I have been wanting to do an on going photo project for a while now.  I considered the 365, wherein you take a photo a day.  I considered this for about oh, 3 seconds before I realized that I would fail miserably and then have to carry around a horrible sense of guilt for the rest of year.  Failure and myself don’t play well together.  I would rather stay away than risk having Failure do the Rocky Balboa fist in the air dance in front of me.  That Failure sure can be smug sometimes.  I considered a 52 project, wherein I would take a photo once a week, this sounded realistic but Failure whispered something in my ear and instead of getting bent out of shape, I decided that Failure was actually right.  I don’t have a problem with taking photo’s or coming up with ideas, my problem lies in editing the darn images and is even worse when it comes to printing them out and not leaving them on the hard drive to marinate for eternity. I decided that my project would focus on what I needed the most motivation in doing–editing.  My daring feat will be to try to edit a photo a day for the remainder 351 days of the year.  Since I have left thousands of unedited images on my hard drive thus far, I don’t know how I will bode with such an Everest type endeavor.  The only thing I can do is try.

Now fine friends, do not try this at home unless you have a serious amount of time on your hands and the dedication necessary to complete this performance.  If you do decide to follow in my precarious foot steps, do so with caution and know that I too will be agonizing over my photo’s not knowing how far to take them or if they will be ‘worthy’ for your eyeballs.  I am going to use the Roman numeral conversion of 2011::MMXI to designate this project–keep it simple. The first photo is my before, it is grossly underexposed, but please note if I mess up on my exposure (which unfortunately happens more than not) I would rather have it underexposed than overexposed.  You can still save detail with an underexposed image, but really don’t do as I do, just try to get your exposure correct in camera. This is my after photo, all trussed up with a bucket load of Photoshop layers and a heaping amount of indecision thrown in. My goal was to create a dreamy, Marie Antoinette Court or Paris flea market feel. Day one down, only 350 more to go….

One of my goals this year is to explore more, which in a perfect world would mean I would be shipping myself off to a faraway locale, wandering aimlessly around new cities, reveling in unique cultures and taking in as much as my brain would allow.  In my current world that means making myself get out of my zipcode.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel and I have been half way around the globe by myself on several occasions, it just seems like my adult self is not so into the bohemian lifestyle as my once youthful counterpart.  Something about not being able to take a hot shower everyday or sleep in clean sheets doesn’t bode well with me anymore.  I need some creature comforts and would rather stay put than not know where my next meal will be coming from–call me crazy.   I am more of an arm chair traveler now, planning dream vacations that include food, shelter and not sleeping standing up.  I have not given up my desire to explore, I made good on my goal to explore more by taking a little trip this weekend to some antique shops three or four zipcodes away, it doesn’t compare to eating a baguette in Paris but it is an improvement over sitting in front of my computer.  I found this wonderful old globe that had just the perfect amount of wear and shot a few photo’s of places I would like to visit. I can’t regale you with tales of exotic lands (yet) but I do plan to continue exploring and documenting my little trips be they as minute as a trip down the way.  I hope you join me on my journey and find time to do some ‘exploring’ on your own.  You never know what you may discover.

I find that cleaning the house with these products makes me so much happier than what I was using prior. Any product that makes you look forward to your home chores is a winner in my book.  Bonus, they work and you can buy them at Target!  Yes, of course I would be even happier if I was giving these to my maid to clean my home, but alas the only maid in residence right now is me.

This screenprint by artist Alice Melvin is fantastic! Colors are nice and muted, a creamy background and talent in spades. Perfect for all the mod wanna-be ornithologists out there. Those do exist don’t they?

There’s not much to say about this brand that you can’t concur with your own eyeballs.  Aubin & Wills is flip, flappin’ jackin’ awesome. I thought I was so clever with my dancing elephants but alas a fox in a top hat may trump the trotting duo, maybe. It seems that the collective animal inspiration has shifted from owls as muse to foxes which is fine by me as I was getting tired of those big creepy eyes starring back at me from every blog and Etsy shop.  I can deal with a sly, debonair fox any day. You really ought to go over to the Aubin & Wills shop and check out all the goodness for yourself, because there’s not much prose I can add that will surpass the enticing visuals that lay ahead of you. Fox in a top hat?  Why didn’t I think of that?