Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween


OOOhhhhhh, creepy. I wasn't sure if I would ever use this photo I took in Bodie of an old coffin. It is not like you are going to hang it on a wall. It works for the photo of the day today.

I cut out my Jack-O-lantern today and I have got the candy ready to go. I am going to dress as a witch, it is easy and all I have to do is wear black and put on my witch hat. Have a Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Looking Forward To Halloween


So we are ready for all the kids that come to our neighborhood for Halloween. We live in a rural area and our home is in one of the few areas with a lot of homes. People bus their children into our area for trick or treating. We love it. The kids are so cute in their costumes. We have 24lbs. of Hersey's candy bars and I am looking forward to handing it all out. Stock photo from fotosearch.com.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Not Much Going On Around Here


I haven't updated the blog much this week. Not much has been going on around here. John and I have both been sick with colds. I haven't done anything creative in awhile although today I did work on a few scrapbook pages.

Yesterday we spent the day going back and forth to Home Depot trying to find the right blinds for my craft room. Now that our big tree in the front was cut down the house is getting baked and so are all my craft supplies. We also looked at trees yesterday to replace the old one. We are trying to decide between a Maple or a Fruitless Mulberry. I think we are going with the Maple. They are so beautiful this time of year.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Lucia
















These are some fun photos of my cat Lucia I took the other day. She is such a cool looking cat but she does not like her picture taken.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Kokanee Salmon Run




John and I went to Tahoe yesterday with Nick and Bret from his work. We spent the night in Tahoe and the guys had a great time gambling and parting all night. This morning we went and watched the Kokanee Salmon run. Basically these are land locked Sockeye Salmon that live in Lake Tahoe and swim upstream to spawn. There are hundreds of them. It is really hard to get a good picture of these salmon but here are a few so you can get the idea. It was a gorgeous Fall day, crisp but not too cold.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Bodie Photos





This morning I was editing some photos from my trip to Bodie and the Eastern Sierra last Fall. Hopefully this weeend we will be going to Tahoe and I will have some Fall color photos. We are planning on seeing Kokanee run and that will be fun to photograph. I will post the photos when I get back.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

TIMBER!!!



Monday, October 16, 2006

Full of Wonder

I love these photos of my niece Emily playing with my camera tripod. Mostly because my brother, when he was her age, use to spend hours playing with my parents video camera tripod. I also like them because she is just so darn cute when she was playing, in her own little imaginary world.


My laptop recently took a dive and so I spent and hour and a half on the phone today with Dell. I have to say they were very patient and helpful. They are sending me a whole new DVD hard drive. I will be so happy to have it fixed. I spend most of my time on the laptop computer instead of the desktop because it is easier on my back. I was really thankful to John's Mom for giving us her laptop. She bought it but was never able to use it because of her stroke.

My art teacher had a lot of "constructive criticism" to give me on my latest drawing I turned in today. It was helpful but it is not like I am going to become a drawing artist professionally. She takes it so seriously. I guess I do too.

We LOVE our new wood stove. It is 48 outside and 81 inside. John gets a kick out of seeing how warm we can get the house going. It is actually heating the whole house not just the living room. That means we are going to save money on our heating and electric bills.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Drawing Assignment #5


Okay, I can't use an eraser and I had to draw 11 objects all related to each other in subject.

Dahlia


I found this Dahlia growing in my backyard from an old plant that I had abandoned.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Fall Layouts




I finished some more layouts today. Two of these layouts are of last Fall and the other one is from way back in the Fall of 2002. I guess I am in the mood to do Fall layouts.

I have also been working all morning on my next assignment for my drawing class that is due on Monday. Last week I spent 11 hours on the assignment and had to turn it in unfinished. I started working on this one last night. I am just not going to obsess over it like the last one. I am not sure if I am enjoying this class anymore. Although it is a good lesson for me to learn to just do the assignment and turn it in even if I am not happy with what I have drawn. It doesn't have to look perfect but I wish that it looked like the objects that I am trying to draw!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Haunted House Foamie

On Thursdays I volunteer as a Big Sister at the local elementary school where I meet with my Little Sister. This week we made these really cool haunted house foamie projects. They turned out so cute and she really had a good time making them. She asked if we could do more so this weekend I will go to Michael's and look for some more of these projects.

Christmas Cookie Layout

This is a layout of Cameron and I making Christmas cookies during his visit here last Christmas. We made a lot of Christmas cookies during that visit. It was so nice to have family here with us during the holidays. I am looking forward to Anne and Cameron coming for another visit here soon.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Our Wood Stove

The installation of our wood stove was completed today. As I type, we are having a thunderstorm and rain is on it's way. So tonight we are going to have a nice cozy house. John can't wait to get it burning. I am so glad we went with the nickle trim instead of just plain ugly black.


Poor Didj is hiding under my chair right now. She was trying to squeeze through a 3 inch whole in her kennel in the back yard earlier. She hates thunder. I think it is pretty cool. I am tempted to grab my camera and go take some pictures of the storm but I don't feel up to it right now.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Our Deepest Fear

by Marianne Williamson
from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of
A Course in Miracles


“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I read this yesterday, I liked it so I thought I would share.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Fishing at Silver Lake

Yesterday John and Nick went fishing at Silver Lake. John said it was the best fishing trip he had done all year other than the Kokanee trip we did together. Nick caught this huge 4 lbs trout right away. They caught 14 fish all together, two of them were 2 lbs each.




I is a gorgeous Fall day here in Camino you just want to be outside. John, Didj and I hiked on the trail in Placerville today. John went over 6 mile and I walked two. I just love this time of year here.

Our wood stove was installed on Friday but without a door. There was a mix up with the door I wanted. I didn't want the all black ugly door, I wanted the nickle trim door. So now John is going crazy because we have the stove but he can't use it yet. They will have it all finished on Tuesday night and then look out, we will have fire!

Saturday, October 07, 2006

New Layout

I finished this layout of Emily when she was 6 months old. I am just a little behind (she is 4 now). I am suppose to be working on my art class assignment but I am putting it off. John went fishing this morning up at Cable's Lake with Nick from work. It is such a nice day outside I think I am going to go for a walk. I will do the art assignment later.

Friday, October 06, 2006

The Vineyard

This morning I got up early and went to Madrona Vineyard down the street from our home. Every year I miss the chance to photograph the grapes before they are harvested. This year I was not going to miss my chance to go photograph the grapes. I had a lot of fun walking through the vineyard early in the morning with no one else around. My days go really well when I am able to shoot pictures in the morning. I am going to try and do this at least once a week.





Monday, October 02, 2006

Rain

We were surprised last night by rain. Since I couldn't sleep this morning I decided to go out and take some photos of the rain. I am really glad we are getting our wood stove on Friday because it is getting cold here. We are running the propane heater but I just don't like the way it feels. A nice warm fire would be perfect on a day like today.




Sunday, October 01, 2006

Lyon's Lake Hike


Yesterday John and Didj hiked to Lyon's Lake in the Desolation Wilderness. The round trip hike was 10.2 miles. John brought his fishing pole and caught these beautiful brook trout. Unfortunately, this may be his last hike in the mountains until next spring because we are suppose to have snow down to 6,000 elevation this week.