208/365

Hope you're having a Merry Christmas! <3

We went to the most beautiful place today. It was freezing but it was absolutely worth it haha

I think I have run out of photos of Alex and Christian THIS IS SO SAD

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310/365

Today was a nice, quiet day that finally felt like spring. I rode trains all day and went to the museum and met a lot of nice people.

facebook page | tumblr | buy prints | blog | formspring | instagram @ginaaballerina

Standing at the top of an equally impressive butte with Dave, talking toys and random nerd stuff, trying not to fall down said butte while shooting this beautiful sunset.

It was a great day.

-Terry Tempest Williams

Gathering storm over the Teton range.

better bigger, on white

And since I have your attention and we are on the topic of self portraits I wanted to take a moment and let you know about a new weekly themed self portrait group called Me Again Monday starting this Monday July 4th. Now I know you might think you are tapped out finding Cliche's for Saturday, Sliding on Sundays, getting pushed all week long, finding

a Birdhouse for Thursday and then a fence for Friday.

But really, isn't overextending yourself one of the great things in life?

And so cliche. So very cliche.

So why not join us?

this is the very first picture i uploaded on flickr in march of 2007. wow. my sweet friend, MoRo, went through my stream yesterday - ha - commenting on some old pictures, most of which i have set to friends and family, because i don't want everyone seeing all my old pitiful photos!! ha. but i hope, i think, i've come a long way... it's for sure interesting to see... i've really loved flickr, although it can be an awfully addicting thing sometimes.... somewhat of a curse. but i've met some wonderful people and gained a LOT of knowledge. sometimes i want to quit... like yesterday... but i think i'll hang on....

see, my hair isn't always so cool. ha!!!! hating this hairstyle. don't know what i was thinking.

oh, and over in the stats it says taken may 3, 2008. it obviously was not. i just copied the original photo and uploaded it, because the computer this photo is on is not hooked up. i took the original off f&f, so you can see the date! ;-)

To see another shot of this bird, click here.

This was taken in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, in MA.

replacing the other picture

meh

i miss the beach </3

formspring

whew. two and a half years of self portraits every single day! (my half year is only half because i restarted in the middle to join my husband, clem, and a few other italy peeps as part of a semi-dare / pact we made on the last night in italy.)

i am exhausted and happy and proud to have to completed all of these self-portraits. i'm so glad to have this visual diary of my life for the past two years, especially the parts covering my pregnancy and the first few months of motherhood / babyhood (fin, not me). =)

i'm glad to be done and to not have that sense of creative obligation hanging over me each day, but as i write this (two days after completing 365), i must admit that the habit hasn't escaped me that easily! i have taken self-portraits the last two days, and i will continue to have the camera nearby to document the regular crap i do and see on a daily basis...but i now only have to post my favorites. =)

i am thrilled to have met all of the amazing people on flickr! dana and rob (seen here in our alcatraz solitary confinement cell) just left our home this morning, and there's no way we would've met these awesome friends from scotland without flickr. pete and kelly will be here in two more days, and they are also so incredibly cool, and we've met loads of other equally awesome and amazing people through this site and our 365 days experiences. hopefully now i will have more time to view everyone else's photos!

thanks to everyone for stopping by my photostream every once in a while and leaving hilarious / encouraging / friendly / sweet comments. ♥

JCasa *handmade

Life has been spinning by so quickly. I'm ready to start dragging my toe in the sand to slow down this merry-go-round ride of life.

In my Now You group this week, the theme has been memes -- and I love this theme! It is always fun to learn things about people and to see all the wonderful ways we are alike and different. So here goes...

savory or sweet - Savory

celebrity crush - Clint Eastwood (but not as much since the chair conversation), Robert Downey, Jr., Matt Damon

season - Spring and Autumn (They are so fleeting in the deep south.)

last phone person - My mom

smell - Clean smells like laundry, the smell of anything cooking in sesame oil, tea olives, Happy by Clinique

colour - Orange

drink - Water

dream vacation - Europe -- all over Europe

fave food - Sweet Chili Doritos, Vegetable Jalfreize

pie or cake - Chocolate Vegan Death Cake from the Grit (or homemade -- it is amazing!)

camera - Canon T3i

fave photographer - I don't know if I have a favorite but I am really fascinated with Vivian Maier.

flowers - Daisy, Agapanthus, Orchids, really I like most all flowers

Now You

52 of You - Meme

19/52

Happy Birthday Daddy #80 #duderanch #duderanchfortherich #likeacruiseshiponland #itwasawesome! #polaroid #polaroid600 #polaroidorginals #polaroid600film

Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved

This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

NOTE: Used without my permission by Bentley Communities

_____________________________________________________________________________

this bottle was shared with good friends last weekend...i had to post it as it has such a warm feel to it.... don't you just love that little goat?

...............fun times; fabulous BBQ made by jim, ceasar salad made by me, dessert; lemon meringue and strawberry rhubarb pie by P&B......wonderful!

AND

we listened to this album throughout the evening.....

Red wall, weeds. Tucson.

Happy Monday!

no retreat, baby, no surrender

I would have to say it was one of the hardest things I've done. Leaving a home I've been in for thirteen years, leaving old friends and family, my two jobs..

I felt I was in a rut. One that would just go on and on if I didn't do something. Anything. Not that it was bad. It was just so incredibly dull. I'd been doing the same thing for close to 14 years. I knew if i didn't make a change, it would just go on and on for another God knows how many years.

So I shook it up. I pulled up stakes and off I went. I am almost in my new home. It's not nearly as cool as my old home. but I'll make it cozy and it'll be fine. The movers will be here soon and I can sleep in my bed again. I've just had a 7 day adventure across the country. What the fuck was I waiting for...

There's a whole world to see out there!!

The Saturday shots left aren't really exciting me, so I dug back to one from two weeks ago that I liked more.

Explored! (#175)

on black

A soñar con... [pista: nada de angelitos]

#goodnightfriends #countdowntoholidays #goseetheworld #traveladdict #cometravelwithme #ilovephilippines #philippinesrules #itwasawesome #cometravelwithme #wanderlust #sunset #ilovesunsets

i had an idea today (stolen from other flickrers who've done this): why not go shooting with someone who's hundreds of miles away? i proposed said idea to mr. karjala, who concurred wholeheartedly that such an enterprise would be worthy of our time. so he headed to the stormy atlantic coast, while i went down to the banks of the hudson, just as the sun was going down. it felt good to be out shooting on my own, even though i wasn't entirely alone.

people may scoff at flickr and facebook and email and chat, but these invisible threads of ether can have a very real impact on our very real lives. and, apparently, the life of this gull, who wanted to do nothing more than sit there enjoying the sunset. but my pushy lens and i changed his life... forever.

I'll drive you all mad. I feel like a child. I can't believe I saw these guys. I want to tell the world.

It is been a long time since I rock n rolled...What a night that one was.

I can't wait for the DVD now.

It never ends.

I wish I had filmed a bit more, but here is some of it.

Awesome!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ubVBFRhQQ

via Instagram ift.tt/1VD4LKG

Eeeeek! The parents of a woman my husband works with are stage hands at the Historic State Theater in Mpls. Michelle gets tickets every year but this year she asked if we would like to go... Yeah!!! I didn't breathe a word to the boys that it was all ballet... once it started my 8yr old said, "so there's no talking in this whole thing? only music and dancing?" They both ended up liking it more than they'll admit :D

If what they say is true

You are a shadow in the fourth dimension

To float away with you

We see the corners where nothing happens

While we drifted we were one

Ceilings lifted walls were gone

You speak the language of the breeze

All your leaves were meant for me

The love that every person wants to be

I rode my bike through the Arboretum the other day when they were doing a prairie burn. I had my long lens with me and was able to shoot a bit before the firefighters chased me away. I found the textures from the smoke in this really interesting.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

July 2010

I love how pinterest-freaks just grab images and then either don't read my notes/tags or just create their own narratives about what's going on.

This is a collaborative piece, completed by nearly 200 elementary students over a month (in 2009) and measures approximately 3' x 4' (yes, feet), consisting of quills, or paper rolled and then sometimes shaped or otherwise bent/creased and glued on edge.

Clementine had her first round of lessons at puppy charm school and she did great! She is now learning to sit on command (more or less). Also, she is learning to stop barking at other dogs.

Dog treats are so motivating for her. Her favorite treats are pieces of Mili's food.

Five more weeks of obedience training left to go then she can move to the intermediate class.

ladies and gentlemen, i give you the one, the only -- beebo wallace.

tongue ringgg.

To know her is to love her.

I'm probably going to end up with a lot of pictures like this. It felt very much like a lazy day and I felt extremely lazy about taking my picture. I got pretty much all my shopping done for my family. I feel like I need to get something else for my step-mom, I'm just not sure what.

Acting class went very well tonight, lots of compliments, and being forced to watch a filmed close-up of myself wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I'm not so photogenic, especially in videos.

194/365

It's been a weird week with regards to planning for our workouts, what with last-gasp cold weather, fresh snowfalls/sleetfalls/icefalls, impending giant snowstorms... we can't get into a routine at all. So today Pookie had the brilliant idea to have our inaugural at-home team medicine ball workout instead of going to the gym for musculations. It was... something of a success? It turns out our resistance bands are a bit too strong for us, and bouncing a medicine ball in a puddle makes it extremely difficult to then throw it to a partner. But what we lacked in serious muscle-building we made up for in laughing at how terrible we are, and when we got inside we had a three-person "show off your mad planking/push-up skills" contest with Boomer. And then we quit early and ordered pizza. Because we're serious about fitness, yo.

Midsummer strawberry cake.

Nuff said. Me and two of my good buddies, John on the left and Ryan on the right.

Today we swam the conference meet. Girls did awesome and got first place in the conference! That was super awesome. The guys team did pretty great as well, placing third in the conference which was well above what we expected. Afterwards, as is Apex Swimming tradition, the team went over to Rudino's for some pizza and dinner and to hang out. Since the meet was really early this year though (it started at noon instead of 5 pm) a bunch of people came over to my house to hang out for a while before we went midnight bowling.

Justin and I, yet again, did 365s together again. Thanks to him for being the human tripod.

Strobist;

SB-600 into shoot through 32" camera right.

Vivitar 383 into shoot through 32" camera left. Slave mode.

SB-600 triggered via Cactus V4

Song of the Day: "The Fool On The Hill" - The Beatles

closest

::sigh::

i was not born in cold spring. but i've been living here since 1995, and i finally realized that your hometown has nothing to do with where you're born, and everything to do with where you feel at home.

this is where i am. here, in this life. my town. my home.

What is there to say about something like this. There is an exhibit at the Legion of Honor that's called the Holocaust. It's basically this. I don't know how I feel about art depicting something like this. And in the end, I don't know how I feel about taking photos of something like this.

I must admit, I'm Jewish, and I've spoken with Holocaust survivors. It's tough. It's a tough thing to talk about. The last person I spoke with, Klara, when she recalled it, she broke down in tears. I don't think I can ever imagine the darkness that could be felt. I hope I never do.

But, life is darkness and light. We have to see the darkness, to see the light, you know?

Well, not totally a slacker day. But close.

This morning, both my boys went to work out with me at the gym. As I ran on the treadmill, I could see them spotting each other on the weights. I played like it was sweat in my eyes but truthfully, I went all misty watching them help each other. I'm glad they are close despite the miles that separates them most of the year.

Then, the new stove and microwave we bought earlier this week were delivered and installed today. I'm happy! The oven is blue inside. BLUE! I love it!

Tonight, the boys joined us for Mexican with some of our friends. The fajitas were spicy (and perfect)!

The day was perfect, too.

Well, this was my first time & perhaps my one & only time.

Yesterday Jer & I took my parents & their little dog to the coast in Santa Cruz. Their little dust mop dog, Ginger had a blast!

Then we got hungry, so we headed to the wharf for some lunch. As Jer was looking for a parking place, I saw this old pelican waddling around, so I had to jump out of the car, of course!

I approached him with a little bit of hesitation, but before your could say pelican three times I was petting the old guy. He really seemed to like the top of his sweet head rubbed, but I initally got his attention with a little neck rub. Pity it was such a dreary grey day, but whatever! I petted a pelican!!! & even got a few quick shots of him while I made my family starve. ;-)

Anyway, just dropped my parents off to the airport a short while ago. Miss them already. When I returned from the airport, Elroy was looking at the front door waiting for them to come indoors. So I let him out & he circled the car, expecting them to climb out. I thought that was kind of cute & endearing.

I'll be catching up with your photostreams the next few days. I also have a slew of photos. Heck... I still have a ton of photos from the October road trips. Can we postpone Christmas? ;-)

Large if you wish.