Thursday Randomness

These little guys made by Ms. Pearl and Pebble watch over my work laptop every day.  They make me happy.

Here is my To Do list that starts off this year.  I have been on a slow and steady roll of simplifying, tossing and organizing.  I still can't believe that I filled up 7 garbage bags with recycling/shredding from my file cabinets last month!

I have been intrigued by the Project 365 in the past, but never participated. This year, I am participating here.  It is my first real attempt at actively using Flickr and it was a rough start with some gnashing teeth.  I am slowly starting to navigate through the options and menus more easily, but not as comfortable as I would like.  Yet.

Courtney made these cool earrings with my beads.

I am contemplating doing the 52 in 2011 self-portrait project, which is one self-portrait each week. I think this would be a bigger challenge for me in that I would have to constantly find new/different ways of photographing myself. I would also have to use the self-timer and figure out focusing issues since my new camera does not have a wireless remote like my last one. I admire Julie Kittredge's photography and think her go at this project in 2010 looks pretty fantastic here.

I saw this truck and it made me smile, remembering how the teasing of classmates was slow to register when I was younger.  My maiden name is Ford.  It took weeks, if not months, before it registered that when they were saying "Fix or repair daily" or "Found on road dead" that they were using acronyms for my name.  I am still somewhat slow on the uptake for some jokes.

My friend ThyHand blogged about comments and how much they mean here.  These thoughts echo my own in how much your comments mean to me.  It seems like I never have as much time as I would like to do the things I want to do.  Responding to all comments (at least those of you who have been so kind as to allow your email address to pass through for comments for replies) is something I would very much like to do and I feel guilty when I don't respond back.  Email is one of my downfalls in communication.  I find my inboxes (yes, there are multiple inboxes between beads, personal and then my work inbox) extremely overwhelming.  So just know that all of you majorly cool people who do comment bring a smile to my face when your comment comes in and I apologize for not always responding back to you.  I am thankful for you.

I can't seem to find any before pics of our family room, but it was filled with a blue sofa and love seat that I loved.  And a tall entertainment center that had doors to shut in front of the tv (yay!) and many cabinets that housed the kids toys (another yay!).  We gave away the blue furniture to a friend starting a new life and the entertainment center to another friend in a similar situation.  After a few weeks of emptiness, we moved the furniture from our living room into our family room.  And then for months, the wall behind the tv was empty.  I didn't want to be in the room.  It didn't feel like home.  But over Thanksgiving, I finally got my act together and uploaded pics and ordered prints.  And by the first week in December, I had everything framed and matted and hung up (I had been hoarding frames for months and months as I found great deals at the outlet mall or IKEA, which consequently freed up quite a bit of space in my office!).  So here is what our family room looks like now.

The rocker/recliner feels a little out of place, but it has always been up in Chloe's room ever since she was a baby and I have missed sitting in it.  And since I'm rarely the one watching tv, the spot is just fine by me because this is one of THE most comfortable chairs ever!

I love my wall of photos.  I took all of them but just a few of the black and whites and that makes me proud.  I never thought I would take pictures good enough to blow up to 8x10s or larger.

Now I love spending time in this room or just walking through it.  No longer having an empty wall, but one filled with pictures of special moments makes me feel like this is home.  And it is.  :)

Tonight I will be sewing patches on the boy child's karate uniform.  And reading one of my photography books.  And walking Little Horse, since there won't be rain tonight.

So.  Very.  Happy.  Tomorrow is Friday.