Day 22. Cake. YUM!

The Bellywings are the best!! We were cropping tonight and they brought some snacks and this beautiful cake to celebrate my birthday!! Isn't it pretty? Sprinkles and pink. My fav.

Larger image can be found here.

Day 21

Waiting in the car for the ice to melt off the windows a bit and for the car to warm up. Wouldn't you pass the time taking pictures of yourself too?

Larger image here.

Quote

I seen this quote on Ella Publishing and knew I had to blog it. I just love it. I think I might even need to scrapbook it.

Day 20

All of this came out of my purse. Interesting huh?



A list of a few things:
Battery charger for my Rebel camera, which I don't carry with me.
Cash! I never have cast on me!
An empty bottle of Excedrin, how it got empty, I don't know.
A coloring book picture, all colored in from Haley
Many pouches
Bling and stamps that I bought at RSC. (Doesn't everyone have this in their purse?)
Receipts from Target, RSC, and various other places.
A leatherman type tool, that doesn't have a knife. (I actually use this at work quite often.)
Remote for the ipod thing we got for hte car
Camera cord
Notebooks
Wine corks (I'm collecting these for a friend of mine)
USB drive
Aromatherapy Headache stuff.

Larger image can be found here.

Day 19 Hoar Frost?

Day 19

I believe this is hoar frost. Different than any kind of frost I have seen before. I wish I could have snapped a picture with my nice, new camera, but I didn't have it with me. I could have gotten a much better capture, I feel. Not very happy with how this one turned out.

(Shot with my point and shoot camera)



Larger image can be found here.

Day 18

My desk at work, when I am not in class. It's one tiny office. :) Yup, I like having lots of beverages handy.

(Shot with my point and shoot camera)

Day 12

Day 12 As soon as I come home from work I get into my comfy clothes. I turned around and on the couch were Jason and Cullen. Of course I had to grab my camera. This is a common sight around our house. Isn't it sweet?

Day 11 {Kid's Favorite Chocolate Chip Muffins}

Day 11

As far of my New Year's Resolutions, I'm going to try more recipes. Specifically, 3 a month for a year. This is the first one that I've tried so far this month. Here is the link to the original recipe.

I didn't have any whole wheat flour on hand (thought I did, but apparently I used it all!) so I used all purpose flour. Also, I used pumpkin pie spice in the muffins since I have a ton of that for some reason.

The verdict is that they are really good! Jason even liked them despite the fact that they have pumpkin in them! I will be making them again for sure, though of course with a couple modifications.

I think next time I'm going to use the whole wheat flour, cut the oil in half and use applesauce, and I need to see if I can't cut down the sugar. Though I won't be making these again for a while since we have 36 of them! That is a ton of muffins for 2 people!!!

If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think!

Day 10 {Lazy Sunday}

Cullen enjoying a lazy Sunday.

Day 9 {Rearranging}

Day 9 I spent 12 hours at RSC (the local scrapbook store) helping rearrange the store. This is a huge pile of Thickers that had to get moved off the wall and moved to a new home. Believe it or not, this was the only picture I took. I was too busy helping move stuff around!

Day 8! {Fun at RSC!}

Day 8 Dun, Dun, Dunce! Jessi being all silly at RSC! Oh how I love my night crops. So many good laughs!

Day 7 {Winter is here to stay}

Yup, it's definitley winter out there. It's been snowing since last night and we have about 5-6 inches on the ground. It's also freezing out there! We have Windchills of -25F. BRRRRR. It's freezing out there. Sadly I wasn't able to stay outside long, but I'm thrilled with this shot I took of a tree in our front yard.

Jason finally got his snowblower this year. He gets so excited every time there is snow in the forecast in hopes that he will get to snowblow. Today he go to do this that. But man it was cold out today! Windchills of -25F. BRRRR.

365 Days of Pictures

Random picture from my 2008 self-portrait a day challenge that I did. Man, I miss the green grass!

Andrew asked me something in a comment here on one of my blog posts and I thought it would make a good entry. :) Here is what he asked.

"I was thinking of the 365 photo project myself this year, but instead will do a weekly project me thinks. Would like your views on doing a 365 project if possible. Intense at times for instance?"

My first thought is, "Go for it! What do you have to lose?" I mean if you don't finish it, at least you will have taken more pictures and documented a few things right?

Now I would love to tell you all that the first time I started a taking a picture a day for 365 days that I finished it the first time I started. Nope, I didn't. I did my first complete 365 days (actually it was 366) in 2008. I started it the year before and got maybe a weeks worth of pictures done, that's it. I also tried to do a picture of anything a day in 2009. I didn't get very far into that one either.

For 2008 I think that it actually helped that I had a focus. Self-portraits. At least part of me had to be in the picture and I had to take the picture. I hated being in front of the camera and wanted to have more pictures of me. I also went into this with the thought that I wanted this to be real life. That I didn't want to sugar coat anything and that I wanted the pictures to capture moods, things going on in life, essentially to be a nice capture of what the year held.

I think I'm starting to ramble here, and I'm sure that's not what Andrew had in mind. Let's try to get back to his question.

I don't think that it was intense. I wasn't all about capturing the perfect shot, I just wanted to make sure that I had at least one photo for each day. I carried my camera with me everywhere, just so I wouldn't miss an opportunity. I would highly recommend that.

I will admit that for me, the 365 days of pictures was time consuming, but not everyone is like me. What took me the longest was choosing the picture (very rarely did I take 1 picture to choose from, I took a few, but again, that's just me) and of course the editing of the picture. I played around with my pictures a bit in Photoshop Elements, and then I resized them, and put my name on them before uploading them to flickr. Then after uploading them to flickr, I blogged them all. The editing and that process is what took me the longest. Now you don't have to do all of that, but I did. In fact, I also decided to scrapbook those pictures and I'm still working on that book. I really should finish that....maybe that's what I will bring with me on the next retreat. But that's a whole different subject. :)

The 365 days of pictures was a great experience for me. I learned so much about my camera, editing, everything! I loved it! I also met some fabulous people while doing this and I was so inspired by other peoples pictures. I think that my photography skills improved, at least I hope they did. I also accomplished the goal of being in more pictures. I'm now more apt to be in them as well, I guess you could say that it got me over not wanting to have my picture taken. I also succeeded in documenting life every single day for a year. I would have loved to be able to look back and see a year in the life of my parents, or any of my relatives. What a great history.

A tip I have if you are interested in doing a 365 project, is to keep up with it. I mean obviously you will snap the pictures everyday, but if you want to share them somewhere, then do your best not to get behind. I remember being overwhelmed by not keeping up with that and being overwhelmed by it. I know and understand life gets busy, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by it, then it's not fun anymore. Sharing it right away also makes it much easier to share the story behind the picture, if there is one. There were some days when I went to share the pictures, I couldn't remember why I took that particular shot. What was going on that day, etc. But once again, that was just my preference, I like knowing the story behind the picture.

Honestly, I would encourage everyone to do a 365 project. I found it very rewarding as I described above. I caught many moments (even pictures I didn't share on my Flickr/blog) that I normally wouldn't of, simply because I had my camera at hand. To this day I still carry my point and shoot camera with me wherever I go.

As you can tell from my previous blog posts, I'm attempting a 365 again this year. I'm not doing self-portraits every day, but various things. I want to focus on the here and now. The story behind the photos. How life is now. Record my random thoughts and memories. Likes/dislikes. I'm also using this as an opportunity to learn how to use my new camera. Looking back on 2009 I realized I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, and I hope that this gets me back into it. I missed so many moments and memories. Everyday life moments.

I also found a really cool site through Twitter (I can't remember who initially linked me), if you are wondering what in the world you are going to do with 365 photos at the end of the year, it's a possible solution for you. It's called Shutter Cal. At the end of each month, you can order a box of prints from them with the date and a description printed on back. Now I haven't ordered these yet, but I'm planning on it, and I love how they look in the photos! I look forward to seeing for myself. :)

If anyone has any questions about my thoughts on doing a Project 365, leave me a comment and I will answer it! I love comments. :)

Day 6

Day 6 Jason and I got married back in August 2003. Yup, over 6 years ago. I can't believe where time has gone. One of the best decisions that I made for the wedding (though I'm not sure if Ma agrees with me!) is going with silk flowers. Ma did all of the flowers for us. She is amazing. I absolutely love my wedding bouquet and still have it displayed at home. One of the things that Ma did to the bouquet as she was making it, was put this little bumble bee in it. No one really even noticed it, but it holds great meaning to me. That little bumble bee is from Great Grandma Ho-Ho's (I could never say Holmstrom growing up and called her Great Grandma Ho-Ho) sewing stuff and she passed away before the wedding. I love having that little bumble bee as a small reminder of Great Grandma.

Day 5 and Bonus Shot!

I love both of these pictures so you are getting both of them. :)

Day 5 Before Christmas I was at Hy-Vee shopping for baking stuff to make cookies and such. I knew I wanted to make fudge and to do so I needed Sweetended Condensed Milk. While perusing the shelves at Hy-Vee trying to find the best price, I game across this little gem, which happened to be the cheapest one! Even if it wasn't I would have bought it because I loved the vintage feel of the can. I think Jason thought I was crazy for loving this can so much, but I do. Oh and if you are wondering if the fudge ever got made. It didn't. I really should make that sometime soon. Maybe this weekend.

I snapped this picture of Jason after he came in from the freezing outside. I can't believe how cold it is out there!

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures that I have taken lately that I wanted to share.

If you want to view them larger or read the story behind the pictures, please visit my Flickr account.

Welcome to 2010

Wow, I can't believe it's already January 5 today. Where has time gone? I have to say that I truly enjoyed my Christmas break. I loved having the time off from my main job and only worked a few hours at my other job. I spent lots of time with Jason and Cullen. I only wish that I were still on vacation and home where it is nice and toasty warm.

Before going on vacation I decided that I was going to get so much done around the house. Do you think that actually happened though? Nope, it sure didn't. But it was a vacation so I should have relaxed and enjoyed my time off right? I hope so, since that's what I did. Everything is still there and will be there when I get to it.

As some of you know from my previous blog post I've done the "One Word" before. My previous words were Cultivate and Homemade Simple. Since December I've toyed with it off and on, and I decided that once again I'm going to do it. This year it's different though. I didn't wade through word lists, or spend too much time thinking about my word. I just felt a nudge that my word should be growth. I'm going with that nudge and that's my word of the year.

As always with a New Year comes with resolutions or goals. I've been debating about posting them here, and I figure why not. It's my blog, right? :) Without any further ado here are some goals/resolutions/things I want to accomplish this year.

• Get back to eating healthy and lose weight. (Again.) I realize that this is a typical resolution, but I recently started scrapbooking my 2006 pictures of our trip to South Dakota. I can't get over how much better I look there. I actually look fairly healthy even! I was still overweight, but so much healthier. I went back and read some of the journaling that I did in our travel book and I cried as I copied it into my scrapbook. I was making good choices then. I need to get back to that again. I need to do it for me. Thus it's one of my goals.
• Keep a list of all the books I read in 2010.
• Keep a list of all the scrapbook layouts I do in 2010. (I'm debating if I should also include the ones that I do for the scrapbook store, as they aren't for me. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.)
• Read at least 1 book off of the banned books list.
• Work on my Listology Bucket List. Cross off at least 1 item. (Hopefully more!)
• Get back on track financially. We slipped off the road so to speak, but I'm sure that we will get back on track. I'm re-reading Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey again. I'm already inspired. :)
• Learn how to use my new camera. I think I will need one on one instruction for this!

This year I also decided to try to do a photo a day again. I found a really cool site called ShutterCal and I've been uploading my pictures there as well as Flickr. I don't think I will scrapbook these, well maybe some of my favorites, but nothing like my self-portrait 365 that I still haven't finished! Instead I'm going to order the prints from ShutterCal and keep them in that nifty, sweet box! Isn't that neat? I love how they look! Plus I can then use my new camera more. :)

I don't think I blogged about my new camera. But I got a Canon Rebel XS from Amazon! I got it for a steal of a deal and absolutely LOVE IT! I can't believe the quality of pictures it takes and how fast the shutter speed is! It's amazing!!! I really haven't taken it off of Auto much yet, but I can't wait to learn how to use it! I am loving it!! Oh and I so want some of the fun lens filters too! :D

Oh and don't worry, I will share my daily photos here on my blog. Or if I'm behind, you can view them on the shutter cal link above, or on my Flickr account.

Speaking of pictures, I should go back and upload the ones I have taken so far and post them here! :)

Day 4 Spent a bit of time tonight reading in a finance book. One of the very few times that I took a pencil out and underlined and jotted some notes in the book.

Day 3

Day 3 I love this picture of Kya with Grandma Marie. It just radiates love. So beautiful. We spent the day at Marie and Jerry's today celebrating Christmas. It was so much fun and I loved spending the day there.

Day 2

Day 2 One of my favorite places to be is at RSC. I walk in the door and it feels as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Everyone should have a place like that. Even though I work there now, I feel the same way. It's a wonderful place to scrapbook, and I have even just brought my laptop in and sat and enjoyed the afternoon and evening. Most Friday nights you can find me there as well! I love cropping with the Bellywings. So many good laughs. One of my favorite places.

Day 1

Cullen has taken to sleeping with us at night and sleeping on our bed today. I was hoping to get a shot of him actually sleeping, but instead he woke up and yawned. Oh and I will do my best to not make my 365 all of Cullen. :)