Pay It Forward (that's right free stuff right here)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! *chicken dance* I won a "pay it forward" from Grey Street Girl today. It was a iTunes card - great prize for me, music is the one thing that I love as much as photography (and my family). As a result I'm happily listening to Patty Griffin's awesome cover of "Moon River."

So...this is the deal on "pay it forward". Now I will have a drawing for a prize. Now, I'm not crafty like other people - I can't knit, I can't crochet, or any of that cool stuff. So, I will give the choices of prizes to three winners.

Each winner may have one of the following:
~~~ An 8 x 10 print (or smaller if desired) of your choice of one of my photographs (yeah, I know a lot of you are photographers too...so, ehhh)
~~~ A $10 iTunes card (copy cat, copy cat, makes you wonder where she's at)
~~~ A $10 Starbucks gift card
~~~ A $10 Amazon gift card (you might be able to pay taxes on something you really wanted)

Here's the catch....if you win, you have to agree to pay it forward on your blog. Simple as that. I think most people gave away handmade gifts when this started but it's not limited to that.

To enter, leave me a comment on this blog. Entries will be accepted until Noon on Tuesday, February 3, 2009. After that, a random drawing will be held of all entries. Best of luck. And...here's the legal eagle jargon. One entry per person, you must be 18 to win...and, what else is the usual blah blah blah stuff that we click to say we read? Anyway - dem's da rulez.

Game on!

Back to the usual blogging network now.

beautifully written

Do you long for beautifully written essays about childhood memories, personal follies and other bits of enlightment? You need to discover a person I've recently discovered, Gabby. He stirs so many memories for me.

I don't always pimp out. But...this guy just touches my heartstrings.

because my sister said so

JM challenged me today...she thinks I've been Debbie Downer in blogland so she challenged me to be funny. The thing is, I think I'm funny...I'm just not a funny writer. I make witty retorts and I can riff on a theme...but I don't bring the funny. I have other friends that do that so very well. I can barely remember to tell the punch lines to jokes well. So...a funny posting for JM (my sister).

Let's see...(notice the stalling elipses here)...yeah, no. Don't have it. My humor is weird and quirky - when I laugh, I laugh loud. I believe in the power of laughter. When I'm embarrassed, I also laugh. It's cool, right? It's easier to be the class clown than be the embarrassed one. I as always the bestie in high school to my guy friends. That way, if I didn't get a date - it was cool because I was the buddy. I would like to think it's like Watts to Keith and that I would end up with the diamond earrings AND the boy. But, I bought my own diamond earrings instead.

I think I'm a situational funny girl. Or, I'm funny when talking about how unironic Alanis' "Ironic" is....it seems she mostly just had really bad luck. That was funny.

Funny: Tropic Thunder, Kevin Smith, Calvin and Hobbs, little children, tripping (as long as you do not hurt yourselr), the self absorbed, blind-folded musical chairs, George Carlin, The Big Bang Theory, models that believe in their own publicity, Richard Prior, my neices and nephews, some fashion faux pas, Jack Lemmon and Cary Grant, and well-timed, well-played sarcasm.

Not Funny: Will Farrell (recently), clowns, war, starvation, inflation, poverty and abuse (okay those were easy), Larry the Cable Guy, overused phrases like 'git her done', Prince Valiant, people that brag about their accomplishments, re-runs of Roseanne or anything with Rosie O'Donnell, booty calls at 3:00 a.m., or toilet paper stuck to your shoe, being cruel to get a laugh.

I'm sure I'm over looking something.

I went driving again today. Looking for the different and the not so usual. This new collaboration is a good challenge for me as I have to shoot more often. I also won some fabulous textures today (thank you Joy!) that I was dying to play with..so off in search of new subjects. Along the way I found:

A house falling down a hill


A closed store that used to sell hay


And a beautiful bit of sunshine

the in between

I had a thought yesterday while I was driving about the change from winter to spring - the combination of death and life in this weird warmish/coldish winter that we're having in Alabama. It has been in the 50's one week and the the fridge door gets opened and temperatures drop. So, in the midst of death I can see the first brave robins peeking in, squirrels developing a scamper in their step, and the harbingers of spring opening in the shapes of hyacinth and daffodils. Quince is peeking out fuzzy buds surrounded by thorns.

And it strikes me that I'm also in the great in between. That waiting period for winter to end and spring to begin. There are harbingers of good in my life but dead bits and pieces are being slowly routed out.

Hope spring comes to you too.








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On a side note - I'm very excited to enter into a new project with my friend, Leaca, called "Far North ~ Deep South". It's a photography adventure between two women from different corners of the world. We're the same...only different. Hope you drop by sometime to see what we're up to on the new blog. Far North ~ Deep South

therapy for the unemployed

A morning drive, an apricot croissant, coffee and a green olive boule, straight from the oven. The sun peeking through clouds and evidence that spring is just over a month away. A telephone call from my sister and a laugh at an old joke. A good dose of 70's music and a bit of singing in the car.

All add up to a bit of a cheer up and a healthy dose of reality check. And add in a dash of some want ads that sound promising.