week 5 (and 4)

Week 5 is going to be things that start with the letter B.

I realized I never posted what my theme was this last week. Not that anyone probably cared or noticed anyway. It was things that start with the letter A. It was actually kind of fun, which is why I decided to go with B this week.

3/52 - things associated with winter

I wasn't too good at doing this one last week. It was a mixture of being sick most of the week and busy for most of the weekend. I was really hoping to get a cool "see your breath" in the frigid cold shots. I'll still attempt to get that one done before winter is over though. It probably couldnt have even worked last week though since it was "warm"...like maybe a little over 32 degrees...woohoo heat wave! Anyway, this is all I got because it was right outside our door. I tried some different editing techniques on every one to give some variety at least.

1.16.10

A practice in nail polish comparisons. I'm not sure about the names of the purple shades, but I know the right hand (Meghan's left) shows (from pinky to pointer) OPI You Don't Know Jacque, Essie Mink Muffs, OPI Over the Taupe and I believe OPI Somoan Sand.

I took this with my point and shoot - at night with no flash. Even though I am usually anti-flash, I think this might have been an instance where it could have been a good thing.

2/52 - what's in my bag?

First up, my purse.

First, I had to take Thomas out to get to the rest of the stuff (ha!)




food portion: Stride gum in sweet cinammon, a half eaten bag of pretzels that I promptly threw away and my fave, Halls Vitamin C cough drops.



beauty portion: some earrings, bobbys, a much too expensive lip balm (Sugar), 2 lip glosses, lotion and some aspirin.



pens and a dull #2 pencil.


my wallet



do you ever get that feeling that all of a sudden your purse is really heavy and you aren't real sure why - then you dig around and notice there is a full bottle of water at the bottom?



a bunch of garbage



my nerdy coupon organization. The small one has gift cards, reward cards, receipts and important papers. The big one keeps all our coupons - organized into really anal categories.



Which leads me to my makeup bag:

I love this one. Eyeshadows are so purdy...and MAC is my brand of choice.



love. this. bronzer!



I just started using this Prescriptives moisturizer. I got in on sale at the Company Cosmetic outlet store at Johnson Creek. So far so good.



last year around this time, I was in the midst of a mascara obsession. I had so many tubes, it was ridiculous. I had to cut myself off and force myself to use them all before I bought any new ones. I am proud to say, I am down to my last tube!



I can't live with out those Pond's cleansing cloths...and I love me some Jonathan Silky Dirt.

week 3

Things associated with winter

(forgot to post this last night, woops)

1.2.10

This light display on University Ave. is the same every year and always looks really cool. I'm not sure I captured its awesomeness though...

1/52 - Morning Routine

ok, so this was way harder than I anticipated it to be. I underestimated how much I am not a morning person. Trying to get some interesting shots, sometimes with one hand, while being against the clock to get ready for work was no easy task...especially because I was still dreaming about laying in bed the whole time. So I'm while I'm certain that these pics don't really convey my morning routine, they are the best ones I got.

And as a side note: anyone who has lived with me will know that the picture of my face is so dead on what I look like in the morning. Jon and I were seriously cracking up at how accurately it depicts my grumpiness in the a.m.

Week 2

What's in my bag?

so...things in my purse, makeup bag, etc.

52 project

This year I am going to do a 52 project. I heard around the internets of some people who have done this in various ways, but I am sort of making up my own rules. Basically I will have an assignment or theme every week. Likely the assignment will be in a Scattergories type form or a photography technique I want to try out. (ex. things that take my money, things that are red) I will post a minimum of 1 picture for the theme, but likely there will be more. The assignment will be decided and posted by 12am on Sunday every week. When I will post is another issue....hopefully I'll do it before Sunday of the following week, but I'm not making any promises.

I like that this will still give me a reason to seek out things to photograph, but it isn't as "easy" to just take a picture of whatever struck my fancy like I did with the 365. However, I obvi reserve the right to take random pics and post them 365 style :) I will also need some help coming up with themes, so I welcome any readers to give me suggestions. Like now. Go ahead. Leave it in the comments.

As for the theme for week 1: My Morning Routine.

See ya in a week!

2009 365 project wrap up

I did it!

I can't believe it is over! The year looks so short when it is smooshed into a collage, doesn't it? Actually, when I look back on the posts, it seems to have gone by pretty quickly too. (and the winter seems shorter, which doesn't seem possible) I really thought that maybe I would forget to do it a few days here and there, but I didn't. It totally became second nature to look at everything as if it was a photo opportunity...and as I mentioned a couple weeks back, it really made me practice and get better at composing, shooting and editing. Since I got my SLR back in Feb, I really owe this project a lot of gratitude for learning how to use that thing as well. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Which brings me to 2010. I am not up for another 365 project. I need a break from the daily grind (...but I could definitely see myself doing it again in 2011!) And so I decided to take on different project - one that could arguably be harder than the 365 actually. (that's coming up in a separate post.)

So that's it! Below are 15 of my favorite images in no particular order and some stats from the year.

279 were taken in Madison

• 156 of those were taken at our home
• 25 at my place of work
• 20 downtown

37 were taken in Milwaukee

• 13 of those at my parents' house

10 were taken in Green Bay

6 were taken in Chicago (or the greater Chicago area)

24 of posts were taken in a store

19 of food
23 in or of a restaurant
80 of objects
16 of nature

Top 5 people who made appearances:

Jon - 37 appearances

Me - 34

Cooper 15

Tom 12

Meghan 9

12.31.09

And there she is. The last picture of this project! I went to Party City in hopes of finding those 2010 glasses so we could have a fun picture, but they didn't have any. boooo. Oh well. This picture was taken exactly at midnight - or maybe 11:59. We aren't much a pair that gets into the New Year revelry, so we went to dinner and watched (500) Days of Summer (which was awesome). Happy New Year! 2009 recap coming up...

12.30.09

My mom came up yesterday for the day. You see, we looooove Dexter in our family, but my parents' got rid of their premium channels and my mom wasn't able to watch this season. Travesty! I think she would get extra annoyed/jealous/anxious when Gina and I would talk about it and how good it was.

There was an easy solution though. She had a long Christmas break, so she took one day to come to our apartment and watch the entire 4th season on demand. We thought it would probably take her 2 days, but she was a trooper and finished it all in 1. I think it was a mixture of the episodes only really being about 45 mins long and not being able to stop watching when it was so good! It worked out well too because we were at work all day and she had work to do, so she could multitask.

Have any of you started watching it yet?? I think it is about time. Just think, you could watch all 4 seasons in just 4 days! :)

12.29.09

One thing I will miss about the mall during the Christmas season: See's Candy! I bet you just think this is just another chocolate/candy shop and might as well be Fanny Farmer or Buddy Squirrel, but you would be wrong! These suckers from See's are so freaking good! They actually give them out as free samples, so every time I would go to the mall, I would lurk around the kiosk until they would offer me one. :) Every time I would act surprised and thankful also...ha! If they only knew! St. Nick brought us a whole bag of them too, so I will be able to enjoy them for a little while longer still, even thought he kiosk is now gone.

And not only are they delicious, I think they are a great long lasting, low calorie dessert! If you are watching your weight, but craving chocolate, these only have 80 calories, taste super rich (almost like a hot chocolate in a sucker form) and take a long time to finish because they are so big. They have 3 other flavors too...the butterscotch is good, but the caffe latte and vanilla are not so much my cup of tea.

Make yourself a mental note to have one of these next Christmas.

12.28.09

Another one turns the big 2-9. Only one more year in your 20's, Meghan! Live it up! I stopped by her birthday lunch to wish her a happy bday. Wouldn't you know this was one of the few times I didn't have either of my cameras with me though. That hardly ever happened this year surprisingly. Thankfully Emily had hers and I was able to get my pic of the day. Whew! Close one!

12.27.09

On Sunday night, I headed to Milwaukee for our friend Christmas celebration. It was sort of thrown together at the last minute this year, so we didn't really know who to expect or what kind of treats everyone was bringing. The good news is only 1 person wasn't able to make it! We had a small gift exchange where everyone brought a $10ish gift of one of our favorite things. It was such a great idea! Not only were there some great items in the mix, it made shopping for the gift a lot easier. I brought 2 pairs of Commando underwear (actually a $60 value, but I got them on sale for $5 each! woohoo! Love that brand and that price!) I got 2 bars of soap from Lush, which I love! There was some bronzer, some lip conditioner, and a Bruegger's GC in the mix too. I think we are going to make this theme annual!

Once again, I was having too much fun chatting, that I didn't get any pics during the thick of the party. This was after mostly everyone had gone and Maureen was showing us a bridesmaid dress she is wearing for Rachel's wedding. I kind of love the lighting you get from a laptop...and I LOVE Meghan's xmas decor this year.

12.26.09

This is the second time this year that garbage on the side of the street was worthy of a pic of the day. The first is one of my fave pics of the year.

12.25.09

Coop and Mom in their Christmas outfits! We had a pretty low key christmas this year actually. Instead of driving all over the state making it to every Christmas celebration, we took our time getting ready on Christmas morning, and then made our way back to Madison and celebrated with Jon's family. It was niiiice.