Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

L is for Light Pink

This is one of my favorite pics so far. I almost didn’t submit a photo for this day (we’re allowed 4 days off over the course of 30 days) but late at night I decided to take a few pictures. Our teacher had taken a gorgeous image of some flowers looking down into the vase, and I loved the perspective so I thought I’d try something similar. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any fresh flowers on hand, so I used some of the fake flowers that I got Jenna for Christmas.

M is for Maroon

I took this picture of our crepe myrtle tree outside of our house at sunset and then decided to play around with some different textures, mostly in an effort to try something new. I wasn’t that thrilled with this one, but was surprised by the positive comments from my classmates. Maybe I misjudged this one, or maybe my classmates are trying to encourage me to continue down my path of ‘newness.’

D is for Dark Purple

I worked quite a bit on a totally different image this day and even ended up submitting it despite my hesitation. Later in the afternoon, I stopped at the grocery store where I found an entire cart filled with $1 orchid boutonnieres. I couldn’t scream ‘do-over’ fast enough.

K is for Kelly Green

During our visit to the museum this weekend, we happened upon this great backdrop/chair setting. Jenna was willing to sit in the chair, but was much less willing to be photographed. I snapped this one pic before she turned away from the camera completely.

Q is for Quartz

I tried really hard on this day to do something new. I drove around my neighborhood looking for interesting patterns, views, buildings, etc. I live in a mostly suburban but still somewhat rural area outside of DFW, so ‘interesting’ was no small challenge. I managed to take a few pictures I liked, but then realized I couldn’t match the images to a letter/color combo (which is part of the assignment). So I ended up right back in my comfort zone, shooting a close-up of some beads.

A is for Aqua

We had been discussing the use of masking in class, so I thought I would experiment a bit with a part color/part black and white image. I don’t like the perfect symmetry of this picture and would have like to get a closer shot of the entrance, since I think it frames the background landscape really well, but the barn is fenced off and you can’t get any closer.

Jenna’s room received a mini makeover this weekend. She’s become quite the prolific little artist, and I decided to update the framed art in her room to incorporate some of her (and Jason’s) latest work. I was able to complete the entire project for about $50, since we already had 2 frames and I was able to pick up 6 additional frames for about $35 at Michaels (on sale for $5 each). I also purchased a large batch of 3M picture hanging strips.

Jenna helped me pick out and frame her favorites pictures. Next, I tried a couple of layouts on the floor in front of the wall. The wall has 2 small dressers at different heights, so I wanted something that would fit the space of the uneven levels.

Then Jason and Daddy got to work, measuring, leveling and, the best part, shooting lasers across the room – definitely something Jason was eager to help out with.

And, finally, Jenna has a new wall of art:

On Sunday I went out on a mini adventure of my own. Earlier in the week I mentioned that my context (home/work/suburbs) limits my ability to find new and interesting things to photograph. My husband disagreed, which I took as a challenge of sorts. So out I went into my part suburban/part rural neighborhood in search of new subject-matter. Although I was pretty happy with a few of the pictures, nothing corresponded to my daily class assignments (which are based on a letter of the alphabet) so in the end, I didn’t use any of the images for my class. But I was happy to take on the challenge.

Energy exhibit at the museum

Hanging out with daddy and kitty

J+J’s favorite exhibit: the elevator

In our neighborhood, across from our brand new Starbucks

More scenes from the neighborhood

Jason and Jenna had a coloring session last night after dinner, and I always love it when Jason says he’s going to make a picture for Jenna and immediately starts picking out colors that he knows are her favorites – usually pink, red and yellow. The above image is an excerpt from Jason’s latest pic for his sister.

Here are a few other favorite things from my week:

• Great set of free photo textures.
• Adorable illustrations.
• We’re pretty much a family of chocoholics around here, so I think we’ll be trying this chocolate butter recipe and this chocolate pancake recipe pretty soon.
• Wish this asymmetrical jacket came in my size.
• Love these paper pendants.

I think most parents have heard the advice that it’s never good to have too much of a reaction when your kids do something wrong, even if it’s actually REALLY, REALLY funny.

Last night I came home from work and my husband and the kids were already home. J+J were playing in the backyard, and my husband was in the kitchen. Just as I walked out the backdoor to say hi, I saw Jason running up behind Jenna, hands overflowing with mud. Before I could scream NO (again, probably going against the ‘reaction’ advice), he covered Jenna’s face in mud. My husband walked outside seconds later, saw the look on my face and immediately told me not to laugh. Ok, I said, but can I get the camera?

How could I not take a picture of that face?

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

I didn’t exactly push beyond my typical subject matter this week, but I did start to make an effort to stop doing what comes easiest to me – close up/still life shots. And I’m hoping to do a bit more of that in the remaining two weeks.

In the meantime, here are my daily shots from the past week:

O is for Orange

I took this shot at a park just outside a Thai restaurant where I had eaten lunch. I had a pretty spicy meal, so the fiery orange was the perfect color to represent my day.

C is for Chocolate Brown

Similar to the radishes last week, this set up was pretty irresistible to J+J, and I ended up having to promise them each a square of chocolate if they didn’t touch the chocolate until I finished taking pictures. I’m always surprised by how much they like dark chocolate – they love ALL chocolate equally!

N is for Navy Blue

I took this shot early in the morning before work. There was no where near as much light as it seems, and my husband did an awesome job jumping around the kitchen with a piece of foam board to make sure my Speedlight flash bounced just so.

F is for Fuschia

After over a week of shooting close-ups of food and flowers, I finally forced myself to do something a bit different. I made a heart bokeh to fit over my camera lens and then shot nearly a hundred images before I got to one I liked. Since you probably can’t tell what you’re looking at, I’ll describe the set up: 2 pieces of white foam board, a bright pink scarf and a strand of tiny lights, shot on a stainless steel table (creating a reflection of the lights).

Also, I’ve donated this image to Picture a Healthier World‘s “Share Your Hearts” project. 100% of the sales will go toward UNICEF’s effort to bring clean water to Haiti. Find out more here.

E is for Eggshell

There are a couple of letters in the alphabet for which I don’t easily have a corresponding color. E was one such letter. I also considered “Electric Lime” which is a Crayola crayon color, but I decided eggs inside my Anthropologie egg dish would make for a prettier picture. Jenna and I dyed the eggs in coffee to get the brownish hues, which prompted her to ask if it was Easter.

I is for Ivory

This was an easy one. We made cookies for Valentine’s Day over the weekend so this was definitely a case of killing two birds with one stone.

S is for Spectrum

I set up this row of candle holders with the idea of shooting a picture of silver, since the holders are silver on the outside. As soon as I put them on the windowsill, Jenna immediately started moving them around, changing the order of the colors and shifting them from the left side of the window to the right. In the end, the pictures of her fascination with the colorful containers where much more interesting than any of my silver shots.

Here is my flickr stream and here are all of the class submissions if you’d like to follow along. Souvenir Foto School is offered by Besotted Brand.

I made Jenna’s Valentine’s for school on Sunday. Jason will be taking Lego Star Wars Valentine’s, so I thought I would enjoy making homemade ones for Jenna before next year, when she’s likely to insist on Hello Kitty or Cinderella.

Here’s how I made them:

I started with small glassine bags, heart confetti made out of decorative paper, large cut-out hearts, chocolate hearts and flat 3 x 4 1/2 cards.

I printed “you’re sweet” on the cards and then glued a large heart in the center. I attached the chocolate heart to the paper heart with tape. Next, I place the card in the glassine bags along with a small handful of of heart confetti. I sealed the bag using pink washi tape.

Here’s what the finished Valentine’s looked like:

Jenna in hearts

Singing a song

Making cookies

Making art

Playing Legos

]]> http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/02/12/weekend-top-5-valentines-edition/feed/ 0 juleed IMG_0004 IMG_0147 IMG_0120 IMG_0035 IMG_0018