Happy New Years! (Three days ago :)

A little late but worth the wait, that's what I like to think of my bringing in the new year here on my blogosphere. Just to stick with tradition I have somehow managed to make a mental list of resolutions. Only this year I am going to have REALISTIC goals....What? Me...unrealistic...bah!

1) I am going to eat lots of good food. That's an easy one.

2) I am going to cook more. I am not going to put any specific numbers or stipulations on this one, I am just going to cook more. If I cook once a week I will already beat my lazy 2010 self so this shouldn't take much effort.

3) I think I should blog more and I am sure you would agree. I am a little sporadic and haphazard to say the least and I am trying to iron out my 'wrinkles' this year too (although not an official resolution). My goal is once a week just to keep things consistent and simple for my brain to wrap around.

4)  I am going to draw a picture. Just one is my goal. One in pencil and one in colored pencil. Not shooting too high, just two pictures total for the entire year, I'm pretty sure I can handle this.

5) I am going to do more projects, more specifically around the house. We need new baseboard in the spare room (mainly because the old stuff was ripped off). I am going to paint, re-baseboard, and actually attempt to decorate my room. I don't spend much time in there but perhaps if it is a haven of pink and green and flowers I may just change my mind.

6) Another around the house project: I have to do something with my front yard. Other than a small patch of hope in the front it is a pretty sad sight. Some more window baskets and as many flowers as I can humanly afford should do the trick.

7) Must take more pictures...THIS IS A MUST! I got an amazing new camera for my birthday and now I just have to make myself use it more. I tell myself that my lack of motivation for everything requiring physical motivation must have to do with all the dark and cold this time of year. Walking around outside when it is like 40 degrees is not on the top of my list of things to do.

8) I am going to use my god dam front porch. I got the cutest ever furniture for my cute little front porch, unfortunately it was towards the end of summer so it didn't get a ton of use. I have spent some warm evenings out on my porch and it is blissfully relaxing I must say.

9) To get the most use out of said porch I will (once the mornings are at least 60 or so) get up early enough to have my morning cup of tea/coffee on my beautiful blue couch chair thing.

10) I guess that leads into my next resolution which is to get up early enough so that I don't have to run around like a chicken with its head cut off every morning. Perhaps my life would be a whole lot less stressful if I didn't start if off so poorly. I should start getting up at 6: that's IT! Starting tomorrow I am going to try to get up at 6 on at least some mornings. (Gotta be realistic right?)

11) I am going to complete the projects that I bring shit home for. I like to bring home free picture frames, buy paint and propagate plants for my yard but then I have a hard time actually completing what I have started. Before you know it I have the supplies for a dozen projects, a dozen more are started or half done and none of them are completed. Must finish what I start.

12) I have quite a few more that I just keep coming up with but I think this is a good place to stop. I think my year is all booked up. I will have to save the others for next year, or at least another post.

On another note I finished a project! Go me!
Beth 2011 : 1     Beth 2010 : 0

I made the most adorable message board EVERRRRR! This little project will also help me with decorating my much neglected room. Yay, another resolution in progress!
Beth 2011 : 1.5 (when it is hung up it will be 2)        Beth 2010 : 0

Don't worry about the intersection with 'lazy eye' that is like an inch lower than the other ones. I just noticed that and now I don't like it as much. It's still pretty great though.

And just to give you a little close up of the cutest scrapbook notions ever. They are all different but beautifully vintage inspired.

So to sum it all up: I made an amazing message board to kick off the new year and the new me. My goal for the year is to be more awesome and to spend more time doing the things I love instead of spending my time doing whatever the hell I have been doing. It is sad when you look back on your week and realize how much of your time you spend watching TV or doing things you hate or don't like all that much. It is a sin if you ask me, to waste the one life you have doing anything but what you want to. Now I just have to figure out a way to pay my bills without working...hmmmm...

Things I have learned

Today I learned that when you mix hot chocolate and french vanilla cappuccino you create something comparable to...well nothing because it is pure perfection unlike anything else I have yet to drink. So as I sit here in ecstasy and sip my mug of perfection I decided to reflect on what I have learned today.

Today I learned that when you have two things that are pretty good on their own they are AMAZING when combined. Okay, except for jalapenos and ice cream, that would be just terrible.

Today I learned that you can indeed use a butter knife to cut a loaf of french bread when you are too lazy to wash either of your bread knives.

Today I learned that fresh warm french bread with butter goes with EVERYTHING.

Today I learned that the best sleep is the kind you get after your alarm wakes you up and you realize that you are not the one that has to get up so you get to half sleep and half bask in the sheer joy that you are not the one getting ready for work...at least not for another 30 minutes.

Today I learned that sometimes when Netflix suggests a movie to you and you think it will be lame but then it turns out to be perfect for you it's kind of the same as when someone gives you advise that is better for you than you thought it would be. But sometimes Netflix picks shitty movies for you that were made in like the seventies and the plot and characters and acting are all terrible. So basically sometimes other people have really good advise and sometimes it is stupid and irrelevant.

Today I learned that if you spend too much time thinking about the future you miss out on life.

(14 hours later)

Yesterday I learned that when you think that everything is going just grand and you are starting to figure everything out and things are finally going your way that some ass hole will come and take a big shit on your chest and ruin everything.

Yesterday I learned that when said shit happens the best thing to do is self medicate and then eat an obscene amount of fresh hot french bread because it makes everything better...oh yeah, and chocolate ice cream too.

Yesterday I learned that when you have a little nagging headache and then you have an emotional breakdown and sob like a small child for an hour it will turn into a raging migraine that can only be helped by the aforementioned actions.

This morning I learned that when someone takes a shit on your chest nobody can do anything about it and you just have to hope that it will go away on it's own. It kind of sucks to wait when you have a warm steaming pile of shit on your chest, take my word for it.

This morning I learned that everything does NOT happen for a reason. There is no silver lining in my cloud.

Ok, feeling better...

Just now I learned that it's not worth it to let a little scat ruin my day or week and definitely not my Thanksgiving, so for now I will just let it be since I really have no choice anyway.

This post was going to be so awesome and insightful, you were supposed to have a goddamn epiphany! It's ruined now, and this is all that's left. I could at least put up a few pictures though to make it better. Let me see what I've got.

Even though you got to see violas in the last post you get to see them again. The one on the left was done in manual mode and the one on the right was done on my special scene setting for foliage. What do you think? Or wait, maybe the one on the right was on my low light setting...now I don't know.

Okay, I figured it out. Picture on the left:                       Picture on the right:Foliage setting shutter speed 1/80
manual mode shutter speed 1/1600 Aperture 2.5.         aperture 3.5 (I didn't get to choose these)

The garden in poster effect shutter speed 1/800 aperture 2.5 (again I don't get to choose)

Ahah! I found one done with my low light setting. Not my favorite, but it will do.

Low light setting shutter speed 1/60 aperture 2.0 (this is the cropped version of the original)





Don't worry, that little piece of fluff is a seed that has floated over from the neighboring butterfly weed. You want some? They are all over, help yourself.

Here you go, another one cropped from a low light setting picture. Low light setting shutter speed 1/1250 aperture 8.0.

So now I am feeling a whole lot better not wallowing in my own self pity and looking at pretty pictures. Here's to an amazing afternoon!

Me and My Canon S95

Ok Tonya you were totally right, it has been two months. What can I say? I lost track of time. Partially because I lost my mind for awhile and partially because...well no, that's it: I just lost my mind for awhile. So now I am back to being myself again although not the same self as before. More like a new and improved self.

But that is not what this post is about at all. What it's really about is my awesome camera that I got for my 24th birthday last friday (yay! Happy Birthday to me!). I wanted something portable aka a point and shoot but with a little something extra to offer me. Tadah! Presenting the Canon S95. An amazing camera in a tiny little package. No details but it's awesome trust me. I decided not to keep most of the pictures I shot today, but that's usually how it ends up. If you learn only one thing about photography you have to learn to take A LOT of pictures. Since I am still learning about my camera I must have taken at least ten pictures of each subject with different settings or different angles. Basically I walked around in the freezing cold windy weather to get a few pictures that I really like.

So without further adieu:

Nothing better than an overcast day when everything just seems to pop out from the dark skies. 



Violas: a simple flower favorite.

Gourds...yeah, nothing else to say. Just Gourds.

Succulents are definitely one of my mom's favorites so there are a lot of good photo opportunities.



Funny story about this old barn door actually: for another time. Love you mom!

Definitely my favorite.

Remains of the rain.