Hot - Photo Challenge

88º on the driveway.  Hot enough to melt an ice cube in a couple of minutes.

July 31 - Self-Portrait

This has been an interesting endeavor.  I have enjoyed thinking about the prompts and planning out my photos for the past month.  Thanks to those of you who join me here for seeing me through this and special thanks to those of you who commented. 

There is an August group and the prompts are listed here.  You might have to be a Flickr member, but there is no fee involved in that.  I am not going to participate this time as it will be a busy month at work and with our vacation during this time, I didn't want to commit to anything personally.  There is no formal commitment to participate in these things, and I think that I even learned that you really don't have to post a picture that you have taken that day as I thought.  I might do some of them, but I won't post here, I'll have them in my Flickr account.

I'd love to follow along with anyone if you decide to participate in August.  So let me know if you do.

July 30 - Friends

July 29 - What You Did Today

I went through this pile of driftwood pieces that we have collected......................

Picked some choice pieces out...........................................................

Got a piece of scrapbook paper.......................................................

And made this to hang on the wall.

I also took lots of picture of birds this morning which I'll share later and I finished up a little paper project which will be shared later also.

Hopefully we'll get some real fishing in tonight.  I hear that the snapper blues are biting.

July 28 - Can't Get Enough Of

Perhaps it would be better worded - Don't Have Enough of...... and that would be TIME to do the things I want to do. 

I know there are times when I put aside the things that I should be doing to do something that would be more enjoyable, but I find that I keep thinking of things to do and collecting things to use to do them and I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever have time to do most of these things before I get buried alive. 

When my sister died several years ago and we were going through her things we found tons of craft supplies including many needlepoint and cross stitch kits.  She had stained glass and beads and all sorts of stuff.  (She hadn't gotten into rubber stamping, otherwise I'm sure there would have been a boat load of those supplies too!)  I remember saying at that time that there weren't enough hours in the day to complete those kits, let alone use up those supplies.  We wound up donating most of it. 

But it's not just the amount of supplies or abundance of ideas, it's also the lack of energy.  I yearn to be my creative self, but after completing the tasks of the day that have to be done I am sometimes wiped out to the point of needing to go to sleep.  I used to be more of a night person, much to HWNSNBP's dismay, but not so much any more.  I had balance there for a while and now I seem to have lost it - in more ways than one.

Anyway, enough whining.  I am going to finish this photo challenge for the month but I need to refresh a bit and get myself a little more organized so I can be my creative self again.  

July 27 - A Corner of Your Home

There are certain times of the day when I look around and really like the way that something looks.  The light has to be just right - enough to illuminate, but not too much or too little.  Unfortunately, this time is usually in the middle of the day on the weekend.  And since it wasn't a weekend and I wasn't home in the middle of the day the light wasn't just right for this picture, but looking around there wasn't another corner that was any better. 

This is in the living room which is at the front of the house.  The sconce was a project from a painting class I took years ago.  The desk is an old wooden one that I picked up when the kids were little and they were selling some of the district's outdated school furniture.  It's been waiting to be painted also, but in the interim it has become the place where we've put family pictures - mostly of the chillies and at various ages. 

What's left of the challenge -

July 28 - Can't Get Enough Of

July 29 - What You Did Today

July 30 - Friend(s)

July 31 - Self-Portrait

July 26 - Where You Are at 6:00 p.m.

Where you are at 6:00 p.m. - hmmmm, stop everything and grab the camera - at the kitchen sink.  Lunch containers are done and I'm propped on my elbows eating a fudge pop, gazing out the window and planning the rest of the evening.  Guess I should have dusted that windowsill!

July 24 - Something Red

One of my favorite kitchen tools.  The strawberry corer not only cores the strawberry, but will also let me scoop out any imperfections or soft spots. 

This photo challenge is winding down and I promise I will have more stamping/paper projects to share.  Thanks for bearing with me.

July 23 - Guilty Pleasure

Guilty pleasure - Taking time to do Zentangles and eating peanut m&m's. 

July 22 - The Best Part of Today

At what point do you determine what the best part of the day is or was?  Do you go through the day just taking random pictures of what you are occupied in?  Or are you supposed to decide ahead of time what the best part of the day will be?  This is a conundrum to me.

The best part of today could have been waking up in an air-conditioned room - which I did, but it was not my bed or my room.  I slept in my daughter's old room last night because I couldn't take the heat anymore and that's where the air-conditioner was upstairs. 

I got to sleep late and took my time getting ready to travel and when we were about to get in the car to leave the indoor-outdoor thermometer read 104.9.  Yikes!  Then in the car the temp rose to 105.  Coming through Princeton we were stopped at a light and I looked over and saw this tree with all the vines growing on it and thought it looked interesting and luckily was able to grab my camera and get a few snaps before we moved on. 

Not too much later we were treated to a 26 degree drop in temperature and a light show accompanied by water in the form of rain.  It was kind of thrilling watching the lightning. 

The temperature rose again as we left the storm area.  We stopped at the farm stand and picked up some corn, peaches, and a melon. 

Nothing else outstanding happened today.  So I might consider the car ride as the best part and this is the only picture that I have.

July 21 - Smells Good

The bucket of wintergreen lifesavers I have on my desk at work.  A little treat of aromatherapy for me and a sweet treat for the staff.

July 20 - Today's Mail

......... or what's left of it.

July 19 - Books

School may be out but the books are still in ............ the library.

July 18 - A Mess

This is a fraction of my work table and a fraction of the mess.

July 17 - Transporation

Transportation - my new bike.  Funny, the back tire looks a little distorted but it's just leaning a little towards the kick stand. 

On our ride this morning two large birds crossed the road in front of us.  Some thought they were turkeys, some thought they were peahens, but after some investigation I've determined that they are guinea hens.  My friend Cindy would love these I think as their feathers are polka-dotted! 

Tomorrow's prompt is "a mess" and I'll warn you now - it won't be pretty, and no, it's not a self-portrait!

July 16 - Dinner

Dinner tonight was delicious.  We went to Mud City with friends and this is the "appetizer" that they usually put on the table - a small bucket of oyster crackers.  You can eat them as is, or you can dip them in cocktail sauce.  I actually had stuffed flounder with a baked potato and cole slaw and the picture wasn't all that interesting. 

July 15 - What's on the Coffee Table

Our prompt today was What's on Your Coffee Table.  These two lighthouses are on the coffee table at the condo and they both light up.  It's been a busy day but a gorgeous one.  Until tomorrow.

7-14 What You Wore

Gonna get a haircut after work today and the evening will be a busy one so I'm posting this early.  I'm sure no one wants to see a pile of clothes, especially after a haircut!

July 13 - Beverage

McDonald's caramel frappe.  With lighting courtesy of HWNSNBP I should mention.  Actually, drink and lighting courtesy of HWNSNBP.   I couldn't get a picture without a shadow so he said "wait a minute" and came over with the flashlight and made it a spot! 

This would be one of my favorite cold drinks of the summer.  The other would be a healthier choice.  A strawberry lemonade created by adding 6 large frozen strawberries to a Costco 5-calorie lemonade in the blender. 

July 12 - What Makes You Smile

What made me smile today - freshly polished toenails. 

It was not a particularly good day.  Frustrating work day and then I took a wrong turn coming home from the doctor where I didn't get very good news.  I ran out of checks over the weekend and forgot to put a new batch in the check book so I was lucky to have the $30 co-pay on me for the doctor.   But, that meant no shopping afterwards even if it was only the dollar store where I refuse to use a credit card for a purchase under $10.  So I decided to go home the back way but I didn't know that there was a detour.  For some reason I thought the detour sign would take me out of my way so I turned the opposite direction which brought me out to the main highway again, but I could only turn going the wrong way.  There was a turnaround at the next light and a WAWA on the corner so I decided to stop and pick up something to nibble on on the way home as I hadn't eaten since lunch time.  I found a chocolate covered pretzel rod that only cost 33 cents, but I couldn't get the wrapper off while I was driving.  Finally, I got a little lucky and had to stop at a light so I was able to unwrap the pretzel.  It's been hot and sticky and I needed to finish my Jingle Belles card so I went up to what I'm now referring to as the "Stamp Sauna" and got my card done and then went for a quick dip in the pool.... bringing me back to the toenails.  For whatever reason, they made me smile!