It is an absolutely stunning portrait of Michelle Obama. On the other hand, it is a high-fashion, posed image of the First Lady of the United States. Michelle has great style (most of the time). There is no precedence saying that America’s first ladies cannot express their personal styles and one or two have been trend setters. For some reason, though, I feel uneasy about the first lady posing for high fashion like this while in her public position and then releasing the photograph. It’s obvious the feelings that are purposely being portrayed: style, power, grace, sophistication. No one holds their hand on their thigh like that naturally, though. It’s provocative – where is she? (looks almost like a bathroom or a hallway) what is she getting ready to do? (hike up the dress to adjust her stockings? Very probable if she’s in a bathroom). Who stands like that in a gown?

Can anyone help me put my feelings into words? I don’t want to be stuck with tradition (thinking First Ladies don’t pose like this) if there’s no reason a First Lady shouldn’t pose like this (and release it to the public), but aren’t I right to feel a little uneasy looking at this?

*I found the picture of Facebook without any credit to its owner/the photographer.

I edited it in black and white as well, but I think I like the color better.

Either way, I have a really long shadow-head. Ha! Rock the Shot has challenged its readers to take an interesting self portrait and I think this fits the bill. If you want to play along head over to www.RockTheShotForum.com. February’s challenge should be posted soon.

I also like to sew, but with the size of our house there’s no way to keep the machine and supplies out all the time to slowly work on projects. Therefore, when I’m going to sew I have to devote enough time to it to be able to get the project finished. Otherwise my projects just sit, and sit. When you can’t devote a lot of time to your hobby it’s hard to get better. I like to sew clothes and so when I can’t devote a lot of time to sewing the clothes that I sew aren’t very good.

This weekend I was able to spend the whole weekend marathon sewing with some friends. I sewed several clothes and was so happy to be able to complete the projects. Of course these things are not runway worthy. I may end up wearing them out of the house. I was upset at first as to why my garments don’t turn out as cute as the pictures on the front of the pattern packets. I had to remind myself, that like all things in life, practice makes better.

My sewing nook this weekend. Kitty cat is making sure my chair stays warm…

I’m not interested in trying to make things perfect. Perfect only existed once, 2,000 years ago. So at least I’m not trying to achieve perfection. I would like to achieve good though. HA! It’s helpful to look at anything we do as practice. That way when we’re less than satisfied with our results, whether it be with sewing or picture taking or cooking or parenting or what have you, we can look at it and at least be ok with the fact that that experience is helping us to be better the next time. It’s a matter of always trying to learn from the experience. That is what turns it from a potential failure to practicing to be better.

Wanting to continue to practice and finding the time to actually do that are two different things. Here’s to rearranging my to do list and my house just enough to be able to fit practicing in there a little better.

My scrapbook albums and digital photo books.

These are our family’s memories, wrapped in pretty bindings and journaled with clever sayings and remembrances. When we’re old and grey and introducing ourselves to each other every day we’ll have these books to look back on and maybe spark a memory somewhere in the recesses. We have had such a blessed life and to document that is a privilege for me that I am really just beginning to take seriously.

May I never have to prove myself. May the shelf these books are on collect dust and more and more pages.

If you’d like a weekly challenge to spark your own creativity behind the lens head on over to LensProToGo and get involved with their Project52 (See their button on the left there?)! I’ve got at least three friends playing along with me. There’s a Flickr group and they post reminder blog posts and they’re even going to give a prize to everyone who participates. Woot! To me, the challenge and being able to expand my creative mind throughout the year is really the prize though.

BUT, then today the blog post was published with the detailed meaning of “favorite”.

What is the one thing you would most likely save if your house was on fire (considering your family, including all animals, were safe). If you could only keep 1 thing (again considering you could keep your family and pets) what would you want to save?

This frame, as cool as it is, wouldn’t be the one thing I would want to save. I know what I have to take a picture of now. . .

It is now the middle of January when most New Year’s resolutions have been broken. Normally, at the beginning of the year, I have this boost of electron/synapse collaboration particularly between my organizational brain cells. I get all giddy about reorganizing my life, making what I already do more efficient and adding lots of other stuff to my life and fitting it in all that space and time I created after reorganizing everything else. I’m typically a realist, but along with all 7 billion other humans, realistic expectations fly out the window come the countdown and the dropping of the ball. Then 99% of the 7 billion humans actually do drop the ball and their resolutions end up a thing of the past, almost as quickly as the countdown to midnight took.

Not this year. I wasn’t and still don’t plan on disappointing myself. I didn’t even think about making any resolutions or “goals” this year. I know some of what this year holds and I’m not going to kid myself into thinking I can all the sudden add 50 things to my daily todo list and not feel let down.

What I have kept doing though is taking pictures every day. I started a Project365 last year and actually did take one picture every day. Except maybe one day, I think. Working on that throughout the year last year got me used to carrying around my camera or pulling out my phone and snapping pics–a lot of times, just to see how I could edit them in Instagram or Hipstamatic. It has already become more of my lifestyle.

So this year I am eager to continue that Project and  challenge my creative side. I’ve signed up for two Project 52s and a Project 12*. They will give me a prompt each week/month and I’ll try to end up taking a picture to suit the given theme. What I’m hoping is that my creativity will be tested and I’ll get better about thinking outside the box. Or even thinking within the box but taking a better picture of it. The cool thing about photography is the only way to get better is to practice.

That’s the cool thing about anything, isn’t it. The cool thing about photography is your practice can result in some awesome accidents where you actually do end up growing as a photographer picture taker. (I can’t bring myself to call myself a photographer).

So, in the end, I guess I technically am making a resolution. To be more creative with my picture taking and to attempt to keep up with these photo projects. I’ve given myself the ok to skip a week or month or two. There’s no prize for completing 100%. And I can pick up where I left off. Not like the exercise thing I’ve resolved to do in the past, where you can’t actually pick up where you left off, you have to kind of do some remedial exercise to get you back to where you left off.

*The Project 12 is MCP’s Project 12 and the theme of their first month is. . . resolution!
The Project 52s are LensProToGo’s Project52 and Paint The Moon’s Let’s Do 52.
If you want to do the Project 365 download the Project365 app.

NB – Why do I look like a complete spy in the photo above? I was heading outside to capture the snowfall and decided to see what I could capture in the mirror before I stepped out. I’m glad I had just painted my nails…

Here’s hoping for warmer temps tomorrow!

A friend and I experienced the Holocaust Museum today. That’s really the only way to describe it. For the hours that you are there you are transformed and the amount of emotions that you go through is hard to describe. Sight, sound, smell, touch…you experience the plight of the Jews in so many ways.

I came away feeling:

shocked
disgusted
disbelieving
amazed
in awe
heart broken
fascinated
sickened
etc.
etc.
etc.

A child’s cup, decorated so cutely with cartoon characters – this is what touched me the most.

It was taken from one of the children as he or she was stripped of all possessions before being taken into a concentration camp. On display were hundreds of those possessions: shoes, combs, silverware, thermoses, suitcases… That cup though. I couldn’t take it.

There was a picture of a family that had been massacred on the street, their bodies photographed and left for everyone to see. Lying next to her family, probably Ashlyn’s age, an innocent little girl. I broke down.

How the whole thing could even happen is shocking, unbelievable and the worst kind of horrible. But how one human being could do to a child what was done to all 6 million people is somehow even worse.

In the Hall of Remembrance was this verse:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely
so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen
or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.
Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
Deuteronomy 4:9

Photo by Josh Kenzer

One year I bought 12 boxes of Thin Mints, telling myself that would give me one box per month. That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever told myself. Because when you actually do the math** that’s only one cookie per day, and who can eat just one Thin Mint? Who can eat just one of any of the Girl Scout cookies?

This purchase of 12 boxes of Thin Mints wasn’t actually that extreme of a purchase back in the day, especially for deliciousness that was supposed to last me throughout the year. Girl Scout cookies did not used to cost $4.00 per box. I remember them costing $2-something per box, and that wasn’t that long ago.

When Reagan’s friend called me up this year to sell me what I can so affectionately call “my drugs”, I almost choked when she quoted me the price. And that was after I had already placed my (less than a dozen) order. How could I readjust my order on this poor, unsuspecting Scout when all she was doing was peddling the drugs in order to raise money. I swallowed my frugal pride and told myself the deliciousness would be worth it once those boxes were in my graze-hungry little hands.

This is your fair warning, though, Girl Scouts of America. Even addicts have their limits. I am going on record to say that I will not buy cookies next year if they are above $4.00 a box. I’m also saying that I may not even buy them if they are still $4 per box. We’re in a recession for cripe’s sake. Who can afford that? Even though they’re addicting and for a good cause (I can’t remember what they money is used for, actually) they’re not a staple and I can quit cold turkey. The shaking and grumpiness will subside after a while, and who knows, with Pinterest I may even find a good substitute recipe and make a decent enough knock off version (gasp).

*The one year I wasn’t surprised was when Reagan was actually a Daisy. Selling cookies was torturous. I do not go door to door selling things and I’m not making my kids do that either. That’s not the reason I haven’t had my girls in GS again though. I was not impressed with R’s troop leader and I also thought the things she was learning or supposed to be learning in GS we were teaching her at home. I’m not a fan of doubling efforts.
**One box per month — the breakdown. That’s two sleeves per box, so one sleeve every two weeks. 14 cookies per sleeve means 14 cookies every two weeks. 7 cookies per week means only ONE cookie per day! I am doing that correctly, no?

The  asinine decision of choosing Gretchen just for ratings did me in. I boycotted this past season and didn’t even know about the All Stars show. A friend clued me in and I’m willing to give PR another shot. Although I’m already second guessing their motives on one or two of the designers they chose to bring back. Elisa? Really? The show’s not even over and I’m guessing she’s going home first. Unless PR decides to pull another pr stunt and keep her on for the crazy she provides. This isn’t Real Housewives of Project Runway though. Cut the crap and show me good designers.

Week 1 – A SELF PORTRAIT WITHOUT ME

I love boots. I love scarves even more. Weakness is a good word.

If you had to shoot a self portrait without yourself in it, what would you shoot?

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,600 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Benefits

• There’s a kiosk very close to my house, which means (almost) instant gratification.
• It seems that there are newer releases with Blockbuster Express than Netflix.
• (and the best one) I’ve been renting movies for free. FREE! (Details below) They’re only $1 to begin with, but doesn’t free make it even better?

ICELAND!

Click to view slideshow.

We were only there for two days. You could spend weeks. I’m going to have to go back another time, in the fall, to be able to witness the Northern Lights.

A couple of things I learned.

1) The Icelanders favorite snack or fast food isn’t some kind of seafood. It’s the “pylsur”:

Mine is on the left. We went to “the best hotdog in town” Baejarins Betzu Pylsur. The way to get a pylsur is with everything on it. Everything includes some kind of white sauce, some kind of yellowy-tan sauce and caramelized, French-type onions underneath the dog. The sauces are a mix of savory and sweet. It was really very good.

2) Icelanders love their geothermally heated pools. There are seven, I believe, in Reykjavik. They do pools like we do Starbucks.

3) There are actually trees in Iceland. Apparently the settlers cut them all down. That’s the short story. Icelanders are trying to reintroduce trees that are native to that climate so they bring them from Siberia and Alaska. 

4) Almost every Icelander can trace his or her roots back to the Vikings and Celts that arrived 1200 years ago. This is the Solfar sculpture.

5) Icelanders like to go out. And stay out late. And talk real loud when they’re out walking in the streets in the middle of the night. They don’t get much sleep in the summer.

It was an amazing two days.