A trip to the Garden

Georgia and I are headed to the Chicago Botanic Garden today, after we have a hot breakfast somewhere nearby (I'm scoping things out now).



We hope to have a day full of running around with our cameras, enjoying the weather (please cooperate!), and having a few laughs (or more). I'll be posting my results later this week on vivid.



UPDATE: This has since been postponed to next week, due to our crazy Chicago weather. But I'll be sure to share pix after we visit!

Color Week

Barren Tree, Vivid Blue Scarf


I'm having fun participating in Color Week (see more about it here). Check out my daily posts at vivid. Today is Blue Monday, but I'm not feeling so blue, that's for sure. It's sunny, somewhat warm, and I'm about to meet Georgia for lunch and lots of picture takin'!

Speaking of which, I'm going to suck down the rest of this coffee and hop in the shower. Hope you have a great Monday!

Monday, Monday

I've been busy mowing the lawn and running errands today, but my consolation prize was to take oodles of flower pictures afterward, which I am uploading to my computer as I write this. The highlights will appear on vivid and the rest on Flickr.



In the meantime, here's a pic of the shoes I wore on Mother's Day, since I haven't posted shoe pix in a while.

Capturing the moment

I'm grateful that there are times when I'm able to grab my camera and squeeze off a few shots before the moment has passed. I don't necessarily get award-winning pix, but I do get some memorable shots that make me smile.



I happened to be passing by when I spotted Max sitting quietly in our dining room, gazing outside, bathed in sunlight. I whirled around, grabbed my Alpha, and took a few pix.



Max was startled by my presence and didn't stay still very long, perhaps a few seconds, and then moved on.



But I got a few pix out of the moment anyway. This sort of thing makes my day.

(P.S. Check out vivid, where I have posted more photos taken of Max, Dollie, and the crazy construction in my dining room.)

Snowy rush hour hell

(Pete looking rather intense on the way home on his driving shift, during our three-hour snowy commute. Not pictured: My glassy-eyed terrified expression, nor the permanent death grip impressions on the seat arms from my hands.)



I only recently got home from work, so I am getting to the blog stuff very, very late tonight. Yes, it took Pete and me three hours to get home! Normally (on a good day) it's a 45 min. ride, so needless to say we're crabby and tired (but home safe).

I'll be reading all my favorite blogs tomorrow night, so if you haven't seen me lately, never fail, I'll be stopping by tomorrow night. In the meantime, stop by vivid to check out the pix from our loooong drive home tonight. Hope you're warm and dry wherever you are!

My lazy day off

I had rather lofty goals for today, but after driving Pete to work this morning before dawn, I realized I was tired and still run down, as I have been for over a week now. So I headed back to bed and slept a few more hours, with Spanky and Adora keeping me company. When I got up, I grabbed my iPhone and started playing, just like Claire suggested (thanks, Claire). It was fun, spontaneous, and I felt a little like my old creative self again.

I'm still moving a bit slow, but I am planning on swinging by Target to get a few supplies, then heading to Gottlieb Hospital to greet the newest member of the family. More about that tomorrow, but in the meantime, here are a few photos of our lazy morning in bed. See more at vivid.

On a much happier note...

Guess what arrived at my local Wolf Camera on special order for me yesterday? My Olympus Stylus 1010 in an absolutely lovely blue color! It's so pretty in person, even the salesman oohed and ahhed over it when I opened the box (he hadn't seen a blue one before). I've already been going nutty tinkering with my new toy since I picked it up from the camera store. I'm one of those people that just tears open a box and starts using something, then goes back to the instructions later only if I have a question or problem. And then I usually sit down and read the instructions cover to cover a few days later anyhow, because it's so exciting to absorb everything and anything about my new gadget. Are you like that?

Anyhow, I can't wait to start using this little puppy. I have been having fun with my iPhone and all the cool effects from Camera Bag, but the camera on the iPhone itself is very limited in what it can do. When I was shooting in my parents' yard the other day, I couldn't do much more than squat in front of what I was photographing and take a picture. No zoom, no wide angle, and a minimum focusing distance of about a foot or so (I'm guessing). So I've been fighting to limit the number of blurry pictures I've been taking, but it's hard with that camera (hence the latest abstracts, ha ha). Don't get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with my iPhone, and I'll definitely keep using it and Camera Bag, too (I LOVE Camera Bag!). But I've been anticipating the arrival of this little blue camera since my birthday back in early September, so it's been a loooong time coming. What a nice surprise after the huge disappointment at the polling center.

Watch for lots and lots of pictures to start popping up on vivid during the next few days as I play with my new toy!

(P.S. I gave you a link to B & H for the camera because they have better prices and super fast shipping compared to Wolf. I just happened to order my camera at Wolf since I was there last week checking out other stuff.)

vivid

I've been busy tonight putting together my photography blog called vivid, which is where these abstracts have been recently been posted. I created vivid so that I could have a forum to share my photos with everyone, and to challenge myself to become more creative and prolific with my photography (besides the usual family snapshots). Vivid will feature everything from abstracts (like the ones above), to people and pets, to landscapes and nature in general. Information on the photos themselves, like technical and place/time details, will be included with each post, so you can see what I was doing with my camera(s).

I suppose whatever strikes my fancy, I'll photograph, right? So stop by and check it out if you like. I plan to post new photos regularly, and as always, I invite comments and questions. I'm still tinkering with it a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking right now. Vivid is a fun venture for me, and is just one more avenue for my creative urges, which are usually stifled at my day job...

As for my nightly guilty pleasure of blog reading, I'll have to pick up where I left off yesterday. It's been a hectic night and I only just finished posting pictures to vivid. And thanks to everyone who has been leaving such kind comments on this blog. I love sharing my life and interests with people, so I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far. And thanks for checking out ShoeLove, too! I'll be back tomorrow night on my usual blog reading schedule. See you then!

(P.S. Yes, I did change my profile pic again... I guess I just have all these new ideas and can't settle on one thing I like. Right now, it's the camera!)