September 2009 Mosaic

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September was an incredibly stressful month! But we also got lots of stuff done, and some fun stuff in there as well. Three-fourths done with Project 365.


Cleo is our box-a-holic kitty. She tried really hard to pack herself off to Texas or North Carolina.


Naturally, once we decided to put the house on the market, things got wild. Most of Atlanta tried to flood, and DH and I freaked out when we heard this earth-shaking thud late one night. He was convinced something hit the house, but I thought it was something hitting the ground. Thankfully, I was right; this giant limb fell out of our neighbor's tree and landed in his yard, somehow missing his deck.


Playing the Wii is so tiring! LOL


To get ready to put the house on the market and move, we've been doing all sorts of cleaning up and cleaning out. I emptied 5 out of 6 of the drawers in this dresser. They are now full of things I am more likely to wear instead of clothes from high school.


And last but not least, a photo of what will be our new home, unless something strange happens at the last minute to cause things to fall through. We are very excited! We close at the end of next month.

August 2009 Mosaic

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Two-thirds of the way through this project. Hard believe. The fact that I managed to take a photo every day this month is almost equally hard to believe! LOL


While we were waiting for DH to buy the tickets for the dinosaur exhibit, Luke jumped from letter to letter on this rug, saying each letter's name as he went. When I realized what he was doing, I had to hurry and whip out my camera before he was done.


This is Tigger with the two women who have worked tirelessly to try and get her healthy again, Kathleen and Dr. Hochel. Without the two of them, Tigger would not be so amazingly recovered today. In fact, we think that we'll be able to stop her steroids completely sometime in September.


Finally managed to squeeze in the summer version of this tree, as promised. Had to hurry, it's going to start changing soon. It is an "early turner" in the fall, which will be here before we know it.


DH and I took a grown-up day to ourselves. We took the child to school, then we ran off to the museum and the movie theater, plus we checked out a few houses for sale. Quite the busy day, but wonderful. There was a Monet Waterlilies exhibit at the High. They have these small reflecting pools outside the front door, which were decorated to resemble one of the paintings. So lovely! I just wish it had been less overcast, because the lighting doesn't do them justice.

July 2009 Mosaic

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How could I resist this one? These are the first cupcakes he has ever eaten that I made. He only ate one, but I was still surprised. I think he liked the "sparkly sticks" more than anything.


Aren't they pretty? These are my new beaded bracelets being worn by their maker, my mother.


Mr. Goofy in the back seat. He thought this was so funny!


My backyard has been full of blue jays lately. There were actually two in my yard this day, but I could only get one in the photo at a time.

April 2009 Mosaic

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Is April really over already? And May is already starting to fill up. Wow! A third of a year down, just so hard to believe. I missed a day in April (again), but I'm still here and still taking pictures. I had a hard time coming up with fill shots this month. Need to remember to shoot more varied shots on each day in the up-coming months. It is starting to get a little harder to stick with (it's been over 120 days now), but I'm going to keep at it. Hope you are enjoying the journey!



This was the sight that greeted us at Zesto's after the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. A huge tree fell across the fence on the non-drive through side and apparently crushed a car in the process. I think it came up by the root ball due to all of the rain and wind we'd had.



The boy loves his corn, especially when on the cob. He insisted on trying mine over a year ago at a restaurant, and he ate the whole thing! He routinely devours cobs about this size, and prefers corn on the cob to french fries most days.



Can you see the symbol on the bumper of this car? Seem familiar? You should have seen the rest of the car. It had tinting in bat shapes on the windows, and it had a silver outline drawing of Batman looking over his shoulder with a flowing cape going from the front quarter panel to the rear quarter panel on the passenger side. (No idea what was on the driver's side.) It was an extremely simple line drawing and very effective. I know it sounds cheesy, and I guess it was on some level, but if you are going to do it, that's the way. It's the best one I've seen.



I love this picture. I thought it was going to be my Earth Day picture, but I actually liked the mini pine cone shot better. And no, unfortunately, that is not our front yard; it's our neighbor's. Yes, we're jealous! I'm sorry, I know it has been a bit "Luke heavy" this month, but he's so darn cute.



Another shot I totally love, though I can't really tell you why. It just makes me smile. Notice they bite their fingernails the same way. Aww! LOL

March 2009 Mosaic

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Another month in the books, and I actually managed not to miss a day, woo-hoo! Here are the fill photos for this month.



One of the best reasons to go to Olive Garden, extra olives on the salad! How can they call themselves Olive Garden when they only put two on the salad unless you ask otherwise? This time, our waiter brought me a whole little bowl full. YUM!



Not quite the picture I was after, but I actually like it. I intended to get the center flower in focus, but it was hard with the low light, plus I was holding the camera above my head. I was annoyed at first, but it has grown on me since, and I like how it turned out.



It looks so innocent, doesn't it? One little pine pollen pod, and this one still intact (probably because it was wet when it fell). But put millions and millions of these things together, and the whole city turns yellow. It's been raining more days than not lately, so it hasn't been too bad, but it's coming. No wonder Atlanta is the allergy capitol of the world.



I told you I would be taking a picture of this tree each season. The color of the flowers disappeared into the roof color, so I tried to get it against the other trees instead. Not thrilled with it, but it will do for the spring photo. For reference, here is the winter version.

February 2009 Mosaic

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Wow, another month has flown by! And yes, I missed one day, again. And yes, I haven't been quite as good about uploading daily. But that's okay, because I'm still going. Here are the fill photos with commentary.



This is the finger prick mark from going to the doctor the previous day. I don't know what the deal was, but that little sucker hurt for nearly 2 weeks!



My first attempt at a sunset photo. Not too bad, I don't think.



I thought this was going to be the photo I posted from when I went to the Fox Theatre, but I liked the exterior night shot better. Not only is the sign all classic and glitzy, but I waited until they had the Cleopatra add running on the multicolor screen below.



Luke is still taking pictures occasionally with his camera, but I think the novelty has worn off. I don't think it has left the house in over a week now. I do hope he will take some while we're gone to Disney. I think it would be really interesting to see it from his perspective.



This is the picture I intended to post from Valentine's Day, but as I mentioned with the picture I actually posted, this isn't really what I'll remember from that day. Still, it is more representative of the day, so I included it as a fill shot.



It finally rained some in February, which was nice (though it does make going out and about less fun). I was trying to get artsy with the water drops. I'm still pretty happy with how it came out.



On laundry day, we tend to have various piles of clothes laying around the house. What is the easiest way to tell which piles are clean and which are dirty? If a cat is laying on them, they're freshly washed and dried. Tigger was just helping us remember that we had already washed these jeans.

January 2009 Mosaic

Katie posted a great tool on her website, and I have become quite a fan very quickly: the Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker. I have decided to make a mosaic to summarize each month's photos, and I'll be posting it both here and on my main blog. Because months vary in length, and I like to keep things uniform, and the mosaic maker conveniently holds a maximum number of 36 photos, I'll have to use some "filler photos" to fill in the rest of the spaces. Oh, gee darn, I get to use some of the other great (I hope) or interesting photos that I took during the month but that weren't chosen for the POD. Click the mosaic to "biggify." And here on this blog, you'll get to see a larger version of each of the fill photos, with a little blurb about each. Enjoy!



This was a total lucky shot. I couldn't even see the screen of my camera when I took it. Bengal was sleeping behind DH's recliner (seen in very top left of photo), so I sat in my recliner, set the camera on the carpet, tilted it back, and hoped to have more than just an ear in the picture when I looked. And *this* is what I got! The even more remarkable thing is that this picture is straight off the card. Absolutely no tweaking. As I mentioned before, I prefer not to do a whole lot of tinkering with my pictures. A little cropping, maybe some contrast work, frequently some post-shrinkage sharpening (it can look a little muddy after resizing), and the occasional fill light when needed. Not on this one. Just shrink and post; that's it. Maybe I should take photos without looking more often!



Now this shot was actually intentional, and I'm quite pleased with it. I like the way they seem to glow just a bit, and the interplay of the shadows of one leaf on another. This was at Olive Garden, the same day I took the cheese and crouton shot of Luke.



I was just walking through the mall (same day as the game photo of Luke) when I caught my reflection. I thought it was really neat how far down the walkway you could see due to the curvature of the column. Notice that, due to the seam, you actually can't really see me at all! But can you see Luke? He snuck into the picture as I was taking it. I didn't notice until I flipped over to review the shot and saw the bright orange dot just to the right of center. That is the focus assist beam of his camera. Apparently, if Mommy was taking a picture of it, then so should he.



Pretty obvious what this is, I think. Just in case some of you are tilting your head sideways, it is an oil spot on wet pavement that is refracting the lights in the parking lot. I was just thrilled the photo turned out so well! It could have been a little more in focus, but given the longer than average exposure time, I think I did pretty well. I turned off the flash (which ruined the refraction), set the timer for 2 seconds (so that pushing the button wouldn't cause the camera to shake), held my breath, and waited for the image to appear on the screen. Not too bad!

Wow, I still can't believe I made it! And entire month of taking photos every day (save one). I can't wait to see what the rest of the year looks like. Thank you for coming along with me! It really means a lot to know that all of you are so supportive and interested in this project.