Happy New Year

Welcome to the new year and a fresh start!  In the past few years I have chosen a word for the year, and it has been interesting to see how that specific word impacts me throughout the 12 months.  Last year my word was "perspective", and I think (hope) that my perspective has shifted from being rather narrow and fear centered, to becoming more focused on God and His bigger view of things.  I went through the book "Jesus Calling" each day, looking up the scripture passages at the end of each day's reading.  I was surprised at how many of the entries revolved around "do not fear" passages.  But given how prone I am to fear, it turned out to be a very good thing.

This year my word came in a surprising way -- a dream in early December.  I hadn't even begun to think about a word for the upcoming year when I dreamed that someone gave me an envelope with this word printed on the front.  Before I had a chance to discover what was inside the envelope, I woke up.  I was very disappointed that I couldn't delve further into the word in my dream, but then I felt a gentle nudge reminding me that I could spend a whole year exploring this word.

My word for 2015 is "treasure".  There are so many directions this word can take me, and I think it will prove to be a wonderful theme for this year.  I have begun two practices to help me mine the treasure God sends me each day.  The first is keeping a gratitude journal.  I have done it in the past, and I know it is a great discipline.  The second is on my Instagram account.  I want to post a photo each day that expresses a treasure I have realized.  I am hoping to post these photos to my blog once a week and tell a little bit about them.  Here are the first ones:

 It was a sunny day (not common in the winter in Chicago) and the sunlight reflected on the snowflake design in this gift box and onto my kitchen counter.  It was a delightful design to come upon in the morning.

This is part of a calligraphy piece I did to hang in a prayer room in our church.  It was great fun to create this, and I promise I will show the rest of the piece one of these days, as well as share about this awesome room that we have set up.

 It's my honey!  We were out all day going in different directions, and we enjoyed winding down at Steak and Shake.  Of course Don had to have a shake.  So I guess I ate at Steak and Water.  :-)

 We had a dusting of snow this morning, and driving to church was like a fairy land.  This photo doesn't do it justice, but it was just a quick cell phone shot, and it does convey the story.

In case you want to follow me on Instagram, my name is Sunnytoo, and I am using the hashtag #dailytreasure on each of my daily photographs.

This is a test!

The past few weeks I've had all kinds of problems with my blog -- pictures wouldn't upload, things would lock up, and other frustrations kept me from being able to post anything.  So I'm going to try to upload a few pictures to see if the issues have resolved themselves.  I have been participating in a 365 photo prompt challenge, so here are a few of the prompts and my photos for them.

Doorway:

Hands:

Sunset

 Peaceful

And here's some other favorite photos that I've taken in the past few days:

 The view from my daughter's 17th story apartment window on Michigan Avenue in Chicago -- sunrise last Saturday morning.

 This guy was quietly perched in our lilac tree when I got home yesterday.  I wouldn't have noticed him at all except that the chickadees were chirping like crazy!

Looks like Blogger is working again.  Happy Day!

Mental Health Day

Judy is my friend-for-all-seasons, meaning that we try to get together at least once every season to do something fun and catch up with each other.  Today was our day, and it was so necessary AND so wonderful!

First we went to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago.  If you live in the area and haven't been there, it's a great resource for beauty, peace, tranquility, color . . .  Here's some pictures I took today.  I haven't processed them in Photoshop at all yet.  I was too excited to show off the lovely blooms.

 These are glass sculptures done by Dale Chihuly and they are gorgeous.  They seem to glow!

 These are called Angel Trumpets.  They were hanging from a tree and were huge!

The conservatory was damaged by hail a few months ago, so not all the rooms were open.  But we had a great time meandering through one room after another -- each more breathtaking and awe-inspiring than the last.
 Then we headed over to Inspiration Kitchens for lunch.  Check out their web site and, if possible, consider dining there.  The food was amazing and -- from their brochure:  "The 80-seat restaurant serves healthy and affordable American cuisine . . . in a family-friendly atmosphere. . . it is a site for inspiration Corporation's award-winning food service training program, which has helped more than 450 homeless and low income men and women gain the skills and experience to succeed . . ."  It was clean, upbeat, affordable, and my mushroom flatbread with roasted shallots and gruyere was fantastic.  And don't get me started about their basil infused lemonade!

Vacation Memories

Back from a wonderful and relaxing week in the Florida Keys and trying to catch up with things here at home.  One priority is to get back up to speed with the Beyond Layers class.  They have been doing some really fun stuff, like making a "time capsule" of daily images.  But since I have about 800 vacation pics, I decided to make a different collage, of the evening we kayaked out into the Florida Bay to enjoy the sunset.

The people in the other kayak are my cousin Barbie and her husband Dannie.  They are the ideal vacation comrades!

My Life in Six Words

In our Beyond Layers class, we were given a challenge this week, based on something that Kim read in Oprah Magazine, which referenced Smith Magazine.  It's all about writing a six-word memoir -- six words that describe your life.  I came up with a bunch of them, but I guess the one I'm willing to share is shown in this picture:

I do tend to challenge myself to go beyond my comfort zone, as shown in this picture.  This was taken from a catwalk underneath the New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, 851 feet above ground level. We walked the entire length of the bridge last summer. I'm not exactly fond of heights, and there was nothing between the catwalk and the ground but clean, West Virginia air!  (We were harnessed in, however.)  I can't say I loved the whole hour+ long walk, but I am glad to be able to say that I did it!  And I did get some fun pictures.

Tomorrow my husband and I leave for a week in Florida.  The primary purpose is to escape the dark winter days we experience here in Chicago.  And we are also meeting up with my cousin and her husband.  (My cousin is the one I did the bridgewalk with.)  I'm sure we will come up with some grand adventures, including canoeing in the Everglades!  Personally, I'm not as afraid of alligators as I am of heights, so it should be a wonderful time.  If we survive (!), I'll be back here in a couple of weeks with some (hopefully) great pictures!

Photoshop

Why is it we (I) don't take the time to do the things I love until I have an assignment?  I guess that's why it's so important for me to take classes.  And I'm loving Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class.  Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon playing with my camera and with Photoshop.  And since the Chicago area got about 8 inches of snow yesterday, that was a very good use of my time!  (Yes, I did help clear the driveway :-) )

Here are a couple of pics I took the for assigment "less is more".

I like the first one OK, but I really like the second one.  I copied the photo and blurred the image.  Then I used a layer mask (so easy to do in Elements 10!) to brush the focus back into the flower petals.  I added Kim's "awaken" texture, but you can't really tell after I blurred it.

I had so much fun that I decided to play some more, and came up with a new "self-portrait"

I wanted to have a more artsy look for my little icon, and I think this will do nicely!

Another thing I learned from one of my fellow classmates is that my camera has a "dioptic" knob so that I can see through the viewfinder to manually focus without wearing my glasses!  It is truly amazing to be able to focus my camera without pulling out the reading glasses every time!

Christmas camera play

Before I leave the Christmas season altogether, I wanted to share these:

Early Fall Beauty

Last Tuesday morning I was rushing around getting ready for work when I noticed the play of light in the early morning mist.  It was so striking that I decided to skip breakfast and instead take my camera to the Arboretum for a quick detour to the office.  Not only was it the most life-giving thing I did for myself all week, but I got a couple of nice pictures as well.  This heron was enjoying a leisurely breakfast in the still water:

The dew was magical!

It was a great way to start the day!

Waves on Lake Michigan

I have to admit that the better photos on this blog were not taken by me, but by my son on his iPhone camera.  We were driving along Lake Shore Drive on Monday and noticed that the waves were ridiculously wild.  We couldn't resist pulling into a parking lot (which cost us $8.00 -- a bargain in Chicago!) and taking some pics.  The above one he submitted to our local tv station and it was picked as one of the weather photos of the day and shown during the evening news.  He just happened to capture two waves as they smacked together and created quite a display.

And below, look at  the great composition in that shot:

You can see the icycles were sideways from the blowing frigid air:

Lastly is my picture of Jordan, the master photographer with his iPhone:

The wind chill was below zero and it took a very long time to warm up, but what a great adventure!

A Walk with my Camera

It was so beautiful today that I just couldn't stay inside.  So I took my camera (and dog) and headed out to find beautiful things.  It wasn't hard.  These back-lit leaves really glow.  This pic is not manipulated in any way.

The milkweed was ready to fly.  When I was little, we would catch the little seeds and make wishes on them.

And dear Skyler had a wonderful time pouncing on critters and terrorizing the geese at the lake.  I missed a great picture of him bounding into the water and the geese scattering.  I guess I was too busy with the milkweed.

If you are in the Chicago area, I hope you are enjoying the weather this week.  We all know what is going to follow shortly!

New Ventures

Last week I heard about a juried photography exhibition taking place in October.  Submissions were due today.  I've never taken part in a juried show before, and I wasn't going to enter at first.  There was a $20 entry fee for 2 pieces, and I wasn't confident enough to try.  But my family convinced me, so I dropped off my pieces tonight.  Below are the raw photos -- they look a little better framed and matted.  I'll find out by Friday if they have been accepted, and then next Thursday the show opens.  So that means I have 3 calligraphy pieces at the local library in an open show and these two potentially at another show.  Wow -- I feel like a real artist!

 I titled the above piece "Waiting".  While in Rome two years ago, we were staying in an apartment on the 5th floor.  This woman was on the 4th floor across the street, and I happened to catch her in a very pensive pose.  (There are NO window screens in Rome!  It makes for easier picture taking.)

This one is called "Summer's Over".  I had a chance to play with some Photoshop filters to get that effect.  I hope they make it into the show.

Words of Wisdom

For some reason, August is usually a difficult month for me.  I don't like saying goodbye to summer with its long, leisurely days and wonderful growing things.  I read this a few days ago, and it helped alot.  It's from Caussade in his Sacrament of the Present Moment:

There is not a moment in which God does not present Godself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed.  All that takes place within us, around us, or through us contains and conceals God's divine action.  It is really and truly there present, but invisbly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognize God's operation until it has ceased.  If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful God would continually reveal Godself to us, and we should see God's divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it.  At each successive occurence we should exclaim:  "It is the Lord," and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift from God.  

And here are a few pictures from a beautiful day at the Chicago Botanic Gardens:

Prairie Smoke

At the Arboretum again, and the Prairie Smoke was in full bloom -- these lovely, wispy, cotton-candy-like tendrils softening the landscape.  I have some that I put in my back-yard garden, but it's not blooming like that.  Maybe next year, if I take very good care of it.

And this little guy was nearby -- he could fly, but the way he was squawking, he was obviously waiting for mom to come and take care of him.  I'm enjoying the birds so much, I've signed up for two bird-watching walks in the next two days.  I bought some binoculars, and I hope it's not pouring rain on either day. 

Road Trip!

Today my husband and I took advantage of a beautiful spring day to venture to the heartland -- central Illinois.  We had to go there to pick up a quarter of a cow -- our daughter convinced us that free-range is the way to go, so we now have a freezer full of meat to enjoy.  Above, I am standing on a 100 year old suspension bridge.  There were signs everywhere warning that if we made it swing, we could be fined $200!  So we walked across carefully!

In town (Pontiac, Illinois), there was this great old advertisement painted on the side of a brick building.  I have no idea who Bensons is, but "Pleasing you Pleases us" so they must be nice folks.

Finally, here's a picture I altered of an old fashioned swing set we played on for awhile.  I'm not sure, but I think I need to do some additional work on this.  But I wanted to share it anyway.  I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather as much as we are!

A serendipitous moment

I love this little guy! Doesn't he just look like a drunk staggering out of the bar after a wild time? He has had such a great time with all that pollen! This was a huge surprise -- I was trying to get a nice picture of this gorgeous flower, and this bee entered the scene. After stuffing his little pollen sacs as full as they could get, he made his exit, and I managed to get the picture! (I hope his wife doesn't find out. ;-) )

After the Rain

We have had a lot of rain in Chicago lately. While I would rather have sunshine, I did manage to enjoy the after-effects of the rain a couple of days ago. These are from our front yard. The Queen-Anne's Lace is a volunteer (weed) that is pretty even when it grows where I don't want it to. I have never taken the time to observe the Yucca up close, but it has a lot of beautiful detail.