365 Project - the last twenty days!

I feel like I have been beating a dead horse by showing you all my photo's for 2009, but this is it folks.......the finally 20 days of the year!

I hope that in showing you my 365 project that you have been inspired to start your own picture a day project in 2010.

To join in all you need to do is start taking pictures everyday. No need to sign up.

How you share your project is up to you.

Many of the 365 bloggers I visit have a blog dedicated to their 365 project, but it isn't necessary.

I hope you will join me in 2010!

Have a safe New Year's Eve!

365 Project - 3rd Installment

Only two more days left in this year's 365 picture a day project!

I present you with the days of my life between August 14th and December 11th.

Charge up the batteries in your camera.......2010 is almost here!

Happy Wordful Wednesday!

Scroll down to see days 1 thru 225!

365 Project - 2nd installment!

So, you're thinking of doing the 365 photo a day project in 2010? Here is some advice on making it through the project:

1. Always keep a camera with you.
When you grab your car keys, grab your camera bag!

2. Don't feel that every picture has to be a work of art.
Some of my most treasured shots are the ones that captured our daily lives (see day 120). The project should reflect your life and let's face it, sometimes life is boring.

Don't let those uninspiring days drag you down. Just when I would feel like quitting I would get a great shot that would make me happy I didn't give up.

I present to you April 11th through August 13th.

Several people have asked how I created these collages.

I used Picnik.com.

I am not getting paid to say this, but as far as online editing software goes, Picnik is awesome! You can create the collage in PS3 but it is so much easier to use Picnik.

Basic services on Picnik are free, but you have to pay to use the upgraded features. It is really inexpensive. So treat yourself.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My 365 Photo a Day Project -1st installment

It is hard for me to believe that there are only fourteen (and a half) days left in my 365 picture a day project.

As hard as it is to believe, I have a daily photo as proof that my year just flew by. Three hundred and fifty one days of proof to be exact. I look back at each photograph I have taken this year and in some ways it feels like I took each shot just the other day.

Then I recall what was going on in the photograph and I feel miles away from the day I took it.

I was going to wait until the end of the year to share all 365 photo's, but seeing that many pictures at once is......over whelming!

So I am going to share them in smaller clumps until the end of the year. Here are the first 100 days of my project. Starting with January 1st and ending on April 10.

If you love taking pictures as much as I do, I highly recommend starting your own 365 picture a day project. It really isn't as hard as it might seem.

In the next few installments I will share tips and advice on how I managed to capture everyday this year in photo's.

WW - Christmas tradition

When I was a child my mom would only put a few presents under the tree before Christmas. They were usually gifts that relatives sent in the mail and were so few that they really didn't make a big impression on us.

The bulk of our gifts remained hidden in my moms massive closet and didn't make there appearance until after we were sound asleep on Christmas eve.

It was so exciting to get up Christmas morning and see all of the presents spilling out from under the once present barren tree.

This is a tradition that I have continued with my own girls.

Typically I procrastinate and end up wrapping (cursing) all of their gifts on Christmas eve. I am not doing that again this year. See.....I already started!

So my bloggy friends inquiring minds want to know.
What is your Christmas present displaying preference?

Head over to 7 clown circus for more Wordful Wednesdays!

****I stamped the tags using clear set from Inkadinkado. Would you believe that I didn't even realize the tag said it was from Santa until I went to write down their names. Those are their Christmas Eve presents, not a gift from Santa (I'll have to fix that).

WW - German Decorations

Happy Wordful Wednesday!

Like the proverbial Halloween Costume shots in October, I now give you the proverbial Christmas decorations shots for December.

During my moms many trips to Europe she brought us back wooden decorations from the Chriskindlesmarkt in Germany.

Here are a few of my favorites.

This Santa is a incense smoker. It kind of feels wrong watching Santa smoke, but it is so neat seeing the stream of smoke trail out of his cookie hole.

I'd show you, but I ran out of incense cones.

These adorable carolers have a candle on either end. I never used to burn the candles because I was worried I wouldn't be able to find new ones. Last year I found some similar candles at Cost Plus so now I can burn baby burn.

This cutie is sitting on what is called a pyramid.

You light the candles and the heat causes the windmill to spin the center people and make them really dizzy.

The two pyramids we have are actually for my girls. Would it be wrong of me not to remind them of that fact when they move out on their own?

I hope you enjoyed viewing a few of my favorite German decorations.

Now head over to Angies to see what everyone else is showing off!

Merry Sitsmas

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas on this Merry Sitsmas kind of a day!

And of course a Happy 2010!

Baby Steps!

My blog is under construction (finally)! I have been wanting to ditch the old background for eons, but I have been holding on to the old look because I dread making design decisions.

Well, I am finally taking the plunge because I was lucky enough to win a flashing blog header from Jenny at Through Jenny's Lens.

However, I am totally dragging my feet picking the pictures for the new header. Looking over my 10,000's pictures makes me realize what a perfectionist I am. Why? Because I look at all of my photo's and I don't find any of them worthy of a cool new header.

Sigh! I know that I seriously need to get over it, because they don't have to be perfect shots (oh that is hard to type).

So I am taking baby steps by putting up this quickly created header (by me) and changing the blog layout/size (thanks to Jenny).

If you don't know Jenny, head over to her blog and check out her header.

It is so cool!

Photo Hunt #5 Challenge is here!

The 5th installment of
Kristi's Photo Hunt Challenges is here!

This will be my third Challenge and let me tell you, it is a lot fun to participate in Kristi's photo hunts!

There were so many great shots submitted for Challenge #4.

Click HERE to view Kristi's top picks!
(I think you can still vote on which shot is your favorite)

Scroll down to see this months list and then click HERE to find out all the deets!

Here is the list:

1. Holiday Lights
2. Holiday Spirit
3. A Holiday Treat
4. An Ornament
5. A Gift-Wrapped Package
6. A Window Display
7. A Winter/Holiday Icon
8. A Tree
9. A Tradition
10.Something that says Noel
11. Something Precious
12. Something Peaceful
13. Something Hot
14. Something Cold
15. Something Red
16. Something Green
17. Motion blur
18. Black & White Photo (with selective coloring)
19. Any photo using an Infrared Photography Technique (in-camera OR post-process)
20. A Macro Shot

WW - It's beginning......

............to look a lot like Christmas!

Xena and I took a walk around La Jolla this morning.

Here are just a few of the snaps I took of the Christmas decorations on display.

So, how many of you have your Christmas decorations up?