One of the things on my list to-do in 2010 was work on my photography, and I have that fancy new camera that I have to play with too!  Zarah and I made a pact that we were going to be each others moral support and sounding board in our quest to be better.  We’re working through the chapters of Scott Kelby’s The Digital Photography Book and the first “assignment” is to take pictures of flowers.  I don’t have a fancy background or a soft white shower curtain like Scott suggests, but I do have walls in my house that are painted all different colors.  So, I bought myself an orchid (the tag says it’s the perfect plant for an orchid novice – we’ll see about that) and moved it and myself around my house (crawling and laying on the floor mostly) to take pictures in different light and with different colored backgrounds.  I thought they turned out pretty good right out of the camera, but I had to play with them a little bit in photoshop too…. I mean what’s the point in having it if you can’t mess up perfectly good pictures with all those nifty actions?

What do you think?

That last one is my favorite.  I love how soft and antiquey it looks.  I used one of Pioneer Woman’s actions, but I can’t remember which one.  Vintage maybe??

The sunrise this morning was especially colorful, so I thought I’d share it with you.

I’m still home with the flu, although I’m feeling better today.  I think I’ll be fine to go back to work tomorrow – just in time for the weekend.

The weather here is terrible again. This winter has really been bad. It’s snowing and blowing again, and it seems like a good weekend to stay inside and knit (and to be really glad I don’t have to worry about driving to a job I hated). I hope you have a great weekend and stay warm (or cool depending on where you live). Tonight will be spent spinning and I think I’m going to try to spin the alpaca – something new and different. I’ll leave you with a little western eye candy. Happy Friday.

The weather has turned cold again. I’m not sure what the official low was last night with the wind chill, but at 7:00 the weather station said it felt like -30 at my house. Yesterday was spent getting extra blankets for the horses and straw for the barn (and about 15 other errands) to prepare for the super cold weather. The wind blew the road shut again last night, so I didn’t even make it to karate. I’ve been knitting and today I’m going to finish the pajama pants I cut out yesterday. Despite the cold and the wind, the snow is pretty when you can stand to be outside in it.

Have a great weekend. Happy knitting.

January is always a hard month for me. The holidays are over and the weather is cold and nasty. It just seems like a time when I get a little down and wonder where my life is headed. This January has been a bit harder than some because of my dissatisfaction with my current spot in the world. However, there were a couple of really bright spots this month, and I chose one as my first installment of A Dozen Days. A couple of weeks ago I went to Phoenix and spent some time with my best friend Ashley.

Ashley and I have been friends since we were 13. As it stands now, we’ve been friends more than half our lives and it’s one of those friendships where you can talk about anything any time you need to. In reality we’re more like sister than friends. In a time where things in my life are unsettled and stressful, having a friend like Ashley really means the world to me. The only thing that would make it better is if we didn’t live so far apart. I’m holding out hope that they move to Colorado in a few years rather than to Norway, but there’s been talk about both options. As she and Torstein, her husband, prepare for their first baby I feel blessed to be able to share her excitement and hopefully I’ll be able to be there to help her with the new little guy when he arrives in a few weeks.

So, while the baby won’t be born until late February or early March, January to me has been all about Ashley.