Snow day!

Baby! It's cold outside!  Can anyone believe how crazy this weather has been this year!  It's not been this cold in East Tennessee in YEARS!  It's crazy!  Don't get me wrong, I really don't mind cold weather and I do like a little snow, but this has been crazy!  The best I can describe this cold weather is T-R-O-U-B-L-E! If I have heard it once, I have heard it twice, folks with car trouble, HVAC units going out, school/business closings, the list goes on!  I just don't think us folks from Tennessee can handle this kind of weather!  Lol  I will have to say if there is any good in it all, it's the feeling of being blessed that comes to my mind.  When the temps drop or the snow starts to fall, I stop and give thanks for the roof over our head, the heat that warms our toes, the food that nourishes our bodies and this place we call home!

Stay warm and many blessings!

TGIF

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,

Love like you'll never be hurt,

Sing like there's nobody listening,

And live like it's heaven on earth.” -William W Purkey

Happy Friday everyone! Hope your week was full of blessings!  

Something has been on mind.  Is it just me, or does anyone else need a pick-me-up by the time Friday rolls around?  It seems like I always start the week off feeling good, feeling confident, feeling motivated, feeling blessed, thankful for what lies a head of me, the list goes on.  But then each day into the week, I just seem to feel deflated.  Like I have a slow leak and all my motivation, confidence, good thoughts, just slowly leak out until I can't wait until Friday gets here!  Is it me? Or is that normal?  At first I blamed it on turning 50, but in reality, that's not the answer (this was going on LONG before I turned 50 last year.)  I really don't know what the answer is.  Maybe it's that we get recharged over the weekend and feel really great by the time Monday rolls around.  I don't know, I might not ever really know why it happens, but I'm going to work on it.  I guess that's why this quote was stuck in my head when I took this picture of this duck.  He didn't care that I was staring at him, or that  I was creeping up closer to him to get a good shot!  Why this little guy just started showing out even more!  He was strutting around, just like he was dancing, he didn't care who was watching!  It was a good lesson for me, even though I do feel like I'm deflating through the week, I'm not going to take one day for granted!  Everyday is a gift.  I'm going to count my blessings and make each day count like it's heaven on earth! Deflated or not!

Blessings always!

Colorful Scarves

11/365

Lens: Sigma 50mm 1.4

Aperture:ƒ1.8 | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 3200 | Shutter speed 1/250

DIY Scarf Armoire

 I had a major catastrophe this week with my scarves (no I am not a scarf hoarder)!  I came home from work and they had ALL fallen out of my vintage armoire turned suppose to be scarf organizer!  Anyway I didn't have time to deal with it through the week, so this was my major task on this rainy Saturday morning.  I decided to do a DIY, since I had to actually start from scratch to make sure this didn't ever happen again.  You can see from the pics above how I used my dependable Gorilla glue to make sure this time my hanging bars would stay in place!  I know, scarves really aren't that heavy, but, um, if you have this many, it does put a load on the bars if they are not securely mounted!  Lesson learned people!  So if you pick up an old vintage armoire up at a garage sale or on craigslist, like I did this one.  You can turn it into a scarf organizer! 

PS. We bought the bar and end caps at Home Depot.  I measured them and my husband cut the bar into three pieces to hang.  The bar is hollow, so not hard to cut.  I bought these items in the closet section of Home Depot. 

Blessings always!

Catching Up

9/365 & 10/365

Lens: Sigma 50mm  1.4

Aperture:ƒ2.8 | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 1600 | Shutter speed 1/60

Lens: Nikon Coolpix Point and Shoot

Aperture:ƒ3.3 | Focal length: 6mm | ISO: 800 | Shutter speed 1/10

Something Old

8/365

Have I mentioned I love old things? I guess it's pretty obvious.  I have always thought I had an old soul.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some modern, love the newest trends, love to mix things up, but deep down inside I really think I could have lived somewhere in the 20's, maybe 30's?  I get lost in old photos, but that's another story.  Anyway, I have two of these tall mirrored armoire doors that I use for full length mirrors.  I topped this one off with an old wooden clothes hanger. Sometimes I catch myself  looking in these mirrors, mind wondering, trying to imagine all the wonderful people that must have looked in this same mirror over the years. There's always a story with something old.  That's what makes it special.

Lens: Sigma 50mm  1.4

Aperture:ƒ2.8 | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 1600 | Shutter speed 1/40

Puppy Eyes

7/365

Now this is a sweet face!  I just love me some puppy eyes!  I took this photo while playing around with my new Sigma 50mm 1.4.  The DOF is just fabulous, but I am still learning how to manage it.  As you can tell in this photo the closest eye is definitely the eye in focus!  It almost just pops out at you!  Anyway, It's going to take some practice, but I am loving it so far!

Lens: Sigma 50mm  1.4

Aperture:ƒ1.4 | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 200 | Shutter speed 1/1600

No Trespassing

6/365

The high today was 10 degrees.  The temperature will continue to drop until morning.  We haven't had weather this cold in East Tennessee in 17 + years!  I figured my photo for today would have to be a quick jump out of the car, a click of the camera and a jump back into the car!  Basically that is what this image is. This girl doesn't mess around when it's freezing out!  For some reason I am always drawn to No Trespassing signs.  Must be the fascination of what lurks on the other side.  In this case, a beautiful old white barn.  Try to stay warm!

Lens: Sigma 50mm  1.4

Aperture:ƒ1.4 | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 200 | Shutter speed 1/8000

Sofa

5/365

Now that's a sofa!  Does anyone else make three circles through a town, just to take a second look and third look at an old sofa propped up on an old door in an abandoned old building?  Well, if you are anything like me, you would! Can't even tell you how fast my mind was going, thinking about all the possibilities this beauty could bring my photography!  After my third swing through town, it was apparent that not one single person (this is a one red light town, by the way) was around for me to ask if that sofa was a freebie, was it for sale, or why it was even just standing there all by itself! Why, oh why?

I had to photograph it, at least for the memory.  Needless to say, I will make another swing through the town next time I'm that way.  A girl can always hope, right?

Lens: Sigma 1.4

Aperture:ƒ2.5  | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 800 | Shutter speed 1/6400

Toy Truck

4/365

Didin't have a lot of time today to push myself for a photo challenge, so when that happens, I tend to shoot something that I love.  I LOVE vintage, so I tend to find something that I have collected to shoot.  This truck has been handed down through our family for years.  I love the color, the rust, everything about it.  The vintage camera is a Brownie that I picked up at an estate sale.  I think I have about 7 vintage cameras right now and I hope my collection keeps growing!

Lens: Sigma 1.4 (Christmas present this year, yippee)

Aperture:ƒ2.5  | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 2500 | Shutter speed 1/200

Peaceful Sunrise

3/365

Winter is finally here in East Tennessee.  I woke up this morning to a very peaceful sunrise.

Lens: Nikon 50mm 1.8

Aperture:ƒ1/8  | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 500 | Shutter speed 1/400

Memories by Polaroid

2/365

I collect vintage cameras and only felt right photographing my polaroid with some old photos of myself.

Lens: Nikon 50mm 1.8

Aperture:ƒ1/8  | Focal length: 50mm | ISO: 800 | Shutter speed 1/60

A New Year

Happy New Year to All!  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Ours was wonderful!  I made this card to send my daughter and her husband that are in Afghanistan.  They loved it!   I didn't get around (I can't believe it) to sending out Christmas cards to anyone else this year.  That is so not like me, but it happened.  Every time I checked my mail and received another Christmas card, it made my stomach turn, I felt so guilty.  Then I asked myself, why do we do that to ourselves?  Does anyone really pay attention to the fact that they did not get a Christmas card from everyone they sent one to?  You think?  Anyways, one of my new year resolutions is, to GET OVER IT!  Life happens :)

So it's a New Year and with a New Year, comes New Goals and New Year Resolutions!  I thought I would throw mine out here!  What does the New Year have in store for you?

2014 Goals

1. Work on giving it ALL to the Lord! Live with fearless faith!
2. Get over the fact, I can't always get everything I want to do done! (as in sending Christmas Cards)  Lol
3. Focus on my health
4. Focus on my home & family
5. Do more for others (whether it's something big or small, just do more)
6.Focus on my passion, photography

Leaving you with number 5, I will be starting the Project 365 as one of my goals.  If you don't don't what that is, it's simply taking a picture everyday and posting it.  I am hoping this will inspire me to shoot more and improve my photography skills.  I hope you will enjoy this journey with me.  You can click on the button above to find out more.

Now to start taking down my Christmas decorations!

Street Art

1/365

I don't want to get behind with my 365 project, so I am posting this first one as if it was posted yesterday for Jan. 1.

Lens: Nikon Coolpix Point Shoot

Aperture:ƒ/4  | Focal length: 70mm | ISO: 280 | Shutter speed 1/50