Hello People! Can you believe that we are already nearing the end of July?!! Summer is just flying by and before I know it, the Kiddos will be back in school!
This summer has not lent itself to a lot of creative time. In addition to summer league basketball and cross country for the Kiddos, I joined in on a challenge that one of my cousins dangled in front of the rest of us: a goal for exercise miles for the year. It started out with the goal of 1500 bicycling miles then morphed into a 2000 (or 2013) mile challenge that could be met by biking, walking/hiking, running, tennis (30 min= 1 mile), kayaking or what ever other activity we could convert to miles.
Did I happen to mention that the challenge was given at the END of May?!! And that while I had been walking/running some, I had not been keeping track of any miles prior to that time?!! So, not only did I accept this challenge in the negative, I started with not having ridden my bike seriously for a couple of years and a nagging chronic plantar fasciitis foot pain.
But, I'm chipping away at it!! The foot pain is now tolerating up to 7 miles of walking with some very short distance jogging started this past week. I'm slowly getting back my biking legs. Basically, I have to average a minimum of 60 miles a week to reach my goal of 2000 miles by December 31. As of this writing, I have knocked out 673.02 miles, only 1,326.98 to go!!
But, those miles also mean that 2-3 hours a day is spent away from the possibility of any creativity. And right now, that's okay. I miss the creating, but I'm starting to feel better physically, which is a plus.
It's a give and take.
On the creativity bright side, I "won" a spot from Linda's (Studio L3) blog for Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox Class! (There is still time to sign up for the class if you are interested!! While the class has officially started, registration does not close until July 24th!! QUICK! Go sign up!!). I was so excited to have the chance to give my creative mojo a swift kick in the rear to get back into gear!! This week one of the techniques is tinting photos with acrylic paint. While out on one of my walks, I came across some wild sunflowers (weeds) that I immediately thought would be the perfect subject for this technique. So this morning I dragged the Toad out for a little walk so that I could take some black and white photos of the sunflowers.
Go figure that this morning the wind was blowing in a summer storm! Despite the flowers literally blowing every which way, I managed to get a few photos (with the Toad literally having to try and hold some of the flower stems still!). This is the first time I actually have set up my camera to take black and white photos. I'm hoping that this storm system will pass this weekend so that I can experiment some more with this setting. In the mean time, I had a bit of fun attempting some photo editing (which I have very limited skills in!).
This summer has not lent itself to a lot of creative time. In addition to summer league basketball and cross country for the Kiddos, I joined in on a challenge that one of my cousins dangled in front of the rest of us: a goal for exercise miles for the year. It started out with the goal of 1500 bicycling miles then morphed into a 2000 (or 2013) mile challenge that could be met by biking, walking/hiking, running, tennis (30 min= 1 mile), kayaking or what ever other activity we could convert to miles.
Did I happen to mention that the challenge was given at the END of May?!! And that while I had been walking/running some, I had not been keeping track of any miles prior to that time?!! So, not only did I accept this challenge in the negative, I started with not having ridden my bike seriously for a couple of years and a nagging chronic plantar fasciitis foot pain.
But, I'm chipping away at it!! The foot pain is now tolerating up to 7 miles of walking with some very short distance jogging started this past week. I'm slowly getting back my biking legs. Basically, I have to average a minimum of 60 miles a week to reach my goal of 2000 miles by December 31. As of this writing, I have knocked out 673.02 miles, only 1,326.98 to go!!
But, those miles also mean that 2-3 hours a day is spent away from the possibility of any creativity. And right now, that's okay. I miss the creating, but I'm starting to feel better physically, which is a plus.
It's a give and take.
On the creativity bright side, I "won" a spot from Linda's (Studio L3) blog for Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox Class! (There is still time to sign up for the class if you are interested!! While the class has officially started, registration does not close until July 24th!! QUICK! Go sign up!!). I was so excited to have the chance to give my creative mojo a swift kick in the rear to get back into gear!! This week one of the techniques is tinting photos with acrylic paint. While out on one of my walks, I came across some wild sunflowers (weeds) that I immediately thought would be the perfect subject for this technique. So this morning I dragged the Toad out for a little walk so that I could take some black and white photos of the sunflowers.
Go figure that this morning the wind was blowing in a summer storm! Despite the flowers literally blowing every which way, I managed to get a few photos (with the Toad literally having to try and hold some of the flower stems still!). This is the first time I actually have set up my camera to take black and white photos. I'm hoping that this storm system will pass this weekend so that I can experiment some more with this setting. In the mean time, I had a bit of fun attempting some photo editing (which I have very limited skills in!).
I have to tell you that I was amazed that any of these photos came out somewhat in focus as I was having a hard time just trying to focus on a spot where I hoped the flowers would "blow" into!! LOL!! Now to get these printed up and photo tinted!!
Stayed tuned!
