Photowalk 17!

I figured it was time to get back to nature and so I went back to Sand Run this week. It had rained during the day, and I found a cloudy-but-dry time after work to do my walk. The recent rain here at the start of Spring made the greens so very green, and the raindrops on the leaves and flowers made for some really pretty pictures, in my opinion. I didn't get a chance to walk this entire trail because I was afraid of either getting rained on or it getting too dark, so I cheated and cut back using the jogging trail, but sometime I'd like to the entire trail, because it's definitely a pretty one.

Anyway, when you watch this slideshow you might realize that there's one picture (of a bridge) that's in there 3 times, edited 3 different ways: once in color, once in b&w, and once way over the top with tinting, texture and a black border. I don't like it, actually, but I wanted to try something different. I just don't like over-edited photos, and I guess you can't make me! :) My personal favorites of this batch are the black and white leaves with raindrops on them. Anyway, watch the slideshow!

New Lights!

 

I got new landscaping lights! I'm so excited because these are so much better than the last ones for so many reasons:

• These perfectly match the light over the front and back doors
• These actually stay in the ground instead of flopping over
• These are on a stick, as you can see, instead of the old ones where the stick was curved over with a hook on the end and you hung the lamp on the hook, which meant they were always falling off or getting crooked
• These have a WHITE light instead instead of yellow
• These make a cool pattern on the driveway because of all those squares. Which means they're actually lighting UP the driveway, which is something the old ones never did

Both the old and the new lights are solar powered, and I spent what feels like a fortune on these even though they were on sale, but I still think in the end it'll be worth it, because they make me happy.

(oh, and, those aren't actually in the ground yet in the picture. So, they aren't really that close to each other in real life)

Photowalk 16

Those of you that live in the Akron area probably know about Rolling Acres mall and Romig Road. It always has this ghost-town feel to me when we drive through there (and we drive there a lot because somebody eats way too much Long John Silvers. I won't name names, but it's NOT ME... but I do like hush puppies and cole slaw). You can tell that it used to be this thriving shopping area and now at least half the buildings are abandoned and the rest seem to be struggling. These photos are from the Kids R Us there.

Baskets!

As promised, here's a photo of the baskets (the coffee table was moved out of the way so that I could have more room to work out, in case you were wondering about the positioning of it). You can tell from this picture that they're definitely more aqua-colored than the pillows/throw. But... they were $8, the EXACT right size, and they're soft, so they won't scratch anything. Plus, my living room is never actually this bright (yay for long shutter speeds!), and when they're in the shadows you don't notice the color difference as much. I plan on getting one more for the bottom-middle opening, now that I know I actually like them.

 

Math

I don't read Fox Trot anymore, but I happened to see this one and in case mom hadn't seen it, I just HAD to point it out.

New Living room Stuffs

Thought mom might like to see the new pillows/throw in action. Myles seemed a bit bored with it all, but I'll forgive him. (pictures of the baskets to come later)

 

 

 

The last of the Easter photos!

Well, it only took me a week, but I finally picked my favorite of the photos to edit and upload.

This week has been a pretty good one for me - got a lot done at work, and then I got a bunch of misc. camera stuff I ordered in the mail, which is also exciting. Went out with some work friends friday evening, and last night we went and saw a local band with some of John's friends.

Around the house, I was able to do some yard work yesterday, since it was beautiful out. Today is a bit more gloomy, so I dusted (with my handy-dandy hand duster thing that mom got me!), did some dishes (John made french toast for breakfast. yum.), and removed cat hair from the sofa. Very exciting stuff.

I hope everyone else had a good week. Enjoy these last three pictures - I really wish I still had that cookie. Those were so good.

 

 

 

The Hunt - Part Two

 

 

 

 

The Hunt - Part One

(personally, I like the cross-processed look of the one of Andrew, but in case you don't, I uploaded the "original" as well [since I shoot in RAW, it's not *actually* the original, since I had to convert it to jpg, and that process, for me, includes a slight bump in saturation and an exposure adjustment, so it's not actually the "original", but, ya know, close enough])

 

 

 

 

Necklaces

Katie made us necklaces (AN is for Auntie N, GM is for Grandma/Maggie, and GD is for Gramps/Dennis)

 

 

 

 

Randy's Eggs

 

 

Cookies and a kiss

(picasa really pixelates my images or something when it uploads them. I've noticed for a while they don't look as nice in my blog as the do on my computer, but it's really starting to bother me. Yet ANOTHER reason for me to hurry up and finish iffles.com)

 

 

 

Andrew

Andrew was watching his mom play Animal Crossing when I tried to get close to him with the camera. At first he didn't see me, but when he did, he first smiled and then buried his face into the arm of the sofa. Somewhere between the smile and the burying, he had this instant of seriousness where he looked straight into the camera. I don't even remember it happening as I looked through the viewfinder. I only noticed it as I went through the pictures later. This is probably my favorite picture from the day.

 

Mary

 

 

 

 

More of Katie on the swing

 

 

 

Katie & Gramps

 

 

A few more eggs