Capture Your 365

Another week, and another week of photos!

13_Jan_faceless portrait_001_edit
13_Jan_faceless portrait_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/4000 sec

Day 30 – Faceless Portrait: I asked Kelsey to be the subject for this photo. We get great light from the west facing windows in the afternoon.

13_Jan_on the thirds_001_edit
13_Jan_on the thirds_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/9.0, 1/800 sec

Day 31 – On The Thirds: I am taking another photography class. Yay! Today, one of the students asked how to set up for a silhouette shot. Rather than photograph my instructor, I moved to another area and captured this shot of the sun through a leafless, winter tree.

13_Feb_shadow_001_edit
13_Feb_shadow_001_edit

ISO 800, 50mm, f/1.8, 0.5 sec

Day 33 – Shadow: I set this shot up in my hallway with the afternoon light coming through the windows. This is a bouquet of flowers my husband brought home one day, just because :)

13_Feb_pop of red_001_edit
13_Feb_pop of red_001_edit

ISO 800, 50mm, f/3.2, 1/400 sec

Day 34 – Pop of Red: my backyard beach retreat! I am so glad I picked the red chairs, can’t wait for summer…great place to read and have an iced coffee!

13_Feb_beat_001_edit
13_Feb_beat_001_edit

ISO 400, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/15 sec

Day 35 – Beat: For this picture, I wanted to try to capture some motion of Matthew playing his guitar. Didn’t turn out exactly like I thought it would, but I loved listening to him play this song while I was taking pictures of him.

Are you trying to Capture Your 365? If so, I would love to follow your photo journey!

Valentine Book Garland

Today was the day to take down the winter decorations!

Our poor church family (including my family) has been hit with all kinds of illnesses over the past month or so. Since there are so many sick right now, our weekly afternoon ladies Bible study was cancelled for today, so I knew I would have some extra time to work on a craft after Kelsey was working independently on her school work.

So I checked my Pinterest craft board to find a Valentine craft and was disappointed when the link was not working. The project didn’t look too difficult, so I pulled out some supplies and got to work.

13_Feb_Valentine book garland_001_edit

Supplies: a used book, heart template, pencil, scissors, and thread

Start by tracing the heart template onto some of the book pages. The number of hearts you will need depends on how many you want on your garland.

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Take your heart book pages to your sewing machine. You will be sewing down the middle of two hearts at a time. Leave a good length of thread at the top of the first set of hearts. When you are finished sewing through the first set of hearts, do not cut the thread! Pull the thread out some, then begin sewing down the next set of hearts. I decided that 4 sets of hearts would work for my windows. Once you sew the last set of hearts, pull the thread a few inches from the machine, then cut the threads.

13_Feb_Valentine book garland_003_edit

Take the garland to a table, now fold the heart pages away from each other to create a 3D effect. I did tie a knot in the thread at the top and the bottom to keep the thread from unraveling later.

13_Feb_Valentine book garland_004_edit

I tied a loop in the top of the thread and hung each length of hearts from a hook on a tension rod inside the window frame (which is covered by a valance).

Do you decorate your home for Valentine’s month?

Compassion Blogging

Are you a Compassion sponsor?

Do you have a blog?

If you answered ‘yes’ to both of those questions, you should join the Compassion Bloggers!

I Blog for Compassion widget

By using your blog, you can help to make an eternal difference for the lives of children living in extreme poverty. There are many people who have joined the Compassion Bloggers network. And you can be one of them too!

Every so often, there will be assignments sent to us to share with others on our blogs. It might be sharing about the latest Compassion Blogger trip or encouraging your readers to sponsor a child. It might be writing a letter from a sponsored child’s perspective or sharing about a current need for a particular child. Whatever the assignment is, every little bit helps to share the vision of Compassion with your readers and help to release more children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Since I am not sure when I will have the opportunity to visit our Compassion kids, I love reading the stories of other bloggers who have had the chance to visit their sponsored kids. When these bloggers are on these trips, we are able to ‘visit’ along with them as they share so many things they experience while on their trips.

As a Compassion Blogger, you can also display special widgets on your blog to let others know you are a blogger for Compassion.

Ready to join the network? I hope you decide to join today!

Field Trip! – Monterey Bay Aquarium

Want to know a secret?

I have never paid admission to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

How do you do that you ask?

We have always gone on a Home School Day!

Now I know the Home School Days are full for this year, they usually open up reservations for their Home School Days in October. Be sure to just check back on their web site in the fall and plan your day out my the ocean!

For a while, we had been so many times that I think my kids could give a guided tour of the aquarium to just about anyone. But how can you blame me? Admission for our family of four would have cost almost $140, just for one day!

Anyway, we took a break from the aquarium for a couple of years, but I wanted to make sure that we included a trip this year since Kelsey is studying swimming creatures from the fifth day of creation.

I ended up taking over 100 pictures, but narrowed it down to just over 20 that I really liked. Here are a few of my favorites to share with you:

13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_004_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_004_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_005_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_005_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_007_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_007_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_015_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_015_edit
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13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_016_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_017_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_017_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_018_edit
13_Jan_Monterey Bay Aquarium_018_edit

Where do you like to go for field trips with your family?