gratitude:: day 22 of 30

along with the friendship comes great ideas and sharing. so today, i'm grateful for the sharing that friends do. i'm joining mary's mosaic monday and her idea to post a calendar for the day. it's based on a shutter sister's template for calendars. and it's made on flickr (another place for sharing). many of the shots were edited with free presets, textures, or other photoshop actions from the generous women that i've gotten to know in the blogging world.

today's post is definitely all about the sharing.

totally cheesing out with my mosaic this week

my contribution for mosaic monday. sadly, i've not gone out and made any shots besides the random around the house shots in a week. clearly not following the best advice i give any beginning photographer (which is shoot every day). after the panic last week of thinking my camera was stolen, i haven't had the time.

saturday i took an exam for insurance examiner - it was hard. i am a decent test taker and it took almost the complete three hours saturday. now, i hope i did okay with it. and no, it wasn't one of those, oh i think i did bad so i really did great kind of feelings - it was i really hope i did good. sunday was filled with household chores and checking on the basement cat. poor thing, he doesn't get enough attention so i made sure he was healthy and happy yesterday.

have you ever woken up on morning and hated everything that you've worked on in the previous week? i've been working on an in-service that just wasn't flowing right for me (HIPAA and the impact of ARRA - see, you're bored, right?) i think i've put my finger on the reason and after it's reviewed by the client this week, we can re-approach it and break it into two parts. the material is not the snappiest in the world anyway, no need to put the audience completely in sandman town.

so, hopefully shots and my challenge shot for LUT too. dani laid down a big gauntlet last night and i really want to stretch with this one. despite being so verbose around here...i'm really sort of shy about approaching new people so it will definitely be a giant leap.

and look at this way - i've spared you all the shots of my spider-bitten finger. about six weeks ago the tip of my left index finger was swollen and i thought i had an ingrown nail or infected cuticle. after a couple of days it got better and i didn't think of it again...until my nail started growing in all weird and bumpy. turns out, it was a spider bite (thank goodness it wasn't a brown recluse). now i have a bumpy nail growing in under my other nail and i'm having to gradually file off my other nail. ick, ick, ick. and thing is, i'm pretty friendly with my spider pals because i know they eat other insects. now, i'm not so sure they're so friendly - like charlotte.

and...i forgot the fun thing today - (other) char challenged me to draw my outfit today (my kinda selfie) and this is what happened. it wasn't pretty....believe me.

mosaic monday - beachy style

one of the things i learned about this section of the beach is the gorgeous dunes that build through the dual action of wind and waves. since the area has more houses and less access to public beaches, the dunes are preserved better. it gives the feeling of wildness and freedom to look out on the dunes.

please visit mary to participate in her hosting of mosaic monday if you would love to see other beautiful compilations. now i need to dig my macro lens out to get back in on georgia's goodness with macro monday. all these alliterative mmmmmmmmmmms .... could it be contagious?

Macro Monday/Mosaic Monday (a two-fer)

sorry...my head has been other places and i haven't been able to shoot more than the strawberries i've been having all weekend. hope you had a beautiful weekend and i look forward to catching up with you tonight.

micro "plump" (strawberries overwhelm the demitasse cup)

playing along with georgia and the other macro monday people.

mosaic "strawberries"


check out Mary's blog for more of this fun group.

Mosaic Monday

join mary's fun....

hope you're having a wonderful holiday. i'm making lemon icebox pies, ribs, baked beans, potato salad, tossed salad...and maybe a couple more surprises. we will see.

thank you armed forces for making us free and being there when we need you. i appreciate your sacrifice and honor you.

macro monday, mosaic monday and other m related things

shots that i've taken at the shakespeare gardens since the poppies and larkspur have started blooming. did you know that larkspur is the flower for july? i've known that since i was a kid because my birthday is in july but i never saw larkspur blooming until now. i've decided that i really like the deep purples.



this is an older macro as i've not been really satisfied with any macros lately. i've been making myself way too tense over them. plus, the zinnias (among other things) really took a beating during the rainstorms this month. but i'm not going to complain, we came out very lucky and i want to keep it that way. other people lost their entire houses in the flash floods eight days ago and didn't have flood insurance because they are not located in a flood plain. yes, i'm counting my blessings.

another m word - movies. finally got to see the new star trek movie and enjoyed it. it really kicks starts the series all over again in a very convenient, but nice way. my brother and fellow trekkie was not as happy with it. chris pine is good eye candy (albeit very young eye candy).

sweet dreams and finer things.