06/16/2010 - I'm finally back...

I can't say this is the first photo I wanted to start with after nearly two months of not posting anything - however it kind of fits the fact that I've not been around for a while. I walked out my back door today (I walk out that door or at least look out that door five or more times a day as Lindsay traipses in and out of the back door to her lovely yard) and noticed this flag flying. I am quite positive I've never, ever seen it there before. I guess it's possible it's new, but I haven't noticed any construction. So, tomorrow morning I'll have to search for its origin on my way to work.

Hope all is well with all of my readers and photography friends. I'll be posting more photos from my blogging hiatus. I haven't taken them every day but I have taken them a large number of days. Looking forward to get back in the habit of taking photos and blogging them daily.

05/09/2010: Red barn on a clear day

Red barn on a clear day
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I'm quite a bit behind on posting photos. I've been taking them most days - just not getting them posted. I finally uploaded several of them to Flickr tonight though so I thought I'd post this one. This is the barn at my parent's farm - it's probably around 80 years and is a bit of a landmark since the roof has our name on it (pretty easy to tell people when they'd reached our house). The sun was just gorgeous last Sunday while I was visiting so I spent about an hour outside taking pictures of just about everything.

04/29/2010: light box or bunk bed?

light box or bunk bed?
Originally uploaded by kicki22

Okay - so a good parent doesn't take their child's photo before punishing them, but this was just too cute. The light box is still sitting on the dining room table while I figure out where to place it more permanently. Last night while I was upstairs working, I heard this strange rustling sound. I went downstairs and saw Fluffy lying on top of the light box. As I walked around I discovered her brother Dippy was inside the light box. So, I grabbed the closest camera I had (my Android phone) and snapped a quick photo.

I also took some pictures of various tech tools today for a presentation I did this afternoon for one of our employee groups. The presentation was a lot of fun. Anyone know of a job where I can just be my goofy self in front of a room full of people each day for about an hour and in between sessions I can build the Presentations? I think that might be a pretty perfect job for me.

Looking very, very forward to the HDR image class with Diana on Saturday!! Tomorrow I'm off to get the tailgate on the car fixed and take care of a hundred other little things you can't do when you work full time.

04/28/2010: Green and light...

Green and light...
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I spent a lot of time tonight capturing the light as the sun was fading behind the houses in my neighborhood. I really liked this shot - both the light reflecting on the leaves and the colors of green all through the picture.

04/26/2010: The sky is finally blue...

The sky is finally blue...
Originally uploaded by kicki22

After a gloomy weekend, nothing like a near-dusk blue sky to brighten your day. I took several photos tonight (they are at Flickr if you want to see more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kicki22/) but decided to go with this one as it just summarized the way I feel today - a little happier and a little lighter without all that rain.

Hope today was a good Monday for everyone.

04/25/2010: Strawberry and Creme Muffins

Strawberry and Creme Muffins
Originally uploaded by kicki22

Another quiet weekend at home. WIth lots of rain and wind this morning I decided to do a bit more baking this morning. I found a recipe for Strawberry and Cream muffins a couple of weeks ago. After stirring up a batch this morning, I grabbed a few shots while they were cooling. I took some time to experiment with my flash this morning as well. I like the way the photos came out - and the muffins didn't taste half bad either.

04/24/2010 - Morning Snack!

Morning Snack!
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I love just about everything orange. Whether it's the color or the flavor I'm generally just a big fan of orange. I got several beautiful Navel oranges this week so I decided to slice one up to have with my toast for breakfast this morning. It was a yummy breakfast and the picture didn't come out half bad either.

04/22/2010: Stained Glass and Dinner

DSC_9929.JPG
Originally uploaded by kicki22

Today is the second to last day of work for a colleague as she heads off to the joy of retirement. We met for dinner at the Milano Inn here in Indianapolis. These lovely stained glass windows marked the ends of the room. They were catching quite a bit of light even though it was early evening. We had a lovely evening celebrating my friend Sue's contributions over the years.

My light box

My light box
Originally uploaded by kicki22

My light box is simply a medium sized moving box lined with white art paper. I put a piece of poster board or fabric in as the background (this shot just shows plain white poster board). Most light boxes have sides cut out and filter paper over the sides - I chose to filter at the light source instead so I put a piece of tissue over my bulb. I may change that later, but I'm having fun trying that for now.

04/18/2010: One Creative Activity leads to Another...

One Creative Activity leads to Another...
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I had a recipe for Peanut butter scones I had wanted to make for several weeks now so since I had a Sunday at home finally I decided to make them this morning. They looked pretty good, so I of course threw them in the new light box to take a photo before I ate one.

They weren't as good as I had hoped, but I enjoyed playing with a piece of fabric as a backdrop in the light box. I'm still not happy with the color I'm getting out of the light box - will have to keep working on that.

First photo in my light box

First photo in my light box
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I've been wanting to make a light box since Solveig made hers back on Day 14 of the 365 day challenge (http://solveig365.blogspot.com/2010/01/home-made-light-box.html) but I just hadn't taken the time to do so. Tonight though I decided to grab a box, some white craft paper, and a piece of white poster board to throw together a light box. I can't believe how easy it was to put the box together and get a pretty decent result. I still have some work to do with light placement and getting a brighter bulb I think, but I'm excited about the possibilities this opens up so I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post my first effort.

04/17/2010: Wet Daisy

Wet Daisy
Originally uploaded by kicki22

I spent the morning search for inspiration for my "new" patio area furnished with finds from Craig's List. While I was at the various garden and home stores as well as nurseries I took several photos of different flowers. I liked this one the best - especially after I cropped it to highlight just the center and the top part of the flower.

04/16/2010: Catching a Rainbow

Catching a Rainbow
Originally uploaded by kicki22

04/14/2010: Yummy

Yummy
Originally uploaded by kicki22

One of my staff members has a birthday tomorrow. He prefers fruit over cakes or cookies so I decided to put together a bowl of fruit for him. I had planned to make a fruit bouquet - but my cookie cutters are missing so that will have to be photo inspiration for another day.

04/13/2010: Lindsay Unpacked her Bag

Needless to say, we're all very happy to be home again. Lindsay even got to go to the spa yesterday.  Today, after her spa day clean up from all the time spent at Grandma and Grandpa's it was time for her to unpack her bag.  She had to go through her bag and take out each toy one by one and play with them for several minutes before she'd grab the next one. Whenever I tried to take one out of the bag she'd walk over and grab the bag from me so she could take the next toy out herself.  We had a lot of fun playing with all the toys and enjoying the beautiful weather.

04/12/2010: Evening light

I'm still soaking in my "back home again" bliss.  Tonight I enjoyed taking a number of photos in the evening light.  Now if only this photo had smell-o-vision because these blooms smelled lovely too.

As I was doing my back yard inspection, I was so happy to also see that my lilac bush had survived.  It seemed like a goner last fall - it just never took off.  However,  I think it's going to make it.

04/11/2010: Back Home Again in Indiana

After what seems like forever, I'm finally back home and will be home consistently now for a couple of months.  And I even have tulips blooming.  I forgot I had planted these bulbs last year - so pretty!

04/10/2010: Chicago!

Meet Cloud Gate - aka "The Bean".  This Chicago Landmark - located in Millennium Park was just a few minutes away from my conference center hotel.  I had a great time taking some fun pictures of Cloud Gate as well as doing a little geocaching at the same time.  While I'm not much of a city girl, the park was a beautiful place to explore.

Fun shot taken while sitting underneath Cloud Gate.

04/09/2010: Wrigley Field from the Train

I've visited Chicago many times. However, no ride into the city was ever more relaxing and simple than today. I am at my third conference in nearly as many weeks (the last one thankfully for a while) - this time in the Windy City. My friend Cherry Kay suggested that rather than fly the group of us attending from our office drive ot northern Indiana and take the North Shore Line train into downtown. It was such an enjoyable experience. We had a nice drive up, parked the car and walked to the train platform which took just a moment and were on the train within about 10 minutes. It was about a 45 minute ride into town. All in all - a truly easy way to get to and from Chicago. I snapped this photo while on the train. I had missed Wrigley Field as we approached (since I was facing backwards) so I had to catch it from the back. I played a great deal with the photo to give it a bit of a "dark" look which I thought fit the photo since I couldn't get a really "nice" shot.

04/08/2010: Other Creative Endeavors

I have an interest in all forms of art. However, I usually consider myself a viewer - not a doer. This foray into photography is about as artistic as I get. However, while I was at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago they had this watercolor pencil set that came with these three tiles. The tiles were mounted canvas with butterflies printed on them.

The object was that you were supposed to color the butterflies with the pencil and then use the brush and water to mix the colors. This is my result. It took about three nights to get it all done (one was while I watched the Butler Bulldogs take on Duke in one of the most classic basketball games ever played so I can't say I was paying full attention to the painting, but it did help keep me calm).

I don't know that I'm terribly excited by the result but it has inspired me to play around with the pencils and brush a bit more, try some different color combinations and maybe think about something else I might do in the future. I'm thinking of hanging these in my bathroom for the time being as I have a pretty candle with butterflies on it that these woulc compliment nicely. Overall a fun project even if I tend to think they look like a youngster did them.