2012-01-13

Not sure this captured the mood I was after. There were at least 25 birds sitting in this tree on this wet and dreary Friday the 13th. Definitely reminded me of Hitchcock in some ways; there were plenty of other birds in the other two trees not shown in the photo. Still not as eerie, though, as the day several years ago my whole lawn was covered in large black birds!

2012-01-12

Ta-da! All fixed. The general contractor came back today to fix our steps. He filled the empty space underneath with concrete (about 100 lbs/45 kg worth), plus patched all of the cracks, so it should be good for another 20-30 years. One brick did crumble, so we have a single "odd" replacement brick. Not to worry, we'll be painting the steps again in the spring (I *hate* the gray; we investigated just replacing the steps outright, but it's out of our budget for now). At least we should be able to use our front door again in a few days for the first time in a month!

2012-01-11

So, *this* happened when DH went to hang the Christmas garland around the front door back in December. This is the top level/platform of our front porch. We had a general contractor come take a look, and he thinks the steps are original to our mid-1960s house. They built it up with dirt underneath the bricks, and after 50-ish years, it has simply settled. The settling also caused some cracks between the bricks, which further increased the settling, and with the focused pressure from the ladder legs, it just finally gave way. But tomorrow, things will be better!

2012-01-10

Tigger, enjoying the KittyTV channel.

2012-01-09

These raindrops clinging to the tips of the pine needles looked like perfect little jewels when backlit by the street light this morning. I never did get exactly the shot I wanted, since I had to hand-hold it and the light was so low, but I think it did okay.

2012-01-08

This painting was on the wall right next to our table at lunch today. I was fascinated by the dimensionality of the paint. It was so textural, it was all I could do not to reach out and touch it. So, I photographed it instead with the macro setting on my point and shoot camera.

2012-01-07

I really need to start taking down the Christmas decorations, but I wanted to photograph our cards before I did. My grandmother used to put the Christmas cards she received in the slats of her blinds, and I absolutely loved the idea. It worked great at our old house, since there were windows with blinds on each side of our fireplace. There are no blinds in the den at our new house (yes, I still call it that, even though we've been here over 2 years), and at first I had no idea how I would display our cards. But these slatted doors separate the den and the hall, and they open into the den (though I took the photo with the doors closed), so I can still display our Christmas cards and see them while the den! Yes, it takes very little to make me happy.

2012-01-06

Luke had to have a full audiology workup after failing the hearing screening at the pediatrician's office in November. This is the same facility where he was in speech therapy in 2007. It was so strange to be back there after so many years! The waiting room is really nice, though, and I've always loved this wall. The part of the wall with the moon on it is slightly recessed and slightly convex, which lends it a wonderful dimensional quality.

2012-01-05

Something about how graceful Luke's hand looks holding the pencil really struck me tonight. (His handwriting, on the other hand....) I actually like the lighting in this picture, but with no overhead light in the dining room (yes, still!), it's really dark in there, which made holding still enough for this photo tricky. I think I managed okay, though.

2012-01-04

It was a beautiful sunny day today, and the light on my glass butterfly caught my eye. There are two glass shelves over the sink in the kitchen, and I have various glass items on them, slowly building a beautiful sparkling collection. I bought this at the Butterfly House at Callaway Gardens when we visited the Fantasy in Lights in 2010.

2012-01-03

Grrr, vicious faucet!

2012-01-02

Not a great photo, I know, but I was admiring all of my books today. These are the built-in bookshelves in our den; there is another one on the other side of the doorway (far right of picture) that is about half this size, and there are cabinets underneath both of them that store paperbacks (stacked 2 deep) and DVD/Blu-ray movies. I originally thought I would have a mix of "pretties" and books on these shelves, but we needed somewhere to put the books when we moved in (at the end of 2009, remember?), and now that they're up there, I can't stand to take them down! LOL What can I say? They make me happy.

2012-01-01

I've been trying to get a cooking/recipe blog off the ground (obviously haven't gotten very far with that yet), so I've been trying to take photos of food as I make it. Who wants a recipe with no picture, right? I didn't really intend for this to be my first Photo of the Day for 2012, but given that I didn't take pictures of anything but food today, this will have to do. These are the absolutely fantastic Swedish Meatballs I discovered on Pinterest. A decadent way to start the new year, for sure, but so so yummy! They were also the last of the Christmas week leftovers. January 2 will be back to the reality of both work and cooking!

Project 365 - 2012 Edition

Welcome to my second time doing Project 365. (Wait, 2012 is a Leap Year; maybe that should be Project 366?) I never did recap my experience with it last time, and it's been 3 years now. Obviously, though, if I'm willing to do it again, it can't have been too bad. I learned how to do all sorts of nifty things with my camera last time, and using it became nearly second nature. I'm on my 3rd new (or borrowed) camera since then, and I miss having that level of knowledge and control. Plus, as of Thanksgiving 2011, I now have a hand-me-down DSLR (thanks, Dad!), and I really need to learn to use it. No time like the present, so off we go! Hope you enjoy.