saturday sky.

At this time of the year, the evening light is simply magical. It glows like at no other time.

The big problem? When it's at its most glorious, I'm usually in the kitchen, looking longingly out the window.

So, this evening, I decided that sometimes life has to take second place to art... I asked my family if they really needed dinner right away, or if they could wait an hour or so. They sweetly decided to humour me, so I grabbed the camera and headed out. It was worth it!!

date night

Nothing fancy... just him and me at the coffee shop. I have tea, he has steamed milk (plain); we play cards (I win). Then he plays solitaire while I take pictures. We chat. It's all good. Very very good.

looking back

I just spent a large chunk of the morning looking through my files of photos for this year. How utterly satisfying!

2010 has definitely been a good year.

Not that there haven't been hard times... but overall, the memories are happy.

Several overnight trips away, just Ray and me... a return to acting after several years... my in-laws' 50th anniversary celebration... my mom's wedding... happy family together-times...

I'm happy. Joyful, even.

2 days... busy busy busy

So much is getting done here... finally!... and I can't show you pics of any of it. I *knew* I shouldn't have let my family know I had a blog!!

But here's my present this year, half of it courtesy of Pioneer Woman and the photo editing contest that I won (I won!!! Seriously, I still can't believe it most of the time!).

A (gently used) Canon 40d... which, as one of my friends kindly pointed out to me, sounds like a bra size... and an 18-135 lens which I hope will turn out to be a good general-purpose one. Picking out a lens was the hardest part of the purchase - finding one with good reviews, that would cover most of my needs, and still be within my budget.

So, now I get to play with my camera... so many buttons and dials and unfamiliar features. It feels so good to have an SLR in my hands again!!

20 days... and I'm gobsmacked!

mosaic
Originally uploaded by whimsey

Yes indeedy. Blown away. Shocked.
You are looking at the winner of a Pioneer Woman photo-editing contest!
PW put one of her photos up for everyone to edit, and out of around 1200 entries, this one caught her eye.
Woot!!!
So now, having won a gift card to B&H, I get to replace my camera with something that doesn't have a condensation spot in the middle of the lens. Something (maybe) in the DSLR category. Oh, can it be???
YAY!!!!!!!!!

37 days

Today I don't really care that it's now one day closer to Christmas than it was yesterday. Not when the sky looks like this:

thankful for...

... sunshine, and a clothesline full of sun-dried clothes.




... a $20 craigslisted china cabinet!!!





... hydrangea blossoms


... a vacuum system that actually works, thanks to its filter being cleaned out (and the husband who got all dusty doing the cleaning).


... a sweet sister who cemented her best-auntie-in-the-world status by first of all letting me drop off my daughter at her house for a couple of hours, and then by taking her to the water park!!! Thanks, Rachel :)