one fine muddy mess.....

my daughter is not afraid to get dirty

and

neither is her boyfriend

they ran in madison's mudrun on saturday 

along with over one thousand other runners.

she was having a blast with the water hose

some of the runners

{taking halloween seriously} 

came dressed up in amazing outfits

this was the farmer, his wife and their chickens

he finished before she did

and then came back 

and ran up the hill to the finish line with her 

isn't that sweet

this is the boyfriend 

flying through the mud pit at lightning speed. 

i'm not sure how i even got his photo. 

and yes, technically this photo should be up at the beginning with my daughter's mud photo, 

but blogger is being a bit grouchy this morning.

~

oh and in case you're a runner and are into statistics

she was 23rd out of 257 runners in the 20-29 female age group

47th out of 625 in the all female category

and

overall

she placed 171 out of 1063 runners

~

he was 16th out of 174 runners in the 20-29 male age group

27th out of 492 in the all male category

and

overall

he placed 34 out of 1063 runners

~

i think that's right.

she told me lots of numbers over the phone and i scribbled them all over an index card

and wrote them with a bold sharpie. so at least i know i'm close if not exact.

hey, i'm not perfect.

*

and it continues....

the writer's block i spoke of in my previous post 

continues to hang on like a acrobatic performer in the circus

whose ropes have become all tangled

and

unfortunately as she holds on waiting for help

the floor people have started to clean up and have removed the trampoline below her

~

this is an instagram photo of a picture that hangs in my office

that i put on facebook this morning with the caption of

"in case you were wondering what to do today"

~

so 

what will you do today to prove you exist

~

i think i'm going to have a date with my camera. 

i can tell that lately, she feels a bit neglected and that's just not right.

*

the happiest of weekends to all of you and your families

of cinder block proportions....

i have writer's block. 

not like those cute little building blocks that toddlers play with, writer's block. 

no. that'd be too easy. 

instead my writer's block lives in the gravel yard with cinder blocks and bricks and huge natural stones that men wearing tight jeans and driving bobcats fill your backyard with as they do your landscaping.

~

what. men in tight jeans.

is it just me or does everyone get as distracted as i do when they start writing.

let's see. i'll try a different angle.

like how "my cup runneth over" from all the well wishes and wonderful thoughts that you're still sending my way from my surgery last week and how this photo above looks like a cup of sorts. 

use your imagine. a cup that mother nature made. in her first pottery class.

these photos are all sooc and that makes me really happy.

but now that i think about it, i don't think i ever told you that i got my new camera and i love it. 

instead of changing completely and going the nikon route, which is where i was headed, 

i stayed with pentax and bought the k-5. 

there's a great little site i use when comparing cameras. it's called snapsort and in the upper lefthand corner, click on "compare" and put in the cameras you're thinking about. it's quite addictive and has some really good information. 

just yesterday i ran across an amazing blog and his photos were out of this world. well he uses a nikon D3X which i hadn't even heard of. so i went over to snapsort and compared my camera with his. 

mine won. 

and his camera is 7000 dollars more expensive then mine. i'm not kidding. 7000 dollars more. who would spend 8000 dollars on a camera anyhow. and once again, it just goes to show you that's it not about the equipment. it's really all about your creative and artistic eye.

to keep the camera jargon going....i've been playing around with my very old 70-200 lens and i'm kind of falling in love with it. all of these photos were taken with it and what i think i really want is a 85mm 1.4 lens. so i'm trying to keep my 70-200 at 85 as i shoot. just to practice. but the big difference is that my 70-200 is a 4.7/5.6 so it's not really comparing apple to apples. but i do think it's totally eating up all the love i've been giving it. 

oh and one more thing regarding photography. the yellow leaf above was being bathed in sunlight as i approached it and with my first shot, it was completely washed out. 

so i lowered my iso and UNDEREXPOSED it on purpose and wha-la. 

a beautiful yellow leaf with a dark background and an sooc photo.

overexposing and underexposing my photos is something i do all the time. if you don't do this. try it.

too many times, i find that iso, aperture, shutter speed and anything else you want to throw into the mix just isn't the answer. but exposure is.

*

at a loss for words...

but

feel free to add some for me

~

i know most of you are witty enough to add captions to at least one of these photos

a few weeks ago i was at the zoo and throughout the area of the park i was in, you could hear this low

moaning noise. it was similar to the sound that bears make, so i didn't really pay much attention to it.

after all, i was at the zoo. 

but all of a sudden, people started gathering around the tortoises. of course, with me being the curious thing i am, i had to walk over and see what was happening.

this is what was happening.

~

i'm guessing by spring we'll have baby tortoises. just a guess.

*

thank you everyone, for the amazing well wishes and prayers and good thoughts and happy ju ju you sent my way. it worked. i'm actually feeling pretty darn good.

to say you're all the best is an understatement. you're more then the best

and

i can't thank you enough for "being there" for me

*

e.t. phone home....

before my surgery yesterday,

i walked around the house and my art studio

and

played with my phone. well actually, the camera on my phone.

here are just a few of my instagram and hipstamatic photos.

~

i'm new to the whole iphone love affair

so if you have any apps that you think are full out "you can't live without" must haves

i'd love to hear about them

{especially the camera apps}

~

thank you everyone for the well wishes regarding my surgery. 

happy weekend 

{this is a pre-posted post}

*

tomorrow....

lately i've been unorganized and unsettled.

the piles of papers that live on our kitchen island and on my desk, aren't of tower like proportions any longer and the house, to the untrained eye, appears to look clean and comfortably lived in.

but inside. inside of me. now that's a different story.

it's because of tomorrow.

tomorrow i have surgery.

i could share the details. and someday i'm sure i will. but for now i'll just keep it at that.

~

i've known for a week now that tomorrow will be "the day" and as hard as i've tried to stop thinking about it, it's always first in line, waving it's sticky little hand at me, yelling "pick me pick me" when i turn my thoughts on.

i'm blessed to have a husband who will be my nurse as i recover. 

his bedside manner is impeccable, but if my pain pills make me vomit, i know he'll go running, 

as that's about the only thing i've ever seen him run away from. 

well,  there is the occasional spider that doesn't get squished on the first attempt and falls near him that can really make him move quickly...but still, vomit or the sound of someone vomiting can literally make the man run. 

other then that, i know he'll be at my side constantly, doing everything humanly possible to take care of me, since that's just the kind of guy he is.

so it will probably be quiet around here for a few days or maybe even a week. i hope to feel well enough in a few days to at least stalk all of you, but comments probably won't get written and my own blog posts will be slim to none. 

unless of course, my pain pills surrender me helpless in la la land and the hubby wickedly decides to take control of my blog posts and writes something in my place, to get back at me for letting everyone know about his vomit phobia. it could happen. 

i just hope he doesn't tell you why, no matter how hot i am, 

that i have to have a bed sheet over me when i sleep.

~

oh heck. i'll tell you. it's because of the ghosts.

*

james dean....

when i was in chicago a few weeks ago, i talked to some strangers outside our coffee shop.

 it's just what i do. all the time. no matter where i am. 

anyhow, they let me take their photos. they always do. they always say yes.

this guy was a james dean wannabe. 

i think he pulls it off quite well.

you can see that i couldn't stop playing with his photo. 

i wanted it to look old. aged. vintage.

anything from the past. days gone by. 

this is the original photo. 

i found his freckles and blemishes to be distracting, so i got rid of those immediately 

and then softened his face just a bit.

i had to age her photo too (obviously i was in a true vintage mood) 

and no matter what i did, her eyes that kept grabbing me. in a good way.

here's her original photo. i love that she's so midwest.

~

anyhow. in case you wondered what i did for an hour last night, while we debated on what to eat for dinner. well this my friends is it. i know. control yourselves over how exciting my life is.

*

it's here....

my new iphone arrived today

and

it's really pretty

but

figuring out everything it can do might take me a few weeks days

~

see you next week sometime

*

i can't get enough....

there's an apple orchard just down the road from us. 

you can pick all the apples you want or you can just stop by to people watch and eat a cider brat and take home a dozen of their cider cinnamon and sugar doughnuts.

apple trees are little and easy to climb

 the orchard also has pumpkins

darn you fall. do you really have to leave. we've had such a great time with you.

*

i promise....

if your front yard ever looks like this

i will show up

~

some people love bowling or nascar races

some people love square dancing or rock climbing

personally

i love rummaging

~

i didn't buy a thing at this sale

and

regret just a tiny bit

not coming home with those pink and burgundy theatre chairs

~

i didn't have room for them. and they weighed a ton. but aren't they cool.

and that brown couch with its amazing feet. 

can you imagine that reupholstered anthropolgie like. swoon.

~

someday i imagine myself with a shop filled with finds like this. where the really cool things have all been prettied up by my hubby who has a workroom in the back. and in the window is a sleeping cat who takes care of the mice that sneak in, since we're in a really old building where all the walls are exposed brick. and during the winter, we have a sign that says we're open when we feel like it, because somedays wrapped up in a old quilt watching movies is better then working.

*