Week Twenty-Five

Week 25. 

Once again I've really struggled to grasp any sort of inspiration or growth this past week. I feel a bit stunted and like I've reverted a bit. bleh. Just being honest here. So I'm just trying to push through this. I'm going through that phase of feeling like I've taken pictures of everything in my everyday world that is remotely interesting. Or maybe I've just taken pictures of everything in my little world that is within my comfort zone. Perhaps I need to experiment more and work outside my happy little box. Ultimately however the plan right now is just to keep pushing... I think if one keeps pushing they will eventually have to make some sort of break through. :) In the mean time, however, please enjoy my photos even though I feel they are not my best... :) (that's okay, right?) 

Wednesday: photo 171: 

the dog days of summer have officially arrived. the texas heat has already blasted two records. and boy did it feel like it. hothothot like someone had a hose of humidity spraying into the air. like you really do need that knife to cut through the heavy heat. 

Thursday: photo 172: 

silhouwete of airplane passing through evening sky. 

Friday: photo 173: 

new favorite workout cd (because good music makes any workout five times better and five times happier)...

toby mac's "tonight". it's a little rowdy for background music... but perfect for working out. my favorite track? "tonight".  

my current all time favorite workout cd however is mat kearney's "bullet". i love all his work, but that cd is the best for working out. get's me in my groove every time. 

Saturday: photo 174:

coffee and morning light. the two just go together in sweet perfection. 

Saturday: photo 175: 

every summer there is a local outdoor theater that plays some sort-of-something every weekend... you get to sit on this ginormous hill, feel your toes in the cool grass... and be surrounded by huge nighttime sky and just enough big buildings for you to get that neat city-esque feeling. i went there for the first time this summer. they had the symphony playing. so much pretty. 

Sunday: photo 176:

scriptures in my room. scribbled this one out on a torn journal page. "For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." how often does your soul feel dry, empty, and longing? too often. or at least mine does. it's such a good reminder for me that when i feel this way, i can go to Christ and be filled. 

Monday: photo 177:

rose bushes in my front yard are in full bloom. so much beauty. 

of course they smell good. coffee thinks so too. 

the end.
-rebecca 

how my camera rose from the dead and why you should never, ever bring your camera to the beach...

Saturday i went to the beach. while this was a lot of fun (holler for the first beach visit of the summer!) i made a mistake. a big mistake. i brought my camera. but not only did i bring my camera... i brought it by the water... close enough for it to get splashed. i knew this was not ideal for my camera to get splashed but i hadn't a clue that saltwater was so much worse than regular water. well let me tell you - just in case you're as naive as i was (improbable) - salt water is the devil. with just the taint of those select few (okay, or a pinch more) bits of water my camera immediately went into funk mode (i bet you didn't know this existed). the buttons weren't doing what the buttons were supposed to be doing, and my eyes got wide and i panicked. and panicked even more the next day when i realized after soaking it in a bag of rice it was acting worse. and then i panicked even more after looking up solutions online... apparently solutions for this problem are few... and when i say few i mean one of the solutions was to dunk said camera in a bucket of distilled water to get all traces of salt water out - my jaw was close to the floor after reading that one, yes? i mean that sounds like murdering your own camera even if it is already majorly debilitated. not happening. so, instead, i did something brilliant. i cried. mourning and pouting over this loss. whining that all the hard work that went into my precious 365 project was for naught. whining that i couldn't buy a new camera any time soon. whining that i'd hardly had my camera for long. whining about the irony of just a few drops of water that i was so naive about... and... well, you get the picture.

today, however.

there was a beam of light. i picked up gigi, my beautiful corpse of a 60d, and... she came on... she didn't just come on though. she took a picture. and the picture showed up on my lcd screen. she worked on manual. her buttons pressed... and... i... was ecstatic. i know she still may have problems down the road because of this misfortune, however it seems like she is being workable at this time... which means i'm reallyreally happy. and... that my 365 project is still on (cheers! applause! clapping! yelling! woohoo'ing!), however this past week's 365 was not able to be completed due to this setback... but i am going to share with you guys the photos i was able to salvage... :) and then next week things will be back on track. 

sister running into the waves... 

 it's a bird... it's a plane... it's a frisbee! 

the sky was beautiful and the air was warm... perfect beach weather! 

sandy feet and happy hearts... that's what the beach'll do for ya. 

sister out in the waves. 

at dusk the beach reflects gold and silver... 

and this one... this one's my favorite... 

that's a wrap. praise be to God that my camera is working again! i'm so, so grateful!

week twenty four - ducks and stuff. but mostly ducks.

I have news! To say it shortly, my older sister rescued a teeny baby duck. My family has a large pond for her to eventually grow into, so it all works out... rather ducky. While she's still a miniture however (could she just stay like this? please?), I'm having a veryvery enjoyable time with her.  She's surprised and impressed me with how much personality she has. She's extremely personable, clever, and has even learned how to beg (better than a dog. you won't believe 'til you see it...). This week I consistently found myself taking pictures of her because she's just so darn precious and has been a large piece of my life lately! So this week has ended with a theme...  deemed "The Seven Days of Birds".  While I'm not especially fond of this week's photos as a whole, I guess that's just how it ends some weeks. 

Wednesday: photo one-hundred-sixty-three: first portrait of this little lady, Daisy (after Donald Duck's girlfriend). 

she makes my heart melt! each time she doesn't have a human within her range of view, she panics and runs in frantic little circles trying to find you. it's precious. 

Thursday: photo one-hundred-sixty-four: our chickens (getting so big!) in their newly fenced area. 

Friday: photo one-hundred-sixty-five: with the summer comes the want to be among the wet and cool. our background pool has been getting a fair amount of use lately. it's so nice. when i'm feeling brave i'll bring a paperback book along and carefully read while sitting on a float (yes i like to live life on the edge *winkwink*). i'm currently paging through fitzgerald's "this side of paradise" (his first piece of work). i'm about a third through, and, so far, i'm unimpressed. it's good - good writing quality (however comparing it to the great gatsby... well, it doesn't really compare), however i find the plot lackluster and shallow, the main character leaves much to be desired, and... also, too much language. all-in-all, not sure if it's worth my time to finish. 

Saturday: photo one-hundred-sixty-six: who get's to swim with a baby duck in their pool? i feel so exotic (ha) swimming with this little lady paddling in the water. 

if you decide to swim around she has to be swimming within a couple feet proximity (or even better yet she'll hop upon your back for the ride).

Sunday: photo one-hundred-sixty-seven: this is sweetie (yes... this is her name despite him being a rooster... when he was little we always knew he was a little girl bird, but... well, never mind as "she" grew up... the name stuck however). 

Monday: photo one-hundred-sixty-eight: flowers and silhouettes.

Tuesday: photo one-hundred-sixty-nine: how i edit photos: a duck on one side, and a mug of tea on the other. this is the way to get it done. yes, feeling like a modern beatrix potter...

Wednesday: photo one-hundred-seventy: her "pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease give me just a lil piece of your apple" face. because apples are her favorite and she reminds me of this every time she sees me eating one.

-rebecca 

week twenty-three: rainy days, silver nights, and shadowed skies...

I've had an interesting time coming up with new things to take photos of this past week. on average i'd say about 90% of the photos i share from my 365 project are those taken in my home. this is purposeful as the large goal of this project (for me) is to capture the beauty in my most ordinary days - the little bits and pieces and odds and ends that make up my life. the pieces of life that i need to stop and appreciate more like the pretty shadows hovering over my teacup or the golden light painted across my walls. keeping my photo shoot location largely in my home forces me to explore deeper beneath the layers of the ordinary. and it is doing just that. just when i feel like i've taken a photo of every aspect of my everyday life in my everyday home i have to venture upon something new. 
this past week my attempt to capture new in the old resulted in a few nature shots (taken from my home) and several shots framing rain (had many a rainy day this past week). these are not my regular photo subjects, but i'm glad i experimented, and that all my photos unintentionally came out with a common theme! 

another common theme in this week's photos (again: entirely unintentional!)... they all seem to have a dark coloring... lots of blues and blacks and whites. 

please enjoy this week's 365! 

Thursday: photo one-hundred-fifty-seven: 
something i've had to get used to: with chickens comes extra responsibility. every evening they must be checked on for food and water and to ensure they are safely locked into their coop. i enjoy scoping out the evening sky each evening as this task is completed. this evening there was a darkly luminous storm rolling in... thunder cracking in the distance... evening coming to a shadow sooner than usual. the evening ended in a cozy downpour of rain, with me safely, happily inside. love my stormy evenings. 

the layers of clouds... 

Friday: photo one-hundred-fifty-eight: more rain. watching the raindrops roll down the window silently. and who doesn't have at least one memory as a child of silently cheering on their favorite raindrop to the finish line? 

Saturday: photo one-hundred-fity-nine: texas weather and the sun is back out. miss mo sits in her newest favorite cat-nap cubby.

Sunday: photo one-hundred-sixty: oh forget the sun. the rain came down, down, down, and came down some more. and it came down so hard it made for some of my favorite photos i've taken in a while. 

Monday: photo one-hundred-sixty-one: light shinning through a single window. and darkness. lots of darkness. to me it could represent that even when there is an overabundance of darkness in our lives there is still goodness and beauty in this time if we just look around for it. there is always hope and there's always light and there's always God even in the darkest night. there is always light. 

Tuesday: photo one-hundred-sixty-two: the night comes and the sky is painted in silver... 

the end. 
-rebecca 

twentytwo.

Hi friends! I'm keeping this week's 365 captions short and sweet - in short: the internet connection at my home isn't working correctly so I'm having to do this post in quite a crunch. 

Tuesday: photo one-hundred-forty-eight: 

roar. good morning, new day. 

Wednesday: photo one-hundred-forty-nine: 

light and shadows, and just the everyday.

Thursday: photo one-hundred-fifty: 

made more homemade gummies this past week. raspberry flavor. yum-yum. nom-nom. 

Friday: photo one-hundred-fifty-one: at night. my vintage-eqsue radio.

Saturday: photo one-hundred-fifty-two: blueberries in light. 

Sunday: photo one-hundred-fifty-three: at night... light coming from under door. 

 Monday: photo one-hundred-fifty-four: saying hello to new blooms... as old blooms fade away. 

bright hues so full of life and summertime. 

dew on leaves. 

Tuesday: photo one-hundred-fifty-five: prisms on the door with the evening light. love. 

Wednesday: photo one-hundred-fifty-six: i'm in love with seeing this bitty bird's nest outside the front windows of my home... so much pretty! so  fascinating. 

the end. 

rebecca