This & That

Oryx Dreams

This is an Oryx.

I show you this only so that you will be familiar with the species. DH drew a tag to hunt the beasties on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this weekend. Don't ask me how an African species got to New Mexico, but there they are. He tells me this is a real once in a lifetime hunt....not to be confused with the "once in a lifetime" sheep hunts that have results in a flock on the DDT wall. ("Oh but, honey, each one was a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated experience...") Yeah, I suckered for that the first couple of times. Now it's just a load of crap.

Anyway, I'm beginning to question his mental status. I know he's a dedicated sportsman, but this trip entailed a total of 32 hours of driving for half a day of hunting. On top of that, he had to attend a seminar that consisted of training in things like "don't mess with the unexploded ordinance you might find" and "don't play on the tanks." Then to get onto the range to hunt, he had to be strip searched and the back of his camper was gone through with a fine tooth comb. Every drawer and cupboard was searched. I think that the strip search would have sealed the deal for me. But then, he's much thinner than I am. Now, you might thinks he's nuts. But let me tell you. He dragged two of his friends with him on this adventure and they had to go through the same thing....and they didn't even get to hunt. *eyeroll*

Oh, the January Layouts Just Keep Coming

A few more from the attempt to do a layout a day during the month of January. Various sketches, ads and challenges for the design elements. (Click on images to make them larger.)

An Ad:

 

Lift of a layout that appeared in the 8/06 CK:

 

Page Maps sketch:

 

Design and challenge from the Janna Wilson blog:

Slightly tweaked lift of a layout that appeared in the N/D 08 Simple Scrapbooks magazine:

Journals

So do you keep a journal? I have tried sporadically many times to consistently keep one. And have again tried this year. I keep trying different systems that will make it easier and more automatic for me to do it. 3 days in a row now. Go me.

Intellectually I know that it would be something valuable for both me and my children, but some days it feels like such a chore. And other days I just feel there is nothing of note to write about. Still, I know I would give a lot to have a daily accounting of my parents' routines, thoughts and feelings. So I'm making the attempt.....again.

The Throes of Homework

Eldest Son started school in 1986. By my count, I have been giving homework help for nearly 24 years now. And I'm tired.

Preemie Boy really struggles with some aspects of homework for a variety of reasons, some of which are physically related to his prematurity. Still, it's hard....on him....on us. Giving him the help he needs while trying to foster more independence for a visually impaired kid is just.....hard.

He had to write a paper on a sonnet for his English class, analyzing it for style, figurative language, imagery, theme. Sonnets written in archaic romantic language are only slightly easier than graphing conic sections. Somebody please tell me what real-life application graphing conic sections has? Or for that matter, identifying whether a sonnet is Shakespearean or Petrarchian?

 

For his government class he had to write a letter to a government official concerning an issue he feels strongly about. He lives in Idaho and he hunts. This was a no brainer. Thankfully, an assignment he could get behind and even excel at.

Back to Class

I am taking Karen Russell's online photo class for the next few weeks.  I have followed her blog for a while now and really love the sort of "everyday-yet-beautiful" photos she takes. I want to take pictures like her when I grow up.

We have turned in our first assignment on composition and telling the story. I told The Girl that I had a photo assignment due. She's a little more willing to pose when that's the case. She was very tweaked at me, though, when I told her that my photo subject had to be outside engaged in an activity....and that she would be raking pine needles and leaves out of the flower beds in front. Yeah, not real happy. Still she grudgingly agreed to do it after she checked her hair, make-up and wardrobe.

I took the photos and uploaded them to the computer. One look and I knew my white balance had been set wrong, so all of these have been "fixed" some in photoshop and still they don't look quite right.

 

We started out with this look but things deteriorated fairly quickly to "Are you done yet?" and "I'm cold!" I got a total of about 30 shots, though, which I thought was miraculous.

Now, I actually like this photo for a couple of reasons. This is so "her" right now. "OK, I'll do it, but on my terms. And I'm going to toss my hair in front of my face in silent rebellion."  That and I think the hair falls pretty well into the rule of thirds grid and that was one of the things we are working on with this lesson.

Something else she wanted us to think about was "creative cropping," where a photo is purposefully cropped in an unusual way. This was one way that I tried. I had another view, but it turned out to be the headless horseman weird look.

And this photo I love. Granted it's not composed the best and is a little blurry and over-exposed. But look at the expression on her face.....I don't see that very often.

More January Layouts

I have kept up pretty well with the Simply Blessed layout a day challenge running at Playground of Memories, only missing when we have been gone. Here are a few more that I have done. You can click on them to make them bigger. If I post them in a larger format, I lose some of one side or the other. They are all based on ads or sketches on the site.

 

Adventures from the DH's Camera

As I have documented before, my DH has many wonderful traits but computer literacy is not among them. This leaves me in charge of all things computer and that' s really scary because I'm not that good. I can, however, manage to extract photos from digital cameras. True to his pack rat nature, DH hoards his pictures on his camera as well and only brings it to me when he gets a message that he can't take any more pictures because the card is full. It's always a little interesting to see what turns up. 

Of course, there are the DDT photos which I choose not to show, but there are also photos like this one of DH and Eldest Son in the hills by the cabin.

Eldest Son and the SGB at the cabin. Much as the baby loves horses, I can't tell from the photo whether he's enjoying being this close to one.

This is from our post Christmas trip to the cabin. It gives you a really good idea of some of the terrain we traverse to get there.

And lo! An actual photo of me. Yes, I'm the one in the blue with the fancy green helmet, followed by Preemie Boy and College Boy. It's always interesting to see what treasures there might be on DH's camera.

Another Sketch Challenge

This is my take on Week #2's sketch from the Ella Publishing 6 weeks of sketches.  Santa is actually Builder Guy who has done the numerous tweaks on the house. As you can see, my SGB was not happy about having him there. Click on the image to make it bigger.

Products used: Fancy Pants patterned papers, quote card; Scenic Route letter stickers; Little Yellow Bicycle chipboard letters; Carolee's Creations small letter stickers; Making Memories epoxy tag; American Crafts ribbon; Basic Grey stitched brad; Inkadinkadoo flourish stamps; Unity Burnt Umber ink; EK Success circle punch; Fiskars border punch;  Bookman Old Style font.

A Break

So what else was going on while Grandma was pestering the SGB constantly with her camera?

Well there was a little lumberjack activity.

And Louis L'Amour is still alive and well in the hearts and minds of the men. I'm not exactly sure what they'll do when they've read all the books in the collection.

And we experimented to see how many large marshmallows would fit in a cup of hot chocolate.

And The Girl tried her hand at driving a snowmobile a little bit. And then decided that she'd had enough and came in for some more hot chocolate.

And, what's this? Someone besides Mom was doing a few dishes! That in and of itself is worth documenting.

Grandbaby Shots

Just a collection of SGB shots from the cabin. I am taking a photo class for the next few weeks with the goal of trying to resolve some of my focusing issues. Perhaps a toddler is not the best subject to pick for that goal, but still. Our lesson this past week was on composition and the rule of thirds which I tried to incorporate here.

This one was tweaked some for over-exposure.

When I post some of these photos on the blog, they look a little "noisy" to me and I'm not sure why that is since my ISO is never above 400 in any of  these recent shots. Maybe it's a function of the blog or my own monitor quality.

I have a fondness for these side views that show the still-chubby-cheeked look. And his bed hair cracks me up.