Practicing Camera Settings

Last week I asked Katie if I could borrow her camera since she does not use it much.  I wanted to figure out how to use something besides the point and shoot that I have.  Since the Christmas tree is up I started experimenting with ornaments.  I want to figure out how to blur the background but keep the image in front very sharp.......

I'm getting there!  I've taken tons of pictures and need to go back through the camera and delete most of them....The best ones I've used in this post....

I've had this Santa since my kids were little, I just can't let go of him.  He graces the mantel every year!

Riley wasn't much for picture posing but I did get to work on blurring the background.....

I even practiced on myself in the mirror.  Unfortunately I had to keep my glasses on so I could see the icons on the the camera for the different settings.....

Blog Made Into Book Form At Sharedbook.com

Today I received my blog book in the mail.  It's a gift to myself.  One I will cherish forever.  When I first started blogging I never thought that I would grow so attached to the whole process.  The process of documenting my life.  Today when I opened the box and held my book it was like I was holding all of 2010 because I had the whole year recorded inside on those pages.  All the good times along with all the very sad times, all the sewing projects I completed and lots of stories of the bichon. 
I made my blog book at http://www.sharedbook.com/.  The process was very simple.  Only 1500 pictures are allowed in one book so the first thing I had to do was delete some of my least favorite post and then delete some pictures in a couple of other post so I could get down to the limit of 1500.  I could of done more than one book for 2010 but I chose to reduce it so I could get it all in one book.  My book ended up having 310 pages in it with the 1500 pictures.  I got to choose the soft or hard cover.  I went with hard cover to be more durable.  I also got to choose the color of the book.  I went with black since the background of my blog is black.  The program automatically uses your first blog picture as the cover photo and the last photo in the book as your back cover.  You do have the option of changing the pictures to your own liking.  I changed the picture for the front of my book, but I chose a picture from my first post.  The picture is of a quilt I made for my great-niece Lyndsey.

Here's another view of the book to show the high quality of it.  I am really impressed with sharedbook.com and will definitely use them again for my 2011 blog book!

Sharedbook.com also creates a Contents page......

Here are a few pages from inside my book to show the exceptional quality.  You can have your comments printed after each post but I chose not to include them.  The pages are crisp white with a glossy finish.  The title of the book is at the bottom of each page next to the page number.

For the picture on the back of the book I chose a cute picture of Riley and let him have the last words.....

I only have one thing that I hope is improved by next year.  The size of the title is too small, so I hope by the time I get to make my next book that there will be an option to change the font size for the front cover.  I'm loving it!

Scroll to the bottom to see who I'm linking to this week!

Gun Concealment Purse

I found the purse I've been wanting for months.  It's a gun concealment purse.  It has a special pocket on the other side designed to hold a hand gun.  For safety reasons, mainly while I travel by myself, I've been on a journey to get my concealed gun permit.  A while back I took my gun safety course with my aunt and recently I got my handgun.  To be legal I needed to get registered with the county sheriff's office and get a new driver's license.  Today I took my cash and my other paperwork and made the trip to see the sheriff.   Just pulling into the parking lot was intimidating.  I've never had a reason to visit the place before, but the sheriff's office was the easy part.  Fill out a form, show proof that you've taken the gun safety course and take care of the money transaction.  After that was done, the clerk told me to walk down to the end of the hall, go through the door, make a right and walk down the sidewalk to the jail to get fingerprinted.

While on that walk I decided that the sheriff's office was not all that intimidating.  Having to go into the jail was going to be the scary part.  The gray concrete building was labeled with four big letters, J,A, I and L.  I had to press a buzzer to get permitted inside.  A burly voice came over the intercom asking my reason for wanting entrance so I stated my name and my purpose.  I could then hear the lock release on the door and I could pull it open.  I went inside to an empty room.  No bullet proof window with another clerk to greet me, just a big open room with a small sterile type table sitting in the middle surrounded by three metal chairs.  I chose the row of chairs against the wall.  I sat there for a good five minutes trying to look around the room and take in everything without the person on the other side of the security camera that was attached to the ceiling laughing at me for my eyes being as big as saucers!

Everything in this room was monochromatic.  Shades of grays surrounded me.  Sitting in my hard gray chair I looked across the room at 5 large metal walk doors with no windows to peer inside.  The first had Enter stenciled on it with black spray paint, the other four doors were labeled Exits 1, 2, 3 and 4.  Another wall had two drinking fountains and two restroom entrances.  The third wall had the door I had just came in through and a vending machine full of colas.  My wall was lined with chairs.  I was starting to feel like I was in an interrogation room and Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson from TNT's The Closer would walk through one of those four exit doors at any moment!   She'd be wearing her pink sweater set, high heels, pencil skirt and carrying her large black tote bag. 

But no, that was not the case, after another ten minutes of waiting and one more person entering the room to wait with me,  I was brought back to reality when a voice came over the static intercom system stating that,  "the person who is here for their CCW can come through the door marked Enter."  I thought maybe they were wanting the other person in the room.  I was there for my Right To Carry permit, I did not know what CCW stood for.  The man who was sitting at the small table in the middle of the room told me politely that was probably my cue to walk through that big solid steel door.  I scrunched my eyebrows at him with one of those looks that screams, huh, what are you talking about?  He said, carrying concealed weapon and I immediately stood up and went over to the door.  I must have been on camera because as soon as I reached that door it buzzed so I could open it!

I thought I would be going into another nicely carpeted room where I would sit down and someone would slide a ink pad across the table and I would press my fingers into it and make some fingerprint marks on a piece of paper, kind of like when you go to the bank and they want your thumbprint!  But no, reality hit me in the face and I was rudely shocked to have just walked into the holding area of the jail.  A high platform counter was on one side with vertical grab bars mounted to it to attach hand cuffed prisoners to.  A sloppily clad woman was standing at this counter yelling through the phone line to her relative or friend that she would not be coming home tonight.  Ahead of me were two more walls containing jail cells.  Each one was tiny having its own large gray steel door and a 3' X 3' window butted up against it.  A few were occupied with men.  One was standing at his window, blankly staring at me while I was following a sheriff to the fingerprinting stand.  In the middle of the room was a sunken pit with some bench type seating in it.  Luckily the pit was empty!

My sheriff was at least 6' 5" and he was big and he was intimidating.  He was nice enough but he talked to me in the same monotone routine way he would a criminal.  His hands looked humongous clad in the purple latex gloves he was wearing.  He had to ask for my driver's license and type in all the information I had given at my first stop (in the more relaxed environment of the sheriff's office).  He then took my four fingers and firmly placed then on the glass of the scanner so all the identifying marks of my prints would show up on his computer screen.  He did fingers, thumbs, palms and even the sides of my hands.  All I could think of was jeez, he's going to make sure he gets a good imprint of every part of my hand that will touch a gun.  After the prints, he told me to go stand against the gray cloth (which was on a gray wall, in an all gray room).  He told me to look at the camera, then turn to my right and stare ahead and then turn to the opposite wall.  Three pictures of me.  Really?  Three pictures of me standing there in my black dress pants, white cami, black and white flowered sweater and my Docker's slip on clogs.  At least I blended in well with the gray "monochomaticism" of the jail I was standing in!

After I signed my name next to my prints I was then free to go.  Free to retreat to the safety of my car where I could dig through my purse and find my hand sanitizer.  Oh, before getting in my car, I had to deliver my fingerprint card back to the sheriff's office.  I just wanted to get back to work, back to my desk, to my little safety nest.  I never thought that exercising my right to bear arms would start off like today.  I felt more like a criminal than a law abiding citizen looking out for the safety of myself. 

One More Reason Why I Love Bichons

Last night Katie captured this moment for me with the camera.  The bichon does this a lot.  I get comfortable on the couch with my laptop and he gets comfortable on my shoulder.  It makes me smile!

Remember When......

I keep a folder in my fire safe of some of my most treasured memories from Aaron and Katie's childhood.  Yesterday I was looking through the folder, looking at pictures, reading letters and notes.  Above is Aaron's first self portrait at the age of four.  He also drew pictures of me and dad on that same day.......

Looking through my folder of treasured memories I also found a self portrait that Katie had drawn at the age of three.......

And I found a coloring paper of Katie's from her Sunday school bible class. I kept this particular picture for what she wrote on the back of the paper.......

The teacher must have asked the children to write on the back  what they are thankful for......

You can click on this picture to make it larger but I will decipher in case you cannot read who she has listed......

Doug, Shaylynn, Susan, Russell, Judy, Steve, Katie, Aaron, Kyle, Sheila, Neil, Adam, Scott, Pat, Buddy, John, Patti, Caleb, Jacob, Uncle Stacy, Aunt Lou Lou, Grandma Henry, Grandpa Henry, Uncle Bill, Aunt Dot, Aunt Lorri, Uncle Mike, Grandma Tolbert, Grandpa Tolbert, Cousin Jeff, Cousin Marina, Uncle Junior, Aunt Frances, Granny, Rod and Lisa.

So sweet, I like the idea of scanning and adding pictures, drawings and notes from my children when they were young to my blog.  I have plastic tubs in the basement for each of them full of their drawings and artwork.  I think I will go through them and add more later this week. 

 It makes me happy !

Big Toe Surgery Sucks

So I went to a foot doctor this morning because my big toe has been bothering me since January. I thought it was just remnants of the annoying Raynaud's flareup I went through during the cold winter. I thought he would just prescribe me an anti-inflammatory type drug or maybe I needed an antibiotic to clear an infection. Oh no, it could not be THAT easy. He had to remove a section of the nail because it was "rounding".

He could not use the freezing spray because he thought my toes would be offended and throw a fit about it! So I grabbed a magazine off the counter, opened it up wide, held it close to my face so I could not see the needle he was going to stick in my toe to numb it. I quit counting after he said he was doing the 5th injection. I was now starting to feel sick to my stomach so I kept that magazine to my face until he was finished with his little minor surgery and he got my toe wrapped up.

My new sandal(s) that I bought the night before while out shopping with Katie would now not go over this big bandage. I asked the nurse if she had any of those thin flip flops like at the nail salons. She said unfortunately not but she could offer me a blue paper "booty" to slip over my naked half numb foot to walk to my car.

So I stopped at the Walgreens to pick up my prescription only to find out that the nurse had not "electronically" sent it to the pharmacist. So I went on home and got my foot propped up. Waited a couple of hours and then made the short trip back to Walgreens.

So what's a girl to do when she's feeling sorry for herself and has to drive by the Dairy Queen to get to the pharmacist? ..................Get a peanut buster parfait of course!
Laying in bed with your foot propped above your head is not as much fun and relaxing as I thought it would be. But the good part of it all - I got my appointment 3 days from the day I called to schedule and I was the only one in the waiting room when I got there. I hear from relatives who work in the hospitals that its a totally different story in the emergency rooms. Guess my podiatrist does not offer free healthcare !

Dreams Do Come True.....

Last week I was dreaming of Valentine cupcakes (click here). This morning, my co-worker, Cynthia fulfilled my dream by surprising me with these yummy cupcakes ! !

White confetti cakes with creamy chocolate icing, red sprinkles and heart confetti's. They were so good and it did not take long for the container above to look like the container below.......

Thanks Cynthia and daughter Santana for sharing your cupcakes !

Show Us Your Life Friday School Pictures

Kelly at Kelly's Korner Blog is having her weekly "Show Us Your Life Friday". Today's topic is School Pictures. This is my kindergarten picture. The year is 1966. Mom always cut my bangs really short !

This is first grade (1967), not liking this haircut so much:

Second grade (1968), not liking this haircut either:

Fourth grade (1970), check out the collar on this dress. Plastic headbands were popular!

Sixth grade picture (1972):

Ninth grade picture (1975). I smiled with my mouth closed until my senior picture. Mom and dad paid tons of money to get porcelain veneers put on my front teeth between 11th and 12th grades. I was very self conscious of my smile.

Tenth grade (1976):

Eleventh grade (1977):

And senior picture (1978) with new teeth!