31 January, 2010

We spent the afternoon at my grandparents' house today. I saw this cute little lion statue for the first time ever two days ago (When I asked my grandma how long she had had it, she said years - I don't know how I missed it!). Since he's so adorable, I decided to take a picture of him to share with y'all. It took me a couple tries to get a nice, clear close-up shot of his face, but I somehow managed it.



He's only about two and a half inches tall and resides on one of their bookshelves. A good place for such an intelligent-looking lion, I think. :)

30 January, 2010

After discovering we shared the enjoyment of painting ceramics, a friend (MOTS) and I decided to set up a mini moot at a store that my family and I paint at. We had a good turnout and a good time, too!

We managed to procure the shop's party room so that we could talk (and be silly *whistles*) without bothering other customers. The owner of the store and one of her employees dug up this quote and wrote it on their party room's whiteboard just for us (without the favor even being requested)!

29 January, 2010

We had Culver's for supper this evening. I thought the emblem on the soda machine had a really neat "old timey" feel to it.

28 January, 2010

It was one of those days where you can go out and shovel the driveway all you like, but, an hour later, there's another inch of light, fluffy snow covering the concrete.

27 January, 2010

It was a pretty uneventful day. I made it a point when I went to bed last night to finally load the iTunes card I got for Christmas and purchase some music. I decided to spend the majority of the card on a Gaelic Storm CD. (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

26 January, 2010

This was an interesting photo to take, merely because I've never tried anything like it before. My mom actually won this shirt at the "girls' night out" archery shoot that we went to the week before last, but it wasn't the right size for her, so she gave it to me. As a rule, I'm not a pink, girly sort of person, but I love the words on it. So, just in case any of you ever had your doubts - I shoot like a girl. And I just don't see anything wrong with that. ;)

25 January, 2010

It merely looks like a large, blue rubber band, doesn't it? Well, to an extent, it is. However, that rubber band has been a wonderful piece of exercise equipment. I have been using it for a couple months now to continue to work my archery muscles during the six days of the week that I don't shoot. Pretty cool, eh?

24 January, 2010

Today was very slow-paced in comparison to yesterday. Nice and relaxing, I thought. We did some shopping this afternoon, including dropping by Barnes and Noble. I had hoped to pick up a Sherlock Holmes collection that I've seen there in the past, but they didn't have it in stock. Fortunately, they were able to put it on order for me! So, I should have a new book to read in about a week. ('Cos, you know, I just don't have enough novels to read. :P)



And I have a bonus picture for you today. My mom "invented" a new recipe today. 'Tis a meatball sandwich smothered with her special white Manicotti sauce, as opposed to marinara. Very tasty!


(Sorry about the poor lighting - my flash bleaches my subjects out something awful. Especially when they're mostly white. ;))

23 January, 2010

The twenty-third was a busy day. Woke up at six o'clock for archery, which we had to leave early in order to get to Golden, Colorado in time for our Carousel Society meeting. The meeting was where I took my picture. One of the members carves his own decorative carousel animals and taught four of the others some of his tricks. The below piece was done by a man that I shall call "The Dragon Man" for the sake of internet anonymity. The Dragon Man is an art major, so he had an advantage that the other members didn't have - however, all of their pieces turned out fabulously!

The impression I got was that The Dragon Man intends to finish this unicorn by carving an entire body for it. I do hope we get to see the results!

22 January, 2010

The below picture will (hopefully) explain my inability to create a long, elaborate post.

21 January, 2010

After being told by a friend that I was in desperate need of some more interesting fonts (for image editing), I sought out the advice of someone font savvy and she directed me to dafont.com. So I spent a bit of time this afternoon perusing the website, came across a couple fonts that I just couldn't do without and... now I'm a believer! After seeing all of those awesome fonts, I completely understand why the normal fonts seem "lame". Many thanks to LH and Elraen for their assistance!

20 January, 2010

It was a relatively average day for me today. I had some spare time this afternoon, which I decided to use to change out my Breyers.

For those of you that don't know, I am an avid collector of Breyer model horses. I bought my first one at the age of eight with a gift certificate from my riding instructor and have been hooked ever since. My collection has grown to the point that I don't have space to display all of my models at one time - so I cycle them out. Unfortunately, after putting up my previous models last spring, life got hectic and I haven't really messed with them since. Today, I replaced two of my shelves with fresh models; some special editions that I've never displayed before.

19 January, 2010

Got my glasses, ran errands, attended an emergency preparedness class... It's been a long day. And thus, you'll have to pardon the poor photo quality for today. I just finally took it maybe half an hour ago and really wasn't very specific about the details.

18 January, 2010

I was a bit skeptical when I heard all of the CPers raving over Sherlock Holmes. "Surely it isn't that good," I thought.

I take it back. It rocked! I have only read one Sherlock Holmes tale ("The Hound of the Baskervilles"), so I can't say whether they stayed true to the original characters or not. Either way, very good movie!

17 January, 2010

I have spent my entire day at home (not against my will). It's been a fabulous break, but picture opportunities have been a bit rare. So, with Boom's permission, I photographed the cover of her very pretty notebook. I just love the blend of colors and textures.


In fact, since my day has been so relaxed, I spent some time playing with graphics. I would have used this as my daily "picture" if the photo wasn't taken last week sometime.

I spent close to an hour fiddling with this one picture. I used it as an excuse to further explore the tools and filters on GIMP. After auto-fixing it, playing with the lighting, attempting to sharpen it and using an "oil painting" filter, I moved it to Picnik.com, where I applied the frame and various other effects. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. (Critique is always welcomed, if you have it.)

The Original

The New and Improved

16 January, 2010

Today started with our usual archery practice at eight. After we came home, got something to eat and took some time to prop our feet up and relax, we headed to Old Colorado City to see the ice sculpture show they had there.


Much to our disappointment, the majority of it was ice sculpture advertisements, as opposed to the art we expected to see. However, I took the opportunity to "celebrate" Dragon Appreciation Day!

We perused many shops and I made it my goal to photograph every dragon I found in each one. I was not surprised to discover that many shops (even one "Western" themed store) carried dragon items; however, I was shocked at the quantity of items. Most of the shops sold three or more dragon products. I walked away from the adventure with many dragon photos, unsure of how to share them. Eventually, I decided on a collage.

When I got home, I quickly threw a rough collage together to share with you folks. Remarkably enough, I just couldn't fit all of the dragons on my collage! However, I managed to get most of 'em on there. Below is the collage in a small scale. Click the link below if you would like to see the full-sized version.

My Dragon Appreciation Day Collage

15 January, 2010

Last night, my mom and I attended an archery shoot for ladies only. We had a blast hanging out with other female archery nuts and got to play a fun game while we were at it. Admittedly, neither of us did very well (The last time she was consistently doing archery, she was eight years old; my excuse is that they had us at a further distance than I'm used to. :P), but we had fun nonetheless!

14 January, 2010

I discovered the below pinecone first thing this morning on my morning run with Air. I thought it was neat, so I brought it home with me. Air was kind enough to hold it for me while I took a picture of it this afternoon.

13 January, 2010

Today wasn't our archery day, but we took some time to go to the range and shoot recreationally. Even my mom joined the fun! This is the selection of rental bows at our range.

12 January, 2010

On the afternoon of the twelfth, the construction near our neighborhood accidentally hit our phone lines and rendered us phone-less and internet-less. Unfortunately, said event occurred before I had a chance to post my picture of the day. So I'm playing catch-up today!

I took a quiet moment as a chance to take some more texture/stock photos for potential manips. I wasn't as satisfied with this round, but they certainly could have turned out worse.



I was attempting to get some good photos of a lasso to potentially use a border, but I just couldn't seem to get the lighting right when I was backed up. So I worked on some close-ups instead. My camera's macro setting is fabulous!

11 January, 2010

I'm afraid I must admit it... I'm addicted to technology. iPods, computers and yes, even cell phones (though I cling to the latter for no other reason than their convenience). For the past three years, my "charging station" has been located on the right side of my bed; the surface that I set it on being nothing more than the box that my "iMove" boombox came in. At the end of November, the top of my dresser drawers cleared off. However, it was promptly filled with assorted wrapping materials and then Christmas gifts. Today, I remedied that situation. My charging station now has a proper home.

10 January, 2010

This morning, realizing that it was another relatively nice winter day, I thought "Hey, today would be an awesome day for a hike." My mom agreed, so off we went for a Sunday adventure.

Instead of hiking, we took a trip up to Cheyenne Mountain and visited Will Roger's Shrine of the Sun. We enjoyed some spectacular views and soaked in some history while exploring the "tower". I didn't take this picture at the very top, but we were pretty high up when I snapped it. For those of you familiar with the Colorado mountains, you can see Pike's Peak above the peak of the roof. You see that very snowy mountain top peeking out from behind the vally (of sorts)? Just slightly to the right of the green slope on the far left of the picture? I know it's hard to spy, since the sky is so white in the photo, but that is Pike's Peak! I thought it interesting to get a picture of it from a different view, since I'm so accustomed to seeing it from the front.

9 January, 2010

We got our tree down a week ago, but didn't have anywhere to take it to have it recycled until this weekend. So my mom and I loaded it up and hauled it off this afternoon. We also worked on taking our outdoor Christmas decorations down. Unfortunately, our ground is still so frozen that some of the things we staked into the ground (wooden signs, etc) wouldn't come out! So we're waiting until the temperatures have gone up enough to loosen the dirt and allow the stakes to give a little.

8 January, 2010

I got the privilege of assisting a friend of mine move into her college dorm room today! I had a blast hanging out with LH, per usual, and enjoyed seeing some of the college scene (since I've never actually set foot on a college campus).

Before we headed to the campus, my family and hers met up at Cracker Barrel for lunch. For anyone that has never been there, they have plenty of old time candy, et cetera, in their "Old Country Store". I thought this display of lollipops looked very neat.




But don't touch that dial just yet! Today, you all get a bonus picture. 'Cos I want to share a picture of what I actually did today. LH on her dorm bunk, right next to her cleverly decorated wall.


Alright, that's all folks! Thanks for tuning in.

7 January, 2010

Not a particularly artistic photo, I fear and most certainly self-explanatory. But they can't all be gems, can they?

6 January, 2010

Went to have my eyes checked today. I thought this floral arrangement coupled with the very modern chairs made for an interesting combination. This photo is a bit crooked - sorry 'bout that.

5 January, 2010

I'm working on a series of photo manipulations right now and attempting to use as much of my own stock as possible. Right now, the majority of them are in the planning stages, however, I wanted to allow myself enough time to get some photos before I started on 'em. This pic is likely to play a part in the series. It's one of twenty-five, so I have a few different options. :P



As a side note - if anyone is looking for any playing card stock for photo manipulations, feel free to drop me a note. I have more than enough photos for you to at least browse. You just might find something you like.

4 January, 2010

The fixed blade knife that I ordered from Cabela's last week arrived on my doorstep this morning! Of course, I promptly pulled it out and examined my purchase and then proceeded to do what any 365er would do - photographed it! Unfortunately, I just couldn't get the right lighting on it, no matter what I did. So, pardon the dark setting and slight green tinge to this picture.





The specs:
Gerber Micarta Skinner
3" blade length
6.9" overall length
3.2 ounce weight
Drop-point style, stainless steel blade

Now you know more about my knife than you ever cared to learn. :)

3 January, 2010

Today, my family and I ventured a place we haven't gone in years - the roller rink. It's been six years since I last went to one and just as long since I've been skating. No, I didn't put any of those silly rolling contraptions on my feet (I'd much rather back a green horse than glide out into a rink), though I did enjoy watching my sisters skate and playing some arcade games (Woot for Ski Ball!). The below picture is of a section of the rink's carpet! Isn't it a neat pattern?

2 January, 2010

My family and I went to Big R this afternoon. All of us managed to find something to spend money on (hooray for Christmas cash!). No, the subject of the below picture did not come home with us. However, she's the cutest thing I've seen all day and her owners were kind enough to let me take a photo of her.

1 January, 2010

Happy new year everyone!

The above picture was taken shortly after the clock struck twelve and my family and I greeted the new year with loud toots of noisemakers and the "ooos" and "ahhhs" that accompany fireworks.