August Photo a Day prompts

I love Instagram and taking photos with my phone and following the prompts from FatMumSlim. Her tag line is "Living Life Inspired," and she really does. And she encourages her readers to do the same. Here's the list:

List created by Chantelle at her fatmumslim blog. 

And do follow this link to read more about the prompts and how they might be interpreted. Of course, anything goes … it's supposed to be fun, not frustrating.

Oh, happy day!

It's the little things, folks. Big, stupendous events are great and all – winning the Powerball would certainly increase the excitement factor here in the Middle of Nowhere, for instance. But for everyday day-to-day happy, it's the small stuff.

A little more than a year ago I bought my Android phone. I'd been going back and forth about replacing my Blackberry with an Android or an iPhone, but it came down to two things:

• My wireless provider offers great service, reliability and reward points, but doesn't have a contract with Apple
• Instagram for Android was introduced

Joining Instagram was such a big deal
I made a note of it on my calendar.

When I learned that Instagram was going to release an Android version, that pretty much sealed the Android deal for me.

I joined Instagram a year ago today, one of those little actions that has provided a daily dose of serious happy.

As both of you know, I've been trying to complete Project 365 for years. Here's my first photo, taken January 1, 2008. It's still one of my favorites. Back then I had a flip phone that probably didn't even have a camera. Didn't we all? I was shooting with my Canon Digital Rebel. I had to upload the photos using a card reader, edit them in Photoshop and then upload them to my blog. Neither the computer nor the phone had Bluetooth (that was for Important Business People), and the whole process was, um, a bit cumbersome.

Certainly not as cumbersome as ordering prints and scanning them. My, my, we've come a long way, baby. But still. I lost interest in Project 365 every year around March.

My Instagram page.

In March of 2012, about the time I would have given up, the magic happened. New phone, Instagram for Android and fatmumslim's photo-a-day prompts, which I had started using a month earlier.

"They" say the best camera is the one you have with you, and for most of us it's a phone. There've been a few times when I've wished for a long lens on the Droid, but damned few. When I know I'm going to be in a situation where quality counts, I grab the Rebel and get a little strength training in.

'Cause it's HEAVY!

Fulfilling the photo-a-day commitment is pretty darned easy and pretty darned fun with the camera that fits in the palm of my hand. It's also easy to send photos directly to the computer, since I am, apparently, an Important Business Person with Bluetooth-capable devices that talk to each other. It's magic!

I use the photo prompt list as my laptop wallpaper, so I know what to keep an eye out for every day. (There are other lists out there, lots of them, but I'm happy with Chantelle's.) Most of the time I get it done early, and if another opportunity shows up later, I add another shot to that day's post.

All in all, this exercise has been really, really good for my creative soul. Oh, I've picked up a few followers, and my Instagram "likes" have gone from three or four per photo to about 20. I've printed a few of the photos, but printing them isn't the point. Noticing what's around me, finding the shot and then taking it: That's the point.

My favorite shots end up on my digital photo frame, and the entire collection is on my Instagram feed. I'm sure there are lots of things I could be doing with the images, but for now, I'm just pleased to celebrate one year of daily happy.

If you're looking for a creative exercise that will make you smile, well, you could do worse.

One day feels like another …

at least when referring to BlogHer's NaBloPoMo. Today marks the end of the 2012 experience of publishing a blog post daily for the month of November. Many of those who participated will go back to posting regularly, but not daily. (Last month there were 510 entries added to BlogHer's list, this month there are more than 3200. And the day's just beginning.) I've managed to keep the daily drivel going since the beginning of November, 2011, missing only a couple of days but racking up 646 posts since 11/1/11.

Some posts were just photos, which is fine and it counts. But I gotta tell you that when I sit down every morning in front of this screen, I don't feel like I have to write something. I feel like I want to. Sometimes I want to write something two or even three times in one day.

I suppose it's because I live such an isolated life. Were it not for Barack Obama's decision to run for President in 2008, I wouldn't have much face-to-face contact with anyone. I've lived in West Virginia since 1997 and four years ago I still didn't have friends who weren't also my husband's (he was born here).

Thanks to my volunteering to elect the President to his first term, my husband now has friends who also are mine. And thanks to the President, I have a lot more to write about than just knitting and running and gardening and cooking. And crafting, but I haven't figured out a way to work that into the title of the blog. Heh.

So thank you, both of you, who have read and continue to read the words that flow through my fingertips from my heart to yours. Unless something crazy-exciting happens later today (as it did yesterday), by the time I tuck myself in tonight I will have posted 59 times this month. It would have been 60 – a word post and a photo post each day – but on one day the photo prompt fit what I was going to write about, and so I combined them. (My photo prompts come from Chantelle.)

(The tiny little OCD corner of my personality wants to publish three posts today to make that come out to a perfect two-posts-a-day finish. I WILL RESIST!)

Yesterday was a crafty day, indeed. I started putting the journals together and discovered that I needed to have an extra leaf on the first and last signatures* to glue to the inside front and back covers. So I spent much of the afternoon reprinting, resewing and reglueing. I took the opportunity to add an extra signature to each of the journals. They're all dried and ready for covers, and I should (crossing fingers) have photos of the finished gift tomorrow.

And after yammering on about making ceramic tile coasters, I ended up making Scrabble tile coasters. Not that I won't also make ceramic tile versions, but I had a bag of tiles from an old game just waiting to be made into something. My son and I play Scrabble with each other online, almost daily, so he's getting a set of four for Christmas.

Many (most?) of the Pinterest versions all have beverage words spelled out. I decided to personalize this set. One represents his native state, one his current home, one has the word RACK, plus three words of high-point Scrabble letters (WAVE, JIVE, QUIZ) and the fourth is a nod to his journalism career.

I still need to trim them out of the slab o' cork. But they are, essentially, done. I hope he likes them. They don't really look or function like a salt mill, which is what he asked for. I will also give him a Southern Season gift card. 'Cause Santa always brings what you ask for, right? Heh.

There are lots of "O"s and "I"s left in the tile bag. If I knew someone who spoke binary, I could probably make another set. But I have many more gifts to finish, and miles to go before I sleep.

 
*b. A large sheet printed with four or a multiple of four pages that when folded becomes a section of the book.

And … she's outta here

Sandy came, hung out with us for a bit and went on her way. It was, um, disconcerting to have snow so early in the year, but at least we don't have the devastation and destruction she dropped on other parts of the northeast. West Virginia is served by two different power companies. The one who takes care of our electrical needs still has nearly 100,000 customers to get back up and running.

New Jersey. New York. Oh, my, how hard it must be to try to put all that back together. My heart hurts for you.

Since yesterday was a snow day here, I spent it doing nothing I normally would do. I went back to bed after having been up for a couple of hours and slept until 10:30 a.m. (Partly because I was having dizzy spells; it just seemed safer to remain in a prone position.) I was fine when I woke up again, so I got to work on more party favors. (I didn't even make dinner. We snacked.)

One of the projects I finished yesterday –
I got the idea at a football party, where
we all had "bad call bricks"  – scrubbie
sponges from the Dollar Store – to throw
when a referee blew a call. 

I'm nearly done with the goodie bags. I quit last night at 7:30, and have just two projects remaining. But since I'm leaving today and won't be back until Saturday, they will have to wait. My printer has already thanked me.

It occurred to me as I was waking up this morning that I might get some additional swag and/or party decorations at one of the many Obama campaign offices there must be throughout the state. You swing states have all the fun. We here in southern West Virginia haven't gotten so much as a bumper sticker from the national campaign. I hear there's an office in the northern panhandle, but that's more like DC than WV.

So, North Carolina, look out. I have plenty of room to haul buttons and stickers and signs, oh my. And I'm headed your way.

Tomorrow is the first day of BlogHer's NaBloPoMo. An exercise to get you blogging every day, it has worked quite well for me. Since last November 1, I've posted 587 entries to this blog. Some have been just photos, but even on most photo days I've blathered on about something in a separate post.

I'm more excited that I've only missed two days of taking a photo every day since the first of the year. With two months to go, I think this will be my first year of almost-daily participation. Every other year I've tried I ended up quitting sometime in the spring. I must give credit to a new smartphone, FatMumSlim (who provides the prompts I've been using) and Instagram. I also use another photo app called Pixlr-o-matic for additional filters and effects.

My husband spontaneously told me yesterday how happy he was that we were married. He said, "Your glass is always half full. Mine is often two-thirds empty. You're so good for me." Well I gotta tell you that took me by surprise. But he's right: My glass is half-full, nearly always, and I think it's because I really know how to rock a snow day.

And now? She's outta here.

Happy Labor Day!

And thank a union sometime during your celebration today.

I'll be laboring … plants still need watering, national (U.S.) holiday or not. It looks like rain, but not until much later and even then a predicted rain can skirt around the mountain and miss us entirely. So I'll be watering at the garden center, and maybe mowing here at home. I did a little weeding yesterday, but it was VERY hot and VERY humid and I quit when I'd done only about a third of the area I started on.

This is warm-up week for Up&Running. I thought we would actually be running this week, but it's more about defining motivation, which is very helpful when it comes to sticking with a program.

Yesterday's photo brought up all kinds of emotional stuff for me. The lovely Chantelle's photo prompts reflect that she lives in Australia, where Father's Day happened yesterday. I didn't know that until I Googled. The best thing that came from yesterday is the enduring gratitude I have for being able to spend the last week of my Dad's life with him.

We would have so much to talk about this week, were he still alive. I'm excited about the Democratic National Convention. I know a lot of people who are there and will be glued to both the television, the phone and the laptop for the next few days. I expect my blogging will be limited (I could be wrong), but I'll at least get the picture posts up to keep the daily-post streak going.

Here we go again …

I keep signing up for NaBloPoMo (even though I don't follow the prompts) and for FatMumSlim's Photo a Day (where I absolutely DO follow the prompts) and you know what? If I could find a place that inspired me to exercise, I bet I'd be doing that regularly, as well.

Well, whaddyaknow. I HAVE!

Training begins Monday, and I'm ready, ready, ready to (pause) rock and roll. Oh, and run.

Although I must confess that I hope the first day doesn't really include much running because it's been way too long since I've picked up the pace. Also my husband and I will not be doing this together, because he's dead set against my running. So I'll have to do it in secret.

If Rosie O'Donnell hadn't had that heart attack I think he'd be cautiously supportive of my return to running. (Oh, okay, I'll be jogging, not running.) Since she did, he's memorized the signs of women's heart attacks and gently pointed out that waist circumference (who, me?!?) is a major indicator and he went out and bought a bottle of regular-strength uncoated Bayer aspiring and MADE SURE I KNEW WHERE HE PUT IT.

I will be eating my words along with that aspirin if I end up having a heart attack.

I'm not ungrateful for his concern. Really, I'm not. I thought I did a pretty good job of preventing a heart attack last week by not watching the Republican convention, but did he applaud me for that? No, he did not.

I've been drinking green smoothies (mmmmm, don't knock it 'til you've tried it) three or four mornings a week. Although drinking my breakfast has more to do with having way too much homemade yogurt on hand than it does with wearing dentures.

HONEST!

(Oh, okay, it's easier to drink than it is to eat. I realize dentures will never feel like the real deal, but I just can't imagine ever being able to eat popcorn or steak again. Although the dentist promised I would.)

I worked four mornings this week and shopped all day yesterday. (Shopping for me means lugging heavy things around Sam's Club for a couple of hours. Not exactly exercise, but not sitting on my ass, either.) I hope to get a walk in this morning before the heavy rains move in. Then I will be sitting on my ass, knitting and watching FOOTBALL. Yay!

Expect the blog to swing back to knitting and running and away from reaping (there wasn't much of that this summer) and eating (not much of that either, thanks to the denture adventure) for the next few weeks. I'm still slogging away on the blue sweater I started about 10 years ago. (HEH.) Would love to have it finished to wear during election season. It's the perfect shade of Obama blue.