2012-01-31

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest today, so I thought it deserved to be today's photo. I discovered Pinterest a few months ago, and I have been absolutely addicted ever since. So much to see and oogle! I already wrote about it on my regular blog, if you're interested. I'm not losing hours and hours to it daily like I was in the beginning, but I do still visit most every day. It is so inspiring!

2012-01-30

This is not really the photo I intended to take. I was trying to show that we did get *something* done with the lighting in our house this weekend. After living here for two years with no light in the dining room (long story, don't ask), we finally put something up. This fixture actually came out of one of the bedrooms (no, I can't explain the lighting choices the previous owners made!); we swapped it for a ceiling fan before we moved in (see, we *can* change out light fixtures). What you can't see in the photo is the large white circle around the fixture hole on the beige ceiling. There used to be a medallion up there (again, don't ask), but they didn't paint under it. I kept meaning to paint, but didn't, and I didn't want to hang a light until I painted, so 2+ years later, still no paint and no light. After the kitchen light fiasco yesterday, we decided that we've had enough darkness, so we put this up. I can always paint later (yeah, right). So, I was trying to get a shot of this light up in the room, white ceiling circle and all, and the camera really dimmed the exposure because of the bright bulbs. I did get a shot exposed the way I intended, but looking at them later, I really liked how this one looked. Don't you just love "happy accidents"?

2012-01-29

This light has become the bane of our existence. First, who puts track lighting in the kitchen?! It is completely useless. We've wanted to change it out since we moved in. We were just about ready to have recessed can lights put in, and then the whole "the company is shutting down, so poof goes your job" thing happened. ::sigh:: As you can see, we now have two bulbs out, and for the life of us, we cannot figure out how to get them out!! I already hate it, I can't change the bulbs, let's just replace it with an inexpensive fixture until I get another job. Yeah, we can't figure out how to get it down. It *should* be coming down; we've changed light fixtures before. But it's holding firm, and we don't want to permanently damage something that is even more expensive to repair. Really don't want to call an electrician for something like this (would rather just put in the can lights if we're going to have to pay the "visit fee" for the electrician, but can't afford it). Guess I'll just live in a dark kitchen. ::grumble grumble::

2012-01-28

We visited Ikea for the first time today. It was really interesting! The place is simply huge, and most of it is not my style, but they do have a few things I liked, including one really nice kitchen (yeah, keep dreaming!). And yes, we ate at the restaurant, too. I was looking for a particular type of storage unit. They had one that was too big, and one that was too small, but no "goldilocks" one. Guess I'll keep looking. I did find a nice small dining table for our kitchen, though....

2012-01-27

The flame of the oil lamp at our table at Cracker Barrel.

2012-01-26

Well, I made it almost 4 weeks before I missed a day. And, as you can see, I did at least *think* about taking a photo that day. Sadly, after this, I don't think it crossed my mind again. Less than 30 minutes after I tweeted this, I literally could not keep my eyes open, so I went to bed. Oh well!

2012-01-25

Daddy's home! Time to nap.

2012-01-24

I have no idea what she was looking at, but she looked very regal doing it.

2012-01-23

I don't know why Star feels she needs to drown her toys. She's the only one of our four cats who puts her toys in the water bowl (occasionally the food bowl, but usually the water bowl).

2012-01-22

I was really fascinated by the contrast between these leafless trees and the gray sky behind them. I probably took 20 shots, trying to get the camera to see what I was seeing. Never quite worked out, but this shot wasn't too bad.

2012-01-21

What a lovely day, don't you think? I don't know what possessed us to get out in this, but we did. When I took this picture, I couldn't wait to get home! Craziness.

2012-01-20

Cleo looks *very* enthused with whatever we are watching.

2012-01-19

We still haven't taken down all of our Christmas decorations. These are on the back porch, though, so only a few neighbors know they are still up. Actually, we never took them down after putting them up last year, but we did turn them off and leave them off until December. I really loved the lens flare on this bulb in the bottom right. It wasn't intentional, but as my father says, I'd rather be lucky than good.

2012-01-18

Bengal is "helping" DH manage his fantasy baseball team and league.