going home...

today, i pack up and head back to Connecticut.

my vacation is over, got to leave the cape and go back to work...

i miss my cats, i miss my house, i miss the woods and the river at home.

but i don't want to leave here.

here, i feel a little bit more calm, more peaceful. 

once i get back, work feels different.   i work from the cape and its definitely work, not play.  but it feels a bit less intense, a bit less frenetic.  when i get home, work takes over and i squeeze life in, around it.  when i'm here at the cape, life comes first, and i also work. 

there is a lesson for me in those two sentences. 

the location i work from is not the deal, my attitude is what makes the difference.

i think that lesson could change my life if i can remember it when i get back home.

triplets...

this week, the beyond layers challenge was to create one image, three different ways. 
this fed my indecisiveness and probably wasn't good for me :)
eight images later, i struggled with narrowing it down to three.

double the fun

so this week has been intense...
it started out with the challenge to take self portraits on the beyond layers course with kim klassen.
 

my twin sister and i have done

the hold-the-camera out in front of ourselves

for the past few years

 and have loved having the pics to look back at.

so i thought this would not only be fun,

but a great project to do for a year. 

i called my sister, marilyn, and we decided that

we'd each do it individually for 365 days. 

it was a big commitment for each of us but it felt right.

we're 57 yrs old and looking for what we're calling 'fulfillment over fifty' and this seemed like a great starting point.  who are we, at 57? 

day 1 was a good time - we both liked it alot. we sent images back and forth through the beauty of cell phones.  fun stuff :)

day 2 was still ok -

the project seemed do-able, the pics were still fun...

i created a new blog to keep track of it all. 

and i was looking forward to day 3...

day 3 was a horror story. 
we both started to realize we have gotten older. 
good grief, we may even have gotten freaking old. 
and that f-word is the cleaned-up freaking (again, cleaned-up...) version. 
no amount of blurriness, or over-exposure was going to hide the fact, from myself anyway...
day 3 hurt.
 neither one of us was ready to give up the project but i can say that body parts other than my freaking (yes, again...) face were going to be center stage all year long.

day 4, i was wiser. 

feet do not look old,

when they are covered with shoes...

and i actually love this picture. 

day 5 was Friday. 

Friday the 13th.  i had concerns. 

my self-esteem was shaky.   i didn't want to feel like i looked old anymore. 

on the other hand, i can't take pictures of my feet all year.  and i really wanted the year to be a learning experience, showing me to myself, finding out who i have grown into.  

i had taken more than 100 pictures of myself this week. 

some i liked, some i hated but i did learn stuff. 

i learned like to walk.  and i need to get a haircut. 

and i can hide the belly fat at this time of year.

all good things to know... 

so i went for another walk at the river to find a good picture for how i was feeling... 

i wandered the roads and pathways, looking for something that would speak to me. nothing seemed meaningful. as i turned around to walk back to the car, thinking i would go home and take a picture of my hands with a beer in each one of them, i walked into the fading light of the day.  and all of a sudden, it seemed perfect.  utterly perfect. 

me, from behind, walking into the light...  

it felt like a picture of what i want to get out of this year. 

i loved it. 

i went home and drank the two beers, in honor of my breakthrough :)

and then, one last picture, to finish the week of painful growth...

 enhanced with kim's textures and brush.

thank you for the week of wisdom. i think :)

me myself i...

who i am today...

i set the self-timer, but didn't focus correctly. 

for today, i think it works :)  

 matter of fact, i just might go through the entire week without my glasses

so everything is soft-focus. 

i like it :)

if not NOW, then when...

on monday, kim's challenge for the beyond layers class was to work on reducing procrastination,

 not only in the artistic side of life but in every other aspect also.  

all week, i thought i embraced the thought thoroughly.

i DID instead of planning on doing.

i shot the 'word of the day' on photo hunt on facebook every day. and i posted them. 

i got a lot done at work that i'd been putting off, including my expense report (!). 

i even took a walk one morning,

instead of depending on pacing when on the phone to get my exercise. 

i was feeling pretty confident that i had put aside procrastinating for the week, at least...

on friday night, i was determined to continue to GET THINGS DONE. 

the photo challenge for the B/L class was 'pastels'.

and the word of the day on fbk was 'simple'. 

in my quest to get things done, i was going to do a simple pastel :) 

multi-tasking was the deal.

i went and bought some flowers, pulled out an antique vase

and set up the picture in the setting sun at the back door. 

the sun was fading fast and timing was critical,

if i was going to get the shot i had planned in my head. 

but pony had a different plan.  

he wanted to participate. 

no amount of holding him with one hand, shooting with the other hand, was going to work. 

he wanted to smell the flowers. 

finally, i had to let him, just to get it over with. 

and there was the shot i needed.

but bigger than that was the lesson that i needed...

i was on a mission to do, do, DO...

it took kim's message of 'if not NOW, then when?'

combined with pony's insistence on 'stop to smell the flowers' to get through to me. 

sometimes it is time to stop.

sometimes doing isn't everything. 

because sometimes its about appreciation, not action.  

life happens in those moments and it's oh-so-easy to miss them...

appreciating the simple pleasures is what gives a life the sweet moments of joy,

and we all (even pony) need some joy right about now
because...

if not now, then when???

picture enhanced with NOW texture from kim klassen, along with multiple adjustment layers

and a framed effect

soft surroundings...

the Texture Tuesday challenge this week is SOFT...

 

all images were enhanced with Kim Klassen's textures,

including little things, grungedup, plaster squared, not-too-shabby.

you can follow Kim at http://www.kimklassencafe.com/thecafe/

orange day

today, the word to photograph was orange...

my first thought was that orange is not an easy word to find in spring,

much easier to find in summer or fall. 

but it was sunday,

i was off of work and looking for orange was a better option

than cleaning the house. so i went for a ride :)

within minutes of hitting the road, i saw a robin with an orange breast...

it flew away too soon but spooked a hawk which flew right up in front of me -

how's that for orange day??

but i really was looking for flowers today

and orange flowers in spring are not that common.

after wandering along the river,

i ended up in a small neighborhood where the residents apparently love to garden :) 

i found a single tulip and lucky for me, it was a deep rich orange...

and across the street, i found those daffodils that have the orange faces :)

these little beauties brought a smile to my face and life to a gray day...

images enhanced with textures from Kim Klassen at http://www.kimklassencafe.com/thecafe/