I’ll confess… when it came to this week’s challenge, I allowed myself to get a little… well… cocky. I mean ‘colourful’? Have you met me? Have you seen my fanatical rainbow collecting? Have you seen me drawn to colourful yarn quicker than a poor deluded moth heading straight for that flame every time? Surely this week would be my week, I would have an AWESOME colourful photo.

*sigh*

What’s that they say about pride coming before that fall? (well, no, the fall was last week)

Between reports scrambled together at the last minute (and on that, what’s with reports anyway? For six years you make me write essay after essay, and now you want reports), weddings, and that stinking heat… stepping out the door into the sun, let along hauling my camera around was the last thing I wanted to do.

The universe was getting back at me for my incorrigible cockiness. I have seen the error of my ways.

ANYWAYS! Colourful. I did finally settle on an image…

This is my sister Bethany… quite possibly the most colourful person I know. I asked her to stand still so I could take a photo of her dressed all nice for the wedding (somewhat of a rarity), and naturally she had to finish her drink first… she’s a character, that’s for sure.

(oh, and see how brightly her face is lit? This is AFTER I played with it in Photoshop – should give you some idea as to just how hot the day was. When shutterboo mentioned the Aussie’s still having some summer colour… well… we all came home from the wedding far redder than we had been that morning.)

Photos that didn’t quite make it…

(again, such a bright day, everything in that garden was so bright and shiny, all the colours really popped)

When it comes to my own balance, I know all too well that I have no control. Though I do feel that the universe took the opportunity to take this week’s randomly selected topic to make fun of me.

Why? Well this is me right now…

Yup. Holed up in bed, too scared to move because an inches movement in either direction leaves me wanting to hack my own foot off because surely that would hurt less.

I feel on some uneven ground and, after 6+ hours (sigh) in the emergency room, was sent home with little more than a ‘there there you’ll be fine’ (well they did say “soft ligament damage”). Now let’s be clear, I don’t truly mind the platitude, but I do mind the four hours between the x-ray and the dismissal. Oh well, I sprain my ankle at least once a year (the result of a pretty major sprain when I was five), so I hobble pretty well.

So that leaves me here at home with a nice ice pack, and an even nicer bought of sympathy (a rare commodity in our medically fraught household). Luckily for me, it also presented a nice opportunity for this weeks challenge photo, and so I present you with…

Week 3: (lack of) Control

Last year I was a participant in the shutterboo weekly challenge… though a somewhat intermittent one. I’m the first to admit that I let a lot of things slide last year, but as the year progressed I feel that I managed to sort work, school, and everything else into some sort of workable schedule and so it is with renewed enthusiasm that I joined the 2011 challengers.

We’ve had two weeks so far.

Week 1: Electricity

Week 2: Joy

It’s nice to be back in the challenge mode, but especially nice since PaganX is playing along with me.

I wouldn’t consider myself much of a shopper – in fact, there is little I hate more than going shopping (unless it’s book or craft shopping, that’s not shopping). I’m very much a ‘do my research at home and go in and get exactly what I decided on’ kind of shopper – or better yet I shop online. As such, bargains are rarely a surprise.

But even I have to share this bargainy shopping day.

I went into Spotlight to pick up some linen for my next cross stich (come on end of backstitching!) and walked right into their end of season yarn sale. Oops? I’m innocent I swear!

Anyways, I managed to find the linen I needed (first time buying linen, I had no idea) and at $61.94 a metre I was more than a little concerned about getting the right kind so I asked everyone who would listen to me. Thankfully, the amount I needed came to about $25.

Then I had to grab a few balls of basic acrylic yarn for some phone covers I wanted to make (photos to follow) so that came to $8.70.

I picked up a new knitting bag as the green enviro bag I’ve been toting mine in is getting a little ragged… $30. (by the way, if I get to the end of this post and write “the cost of crafting… priceless”, I can’t be held responsible).

Oh! and then they had the Moda Vera sock yarn on display (normally $11/ball) and, well, a few fell into my bag.

So, for those playing along at home (how much do I want to host my own game show right now?

Linen $25

Bag    $30

Acrylic wool $8.70

Sock yarn $120 (*gulp*)

That comes to a whopping $183.70 – enough to get be rebanned from Spotlight for life. Ah! Until you take into consideration that the bag was half price… and the $11 sock wool? marked down to… $2. Oh, and I had Christmas vouchers… so my bag of goodies came to a total of $19.70.

Yes… I think that’s a pretty good bargain, don’t you?

I’m a fairly avid blog reader. I wish I were a fairly avid commenter also, but I’m working on it.

One of things I’ve discovered from being a blog reader is that I find their contents to be highly influential on myself and my strange habits. For example: It was Lisa’s fault that I posted my reading stats for 2010 in graph form, it is Attic24’s fault that my friends and I are all making this blanket. And it is One Crafty Mumma’s fault that I discovered geocaching.

Now, I must fairly say that I use the word ‘fault’ only so as to deflect attention away from my own insanity and obsessiveness. But still, it was OCM who mentioned the term ‘geocache’ in her post – freely and without warning. What was a poor Google dependant internet junkie to do? Of course I googled it, of course I sat in awe, and of course I headed out that day to find my first cache (a mere 0.66km from my house, might I add – I could have walked there).

As soon as I uncovered my first find I knew I was a goner. Of course, coming home to log in and finding that it had been hidden by a friend whom I had known for many years and have often been a witness to some of his zanier schemes, I knew that a) If Daniel was involved, there was no way this wouldn’t be awesome; and b) he was in huge trouble for not letting me in on this earlier.

I went out again the next day, and upon signing the log book discovered that not one, but TWO of my long time friends had discovered the secret of geocaching! Not that I was surprised. It involves all the treasure-hunting of piracy combined with the technological geekiness of GPS coordinates. This was them down to a tee. And after a sternly worded email involving the denying them cookie rights, we started planning an upcoming joint cache hunt.

In the meantime, however I quickly discovered that using my iphone as a GPS left me with two major flaws in my plans to becoming Geocacher Extraordinaire – namely that it ate my battery and left me in the middle of nowhere without a working phone. Cue second trip to Anaconda in as many days (so happy to have a legitimate excuse to shop here).

This is why I am all set out ready to go on another cache hunt, but this time with a new companion. My new, yet-to-be-named (yes, I name everything) handheld GPS. I chose the eTrex H – partly cause it was shiny and yellow, and partly cause… well… the store was having a sale and it was nice and cheap.

Once upon a time*, I bought a pair of shoes. They were not the flashiest of shoes (though they definitely bright), nor the most expensive (if memory serves I paid $7 for them). They were not the most fashionable shoes, and god know they weren’t the most subtle. But they were my shoes and I loved them.

I wore these shoes near every day - at home (“oh Bec, they’re dorky even for you”), and at work (“We’ve got a sub.” “Which one?” “The one with the crazy shoes”). They were my go-to shoes. Need to run to the shops? I got them. Going to Melbourne to meet your favourite actor? I got ‘em!** Need to go to a wedding? I... got em? Yeah I did... Like I said, I wore then nearly every day. Which meant they went on nearly every one of my 365 photo travels. They were even photographed themselves.

They got dampened in innumerable rivers, meandered through orchards, gleefully skipped through the zoo, and jumped the fence to, uh, soon-to-be-demolished houses. They came with me to buy my first DSLR, on my first trip to a skate park, and my first after-hours school function. They carried me through several trips to Sydney, to learn piano, and see Shakespeare in the Park.

I’ll admit, I became complacent in our relationship. As the shoes moulded to my feet, I flagrantly ignored the splitting of their sides. I refused to see the tearing away of their fabrics. I chose to ignore the feel of pebbled sidewalks under my theoretically not bare feet. When puddles emerged I avoided them – not because it was what my mother taught me, but because I knew it would force me to acknowledge the simple truth that my shoes let in more water than a boat made of swiss cheese.

But then it happened.

I made one step too far. One step too heavy on an already unstable surface. It was a choice poorly made, a choose that could not be undone. I stepped... in the mud.

(photo by an unnecessarily cheerful Bethany)

Was this it? Did this mark the end of my shoe’s longevity? Was this to be their unremarkable fate? To die in service of my photographic roving, sure, but to die like this? Immersed in mud and murky water? Surely they could saved?

But, alas, they could not. Despite a methodical rinse in a car park puddle, followed by a frantic exposure to our front yard hose (knowing full well my mother’s keen eyes would not allow them to cross the threshold), the brightness of their canvas could not be restored.

I knew in my heart they were gone. It was a hard weight to carry, but worse yet was the knowledge that they must one day be replaced. A time would have to come when a new pair of shoes would rise to the station of ‘every day shoes’. It would be they that would accompany me on adventures both big and small, mundane and unique, sunny and hopefully not muddy.

Hoping that a hastening in this inevitable day would lessen the pain of my heart, I stalwartly moved forward to collect these new shoes. And it is this new shoes that I give up for offering to you today.

They are not as noble nor as experienced as their predecessor, but they are youthful and enthusiastic. It is my hope that these traits will prevail in the forthcoming days.

RIP Rainbow Shoes.

You will be missed.

*26th September, 2009 if you must know

** Okay, I’m not over this yet, I’ll link to this whenever I can.

Last year I completed a 365 Photo Project. I absolutely loved it. And I absolutely hated it. I was frustrated when things didn’t go to plan, and I cried when my camera ate photos. I fell down hills, and I fell in love with locations. I sweated, I bled, I laughed, and I learned. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a more worthwhile experience.

I took my last photo on September 20, 2010 and then promptly sighed a sigh of melancholy relief. I was done. Never again would I trudge up a hill for a view. Never again would I take a mad dash photo at 11.50 at night. And never again would I have to take a photo of tissues from my sick bed. I was done!

Photo #365

And I could not miss it more! It was hard to get into the swing of taking a photo every single day – but let me tell you, it was much harder to get back into the habit of NOT taking one. Which is why, when the new year started, so did my project. I’m somewhat insane, I know, but it makes me happy, so I’m jumping back in. Lucky for me, I’ve managed to sucker my friend Brett into playing along with me (he starts tomorrow), so let’s all wish him luck!

Normally I love a good bout of rain – we live in a drought, any rain is good! I love the sound. I love the smell. I love listening to a storm. I even like going for a bit of a walk in the rain.

Having said that, I do not like it when it rains at this time of the year. It’s hot and muggy, the water feels sticky and everything seems damp and musty.

Last week, however, we had a pretty impressive storm that made all the negatives bearable. The thunder was booming and the lightning truly cracked. And best of all? The sky was orange. Really really orange. Jump up and run outside in your pyjamas to take a photo orange.

I had always intended this blog to be my main, general blog – with heavy leanings towards craft and photography. Unfortunately, owing mostly to my own bad habits, this has not been the case. I like to have some photos to go along with my posts … but I’m rather slow on the processing front.

Because of this, I have two main blogging goals for 2011, with the second being heavily dependant on the first.

1. Be far more diligent in my photo editing and thereby avoiding the backlog. I’m intending to edit at least twice a week. Tuesdays and Fridays for those in a position to give me a nudge.
2. Blog more. Pretty simple.

Let’s see how I go!

January

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