Fantastic Fours

My friend Maggie has tagged me for the four things meme...so here goes!

Four jobs you've had in your life
1.) Babysitter
2.) Waitress (I'm sorry if you're the customer I spilled the entire tray of water on...I am SO sorry.)
3.) Mail room helper (probably my favorite job EVER)
4.) Teacher

Four movies that you would watch over and over:
1.) Ocean's Eleven
2.) Notting Hill (my first date with H)
3.) Harry Potter (ANY of them)
4.) Narnia (I just watched the complete movie with my students. I can not wait to see it again.)

Four places you've lived: (in order and not all the places I've lived)
1.) Clarksville, TN
2.) Perry, GA
3.) Bowling Green, KY
4.) Muscogee, OK

Four TV shows that you love to watch (or used to watch):
1.) NCIS
2.) Numbers
3.) Criminal Minds
4.) CSI/CSI:Miami (don't like CSI:NY as much as the others, but will watch it)

Four places you've been on vacation:
1.) Washington, DC
2.) Chicago
3.) San Francisco
4. ) Disney World (Orlando, FL)

Four websites you visit daily:
1.) Splitcoaststampers
2.) All my bloggy friends
3.) Stampin' Up!
4.) My local news station

Four of your favorite foods
1.) Mexican
2.) Cheesy Chicken Soup
3.) Mexican
4.) Grilled Cheese
5.) Mexican...oh, wait...only four foods. Sorry.

Four places you would rather be right now:
1.) Snuggled in my bed
2.) Savannah (Watch out...we'll be there tomorrow)
3.) Rocking M
4.) Snuggled on my couch knitting

Five people I’m tagging:
1.) Andi
2.) Melody
3.) Golightly
4.) Kyla
5.) Zach

PS: Don't forget to check out this post. It's open until Sunday evening...then I'm drawing names!

Theme Thursday: Focus

Focus is such a great theme. In fact, each theme that Tracey (the previous hostess) or Stacy suggest are fantastic themes. There are a thousand ways to interpret focus, which makes is what makes it so interesting. M LOVES to paint. Crayons? Fine. Markers? Better. Paint? Squeals and bouncing for joy. She would paint for hours if I let her. Here she is extremely "focus"ed on her work.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee, schedule a some quiet time in your schedule today, and browse through Stacy's comments. It just might help you find your focus today.

PS: Check out one post below...I'm offering a fun treasure!

302nd Post

Ooops...I missed the 300th Post, so I'm offered this fun treasure now. I can't believe I've been blogging long enough to have 300 posts! In honor of you, my dear blog friends, I'll give away one package of handmade initial cards (6 cards) if you leave a comment. Your comment must include the initial you want on the cards and a funny word that begins with that initial. (C: cunning) Please include an e-mail address so I can get in touch with you.

Pass the word... This is fun!!!

Natalie

MBS

A perfect new life. Miracle.

For other MBS, visit Mother May I?

Creativity

My creative juices are running super hot and super cold. I'm either at one extreme or the other. For Theme Thursday: Books, I had NOTHING to offer. I had visions, but just couldn't get them to materialize. However, for the letter challenge, I could have snapped away all day. I'm loving the 365 Project. That's usually something I'll start, but give up on rather quickly. I really think this is something I can follow through to the very end. I've already learned so many little things and my relationship with my camera is deepening with each click.

There is another MAJOR thing I'm learning about myself as I work on simplifying: sometimes it is SOOO much easier to deal with the status quo than to change. Because I've lived with chaos for so long, I find I'm struggling with some aspects of this change in my life. I'm not one who resists change; I don't think I welcome it with open arms, but I'm fully aware that change happens all the time in life. With the idea of simplify, I just wanted my life to improve, not continue in a downward spiral into complete chaos. I'm having the hardest time dealing with all my STUFF. And truly, I since cleaning my desk, I haven't done much else to declutter this house. I'm keeping the sewing table clean and my desk is moderately clean. I just can't seem to tackle any other projects. Everything is a bit overwhelming.

On a positive note: just by cleaning those two small areas (my sewing table and my desk), I've found that creative place in me that was dormant for so long. I can't even imagine what will happen when I get the rest of the house under control!

Here are two projects that I've wanted to do and finally completed:

This is a journal to write my Phrase Friday quotes in during the week. I've found myself at a loss so many times on Friday morning when I want to post something sweet I've heard. Now I'll have a place to write it down. I also have a space for simplify ideas or photos and for blog ideas. As I completed the journal, I thought of two great 365 Project challenges, so I jotted them down. The journal doesn't LOOK quite like I envisioned, but it will serve its purpose. And what goes in is far more important than what it looks like.

This is a small canvas that I made so I had a visual reminder to simplify. It sort of took on a life of it's own as I worked on it. It looks NOTHING like I thought it would, but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm not sure where I'll keep it. Now it's on my desk. I'll definitely keep it in my "office" so I can focus on it when I need a reminder.

I hosted Stampin' Saturday yesterday with my stampin' club girls. I meant to take a picture of the sweet Valentine's Day cards we made, but I didn't. I'll take a picture and post it soon.

My friend, Ana, had her super precious baby boy last night. We were able to get to the hospital this morning to see him. He's beautiful and perfect. And boy did he ever ignite that baby fever in me. Sometimes I can supress the heat, but holding him caused an inferno in my blood!

365 Project

Math at school: lots of manipulatives as students are learning to subtract with and without regrouping!

Another image of the letters on my overhead. That was such a fun project.

A tad bit unusual. M was so cute in her car seat one afternoon. I couldn't resist trying to take a picture in the little mirror I have to look at her. She likes to play "peek-a-boo" in the mirror. She'll look all around and wait until she catches my eye in the mirror. "Mommy! Pee-a-boo!"

These aren't dated because I don't remember exactly which day I took these pictures. I know I only posted six this week, but I took LOTS of pictures at school this week that reveal a little bit too much about my class that I feel might violate the privacy of my students. I'm just a too uncomfortable posting them on this semi-anonymous blog. I hope you understand that.

I'm not sure I want to give myself a challenge this week. I want to continue working on composition and becoming a more artistic photographer. Hm...maybe I'll give myself an easy challenge: take a picture of the every day things this week. The things we do every day: feeding the dog, brushing our teeth, cooking dinner. One little problem I'm noticing is that when I post pictures during the week, I don't want to repost the same images for 365 Project. While I DEFINITELY took more than 7 pictures this week, I only like a few from the same situation or setting. I think I'll also try taking only ONE picture of each every day thing I want to post...that really increases the challenge. I have to purposefully capture the image I want. Oh, yes...that will be my challenge: to take ONE picture each day of our every day life and post those--terrible, great, artistic, boring. I can take other pictures, but only ONE for 365 Project.

365 Project

Sunday, January 20. Really worked on composition and getting an unusual angle. I zoomed in close and got close to the table to take this image. I like this.

Monday, January 21. Got down LOW on the floor to get this image. I like the perspective. If I had my druthers, I'd unclutter the background so M and her best buddy, Noah, were more prominent. The other thing that works in this image is the light coming through the window. Not normally something I like, but I do like it in this picture.

Tuesday, January 22. I like the shallow DOF in this image. Again, zoomed in close, got rid of some distracting background. I'm learning how much I can zoom and still get my camera to respond. Also, M was eating noodles for the first time. Had to capture that on digital film for posterity.