reflections in a dirty mirror

I'm learning to use my camera. Very, verrrry slowly. I haven't played with it as much as I'd like and it confuses me...but I'm sure it will click (ha, ha) someday. So here I am, gazing in a dirty bathroom mirror...reflecting on who I am, who I want to be, what I what to do better at, what I can let go of (like clean mirrors).

more on pillows (and some photos)

These couch throw pillow covers were pretty much shot and I was ready for a change anyway, so I ripped out the old zippers to re-use and got some fabric out of my stash.  I finished one pillow Saturday and was ready to finish the second pillow when I couldn't find the second zipper.  I looked everywhere and nada.  Then this morning as I was emptying the laundry hamper, there it was (Calvin!).  So I finished the second pillow.  Aside from the zipper ripping-out and the missing zipper for 2 days, these were quick and easy.

Now I'm thinking about re-covering the larger pillows that came with the couch, they're pretty blah.

Rob took some pics last week--mostly black and white--see the set here.

i love old buildings & other stuff

I had such a lovely day yesterday!  Hooped it up in the morning, then Rob and I went on a date downtown, taking pictures of this old school and this building on the circle.  See more at my flickr photo set here.

Then I went to the NPA dinner at Matteo's and it was so nice.  I got to see my dear friend Lynell (read about her halfway down).  She lost her husband Pat a month ago.  The last memory I have of Pat was at the home tour when their home was on and I went to tour it.  He was pointing out the work they'd had done on the exterior of their beautiful home. 

She told me they took every day as fresh and new and lived it up.  They really did.  Not that they never had rough times, they certainly did and sometimes wanted to throttle each other, but they lived to have no regrets.  And they didn't.  That kind of energy is contagious.  That is how I want to live, yes.  Yes, yes, yes.

NPA auctioned off a women's work crew and I am on it.  Lynell won it.  I am so excited to go digging in the earth with a very special woman.  And I and another member bid on the men's work crew and won it!  We're splitting the time, making it much more financially feasible for us.  I want to re-do the sidewalks in the backyard in brick.  I need to find a ton of brick now.  Perhaps tons.

I am writing a special feature for the Current and am so excited.  I think I'm finding my calling.  I also have a pack of women to run with, thanks to this article, and we're meeting in March.  Yeah!  Oh, and I have an awesome husband.  He went to the library last week and looked up a book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes that I have never read and he thought I'd like.  That he would do that really touched me.  He gets me.

Play and a Study in Photography

I took these pictures of Eric and Lily playing the other night and Calvin and Lily playing today.  I love their little dollhouse still lifes and how absorbed they get in play.

 I still don't know how to really use this new camera.  It's VERY intimidating to me, yet I know that when I understand it I will be able to do so much with it.  I need to learn how to shoot in manual.  Our friend who is a photographer took these pictures with it at a coffee shop. 

These five shots of Rob are so different.  I have no idea how this was done!

Couldn't I just capture what he knows and put it in my brain?  That would be sooo much easier.