Weekly Updates Instead of Daily

Natalie has suggested that we update our blogs weekly rather than daily. Our daily lives are just too busy for us to remember to update every day. I agreed. Therefore, I will update my blog every week with at least 7 pictures.

I have included pictures from the last few months as well as the last week for this update. I'm pretty proud of some of the pictures I took in my photography class and can honestly say I hope that my photos for this blog start getting better. In the meantime, here is this weeks update:

I took this picture at Thanksgiving Point when they were doing all their Halloween stuff. I was taking pictures of pumpkins that day. I love pumpkins, they're cute, weird, ugly and make great pictures.

 For the color assignment, I was driving in the canyons hoping to get pictures of the awesome fall colors. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was about a week too late. When I was driving out of the canyon I saw a kid's playground and thought to myself, what the heck...I have a ton of pictures to take still.

I climbed up the playground having a new respect for these jungle gyms to get some fun shots. I don't remember these playgrounds being that hard to climb, so either I'm not in great shape or I was monkey like as a child. Hmmm.

Anyway, I took this picture looking up at the sky. If you can't figure out what it is, I'll tell you. This is the rooftop to the slide. Pretty neat perspective huh?!

Ahhhh, the bloody final for photo. I hated this assignment. I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to do a photo journal on. I was honestly pissed. So I decided to do it on hot beverages. Lame!

Even though I hated the assignment, I liked this picture. The coffee beans smelled fantastic as I took this shot. And even though the color is a little boring, I like how the picture turned out.

I took this picture for the final as well. I think its so cool how I was able to get the details of the tea flakes in this shot.

Natalie signed me up for a cookie contest even though I told her I don't bake. But seeing how I am down to learn a new skill, I decided to take on the challenge. If I was going to be in a contest, then by god I was going to do a good job.

These are fudgy cappuccino crinkles and they were divine. I didn't win the contest but I'm glad I did it anyway. I learned how to make cookies that are 5 thousand times better than any store bought cookie there is.

I was given 2 books on cookie recipes after the contest, which means I'm definitely going to be making cookies throughout the year now. I don't even feel guilty about eating them because they really aren't that bad for you. Shhh, the lies I tell myself. Okay, but honestly, they don't have preservatives like store bought cookies or all that extra weird stuff they put in them. They have simple ingredients which make them real food.

NAM NAM NAM Call me the cookie monster now!

The holidays this time of year are not my favorite. I never really was a fanatic about Christmas and now Thanksgiving has kind of lumped itself in there. This is personal feelings and I don't have a grand explanation about it.

I was trying to be festive though. I made this miniature fireplace for my desk to keep me in the holiday spirit. And it worked to an extent. Actually, it's after the new year and I still haven't taken it down. It's just tooo cute to take down. I will this week though. I promise.

A little while ago, Natalie's daughter came to work with her. I asked her to write me a song and this is it. This is my song! Enjoy!

The Taj Mahal...this is Taj's house. He adopted this box when the ham arrived. This is the cat who thinks he is a dog until a box shows up. He loves all boxes; small, large, long, short, skinny, etc. He is a box master. I have trained him to go inside his box to show it off too. It's just too cool, I can't throw the box away. Maybe I'll decorate it just for him.

For the last few years I have been doing a vision board. I do this to narrow down the things I really do want to accomplish for the year. It's so rewarding when the year is up and I'm taking it down to put new stuff on it to see what I actually did accomplish. It's like putting it out there and seeing it everyday validates my goals and I actually do it.

I completed my vision board 2012 last night. Yeah, I know it wasn't right at January 1, but it's still the beginning of the year. When I was done I just smiled at it. I felt good about what I put on there. I am focusing on myself (still) in multiple ways as well as getting fit. I have the Spartan Beast race in June that I'm training for. I also put on there some decorating things that I'd like to do and some fashion stuff because I need new clothes.

Even though I don't get everything I want for the year, I still get at least 50% of it. And you know, I'm honestly happy with it. It doesn't mean I won't get those other things, it just means the time isn't right. I'm so glad that I started doing this a few years ago. It gives me a good reason to be proud of myself for the direction my life is going.