Challenge 16- Spouse

So for challenge 16, I am supposed to take a picture of my spouse.  In all honesty, Jay really dislikes it when I take his picture.  He's not a fan at all of getting in front of the camera.  So, I have to take them on the sly sometimes.  I did get him to pose for one picture but it didn't turn out so well. 
His posed picture:

Wouldn't have been so bad, except the wind was giving him funky hair. 
So I had to catch him unawares:

Yup, that's my Jay.

Challenge 15- Smiling Child

So challenge 15 is to take a picture of a smiling child.  It was hard to pick just one kid and just one picture.

I like this picture.  In spite of the fact that Sam has food on his face and is not looking at the camera.  It just shows his personality so much. 

Challenge 14- New recipe

For challenge 14 in the 30 pictures in 30 days challenge, I have to take a picture of a new recipe.

Ahhh, lamingtons.  They are deceptively difficult to make.  I mean, how hard can it be to dip cake into chocolate and roll them in coconut.  A lot harder (and messier) than you'd think.  The cake doesn't hold together quite enough to be dipped for too long and the chocolate cools fast enough that it becomes harder and harder to dip.  I also used the wrong coconut.  I had no idea that there were all different kinds of coconut and the shredded kind was the wrong kind to use.  Oh well, they were yummy!

In other news:

• After quitting diet coke again for over a month.  I have managed to have three today.  No idea why, just did. 
• We are getting ready for my parents to visit.  We proclaim that we will not procasinate, but we always do.  Now, it is 6 days until they visit and we still haven't bought a heater. 
• The third State of Origin game is next week.  My poor parents will have to be subjected to Jay and Dave watching Rugby League. 
• I need to do laundry, but I missed my chance.  It is now raining again for the next two days and I can't very well dry laundry on the line in the rain.
• I don't want to cook dinner tonight.  Of course, it is a Weight Watchers meeting night so I shouldn't have to cook as I won't be here.  However, I have a feeling that Jay will forget that he needs to be home early and I will not go to my meeting...so I will be cooking anyway.
• I haven't scrapbooked since March. 
• I jog 4 days a week now.
• My knee is killing me, probably from the fact that I jog 4 days a week.
• At playgroup, I got to hold 2 1/2 month old baby April for 45 minutes while she slept.  Nothing beats a baby sleeping while being held. 
• Can you tell I've had three diet cokes today?

Challenge 13- Something ugly

Challenge 13 was to photograph the "not-so-nice" side of life.  The challenge was to photograph something ugly. 

I choose to photograph the bulk household waste.  Every year our local council offers a bulk household waste pick-up.  The pick-up starts in late May and runs for 6 weeks.  Now, the idea is that each suburb in the Port Stephens council has a set week in which to put out their waste.  A flyer in the mailbox notifies each suburb of their pick up week.  In concept, you'd put your waste out on Sunday and it will be picked up during the week.  In truth, no one follows the flyers that we have gotten.  Our neighborhood wasn't supposed to put the waste out until the 27th of June.  Some people have had theirs sitting out for weeks!  Now, the other problem is what people call waste.  There are so many table and chair sets outside.  Yes, one of the four chairs is broken.  Why not donate the other three and the table to the Salvation Army?  People also use this time to scavenge through the bulk waste. Ugh.  I am glad that this will all be done soon!

Challenge 12- family pet

Challenge 12 was to take a picture of a family pet.  Since we only have one pet in the country, I can only take a picture of Lacey.

Lacey enjoys a good curl-up on her bed for a nap.  After all, she's still a growing pup!

Challenge 11- Coffee Cup

I am really bad about this picture challenge!  I am sorry!  I will try to do better.

Challenge 11 is a picture of my coffee cup.

I didn't have coffee in my cup.  I was drinking hot tea with milk and sugar.  I like this picture because it shows the steam coming off my cup.

Challenge 10- Secret Passion

So I am back in the saddle again after a bit of time off from the challenge.  Going to Noosa really broke my stride on a few things.  However, I'm back at it now. 
The next challenge is to photograph a secret passion.  I will admit that I don't have many things that I am passionate about.  Certainly my family, friends, and scrapbooking, but none of those would be considered secret.   Then I was talking with a friend about making bread by hand versus going to the bakery or even using a bread machine.  It dawned on me that I am a little bit passionate about making bread.  It's also something that I don't really talk about so perhaps making bread is a secret passion for me. 

This is partially kneeded bread dough.  I love everything about making bread.  The yeasty smell, the warm, hardy texture, the feel of kneeding the dough....everything.  Kneeding bread is very calming and soothing to me.  Doing dishes used to be calming and soothing, but then I had to do them everyday, multiple times a day.  Hopefully, making bread won't lose that same loveliness. 

In case you are wondering, I used a White Wheat recipe from the Joy of Cooking (their Whole Wheat Bread) and modify it by subsituting 1/4 cup of the water for juice of one large orange and the correct amount of Wallaby Bread Improver.  It comes out wonderful everytime.

More picture challenges and a trip cometh...

So here are some more picture challenges.
Challenge 6: Sunset

This picture was taken from our front deck and is looking through some tree branches at the sunset.  I don't really have much to say about it.

Challenge 7: A flower
It is sorta the wrong time of year for growing many flowers, but we have a few.

Yes, I know that most consider this a weed and not a flower, but it is still a pretty spot of yellow.

Challenge 8: Someone taking a bite of their favorite food
So, I had a hard time with this challenge as food being shoveled into a mouth does not make a pretty picture. 

But I guess that pictures don't always have to be pretty.  Sometimes, they just have to be real.

Challenge 9: Messiest room
Geez.  Yet again, the messiest room in the house is my craft room.  It probably wouldn't take long to clean it, if only I could find some free time without the kids or the dog.

 

I've been pretty good about taking each picture on each day, but I have a hard time remembering to sit down and blog about it. 
Over the next few days, I won't have a chance to blog either.  I am going on a trip!  I am traveling by plane and shuttle bus to the Noosa area in Queensland to visit Selena.  I am very excited to go and am thankful to Jay for suggesting the trip and allowing me to go.  Jay will be in charge during the week, which will be the first time he's ever done this.  I'm sure that he'll do fine. 

Your room, picture 5 of 30

The next challenge is to take a picture of your bedroom.  This was a really difficult picture to take as our room is not large, and one whole wall is mirrored closet doors.  So I took a picture of me in my room instead. 

As adults, Jay and I have never been ones to spend much time in our bedroom.  It's where we sleep and get dressed.  We may read before bed, but we don't go to our room just to read.  If we want to read, we read on the couch.  Same for television.  The bedroom is just for sleeping.

Favorite Shoes, picture 4 of 30

Today's challenge is to take a picture of your favorite shoes and then explain why they are your favorite.  Hmmm, I'm not really a shoe person.  I don't have favorite shoes.  So, I decided that I would just take a picture of the most expensive shoes I have ever purchased.  I just happened to have purchased them two days ago, so all my feelings about the shoes and their price are still solid in my mind. 
Here they are:

Meet my new shoes, the Asics Gel Nimbus 12.  In the USA, these shoes retail for about $125.  At that price, they would still be (by far) the most expensive shoes that I have ever purchased.  Of course, good ol' Aussie prices have these shoes retailing for about $230!!  I got mine on sale for $184.
So, by now, you are probably wondering why I spent this much money on shoes.  I didn't really want to, but I didn't have much of a choice.  I am doing a running program and my current joggers are just plain worn out.  I purchased them about a month before we moved over here, so they are about a year old.  I want a good supportive shoe, and not a cheap shoe.  Joggers (as they call them here) are pricey if you want anything better than a $35 Payless shoe.  There's no middle ground.  It goes from the $20-$35 range at places like Kmart and Payless to $160 at a store similar to Footlocker.  I spent a while looking for shoes in that middle range- there just are none! 
Now, these shoes are probably the most comfortable, supportive jogger that I have ever owned, but I highly doubt they will be worth the money spent on them!

Night, picture 3 of 30

Picture 3 of 30 in the 30 pictures in 30 day challenge is a night picture. 
I have done a few night pictures before so I tried to do something different.  In this picture, the moon is shining bright and the sun is setting.

the houses are all facing the setting sun.  It turned out well. 

Chores, picture 2 of 30

Today's 30 pictures in 30 days challenge is to take a picture of chores not yet done and then write about it.
My picture:

This is no ordinary basket of laundry.  This is a basket full of size 3 clothes.  Size 3 clothes that Sammy has finally outgrown.  More than half of these clothes have been through at least 2 kids.  Many have been through all three of the boys, and some were even passed to us before my boys went through them.  That hood that's hanging out of the basket.  It's the first winter coat that I ever purchased for Joe.  My mom bought Joe's first coat, but I picked out his second.  Joe wore it, Tom wore it, and Sam wore it.  Now, someone else will wear it. 

This pajama shirt was also bought for Joe.  It's been a favorite for all three boys. 

It's a little hard to bag up these clothes.  It's saying goodbye to yet another milestone in our kids' lives.  Of course, with the three boys, I have this about every year as we get rid of clothes that get outgrown.  I, however, feel like I have more memories of the little kid clothes rather than the bigger boy clothes.  So, until I get around to bagging up the clothes, they will sit on the basket on the couch.   

Me, picture 1 of 30

So, I am working on a 30 pictures in 30 days challenge.  I take way more than 30 pictures a day, but these are supposed to help me improve my photography skills and hone my scrapbooking prowess.  I have way too much other scrapbooking to do so I thought I'd do the challenge and share it on the blog.

 Picture number 1: self portrait- a picture taken by me, of me and then write about what the picture makes me feel or think. 

So first, I did just the standard, hold your arms out, smile and snap.

Now, this is not a horrible picture.  However, what it makes me feel when I look at it is...old.  I'm not old.  I don't typically feel old.  However, the crows' feet in this picture...well, they make me feel old. 

So, I thought about trying again, but all I could think was old and oldness.  So, I decided to do a self portrait of my oldness.

There it is.  My gray hair.  It hides under a few brown hairs on the right side of my head.  It is the reason I gave up on trying to grow out my bangs.  When wearing a headband, all those carefully hidden grays are showing up, big time.

Now, I am sure that you are thinking that Clariol makes a great product to cover this old hairs.  Yes, they do and I use it, from time to time.  I use the temporary dyes that wash out in a month.  'Why don't you just visit a salon and have them gone?' you wonder.  Well, because Jay thinks they're beautiful.  Trust me, if your hubby gets all swoony and calls your gray hairs beautiful, you'd keep them too. 

I hope one day that I can feel like I rock my gray hairs, but I am not sure that I am much of a rocker. 

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your gray hair and get it in focus, etc?  It's pretty darn tough.  While I was trying, I managed to get this picture.

And I love it.