! While he was gone taking everything back to the storage unit (we need a larger garage!) I thoroughly vacuumed and dusted the house.
My plan is it to create a schedule for cleaning and picking up that will keep the house in the shape it is now. I love checking things off of lists and so I think that by creating some kind of spreadsheet system I will keep myself motivated to do the tedious cleaning chores that I can usually easily ignore.