Day 14 - so today's topic is eyes. At first I wasn't too thrilled with this topic, but it turned out to be pretty fun to take pics of Cookie & Jack and their eyes. Cookie is terribly unphotogenic. She is a beautiful dog with a very expressive face. I get good pictures of her when she is outside and playing and things like that. But if you try to get her to sit still inside it always looks like her head is too heavy for her body (which I think it might be because she rests her giant head on laps, tabletop, beds and couch arms any chance she can get), like she has horrible posture and really dopey eyes. Cookie is a St. Bernard, which is a breed that usually has those really sad droopy eyes. But Cook is a smooth coat saint and her eyes aren't nearly as droopy as other St. Bernard's...her right eye is a bit sadder looking that the left, which we think is sweet - but she is a giant dog (145lbs+) with really great facial expressions and the ability to make hilarious noises that sound like talking. I keep waiting for her to say "I Love You" like that crazy Internet sensation dog. I'll be sure to post if she ever does! =) Any other photographers out there - can you tell me how not to make her eyes glow every time I take a picture of her inside? Silly reflecting corneas!
And then there is Jack...what can I say about this kid and his hilarious facial expressions. I think I posted on the Someone You Love day that he has some really funny antics and when he gives me the Big Eyes I pretty much always pee my pants! One of my other favorites is the wink that you see above. When he was small he used to wink by holding one hand over his eye. And then with time he sort of taught himself how to do it. I love that he scrunches up his face on the one side and the other side looks smooth with the awesome one eyebrow thing going on. He usually tosses in some crazy hand gestures to truly capture the "hey baby" look. You aren't going to believe this because I am not going to post it but I actually took a picture of myself today in my new glasses thinking I would use that as my eye pic (wasn't sure how cooperative my subjects would be)...and even more surprising I didn't hate it! I didn't have on any make-up, my hair was wavy from air drying and being pulled back into a pony tail for part of the day and it is a sad dreary day out the car window that you see in the background of the picture - Oh, and I was able to fool around with the coloring on Instagram which helped a bit - but I think that is a true testament to my journey of discovering balance in my life. In 2 short weeks I have gone from avoiding any pictures to snapping secret self portraits on my iPhone in the cover of my car...and blogging about it! Not bad huh? Maybe a little less self loathing is just what I need to bring a bit of balance?!? I am going to not think about the fact that I was in the dressing room at Macy's today trying on clothes and about threw up at the sight of my underwear clad self in the full length mirror and fluorescent lights...why do they torture us like that? Hell no I am not going to by any clothes when my reflection looks like that! Now if they could install fun house mirrors where I looked like a 5'8" supermodel and magic soft lighting that gave my reflection a flawless appearance I would buy absolutely everything that I could squeeze myself into...you would think with the advent of vanity sizing someone would have thought of revamping the whole dressing room experience. It could be a huge revenue booster! The economy is bad? So what, if there was a place I could go and look that amazing for even a few minutes I would gladly spend money I don't have (pronounce charge it) to have those wonderful happy blissful ignorant feelings about my appearance. Come on ladies - you know you totally agree with me! =) Wow, once again, blog has gone nutty. Well hopefully with the next 16 days I will be able to take even more steps to finding balance - even if it is just in not fearing having my picture taken - I would say it will have been 30 days well spent.
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Day 13 is another sort of self portrait - the title is you and 13 things. Got to be honest, I'm just not feeling it today. Jack and I have had a nice weekend - more or less relaxing - but managed to paint some rooms at Chris's house, see the new kids movie Band of Misfit Pirates, eat at Buddy's pizza, mow the yard, have my neighbor help us get the weed wacker started while Cookie tried to attack it and save us all - between that and the lawn mower it is a wonder she still has a nose on her face - and had a movie night tonight with the Adventures of Tin Tin. Add to that the random silly stuff we do each weekend - laundry, cleaning, Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombie battles, Jack playing Lego's and catching up with SpongeBob and Phineas & Ferb and frankly I am exhausted.
So I apologize for the lack of creativity with today's photo op. Jack was a big help and provided the 13 things from his overwhelming collection of Lego minifigs. He made the lady all in white with the black hair holding the pink lightsaber to look like me. And I love the punk rocker with the pink mohawk that he built when we were at Lego land. I think it is so awesome that he can create completely new figures from the bits and pieces of other minifigs. He is a Lego genius - I on the other hand love putting the Legos together when they come out of the box and have instructions. Nothing like following some step-by-step instructions to bring some balance in your life! Anyway, here is the pic which isn't the greatest - but does make me think of Jack and his Lego addiction. And as Lola (from Charlie & Lola) says with her sweet british accent, "It is my favorite, and my best". You are definitely that Jack Zaske! So cheers to another fun weekend with my two favorite guys. Day 12 is to take a picture of a sunset. Well it was a cloudy dreary day here in Michigan and frankly the sunset was pretty unimpressive...I did glance at it - from the comfort and warmth of my back window - but it was uninspiring and definitely not worth putting shoes and a coat on to try and capture any sort of image.
Luckily sunset photos are something I have an ample supply of. I have some from exotic places like Costa Rica, some ocean sunsets from L.A. and San Diego and some beautiful Lake Michigan sunsets that in my opinion rival any ocean sunset. But I have gone into the "vault" and selected 2 that I truly love. The first is of a sunset over Lake Erie taken from my grandparent's backyard. I love that over the years watching the sunsets became a tradition when we were in Avon Lake. This photo was taken on a trip that Jack and I took where we got to spend a few amazing days with my Aunt Marty & Uncle Dan last summer. I loved being able to spend time with them and be able to witness first hand what unconditional love is - something so treasured and amazing and was definitely a dose of the perfect medicine for Jack and I. The 2nd sunset is from a trip that we took to L.A. It is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken. I love that it is Jack feeling triumphant and I love that it reminds me of Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club. Again, great memories of an amazing visit are forever attached to that photo. I could seriously add about a thousand more sunset pics - what photographer can resist snapping dozens of shots when looking at a sunset? But I at this late hour (seriously I should have been in bed hours ago!) I tried to pick two pictures that were near and dear to my heart. Hopefully tomorrow's topic will lend itself to better photo taking opportunities, but it is always nice to take a brief trip down memory lane - especially when they are such incredible memories as the ones attached to this pics. TGIF!! Today is Day 11 of the photographers challenge and the topic is Something Blue. Now if you are a girl and you are reading this your mind obviously goes to "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" right? Did they pull us girls aside in Kindergarten and teach us that so we could begin the day dreaming and planning of our fairy tale weddings? Seriously - do any of you guys (and there are probably only 2 reading this) even know what that saying is about? Come to think of it, I can't remember what my something blue was?!?! Crap, do you think that had anything to do with the demise of my marriage? Is it possible that me not having a something blue, or at least one that meant something, could have doomed me? Ten bucks says my mom can tell you my something blue. She is highly organized and documents everything of importance and there was no way she would have let me walk down the aisle without all of my "somethings". (love you mom!)
NUGGET # 5 (I think I lost count) - I am divorced. Wow, I think that is the first time I have typed that out. Anyway, no matter how effected I am by all of that or how my life was dramatically changed by that word, I had sort of promised myself I wasn't going to talk about that on my blog. Not the purpose of the project - been there, done that. Trying new things is the purpose - so onwards and upwards. I vow not to mention it again...unless I get really ticked off! =) OK about the picture. This is a chair on my deck that I LOVE! When I found it behind Grandma & Grandpa Reschke's garage it was very rusty and a faded orangish-red color. But it is such a cool chair that I knew I wanted to save it. So the chair came home with me...where it sat in my garage, and in my shed, and next to the garage for about 3 years! That is very unlike me - usually once I have a project in mind I attack it with full force until completion. Not sure how I got sidetracked on this one. Anyway, after sand blasting (messy) and sanding (bad on the nails) a lot, I had to pick a paint color. I wanted something a bit bright - but that would compliment the cushions I had on the other pieces (oh cushions - this chair needs a groovy pillow to truly be complete. I have added it to my to-do list). I decided to check out "the depot" and see what they had in the spray paint aisle. I'm not sure why, but I have a tendency to gravitate towards blue things. If you go back to my grade school pictures, each year I am wearing something blue - not on purpose - it is just that I tend to pick things that are that color. I wouldn't even say blue is my favorite color - but there is just something about it - soothing maybe, calming maybe - that draws me in. So this is a funky sort of bright yet smoky blue that beckoned to me from the shelves of Home Depot. I sort of love it. And whenever I see it out the window it totally does calm and soothe me...and beckon me to get out on the deck! I love this time of year because I get to pull out all of the outdoor furniture and clean it up a bit, day dream about replacing some of it with newer more modern pieces, think about all the fun times we are going to have on the deck this summer, etc. I can't wait to start planting our garden and get some annuals in the ground and around the deck in bright colored pots. I can't wait for Block's Greenhouse to open. But alas, the weatherman is predicting a rainy snowy mix for the weekend...bummer. I will have to suspend deck dreaming until another weekend when I home with lots of sunshine. Day 10 of the challenge was to take a picture of a childhood memory. I have a ton of amazing memories from childhood - but like the bad habit topic a few days ago it is hard to find something to photograph that represents those things. But as I was packing up my camera and camera bag today, I came across these ET Adventure Passports from Universal Studios. Jack, Chris and I have these from our trip to Orlando in the beginning of February. How we come to still possess them is a part of my childhood memory - that has sort of evolved into what I fear may be a childhood memory for Jack. Here goes...
I distinctly remember seeing the movie E.T. for the first time at the movies. I remember being wrecked when he and Elliot were dying and E.T. got all white and icky looking. I remember thinking Gertie would be a cool kid sister (little did I know she was high as a kite!) It is the first movie I can remember seeing where there wasn't a dad in it. I loved the trick-or-treating, and the frog scene at school and I am always a fan of a movie that wraps up neat and tidy! But what I remember the most about E.T. is that he scared the crap out of me for years to come! Yeah, I know he was friendly and sweet, blah blah blah - but seeing him for the first time screaming back at Elliott from the corn field pretty much did me in. My brother Brian had a sketch of E.T. that he hung on the outside of the door to his bedroom. Our bedrooms were across from each other and depending on how my room was arranged me sleeping on my side in bed would have a perfect view of his E.T. pic. I HAD to sleep with my bi-fold closet doors closed and the door open (and actually I still have to have closet doors closed when I sleep but I think that may have just become part of my mania about tidiness). I think Brian might have had a t-shirt too and for some reason I remember this E.T. stuffed animal that was made out smooth plastic to look like his skin...FREAKY! Needless to say E.T. was a defining moment in my childhood for a myriad of reasons. So flash-forward 25 years and here is Jack, Chris and I at Universal Studios. We had finished our morning in Harry Potter's Wizarding World and were now over in the other park. I should probably step back a bit and let you know that the our morning began with this incredible virtual reality Harry Potter ride where you snake your way through the castle and then are strapped in to a seat and whisked off to play Quiddich and fly with Harry Potter...and a few demeantors and some giant spiders are tossed in for good measure. Jack really likes Harry Potter - except for Dobby the house elf - he will run from the room anytime we are watching the movie with Dobby in it and won't return until the scene is over. Maybe I should have seen that as a sign for what comes next?!? Anyway, the ride is insane. I loved it! Chris and Jack hated it! It tossed and spun us around and gave the illusion of going really fast. I love that stuff - they do not! Something about being out of control I think. Anyway, we don't really go on any other rides during the morning. Jack is frankly a little freaked out by the whole thing but totally keeping his cool and politely turning down any opportunity to ride any of the rides. So we grab lunch and head over to the other side of the park. When Jack and I were looking up the attractions prior to our trip Jack was stoked about 2 things - Harry Potter World and the E.T. ride. So we get to the park and the lines aren't very bad, but most of the rides are inside buildings and you get to see a little movie to set up the ride, etc. Well we head into the E.T. ride and you get the little cards you see in the picture and tell them your name. Now I had been on this ride years ago and if I remember correctly you sit on what sort of looks like a bike with E.T. in the basket. It isn't virtual reality but a not very scary indoor roller coaster and at the end, E.T. thanks you by name for helping him save the day (hence the card w/ your name programmed on it) Anyway, we get our cards and take the hallway into what looks like a forest and Jack stops in his tracks. We had prepped him that this ride was different than Harry Potter and he was buying it up until that point. But once we got into the darkish area with the forest he was done. So we had to escape out an emergency exit. On the plus side we got to keep the cards that you usually have to turn in at the end of the ride. On the not so plus side, I fear I may have ruined Jack for life when it comes to roller coasters and E.T. Since we have been back in Michigan, we have had several movie nights and once or twice I offered up watching E.T. Jack puts on his brave face, doesn't freak out and scream no and run from the room, but looks me in the eye and says, "maybe next year, Mom. E.T. still sort of freaks me out." Me too J-man...me too! So today is Day 9 - my favorite number! And so far this is my favorite photo topic! Today's topic is someone you love...if you haven't already guessed by the slideshow! =) Jack, Cookie and I headed into the backyard to snap some pictures. Although I think the photo quality of some of these could be a lot better - the subject definitely can not be improved upon. Jack is by far my favorite person, place or thing to photograph. He has hilarious facial expressions. He recently had to write a paper about himself and he listed his favorite thing to do as "to tell jokes". He is always hamming it up and coming up with funny sayings...can you say comedian? =) And not only is Jack hilarious, he is a really good sport and hardly ever complains - I dragged him out there for 20 minutes while I shot like 50 photos and he didn't complain once - he didn't exactly do what I wanted him to - but he stuck it out and was his usual funny self.
Jack is also very aware of the feelings of others and is a big fan of trying to make people happy when they are down. He will pull out his usual line up to get a needed laugh - the big eyes, zen Jack in meditation, the "what you talking about Willis" face, the occasional gang sign! And although all of these are practically guaranteed to get a laugh out of anyone, my favorite part is seeing him crack himself up. When he gets laughing and being silly (OK the silly can make me a bit crazy) but when he gets laughing hard you can't help but laugh along with him. He is a hard kid to stay mad at when he starts his stand up routine! Well, Day 9 has been my favorite photography day so far. Getting to spend quality time laughing with the Jackman - the best way to wrap up a day ever! Oh - one last thing - Chris forwarded me a link to a 365 day photography challenge thing! I haven't read through the entire site yet so I am not sure what all is involved - but depending on how this goes - that might be my next endeavor! Am I scaring you a bit? Yeah - me too! =) Here we are at day 8 already - more than 25% of the way through the challenge! WOO HOO! Today's topic is to take a photo of a bad habit. The topic overwhelmed me to say the least. How do I pick just one bad habit when I have such a myriad of them to choose from! Some were quickly ruled out due to their un-photogenic qualities - swearing, speeding (although I do have a cool shot of driving down the highway that might have been cool to use - but it is an old photo and I wanted to take something today) not separating out the whites from the colored laundry...the list goes on and on. Since there seems to be an underlying theme to my posts - SUGAR - I had this amazing fantasy of heading to my favorite buy spot - Walgreens - and loading up on all my favorites to be able to create this amazing still life candy mountain picture...then of course I would have to eat all of it because it would be opened and unwrapped and it is just a shame to waste it all! So although I was really looking forward to that photographic undertaking, my day got crazy busy and went by surprisingly fast and lets be honest, I probably didn't do enough water aerobics this evening to cancel out devouring candy mountain.
So I decided to go to one of my oldest bad habits - and like the fruit picture yesterday - it happened to be the only thing in the house that really qualified and that I thought I could photograph at all. Ta Da....mint chocolate chip ice-cream! I'm not overly thrilled with the picture - today feels like just hurry up and find something so I don't miss a day. But I guess it is better than breaking the streak of photo taking!! Ice Cream and I go way back. I remember having hot fudge sundaes occasionally for dessert as a kid with home made Mother Hester's Hot Fudge - I have no idea who Mother Hester is but she makes some crazy good hot fudge! I remember requesting Baskin Robbin's Ice Cream cakes for birthday dinners. My first real job was at Dairy Queen. I had that job all through high school and til this day think it is probably the best job I've ever had! My college roommate from freshman year, Lisa, and I would walk to the Dairy Queen near campus on the first semi-warm day to welcome spring with Peanut Buster parfaits! I remember thinking when the obstetrician said I should be sure to get lots of calcium during my pregnancy that it was the perfect excuse to have ice-cream for every meal. And getting ice-cream at least twice is part of every family vacation I have been on of recent memory - whether we were on Hilton Head Island or in Harrisville, Michigan - my dad could scope out an ice-cream place anywhere! Yep, I'm definitely a fan. And given my dad's love for the stuff, I truly believe it is hereditary. I'm not sure when mint-chip became my favorite, but it certainly is my old standby any time I am in an ice-cream parlor. Although my adult palette has branched out to other flavors, as a kid I think I thought mint-chip was definitely more exotic than plain old chocolate or strawberry, it was common enough though that almost all ice-cream places had it and because it was common it was a hard flavor to mess up. Yep, mint-chip has been very good to me over the years - a very trusty companion on the adventure of my life. Crap, as I have written this blog, the bowl of ice-cream in the picture has melted to green, gooey slop and is now very sad looking. I'm not a fan of melted ice-cream, so it is probably not going to get eaten. See, I knew that writing this blog was going to be a positive force of change in my life...I just said no thanks to a bowl of ice-cream. Progress!! Here we are at Day 7 - a Monday (yuck). Today's photographer's challenge topic is fruit. I so desperately was hoping that this would fall on a day when I was leisurely strolling through a farmers market, abundant with beautiful and exotic fruits and vegetables...but since I hardly ever get the chance to do that the chances were pretty slim that they were going to coincide with one another. So I did the next best thing and created a still life out of the fruit we had here at the house. Phew - I was a bit panicky when I thought we might be out of fruit - or even a bigger horror - that they would all be growing monster doses of penicillin and you guys would all think I am the biggest slob ever! But luckily we had an ample supply of pretty fruit - and staging my picture actually prompted me to clean out the fridge...so bonus!
What to say about fruit. Hmmm...I guess I can tell you that my favorites are granny smith apples and strawberries (and sugar covered gummy orange slices but I don't think they count). My sugar addiction aside, I am pretty cool with most fruit and will eat just about any fruit - especially in pie form! Since becoming a mom, whenever I see fruit I think of Jack. He is a really great eater and LOVES fruits and vegetables. There are times when I think he may have been swapped at the hospital given my sugar obsession because he can really take or leave sweets! 9 times out of 10 he will turn down birthday cake and ice-cream and I usually have to throw out the Halloween candy from the previous year to make room for the haul from this year's trick-or-treating. I can assure you he does not get these traits from me! Whenever we are visiting Nana & Papa he will ask for a piece of fruit out of the basket on the counter. I LOVE this about him and this cute tradition he has created. Although it makes my covert sugar planning operations a bit more difficult without a partner in crime! Some of the other people, places or events that fruit makes me think of...picking "finger-berries" (that is what Jack calls raspberries) with Jack on a VERY HOT day in August, my dad putting peaches on vanilla ice-cream, dipping strawberries in sour cream and rolling them in brown sugar (OMG so good - I even have special butterfly dishes specifically for this delicious treat courtesy of my grandmother Mary Louise Smith), fruit smoothies and blueberry muffins on Saturday mornings with Jack and apples always make me think of fall - apple cider, fresh cinnamon donuts and bees buzzing around any apples that have fallen to the ground. Since the arrival of Jack I think I eat more fruit (or at least I hope I do) - probably still not nearly as often as I should, but definitely an improvement. When your pallet is so tainted by sugary candy and treats, tasting fruit is like a miracle in your mouth. How is it that my brain can't crave the amazing sweetness of a piece of fruit over a peanut butter cup? It is like the unanswered question on the Tootsie Pop commercial - how many fruit does it take to make your brain crave goodness? A one, a two, a three...crunch! I guess the world will never know! =) Here we are on Day 6 of the photographer's challenge and I am back in Michigan. After a long 4 hour drive home this afternoon and trying to shake the funk of the impending dread of a new week that Sundays always usher in, I was welcomed home by several tulips that seemed to have emerged in full color in the few days I have been away. It always amazes me when I come home from a trip and there seems to be things that are different. I have lily of the valley (one of my favorites) starting to bloom when just a few days ago they were simply clumps of lanky green leaves. The grass seems a bit greener (may partially be due to a TruGreen treatment last week). And although I am a bit of a neat freak (only in terms of clutter that you can see - I would advise you to never open a drawer or a closet while visiting my house - the illusion of my tidiness will be completely dissolved) I have always loved coming home to a house that is clean - beds made, a nice pile of mail in the mail box to peruse at my leisure - hopefully with a new magazine in the mix, no dishes in the sink, no electronics buzzing - just the peace and quiet of a home that has had a bit of a vacation from its occupants. It is calming...until you have to empty the suitcase...then you are just slapped right back into reality and the mound of laundry grows. And frankly I find it easier just to clean everything in the suitcase - whether it was worn during the trip or not - so much easier than sorting through things. Wow, I am WAY off topic...time to regroup.
Well like I said, the tulips were a lovely welcome home and I decided that even though it is crazy windy out this evening and a bit chilly after all of the lovely warm weather we have been having - I wanted to pay homage to my newly dressed up tulips by using them in today's photo topic - from a low angle. I really like this picture. Might have something to do with me being totally obsessed with taking pictures of flowers. On every trip and photo taking opportunity, I will seek out foliage to try and capture. Not sure why I do it - maybe because flowers make easy pretty pictures with minimal effort - but I do like them and find myself drawn to them even when going through galleries and photo sites. This picture involved me lying on my side, in the wind, on the chilly cement driveway, and trying to get an angle where the true color of the tulips really popped and the background wasn't too distracting. For some reason the tulips from this angle remind of the trees in the new movie "The Lorax". Long stemmy trunks and then these tufts of color at the top. So I as I close out today's blog, dealing with the reality that a lovely weekend is over, Monday will be here in a few hours and I haven't even begun to toss the contents of my suitcase down the laundry shoot, I will try and savor the last few moments of the weekend by enjoying the wonderful welcome home from the tulips and being greeted by my tidy little home and take comfort in knowing that even my reality is pretty wonderful! So here we are at Day 5 of the photographers challenge. Today's topic is to take a picture from a high angle. And believe it or not I had 2 opportunities to get high angle pics. 2 very different experiences that I had today while visiting Cincinnati.
The first picture is from an in-store concert at Shake It Records for national Record Store Day. The band playing - that you can't even find in the photo - is Walk the Moon and we were pleasantly surprised at how good they were. I had never heard of Record Store Day, but it is a very cool idea where limited edition releases from all genres of music are released for the 1 day. We got really lucky and simply by accident (and my need for a nap!) made it to the small store in between performances. When we left after a few songs there was a line around the corner for people waiting to get in. It was pretty incredible. But this little local record store is just one of the many cool little gems in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati. It has been a really fun place to explore and can't wait for more places and restaurants to open in the growing, transitional neighborhood. Now to the 2nd picture (and I apologize, neither picture is mind blowingly good in terms of photographic standards - they were both shot on my iphone and were pretty spur of the moment), this picture is of this insanely cool place called Jungle Jim's International Market. It is crazy! This is definitely a place you don't want to come to on an empty stomach and try and do some quick grocery shopping. They had everything you could possible think of in terms of food - every ethnicity, every brand, every size, everything!! Who knew there were so many different types of diet Root Beer! The really fun part is that it is like a little amusement park. There are little animatronic characters all over singing and telling jokes. They have award winning bathrooms where the entrance looks like you are going into an port-a-potty. And the cheese section alone was mind-blowing. I could have spent all day there really. We managed to find the few things that were on our list and then splurged on some exotic beer from their extensive beer and wine section. I can't wait to go back with some bizarre recipe and do the scavenger hunt to locate all the funky ingredients! So all in all a very fun day in Cincinnati - saw the biggest international market (6 acres of food under 1 roof - for pete's sake!) and a smallish independent record store (only feels small when it is filled with groupies waiting for the band to play) and had the good fortune of capturing a birds-eye view of each unique place. Oh, and did I mention I did end the day yesterday with margaritas as promised? They were pink grapefruit flavored and they were from a cool Mexican restaurant call Nada and they were scrumptious...but they were not green. I did have a lot of guacamole and fresh lime on fish tacos...so my tribute to something green was not a total bust! |
about me...Hi, I'm Michele. I am starting this website as a bit of a self search for uncovering how to create balance in my life. Want the nitty gritty details about my life? Probably not. But I am sure you will get all you need (or care) to know from the posts so enjoy. Archives
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