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Tahrir Square on Saturday night, as thousands continue to sit in...
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I love the way this turned out. I started another drawing before, but it wasn't doing much for me so to took a Black Wide Tip Copic Marker and blacken the entire page, used a regular lead pencil to draw my strings. I borrowed. (I think Sandy-Author of "Totally Tangled" Book created this string. I used gell pens and a white charcoal pencil for the hi-lights.
Lauren doing the weekly shopping; it'll be delivered about 12 hours from now. Since we use online ordering and home delivery, she actually enjoys choosing what food to buy (she's a food blogger, remember), but having to sit at her MacBook Pro and occasionally run through to the kitchen and back was always a pain. No more.
If Apple had asked me to pay £3,000 to give her this kind of lean-back, casual computing experience that doesn't interfere with her leisure, I'd have paid it gladly.
Weekly Alphabet Challenge 38/52 ~ Lamp
Thank you to everyone who pauses long enough to look at my photo. All comments and Faves are very much appreciated
Active Assignment Weekly
For this week's assignment you need to"Frame" your subject with something natural or staged...But..Not with Photoshop or one of those other funky programs.
Restriction: No imported frame.
Dare:Take the assignment literally.
Well I headed out to work on this assignment but my dogs were not cooperating. So I figured I'd make the pups model for me another day and try to combine the weekly and monthly assignments together.
I wanted it to look as though it was a picture hanging up and the glass being broken and liquefying.
WIT: I rotated it 90 degrees in Picasa and adjusted the lighting.
To be able to do my weekly project at a time like this is very difficult. This week we have been busy saying goodbyes to people.
We leave Japan tomorrow. (Nov 9)
We had been so lucky to be in Japan for a year, more blessed to meet tons of nice people during our stay here.
a new chapter will begin, and we'll be living out of suitcases for a while....
bye bye takikawa.
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee that has presented the biggest stars of that genre. Founded on November 28, 1925 by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM, and currently owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc., it is also among the longest-running radio broadcasts in history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners.
The Opry's current primary slogan is "The Show that Made Country Music Famous". Other slogans include "Home of American Music" and "Country’s Most Famous Stage".
The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital". The Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that its name is included on the city/county line signs on all major roadways. The signs read "Music City | Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County | Home of the Grand Ole Opry".
Membership in the Opry remains one of country music's crowning achievements. Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville and performances have been sporadically televised in addition to the radio programs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ole_Opry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
I was completely unprepared for how emotionally taxing potty training has been. It’s the first time I have no control over Olive’s success or actions. And it’s the first time we’ve experienced failure together.
I almost wish that potty training was difficult right from the get-go because her early success left me caught off balance for the challenges to come. If I had to use one word to sum up the root of all of our potty problems, it would be poop.
The fact that Olive would have a hard time with this part of potty training wasn’t a complete surprise. Earlier in the year, she pooped in both the shower and the tub in the same week and then refused to take a bath or shower for almost a month. And during that month she suffered a bout of constipation, so I’ve seen her battle her body before.
But this time was much worse and for much longer. I can’t tell you how many tears have been shed over poop. Watching Olive go through this and work her way through fear and control issues has been the hardest thing I’ve done as a parent.
All I can do is be there for her, talk her through it and help her with her diet as much as I can. She can’t articulate what the bigger issues are so all we hear from her is a sad “I don’t want to.” It’s been heartbreaking.
We’ve tried everything to help her. We offered her diapers but she refused. We told her it was okay to go in her pull up at nap or bed time but she never did. We even gave her tons of naked time hoping that she would find a little private spot to do her business.
Things are slowly, incrementally improving. Some days it feels like we’ve rounded a corner and other days feel as bleak as the first. The hard part is not knowing when it will get better. It might be a slow process like it is for many. Or she could, in a typical fashion, decide to stop fighting it and everything will fall into place.
There have been some big wins for her. She’s gone a month at school wearing just trainers and only had one accident and that was directly related to poop. And she wakes up dry from 85% of her naps now.
Potty training has brought on a lot of fears that I am going to have to try my best not to get the better of us as I raise her. She’s started biting her nails, a definite reaction to stress. This makes a pattern for her, as she started (and has since stopped) twirling her hair into knots when she started preschool.
I see her chewing away at her nails and I think of her at six when a friend excludes her on the playground. And at nine when the popular girls aren’t nice to her. I see her at 12 when the boy she likes doesn’t like her back. I see her stressing over an exam. Worried about a presentation. In knots over early acceptance.
Her personality is really beginning to crystallize. I hear often that she’s very laid back but she’s also watchful and observant. She’s going to be a sensitive child. Already loud noises bother her. She still watches almost no television because even the relative calm chaos of Sesame Street disturbs her.
But. She’s also joyful. Quick to laugh and quick to make conversation with her classmates. She likes to be silly and make up silly songs and silly words. She tackles challenges with bravery.
Her teachers, always such great coaches to the parents too, have been quick to remind me through this ordeal not to paint her into a corner. That labeling her as sensitive or nervous or anxious will only mold her forming personality.
So we’ve stopped talking about it unless she brings it up. She’s started to announce to me in the car that she’s chewing her nails and I acknowledge her but I don’t probe on why she’s doing it. There’s no lecture to give. I know from the hair twirling that she’ll stop doing it one day and we probably won’t even notice.
I’m trying to see all of this in a different light. It’s early preparation for bigger struggles and it’s taught me a lot about how to handle Olive and her feelings.
If you find yourself in the middle of potty training and you’re feeling emotional beyond the normal frustration. Shoot me a message. I get it. No one tells you all the other stuff that can come wrapped up in underwear and princess potty seats. I might not be able to offer you advice, but you’ll definitely have my sympathy.