Day 12 - Close-up

Good-bye books

I go through phases where everything in my life feels cluttered.  I look around and I have TOO. MANY. THINGS.

Books.

I'm thinning them out.

I love my books.

But I had a good talk with myself several times over the past month.  I said, "Self?  Why are you holding onto those books?"

I had answers, lots of them.

I have so many books on my "To Read" list (yes, I have an actual list in a small notebook that I carry around, adding too and crossing off as life goes on).
I was a little sad pulling them from the shelf.  What if I regret letting them go?  In those pages are people and places and events that I know and have been and was part of.  But the reality is that I'll never go back to those same pages.

I have too many new pages to explore.

Day 11 - Something Fun

I really wanted to take a picture of an airplane taking off.  I really didn't have the time to get over to the airport after work though.  Traveling is the most fun thing there is.

Instead I went shopping.  I needed fun accessories for my fun clothes I'm going to wear to Vegas in May.  All this for $35.  Of course it will probably all fall apart after the first time I wear them (or while I wear them).

All from Charming Charlie

Day 10 - Something I Made

More soap!  Just like this.

Day 9 - Faceless Self Portrait

Hey, I was in a pinch!

Day 8 - Technology

Mutha board

Day 7 - Something New

I just got these ballet flats today.

The tattoo is from January when I was in AZ.

Day 6 - Childhood Memory

I can remember the day my dad and I made this.
We were camping in the Boundary Waters for a few nights. My dad found the perfect piece of wood, wrote my name in it with his knife and showed me how to carve out the letters.  Once it was all carved he stuck the tip of a Philips screwdriver into the flame of our gas camping stove.  He then traced what I did to burn the letters a bit.  He shaped up the edges of the wood and voila!

Several years later our Great Dane got a hold of it and chewed up the ends.  I suppose it just adds character.

Day 5 - Someone I Love

This is the momma.

Age 5

I'm a cheater

I am almost through my eighth day of no junk food.

However, I have cheated.

Not big cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater kind of cheating.

Just the pitiful kind that makes you wonder why I'm even bothering.

Friday I had three Milk Duds.

Saturday I had an average sized brownie.

Sunday I had a slice of apple pie and vanilla ice cream - warmed.

It was a difficult weekend.

Yesterday I had a bite sized Butterfinger.... and Baby Ruth.

It sounds way worse than it is.  That's the story I'm sticking with.

In the course a normal day I easily would have had the whole box of Duds, two of those brownies, a second slice of pie and four or five of the candy bars... each.

I had a bite of a cookie today.

Photo challenge Day 3 & 4

Day 3: Clouds

 

I ventured out just at dusk to catch what clouds were in the sky.  I took this photo challenge literal as I didn't have the imagination today to come up with something oh-so-clever.

Day 4: Favorite Color

 GREEN!

Everything is budding

 Green...

 More green.

And.... green.

 green.

 

Photo Challenge - Day 1 & Day 2

Day 1 - Self Portrait

 

This is me as very few have seen me.  No makeup, late at night after a long day.  Puffy, buggy, baggy eyes and acne scars for the world to see.  Am I a bit cross-eyed?!  Thank you Dad for the schnoz.  We're always hardest on ourselves.  Pointing out our flaws as if to prove we are aware we are flawed.  This is my self.

 Day 2 - What I Wore

In a heap on the floor, a pair of my favorite shoes - my self-designed Converse; a gift from my dad.  Staple piece: black zip up hoodie.

30 Day Photo Challenge

Shortly after a friend started a photo challenge, I became inspired to do the same.  It's a 30 day photo challenge.  I can already tell you I will probably forget most days but my goal will be to post thirty photos this month...  Here's the link that I found through a friends follower follower...er... whatever.

Crushin'

Yep, I still have a crush.

It's hard to have a crush when you're 40.

Even harder than when I was 39.

It's tricky when you work with your crush.

I'm getting tired of flirting.

I'm going to have to do the asking.

There's "rules" that we should be aware of.

Gah.

Scary.

I can't.

I don't think he'll say yes.

Then what?

I won't do it.

I should because I don't think he will.

Wait, maybe he's scared.

Nah.

I hate this.

21 Day Challenge

Starting Monday I will embark on a new adventure.  It will be challenging and exciting and hopefully life changing.  Okay, not that dramatic.  I'm going to cut out junk food.

It's just 21 days, right?

What do I hope to accomplish?  Several things.

1. Weight loss
2. Less bloat
3. More energy
4. Save $$
5. Healthier lifestyle

Question:  Is peanut butter a "naughty spread"?

My habits now are atrocious.  I would bet money that 75% of my diet consists numerous items from the list above.  Ice cream just about every night.  Fast food about twice a week.  Stretches of weeks where chocolate and other candy is consumed daily.

I have to put on a swimsuit in 40 days...

Oh how I love chocolate.

Bragging - show 'n' tell

My little sister is going to college for film.  She is given a fairly vague assignment on what to film - there are requirements and exclusions.  I am always so beyond impressed with what she comes up with.  She's incredibly gifted and amazingly imaginative.

I wanted to share some of her work.

1. Film a silent chase scene.


2.  I believe this one was to tell a complete story from beginning to end.


3. Film a location and convey an emotion, then add a voice over. (Turn up your volume or use ear buds for this one)


4. Long take - meaning it is shot beginning to end with one shot... no cutting or editing.

Wedding Hair

I did my first wedding party in a couple years.  I did the hair for a bride, four bridesmaids and the MOB.  Updos and formal hair is one of my favorite things to do and one of the main things I miss about doing hair.

The day started out a bit annoying... very annoying  I got to the MOB's house at the scheduled time.  It's at this time the bride decides she's going to jump in the shower.

What?!

Seriously, this is not what we do.

A couple bridesmaids show up ten minutes later so I can at least start on someone.

The bride has never used mousse in her hair and she never, never blow dries it.  One of the bridesmaids has to do this for her.

Lordy.

 After doing 1 1/2 bridesmaids I get the brides hair set and she goes off to do her make up.  I do another 1 1/2 bridesmaids and plan to finish the bride.  Two minutes into it she gets a call and needs to take it... for 20 minutes.

I finish the bridesmaids, the bride comes back with 45 minutes left on the clock.  Her hair is horrendous to work with.  Fine, stick straight, slippery (because it was freakin' freshly washed), and doesn't hold a curl.  Working it into the bun I need to is going to be a nightmare and I need all the minutes I can get.

Well, she's happy with it but I'm too much of a perfectionist and would ideally love to start over.  No can do.

Meanwhile the 11 year old bridesmaid keeps putting on her jacket and the collar is rubbing on her newly done hair.

I notice that one bridesmaid's "rosettes" are off center.  Dang.

I have three minutes left on the clock and need to do the MOB.  Thankfully there is time and they are on their way only 20 minutes behind schedule.

$$$

My tweezer may go bad.

I spend far too many minutes everyday in front of my magnified mirror tweezing those suckahs.

It's just not right.

It's just not fair.

It comes with age, genetics and that pesky thyroid disease that annoys my life.

I finally made the plunge and bought laser hair removal treatments - thanks to Groupon.

$199 will get me six sessions (chump change when you have the ol' plastic magical money).

The logic is that this will save my sanity and maybe a bit o' self esteem.

The hair on my chinny-chin-chin will be history in less than a year.

This is a life changing event.

This could be my birthday gift to myself...

Wait, that's what this was:

I will mention that I forgot to have the halo added...

Countdown to 40... continued

In 61 hours I will be 40.

I have 61 hours left of my 30's.

I will be in sunny AZ when I phase my way into my fourth decade.

If I was born at 9:09 in the Central Time Zone, does it mean that I turn 40 at 8:09 in the Mountain Time Zone?

When I was 12 and 20 and even 30 I thought 40 was old.

I hope I never look or feel 40 until I'm 50.

I think I like this...

"make our (your) mind so like still water that beings gather around us that they may see...their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our (your) quiet."

W.B. Yeats

Countdown to 40

In 23 days I will turn 40.

In 22 days I will be flying to AZ.

It's currently 77 degrees there.

It's currently 17 degrees here.

I will spend the last day of my 30s and the first days of 40 is warm weather.

This is good.