26 Things # 14 - Thread

It seems like just about the only use I have for my old scrapbooking materials these days is photographing them. Oy. Once in a while, I take a look at the stuff I accumulated during my scrappin' days (daze?) and can't remember exactly what I used to do with it all! Like all of this embroidery thread. (Oh, and don't for a minute think that this is all of the embroidery thread I have. Oh no. There is TONS of it crammed into a little drawer. TONS I'm telling you.) What on earth did I do with it in my scrapbooks? I certainly don't do any  kind of needlework, on paper or fabric. So what was I thinking? One of these days, I will have to go through all this stuff and purge some of it. Again, oy.

26 Things #7 - Used

Today I set about my normal Sunday routine, which includes baking the week's supply of Toll House cookies. As I took the eggs out of the refrigerator and looked in the carton, my 26 Things list popped into my head and I realized that was I was looking at could be seen as somewhat loose interpretation of #7 - Used! When I showed Jim the picture and told him my thought, he looked at me as if I'd lost my marbles. (No, just an egg. Sorry... Couldn't resist.) He thought I should maybe use a picture of Erin' well-used soccer ball or something like that. But I think this is a slightly more creative and unique way to show "used." What do YOU think?

Drip, Drip, Drip!

I've always been fascinate by pictures that I've seen that capture water droplets hitting, well, water. I've always wondered, "How'd the DO that??" and figured I'd never in a million years figure it out and make it work for me. Then a few days ago, I was perusing the "How I Took It" forum at Digital Photography School, and found a thread aptly named, "Simple Water Droplet Tutorial (No Extra Gear)." Simple is good, right? And no extra gear is always a plus as well. So this morning, I set myself a goal to figure this out. My first few attempts (ha! few? try 85!) were awful. Out of focus, dark, and basically a fail. Then I went back and re-read the directions and found that I'd forgotten something kind of important - the flash! Duh. So I set up all my stuff again, grabbed some different colored paper, and tried it again. WOW! It worked! How very cool! Sure, I took over 100 frames to come up with the 10 I kept, but still, it was such fun, and the results, to me, are totally worth the effort!

26 Things #11 - Bind

Keeping up with the 26 Things theme from yesterday, today I tackled #11 - Bind. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this one at first, but then remembered the wonderful old books that we have from Jim's mother's home. These books are far too fragile to be read or handled much, but we have them on a shelf in our living room, and I love having them there. Books are extraordinary to me. Not only for the stories held within their pages, but also for the stories of their own "lives," if you will. Some of these books are over 100 years old. Can you imagine how many homes they've been kept in, how many hands that have held them? I think they're fascinating. And to look at how relatively well most of them have held up for all this time, well, whoever bound them knew what they were doing. So OK, I've taken a little liberty with the "bind" term, and changed it to "binding" and "bound." But I think I've captured the idea. 

26 Things #5 - Opening

Trying to take a picture every day (even if I'm not stressing about actually doing a 365 project) is a daunting task. My life really isn't that interesting, and trying to think of something to shoot that I haven't already shot a thousand times before can sometimes leave me wanting to scrap the whole thing. (And I don't mean "scrap" as in what I used to do with yesterday's ribbons, either.) So when I saw a post on the 2Peas Photography Board about a challenge called "26 Things: A List for Inspiration," I thought it might be a great way to get those creative juices flowing! It's basically just what the title says: a list of 26 random things to photograph in a specific time frame, in this case, during January and February. Some of the things are kind of easy (like #1 - Fuzzy - which was my picture of Lucky from a few days ago), but some of the other ones (like #21 - Frantic) are going to be a bit more challenging. It'll be fun to think outside the box, though, and see what I can come up with for each one! Today's is #5 - Opening. Yes, That's Molly snoozing on her favorite blanket. In taking this picture, I noticed that there's a piece of something inside this lens that I can't seem to get out. Bummer. But it's not showing up on any pictures that I've taken with it, so I guess I won't worry about it for now.

The Whole Nine Yards

For a couple of years, I was an avid (rabid?) scrapbooker. I'd never been much of the artsy, creative type, so my hobby surprised a lot of people who knew me. I'd always loved taking pictures, and scrapbooking gave me something to do with my photos (which have, for the most part, all been digital since Erin was born) so that they could be shared with others. I actually really enjoyed the process of working with the paper and supplies - the tactile nature of the work was soothing in a lot of ways. As most scrapbookers will tell you, a lot of the fun comes from the stuff. Yes, going to scrapbook stores, touching the papers and embellishments, and bringing them home to admire them. Oh, and yes, sometimes use them. One of the things I loved most was the ribbons. They came in (and I collected!) all kinds of colors, patterns, and textures, and I eventually found a great way to store them in a drawer so I could easily find the one that I needed for any given page.

Our first New Jersey house had a great area that I set up as my scrap room, which was right next to where Jim would watch TV at night. It was great, because I could work on my projects and not be alone. After a few years, though, we moved to a different house, and my scrap space was on the other side of the house from the mancave. Because I didn't want to be alone each evening, I slowly stopped working on my books, and I haven't done much in them since. My hobby has shifted to photography (duh), and although I still have all of my old scrap supplies, I'm ashamed to admit how long it's been since I've touched any of them. I've tried doing digital scrapbooking, but while it appeals to my geeky, techie nature, it's just not the same. So I sit in my office now, surrounded by old but not-quite-forgotten supplies, and wonder if I'll ever get back to doing something with them.

Tale of a Lucky Dog

When Erin was a little over one year old, we took her to the local mall to kill some time on a cold, weekend afternoon. As we were pushing her stroller through the Disney Store, she grabbed hold of a stuffed animal and just would not let it go. "Great," I thought. "Another stuffed animal." But Jim declared that we should buy it for her, after all, she was immediately and totally in love it with. It was a stuffed Dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians, and its collar declared that its name was Lucky. Lucky indeed!

Lucky quickly became one of Erin's favorite companions. He went just about everywhere with her, and spent every night clutched in her arms. He went to my parents' house when we'd go down for weekend visits, and he's been on every single vacation we've taken for the last nine years, including cruises, car trips, plane rides, and even a cross-country move. He's been on countless sleepovers at Erin's friends' houses. He even once got lost in a hotel in Montreal (the housekeepers had accidentally taken him when they'd taken the sheets off the bed), and Erin was beside herself with grief until we managed to track him down.

Today, just about nine years after we first welcomed Lucky into our lives, he's still just as important to Erin as he was those first few days we had him. He still sleeps with her every night, and I frequently find him wrapped in her arms when she's sound asleep. He's still carried with us on every vacation and on every overnight that Erin goes on. He's a little soft in the middle now, and eventually we may need to look at getting him some new stuffing. But Erin loves him more than any other possession that she has, and I'm sure he'll be a part of her life for years to come.