{ Welcome 2015 }

It's going to be a great year, I know it! We've got a new house which we're slowly moving in to. A new grandchild will be coming in July. One daughter will be graduating from veterinary school, the first doctor in our family!

 

I know it will be a busy year but I'm determined to find more time for my crafts. I want to complete some quilts that have been on my list for some time and I want to get an early start on next year's Christmas gift knitting. If I start now, I should be ready in time.

 

I'm also continuing my Project 365 for 2015. One photo per day, every day. I was hoping to settle into some theme for this year but that didn't work out. I'll make it up as I go along, borrowing ideas from the Capture Your 365 community and other photo challenge lists that pop up online. I'm aiming to post at least one or two photos per week to their online gallery.

My first entry for 2015:

 

Taken at 8:15am New Year's Day on the front porch steps of our new home.







{One Week & Counting}

One week from today, we'll be hopping a plane at JFK to head out to Colorado. I'm really looking forward to some of this.........

And this........

And this........

See that mountain on the right? The one with the jagged peak. That's Flattop Mountain and that's on the list for this trip. I can't wait.

{Project 365+1: Week 14}

{Capture Your 365 Blog Hop}

Happy Monday! Welcome to my little world and {Capture Your 365's }second Blog Hop of 2012. I can't believe we're a little more than a week away from 100 days of P365+1. Time has been flying by and I'm still enjoying taking my daily photo. I've especially liked the prompts for LEGO week.

Now that the summer's coming I'm hoping to get more photos outdoors. I love setting up my bird feeders and watching all the different species feed together. This year's plan is to work on my macro photography. Up until now I've only been practicing on minifigs....not that I mind. They are very cooperative.

I decided to share some of my favorite photos from the past three months.

Snow Leopard at the Bronx Zoo.

Busy sewing on a rainy Saturday

A message from my boy.

Willow Tree figurine.

The next stop on Capture Your 365's  Hop is Kathleen's blog. Stop by and show her some love. Oh, I can't forget to say thanks to Kathleen for organizing the Blog Hop again and a BIG thank you to Katrina for bringing us all together. You all are inspiring, wonderful people.


Kelly - but for the Grace of God
Joscelyne - ohscrap
Suzanne - Suzanne's Adventures in Quilting, Photography, Computers and Life
Sharyn - Live from Tormville
Abbie - Happie by Abbie
Me - YOU ARE HERE  The Sweetest Dreams
Kathleen - Taking Pictures, Enjoying Life
Katrina - Capture Your 365

{Project 365+1: Week 9}

{Project 365+1: Week 8}

Moving right along.......

February 24th's Cap'n Jack Sparrow was chosen as one of the photos of the week on CY365.

{The Trouble with Brooklyn.....}

Besides the obvious trouble with Brooklyn......the trash strewn about the street by slobs, shootings, stabbings, people who let their dogs poop on the sidewalk and don't pick it up, rude shopkeepers, and , oh nevermind .... a real problem for me is the lack of  interesting photography subjects, especially during the gray winter months.  Some days I struggle with my Project 365+1. I'm having some fun using the DIY lightbox and my new 100m macro lens but I yearn for some nice outdoor photos. I miss blue skies and green. Any kind of green.

There are some mornings that I wake up and look out the front window to see the most beautiful pink and purple sky.  I grab the camera, which is always out on the coffee table, and lift the blinds to snap a shot before it changes. I put my eye up to the viewfinder, take a good look at the scene before me, lower the camera and put it back on the table. All the power lines crisscrossing the frame ruin it. Why bother? I'll just have to sit in front of the computer with CS5 running and clone them out. I'd rather spend that time doing something else.

That's the trouble with living in the city; there's always the chance some undesirable element will present itself in a photo. Empty water bottles at the park ruin my squirrel photos and  power lines ruin my sunrise photos. I still carry my camera around because I love photography. I just wish there were more options around here for winter photography. There hasn't bee any snow either *sniff, sniff*.  I'll just have to be patient and count down to next month's trip to Colorado for snowshoeing. At least I'll get some nice outdoor photos there. Ones without dog poop on the sidewalk.

{Project 365+1- Week One}

Week one is complete! Only 51 more to go. That really does sound worse that it is. I'm sure it will take me a few weeks to get back in the groove again...after all, I've had 6 months off. It does feel good to pick up my camera each day, especially with my new lens attached.

I'm kind of doing two POTD projects in one. Most days so far I've taken two photos. One is for my P365+1 photobook and the other is following the prompts from Katrina at {CaptureYour365}. I'm only doing this because I want my photobook to be a representation of my daily life and following the prompts is more like a challenge.  I'm sure there will be some photos I'll take that will be usable for both, but for now it's P365+1 x 2 for me.

{ "Show Us Your Favorite 2011 Photos" Blog Hop }

Happy New Year to everyone at {CaptureYour365} ! And, thank you to Kathleen for organizing the first {Blog Hop} of 2012! It's also my first Blog Hop ever!

Before I get to some of my favorite shots from 2011, I'd like thank Katrina for her inspiration and for creating a place where we all can connect, learn and be inspired by each other. So many of you are incredible photographers and I'm always looking for new ideas and for ways to improve my {photography}. My first {P365} spanned 2010-2011. I only had two months left in my P365 when CaptureYour365 was born. I'm looking forward to spending an entire year with all of you, sharing little snippets of my life and hopefully learning something along the way. One of my favorite quotes is from Ralph Waldo Emerson... "Life is a journey, not a destination." I can't wait to share my journey with all of you.

So, here's some of my favorites from 2011. I hope you enjoy looking!




One of my favorite Santas. The bokeh courtesy of Katrina's "Capture Your Holidays" class.

 


Walking the neighborhood after one of our snowstorms. I'm in a photo!

 


Randomly piled hearts. SOUL MATE jumped out at me. It's how I feel about my husband.

 

I love snow and I love snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. We'll be there again this upcoming March for another snowshoeing trip. For me, there's nothing like being in the mountains.




Another photo from Colorado joins my group of favorites for 2011. This is St. Malo's, also known as The Chapel

on the Rock. It is an amazingly beautiful church located in the mountains of Colorado.

 


This is a photo of my son and his younger cousin. We were in Florida for my other niece's wedding.

These two have been the best of buddies since they were babies.

The expression on her face makes me smile.






This photo was taken at the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, Long Island. They have a large collection of orchids. I'm hoping to work on macro photography in 2012.



One of my favorite places to take my camera is the zoo. In April, a lot of the animals are still in their

winter habitats. I can always count on the polar bear to be out. This day he was

entertaining us with his yoga moves.



 


My final favorite of 2011 is of my sweet daughter and her calf Millie. This was taken in May, one week before

she graduated from the University of Connecticut. She's attending the

University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine with the plan to be a large animal vet,

specializing in dairy cows. The city girl who loves cows...

 

Hop on over to the last stop on our journey, Kathleen's blog Taking Pictures, Enjoying Life. If you've started at my blog first, here's a list of everyone participating in the first Blog Hop of 2012:

Kelly- {But for the Grace of God}
Katrina- {Capture Your 365}
Gabi- {Gabi Rytirova}
Me- {The Sweetest Dreams}

Kathleen- {Taking Pictures, Enjoying Life}

{My Camera}

Last night I dreamed about photographing brown bears in Alaska.  I'd love to get back to {Alaska} someday with my new and better camera. The last time I photographed them using the original Canon Digital Rebel. Although the photos were good, I'm sure I'd capture some real arse-kickers with my {50D}. Naturally, the 50D has already been replaced by the 60D but I'm not planning an upgrade anytime soon. I love my {camera}. There's so much flexibility built right in that it's usually a given that the photos will be good.

There's still things I can learn about taking good photos. I occasionally buy a book or take an online seminar to help me improve my photography. I take photos for me and no one else. I feel good when my camera is in my hand and I miss it when I don't pick it up on a regular basis. Of course when we're traveling it's easy to find subjects to photograph. I love {landscapes} and including my {husband} in those photos. For several years now I've been making {photo books} of our trips and an annual "Year in Pictures" book. I love looking back at where we've been and what we've done. If we ever had a natural disaster and had to evacuate, those books, my other photos and my camera would be the first things I'd pack.

Lately I haven't been taking too many photos. There's been nothing important going on recently so the camera's been in it's case. Last June I started a {Project 365}....one photo a day for 365 days. It sounds easy for someone who loves to use the camera, but some days it was difficult finding the picture of the day. I tried to take photos that were representative of our daily life. I managed to complete it on May 31st of this year and since I was scrapping each week as I finished it, the photo book came together quickly. I've looked at it several times since and love it every time. I decided that in January I'll be starting an new {P365}. There's a terrific online community for those of us who take on a P365. Capture Your 365 is a great place to share your daily photo, get inspiration and to ask questions about photography. I think I'll make a point of posting my photos daily this time. P365 will allow me to spend some time each day with the {50D}. That will make me very happy.