The camera lens story...

Although it's been more than 10 days since my last post, I can't think right now what it is exactly that has consumed my free time that I would normally have spent blogging.....
so this seemed as good as time as any to finally fill you in on my silly camera lens story:

I never dreamed of myself being a teacher...yet, here I am
I never dreamed of myself being a writer...yet, here I am

What I always did dream of myself as is a photographer.

I've never thought myself great at any of the above, but I did always think I could hold my own when it came to taking pictures.

From experience I have learned that I am not cut out to be a wedding photographer because there are no “retakes” at a wedding.

It’s too much pressure. There is only one chance to get it right.

Well, as I learned a few weeks ago, apparently I’m not cut out to be a sports photographer either! And turns out, for the same reasons listed above – there are no “do overs”, there are no “mulligans”.

My camera has two lenses; one I call the regular lens and one I call the telephoto lens.

Now I seldom use the “regular” lens ‘cause I like to “fill the frame” with my subject. I guess it’s a style. Anyway, it’s something I picked up during my short time in photography school.

Well, I was photographing Andrea’s first meet. Of which she had three races and two were the butterfly stroke. This would also be the first time she’d ever done butterfly in competition.

I waited patiently for her turn. I was ready and in position.

Buzzzzz, a racing dive and she was off.

I kept zooming in my lens…..and zooming….and not getting very far.

I was snapping, but still swearing in between each shot. I just couldn’t get close enough…..I just couldn’t “fill the frame”.

I swore I would be on the internet that night…..I was ready to buy myself a new….a new and bigger lens…..the kind that ‘causes “lens envy” if I had to, but this was ridiculous!

Here was my best shot.

And here is my best shot after Photoshop.

Thank God for a 10 megapixil camera.

Thank God for Photoshop.

And thank God I didn’t buy a “new lens”,

because all I needed to do was switch from my regular lens to my telephoto lens!

What an idiot!

I am happy to share that day Andrea finished her very first 100m butterfly in 5^th place….not last, but in 5^th.

The following week, she place 3^rd and then she did it again just last week! Third place! That’s only two away from first!

Now, I’m not competitive and I’m not a swimmer, but that butterfly has to be just about the hardest stroke I’ve ever tried.

I couldn’t be more proud; I’m just bustin’ at the seams! :0)

Love to all!

Melle

Prototypes....

Just wanted to get these posted tonight.....


I've been working in the studio some today hoping to get inspired for this year's Halloween treat bags....last year you may recall I made about 35 of these little babies, which led to a whole lot more at Christmas. (Perfect timing on both: October's helped fund Andrea's birthday and December's helped fund McKenna's.) However, I just can't imagine me doing it again this year. Although they are a lot of fun (primary motivation), they are very time consuming (only 'cause I carefully putter on each one). This year I'd like to offer a class one day after work in my classroom and maybe, just maybe offer a class at SHE (wink), but I don't know if there would be enough interest for people to actually make them themselves.....
I'm still hoping some other ideas come to me, but my favorite part that's new is the black paper "lace" across the top of the bags - too cute!


I am really happy with the tag. The paper lace was just from a brown paper bag....talk about cheap! I was so glad to get my glimmer mist out and working again. Last week while at a class I was explaining that since I had thrown away the lids from my glimmer mist bottles, all of the bottles were now clogged. I thought I tried everything to make them work (wasted a lot of glimmer in the meantime), but last week someone said, "have you tried soaking the lids in warm water?". I answered "of course I had", (cause I tried "everything").....but I got to thinking.....while trying "everything" I hadn't really allowed the lids to SOAK. Well, whatta know? It worked! I am so grateful.

Hopefully back with a real post tomorrow......I still haven't gotten to tell you my camera lens story.......

Love to all!
Melle

9/11

9/11 used to be the day we celebrated my birthday,
now it is a day our country mourns for those lost in the terrorist attacks 9 years ago.

9/11 is a time we remember the 343 firefighters who lost their lives on that day.

I couldn't be more proud of my firefighter.
He makes sacrifices everyday to serve and protect so many we don't even know, I feel ashamed when I've whined and complained.

9/11 is also a day we remember the brave men and women who have sacraficed their lives for the freedoms we enjoy.

However, thanks to the love of my wonderful friends and the love of my family, I can still celebrate my birthday and I thank them so much for that. Thanks to my friends and family this birthday weekend, I have eaten well, crafted with my hands and left my fingers all messy, I have money to spend at Michael's and am carefully researching my options and best of all I have 3 new books to devour.....so off I go......

okay, well, those of you who know me so well.....it's after 10:00pm on a Sunday evening....."off I go" alright, but to bed.....hopefully, I'll get at least 2 pages in before I crash.

Love to all!
Melle

Labor Day Weekend

Today I read that Labor Day was advocated as 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation and 8 hours of rest.....well, it's 10:30 pm and I'm about to head to bed for my 8 hours of rest, but I wanted to share my 8 hours of recreation this today...


6 completed canvas/photo things (what should I call these things anyway?)
1 12x12 wooden frame decorated
and played with some more pages in the book I started last weekend at the Glitz Girls class.


2 of the girls on the beach; the quote says "find treasure wherever you look"
one picture to give away, one for me to keep
1 of my grandfather for my mom; I have a second one started for me (but I can't get the background paint right - urgh!)


2 more photos from Big Cat Rescue, one for me and for Sue. Sue says each year Big Cat Rescue has a "Fur Ball" and they have an auction to help raise funds - she asked if I'd make another canvas thing to auction off - too cool!
1 wooden 12x12 frame finally finished to hold one of my favorite digital layouts


You've seen this one before as well, however I had a request to make another one so she could give it as a gift (thank you Kendra!! :o) ) Now to make one for me to keep!

So, I didn't get any notecards made, however I did also start some Halloween treat bags - I'd like to offer a class to the teachers at school....we'll see if I can fit that in??!!

I still have some cute stories to share from this past week. I plan to post tomorrow, afterall, it is Labor Day!

Night, night.
Melle

PS - I also painted an apron I plan to wear to the Donna Downey workshops I hope to attend in Palatka the first weekend in November. (post photo tomorrow - promise!)

AWWWWW

Awwwww, finally, finally doing one of the things I look forward to all week (and frankly, I didn't think I was going to make it this week).......I love the part of this crazy back to school routine where I sit down in my studio on Sunday afternoons; when I sometimes catch up on reading blogs, E-mails or Facebook, when I might work on lesson plans for the week or the bills (yuck), and hopefully, if things are really going well I write my weekly post for this blog, my classroom blog and update my classroom webpage......that's when things are going really well.

I like to get here about 2:00, but today it is almost 4:00, so we'll see how much I get to do.
This afternoon I have all the above to hopefully catch up on (except maybe Facebook - haven't read that for weeks) AND a card I need to make and a canvas I want to start.

Reflecting on the week, well the beginning was pretty rough going however, thanks to a good friend from work who watched McKenna for a few hours and to the gals at this AMAZING scrapbook store in The Villages called SHE Scrapbooks (wink), my week ended wonderfully!!

I had the chance to take classes Friday night and Saturday morning with The Glitz Girls and LOVED it!
On the first mini-album we made we actually used corrugated cardboard for the front and back cover.

Not that I don't think this is really, really cool to do, I just think it is so ironic that when I joined this scrapbook hobbie over 10 years ago a responsible memory keeper wouldn't even let their photos touch anything that wasn't "acid and lignin free". I even remember a company marketing gloves to scrapbookers so the oils from their hands wouldn't get on the photos (not just the negatives, but the photos as well) and now look at the trend! "Grunge" is the buzz word. Everything we touch is sanded or inked to make it look old or "vintage".......so funny. Makes me wonder what we'll do in another 10 years?? (Let's just hope chopping up our photos with Fiskars paper edgers NEVER happens again!)

The second mini-album we worked on was taking an old hardback book and embellishing it. You could tell that all participants of the workshop were trained well, because when we were told to rip pages out of our book, there was a collective gasp! Ginger, our teacher, said, "it's okay, my mom isn't here" hee, hee, I thought that was so funny! So, the concept is that you tear out pages to make room for the thickness of photos you will place inside. Donna Downey would so recommend that you then just paint right on some of the pages as well! In fact she mentioned it in a recent post. (By the by, her post yesterday was about this new binding machine she just saw at CHA - she loves it - so I want it!)


Okay, so I've rattled and rattled on about how come my week ended well and now five days later, I really don't want to revisit why the beginning was so rough. I'll just share the highlights and I'm sure you can fill in the rest:
Monday - Open House at my school 6:00 - 7:30
Tuesday - Open House at Andrea's school 6:00 - 8:00
Wednesday - Open House at McKenna's school 6:00 - 7:30

Tuesday, the girls and I are in our car by 7:50, actually a few minutes ahead of schedule only to pull away and realize we had a flat tire.....in the rain....I can't find our jack or tire iron.....and no flashlight......oh and Scott is in Orlando at a TNA wrestling match......I believe there was a text from him that read "screamed like a little girl so I could get up front"........
Like I said, from here, I'm sure you can fill in the rest.

Although, I was perfectly ready to have the girls and I sleep in the car until he could pick us up on his way home, luckily I work with some really great ladies who have "not so excited to change a tire in the rain, but I will because my wife asked me to help a friend" husbands.

Okay, an hour later and I can check "updating my blog and two loads of laundry" off my list....I'd better go tackle that other stuff......like lesson plans!

Love to all,
Melle

Wait, just a little advertising from Melle.....you know, sort of an "Melle's current favorites".....like Oprah, she does that sort of thing, right?

• I so love following the posts on Ree Drummond's website, aka "Pioneer Woman", click here or she is also on my blog list.
• I so love www.pandora.com . It is like your very own radio station!!! Very cool. Never have I been able to hear so many of my long lost favorite John Denver songs. Woohoo!! So I have turned off the usual music I have attached to this blog so you too can sign on to Pandora and keep your favorite music running in the background!

Peace
Melle

Don't you just love the weekend?
I love the sleeping in
and I love the long warm showers.

Of course weekends do mean loads of laundries
and piles of dishes.

But I do love the weekends
and if I'm really lucky, there is still a moment or two left over to work in the studio.
Do you remember these handy dandy little gifts? Two of McKenna's teachers have birthdays this week and man am I broke! I passed through the photo frame isle at Wal-Mart and when I saw the clear 4x6 stand up photo frames I remembered these cute little post-it note holders.
A whole dollar for the frame, I already had the post-it notes and of course I had plenty of scraps of paper. Fun to make and I think they'll do the trick. Watch out, you might get one for your birthday!



Congrats to those of us who have survived the first week of school and best wishes to those who start tomorrow. I'm thinking of you :)
Love,
Melle

Just a quickie...

Do you remember how I've mentioned before, that without the "bad", or in this case, the "inconvenience", you can't appreciate the "good"?

Most of you know, for the past two weeks, Andrea's swim practice has gone until 7pm; calculate in dinner and travel time, we weren't getting home until 8:30......and crashing at about 8:35.
Well, now that school has started, her practice ends at 5:00. We've been getting home about 6:30 or 6:45.....I feel like we are home early and I've got plenty of "extra" time on my hands! I even did a laundry tonight and some dishes. That's HUGE for me, but you knew that.

I know this feeling won't last long, but I'll enjoy it for as long as I can.

Love ya'll!
Melle