{day 10} foggy sunday morning

gnarly, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

I was out and about in the freezing, cold and very foggy weather to try and get some good fog pics. The gnarly tree I snapped sitting in my car at a stop light out in the country whereas the drip I was glad I had my long trench with a hood on because the fog was so wet the tree was drip dripping all over me and my canon.

Processing: Canon, RAW (for drip only) Landscape mode for others, crop, resize, sfw, defog, bloom effect action on gnarly tree and crick.

{day 6} pipe

pipe, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

outside my office...

Processing: JPEG, color pop, defog, resize, SFW, framed

{day 4} mmmm....bao

mmmm....bao, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

There's this little hole-in-the-wall oriental store that looks a bit shady and unkempt (from the outside). It looks extremely unimpressive, a bit scary and, frankly, not a place you would expect to find delicious food.

Well, in this place in Sacramento (and don't ask me where it is, I only know how to get there, not exactly where "there" is address-wise) that I would GLADLY drive the hour ,to and from, after a hard days work to buy their pork buns. They are heaven in a glazed wonder. I *heart* them. Seriously. The last time Mike and I went there we brought home 2 dozen because we feared one wouldn't be enough. We kept track of how many each person had and not one of us dared to sneak an extra for fear of punishment. ;)

Well, in perusing Costco the other day I found these. No, they are not oriental-hole-in-the-wall heaven but they are quite delectable and today I called them LUNCH.

Processing: Shot with my fish-eye on my fixed 50mm, RAW, defog, resized, SFW and framed.

{day 3} Ian having fun painting his plane

Ian having fun painting his plane, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

Santa brought Ian a wooden plane that you pieced together like a puzzle. Well today we decided to let him paint it! Wow, he had a blast and it was VERY colorful.

Processing: fixed 50mm, RAW, defog, resized, SFW and framed. I used my "better bounce card" method to photograph these (using the thin, white foamy stuff, not paper). Unfortunately I'm still stuck working on my netbook which has an uncallibrated monitor so I have no clue what the colors are looking like :(

{day 2} Dads slide holder

slide holder, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

For those who know and those who don't, we lost my Dad to cancer in October. Since then Mom has been "cleaning house" (so to speak) and giving certain things of Dads to me or my brother. I inherited his camera, equipment and accessories. These were the latest in the handover. I love cool stuff like this.

Thankfully my husband bought me a special scanner for slides and negatives so I can archive all of these (I don't think he ever printed any of his pictures!). It's sure going to be a lot of work but I can't wait to see all of his pictures he took.

Processing: Kit lens, RAW, defog, vignette, resized, SFW, framed

glorious

crafty...day 2

Day 2 of our craftiness.... This necklace looks

WAY better on than off.

I gave Emmy my beads and let her go nuts.
I LOVE what she came up with.

fun with wordle

I found the script to the movie Pride and Prejudice online and wordled it.
Thanks Lisa (since I found it on your blog... )


I "wordled" my blog and came up with this....

crafty

Every time I hear the word "crafty" in relation
to making crafts it makes me think of being sneaky. lol
I was bored this afternoon and made this lovely
beaded necklace with sterling silver and multi colored
purple beads.
Now I just either need someone to give it to
or somewhere to wear it!

natures lace

I found this cool pine tree branch in my backyard

what WE did today

Yesterday we went to the Nut Tree Park .

As we were returning to it after lunch this lady walks up to me and says "Is this your son?"

I'm thinking oh my goodness...do I KNOW her?
I replied, "yes, he is"

"oh, well would he be interested in auditioning for movies and tv?"

I must've had a look on my face like are you for real?
So she gave me some paperwork and let me know where to go,
where the auditions will be and what to expect.
Turns out she's a scout for the agency that casts for Nickelodeon, Disney and such.
I thought, cool. Should be fun.
She really wanted Emmy to come as well since they're looking for kids 5-16.

So I'm not expecting much. I don't know if Emmy will do it being as painfully shy
as she is but figured Ian would totally dig this.

We get there and they get a choice of scripts to perform.
Emmy actually picked the hardest one, I got a bit worried but kept
reminding her this is just for fun...you can say that you auditioned for
Disney and Nickelodeon over the summer. Cool.
Really I was worried she'd freeze as soon as she got up there.

ER....wrong!

Ian went first and was sooooo entralled with his own image on the
screen behind him he didn't say the line he'd been saying over and
over for 12 hrs straight. Em tried to help but no way.
The lady helping him really, really liked him because she kept him up there forEVER!
She even let another kid audition then came back to him.
He just smiled and flirted with her. :doh:

Then Emmy went and did GREAT! She said the lines just fine and didn't waiver one bit.
SO proud!! I wish I brought my camera, all I had was my cellphone to take pics with.

After the audition we moved to a different area to talk to talent agents.
She really cued into Emmy and was very interested in her.
Ian was fiddling around and being a spaz. ug. The lady asked me if I took the photos
I brought with me (of the kids) I said, Yes. She said "wow, great pictures! Are you a photographer?" I told her just amature photography but, boy...that was nice to hear!

So, she said about 20% of the kids will get a call back. We'll see.
I'm not stressed either way but we'll know within a week. I'm chalking this up to a fun experience for the kids.

waiting in line to screen test

Ian's turn

still trying to get Ian to talk.....(he's busy flirting)

Emmy's turn!

Now they've moved Ian to a chair so he can't see himself on the big screen.

fun at Nut Tree Park - very pic heavy

fun with Koi; walk onto the bridge..they go nuts. Walk off the
bridge they swim away. On, off, on, off....poor little fishes.

Emmy spotted this dragonfly so my quest began to capture the
little bugger on film.
(this is about a 25% crop)

Think our food is trying to tell us something??
The anti-onion ring.

the animal Ian settled for; the zebra

Ians first choice of merry-go-round ride; the pink flamingo

I thought this guy was the COOLEST character on the merry-go-round
but Ian refused to ride it (hmph!)

Snapped this quick on the way out of the park.
This train is an icon to us Vacavillians.

I so love this pic of Ian and his Dad.

air you can sink your teeth into.

and this was taken at 7:30am...gag.
Now they're saying don't even exercise INDOORS
because the bad air is getting inside too.

BUBBLES!!!

I :heart: iced tea

mmm.....nothing better to beat the heat

bendable

I've been double-jointed in my hands, arms and feet forever...

stop

...makes perfect.

shockingly enough, this was taken AFTER his bath.
At least he was clean for about 10 minutes.

espresso?

Emmy's Bratz apparently came with their own Espresso maker.
-
I totally ripped this idea off of a talented gal on flickr.

Her photos rock.

flora and...uh...well, just flora

flowers in my backyard

They're hanging over my back fence (from the neighbors yard)

my favorite shot

at least the sun is yellow again.