Sharon's Week 52: Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Happy New Year's Eve!  Today is the final day of 2017 and it is going out with a bang.  Did you see those temperatures?  And to top it off, there's a snow squall warning for tonight.  Be careful out there if you are travelling around to celebrate the incoming 2018.

This is going to be the end of my weekly photography projects for a while.  I think that doing this for four years in a row has kind of gotten stale, even though each year has been somewhat different from the others.  I have found myself far too often this year being lazy and ending up unhappy with my choices for photos and disappointed with the photos themselves.  After putting some thought into this fact, I realized that the daily and weekly challenges have become a chore rather than a creative boost that spurs my photographic interest and promotes skill development, which is what the whole point was supposed to be.

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, my project for 2018 is going to be to make myself a cookbook which will include all of my favourite foods.  I am still working on the list of things that have to make it into the book and I need to decide the size and format of the book but I have been mulling over these things.  I have a beginning of the stash of tools and props that I think will be needed for the food photography and I read a couple of books about the subject.  I did sign up for an on-line course and it begins on Friday.  I am a little daunted when I look at beautiful food photos but I am hopeful that my skill will develop over the course of the year.  I suppose that the photos I take later in the year will probably be better than the ones I will take in the coming weeks but since the cookbook will be only for me, I guess that doesn't matter.  I don't plan to stick to a weekly schedule for posting the photos but I will create a new blog page because my mom and sister have told me I have to share the photos with them.

So that is the plan for 2018.  Here are the final photos for 2017.  There are eight topics and no wild card this week because I included today for a full 365 days to this project.

celebrate

What says "celebrate" more than lighting sparklers inside the house resulting in the smoke alarm going off?

glowing

Pam made me (😀) meet her for an early morning walk earlier in the week when it was minus a million degrees outside - just like today, I guess.  I got to Whitefish a bit before her and found that the entire park was glowing, with frost on all the trees and fog on the water.  I wandered around the parking lot with Hermione and found this.

an ornament

I quickly shot this on boxing day before un-decorating the tree and bringing it to the chipper.

dessert

After the Christmas indulgences, the only desserts that I have been enjoying are the amazingly sweet clementines.

a gift

We desperately needed a new cat tree and Anne delivered!  The cats all love it and on one occasion (without camera being ready), all three were on it at once.  Here we have Bella on the top shelf and Eclipse on the side shelf.

starts with F

F-f-f-f-frosty Whitefish Island.

smooth

I love the smoothly snow-covered rocks and things after a snowfall.

And now some sad news...Hermione is on her way back to the camera hospital.  She has developed something inside her workings that shows as a random blurred hair in all my photos.  If you look carefully you can see traces of it in this snow photo.  I tried to get most of it out in Lightroom but I am not a master of that program and I can still see shadows of it.  Oh, and you can see it clearly in the frosty photo of the stream with the bridge in the background...somehow that one escaped my attention.

Happy New Year!

Sharon's Week 51: Lights, Camera, Action!

I am feeling like I lost some momentum (again).  I had the photos completed last Saturday but haven't gotten around to putting them on the computer until now.  Week 52 photos are also complete and I'll get that post out tomorrow.  It's not like I haven't had time...I have been off work since the 21st and we've been home from Windsor since Christmas day.  I have been doing a bunch of running around and things that need doing in the house but I think that I have also been procrastinating because the photos are Christmassy and I am done with Christmas.  We had our turkey dinner on the 23rd when the family was all together so it was hard for me to remember that it was still the festive season for most people during the following few days.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not getting this post out until tonight.

wild card

I'm starting with this one because I love this photo.  Yoda is a large cat and a stubborn one, and thankfully he is very photogenic.  When I headed to bed one night, he was sleeping in the middle of my bed and wouldn't move.  I took advantage and photographed him but then I wanted to go to sleep.  I had to wiggle in beside him and squeeze my legs into the six inches of free space that he left for me.  Fortunately Anne came downstairs not too much later and Yoda wandered off to say hello.

red

Here is a red decoration (which, along with the rest of the Christmas decorations, was removed and packed away on Christmas day - I guess Anne was feeling like me).

G

I was sitting bored on my couch one day last week and decided to play with motion blur while focusing on the tree lights.  By chance in one frame, this multiple G appeared and since I had no other ideas and finding a random G somewhere was proving difficult, I went with it.

lights

I was hoping to photograph the amazing light show that Windsor put on in Jackson Park this year but we weren't able to go until Sunday night and since there was a bit of a snowstorm and we thought there'd be tons of people, I didn't bring my camera and tripod.  Turns out there were no crowds but the driving snow would have certainly interfered.  Instead, you get another motion blur photo of my tree.

festive

I think that Kahlua was feeling festive under the tree in my parents' part of the house.  She spent most of her time there.

tree

This is a small part of the tree in Anne's part of the house.  It was quite beautiful.

hands

I don't think my mom noticed that I took this photo and she is probably not happy about it but hear me out mom.  My mother has always made things...our clothes growing up, beautiful quilts for wedding gifts, wall hangings that adorn all of our homes, Halloween costumes galore, warm jammies for her grandchildren, afghans for any number of people...and the list goes on and on.  She finished most craft projects that I have begun over the years (because I started and never finished them - yes, I do know how to sew, knit, crochet, embroider - all because of my mom - but I don't really enjoy doing those things so I get excited about starting but lose the oomph and stop).  Anyway, when I was talking with my mom a few weeks ago she said that she wasn't able to knit because of the fact that she is having difficulty sitting for any length of time.  I immediately put my occupational therapy brain in gear and decided that I would come to the rescue and figure out how she could knit in the relative comfort of her recliner chair.  What a Christmas present that would be!  When I got to the house and went in to say hello, what was mom doing?  Knitting!  She figured it out herself without my brilliant intervention.  Huh.  In this photo she is finishing the ends on an afghan that she made for a friend of Anne's.  I am told that now, she and Anne are making fidget afghans for people with dementia.

So, although I think that mom is probably thinking that her hands look old in this photo (I have the same age spots), I think that they are absolutely beautiful.

That's it.  I'll be back tomorrow with the final 2017 post.

Sharon's Week 50: Baby, It's Cold Outside

My title today describes the week we have had here.  Despite the minus teens and twenties, I managed to get out walking and snowshoeing most days (thanks, Maxine and Pam!).  I am thankful that I have re-discovered my drawer of high-tech outdoor clothing, particularly the long underwear...it has served it's purpose well.  Contrary to the fact that I WAS outside most days, all my photos were taken indoors, I guess because of the topics that were on the list.  As I look ahead to the final two weeks, it looks like most of those will be inside shots too.  Hmmm, I wonder if I did that on purpose thinking that I am a winter wimp?

Anyway, since I'm already a day late posting this, let's get on with it.

Here's a bonus photo that I love but couldn't fit into any of the topics...as I write this I realize that it could have been my wild card but I had something else picked out for that so let's call this wild card, part two.

prepare

When Christmas is coming, one of the things I enjoy least but is absolutely necessary to prepare for the big day is wrapping the gifts.  Pretty paper makes it a little more fun.

 candy cane

I got to doing this one yesterday and I realized that I have been photographing candy canes every year for several years and I struggled to come up with a new idea.  I think this might be something I haven't done before.

sparkly

I am hard pressed to find something sparkly in my house so I looked to the tree.  This ornament is something I picked up for Levi (obviously) at Bronner's several years ago when he was into knights and castles and stuff like that.  This knight has some sparkly bling on his armour.

0

When in doubt, look to the tree again...

red and green

Bulk Barn saves the day...yet again.

holiday tradition

There was no doubt in my mind about this one.  The decorating of the sugar cookies is a long time tradition in our family, yet no matter how many times we have done this, I seem to forget how much time it takes to get everything set up and then to clean up afterwards.  It's worth every second though.  This year Levi and his friend William did all the decorating.  This crazy cookie seems to be a new tradition Levi has begun for himself...the leaning tower of icing.

wild card

I love getting out the macro lens and finding interesting photos in the tree.

Here are some photos from Hiawatha yesterday.  It was chilly but so beautiful and sunny.

That's it for this week.

Sharon's Week 49: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Finally we have some decent snow!  I'm sure Levi isn't happy about that since he is the sole shoveller this year.  With my shoulder and elbow the way they are, all I can manage is to push the snow off of the steps...the rest is up to him. I suspect that the driveway will be a little shorter and a little narrower than usual since his stamina seems quite limited.  Oh, the days of a lazy teenager.

I can't believe that it is nearly the end of 2017.  The older I get, the faster time seems to pass and I don't like it.  Anyway, I'm slowly making plans for my food photography project (AKA cookbook) and slowly accumulating the odds and ends that I think I need.  What I really need to do is to sit down with all my cookbooks and recipes and decide which ones I want to include.  I think I have put off that job because it scares me...the sheer number of favourite recipes might be overwhelming to get completed in one year.  Time will tell, I guess.

On to this week's photos...

hat

Most of you know that Levi is a master at avoiding my camera so I didn't even try.  Instead, I borrowed his hat when I went out for an early morning walk at Fort Creek yesterday.  It was snowing so beautifully there was no way I could stay home.  I got a good workout as there were about eight inches of fresh powder on the trails and I was the first person out.  I almost could have used snowshoes.

hot drink

What better drink to have on a snowy day than hot chocolate with marshmallows and a bit of cinnamon?

candle

I have made a photo similar to this in the past but since 'tis the season, here's a variation on that theme.

abundance

Last Sunday I made a huge pan of roasted vegetables.  It turned out to be too much and in the end I had to toss a few that hadn't been eaten.

cookies

For my sister, lemon shortbread cookies.

reading

This stack of books is only part of the to-be-read pile on my bedside table.  I kind of indulged during my two trips to Sudbury (and therefore Chapters) this fall.

wild card

I don't think I have had a chickadee in this blog for a while so here is one.  If I am wrong, I apologize...my memory is faulty these days.

All caught up now.  See you next weekend.

Sharon's Week 48: There's a Knot on the Log in the Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

Yep, I'm late.  The photos were all taken on time last week but I didn't get around to processing them or posting this blog, so here we go.

I didn't find any of this week's topics particularly interesting and I feel there is a lack of imagination in the photos too, so maybe that's part of why I didn't write this until now.

To top it all off, I find myself without anything to say so I guess I'll just get to the photos.

citrus in fizzy water
This is something I have tried on several occasions and I guess I put it on the list so I could give it another go.  I did find a square shaped glass container at Dollarama so I was able to focus through the glass on the bubbles.

9
Can you see the nine?  This is a hole from a knot in my fence.

cozy
I didn't even try to think of anything else.  When I saw this I thought, "What is cozier than a sleeping cat?"  The only problem was in choosing a cat.  Eclipse is the winner this time.

eyes
And...here we have Cissy.  Don't tell Bella that her sisters made the blog this week but she didn't.

I
I couldn't find this letter anywhere.  When I was driving out to Hiawatha for a walk last Saturday, I remembered that I had picked up these little finger flashlights from the dollar store.  I called Levi to see if he'd help me out with some light painting when I got home and thankfully, he agreed.

made with love
I was talking with a coworker last week about how her food never tastes the same as her mother's even though she follows the recipes exactly.  Her husband tells her that it's because she doesn't make it with enough love.  I got a kick out of that.  I haven't made anything crafty for ages.  The only thing I regularly make for Levi is his supper and I really didn't want to shoot his popcorn chicken and rice.  I made these muffins last Saturday and they are about the closest thing from the week that would fall into this category.  Hmmm...they really aren't all that great tasting so maybe my coworker's husband is right...I didn't make them with enough love 😉.

I made this too - and I think there was love in my heart...who wouldn't love a meat lover's pizza bake?  Sadly, it didn't turn out quite as yummy as it sounded.

wild card
I didn't have much to choose from but after we got the letter I, Levi and I played around a bit.

Thank goodness Levi has a black wall in his room.  That's it for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with this week's photos.