Day #23 "Life is Sweet"
This post would have been much better for me at the beginning of the month. When we made cookies. Adorable cookies, adorned by sweet 5 year old hands. Made and decorated with love. But I have a sweet tooth and 2 kids, so those cookies didn't stand a chance of lasting until day 23. Lucky for me Zachary went to the store with me and begged me to bake these. The thing about baking with a 5 year old, it doesn't matter if you bake them from scratch or cheat and bake them from a package...it's always a good time, and the excitement when they are pulled out of the oven is priceless.
Day #24 " Enchantment
This photo took me forever to decide what to do. The direction was to "Muse on all the ways you can visually translate some sense of awe and wonder during this time of magic. Allow yourself to get swept off of your feet and look at the world around you with the eyes of a child." This could really be almost anything! I feel like I constantly experience the childlike wonder of the season through my kids, everyday they find something else to be excited about and everyday I see something new and different through their eyes. It was really hard to decide which direction to take this. And then on Christmas day, Alexis made the decision for me. We were at Noel's dad house for Christmas and she was in absolute awe over these nutcrackers. There were nutcrackers all over the house, and she pointed out and examined each and every one of them, but she particularly fancied these. It was the way she looked at them, and moved them around, and studied them; I knew she was enchanted.
Day #24 "This magic moment"
Another one that was almost impossible. Sounds easy enough, right? I mean how hard can it be to get a great shot on Christmas morning with two little ones. Or on Christmas day with 4 more children around sharing in the magic? The answer: hard. The kids are almost TOO excited. I couldn't capture anything!This prompt actually ended up being the last one I completed. I finally opened my mind and thought about choosing a day other than Christmas day. After all, there are plenty of magic moments this season, right? Ultimately, I ended up choosing this photo:
Ok, and I may have edited it a bit. So technically I cheated a little...but I really wanted to showcase his little face and his quirky little smile. This was taken the night of his winter preschool concert. He was so excited for this concert. He talked about it for weeks. He took pride in his outfit, pride in his singing, and pride in standing up with his class. Even when some of the kids got antsy (it was a long concert if you're 5) and started misbehaving, he stood tall and sang his little heart out. I could not have been prouder. This was my magic moment.
Day #26 "The Day After"
This day was busy (and messy!), we drove home from Centralia, unpacked and put away all our toys, and took down all of the decorations. I'm not much for letting the Christmas decor linger. It's been up for a month by the time the big day rolls around and I'm ready for it to go as soon as the day is over. This tree isn't even my tree - it's my mother-in-laws - but I took it because it symbolizes the day after for me. The day after is all about taking down the decorations and storing them away for another year. (Not to mention, she had a really pretty tree this year.)
Day #27 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
Today we were encouraged to get outdoors and shoot one of Mother Nature's gifts. I took this picture of a tree we have in our backyard. This poor little tree took quite a beating a couple of years ago during a bad snow storm, but it still keeps on growing. It has beautiful little leaves, and even in the cold winter it seems to show new growth and livelihood. It's a good little tree.
Day #28: "Through the Looking Glass"
Ok, so this is another day where I may or may not have cheated. The instructions today were to "find something, anything, that changes the way things look today. Shoot through your water glass, a window or even through something that's not quite as clear as you'd like it to be. Just see what happens." I actually took this picture a few years ago and I've always loved it. But I've never really had a use for it. Thank you Picture the Holiday's. I now have this photo's purpose. I took this 2 years ago when we had a big snow storm. Zach and Noel were outside throwing snowballs at me in the window. (Yeah, I was the smart one staying inside making the hot chocolate.) This photo was a total accident. I was trying to take a photo of Zach, but the camera focused on the snow drip on the window instead of him, and I immediately loved it. Hope you enjoy it too.
Day #29 "A Toast!"
Well, duh. It's no secret that I like my wine. Today was just a matter of figuring out a creative way to capture it. The prompt today said "raise a glass (of whatever your magic elixir might be), sing a song, give yourself a hug, anything to celebrate you and where you've been." Although the photo doesn't really demonstrate all of the above, when I took it I was thinking about what a tough year 2011 has been. I've had some friends and family go through some tough times, and honestly I was thinking that I really hope that 2012 brings much health and happiness to those that I love.
I tried to get creative as well, and I love the way that the photo is in black and white, with the exception of the wine itself. (Thank you Big Lens.)
Day #30 "Now, there is no looking back!"
This is another one that didn't come to me until the day after the prompt. The challenge of this day was to visually translate the idea of moving forward. Although I didn't quite do that, I really liked this image. I loved the way Zachary was looking over his shoulder. It was like he was saying "see you later...I'm off to bigger and better." Which is what I felt about this past year, and this photo summed it up.
Day #31: "Gather Your Thoughts"
Finally, the final day. Although it was a lot of work and stretched my creative brain, I will really miss these daily prompts. I'll admit, they were the first thing I looked for in my email each morning. I definitely look forward to doing something like this again, and I'm glad I decided to blog each day (err...about each day), I think that it it something I'll be really proud to look back on.
The final prompt actually encouraged us to photograph images that we had captured over the last month to remind us of what we had created. To take a photo of a photo or of photographs. While I like this idea, I thought I had a better one.
The image I chose was taken on New Year's Eve at my parents house. My entire family was together to celebrate the season and to spend some time with my sister and her family. (Who were in town from Chicago.) We were outside, it was a gorgeous day, unseasonably nice for this time of year, and I looked up and saw a beautiful image of the sky and this tree.
It really summed up how I was feeling at the moment. I was happy to be surrounded by my family, happy that my kids were running around outside, and happy that we were beginning a new year and a fresh new start. Happy New Year everyone. And thank you for coming along with me on this 31 day journey.
