365

This day have been a long one and demanding as well. Sometimes my work takes over my life and I feel like there is no room for me to breathe. This is especially true when the day is filled to the brim with meetings and classes and I interact with people all day long, and in the evening too.

I am tired, but also thankful for the good happening from this day.

I am thankful for the help of a friend today
I am thankful for a meeting going well
I am thankful for some nice and sweet words said to me.

But most of all I am thankful for my little ritual of drinking a cup of tea in the evening. It gives me warmth and slows me down. Gives me a place to breath. Even on a long and busy day.

My favorite tea right now is Lemon & Lime Zest from London Fruit & Herb company.

I love all their flavors though. And they have a bunch!

And fruit tea is really the best way to go in the evening, doesn’t make you as awake as other kinds

—————————–> What are you thankful for today?

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This is the third post in a series of Thankful post for the month of November 2011. I use the prompts from Katrina Kennedy’s November Photo Idea List as a starting off point and find at least one thing I am grateful for each and every day. If you want to play along please share your thoughts in the comments or link us up to your blog.

I haven’t been able to update with photos, but I’ve been learning something small or something big each and every day so far this month. (YAY!) Today I’ve paired my learnings with my photos and want to share If you want to read more about the project you can find the other posts here.

What I learned Sunday, September 4th:

After a whole weekend apart it's nice to stay in the same room for a while.

This weekend I was busy with the new Confirmant class @ church, so MT went to his Grandparents for a few days. It was so good to see him again on Sunday! And even though we ended up doing different things in the evening – it was so nice to be together in the same room again.

What I learned Monday, September 5th:

Since going low on sugar consume, I eat popcorn more often.

Like every day. Ops.

What I learned Tuesday, September 6th:

A soccer mom will cheer on the team even when September turns to wind and rain.

Sometimes the weather aren’t so nice when MT are out playing football (soccer). Sometimes there is a roof over my head and I can stay dry and still see what happens (and shout, as I can’t keep silent at a football match. lol.). But most often there is no roof and I have to stay outside in the rain as they plays.

What I learned Wednesday, September 7th:

A sunny afternoon in the fall, with no meeting to attend,
makes for a nice photo hunting walk!

A beautiful afternoon and a little camera walk in my neighborhood to capture the nice September weather, how much water there is in the river right now and how the beautiful sky and clouds reflects in the water.

What I learned Thursday, September 8th:

Planning and thinking together with people that are engaged and creative
makes me believe that the sky is the limit.

This day was spent driving to and from meetings. Loved the great discussions and ideas shared in all the planning that took place – as well as the inspiring thoughts from creative minds. In the afternoon we got a little rain and some gorgeous rainbows as well.

What I learned Friday, September 9th:

Fridays are my favorite weekend evenings.

I’m often tired on Friday afternoons, but still it’s my favorite day of the weekend. There are (usually) no work and no school on Saturday, so we get to hang out and not worry so much about when we go to bed, because we can sleep in the next day. And since I often work on Sundays, Saturday afternoon aren’t as relaxed, since then I tend to worry about the service and the sermon and such.

What I learned Saturday, September 10th:

Sometimes it better to go out and do something than stay at home.
Even when I feel tired and worn.

We had lots of fun going to the fair today. I was so tired, and thought it might be a good idea to stay at home and rest instead. But it totally was the best idea to just go and have fun. I’ve been going to this fair since I was a girl, and it’s a big one. We were only 2 out of over 30000 there(!) So great to walk around and see all that was for sale, equally as fun (at least for MT) to be at the amusement park and have some fun with the electric bumper cars (he even got his uncle O. out there bumping). Also nice to spend some of the time there with my father and my brother. We don’t see each other too often!

So there you go. All updated again. More or less. How are your learning going?!

Tomorrow Katrina Kennedy’s class Your Life: Captured Through The Lens starts up and I can’t wait for all the things I’m going to learn about photography. That is if I can remember my password and log in already, I’m tired of requiring new passwords all the time…. ahem.

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PS: The class is still open for registration, if you want to join in as well. Go here to read more about it.

As I told you just a couple of days ago, I’m taking a class with Shimelle Lain, it’s called Learn Something New Every Day. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Now I have two more lessons learned to share.

What I learned Friday, September 2nd:

When I'm getting ready for a big happening (especially at work)
I pace a lot and have trouble relaxing for real.

I was more or less out of sorts as I put the last preparing down for my 5 hour long night with out church youths, I was glad I was the only one at home because I tend to get a bit snappy because of all the excitement and worry that these big happenings bring with them. Meeting both the parents and the youths for the first time is seriously scary as well as very nice. With all these feeling boiling inside of me, I find it so hard to relax even though I had the early hours of the day off. I tend to pace a lot. Thankfully the weather was nice, so I went for a walk down by the river. That was a smart move. The night went well, but I was so tired when I finally got back home. Keeping track of 32 youths more or less alone (I had a woman help me with food and she was also in the building if I needed any help) does that to you.

I could have snapped a photo of the Youths, but to be honest, I didn’t have time to dig out the camera right then and there. So instead I took a photo of the (almost) empty field right next to our house. The farmer was there and cut it on Friday before the rain started again.

What I learned Saturday, September 3rd:

I really like to fill my albums with newly printed digital scrapbook pages.

I was so happy to see the package with all new prints arrive on Friday, but I didn’t have time to put them into albums before Saturday (and that was the day after the big happening mentioned above and my neck gave me a lot of trouble, so most of the day was spent horizontal. Thankfully I got better in the afternoon). It was so nice to slowly put the prints away, taking a good look at each and everyone as I did it. I had the house to my self and could take as much time as I needed since MT was at his Grandparents for the weekend. It was my first time ordering big prints and I really loved the 12×12 size. It is obviously a bit more pricey, so I have to wait for another sale before ordering, but still the size just makes it all come together for me. And since I mix digital and traditional layouts in the albums, it makes sense as well.

I’m going to let the photos be the pages of this project album, that way this also doubles as my 365 for this month. I really want to make a page for each month with my 365 photos, maybe something like this:
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It’s hardly a secret that my Favorite Fruit is of the lime kind.

I just love the green color and how it makes my cooking taste so much better. I should use it again soon, been having bad cooking habits lately, not much home cooked meals these days.

I spent last month snapping a bunch of Favorites. I had so much fun following Katrina’s August prompts. You can find the new list for September here and come join us for some sharing and talking in the gallery and forum at her site Capture Your 365. Love the people there – and the photos uploaded are just gorgeous! Lots of inspiration for the next (365) photo – don’t we all need that from time to time?

Anyway, back to business. My Favorites. I shared a few here, here and here.
And now I want to share some more:

I love my kid’s smile – that is my Favorite Smile for sure. I have a lot of pictures of it too (together with a lot of other photos of his face and all his expressions), here he’s showing off all his brand new big boy teeth as well.

Keep smiling kiddo. I love you!

MT has a thing for small things, he loves to pick up beetles, grasshopper and such (but is quite afraid of spiders).

This little guy was my Favorite Smaller Thing of the month.

My phone is really worn from all it’s use. Sometimes it’s sticky from my kid borrowing it, sometimes it doesn’t function as well as I wish – but I could not go with another type of phone after this. I just love the way it works (or at least should work) – and that I can do so much more than talk or send SMS.

My Favorite Piece of Technology is for sure my (sadly outdated) iPhone.

I bought these in South Africa 13 years ago. I love them and they usually go with the bowl of salad when I have company. I haven’t used them for a while, so it seems like I need to invite someone soon – and serve something green

A Favorite Kitchen Item of mine.

I’ve been taking photos in one way or another for the last 30 years. I love it and it has such a big impact on my life. I’m so glad to see how MT is picking up the camera as well and starting to get a few decent images out of it as well.

Taking photos is my Favorite Hobby, but certainly not the only one!

I love the view from the farm I grow up on. I love that the farm is up on a little hill and that it faces straight south. Makes it open for every kind of weather, but the view is spectacular

My favorite view for sure!

MT has been really into football (soccer) lately and was so happy when the season started up again a couple of weeks ago.

It’s been his Favorite Activity for a while now, at least until the snow arrives, and I love going with him and cheering him on.

I’m not drinking as much coffee as before, but I have to say that it is my Favorite Beverage.

You can find the full 365 set here.

Thanks for looking. Please share what your favorite things are in the comments. I’d love to know.

Happy weekend everyone!!

I’m still working on Katrina’s list of Favorite Things for my project 365 this month. I’m not all caught up with posting them to my 365 |2011 Flickr set, but I hope to get there by the end of the week, so here is another 3 photos. Getting back to work this past two weeks have been seriously busy!

The photo at the top of this post is from August 12th:

I love walking down by the river.

I especially love it when the sun are shining and making everything glowing, like it was today You can’t see the river in this photo, but it is right off the right edge of the photo. I could hear it load and clear when I captured this. I love the sound of the river.

This is my Favorite place to Walk by, all summer long.

This photo is from August 13th:

This stripy top has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Sadly it’s getting old and have a few small holes in it so I can’t use it as often as before, but I love to put it on at home and when I go for a walk down by the river.

It’s one of my Favorite article of Clothing. I sure hope to find something similar soon. It’s just so comfy to wear

And this one from August 14th:

I love to sit here on my stairs to drink a cup of coffee in the sunshine. As summer is coming to an end I try to do it as often as possible, to soak up the summer feeling (so please no more rain!).

My scrubby concrete steps are my Favorite Spot To Sit .

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Have you found your favorites?

I’m still working on Katrina’s list of Favorite Things for my project 365 this month. I’m not all caught up with posting them to my 365 |2011 Flickr set, but I hope to get there by the end of the week. Getting back to work this past two weeks have been seriously busy!

This photo is from August 9th:

MT have loved playing with these wooden sticks even since he got them 6 years ago. Back then he had fun just filling (and emptying) his truck with them. Now he builds amazing structures with them and can spend hours after hours playing.

For sure a Favorite Child’s Toy in our house.

The photo at the top of this post is from August 10th:

For a period this summer MT asked me to play UNO with him more or less every day.
Our stack of cards are well used and every time I play it I’m reminded of all the times I played it as kid. Good Times. For sure our Favorite Game right now.

And this one from August 11th:

In the afternoon the sun finds it’s way to our veranda on the northern side of the house, it’s a wonderful place to be – to regroup from a busy day and to soak up on the last bit of sunshine for the day.

Right now this is a Favorite Place right Outside my door. If only there would be more sunny days like this, I would use it even more. It could use a new lick of paint, though. Maybe next year?

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So what are you doing with your photos this month?

A few favorites to share:

Project 365 | 3. Aug. 2011 | Favorite place: FRONT STEP @ the farm house

Project 365 | 4. Aug. 2011 | Favorite person: my SWEET son

Project 365 | 3. Aug. 2011 | Favorite time of day: the MIDDLE of the day

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I’m really loving the favorite prompts from Katrina Kennedy of Capture Your 365. August is off to a good start. More to come in a few days. What is your favorite time of day?

2. August 2011 - Favorite number: SEVEN

July 365 photos are coming to a blog post soon, but here are my two photos from August. I love the Favorite theme @ Capture Your 365 for this month. I have printed the PDF and put it by my calendar. Can’t wait to scrap all these favorites too.

1. August 2011 - Favorite color: ORANGE

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After spending a couple hours fixing errors by Aperture’s last sync with Flickr, Aperture have lost their permission to my Flickr!  I can’t have it changing the photos URL every other day; it makes using them on my blog almost impossible. And using the photos on my blog is kind of what I upload them to flickr for (at least the web versions). So frustrating; off to explore some options.

If you have suggestions please let me know

Happy Summer! Or something that looks like it (it’s raining around here, but the weather is warmer now than when it was raining in May, so it must be summer all right). Anyhow. Welcome to another edition of the Capture Your 365 Blog Hop. This time with photos from June.

And I’m so pleased with myself. I actually accomplished several of my photo goals for this month (June). I snapped photos regularly (not every day, but often). And every night I sent an email to OhLife with a short, sometimes long, story about the day. Come the end of the month it was so easy to write the text that goes with the photos (I published to my Flickr account) . The one thing I didn’t managed to do, and that I’m hoping to find time for, was uploading the photos to my gallery at Capture Your 365 site. I really love the tone and feel of the gallery and soooo want to find my way back in there. After all, Katrina is the reason why I’m back snapping happily my 365 photos this year!

A few favorite photos (click them to view the larger + read the story):

Find more of my photos in my Flickr stream or join me in the forum and gallery @ Capture Your 365. It’s such a friendly and encouraging place. In fact if you follow along on this blog hop, you’ll meet a few of us. Next up is: Katrina.

Here are links to earlier blog hops: March | April | May

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Thanks for visiting me.
I’m off to clean my house and to enjoy this day a little as well. It’s my birthday. I’m getting old

Wish you a lovely July!

Leave a comment if you want and welcome back!

In case you get lost on your way, here is the full list of blogs:
1. Jill 2. Laura 3.Christi 4. Sharon 5. Tammy 6. Kathleen 7. Anne (me)  8. Katrina

I’ve been struggling this month. Both with remembering to bring my camera when we were out and about and with finding time to snap a few photos during the day of our everyday life stuff. For some reason I also found it really hard to follow the prompts from Katerina during her May Merrymint on the Capture Your 365 blog. It caught me with surprise that it was more difficult, rather than easy, to snap a photo of our day when I wanted to follow the prompts. And I have to admit it caused me to lose a bit of steam on my whole 365 photo project for the month of May. And guess what: I loved the prompts and I’m so bummed it didn’t help me enjoy the process of capturing our day more easily. Anyhow, I have a few photos to share; grouped with the week of flower, toys, food and outside (nature). Take a look
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FLOWERS

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TOYS

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FOOD

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OUTSIDE

I’m the last on the list. Please jump to Jill if you haven’t visited us all.
Thanks for visiting me, welcome back!

1. Jill
2. Laura
3. Tracy
4. Sharon
5. Tammy
6. Christi
7. Kathleen
8. Katrina
9. Kate
10. Anne

I can hardly believe it, but another month of snapping away photos (more or less) everyday has come to an end (and to be honest a new month is well on it’s way!). I’m so happy for all the memories I have gathered from the month of April. And this time I want to show you some photos from our Easter week. MT had a few days off school and we had some time on our hands to be together and enjoy the beautiful spring weather, in between me working at church.

Here we go:

18. April 2011 | First Go In Cold Spring River Water

19. April 2011 | Got To Love Some Ice Cream

21. April 2011 | Walking Home From Church
(look he's got his drawing block and pencils with him, as always).

22. April 2011 | HAPPY BIRTHDAY my son. 8 is gonna rock!

23. April 2011 | Having Fun Playing With Birthday Gifts

24. April 2011 | So Glad Grandma & Grandpa Had Some Time To Stay After Church

25. April 2011 | Going To The Pool

Find more of my photos in my Flickr stream or join me in the forum and gallery @ Capture Your 365. It’s such a friendly and encouraging place. In fact if you follow along on this blog hop, you’ll meet a few of us. Next up is: Tracy.

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Thanks for visiting me.

Safe Journey Ahead!

Leave a comment if you want and welcome back!

In case you get lost on your way, here is the full list of blogs:
1. Jill 2. Kate3. Katrina 4. Kathleen 5. Christi 6. Tammy 7. Anne 8. Tracy 9. Sharon 10. Lee 11. Michelle 12. Beth 13. Michele 14. Christine

…but I let my kid put his bare feet into the cold river water on Monday. It was just too warm a day to tell him no, even though we are in April still (bathing season here starts by the end of June, usually).

Over a day later there is still no cough to hear, so I think it went nicely. Ahem, just so you know, mom.

I’m back on the 365-train again. And with this blog post I’m
thoo-thoo-ing away as part of the Capture Your 365 Blog Train.

If you asked me a month ago I would have said:

“No way I’m ready for that just yet, maybe when I hit 40 in the summer. It would be fun to document my fortieth year with a photo from each day, but no sooner than that”

But then Katrina Kennedy started her new site Capture Your 365 and I couldn’t help myself but started up again on March 6th of this year.

And since then I’ve been shooting away. Finding inspiration everywhere. And when I’m stuck I can always find Katerina’s prompt of the day and see if that can steer me in the right direction.

It’s not that I haven’t tried the project before. I’ve tried several times. But each time I’ve struggled after a while. Mostly with keeping my blog/flickr up to date on the everyday photos and with adding words to each of my one photo of the day. Even though the photos are important in them selves I always long for a few words to go with them. It don’t have to be so many, just a few is enough. Here is a link to my 365 photos on Flickr, check back for updates

And here is a few of my favorites from the month of March:

I’m not sure if this go is different and if I can keep it up all trough the year, but it feels a little bit like I have a better work flow of things:

Firstly (1) I shoot the photo each and every day (or if I miss it I find (or snap) a photo that captures the story I want to highlight from that day and find that to work nicely – sometimes life is happening just too fast). Secondly (2) I choose my one POTD (photo of the day) and run it through Photoshop Elements for a little touch up (or a lot, depending – sometimes I love to make it black and white, sometimes I want to dim the colors, sometimes crop a little). Thirdly (3) I upload both a web sized photo and a high resolution photo to my flickr steam, making the web sized one open for everyone to see (the high res. is set to private). And lastly (4) I upload the POTD to the Capture Your 365 Gallery.

I think it’s the last bit of my work flow that gets me going every day (or when I get some time to work with the photos) – I love the comments I get and I love to see what others involved in the 365-project have snapped. It such a friendly and great group of people to belong to!!

I invite you to get to know a few of them here on the Blog Hop and next on the list is: Sarah

Here is the full list of blogs (in case you get lost):
1. Jill
2. Gayle
3. Tracy
4. You’re Here!
5. Sarah
6. Sharon
7. Michelle
8. Katrina
9. Kathleen
10. Erika
11. Gabi
12. Christi
13. Joey

Another installment of the iPhone photo project. Week 12/52 is now accounted for.

I’m changing things up a little, but you can still jump over to Flickr to see the photos larger if you want.

1. New Place Outside, 2. Daisy; Prestekrage, 4. River and sky, 5. Stripes and Sweets, 6. The Red Rule,
7. Take me to Botswana, 9. Sunshine on River

Credits: Papers from You are here by Paislee Press and Queen of Quirk

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77/365 – July 12th 2010

Finally they finished laying the new decking outside. It looks good now, not as messy as it did before. I wonder what I’m going to put there…..

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78/365 – July 13th 2010

One of many wild flowers in my garden. I love these.

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79/365 – July 14th 2010

I love living by the river. I love living by any kind of water, to be honest.

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80/365 – July 15th 2010

I went by my parents this evening. My mom made me dinner and then we moved out in the tent (of sorts) and had coffee and sweets. It’s been a while since it’s been only me, my mom and my dad together for an whole evening. Strange but nice. Missing MT a whole bunch.

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81/365 – July 16th 2010

The Red Rule demanded this picture taken. In this case you might even call it the Blue Rule as the door was just as important as my friends coat, but anyhow. I spent a nice evening in this house, chatting, eating, laughing and even got a late evening walk in the rain.

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82/365 – July 17th 2010

I’ve read these books several years ago. Now I’ve started up again and added two books to the collection as well. This is #4 of 9, so I have great reading for the whole summer

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83/365 – July 18th 2010

On my way home in the early evening – after having had three services in three different churches – the sun shone so beautifully at the river. I had to capture it.

Another installment of the iPhone photo project. Week 11/52 is now accounted for.

I’m changing things up a little, but you can still jump over to Flickr to see the photos larger if you want.

1. How to make a marzipan rose, 3. Driving Home, 4. Birthday BBQ, 5. Green and white polka dot,
7. My Evening Routine, 8. Out Walking, 9. Evening Light

Credits: Papers from You are here by Paislee Press and Queen of Quirk

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70/365 – July 5th 2010

My friend Bea is busy preparing for the wedding of her son and (soon to become) daughter in law, she loves making cakes and have several in the works. This is all for the wedding cake, it’s going to be fantastic. I’m leaving my son with her for a few weeks, he’s going to have a great time. I’m going to miss him.

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71/365 – July 6th 2010

I drove over several small and large mountain areas on my way back home. I tried to take photos of the scenery, but it was not so easy… Loved this one though, with a little capture of what’s behind me as well

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72/365 – July 7th 2010

Today was my birthday and I celebrated a little with family. We lit the wood stove (of sorts) that stands in the garden and it worked wonderfully as a BBQ. A great evening with tasty simple food. | here is a digital scrapbook page I did about it |

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73/365 – July 8th 2010

Every once in a while I need me a new coffee mug. I loved this green and white polka dot cup, it is my new favorite. Today I enjoyed some coffee, sitting outside just relaxing.

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74/365 – July 9th 2010

Any normal evening you’ll catch me surfing the internet, some of the evening you’ll also catch me watch telly. If I only could get around to start blogging again regularly I would be so happy.

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75/365 – July 10th 2010

I’ve started walking by the river. I really like it; all the beauty of the nature, the smell and sound of the water, the funny scrapbooking podcast on my ear. An hour well spent.

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76/365 – July 11th 2010

It’s been a rainy day. I love the light in the evening.