Hello, world!

This week ( read: yesterday) I finally got enough time between everything that I am doing to participate in one of Ashley’s weekly challenges.
The prompts were: Texture, Fog, Button, Beverage, Seventeens. Really ordinary subjects and really challenging at the same time unless you’re content with simply taking a picture of the named items. Of course I am not. There is nothing more boring to me than shooting an item. Just an item without a cool angle, or interesting framing, or great outside-the-box idea.

So this week I decided to do a self-portrait twist on all of the prompts. Seeing as I am currently working on a challenge of my own that is going to be centered on taking self-portraits and will be hosting it on  a new photography focused blog ( coming soon). That means that soon I will have two blogs,  a personal one where I journal all my thoughts, events and our baby journey, and a photo blog where I will host challenges, participate in photo linkys and post anything and everything photography related.

So without further edo, i present to you the self-portrait version of this week’s Scavenger Hunt items ( all photos taken by me and have me in them)

1. TEXTURE

This was probably the most difficult to come up with, since texture is not something that you can turn into a creative selfie, unless you simply want to use texture in the post processing which seemed too easy.
Our driveway has the most amazing (sometimes mildew covered ) texture, worked perfectly.
Linking up with Shadow Shot Sunday

2. FOG

When I saw this item , I thought how on earth are we expected to take a picture of fog. First, I don’t get up nearly early enough; secondly, I live in Florida ( i don’t think I’ve seen much fog over the years, but that could be due to me being a late sleeper). So as I was standing in the shower contemplating this week’s items and how to take them, I saw fog enveloping me ( SCORE!). I ran out naked, cold and dripping, grabbed my camera and jumped back in. The sun shining through the window across from me and the steam rising from the hot shower were PERFECT. I did have to wipe the lens after every shot, but eventually I got enough to pick a winner.

3. BUTTON

Again, a seemingly boring subject. I had to spice it up. I remembered my favorite magnet was stashed away somewhere in the guest room ( our fridge is stainless steel and doesn’t hold magnets)- the PANIC BUTTON! I wish the picture could produce the sound that button makes when pressed.

4. BEVERAGE

I refused to take a picture of a beverage on its own. No! When I was over at my neighbor’s house I saw a pack of Kool-Aid sitting there and remembered reading somewhere that you can clean toilets with Kool-Aid. I don’t drink anything that is not natural ( my drink of choice is water, or tea), so I thought I’d be funny to document the horrible contents of Kool-Aid drink. You can see our tongues really show how “organic and natural” it is. NOT! What won’t I sacrifice for photography? Even my health. LOL

5. SEVENTIES

This was easy! I dug into my archive! About a year ago i did a shot that I named Flower Power. It doesn’t get more 70s than this.

And that’s it for today! Looking forward to the next one, where I will hopefully see you on my new photography oriented blog.

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

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Yes, it’s Sunday again and I cannot believe it! Seriously weeks fly and I seem to get nothing done.
As usual, I promise myself to be more productive and not waste time this week. I’ve been feeling like crap honestly. Not sure why- probably the cold- but I’ve been slacking on my pilates, or cleaning or even working half-heartedly.

So here’s my Scavenger Hunt items for today and let’s hope for a better week ahead.

1. WINTER

It’s sort of hard to portray winter when you live in South Florida. Here are a few pointers to distinguish Florida’s winter from Florida’s summer.
Summer: always clouds in the sky, afternoon thunderstorms, green lush grass, temperatures in the high 80s
Winter: cloudless sky ALL THE TIME, No rain WHATSOEVER, grass has this greenish-yellowish tint and grows really slow, temperatures in high 70s ( except for the last two stinking cold years)

2. SELECTIVE COLORING

I’m not a fan of selective coloring. To me it speaks of amateur photographer ( no offense to anyone), but sometimes selective coloring can be done tastefully. As long as it doesn’t stand out, and feels like it’s natural (-ish) coloring, I’m fine with it ( like Ashley’s shot here). This shot is of the flag on the golf course that we live on: Valencia.

One of my favorite things about photography ( besides DOF) is framing. I love finding cool ways to photograph things. Sometimes it takes thinking out of the box which doesn’t always happen especially if you’re shooting on the go.
SOOC.

4. WIND

That was easy. The day the scavenger hunt was announced, it was super windy. I mean like, hammocks flying everywhere, tree branches falling. Score!

And finally

This was my favorite theme this week. I love flashbacks. I have over 45000 photographs from the last 8-10 years ( literally) and I love sharing.
This was taken in the summer of 2002 when I first met my future husband. Look how young and cute we both are. We were so happy and in love ( and we still are, but a different kind of love, the kind that lasts). My best friend Elena (on the right) is now in Italy, happily married to a great Italian guy Max and we are here in US, ready to have our first baby :) It’s funny how life moves and changes.

GRAB OUR BUTTON:

<a border=”0″ href=”http://www.prebabyblog.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://prebabyblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/banner-3.jpg” height=”150″ width=”150″ /></a>

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Please don’t foger to VOTE daily!

This is my first time participating in Scavenger Hunt Sunday. To be honest, I barely had time to snap those pictures. I used to participate in countless photo projects on Flickr, like FGR, but life seems to keep adding things for me to do and to want to do ( and now planning a baby- agh!) I cannot imagine what I will do when we have a child to take care of. Maybe I’ll stop working when the kiddo comes and try to tackle all the other things. Most people wonder how I find time to do all the things I do and the answer is probably simple: I don’t let myself be lazy. I might skip doing the dishes over photographing, or won’t fold the laundry in favor of writing a blog post, but I am always doing something.  

So moving onto to the Scavenger Hunt. The topics were:
1. In My Home
2. It’s beginning to look a lot like…
3. Sweet treat
4. Time
5.  Everyday

1. IN MY HOME

We have a very big house and there are quite a few rooms I enjoy spending my time in,  like our movie theater room, our home office that gets THE MOST light and smells like pine because we set our Christmas tree up there. But my absolute favorite room is the guest bedroom. We designed that room and did the work on it ourselves ( tile, paint…). I absolutely adore how light and summery it feels there with peach paint and weightless white curtains. We call it our “Florida” room.

2. IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE…

Christmas can be difficult for a couple like us, with no kids and families and friends spread all over the world. So the last two years we didn’t even decorate- we’d just go somewhere for Christmas. However, this year I insisted on buying a real live Christmas tree and dusting off our ornament boxes. It has been so festive around here I can’t believe we missed out on this fun for the last 2 years. Since we have 4 cats and live trees can be very toxic to cats, we decided to set it up in our upstairs office, so that cats would only be there under supervision and all the other times we’d close the door. Sucks a bit, but what are you gonna do? I’m not willing to risk my babies’ health.

3. SWEET TREAT
I’m not obsessed with sweets. I like them, I crave them, but I am in no way a sugar hog. I won’t take ANY desert. It has to be something I really like. I suppose I feel that way because I’m highly educated in nutrition and foods, so if I do decide to have something as high in all things bad as most sweets are, I make sure that it’s truly something I love. And it happens very much subconsciously  i never have to think about it. Some people think i have willpower, I think it stems from realizing EXACTLY WHAT i put in my mouth.
So that being said, one of my favorite treats is a version of S’mores, foreign cookies that have a marshmallow center surrounded by 2 soft cookie like sheets and covered in milk chocolate. Believe me, homemade S’more aren’t as good as these suckers ( especially if done with something as nasty as Hershey’s chocolate) {seriously, anyone who thinks Hershey’s chocolate is good has never really tried the good stuff ( Swiss choco anyone? mmm)}. These little babies are only 100 calories a piece and I only have them after a meal with tea. Lovely! BTW, if you grew up outside of U.S., do you remember Wagon Wheel sandwich cookies? These are exactly like that but smaller.

 4. TIME

I spent the whole day trying to find a single clock in our house that is worth photographing. It turns out we have none. The one silver clock that is hung on the wall in the office doesn’t work. Considering we work solely on computers and I’m inseparable with my iPhone, there hasn’t been any need for clocks around the house. So here’s what I wake up to every morning- Sleep Cycle alarm, the most wonderful app out there that tracks your sleep movements and wakes you up ONLY when you’re in the  light stage of your sleep. The app saved my life. I used to wake up at noon and still feel like I needed to sleep, now I get up around 6 or 7 am  and I am always so refreshed!

 5. EVERYDAY
Everyday, I have the pleasure to see some of the most amazing sunsets through our bedroom windows. The golden sunset light LOVES to play on the bedroom walls, and furniture giving it this beautiful autumn feel. That’s my favorite time of the day to relax on my porch in an orange swing with a nice book in hand ( currently I am reading a few books: a book by Ellen DeGeneres, a book about models, and a few pre pregnancy and pregnancy books) and absolutely no worries.

Please don’t foger to VOTE daily!