Day 273

Tis the season for selling clothes I guess. At least it is for me. It's going to be a long night tonight. I have a stack of clothing ironed up and ready to tag for a drop-off tomorrow afternoon, but it's already rapidly closing on midnight. Hopefully, I can get enough done to make the effort (and hours I'm planning to volunteer) worth it.

Day 272

It's an off-week for childcare, so to give my mom a bit of a break from taking care of the boys two days in a row, I went in to work a couple of hours late and fed the little guys breakfast before bringing them over. The picture for today is how much of my two toaster waffles I got a chance to eat before the boys were all done with their breakfasts and ready to head out for the day.

Day 271

It's nearly our fiscal year-end at work, and we've moved files out of the cabinets and boxed them up for the warehouse. The next step is to put in new manila file folders. I looked back this afternoon and thought the collection of open drawers made for a nice visual image.

Day 270

It has been and will continue to be a very busy time for me right now. It seems like I am never home with my family. But when the opportunity arose to take a class from Scott David Plumlee at my favorite bead shop, then I had to find the room in my schedule.

The class I took was making a Double Chaos bracelet using a technique from his newest book. (It's actually featured on the cover.) The technique is pretty free-form, which is a bit out of my comfort zone. Even my "free-form" was coming out in a pattern, so I had to mess it up a bit.

It was a great class, and I wish I'd had the time to take all four of them this weekend. I hope he'll return when his third book come out next fall, and I'll be able to take more. He's really such a nice guy and explained several other techniques in addition to the chaos component.

Day 269

Today was the wedding that I mentioned yesterday. I think it went well. The biggest issues I had were with lighting and running out of batteries, but the pictures I've seen so far look like they'll be okay. It was a learning experience for sure. It encourages me to take the time to learn even more about photography.

I'm super nervous about going through all the pictures, so I only looked at some of them on the small screen. It's a busy week, so it might not be until next weekend that I'm able to really start working on the editing.

I'm including my favorite picture that I've seen from the day.

Congratulations to the new, happy couple!!

Day 268

I am shooting a wedding tomorrow, and it would be an understatement to say I'm nervous. This will be my first wedding as "the" photographer. I was basically the last minute second at my brother-in-law's wedding, and I didn't have time to stress about those pictures. It's been a year or ten since then.

Tonight was the rehearsal dinner. I spent a lot of time (and photos) working on figuring out the lighting. This is one of the bride that I really liked.


And I played some with the flowers they had bought for the bouquets tomorrow. I really love Dahlias.

Day 267

This evening I was shopping at the pre-sale for the consignment sale I posted about a few days ago. I didn't find much in the way of clothing for the boys, but I scored big time on toys.

I wanted to get a picture of the sale for today and when I looked back at the clothing racks, I discovered that there was a beautiful sunset going on in the background, so I had to make sure I caught that as well.

Day 266

We grabbed dinner at one of our favorite quick and super tasty places to eat. You can tell that summer is really over since Creamy Tomato soup is back on the menu. Even though it was still nearly 80 today, I had to get a bowl.

Day 265

After dinner my boys were running around playing while I cleaned up. I caught them as their own little band under the table of all places. They thought they were pretty clever, so I had to grab the camera because I thought they were pretty cute.

Day 264

Today my big guy just wasn't feeling himself. He was a lot more quiet than usual, which often means he's coming down with something. When he fell asleep in the car on the way home from PreK, then we knew something must be up. He was running a fever.

I bought some Tylenol on the way home from work, and the poor guy laid on the couch for most of the evening until the Tylenol brought the fever down.

I'm praying that it's a quick little virus and not something more serious.

Day 263

Today we were able to give the gift I finished up a couple of days ago. I'll have to say that the birthday girl was pretty surprised and happy with her gift.

Happy Birthday!!

Day 262

Another consignment sale is coming up next week, so I spent much of the day sorting out clothes and entering them into the online sale system. Next I need to do some ironing, hanging, and attaching tags. It's a process, but I am looking forward to hopefully earning some extra money while cleaning out the house.

Day 261

I have been doing this blog for 260 days, and I'm pretty sure that today was the first day that I actually forgot to take a picture for the blog. (What's that about 21 days to make a habit??) Fortunately for me, I didn't forget to take any pictures at all. But my choices for today are pretty slim. Too bad I can't put it up for a vote.

I have the toddler moment where I might not be able to visit our local library again, and the technology win at the grocery store. Since I might be able to use the first one on our main blog, I'm going with the win.

We were making tacos for dinner tonight when my husband realized we were out of crunchy taco shells. I volunteered to run to the store. While I was there I heard over the intercom that they were having a special on meatloaf. Seeing an opportunity to take advantage of an inexpensive meal for tomorrow, I decided to pick up one from the refrigerated section.

Unfortunately, unlike the meatloaves sitting under the heating lamp, the ones in the refrigerated section did not have re-heating instructions. Go figure. But fear not, I had my trusty iPhone with the fancy macro lens.

As I was taking a picture of the directions, one of the super helpful (I actually kind of mean that) employees snuck up on me and asked if I needed help. I explained what I was doing, and she commented that she'd never seen anyone use their phone like that.

Now I live a bit in the country, but I assure you I haven't invented that particular maneuver. I just smiled and went to make my purchases.

And, that, is officially the longest post on the most unintentional daily picture ever!

Day 260

I spent some time today working on a special project for my mother-in-law's upcoming milestone birthday. All of the pieces came together this morning, but the funniest part was that I had never figured out the right program to make it into one cohesive gift. So I spent some time installing a program I'd bought but never used, figuring it out, and then uploading the finished product.

I was thrilled to pick it up this afternoon. Now to get it framed and wrapped.

Day 259

I got out of the car at my parent's house this morning and noticed that the clouds were looking pretty amazing in the early light. It was one of many, many times that I've been glad to constantly have my camera with me.

Day 258

I go through two valleys on my way to work most mornings. Often on cooler mornings, there is this almost ethereal fog in one or both valleys. I'm always telling myself that one day I'll stop and take some good pictures.

This morning, I was heading straight to work and not to drop off the boys, so even though I was running a bit late, I stopped for about one minute and took a few pictures of the valley closest to our house.

I was so pleased with the results that I'm sharing two pictures today instead of one. Again, I'm amazed with the quality our little point-and-shoot is able to get - if it's in the right mood.

Day 257

I was so excited to receive the components for Use The Muse III this afternoon!!

This color pallet is way outside of what I normally work with, but it's so perfect for fall. I can't wait to be inspired and get started working. At this point, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might try stitching again, but part of me wants to incorporate some of the metal working techniques I've been learning lately.

I've got about a month to figure it out, and unfortunately, I probably won't be able to start in earnest until after the beginning of the month. It's a busy time of year, but I hope to have something to submit by the October 19th deadline.


This is probably one of the worst pictures I could have taken of this kit, but I didn't realize it until the picture was downloaded. You'll just have to wait for better ones.

Day 256

My jewelry partner-in-crime and I met up at the Northwest Bead Society Bead Bazaar today and spent a good four hours exploring the booths and chatting with our favorite beading ladies. Last year I didn't buy anything, but I made up for it this year with purchases at three different shops.


I'm very excited about all of my purchases, but what I love the most are the glass pieces in the upper left corner. These are from a company called Loot!, and made by a local gal who has been doing glass work for over 11 years. She's found a way to take art glass that cannot be recycled and turn it into these gorgeous pieces. I'm currently planning to make a charm type bracelet, and I can't wait to play around with it.

Day 255

We took the boys to the circus this morning, and it was a ton of fun. I have never been to the circus, so I think I was nearly as excited as they were.

It was a good show full of loads of animals, acrobatics, and silly antics. I was surprised by how many of the stereotypical things of the circus that they actually did like shooting a person (or two) out of a canon.

The photo for today is of the elephants in one of those classic circus poses. Sadly, after this my camera died, so I missed out on pictures of the tigers.

Day 254

I'm sitting here eating my dinner and blogging while my boys are cruising the bookstore. We had an errand to run this evening, so we decided to grab dinner. The boys ordered pizza by the slice while I ordered a yummy Italian chop chop salad.

They were nearly finished with their food by the time I received mine, so now they're browsing the bookstore while munch away in peace (aside from the computer lunatic behind me).

This salad is somehow even tastier. ;)

Day 253

The boys and I met up with auntie and cousins at the park today. We couldn't pass up on one of the last days of summer. Since Matt has no fear, he requires constant supervision to make sure he doesn't try anything dangerous, so most of my pictures are of him.

I especially liked this one because I realized I accidentally captured an image of myself taking the picture in the reflection of the plastic dome.

Day 252

Grandma and I took my youngest to the park for a bit after I got off work. It was such a nice day, it would have been a waste to not spend at least some time outside. We were pushing Matt in one of the swings. A few times, I'd catch the swing and hold him in place for a few seconds, which he thought was hysterical. It also gave me the opportunity to catch his little eye peeking out at me through the openings in the back.

I thought it made for a kind of artistic, creative photo.

Day 251

For this school year the routine is that my mother-in-law takes care of the kids on Tuesdays while I'm at work. This morning she had a doctor's appointment, so I met up with her to watch the kids for an hour or so. While I was waiting for her and the boys to arrive, I realized I had a pretty cool view from the fourth floor of the medical building, so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

Day 250

In a classic case of "I thought he was with you", my little guy got into some bead work I was doing and managed to spill the beads I had all over the floor. Fortunately, I only had a couple dozen seed beads out loose. There were a few bright pink beads, but most of them were this khaki, light brown color.

I was surprised to discover that the khaki beads that almost matched my carpet were much easier to locate than the bright pink ones. I think I found most of them, but I'm not too stressed about it since they're only seed beads and my project is almost complete.

Day 249

Tonight we met up with some of our really good friends to celebrate a birthday. The birthday boy chose The Rock for dinner, and it was a great time. The pizza was good and the company was awesome. As always, it's fun to share a meal with friends.

Day 248

We took the boys to the fair after naps this afternoon. When we left the house, it looked like it was about to pour on us, but we avoided any rain at all. The sun even came out for a little while. It seems like we might have lucked out because the rest of the weekend looks pretty stormy.

Day 247

This afternoon Paul received a piece of mail from his new PreK teacher. It was a picture of his first day at school. I have yet to see this gal without the camera around. I think she's going to be my kind of teacher. ;)

Day 246

Over Christmas I got a screaming deal on a new Vera Bradley purse. I've used it all spring and summer, but it's a little bit on the small side. I've been keeping an eye out for free shipping so I could get a little bit larger purse. Late last week they had free shipping again combined with a pretty great deal on a very large bag.

Ever since I received the Daisy Daisy pattern for my birthday, I've been wanting to get a bag in this now discontinued pattern. I bought the Morgan purse and the Super Tote in the Daisy Daisy. To round out my minimum purchase, I also bought the Tech Case in Mod Floral Blue that I've been eying since I considered the last round of free shipping.

I received my new bags yesterday, and I love them. The Morgan is a great size for my new everyday purse. The Tech Case is perfect for my camera. I'm not sure yet if I'll always be in my bag, or if I'll just use it when I'm carrying around my wallet and camera.

But I love the Super Tote. This bag will be perfect for my next quilt, a mommy overnight, or taking kids clothes to swimming. But since I don't quilt and probably won't see a mommy overnight for ages, it'll probably just be for toting swimming stuff - or at least it would be if the kids were in swimming. No matter what I use it for, I really like the size of this bag and have been looking for something this size for a long time.

Day 245

I have been stalking craigslist for a train table for probably about a month now. It's for the boys for Christmas this year. I wanted to look early so I would avoid the rush and hopefully not be paying inflated rates or fighting for one.

I managed to find a gal less than a mile from my work, with a table that exactly met what I was looking for, for a reasonable price. The table is in excellent condition, and I couldn't be more pleased.

It will be hanging out in the warehouse at work for the next few months - right next to the stove my sister picked up for free from one of my parent's neighbors last week.

Day 244

I've had these beads for two years now. I bought them at the Puget Sound Bead Festival in 2007. I bought the ceramic beads and then went home and picked out the Swarovski crystals in Jonquil from Artbeads. When I received the crystals, I put it together like I had envisioned.

And it was too long.

I put it away for a long time and recently re-discovered it. Tonight, I played around a bit with crystal sizes and found a smaller clasp. I'm pleased with the results, and happy to have one more project completed.