Pieces of Me

I am so excited to be participating in Karen Russell's photography workshop again. I took her workshop in summer of 2009 and didn't fully participate in the assignments or the critiques. A huge loss on my part, not just from the financial standpoint but from the amount of information and feedback Karen gives in her workshop. This time around I fully intend to take advantage of Karen's knowledge and critiques. I will ask the questions I need to ask to take my photos to the next level. I will complete the weekly assignments and post my photos.

This is a DO.

project life

Last year I embarked on a Project 365--a photo a day for a year. The plan was take a photo every day, upload it to a special blog and Flickr, print it out and put into an album with some journaling and ephemera. While I mostly succeeded with the photo a day thing, uploading to my blog dropped off sometime in February and the album gathered dust after April.

Part of the problem with the album, I think, is that is was just too complicated, requiring way too much thought. Which papers? Which journaling cards? Should every week in any given month coordinate with the other weeks? Should I use a coordinating line for the entire year? I was overwhelmed by the possibilities.

Enter 2011 and Project Life.

I had been reading all about it on Becky Higgins blog, read about how Ali was doing it, read the glowing reviews. I was wondering if I should jump on board. I am not normally a matchy-matchy, all one coordinating line kind of girl but since my previous attempt was less than successful due to too many choices, I ordered up my own Project Life, amber edition.

I like it. I do. It is kind of matchy-matchy for me. I like the colors if maybe not all the patterns. I will probably change out the album to match the rest of my Library of Memories albums (American Craft albums). But I like the concept of simplicity. Take a photo, document a story (either a little or alot) for the day and move on. My plan is not to mess too much with my photos in Lightroom; adjust exposure (if needed), sharpen and print. No photo overlays, no date .pngs. Simple.

That's my plan, anyway.

Are you doing a Project 365 or Project Life this year? What works for you?

disneyland

Yes, that's us--my whole crew--at Goofy's Kitchen in Disneyland. It was Bella's birthday and she wanted to celebrate at Disneyland (since her little sister celebrated her birthday there last year.) And since her Papa can't say no to her, there we were, less than a week after coming back from Lake Tahoe, at Disneyland. We had a wonderful time as usual. No rain and no fog in Los Angeles. Not too cold at night. I was happy to be out of the valley. We stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel, which gives their guests excellent access to both parks and a great view of the nightly fireworks.

Of course, every time we come to Disneyland, my daughter swears that this trip will the last one for a while. Maybe...

what I'm doing in 2011

In selecting DO as my One Little Word for 2011, it comes with the assumption that I will be doing something. So here it is, my list of do's for this year:

Do eat better. I will striving to have a green salad everyday, a fruit and/or vegetable with every meal, and try one new food a week. (You will notice there is no mention of eliminating my Starbucks addiction from my diet. I will, however, resist the temptation to up-size to their new trente size.) For the most part, I eat pretty well. I could do better.

The other thing with eating better? Lose some weight (again). It is a sad realization that I can longer eat the way I used to in my twenties, thirties or even early forties! The reality is, I'm in mid-life. The total amount of food I can consume and still maintain my weight is incredibly small. In Weight Watchers jargon that is 29 points (under their new plan). That's a do. As in, do rejoin Weight Watchers. Actually, I've already done this about three weeks ago; I dislike being so predictable as to join at the beginning of a new year! Weight Watchers works for me when I stick to it. I like being able to track my food. I like being able to eat whatever I want because really, eating so-called diet foods will only carry you along so far. Eventually you will have to face down that pan of brownies. (And they have 6 points each.) I'm not really sure how their new zero points for fruits and vegetables is going to work out for me; I will have to get back to you on that one.

Do start a yoga practice. About ten years ago I was really into yoga. I attended yoga classes three to four times a week. It was (and still is) the solitary practice that I enjoyed. Non-competitive. A way to get inside myself and quiet down all those voices. Last Christmas (not the one which just past, the one before that) my daughter gave me a gift certificate for a series of ten classes at a local yoga studio. I am ashamed to say that I let it sit unused until now. Next week I will start a yoga class. I am looking forward to it.

These are my top three for now. Back later with more.

let it snow

Intent on doing something "different" this New Year's weekend, my daughter decided we should all go up to Lake Tahoe for the holiday weekend. I think I've mentioned before that our family has a place near Meyers so finding a place to stay during the holiday wasn't the problem. Nevermind that a BIG storm went through earlier last week and Meyers didn't have any electrical power for nearly 36 hours. An early morning text to my brother already up there with his crew confirmed that the power had come on sometime during the night and, hooray!, there was heat again.

No, the problem was me. I don't like the snow, I don't like being cold. I don't like driving in the snow. And I especially don't like going over the summit on Interstate 50 in the snow. I didn't want to go. Period. My daughter knew that I didn't want to go; she knew I was putting off making a decision until the very last minute. And at the very last minute, I relented, packed my bags and the SUV and off we all went.

Let me tell you why I relented at last.

Yes, Isabella and Alaina had never been to the snow before and Isabella felt that she missing a key childhood experience by not having played in the snow. She's seven.That's not way I changed my mind.

And yes, Alaina's goal was to make a snowman and a snow angel. And have me take photos of her. But that's not why either.

And yes, my crew, my hubby, my daughter and son-in-law wanted to go sking and snow-boarding and sledding and blah, blah, blah.

Sigh. Nope, not that either.

I did it because my One Little Word this year is DO. As in GO and DO. So I went. And I strapped on my snowshoes and trekked up the hill. And I went to Sierra-at-Tahoe and watched my girlies ski for the first time. And I watched them sled down the hill, make snow angels and build a snowman. And had a happy new year's day.

go and do

 

Happy New Year!