Mystery Monday 16 Answer + Tree Spin Art
I don’t have a new image to post today, but thought I would at least post the answer to the last Mystery Monday challenge.
Here was the picture:
and it got these guesses:
christmas lights
part of a wreath
an ornament
ball of red twine/ribbon
The answer is:
A tree with christmas lights strung up from top to bottom in straight lines.
I stood inside the canopy of lights, and spun in a circle while taking the picture!
Here is the same effect on a tree during the day:
The key is, you need to have a long shutter speed so that your shutter will stay open while you spin. If you are doing this at night, you wont have a problem. Just make sure you keep the flash off. If you are doing it during the day, then some tricks for making your shutter speed longer are to:
1) set your ISO to the lowest setting possible
2) set your aperture to the largest number possible (i.e. smallest aperture)
3) Use an ND filter on your camera….although if you have one of those, you probably don’t need my tips!
Anyways, then you just point your camera up, and start spinning, then release the shutter while you are spinning.
Try your best not to shake the camera in the other direction, otherwise you will end up with this:
You can also experiment with making the focal point of the picture off center. And depending on your exposure, you can get an overall darker or lighter picture. Looks very different!
You can also move in different directions. In the following picture, I basically fanned my camera top to bottom in one big sweep while pressing the shutter release:
This is another fun movement picture. It is of the leaves on the ground. In the first picture you can see the leaves etc on the ground and how they essentially leave a color trail behind them.
Well if you leave the shutter open long enough, you can completely blur our the leaves and just make a cool design. This could be a fun background to use for something else…or it might just live on your hard drive forever as mine often do…
And then you can have some fun with the picture in Lightroom/Photoshop/iPhoto (you get the point) to get some different effects and bring some of the colors out!
Well that’s it for the day.
Hope you have some fun experimenting!
oh and by the way – pretty much all of this can be done with a point and shoot too. Just turn off your flash, and if you can, decrease your ISO. If you can’t, then try putting the camera on landscape mode and see if that works (the camera will automatically use a very small aperture).
Have a good day!
A simple, no frills breakfast
I am all about QUICK, healthy, and easy meals.
So I thought I’d share my healthy option for the morning (the other non-healthy option is cereal. not so unhealthy, but lots of calories): an egg white omelet with lots of flavor!
It takes about 10 minutes to make. I use egg white cartons. To be honest the main reason is because they are EASY. You just pour. You don’t have to discard the yolk, or worry about salmonella all over your hands and counters (I have issues with bacteria…nuff said?), and you don’t have to worry about it expiring too fast. These cartons are ultra pasteurized, so you can buy in bulk and they will last for a while! BUT – once you open one, you usually are supposed to consume within 7 days. At least that’s what the carton says.
Anyways, I keep mine pretty simple: egg whites & taco seasoning, paired with chalula garlic sauce.
That does not mean I don’t like cheese, scallions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and many other things in my omelets. I’m just too lazy to do all of that on a regular basis. If i have anything pre-cut, then I definitely throw them in. But it is rare.
It has taken MANY, MANY, MANY messy attempts, but I have finally come to see eye to eye with my omelet pan. This is our dance:
1)I turn the stove on medium low.
2) Once slightly warm, I spray the pan lightly with cooking spray.
3) Once a little warmer, I pour the eggs – straight from the carton (remember…ease is the #1 goal. why make another bowl dirty?). If I am adding anything extra like garlic, ginger, cilantro, scallion etc, I do this now. I used to saute them first, but I never really felt like it changed the taste, but it DID mess up my pan and make everything stick. That means more time cleaning. No good.
4) I sprinkle taco seasoning directly into the eggs. I usually wait until the eggs are warm – the spices clump less then. But if you forget, no worries. Once the eggs warm up, the spices will dissolve. I just swirl them a bit at that point (without scraping the bottom of the pan).
5) I let it sit for a while until I see bubbles, and I can tell that the underside has cooked a bit. Then using a rubber spatula (make sure it is rated for high temperatures), I lift the edges of the omelet and let the runny eggs go underneath to get cooked. I do this all the way around, and end up with this:
6) Once almost all the runny eggs have been sent underneath (I repeat step #5 a few times), I can safely flip the omelet without splashing eggs all over the place. If you want to add cheese, I would do that now, right now top)
7) I like my eggs a little (or a lot) on the well done side so I let it cook on the other side for a bit, and then that’s it!
Yummy and healthy! And only one cooking dish to clean up!
Ok, looking at this picture, LOOKS are clearly not a priority for my meals…but it does taste good!
Enjoy!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful
It’s been a long time since I have participated in any weekly photo themed posts. Not that I haven’t thought about it or meant to…but you know, life just gets in the way sometimes.
This week’s theme at The Daily Post is “Thankful”
The MAIN thing I am thankful for is family. Well, family and friends. For all the time we get to spend together, for everyone’s health, for their kindness, for everything. We had a great thanksgiving weekend with family. it is so important to me that our kids grow up spending good QT with their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. So it was great to see then playing with everyone this weekend!
Back to the photo challenge, a couple of pics of my kiddos, that I am OOOOHHHH so thankful for.
Geez…I gotta get more pictures of the little one!
I’ll take the MOM part without the GUILT please
Motherhood
Guilt
Sometimes I feel like you can’t have the former without the latter. i.e. I feel guilty all the time about everything I do! and everything I don’t do!
the current issue: weaning my 8 month old son.
With my daughter, I was obsessed with pumping every day and nursing her and making sure I was making enough milk. Constantly worrying that I wouldnt. Well, it turned out that she barely drank anything (and still continues that trend) so I had plenty of leftover milk. I didn’t set any goals for when I wanted to keep nursing until, but ended up stopping around 7 months. The main reason? I wanted my body back. Some people look GREAT when they nurse, and they shed weight like crazy. OTHER people (ahem…me) just stack up the fat (as if we don’t have enough already) to put into the milk. Top it all off, all that extra fat is stored in my upper body – my face, chest, arms…it does WONDERS for my already stellar self image.
Here comes the guilt.
Is it worth stopping nursing for my own vanity? To “deprive” my child of the nutrition of breast milk and all the antibodies that come with it (especially during winter time) so that I can “look better?”
Well, like I said, I stopped at 7 months with my daughter. I had enough stored millk to last about another month with her, so she essentially was breast fed until 8 months. Then she had formula for 4 months before switching to “regular” milk. I remember thinking, “what was the big deal??? Why did I have so much angst over giving her formula for a couple of months? I’m NOT going to be so anal about this next time!”
Right!
So now flash forward 3.5 years. Again, no real goal for when I wanted to nurse until – except that I knew I wanted to make it at least 6 months (when infants’ immune systems start to kick in). Well, now I am 8 months post partum and in the process of weaning…and I’m feeling sooooo bad about it. I acutally wasn’t even planning on doing this now – but after my last 12 day stretch of working without having adequate time to pump, my milk supply dwindled quickly. So fast, that I was no longer making enough milk to keep up with S each day. Plus, my breast pump is on its last leg…so there’s that. I decided to stop. And literally every day, every time I warm up frozen milk (not even formula yet!), I beat myself up over it. Thinking: “maybe I should just keep pumping what I can? Maybe I should just keep pumping once at night (this is still a possibility)? Do I really want today to be the last day I ever nurse one of my children ever again? So sad!
Or Maybe I should quilt all together and stop torturing myself? Is it really so bad to start to care about what I look like and what I FEEL like again? After an essentially 4 year hiatus from the time I first got pregnant, perhaps it is about time to start putting a little more importance on what I need to feel good about myself?
I think so.
I’m sure this internal struggle will continue (and sometimes externalize into my husbands blank stares).
Couldn’t I just have all the happiness of motherhood without all the guilt? Or at least a LITTLE less of it?
.
What am I doing now while I write this?
PUMPING
=]
“Blog-searching”
I have tons of pictures of things I have made, that I haven’t found…or MADE… the time to put up on the blog. The things is that usually, if there is something I’m excited about doing, I make time for it…even when I’m tired! Like the many sewing projects I have started at literally, 1am. Now granted, without electricity, and during weeks when I’m working 80 hours, EVERYTHING extra is difficult to do. But still, it got me thinking…maybe I’m not really digging this blogging about crafts thing as much as I did in the beginning?
Now, there is a certain element of attention deficit in play here. One of the things I have definitely learned about myself through my creative pursuits is that I have a VERY short attention span. That is why as soon as I saw how fast I could complete a project with sewing as compared to knitting, i dropped knitting as fast as could be! Now I reserve it only for when I’m travelling, am without electricity or am watching TV. Even with sewing, I don’t usually take on projects that require a lot of planning or would take a lot of time. And those that do, I find some way to simplify. Come to think of it, that is the same reason I never really could handle painting. It just took too long to get a finished project. Well…that and the fact that I’m not exactly good at it… Some people work and work and work on the same painting for months and months. Especially oil paintings. Adding a little bit here and there on this day and that. I could NEVER do that. I want it to be done in one sitting. Maaaaybe two.
So maybe my boredom with craft blogging is the same thing? Kind of like how I can eat the same cereal for weeks and then I get sick of it and don’t touch it for several months. I don’t know.
But I think overall, I feel like…what’s the point? I don’t think I’m coming up with anything so novel that other people can’t find it elsewhere on the millions of blogs out there. The things I do that ARE different, I will probably continue to post about (like my nursery decor that I have been trying to finish up). But I think what I need is to post a little more about photography, and also about real life stuff. And if people don’t want to read it…oh well…?
For example, I can’t stand how all the mommy blogs I see make it seem like they LOVE being a stay at home mom all the time, and they LOVE sewing all the time, and they LOVE their tantrumming toddlers all the time, and they LOVE cooking dinner, and they LOVE organizing their house…UGH. As much as I am ashamed to admit it…I am most definitely NOT that person. In fact, I spend an inordinate amount of time feeling guilty that I DON’T love that stuff all the time. Which I think is why I felt like I had to stop pretending. But every time I thought about writing how I REALLY feel about things, I felt like…um…would anyone want to read that? Would people think less of me if I admit that sometimes my kids drive me INSANE?
Maybe…
But maybe thats ok. And maybe there are other people that feel the same way
But most of all, does it matter? Maybe being a part-time doctor that does NO creative writing in her life other than the incredibly NON-creative writing in patient charts and a part-time stay at home mom that talks only to toddlers and infants all day leaves me feeling like I need an outlet. If not one else reads it, thats ok. I think it is good for me to just write.
It probably won’t happen that often, but thats ok too. I need to apply the same rules to myself as I do to my friends: EXPECT LITTLE and be happy with what you get. I tend to expect too much of myself, i think.
So when people say “How do you do it all?” I can truly say, “I DONT!” I only do what I can, what I feel like (except for the stuff i HAVE to do) when i can.
And I think the most interesting part of this post is, although it doesnt seem like it, I really spent only about 15 min thinking about this stuff prior to actually writing it. In fact, most of this soul searching…or “blog searching” is happening in real time. I think that’s why I like this exercise of writing…it actually makes me think.
Imagine that!
Mystery Monday 16
Hi everyone
I am taking a break from reorganizing and trashing half the stuff in my pantry, to post this fun picture.
It is this week’s mystery monday, and the clue is that it is seasonal! May not be much of a mystery…but I think it is a cool picture none the less.
I love experimenting with motion in pictures!
Last week’s image:
Got these guesses:
Sidewalk? Cement?
Bricks
Grout
The grout line between bricks or tile
grout/cement line between painted cinderblocks
the moon!
sidewalk
A piece of cake being cut into
A crack in the sidewalk
I’m gonna guess grout
i guess grout too!
styrofoam?
some sort of foam that’s been scored.
outside of a basketball / rubber? crack between 2 pieces of sidewalk? jitters in quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space-time?
Part of a Pollen? Dust particle? … How good is your camera?
Dust
Cement
Bricks (again!)
Phew! That was a lot of guessing week…I guess it was a familiar image for people, because the full image is:
And many of you were right – it is two cement cinderblocks with a joint between!
Thanks for guessing everyone!
lots o’ stuff
Many incredibly momentous events have come and gone since I last posted any thing. I have been doing some “soul searching” regarding blogging lately (more on that later) and in the meanwhile, didn’t feel up to posting anything! I’m sure that had nothing to do with the fact that Hurricane Sandy hit:
And we lost power for about 4 days afterwards. Trying to keep a 7 month old without letting him sleep with the suffocation hazard they call blankets, was a challenge! Not to mention the freezer full of breast milk that I was terrified of losing. Luckily, a friend let us borrow his generator after a few days, and it SAVED the fridge!
Then there was halloween (which also happens to be my birthday!). Our halloween was pushed off to Friday Nov 2nd – which was actually much better since we didn’t have to worry about school the next day. R and S were Thing 1 and 2. Before we lost power on the day of the hurricane, I frantically made these iron ons, and got their shirts ready. Well actually, the red onesie I ordered for S actually came in black instead of red, so I was frantically making S a shirt from scratch at the last minute. It was a challenge but it turned out well!
Here are a couple of pics of the kiddos:
S was a trooper as we wheeled him around in the stroller in the freezing weather.
We also had the special treat of having my sister and her daughter visit us. Luckily we got power back the evening they came, otherwise being from Miami, they would have frozen in our house!
Ok, the next HUGE, AMAZING news:
Obama Obama Obama!
Ok, not new news anymore, but had to do a shout out =)
Looking forward to healthcare for all (this is coming from a doctor!)
Ok, and LAST but not least, another Mystery Monday.
Here it is. Hint: “I’m everywhere”
The last one I posted, several weeks ago was probably my favorite!
Here is the pic:
And it was a SAGE LEAF! Isn’t that cool? I was noticing how furry it is, and thought “Let me check it out with my macro lens” and there you go! Looks like a carpet!
Well, I hope everyone is healthy, happy and doing well after Hurricane Sandy. It breaks my heart to think that people still don’t have power and are either braving the cold in their houses or having to move from shelter to shelter. Thank goodness we have a government that is stepping up to the plate and doing their best to help!
Have a great night everyone!
Mystery Monday Week 14
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
We were really lucky and had a visit from my parents, which is always fun. As well as a beautiful day yesterday with an impromptu party with friends, enjoying the weather outside!
I have been having fun looking at the world around me through a macro lens to find new material for these mystery monday posts. Today’s picture is a perfect example! It is a view of a pretty commonplace item that I wouldn’t have realize existed had I not taken a macro picture of it. It’s so cool – like the macro lens is showing me a different world…ok, this is what happens when I write posts at 2am…
Anyways, here is the image:
a hint…hmmm….it is probably present in most people’s kitchens. But maybe in a different form?
Last week’s image seems to have been not too “mysterious”
It is my wood floor – which most people guessed correctly!
I didn’t do a hint because I thought it would be recognizable. But again, it i thought it was need how with the macro lens, you could see all the fine scratches and imperfections in the wood that you never see otherwise.
Well, have a great day everyone!
BY THE WAY
Have you guys seen the google doodle yet today?
It is really cool – check it out!
A couple of random project “attempts…”
I can’t believe it, but our little one (“S”) is 6 months old now!
When he was younger (can’t believe I can already say that…), he LIVED in baby mits because he was constantly scratching himself. The problem was that it was not easy to find mits that didn’t constantly squish his hands. So I decided I needed to make him some.
As you can see, I tried two different methods – one was serging directly on the right side of the fabric around the edges, and the other was serging on the wrongs sides and then flipping them right side out to hide the seams. In both cases I attached elastic near the openings on the wrong side of the fabric before putting the mits together. I decided I like sewing on the right side better because it leaves more space for the hands inside.
Attaching the elastic was more trouble than I would like to admit…but since making these I have gotten a new sewing machine (yay!) which shirs a lot better. So I’m going to give that a try next! They make great baby gifts… =D
The other thing I tried to make were these house slippers for R. I did these on a whim because I have the grip fabric, and it is getting cold around here. So I made thes flanner slippers – you can see a completed on the right, and the pieces to the left one next to it. They turned out…OK…definitely not something to write home about. It is not easy to make shoes!! R wore them a couple of times, but I think she is done with them. (me kicking myself in the leg…) Sad!
Well, those are two of my recent projects! I just took pictures for a friend with a newborn this morning, so I’m looking forward to sitting down and editing those!
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