March Mosaic :)

Day 90/91 Richie's Rabbits

Richie was in a "general living skills" class last quarter.  He had to do some basic cooking, cleaning and sewing.  Too funny!
He brought this rabbit home at the end of the quarter and I almost wept.  My little dude sewed a rabbit and called him "Pac Man".  I can't believe that he is old enough to sew, make brownies, monkey bread and pizza and sweep and vacuum!  Of course, I haven't seen any of this being performed at home, but one can dream...
I thought this rabbit was funny and sweet and he wanted to throw it away.  I told him that I was going to keep this rabbit and would hold it when I am an old lady in the nursing home.

EXIF info: f2.8, ISO 800, 1/80 sec, 100mm macro lens.

Day 89/90 Hyacinth and shutter speed lesson

OK, this is a lesson in shutter speed and how it relates to ISO and aperture for my new photographer friends.


Today was a very sunny day when I went to take my daily picture.  I knew that because it was very bright out, I should put my ISO to 100, which is as low as it goes on my camera (on some cameras this goes lower).  I wanted to use a wide open aperture (f2.8 on this lens) to get a bit of depth of field because I like that, but I knew that if it was too wide open it would make the picture too bright, blowing out the subject.  So, I chose to use a very quick shutter speed so that the amount of time the camera was open to light would be very quick.  I chose 1/1000 sec, which is really fast. As you can see, the picture still came out very bright, but not so bright that it blew out the flower, but there is still some blur on the mulch in the back of the flower.
I really like to use high shutter speeds when possible because it makes the pictures tack-sharp since it cuts down on the camera shake.  Unfortunately, unless there is a lot of light, to get such high speeds I would have to up the ISO. Hope that helps a bit (P). 

Day 88/365 Art by Stephen

This is Stephen's creation from art class today.  It has a smiley face on a ceramic square with a hole in the top.  I love these little things from school.  If it were up to me, my kids would never have math homework, they'd just have to come home and color, cut, paste and glitter.  I love to help them with things like that!

Day 87/365 Strawberry in milk

So today I went to school but got a call from Richie's school that he was sick.  I figured that might happen because he was up sick most of the night with a stomach ache and going to the bathroom like every 10 minutes.  I'm not sure why he feels the need to tell me every time he goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I got announcements so many times that I decided to go sleep in his room so he could be closer to our bathroom, which he prefers for some reason, and I could hopefully get some sleep.
Nope, that didn't work.  He walked all the way from my bedroom, back to his to make more announcements.  Where is Rich during all of this???  I guess asleep.  Must be nice.
Anyway, he seemed like he was a bit groggy when I shipped him off today, but not feeling too bad.  I made sure to let him know that he would have to call my cell phone if he wasn't feeling good because Rich was on a field trip with Stephen today.  I got the call about 9am and headed to his school to get him.
I laid down by him and watched some TV with him and we both fell asleep for a little while.  He seemed like he was OK, but he said his stomach was really hurting him a lot.  I'm hoping this is just diarrhea cramps and not something serious.  So, since I had the afternoon off, around 2 I decided to try to do some shots where I captured a strawberry being dropped into milk.  I love those shots.  But, I couldn't seem to capture any so I got the shots below.  One, with a drop in front of strawberries and the other, just a plain strawberry shot.  Unfortunately, I was shooting in jpeg, so the milk is a little bit reddish.  UGH.  I am used to shooting in RAW now, and so I can mess with that afterwards. Guess I wasn't paying attention to white balance.




I've decided to join the Collinsville camera club.  I think it will do me good to go hang out with other photo nuts.  They have lessons there, guest speakers, competitions, etc.  There is one in St. Louis that I've thought about joining for a while, but driving over there every Wednesday just seems tooooo time consuming.  So, the Collinsville one is only every other Tuesday and it's only about 15 minutes from my house.  I may give it a whirl next week.
I hope that I don't get Richie's stomach bug. 
EXIF info #1: f 3.5, 1/500 sec, 100mm, ISO 200
EXIF info #2: f 3.5, 1/250 sec, 100mm, ISO 200.  I had lamps up on both sides to get more speed.

Day 86/365 Need to recharge

I'm happy that I didn't have anything to do today because I am WIPED OUT.  I'm not sure why, but once again, I took sleeping pills, slept until almost 11am this morning and then pretty much got up, ate, watched a movie, slept again, went out to eat, slept again, and now I'm posting this in a hurry so I can go back to sleep. 
Anyway, I love to go out and do things and keep busy and never sit still, but today is one of those days that I'm happy to have just laid around.
Of course, laying down for me means ibuprofen because my neck doesn't do well laying down.  I hope I am more alert for tomorrow- it's back to school.

Day 85/365 Snowing again!

Tonight I have symphony, so I figured I'd try to go ahead and post early.  I wanted to try to capture a single snowflake, but since the snow seems to be falling in clumps or something, this picture is the best I could do with that.
EXIF info:1/400 sec, f 2.8, ISO 400, 100mm, no flash


I also wanted to show the snow on the magnolias that I took a picture of the other day.  How sad...their beauty is going to be stopped short by a snowfall.
EXIF info: 1/400 sec, f2.8, ISO 100, 100mm, no flash












Well, peeps, I gotta get ready to head out, so this is a short post today.

Day 84/365 Scaring Sarah

Oopsie!  So we went to the play "The Other Room" tonight and it was a really good play.  It was somewhat poor timing as the play took some turns into rough subject matter at times, but the actors did a great job and it kept my attention the entire 2:20.  I'd love to delve into it more here, but I never know who is reading this thing :)
Afterwards, I realized that it was 11pm and I still hadn't taken a picture for the day.  So, I took a little detour and went to City Garden to get a night shot and to show Paige a little about long exposure pics.  My picture is pretty boring, but I have always thought this building was very pretty.  At the top, it looks like some sort of an Egyptian tomb or something. 
I think I scared Sarah to death- she's a bit afraid of the city after dark.  I knew that there were strolling guards down there at all hours, so I knew it would be safe.  I hope Paige's picture turned  out OK....guess I'll see in a few minutes.

Day 83 Sign of spring

I have been nursing this magnolia tree/bush along for about 6 years now and it's only about 7 ft. tall.  I wish it would hurry up and grow.  The flowers are so beautiful, but only stay on it about a week.  I look forward to it each spring.  For some reason, it blooms so early that we usually have high winds that will blow off all of the flowers really fast.  I wish the sun would just stay with us for the summer.  Come August I'll be ready for it to go away.
EXIF info: f 2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO 100, 100mm, no flash
I'm pretty tired today and had to take ibuprofen for neck pain.  It's not too bad right now. 
I'm looking forward to hanging out with some of my YAS tomorrow night, when we go to dinner and a play.

Day 82 Frida love

It's no secret that I love Frida Kahlo.  I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows me at all knows that I am pretty much obsessed with her.  I'm sure this shows to my students as well and one gave me a Frida necklace today!
I tried to shape the chain part of it into a heart, but it's not bending so easily, so this is the best I could do!
I never expect my students to give me anything, but they surprise me pretty often with little tokens of stuff from pictures they draw, to cards, to gift cards, to tickets when their parents can't use them...etc.  A student even made me a bookshelf this year!  Now I get a necklace! Wow!  I thought this little gift was amazingly sweet.  She was at a store in Edwardsville and saw it and told me that she knew that it should belong to me.
Well, suh-weet!  Anyway, this is a quickie shot because I just got home from a really amazing movie and dinenr at PI.  I'm wiped out and on my way to bed. This was a good day all the way around.

Day 81 Netflix movies

One of my favorite things is Netflix! 
I love movies. Pretty much any type of movie is up my alley and I'll gladly go to a movie with anyone that needs company, just because once I get there, I know I'll enjoy myself no matter what we're watching.
I used to be a regular at Blockbuster when we lived in Collinsville because they rented foreign films and I love those.  When we moved to Troy, we had Movie Gallery for a while and their selection was a lot smaller, but they still had some foreign films.  I was pretty much a regular there too.
When I got a free trial of Netflix I signed up and I found a little slice of heaven!  There are literally thousands of foreign, independent, romantic, comedy, drama, action, etc. movies waiting for me instantly and the newer movies are on DVD, but I can exchange them as frequently as I want or keep them as long as I want without fees.  Suh-weet!  For $14 a month (2 out at a time) I get all of this joy.  Not a bad deal!
Anyway, my rental I just received today was Winter's Bone.  I've already seen this movie in the theater, but let me tell ya, it is AWESOME!  It is about a girl who is on a mission to find her father in the Ozarks because he has to be present for a court date or they will lose everything.  We're talking EXTREME poverty here, and it's not too far away!  The girl goes through absolute hell and has to deal with a ton of meth dealers, and all kinds of horrible situations to find him.  This movie astounded me the first time watching it and I can't wait to watch it again!  It is a must see.
Evidently, this is a movie that is not too far from the truth about this area that is so close to the place  I call home.  It's scary to think that only about 4 hours from here things go on as terrifying as this.  Wowsa.

Day 80/365 Must not be the lens...

So, I was worried that my 70-300 mm lens wasn't working properly after the moon pictures on Saturday night, but I took them to the zoo yesterday and took it all the way to 300mm and it looks like it's doing just fine.  This cheetah picture is probably one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken, so I guess something else is going on with the moon pictures? 
This duck picture below is also with the 70-300 mm lens at about 155mm, so it works well in the middle too.
Go figure.

I had an amazing time at the zoo.  The weather was beautiful, it was so great to get out of the house and just walk around and not be cold!  The animals were particularly playful because I went early in the morning.  The penguins were going crazy and splashed water all over!
As you can see, the tigers were not hiding in their dens, and were out sunning themselves also!
For the full set of pictures, you can check out my set on flickr.  I love comments and favorites ;)

Day 79 Mad at the Moon

So here is the best shot I got of the stinking supermoon.  I'm mad {mostly at myself for not being able to figure out what I'm doing wrong!} because I took a super-amazing-crisp-clear moon shot when I first got my camera and now I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. 
Here is a little further away- looks ok, but no detail:


This picture is now the crap I'm getting:



It's not clear at all.  I thought maybe the hot tub on the deck was causing vibrations to the tri-pod, but I moved off of the deck and over by the field across from my house.  I'm still getting some weirdness on the moon and I believe that I'm using the same settings that I did before.  The only thing I can think of is that my 70-300 lens is messed up?  It works ok in about the 100mm range, but maybe when I go to 300 it messes up?

This is the moon I took previously at 300mm...



So, I know I can do better! UGH!  I guess it's my lens.  I'm so mad.  Here was a big ol' super moon and I get crap shots.  >:(

Day 78/365 Two Gents and a little Indian food

Tonight I headed out to eat at India Rasoi in the Central West End. While I was waiting for Joel to get there, I snapped this shot of a lamp above our table. 




I really really want to go to India one day.  It's definitely on my bucket list.  I had the chicken Tikka Masala and Nann! Mmmmmm!  Jeannie definitely got me hooked on that and now I crave it every once in a while.

After dinner we went to New Line Theater's production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the old CBC high school that is currently the NLT's stage.  It was a musical version of the Shakespeare play and was set in the 1970s instead of "back in the day".  It was really funny and energetic.  The singing wasn't too great, but that just added to the comedy of the play.  Anyway, it was a fun night and we had a great time.

During the play my neck started to hurt really bad.  I've just popped a lot of ibuprofen and I'm going to hope that it helps, otherwise I'll be taking better stuff later.  I hate my neck!

Day 77/365 Date with Paige

Tonight Paige and I went out to dinner at La Fonda and then we went camera shopping for her {hopefully soon-to-be} new camera.  I'm so happy that she and I are friends.  Her sense of humor cracks me up and I think we see things alike too.  She's easy to talk to and fun to be with.
After the camera shopping we decided to head to bread co for a drink and did some more talking.  Then we were talking about our 365 projects and she spotted this flag and suggested it for a subject.  I thought it looked pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, I had to use such a high ISO to capture the darned thing that I'm getting a lot of noise {the grain in the picture}.  I guess it still looks ok.
Thanks Paige for the awesome night! We'll have to do it again soon :)

Day 76/365 See It From Both Sides

So here's another combination shot- two pictures in one...I got this idea from photo extremist.  I love this kid's ideas about different shots, and I've been wanting to try this one for a while.  It actually wasn't hard at all and the kids got a big kick out of it.
I took a picture of myself with the camera on a tripod, using the shutter release cable.  I waited a couple of seconds and didn't move and then moved my eyes in a different direction and shot it again.  I opened both photos in photo shop, copied and pasted one of the photos on top of the other one to create layers, and then erased one eye from the top layer so that the opposite eye would show through.  Easy!
This picture is just for fun, but I think it shows a true side of me.  I see most things from both sides.  I have a hard time in debates because I could argue for either opponent most of the time.  I am truly a believer that every story has two sides and always try to remember that when dealing with others.  I am very opinionated on some issues, mostly when I think something is common sense, but I try to be open and non-judgmental with most things.
EXIF INFO: f 3.2, 1/250 sec, ISO 100, 50mm, flash fired.

Day 75/365 Addy Jane

I just had to post this picture of my cousin's daughter tonight as my picture...Miss Addy Jane!  She's one of the new additions to my extended family and she's as friendly as can be!  She's a little baldy and has some of the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.  The funniest part of this picture is that besides some cropping, I didn't edit!  She looks this good without enhancing a darned thing! I get to do her 1 year old pictures in a few weeks and I'm pretty excited!
Anyway, EXIF info is 1/200 sec, f 3.5, 20mm, ISO 100, flash on, fired

Day 74/365 My cousin on Wheel of Fortune!!!

My cousin Leah was lucky enough to be picked for Wheel of Fortune and made the trip out to CA about a month ago.  I've been anxiously awaiting for her show to air since then because she has been tight-lipped about what she won.  I'm so happy that her show aired without interruption and she won a total of $34,500!!!!
I was at her house this evening for the "viewing party" and she put out a full spread for all of us and even had door prizes and cash prizes set up for guessing how much she actually won.  I won that prize!!!
I'm so very happy for her and her family.  Leah is an amazing person and I'm proud to call her my cousin.  I've grown up with the girl, she lived at my house in Collinsville for a while, she's been there for me through thick and thin. Anyway, the pictures aren't that great tonight because they are pictures of her on the TV (except the cake pic), but they're not horrible for pictures of a TV.

Day 73/365 A tree for P

When out on our photo walk yesterday, we went to a furniture store and my friend PB saw a painting that she liked and I told her I would try to do it for her in Photoshop. I took about 10 minutes today and tried it out. It didn't turn out perfectly, but this is what I got so far.

The original is here:



 I'll try to make a better version when I get a bit to play with some Photoshop and get a better picture for this type of thing.

Day 72/365 Ya Ya tunes

We all headed to the church of the Yas today for our first photo hunt. I personally had an OUTSTANDING time! It was something very different for us, and as always, we had a great time.
We each made a list of 5 easy and 5 difficult items to photograph and when all 5 of us got together , that made a list of 50 items to find. We didn't find all 50 items, but we got pretty close. Along the way, we had lots of good conversation and lots of laughs.
I took this picture from today of 4 of the yas in front of a wall of graffiti and when I edited it, it looked like a CD cover to me. I played with it in Flickr a little bit and added a title and some "featured song" titles.
I wish all of our yas would ever be able to hang out together, but we have fun in our little groups.
Thanks, yas, for another wonderful day!

Day 71/365 New carpet

Today they came and installed our new living room carpet.  It looks good and I can't wait for the new furniture to get here so I can make the room look nice and have good furniture once again!  Yay for no red kool-aid stains, holes from the dogs digging and dirt that will not come out!  White carpet no more!

Day 70/365 The Tivoli

So tonight I went to the Tivoli to see También la Lluvia - Even the Rain- a film about a Spanish film crew going to Bolivia to make a film about Christopher Colombus and the exploitation of the Indians.  It turns out that there is STILL the exploitation of the Indians going on today as the "rich" are trying to take control of the water and sell it to the people.  The film within a film parallels the situation with Colombus and shows how nothing has really changed today- even the motivation "gold" is the same.
Anyway, I LOVE the Tivoli and the fact that it's not a megaplex with the "get you in and get you out" mentality.  I love that they show independent and foreign films, two of my favorite types of movies.  I love that it's in the Loop, which is one of my favorite areas.

Day 69/365 Painful night

So you can tell that this picture isn't actually at night because of the window in the background, but this is me on a lot of nights- at first propped up on pillows with the bed raised, later holding my neck and head sitting up.  I'm not going to go on about it again- I just wanted to use this pic tonight because I thought the special effects in this picture were cool.  I took the picture a while back, but I hadn't had the chance to use it yet because I've had so much other stuff {like celebrities :) } to take pictures of.
To get this picture, I had to take 2 pics- one of me laying down, one of me sitting up.  I made two layers from the pictures, used the overlay button and reduced the opacity of the top layer (sitting up).  I put it in black and white by desaturating, going to duotones and playing with the color levels. I added a bit of noise to add some frustration and "night time" appearance.
I am still on a high from the successful concert 2 nights ago and today I got some really AMAZING news!  I have a photo shoot coming up Saturday and I am going to get PAID for it!!!! $$$$$  Woo hoo!  Pretty exciting stuff!  I'm also really nervous too.  When you're doing stuff for free for people, if something doesn't go right, it's kind of like, "oh well, you didn't pay for it", but if I'm getting money then it needs to be GOOOOOOD!   So- wish me luck!

Day 68/365 Trevor Hall

Well folks, here he is- the great Trevor Hall!

I have stressed over, cried over, laughed over, you name it- this concert since August of this year!  My Student Council kids, who are wonderful and dear to my heart, wanted to have Trevor come to our school as part of our annual Tigerstock concert at the end of the year.  I contacted "his people" through his contact information on his website and have been working at paperwork, dealing with ignorant tech people, dealing with insurance issues, and basically going insane for 7 months now.  Last night made it all worth while.

The 3 bands comprised of our high school students did an excellent job and I was very proud of and happy for them.  They were the winners out of 12 auditioning bands and were voted on by our student body.  They opened the concert.  After they went on, Matthew Santos played about 1/2 hour.  He was pretty amazing too and I'm happy I got to hear his music.  This is me and Matt...



After he did his part of the show, Trevor Hall came on after a little technical difficulty.  The kids were going nuts when he finally came on!  He did an AMAZING job, and was just my type of guy- dreadlocks, barefoot on stage, all tattooed up with spiritual and philosophical tatts, kept saying "cool", was very relaxed and "yeah, man, groovy"- like.  I fell in love with him automatically.  Then, he started to sing and wow, was I impressed!  On YouTube he doesn't sound the way he did last night.  It just doesn't do him any justice!  He was absolutely amazing with the kids last night too- he really was very uplifiting to them, supportive and clapping and cheering them on as they played their part in the show.  He stayed after to sign autographs and take pictures with the kids {and adults} and then after that, he "hung out" with the Student Council kids and just sat and talked to them for a while.  I did not leave the building until 11:40.  It was worth it.



Anyway, the man is awesome and has my uttmost respect and I am now a huge fan!
{Or should I say I have a little crush?}

I am excited by what happened last night- we raised about $3700 for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. But I am also relieved that it isOVER!

Day 67/365 Faucet

Yes, I'm cheating a bit on this post.  I have pre-prepared this to be posted on Tuesday March 8 because I will be gone from 6:00am-11:30pm tomorrow.  I will {hopefully}be taking some pictures at the concert if I get a chance to sneak in and take some, but I am sure I will want to drop into bed the second I get home. So.....this pic was prepared on Monday and will be posted Tuesday morning.  Sorry for the cheat.
This is a picture taken by me in my bathtub again-capturing a stream of water.  It's not as clear as I had hoped, but it's OK.

EXIF info: f 1.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 200, 50mm, no flash

Day 66/365...299 left! The fan

I'm not a huge fan of fans...I do NOT like them blowing on me while I'm trying to sleep.  I don't mind them during the day when it's like 80 degrees or more, but when the temp isn't bad, let's just leave them off, OK?
I guess I sort of captured what I was trying for here.  I was going for a long exposure shot showing the fan blades spinning, but even though they are blurred, the shot didn't turn out as artsy fartsy as I would have liked it to.
EXIF info: f7.1, ISO 100, 1 second, 25mm, no flash, on tripod

In better news, the concert paperwork has finally been completed! Whew!  So I guess I have to hope that I am a fan of Trevor Hall and the high school bands that are playing tomorrow night.  Hopefully we will kick butt and make a lot of money for the kids at St. Jude's Children's Hospital. I watched my Mom go through cancer and it was really horrible.  I can't imagine a child going through that-  I'm a nervous wreck when my kids have a cold or a stomach bug because you feel helpless watching them hurt.   Anyway, tomorrow night I'll be rocking out and hopefully helping some of those kids.  Feel free to come on out to the concert if you want- I can always use extra hands!  EHS auditorium at 6pm.

Day 65/365 Half Awake

So this picture represents how I feel most of the time.  I lay down and I start hurting, wake up in the middle of the night, take medicine, fall halfway asleep, take pain medicine that lets me only be half-alert...it's never ending.  I feel like I'm in a fog 24/7.  I wish I could sleep like normal people and boy, think of what I would accomplish!  Today I was in such a fog that I went to take pictures with my friends, had all of my lenses, but forgot the camera.  Nice.  Of course, I had quite a bit of medication in me, so I'm lucky I remembered to get dressed.  Sure wish I could find a solution.
EXIF: f2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 400, 100mm, no flash, shutter release cable
This is a 2-shot combo also.  One was a picture of my eye open, one was a picture of my eye closed, I made 2 layers out of the shots, played with opacity a bit until I liked what I saw, desaturated the picture, went to duo-tone mode with some black and a light blue shade, then went to RGB color and saved it as a jpeg.

Day 64/365 Mmmmmm....

I took Stephen out birthday shopping today.  His birthday is not until April, but since we only get paid once a month, I have to split the expenses between February and March's paycheck so that we're ready to go in April.  We stopped at Krispy Kreme while we were out in Fairview Heights. 

I LOVE Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  To be honest, they are the ONLY doughnuts that I  like.  I don't like regular bakery doughnuts, but these melt in your mouth and I could eat, well, a lot of them.  Delish!!!

EXIF info: f 4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, 29mm, no flash

Day 63/365 Flying

Here is Stevo flying...or is he???
This is my first shot at making a levitation photo...it turned out OK. I was trying to do this in a hurry because it's Friday and I'm tired.
I want to try and get one where it looks "mystical", not so much like Stephen is leaping through the air.  That will have to wait for another time.
EXIF INFO: f 3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO 800, 18mm, no flash
Combined two pictures, one with Stephen laying across a stool on the couch, erased the stool out of the picture to see the bottom picture.

Day 62/365 Need a little Luck

It is 5 days before the concert and there are still insurance issues.  I really need a little luck to make this happen.  My nerves are shot.
This is a horseshoe that says Mom on it that the kids got me one time when they went with Rich to a war re-enactment or something.  I love it because it's from them.  I really hope that it brings me some luck...soon.
Today, I haven't had any pain at all.  I did have a bit of dizziness, but not too bad. I'm pretty sure that is because I woke up about 1am and stayed up most of the night.  I think I dozed off about 4am and woke back up at 5.  Anyway, when I lay down it makes things worse, so when I get up in the middle of the night and play around on the computer and sit up, I'm not laying down so somehow the pressure doesn't build up in the back of my head or something.?  At least today was a good day.

Day 61/365 Longing for summer

I LONG for summer at this point of the year.  There are probably no more snow days, I'm frustrated with so many things, I'm tired, I'm in the dumps, the weather has been gray way too long.  I need to see the sun and be out in my pool lounging around.  That would help so much.
What do I see when I look out at the pool?  It's covered, the water is gross, the summer grasses are brown and dead. At least the sun is out so it's not so gray today, and there is a somewhat cool reflection in the pool.  I really, really wish summer vacation was here right now.
Today I woke up at 3am.  I was in some pain, not horrible.  I tried to fall asleep and I dozed off and on until the alarm went off.  I had neck and arm pain during the day, some dizziness.
I came home and cleaned today because since I've just been laying around for the last 2 days the house looked like we live in an episode of "Clean House" with old food, grease, dishes, clothing, papers, wrappers, trash, everywhere.  When I let it go for even a day it gets messy because God forbid anyone else lift a finger to clean up.  Obviously, none of this was my mess because I haven't done anything the last 2 days but mope.  I've got to get away soon.
Anybody that is a prayer person, please send one up for me that this concert insurance issue resolves.  I think if that would work out I could sleep a little better.

February collage

See below for today's post.

Day 60 What the water gave ME

If you're not a huge Frida Kahlo fan, you won't get the title of today's post.  I've been wanting to try this pic for a while, but it took a night where I actually had time to lay in the bathtub and be able to take a picture while I was in there, so it had to wait.  Tonight, I needed to lay still in some hot water so I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity.  I was lucky and managed to NOT drop my camera in the water!  I looked around and saw some other shots I'd like to try, so you may see a few bathtub pics in the next few days if I get a chance to hop in the tub again.
I think I'm channeling Frida Kahlo in my life.  The woman was in constant pain because of her spine and she had a husband that she loved and could be as sweet as pie to her but then the next minute he was doing something absolutely horrific.  Maybe that's why I'm so attracted to her art?  Maybe that's why her story is absolutely fascinating to me and I have not only read every book I can find about her, but watched the movie Frida over 50 times, watched other documentaries about her, travelled to Minneapolis to see her art exhibit, visited her house in Coyoacan, travelled to Chicago specifically to eat at a restaurant decorated in her art, collect any art or memento by her, and plan to eventually have a tattoo in her honor.  I am a Frida-holic and proud!
So, when I was laying in the bath tub the other day and noticed the reflection of my feet in the water, it reminded me of her painting "What the Water Gave Me".  Here is her painting:

There are various images of things that affected her life greatly: her right foot is scarred from having polio as a child, her parents' pictures are in there, scenes of her body being unable to produce a child are associated with the earth being unfertile, the communist symbol is in there, etc. etc.  I could write a book about her myself, but I'll let you research it a bit.
Here is my version:


In my version, I have all of my favorite people in my life, I have symbols for the things that are important to me, you can see my tattoo that represents my Grandma, you can see my ugly feet reflecting in the water.  I could put a lot more in the picture.  There are many more things that represent me, but I was really getting tired of working on that photoshop copy and paste, free transform, etc. etc....
I am still bummed out today. Had teary eyes a few times, I really could use some ibuprofen right now.  I'm trying not to.