Project 365 - Week 3

Why yes, the blog did get a facelift, thanks for noticing. This is actually the design for the new Polkadot Door site, but I liked it so much I figured I better have it here too, especially since the new Polkadot Door blog isn't going to be released until late April, I get to see it in action here much sooner ... For this week, there were only 6 days in between this and the last post but you still get 7 pictures anyways. Just pretend its been a week, ok? :-)

Day 1 : Naughty card
We went into the library on this day and I thought I was being rather ingenious bringing my camera with me. So much of my setting for my daily pictures are right here in the home that an opportunity to have a different backdrop and props was a grand idea I thought. Apparently my camera card thought otherwise because it decided to stay home and since my camera doesn't have an internal memory, I got no pictures of the munchkins pouring over their favourite books. All I have, is a picture of the missing, and now found, card.

Day 2 : Anna
Miss Anna Grace came down with some very strange flu bug on friday. It only lasted the morning, and by mid afternoon she was her bright and cheery little self again. Scared me a little though, I had visions of all of the kids being grouchy and miserable with tummy flus. Thankfully, like most times, my wildest fears never materialized ...

Day 3 : Piano Man
Er, I mean James. The electric Yamaha has prerecorded songs that the little kids have learned to turn on. James especially loves sitting at the keyboard and pretending that it is in fact himself at the keys. He gets frustrated with his piano lessons because he can't play as well as he can when Rachel isn't teaching him! He usually has a very captive audience during these jam sessions as Anna and Benji both take turns dancing to the music.

Day 4 : Us
I think I read somewhere that you aren't supposed to have favourites. I'd like to make it rather clear that I don't agree. I'm rather happy having a favourite person. Having a favourite person means that they take you to home shows, and buy you coffee and supper, and then sit for hours talking about everything. That is precisely what we did on day 4, which is why we're both smiling so big.

Day 5 : Ticket to Ride
I lost, Philip won. End of story.

Day 6 : No Name
I really really like this picture. I realize that I don't have professional photos most of the time (if ever) but one thing I am learning about taking pictures is that its not about having the most technically sounds photos. Its about capturing memories. The two weeks that Mom and Dad were away helped to reestablish some relationships with my siblings which might not have been the best before. I'm reminded in looking at this photo that regardless of how I feel about the kids sometimes, I love them an awful lot. I'm grateful to be here and have the privilege of being big sister to these two (and the 5 others!).

Day 7 : Telus World of Science
I decided this was the best day of the whole week, even though at the beginning I had no idea it would be so. We (Junur and I) took our 7, as well as Emma and Isaac to the Science Centre which was an adventure enough for the day. But .... half way through the experience my favourite person showed up, happy occurrence #1. Then we went home, Junur bought Dutch Blitz cards, Mom and Dad showed up early .... with dropies and chocolate and adorable little delft christmas tree balls, and Rachel gave me Tangled. Best ... day ..... ever!

Project 365 - Week 2

Most of you probably didn't notice, but as my own personal stalker pointed out, this post is a day late.I have good excuses, really I do. I'm babysitting 7 little munchkins and 2 not so little people, so am allowed to be a little late, right? I had some photos on my iPhone that I was going to use, but I can't find my computer cord, so you're going to have to put up with me cheating a little bit this week. Hey, at least I got 7 photos up. And no, just because I'm a day late doesn't mean there is going to be an extra photo, it wouldn't have fit.

Day 1: Ellie
Again. Honestly, who can resist a face like this? She's a natural poser and every time I take out the camera, out come the smiles!

Day 2 : The Three Mischief Makers
Ok, I cheated just a little on this one. I took this the same day as I took the photo of Ellie, but it was so cute I had to include it. The thing I love the most about this photo is Isaac's belly hanging out of his shirt. Shhh. Don't tell Sarah, she might not let me babysit her babies again if she saw how ragged they can look!

Day 3 : Did I ever Tell you how Lucky You Are?
We went to the Library last Thursday and this was one of the books that Esther picked out, by her favourite : Dr. Suess. We have more than a few of them around at the moment. Pretty much sums up my life at the moment. But its much more than 'luck'. I'm truly blessed by so much right now, if I had the gift of rhyme, I might just write a book too!

Day 4 : Dead Flowers
Yep, this shows you just what sort of creative juices I had flowing that day. About nothing! Poor things, Junur gave them to me on Mom's birthday and I kept them alive for over a month, but alas, I'm don't have much of a green thumb.

Day 5 : Star Wars Lego Man
The kids have been playing lego like mad the last few days. Its so funny how they got in stages with what they will play with. They've been taking over areas of the house as their bases and every so often one or two of them will come flying through the main area making their spacecrafts whizz around. The sound effects are rather awesome. Wish I could have included an audio clip instead of a picture, it would have been much more cool.

Day 6 : Apples to Apples
I bet you've never played Apples to Apples with James, and since you haven't, you have no idea what you are missing. He's giggly and goofing most of the time, but something about late at night with his older siblings makes him doubly so. I'd like to blame it on the caffeine or sugar of which he had neither, but I think it might just be the silly gene that runs deep inside most of us. We're going to be playing Dutch Blitz tonight (thats the plan), so we're in for another round of James clowning around.

Day 7 : Messy
You didn't know I had it in me, did you? I make all sorts of pretences of being a tidy, orderly person but I'd just like to squash that notion. I'm not. This is what my desk usually looks like after a night/day of crafting. I have every intention of keeping things looking respectable, but thats an awfully tiresome job when all my energies are focused on what I'm making. The mess just sort of magically appears. But its ok, it gives me an excuse to reorganize everything again when I clean up ....

Project 365 - Week 1

I`ve seen it a few times on other blogs across the web, and I`ve thought it was a fantastic idea. Only, it would require some diligence, which is maybe why its taken me a bunch of weeks to finally tell myself, I am going to do this! Project 365 is very simple. Take a photo a day. Its not hard, its just making sure you actually take a picture that is the hard part! I have a blog, I have a camera, and I want to take better pictures. Its all the incentive I need. Hopefully, I can keep myself motivated enough to continue to do this for the rest of the year. It will be good for me!

So here goes!

Day 1 : Brownies
So I decided to start project 365 at about 4:30 in the afternoon on a day when I lacked any sort of creative mojo. So I took a picture of something I did do well that day. The brownies tasted amazing. I'm sorry there isn't any to share, I ate them all ....

Day 2: Nail Polish
Ok, another lame photo but, after weeks of not working, I finally got my external flash unit working at 11:30 at night and what other subject can I photograph without causing my popularity ratings to plummet?

Day 3 : Rachel on the iPhone
I tried a few different ideas of this photo before I settled on liking this version the best. This little lady doesn't like having her photo taken so I thought it was rather an ingenious way to get her to participate. I was trying something cool and she didn't realize I was actually trying to get a photo of her, and not the phone ....

Day 4 : Benjamin
One of these weeks I am going to devote every single day to taking a new photo of Benjamin, he has so many priceless expressions. Until that time, you'll have to be content with just this one .... Mom took the kids to the science centre and bought them all sorts of fun balloon projects. One of which was this race car powered by the balloon which Benjamin was very insistent he could blow up on his own. He couldn't, but I'm glad he at least tried!

Day 5 : Just a Note
Whether you like it or not, Ill probably squeeze a card picture in every week. I realize you could just go to the Polka Dot Door to see my stuff, but the card this week isn't going to be blogged about for a while. I made it for the October call of the Cards Magazine : Buttons category. I'm rather proud of how it turned out.

Day 6 : Mom and Dad
On their way to Europe, oh my! We have so few photos of the two of them together that I thought it was a good excuse to take one. I can't believe Mom actually agreed to finally accompany Dad on one of his trips. He has been trying to get her to go for years. For those of us who remain at home, its going to be an adventure and I already know, I can't wait for them to come home.

Day 7 : Ellie
The Fleming kids are over 'cause there is carpet being replaced in their house. This is another child that it would be fun to devote a week to, she's so funny! She takes a bite of spaghetti and then exclaims "yum!", with every bite. Its  a bit of a strange thought now that in order to have my baby-fix, we need to have the grandkids overs. But its nice too, at the end of the day, I get to send them home :-)

While I have your attention, I think you should all head over to the Polka Dot Door blog, there is a post up about some of Rachel's craft projects which are super cute. I think you need to take a look.