Blimey 'o Reilly, it has been a while since I've written properly in my blog!
Quick update:
-went to the beach for Thanksgiving, lolled about with my marine animal peeps
-lost my phone in the ocean
-visited my beloved Disneyland!
-got a seasonal job at Color Me Mine (a paint your own pottery studio)
-re-opened my Etsy shop and am attempting to make a real thing happen from it
And now it's almost Christmas. In fact,
TEN DAYS until Christmas! I can't even believe that, our house is barely decorated (we're doing a "simple" Christmas this year, which made me whine and moan, but honestly I haven't had time to decorate either so I guess there's that) and I've been so busy applying for jobs, working, and playing that I haven't even noticed it. BUT I realized tonight that I would be really sad if I "missed" Christmas and it snuck up on my without my usual fare of activities and Christmas snuggly cozy feelings, so once again I'm making a list (and checking it twice). The first Christmas activity (or one of them) is to, of course, get a Christmas tree and decorate it!
We get our Christmas trees from a farm that brings its business down from Wyoming. I love real trees, absolutely adore them and their smell and their energy, and even though it is probably better in some ways to have a fake tree in your house, my love of the real thing (and my innate sense of tradition) dictates that I always get a real tree. My brother, mom, and I headed out to the farm and realized it was really, really cold, so we picked our tree quickly. No pretending to be a wolf this time, thanks. Once it was home, it was time to decorate, and take pictures of the process, all while listening to our Christmas music list.
I took all of these with manual settings, which I'm proud of. I realize I need to spend even more time with my camera, learning about the best lighting to use what aperture and shutter speed in. I also now realize that I've been getting aperture and shutter speed mixed up on my camera, D'OH. Ugh, so dumb, but that's one of my goals. I have a lot of goals now, I'm trying to get my life back together since it's sort of been messy and unorganized. I want to blog again, regularly, and actually do something with my photos rather than have them rot away on my camera or on a hard-drive. I am sick of not doing anything with them, especially since they mean so much to me and photography is one of my passions. Along with this, I also want to make a list of Christmas-time activities to accomplish this season!
-go sledding on the hill in the backyard, hot chocolate with candy canes afterwards
-maybe make a handmade ornament! Or paint one at Color Me Mine!
-go for a drive to see decorations and take photos of Christmas lights
-go see Zoolights
-watch Christmas movies, especially my favorites that I haven't seen yet this season
-listen to my Christmas playlist every chance I get, since I have my weird strict rule that I'm not allowed to listen to it again until next December
-go ice-skating outside at the Gallivan Center
-make sugar cookies and decorate with frosting and sprinkles, mmmm
-read my traditional Christmas books (that are all dog-eared and for children)
-get presents for my family, GEEZ I'm behind! We only have one lonely little present under the tree right now...
Since I was shooting manual, sometimes I messed up
Bloopers
It looks like the lights are little mustaches!
I like this one a lot, still
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
