This weekend, for the most part, was uneventful. We went to the WV place, but it was cold all weekend. The dogs and I did go outside, but everything is brown. So I didn’t have much to photograph.
I did take a few pics, which I’ll share later. But first, I wanted to explain my title. In case you were wondering.
You were wondering, right? Did that awesome image at least pique your interest?
That image is directly related to my title.
It is just one of many, many FREE clipart images shared by The Graphics Fairy, aka Karen, a woman who collects vintage paper and uses it to create interesting clipart. She then shares it for free with the big ole blog world. Cool, eh?
Some of it is a bit too flowery for me. And some of it is quite strange. Like that sledding picture. But that’s what makes it interesting, right?
There’s a Search Page on her site to help you find stuff. If you go to that page, click on the word that describes the category of interest, not the little thumbnail.
“Ephemera” is one of her image categories.
I first heard that word when I discovered the company, Ephemera, Inc. My guess is you’ve probably seen some of their products at least once. They sell buttons, refrigerator magnets, mouse pads, you name it, with funny slogans on them.
That mouse pad image on the right is only one of their many products.
I guess I should warn you that their merchandise isn’t exactly PC.
But it’s fun. At least, I think it’s fun. And this is my space so I’m allowed to say so, right?
Can you tell I’m sort of grasping for material here?
Oh wait, I do have something new to talk about.
Can you guess what this is? It’s quite colorful, isn’t it?
Colorful Mystery Object
I could be mean and NOT tell you. I could just wait and see how many people leave comments guessing. But I’ll just be nice and show you…
"Thanks, Mama."
I FINALLY got around to making K a new bed for the WV place. The first one I made, over a year ago, is too skinny. This one is actually a bit too square. I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into its design.
Meg hogging the bed.
All of the dogs seem to like it, so I must have done something right.
Before I stop for the day, I will offer a bit of a cliffhanger. I took this next picture yesterday right before we left the WV place.
What's happening?
It’s the beginning stage of Hubby’s latest project. That Hubby of mine can really be a busy little bee. More to follow on that one. One of these days…
I did some holiday shopping at your on-line store. Someone on my gift list actually asked for a hard-to-find item that you sell.
If I’m being honest here, the array of items you sell is quite impressive. It’s also quite odd. To me anyway.
I do lots of on-line shopping. All of the reputable merchants I deal with have an opt-out option for their mailing list. I can’t remember if you did or not. But you should.
Almost immediately upon placing my order, the spam started.
Yes, I know I can just hit the delete button, which I do. But it’s still annoying.
I do not need an e-mail every three days to remember you by. Really. I mean, you are already quite memorable.
Knowing myself as well as I do, I am CERTAIN that upon receipt of that first spam e-mail from you, I clicked on the UNSUBSCRIBE option. It’s nice that you offer that. But it would be even nicer if it worked.
Seriously.
SPAM!
I do NOT want or need to receive an e-mail every three days to remember you. Especially since you already sent a catalog to my house.
Though your catalogs are pretty entertaining.
You've simply GOT to click on this image for a close-up of these wonderful products.
Maybe that’s why I don’t mind receiving the physical catalog, but HATE getting the spam e-mail.
Again, I know I can just hit delete. But it’s still annoying.
So, as you strategize to develop your marketing plans for 2011 and beyond, please consider your SPAM options carefully. Ask people if they want to receive e-mails from you. If they say “no” then don’t send any.
If by some accident an e-mail does slip through and people ask to unsubscribe. STOP sending the e-mails.
Yes, it keeps your name fresh in my head. But that’s not a good thing. Every time I see an e-mail from you, it becomes less and less likely that I will ever buy from you again.
The “assignment” this week was not to take pictures. It was to select our favorite 10 photos of 2010 to share. Taking new pictures would have been SO much easier. Really. As I said the other day, I took more than 10,300 pictures in 2010 with my digital SLR alone (big camera)!
But I did it. Finally. It took quite a bit of time and required a plan. First, I went through lots and lots of pictures and copied my favorites into a separate folder. That was the top 65. From there, I narrowed it down to the top 25. Finally, I was able to narrow it down further to my top 10.
Remember, the theme is my “favorites,” not “my best.” What makes a photo good anyway? Does it always have to be in focus? Nope. Does the light always have to be perfect? Nope. Does your subject have to be looking at the camera? Must his/her entire face be visible? Does your subject need to be centered? Nope, nope, and nope again.
This assignment has already consumed so much of my time that I am just going to shut up and post the darn things already. Okay? Here are my favorite pics of 2010, in no particular order. Don’t even ask me to rank them from one to ten. The mere thought of having to do that has given me the cold sweats…
Go ahead, knock. I triple-dog dare you.
This is definitely my favorite dog pic of the year. I like the reflection of the sunset, but I love the look in their eyes. They are scanning the horizon, anxiously awaiting my return. It doesn’t matter if I am gone for five minutes or five days, the girls are ALWAYS glad to see me when I return. As with many of my favorite images, this one was completely unplanned. I’d actually been outside taking pictures of the sunset. When I turned to go back inside, that is what I saw. I had to tweak the lighting a bit in PS Elements, mostly to get rid of the ever-present nose prints on the glass.
Are They Crazy or What?
This shot makes me smile. Every single time I look at it. I could’ve removed the red eye, but I think that adds to the craziness. These two play like this practically all day, every day. Yes, they really are playing and not trying to bite each other’s face off. You’ll have to use your imagination for the growls. It can be quite entertaining to watch. Sure it gets annoying at times, too, like when I am trying to participate in a teleconference. But I’m so glad all of our dogs are here.
I chose this picture not because it shows off our grandchild. If that were my goal, I’d post a picture of all of them. (In fact, I’m going to cheat here a bit and give you a LINK to my favorite picture that features the grand kids.) My goal here really is to show how “favorite pictures” don’t have to be favorites because of the subject, quality, composition, etc. My favorite images are usually the ones that evoke the strongest/best feelings, reflect a certain mood, capture a particular moment, etc.
A Great Day for Soup
This picture of Joey was shot during the late Spring. Actually, I think it was Memorial Day weekend. We had made all these grand plans to take the kids on a bike ride, but then Joey got sick. I volunteered to stay behind with him while everyone else went riding. He sat for the longest time making “regular soup” with water and rocks in these containers. All I could hear were the sounds of the birds and insects in the forest, Joey’s giggles, his running commentary, and the dogs playing.
Even the weather was perfect. It was one of those moments you just want to freeze in time because it feels really, really good to be alive. When you realize wouldn’t change one single thing about your life, no matter how difficult, because if you did you’d erase all the good, too. And moments like these are definitely good. The best, actually.
Loving Nature
I like this shot mostly for its symbolism. As the caption says, I love nature. I’d rather be outside doing stuff than inside, that’s for sure. I especially enjoy watching the seasons change. The Winter to Spring change is one of my favorite times of the year. I always look forward to the blooming of the Redbud trees. This heart-shaped leaf is on a Redbud tree at the end of our WV driveway. If you look closely, you can seem some pink in the background. I could have chosen a shot where the pretty, pink flowers are in focus. But I like that the emphasis is on the leaf here. The heart-shaped leaf to be exact. You’ll appreciate this picture so much more if you click on it to see the larger version.
Details
When you look closely at stuff, you really do see so much more. That’s the theme for this selection. It really is true, too.
This image is simply a fern frond. Not real exciting, right? But if you look closely (click on the image to see a bigger version), you’ll see the intricate patterns on each leaf. The depth of field in this picture (how much of the image is in focus) is what makes the image so powerful to me. It draws your attention right into the middle of the frame and makes you look at the individual leaves. And, as the photographer, that’s exactly what I wanted you to see.
Art Interrupted
This reflectofrog shot is the perfect example of how unplanned stuff sometimes makes an image. I was trying to get a shot of myself reflected in the frog’s globe. I did. But I also got a shot of K’s leg in the foreground with her whole body reflected between me and the frog. Because I can’t go anywhere/do anything without the dogs coming along to see exactly what it is I am doing. They’re nosy like that. I don’t know if that’s a dog-in-general thing or a Brittany thing. But these three dogs of mine are VERY curious about everything. And they are rarely far from us at all. Not that I am complaining. My dogs make me happy. But it really is like having little kids around trying to “help” you do stuff.
A Picture-Perfect Motorcycle Day
This shot represents a picture-perfect motorcycle riding day in the Greater Appalcahian Valley. Blue skies. Big, puffy white clouds. Smooth, empty road winding through the foothills and into the mountains… does it get any better? If you look really close, you’ll see Hubby in front of me. I was lagging behind a bit since I was riding one-handed at about 45 mph while shooting pictures with my point-and-shoot camera. None of that craziness in 2011. This year I get to use my new HELMET CAM! 🙂
Almost Heaven
This picture is a great example of why we chose to build a house in West Virginia. Mountains. Lots of mountains. They’re no Alps or even Rockies, but you know what? We have discovered plenty of great motorcycle roads. I’ll begin sharing that info pretty soon (stay tuned for new project announcement). For now, you’ll just have to look at this picture and the previous shot to enjoy the scenery we encounter on a regular basis near our WV place. This picture was actually taken from the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.
The Kids
The kids together at Christmas. They’re not all here. Amy’s hubby is deployed. But this is the first time in a while that Shannon, Amy, and Eric have all been together with us at the same time. (That’s Eric’s girlfriend, Kelsey, on the right. She’s a real sweetie.) It was nice having them all here relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. I was enjoying it, that’s for sure.
Jaufenpass!
And finally, Hubby and me right after climbing the Jaufenpass on motorcycles during our tour in Europe. I’m with my favorite guy on the trip of a lifetime. What more could a girl ask for?
There’s no way for words to describe what it felt like to ride on the Jaufenpass. For me, this was my favorite part of the whole Europe trip. It was fun, Fun, FUN! The road was technical, but not so technical that I couldn’t race through it. I think I smiled broadly the entire way, feeling like I was riding in a video game. (Wanna know what it felt like to ride the Jaufenpass [pronounced hoff en pass]? Watch the first 60 seconds of this YouTube video [not mine]. Be sure to leave the sound on so you can hear the engine scream. It gets particularly interesting around the five-minute mark as the road climbs higher and higher. You get to see what it feels like to encounter a bus coming in the opposite direction and how I wasn’t exaggerrating when I said the road hung onto the side of the mountain.)
That trip was by far the most fun vacation ever. And we’ve had some pretty cool vacations. It wasn’t just the motorcycle part either. The tour was awesome in every regard, but the week after the tour we got to visit two different sets of friends in Switzerland and Belgium. Even if we hadn’t seen more really cool stuff, seeing our friends would’ve been enough to make me happy.
Anyway… that was my 10 favorite pictures of 2010. I can’t wait to see which ones other people chose. If you’d like to see, too, visit Beth’s You Capture page.
I actually managed to zip through a whole bunch of pictures over the past few days to pull together my year-in-review slide show.
I went through various folders and copied the pix I wanted to share into a separate folder. Then I added all of the pictures in that directory to a slide show. The duration for each slide was three seconds with a one-second transition between images. Any idea how long the initial show was? You’ll never guess so I’ll just tell you… 19 minutes.
Dang.
So I made each slide duration shorter and deleted a bunch of stuff. Now it’s just under seven minutes long.
Watch if you like. I did it mostly for myself. I know seven minutes is long. But remember, I shot over 10,300 images last year!
I hope your 2011 is going smoothly so far. I have the day off, which is awesome. Only because January 1 fell on a Saturday.
I’ll be heading down to Southern Maryland to visit with my girlfriend Carol today. It’s her birthday. We’ve been friends for more than 30 years. That’s a long time.
I’ll take my camera, of course, but won’t promise any great pictures. We’re just going to hang around the house, and she’s not a photographer-type. I’m not even sure if she owns a camera to tell you the truth.
Crazy, I know.
By the way, I did not get to test this video before I left. I decided to add audio at the last minute. So, I apologize in advance if it doesn’t work.
Believe it or not, I do think of y’all often. And I challenge myself constantly to come up with new and interesting stuff that will tickle your fancy.
Shot by Cobalt123: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/
Coming up with new and original material is not an easy thing. So I try to keep my eyes open for interesting stuff to photograph.
Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes not.
I did not shoot that cool frog photo (at left). I discovered it this morning when I was looking for clip art with a “conglomerate” theme. It come from Cobalt123’s Flickr page. There are some other cool images there, too. Be sure to check out his stuff if you have time.
The images I have managed to capture are slightly less unusual than the conglomerate rock frog, but equally as cool.
Some of them are, anyway. In my opinion. 🙂
So, without further ado, I present you with my December conglomerate of images. In no particular order.
How to piss off your OCD grandchild.
Joey, our youngest grandchild, is a bit obsessive about organization. He gets it honestly (from his mother). She gets it honestly, too (from Hubby). The organization gene was apparently suppressed in my family’s bloodline.
Just like I’ve always enjoyed toying with his Mom a bit (messing up the alphabetization of canned vegetables in her kitchen cupboard is one example that comes to mind), I like to mess with Joey. He’d pushed all of his refrigerator magnets into one large group at the top, front of the fridge. He had to use a step-stool to reach. I thought it would be fun to see how long it took him to discover the message I left for him.
That evening, I got a call from Amy who immediately said, “Someone wants to talk to you.”
It was Joey. He didn’t say “hi, G” or anything. He launched right into the angry voice (picture a face LIKE THIS ONE) and said, loud and plainly, “Don’t. MOVE. My. Magnets.”
It’s okay though. It took me about three seconds to convince him that I HAD to do it because I wanted to leave him a message so he’d know that I love him and was thinking about him.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, it was less than 3 hours after he got home that he saw my little note.
Spinach Quiche
I’ve explained the dinner rotation thing we do at my house several times before, so I won’t go into it in too much detail. The week before Christmas was Shannon’s turn. It’s nice having someone new in the line-up. Especially since she likes to cook lots of different stuff. It’s like eating at a new restaurant (a good one!) five nights a week.
By now, she knows most of our various likes and dislikes, too. Notice I said “most.” That’s important. Because Shannon actually made me eat quiche, which I’ve always hated. It’s a texture thing. The thought of biting through what to me has always felt like thick, curdled eggs was enough to turn my stomach. The whole way to the table, I kept telling myself, “Don’t vomit. Don’t vomit. Don’t vomit.” Which is why my mind was a bit too preoccupied to think about taking any “before” pictures.
But, because I’m a big girl (as in mostly grown up), I tried a small piece. And guess what? It was actually very good. You may have already figured that one out from the picture above though. Shannon said the secret is the spinach-to-egg ratio. Keeping the amount of spinach high helps with the texture tremendously.
Speaking of being a big girl…
A FOUR pound, six ounce tin of shortbread.
Now, I LOVE good shortbread. But I never buy it because it’s expensive. I could probably splurge and fork over $1 per ounce (about the going rate for these things) every now and then, but it’s the principle of the thing. Essentially that’s about $1 per cookie. So, when I saw this four pound, six ounce tin of Walker’s shortbread cookies at Costco for less than $19, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. That’s 73.6 ounces of deliciousness that I just could NOT pass up. Heck, I even went back and bought a couple extra boxes to keep in the pantry. It’s a good thing I saved money on those, ’cause I’m going to need to buy some bigger pants soon.
Big-ass Grasshopper
I can’t remember if I shared this picture before or not. I saw this huge grasshopper on one of the plants in front of our house. Months ago, obviously. But I like it, so am sharing it here, too.
Cadbury Christmas Balls. Yum.
I actually took this picture with the theme of holiday magic in mind. Because after my family quickly devoured one bag of these bad boys from the candy dish, more “magically” appeared. I tried various angles. There’s just something about this next shot that makes me smile…
Snowman guts.
Doesn’t it look like Santa and the one snowman are staring down at the other snowman who appears to have been eviscerated with all of his green, red, and white innards showing?
Maybe it’s just me.
Afternoon "nap."
Hubby took this picture a couple of months ago. K and Belle like to sit on Mama’s lap. It makes it sort of hard to use my laptop computer, but I have to let them bond with me sometimes, right? I wasn’t actually sleeping. How can you be so sure? No one ever takes pictures of me unless I say, “Person, will you take a picture of me?”
My new desk frog.
This frog desk organizer was a Christmas gift from the grand kids. It’s tacky as all get-out, but right up my alley. He can hold an assortment of binder clips, pens and even a roll of tape. How’s that for handy? It makes for a pretty funny picture, too.
Speaking of funny pictures… there’s this foot-long hot dog place sort of near me that I only drive past occasionally. It sits at an intersection where it never fails that I catch the red light. Every time I sit there, all I can do is stare longingly at the front of the store and its mascot, which is prominently displayed on the curb in front of the place, because I always seem to be by myself. Or with Hubby. And he would just think the whole idea too stupid to bother with.
Last night was different. I needed to exchange some Christmas gifts and Shannon was with me. I caught the light, as usual, but this time when I looked at Ann’s my mood brightened. Shannon was there and could actually take my picture!
We did the clothing exchange first then on the way out of the mall stopped at Ann’s for this…
ToadMama with the Ann's Dari Creme mascot. Finally!
I love cool (fun!) statues like that. So I can hardly resist getting a picture with as many as I can. I love hot dogs, too, and theirs are awesome. But I wasn’t even slightly hungry at the time.
Yes, I could have just asked someone to take the picture for me, but I was afraid saying “will you take a picture of me with the giant, foot-long hot dog” to a total stranger might launch me into hysterics.
It's not what it is, but what it represents.
This key fob was a Christmas present from Hubby. What it “represents” is his final agreement that yes even though there are cheaper bikes out there, we deserve to get ourselves the ones we REALLY want.
Really, really.
This orange motorcycle has my name all over it.
These were the motorcycles we rode in Europe and LOVED. The mountains of West Virginia ain’t The Alps, but there are plenty of fantastic roads and just as many dirt roads we have previously been a bit hesitant to explore. (You try riding a 900-pound, bulky motorcycle through dirt and gravel once. It’s a bit disconcerting to say the least.)
I don’t know what’s more exciting… knowing I’ll be riding a new motorcycle soon or thinking about all the cool new gear I get to buy to go along with that new bike. There’s a certain image we have to uphold you know.
A new look for ToadMama?
Speaking of new images… the other night while we were at a friend’s house, having a grand old time if I do say so myself, Shannon mentioned the latest fashion trend to us. Jeggings.
Jeggings = stretchy denim leggings
While doing the exchange thing last night, we saw this sign. I just HAD to get a picture to share with y’all.
Meg and Mama
Here’s another shot I HAD to share. It’s not the most flattering self-portrait, but Meg hung out on my lap for the longest time Christmas night and I wanted to take a picture. She’s my crazy, old girl. (The dogs call me “Mama”, not ToadMama. They have a hard time with the tee sound.)
And speaking of Meg, I’ve also been collecting pictures of her in her bed again. I’ve never seen one dog lay in so many different positions! But I’ll save those for another time. This post is already WAY too long.
If you actually made it to the end, be sure to leave a comment to let me know. Please?
I’ve actually had an exciting week for a change. “Exciting” in my case does not mean oh-my-God-did-you-hear-what-happened sort of stuff. It means I finally did something different.
It’s about time, too. Different does not necessarily mean exciting, but at least it was fun.
We did NOT go to a sushi bar.
Amy’s kids were with their other grandparents for the weekend. Amy, who was really in need of some girls-night-out sort of fun, adult time or both, invited me to join her and her girlfriend, Jess, for dinner and drinks in Annapolis.
The plan was to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas at El Toro Bravo on West Street. Margaritas would have been REALLY good after yet another 100-degree day.
Jess arrived very early (3:30-ish) with her friend Kaitlyn. They each had an 8 dollar margarita, which they nursed because they are both tiny and they knew Amy and I would be awhile. Amy arrived next and ordered her own 8 dollar margarita. A short time later, they all ordered another round because I still wasn’t there (I had to work a full day on Friday).
AFTER their second round of expensive margaritas arrived, the fools at the restaurant told them there was a time limit on how long they could stay there if they were just going to have drinks.
So, you have three women seated at a table in an uncrowded restaurant who told the staff they were waiting for someone else (me!) AND already spent $48 on drinks, and you tell them there’s a time limit? Seriously? Idiots.
When I finally arrived, the girls told me what happened. We all agreed that was a very rude and stupid thing to do. And, after that, the restaurant didn’t deserve our hard-earned money.
Because I’m an idiot and know nothing about Annapolis, I parked like 10 blocks away (I did mention the 100-degree day thing, right?). That meant by the time I got to the place, I was dripping with sweat and quite thirsty. So I was drinking Amy’s water and Jess’s margarita. The waiter asked if I would like to order something and I said, “No. I’m just going to share these drinks and we’re going elsewhere.” They never did apologize, but instead tried to joke their way out of the screw-up by acting cute and asking if we were mad. Duh.
Anyway… we did not go to a sushi restaurant as the picture would imply (I just thought that sign and the artwork behind it were cool). We went to an Irish pub on Main Street. I won’t mention that restaurant’s name because the chef was on vacation and the food SUCKED. The beer was very cold, however, and we had a great waitress. Had the owner not apologized several times and removed the food from the bill, I would definitely reveal the pub’s name. But I’ll give them another chance. Even if they did serve our butthead, let’s-make-everyone-pay-even-more-taxes governor. And despite the fact that the well-intentioned owner touched Steve (Jess’s boyfriend had joined us) REPEATEDLY when he visited our table.
We did manage to capture a few pictures, though.
Here I am (in back) with Jess and Amy (Kaitlyn was gone by then).Steve, Jess and Amy.
After plenty of beer and a mediocre and far-too-small meal, we left and looked around a bit. Downtown Annapolis on a Friday is always interesting even in the sweltering, still-90-degrees-at-9:00-PM heat.
Steve, the Indian and me with Jess do-si-doing in the front.
Amy knows how much I like being photographed with weird, inanimate stuff, so she made us pose for that fun shot with the wooden Indian. I was trying to look solemn like the Chief. Steve was feigning surprise. And I think Jess was either trying to square dance or strike an Irish-dancer pose. (We should have communicated on the appropriate mood before Amy snapped the picture.)
A booty-defining store.
The store windows we saw were quite entertaining. Annapolis is the home of the US Naval Academy.
Fun, touristy bumper stickers.Taking a positive spin on things.Proof that Jess rarely stands still.
It was a very fun evening full of laughs. I had dual cheek cramps at least twice during the night. It’s too bad Kaitlyn had to go home to feed her dog before I remembered the camera was in my purse. I promised the girls a real margarita night at my house in the near future. So maybe we can get some pics of Kaitlyn, too. And I can find out if her name is spelled with a “C” or a “K.” If I spelled it wrong, I’m sorry. That’s one question I forgot to ask…
I did take a few pics, which I’ll share later. But first, I wanted to explain my title. In case you were wondering.
That mouse pad image on the right is only one of their many products.
select our favorite 10 photos of 2010 to share. Taking new pictures would have been SO much easier. Really. As I said the other day, I took more than 10,300 pictures in 2010 with my digital SLR alone (big camera)!
