Showing posts with label rose petals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rose petals. Show all posts

Friday, January 6, 2012

You Saw This Coming

If you've been a reader of Camera Crazy for any of the past year, you know I've been sad about my sales. You also know how I mourned the rain out at Winter Park and with good reason! Yesterday and today I've been working on getting all the expenses together for our income tax filing.
One thing about being a small business owner is that there is much more to it than one would think. Prior to opening Out & About Photography I threw everything away. Bills, once paid were history. Now I've had to retrain myself to file everything away. I don't like filing everything away. But, I do it nonetheless, albeit in a haphazard fashion. This year I'm thinking I'll use our Orlando Sentinel bill somehow...

So, the good news is I did not lose any money if you don't count my time as worth anything. The so-so news is that this year I HAVE to do better. My car is in the driveway all packed for Winter Garden in the morning. Let's hope I can muster more sales at that location! Starting tomorrow!

This morning I was feeling the bug of creativity. Typically, January has been a good month for me to shoot something that is a winner. Looking at my still very nice roses on the kitchen table I kept thinking there must be something I could do with them. The pool--always the pool.
I'm still not sure about this one but I thought you might think it was fun. The colors are oh so beautiful. I took others, maybe nothing of interest, but I did have fun and taking photographs is supposed to be FUN! This was in between laundry and some very minimal cleaning. Minimal cleaning is my middle name.

Bruce has finally gone to his office today. Imagine that. It's been weeks since last he graced the Darden headquarters. I told him this morning as he left that the girls would all be happy to see his handsome face. He did look cute.

So, I'm waiting on him as I type and it's nearly 7:00. He promised to call before arriving so I'd know when he would be home. Oops--he just walked in. We're having a date tonight. Don't know where just yet--perhaps that great place I went to with Ha and our Austin family.

Another idea occurred to me--after all this time I know that people purchase photography mostly because of nostalgia. Good or bad, that's what they do. Pocket watches! We have two old pocket watches here. Excellent photographic material. Plus I spent some time reading about them. Here's an amazing article about timepieces from Harper's Weekly, written in 1869, you will discover if you read it that things have not changed very much. We think computers are great, smart phones, and the like but arguably, reliable timepieces are one of the greatest inventions of all time.

You'll find out more about this watch after I've had a chance to discuss it with Bruce. What I learned from that site is the age of the watch which I gathered from this:
See those numbers on the bottom left? That tells me that the watch was made in 1917! Imagine that? The glass is missing from that one but not from this one which is much newer:
That is if you count 1924 much newer! I'll have to redo these when I'm not wearing a bright coral top!! See reflections.

I could go on and on but Mr. Bruce is waiting in the wings......

Good night,
Gail

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

What Shall We Make Today?

How about a terrarium? Recently I became aware that terrariums are all the rage these days, which doesn't surprise me; pretty much everything makes a comeback. I can clearly remember making one in a large brandy snifter during our first year of marriage, which for those of you who don't know, was 37 years ago.

Here's what I gathered for mine:
We had a hard time finding plants small enough, and to tell you the truth, these are a tiny bit larger than I would have liked. I bought some from Jim at the market, however, when Bruce was out and about on Sunday, he stopped by a garden center, buying me a few more, including the tiny little podacarpus I used. So, mine looks like this at the moment:
After watching this slideshow, Terrariums on the NYT site, I'm thinking I need to do better. I was lucky to find this lidded jar at Marshalls, however I think I'll be on the lookout for something more creative.

Monday night was bridge class. It was pretty good actually. In the afternoon I dealt out the cards as if there were four players, practicing my arranging skills before heading to class. No need to make a fool of myself. I'm happy to report that somehow, when it was my turn to be the declarer, I actually won my hand. Beginner's luck for sure. Trish is in the bright pink top in this shot taken before class started. I'm telling you, I'm definitely getting my money's worth with the class costing $100 for 13 weeks. Mind you, Mr. Perry Poole teaches the entire two hours, making the cost somewhere around $4 an hour. Now that is a bargain, don't you think?
There is but one student under 50 in the class! Some of the folks mean business, which is why I did my little home practice session.

Earlier on Monday I stopped to see my friend Lois who was in her yard gardening. Showing me around, she pointed out the tulips and daffodils peeking up through the soil, as well as the poppies and anemones. Showy days are coming! I brought home this incredibly delicate, and more importantly, fragrant pink rose:
After photographing it in the gorgeous light of my brand new office, I moved it into the kitchen for water. This morning I found all the petals on the counter, which knowing me as you do, means photography!
I absolutely love how the petals are shaped like little hearts!

After a somewhat busy day at the Polasek, and some errands following that, I came home just as the predicted rains began. Apparently, along with the rain, there were tornado warnings for late in the night or early morning, however, as far as I can tell, none materialized.

And I should know...reverting to my childhood ways, I stayed up WAY too late reading. Try as I might, I have not been able to get into The Girl With the Dragon Tatto. I know there are people who are wild about the series, however, after reading 50+ pages, I just didn't care enough to continue. What I did devour is this:
More than a year go my friend Linda suggested I'd like this book. Knowing our tastes are pretty similar, when I saw it at Borders for $4.99 I picked it up, and am I glad I did! Baxter, on the other hand, had no knowledge of my nocturnal ways, whimpering at his usual time. I'm afraid to pick it up today because I know I'll never get anything done. I remember reading another novel by this author, who is female by the way, titled Prep, which is just as much of a page turner.

Actually, for some reason my left heel is hurting very much, so I doubt I'll be going anywhere today. Sounds like maybe it is a good day to put up my feet and read...

Out &. About