Day 140: Balls/Heather

For someone who claims to not be very athletic, I do have quite the assortment of balls to play with! The tennis ball is actually the dogs'; I was too lazy to go and find mine.

f5.6, Exp. 1/125, 70mm

Day 139: Office/Heather

My shots for today weren't that great but here is where I spend 40 hours of my life every week. I decided to go with a shot of my desk as this is a rare instance where it is actually clean! (Fun fact: My calendar's October picture is that of my co-worker's dog. He won a photo contest I told her about and then forgot to enter my own boys into).

f3.8, Exp. 1/60, 25mm

Day 138: Paperweight/Heather

I don't know exactly how I ended up with this paperweight but I must have taken it after Dad died. All I know is when my brother and I were growing up, it sat on this weird glass plate that I can picture but can't even begin to describe and was just as 70's looking as this is. So it's been around for awhile and is special to me simply because it is something that has just always been there.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 70mm

Day 137: Where in the World?/Heather

I chose this picture for two reasons. First, it was one of the few that wasn't blurry. Second, I have been thinking a lot lately about going on one of the build trips with Habitat for Humanity International next year for my vacation and the trip I am considering is to Honduras, which can be seen in this shot. (The other option I am toying with is Egypt).

f4.5, Exp. 1/30, 70mm

Day 136: Wine/Heather

Hmmm...what does a single woman who's allergic to alcohol and whose plans for the evening are going to a family-friendly comedy show do when the theme is wine? Well, if she's this girl, she improvises by pouring herself a glass of cooking wine and snapping away. :) Unfortunately, whatever recipe I needed this for called for a dry, white wine, so it didn't photograph as well as a blush or red would have.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 50mm

Day 135: Food/Heather

Okay, I took the easy way out on this one and just opened the cupboard and snapped away. It's usually more organized than this!

f5.6, Exp. 1/125, 31mm

Day 134: Veteran's Day/Heather

I wanted to get a shot of a veteran in a parade for this, but there were two problems with that plan: one, I don't get Veteran's Day off and two, the parades in this area were held on the 6th. So I needed a back up plan. I thought about going to a local cemetery and finding the grave of a veteran but between work and a volunteer shift at the Food Bank, I didn't have enough free daylight hours to accomplish this.

My grandfather, who I never met, was in the Army. Below is a picture of his Army stripes sitting on a page from his service report, which I was able to obtain from the National Personnel Records Center as part of my genealogical research.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 60mm

Day 133: Utensils/Heather

My initial thought for this theme was to just open the silverware drawer and snap a few shots. But then I decided to go for something a little different.

When my grandmother died in 2007, we had a garage sale to dispose of most of her belongings. Our day started off with a very persistent gentleman who was helpful with pricing but pushy in wanting to buy things before we were ready to start selling. He had his eye on some silverware and luckily before my aunt sold it to him, I noticed the pieces were engraved with the initials E. A. G. - initials belonging to my great-great-grandfather. As the official family historian, the pieces were entrusted to my care. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the initials but I like how this one turned out.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 70mm

Day 132: Chair/Heather

If I had grabbed my camera this morning, I probably could have gotten some cool shots of the dentist chair. I had plenty of time to do so while waiting for the orthodontist to get to me! But I wasn't fully functioning this morning (stupid time change!) and it's a miracle I managed to leave the house without forgetting my shoes.

I wasn't thrilled with any of my shots for today but here is one of my kitchen chairs.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 44mm

Day 131 - Safety First/Selina

Had I been smart, I would have taken the camera to work today with me.  But...my brain isn't functioning that quickly that early in the morning.  After dinner, I asked Morgan to get his bike helmet out for me so I could take a picture of that, but he has been helping Jeff and is learning to cut wood with some tool (I'm such a girl!) and he has been great about wearing his safety gear.  Morgan chose to do this instead of my original thought and I couldn't resist Morgan's goofy face with his Safety First gear on.  Silly boy but I love him!

 (F5, 1/60 second, ISO 400, 180mm)

Day 131: Safety First/Heather

I got the idea for this a few months ago when I came home to that lovely chirping sound that indicates the battery in the smoke detector is dying. Have you checked your smoke detectors lately?

f4, Exp. 1/60, 29mm

Day 130: Coffee/Heather

Like Selina, I am not a fan of coffee. I can't stand the taste and I think the coffee aisle in the grocery store smells like skunks. And yet this somehow became a theme...

A couple of years ago, however, I was volunteering at Sand in the City on a hot July day and Starbucks was handing out samples. I knew I was going to hate it, but I was really hot and whatever they were handing out was some sort of iced coffee and therefore cold. And it didn't taste like coffee! There are days when I regret ever having tried the raspberry mocha frappucino with chocolate drizzle as I am now addicted to them.

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 70mm

Day 130 - Coffee/Selina

Well, I don't drink coffee, I don't even particularly like the smell of it, but thankfully Jeff does.  I took the kids to a birthday party and on the way home stopped for rolls for dinner and picked Jeff up a coffee from Starbucks.  I do like the way this one turned out.

 (F5, 1/60 second, ISO 400, 46mm)

Day 129 - Starts with "L"/Selina

Hmmm...starts with "L".  Well there are plenty of leaves on the lawn from the neighbor's tree so here's my shot of my leaping child on the lawn with falling leaves.  :)  Cheesy, I know, but still fun.  

(F5.6, 1/60 second, ISO 400, 55mm)

Day 129: Starts w/"L"/Heather

Even though I have used light for a theme before, I couldn't help using one of my lamps for today. I found this at an antique store several years ago and thought it was one of the ugliest lamps I had ever seen. And I loved it much to James' chagrin. He surprised me by going back to the store and getting it for me for Valentine's Day-but it came with the condition that I had to keep it in one of the non-public areas of the house where no one else could see it.

Part of what attracted me to it is the style of glass is very similar to the other two pieces I have. And I just really like ugly lamps. The teardrops are hooked on to brass leaves. The stem is brass and the brass part of the base has hearts along the outer edge.

Day 128 - Keys/Selina

Living in an older house has some advantages for these themes.  Our doorknobs are all older and we have some skeleton keys that the kids love to play with.  Morgan and I tracked them down and I put one in the lock for a different look.  I kind of like the way it turned out.  

(F 4.5, 1/60 second, ISO  400, 36mm)

Day 128: Keys/Heather

When James and I were going through my father-in-law's things after he passed away, we found a lot of random keys. We didn't really know what to do with them so we kept them. I think I will try to find a place that recycles them as I really don't need them. They did come in handy for today's theme however!

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 70mm

Day 127 - Nuts/Selina

Well, unlike Heather, I didn't get creative today.  But luckily we have a big container of nuts in the house since I had just gone shopping a week or so before. 

 (F5.6, 1/60 second, ISO 400, 48mm)

Day 127: Nuts/Heather

I had a couple of ideas for this one. First, I was just going to use the nuts from a can of mixed nuts I thought I had in the cupboard, but it would appear I ate them all. So it was on to Plan B, which was to get a bunch of (hardware) nuts out of the garage and junk drawer. It turns out I have an overabundance of screws and not a lot of nuts-and some really random items in the junk drawer!

Since I couldn't find as many nuts as I wanted of the hardware kind, I raided the cupboard again and found several partially eaten and stale bags of various snack mixes. So I sorted the nuts out of those, put them in a bowl with the other nuts and created my own version of mixed nuts:

f4.5, Exp. 1/60, 70mm

Day 126 - Straw/Selina

I have three packages of straws in the cupboard so I knew this one would be easy.  Victoria was wishing I had a straw hat, but I am very happy with my straw shot.  It looks like the inside of a flower to me.

Day 126: Straw/Heather

During my volunteer shift at Schoolhouse Supplies tonight, I mentioned I needed to take a picture of something made out of straw today and it was too bad they didn't still have a dumpster full of it. (I never did get the story on that one). My friend Bo said they had a straw hat in the warehouse and asked if that would work. We weren't entirely sure that it is made from straw but I decided it looked like straw to me. It was a toss up between this one and one of the pics I took of him modeling it for me; I posted that one to Facebook.

f3.5, Exp. 1/60, 25mm

Day 125 - Election Day/Selina

The kids had a wonderful idea for this one, but I didn't want to drive out to find an election sign like they suggested.  So, I turned on the tv and figured there would be plenty of election coverage on the tv, so that's what I used.  This turned out a bit better than I had expected it to.

 (F5.6, 1/30 second, ISO 400, 25mm)

Day 125: Election/Heather

I was so happy for today to finally arrive-no more messages from politicians or their supporters waiting for me when I get home! Normal commercials again! Judging from all the status updates I have read on Facebook today, I am not alone in this sentiment.

There is a huge field not far from work which was littered with "vote for me" signs. I took a bunch of pictures of the signs but chose to use one that was campaigning against an issue instead of for a particular candidate.

f11, Exp. 1/500, 60mm

Day 125 - Paint/Selina

I have some paint cans in the cupboard downstairs, but I didn't feel like finding a screwdriver to open the can up for my idea.  Luckily, Jeff had some craft paint in his supplies upstairs, so I used it instead.  It's totally not what I was going for but you get the idea.

(F 5.6, 1/30 second, ISO 400, 29mm)

Day 124: Paint/Heather

I have several cans of various colors of paint in the garage thanks to repainting two bathrooms, my bedroom and the upstairs hallway over the last couple of years. I was going to do something fun with those but it was kind of a long day and by the time I got home, I just didn't feel up to it. So I raided the craft room. I like to paint and decorate birdhouses and give them as gifts. I try to paint them colors that have some sort of significance to the recipient, so I have accumulated a decent sized paint collection.

f4.2, Exp. 1/60, 34mm