Our weekend blossomed with peace, quiet, birds chirping and fish splashing.

The hubs found just the right spot to install our flagpole.

And Old Glory proudly waves in our new backyard.

It’s a colourful Monday here at the house.

With the pic below, I like how the water movement lends to an abstract image. I also like the 105mm used for this shot.

We had the electrician over this morning to provide a lot of goodies for our home. I especially like how the hammer drill made work look like fun.

Happy Colourful Monday and the best to all of you this week.

Blessings – Debbie

When I didn’t want to get up and go to class today. We (the hubs and I) have so many exciting things on our plate and the last thing I wanted to do today, was go to school.

I’m a little shocked at myself as I love my class. This semester ROCKS! I have the best teacher! And the things I’m learning in class blow my mind.

But it was just one of those days where I just wanted to stay home.

I’m so happy my hubby knows me well. He knew if I skipped class, that I would beat myself up for it. So he talked me into going. Thank you, My Love!

I felt less than a flower when a gal tailgated me for miles on my way to class. I couldn’t shake her from my bumper for the life of me.

I felt less than a flower when a student picked an argument with me over a term I used. The frustrating thing, is the term I used had nothing to do with the point I was trying to make. It was just a word in my sentence. Wish I had used another word before I got to the point I was trying to make. The other frustrating thing about the whole thing is – that student interrupted the conversation between me and another student. Interrupted me while I was trying to talk to the other student. And completely had me frazzled before class even started.

I felt less than a flower when I had a difficult time understanding a procedure during lab today. At that point, I had completely shut down. I could have burst into tears, as the wall holding them back nearly broke.

There were a couple of other things that happened, things that made me feel less than a flower. But I can’t think of a good way to spell it out on the blog.

Indeed, I felt less than a flower. I felt more like a weed.

To make things better, my buddy Sarah and I set out on a photography shopping trip. We had a nice lunch date. And completely chilled and enjoyed our visit. It was refreshing.

I may have felt like a weed today, but what makes me bloom is when my dearest catches wind that I had a difficult day. He just called to listen, as he wanted me to tell him all about it. He’s the best!

It’s days like this that make me realize that no matter what, I have friends and the dearest husband who really care.

It dawned on me when I got home, to shoot a picture of a weed. It’s how I felt. So I went out searching for my very own personal weed. I love what I discovered blooming amongst the thorns and thistles. In fact, I had to mush out all the thistles and weeds surrounding this beauty to get this shot.

You know how you know, when something is right? When you feel it in your gut that this is it? That’s exactly how I felt when I discovered this guy. Made my heart sing.

I may have felt like a weed most of the day, but I’m thankful to enter the afternoon and evening on such a happy note.

Blessings – Debbie

Heartbreaking news today – Taking time out to pray for families and many who have experienced great loss…

This heart ornament is extra special (given to me from the man I’m deeply in love with) as I want to keep the ones I love tucked ever close to my heart.

Blessings – Debbie

A day at the park over the weekend was nothing short of amazing.

I was with “Sarah and Jeremy” my new photography friends. They taught me so much. Things like – knowing when and when not to take pictures of a bride and groom. Especially when their photographer is taking shots. I couldn’t resist this.

This guy was with the “Hare Krishna” group. I forced him out of his tent told him I was in a photography class and asked if he would kindly let me take some shots of him. He gladly left his tent and stood where I asked him to stand. What a nice guy.

This gent is playing a didgeridoo. It’s quite the instrument.

While I was in my own world, shooting the man playing the didgeridoo, this little girl was standing in front of me wanting her picture taken.

I had no clue. But when my friends “Sarah and her hubby” filled me in, you have no idea the utter joy I had taking shots of her.

So this (face painting) lady (wearing a Hello Kitty hat and a Hello Kitty ring) was giving Sarah’s hubby an attitude for taking her pic. Yup, I caught her attitude on camera. Funny thing is, he was getting grief for taking her pic and here I was snapping for the same reason she was scolding him.

Then she asked him for some money in exchange for shooting her. He was really nice and gave her (I’m sure) more than she expected.

Then she offered to paint his face.

Here’s the final product. Great job! May I add he had to be the most patient guy allowing the Hello Kitty lady with an attitude to paint his face.

You should have been with us at the Starbucks (after our afternoon in the park) Downtown San Diego. Jeremy got heads to turn. P.S. He counts as a stranger as I just met him that day.

Here we have “elf on a shelf” er “Santa’s Helper”. He’s the caricature dude. He was all set up right next to the Hello Kitty face painting lady.

And somehow he conned Jeremy into a caricature drawing with his new and improved face paint.

Here’s the elf on a shelf is directing Jeremy to give the primal face expression to go with his new face paint job. This shot just cracks me up. Guess you had to be there.

And this wraps up my final exam shots. The last six shots in black and white are the ones I’m using for the exam.

I hope it goes well.

Blessings – Debbie

What to say for myself?

Well, I got my chops handed to me today. And I thought you would like to know.

Funny, I had no idea my Dentist office would hand over the molds of my teeth in “stone”. They were made to make a guard to stop my grinding at night.

Tonight is the first night I “get” to wear the guard. I hope it turns out to be a joyous experience. I’m sure you don’t sense a hint of sarcasm in my tone.

My sweet Dental Assistant said it shouldn’t take longer than two weeks to get used to wearing it. Fingers crossed!

Back to my joy in receiving the molds, as seen above.

Have you any idea how excited I was to have them handed to me?

Do allow me to share. As I posted yesterday, our assignment (this week) is about light and texture. And I think this makes for a great shot to turn in. Do you suppose these will come as a surprise?

Don’t mind me, I’m having more fun than a barrel of monkeys. And some days I may seem a little off my rocker. I’ll be back soon with other fun findings.

Would you like to hear something else totally off the subject? I thought so.

Sometime around the noon hour, I went over to meet the hubs at the Firestone Tire place. He was going to have his allignment done while we went out to lunch. His appointment had already been made and his visit was legit.

Hubby goes to the counter.

Man Behind Counter:  Hello sir, how can we help you?

Hubby: I have an appointment to have my alignment done.

Man Behind Counter: What’s your phone number?

While hubby is giving the “Man Behind Counter” his number, Man Behind Counter picks up the phone and makes a phone call. I kid you not. No, the phone was not ringing, the Man Behind Counter, made a call. Yes, I repeated myself, it needed a repeat. It was not only rude but laughable.

Man Behind Counter finishes his call.

Man Behind Counter: What’s your number again? “No Joke”

Needless to say the hubs did not get off to a good start. Man Behind Counter Then went into the big “up sale” pitch…

Later they walk out to the hubs car. Man Behind Counter said to the hubs, “where did you get your tires? We could have given you a nice bargain.”

I forget what else the guy did that totally went against our grain, but the hubs kindly asked for his car keys back and we “hit the road” for a nice sit down lunch.

And just like that, Firestone lost two cars in need of alignment.

It turned out to be such a great date and we ended up laughing about the exchange that went down.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Blessings – Debbie

One thing is clear.  I’m not exhausted with this subject. I believe I could experiment another week and come up with a few more unique shots.

Note:  Both shots in this post were drastically underexposed (on purpose).  I was aiming for drama, I think I achieved what I was looking for.

The shot below, is my favorite shot of the week.

But I still have another shot to share.

In honor of this fun-filled week, here is one last shot.  A sign that this project has come full circle and time to give it a rest.

The shots in this post were not assignments this week.  They were taken with my heart, soul and a lot of pleasure.

That includes setting up an hour in advance.  As it took a bit of planning from the process the night before.  It was a big help knowing where the sun would set.  Finally, the tripod was set to the proper height, the camera was attached and practice shots were taken,  then uploaded to be sure everything was in place.

And one more thing.  There was a lot of anticipating for the moment the sun would drop.

I’m going to miss having my bank out there such that I can experiment, day in and day out.

But next week is a new week, time for a new assignment to wrap my brain around.

Blessings – Debbie