Cowgirl Yankee

The Good, The Random, The Fun v.6

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:29:00 +0000

The Good:

One of our swim coaches gave birth to a baby girl two weeks ago.

The Fun:

This coach gave Blessing the title of Mermaid Princess.

The Random:

Blessing was named Mermaid Princess because of how well she does the butterfly stroke, especially the kick. At her age it is highly unusual to be able to do the dolphin kick as well as she does because most people do not have the strength in their hip flexors to lift their hips above the water each time they kick. I have noticed a huge improvement in her stroke since we started year round swimming.

This coach and her husband were in the army-he was a ranger and had been on multiple deployments and was battling PTSD. Last Wed. he lost the battle and ended his life. We discovered this today. We do not know if this coach will come back to the team. I am sure at this point this coach does not know whether she will return, either.

I had to tell Blessing/Mermaid Princess. I wish I did not have to, but I did not want her to overhear this at practice or at a meet. She felt said for the baby as she said "So this baby will never know her father.and is too young to remember him." I told her that was true and we need to pray for this coach and her baby.
Not a conversation I wanted to have with my Blessing.

A month ago a friend of ours had her bat mitzvah. These were the roses on the tables:

Trying to end on a positive note....

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-good-random-fun-v-6.html

Little Things Thursday v. 5

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 13:13:00 +0000

Last week I mentioned I had to get a new phone...and I did have to get one since my battery had expanded to the point where it was pushing the back of the phone away from its casing. I went to a local battery place to see if it could be fixed and was told it was my fault because I had overcharged the phone. so in the summer when I was trying to take photos outside and my phone was telling me every other minute that the camera was shutting down because the phone was overheating, that too was because it was overcharged? I then found out that at least 3 of my friends-all of us with different phones also had the same problem. I seriously wonder if they would have said that to a man and phones are also supposed to have overcharge protection on them. Any way, I went to Best Buy and got the Samsung Galaxy S8. I have been using that to take quite a few pictures since I have Snapseed and really like that editing program.

Thought I'd include a picture of Skittles-she is all grown up now but still likes the dishwasher:

Still very playful :)

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2018/02/georgia-okeeffe.html

The Good, The Random, The Fun v.5

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:52:00 +0000

The Good:

I jumped back into the 52 Frames challenge last week. Each week we get a theme and your photo must be taken that week. Sometimes that is a shame as this week we had the theme something new. I decided to try editing two shots together for a double exposure which is a new editing technique for me. At first I was going to use this shot:

which I really like but then realized neither one of these shots was taken this week. I ended up using this one instead:

It is harder to put two action shots together in a double exposure than it is to use two still ones but for my first time ever, it will do. And I can be proud of myself for sticking with the rules. Both shots taken on my Galaxy S8 and edited in Snapseed.

The Random:

Blessing last week fell during swim practice and sprained her ankle. It has been almost a week now and it is still swollen and hurts. Every time we try to get back onto the twice a week swimming and kung fu, something goes wrong..illness, this town closing down due to snow, etc...

The Fun:

My first picture shows the hanukiah with the snow that fell at the beginning of this month. Yes the deep south got snow. The last time my area got this much snow-2 inches-was 28 years ago. It was a very big deal here.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-good-random-fun-v-5.html

Little Things Thursday v. 4

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:23:00 +0000

I took a rather extended blogging break due to:

Blessing's bat mitzvah, kung fu and year round swimming. Her bat mitzvah was Nov. 18th and for those of you unfamiliar with this process, we were out of the house multiple times a day every day Monday through Friday. Twice a week for Hebrew tutoring, practicing the service in the sanctuary (bimah practice), and her service project once a week-this on top of school, kung fu and swimming. Kung fu and swimming are twice a week but we had to drop those to once a week for October and November as it was just too much to keep up with.

The other reason for my absence was due to Adobe Lightroom (LR) no longer being a stand alone program. Since I will not be forced into renting software permanently in order to use it, I did not take as many photographs as I normally would because I am not sure how to process them. Knowing that for me LR will become obsolete, I no longer want to rely on it for editing photos. Plus the longer I use it, the harder it will be to learn a new system and whenever I get a new lens or new camera I will have to use another editing program as LR stand alone version will not be compatible with new lenses . I still am not sure what software to use consistently at this point. I do like On1, but have used that more for finishing touches-used LR for basic edits first. Maybe I need to get more familiar with On1 for basic editing. I have missed posting and taking photos, and will hopefully be posting on a more regular basis.

I also had to get a new phone which I will detail in a different post, but have taken some great shots with it. I have the Samsung Galaxy S8, and it is not too shabby in low light:

Blessing lighting hanukiahs on the 4th night of Hanukah during our congregational family lighting service.

Happy 30th Birthday Tamar!

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2018/01/on-turning-30.html

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 126

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 07:08:00 +0000

Finally getting back into posting for this meme:

1) Trying to set up Blessing's bat mitzvah is kind of a pain. 😒

2) There are all these unwritten rules to follow that we are only discovering now.

3) One of these rules is that they want their students to be in Shalom School (Sunday School) for a year.

4) We applied for membership in August-and due to their mistake, we were not approved until November. That is not our fault.

5) Thus she did not start Shalom School until this year...again not our fault. She needs a Hebrew tutor but we could not set that up until she had the interview with the rabbi. That happened today. We have a tentative date scheduled but they have to check to see that the other two congregations in the area do not have ceremonies on that day. We are a small community so I understand that. When we get a set date, I will let you all know.

Bat (daughter) Mitzvah (commandments, good deeds). Coming of age ceremony where boys and girls are now considered responsible for their spiritual life. Usually done at 12 or 13, but can be done later. Blessing will be 14 when she does hers-whenever it will be.

We will also possibly do this two more times as family can not travel here, and midwest friends can't come here either so one for friends here, one for family in New England and one for our midwestern friends. Bat Mitzvah on the road, I am calling it. Should be a fun scrapbook when it is all done.

Centerpiece at our congregational Seder. Taken with my Xperia Z1s (phone).

Linking up with:

Willy Nilly Friday 5

The Good, The Random, The Fun v. 13

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 12:43:00 +0000

The Good:

Blessing attended her first formal event on Sat. night. It was a banquet for kung-fu, so families of the students were also invited, so I went too. Had a fun time. Blessing wants to go to more formal events now :) .

The Random:

Because we attended this formal event, I did nothing but run around for two weeks trying to get us both ready with dresses, bags, shoes, etc... It was fun but also exhausting. I understand why in Jane Austens' time people had staff to help them get ready. I did not have time to blog as a result. I think I was in the mall more times in the past two weeks than all the times I've been since I moved here 6 1/2 years ago.

The Fun:

We have been doing kung-fu for a month now and Blessing and two other youths are the oldest in the class. She has really hit it off with one of the boys, in part because they are paired together often as they are the two people closest in height in the class. I met his parents at class this week and at the banquet we sat together. This boy has two younger sisters and the oldest sister also seemed to hit it off with Blessing.

The boy has a sense of humor too:

As a reward all students got bracelets that showcased one word they needed to work on. They all came in this box. After the rewards and dinner, I saw him in this pose. I laughed and he stood up but I told him to do it again as it is funny and I can get a shot. This is my favorite shot of the entire night.

Linking up with:

https://artworksfromjeshstg.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/a-hesitant-spring/

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-good-random-fun-v-13.html

http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/

The Good, The Random, The Fun v. 11

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 14:14:00 +0000

The Good:

Gorgeous weather over this weekend.

The Random:

We do not have co op this week due to St. Patrick's Day and it is a good thing as I think co op needs this break. I am annoyed with a couple of things that happened this past week.

The first thing is that I took my students outside for an activity and there were two other groups of younger students outside as well. I walked my students up to the bigger grassy area for their activities and one of my groups had shut the door on the side of the building we normally use. The door automatically locks if there is not a door stop used to keep it open. I had to have my group use the door the younger group had and we had to cut across the area they were in as the rest of those students were on the sidewalk. We did not interfere with their activity however my co teacher was told to ask me to take my students to some other area as my students distracted the younger ones.

Now my students were loud as they were passing by and I was not happy about that but it only lasted a few minutes. I am annoyed because I cannot tell you how many times this school year there have been younger students outside my class window making noise and distracting my class. I did not complain because I wanted the opportunity to take my students outside without complaints and this was the second time I had taken my group out all year.

Next was my co teacher. She has been giving candy out to the students as reward and the next class they go to has not been happy about it. Now they did speak to me about it last week and I did tell them that I was not the one who passed out the candy, that was my co teacher, but I did think it was a light hearted exchange. Ha!

This week I get cornered again with complaints about the candy. I again stated that it was my co teacher who does that, not me (in the hopes of them following the biblical command to go to their brother if the brother offends you) but no, they told me how unhappy they were because some of the kids spilled nerds on the carpet and she had to sweep it up plus the distraction the sugar makes in their brain.

Sigh...I told my co teacher what happened and she said "Man, some people.." They must have been really upset because when I got home, all elementary teachers got an email about passing out treats to the students and if we choose to do so, make sure it is all eaten in class or all eaten while they are walking to their next rotation. My co teacher said she would just pass it out at lunch to them. To me it says no treats, and no going outside. I am strongly considering paying extra money and not teaching next year because I don't need to teach where so little grace is extended to me.

The Fun:

This was the outside activity portion of Friday's lesson. The kids had to act like schools of fish, which is why they are holding sticks (dowel rods) of fish. They were divided up into groups and each group had to decide how they wanted to color in the spots on the fish. They could color in as many as they wanted, but all the fish in their group had to be the same. When they were done putting their fish on the sticks we went outside where we basically played tag but with a few twists:

No running allowed for anyone during the entire game.

No jockeying for position.

When the the leader of the school turns, they all have to turn with the leader and after that turn, whoever is in front is the new leader until they turn again.

If they get separated from the group, they need to get back to their group as quickly as possible.

We did this a couple of times- once where all the groups were together in one big group. I started off as the predator and if I tagged you, you then also became a predator. The second time, they broke up into their smaller groups and again were tagged. Then we talked about which way was easier not to be tagged-in the bigger group or smaller, was it better to be in the middle or on the edges to avoid being eaten.

It was a fun activity and the nice thing was that in each class, there were enough kids to have the smaller groups all have the same number of fish in each one. Nice round numbers to work with.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-good-random-fun-v-11.html

http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/

Purim

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 02:34:00 +0000

Today is Purim and we had a fun time last night at the congregational dinner and megillah reading (reading of the book of Esther).

We had different people do the decorations this year and they were outstanding. This is what greeted us in the sanctuary.

This was one of the tables in the fellowship hall:

Besides candy there were all types of goodie bags on the table filled with various things.

Here is one of them:

There was one other big goodie and that was backscratchers. I thought these were more fun to photograph though.

And since this is the St Patrick's day edition of Seasons, I thought you would like to know some history about this day:

1) Originally, blue was the color worn on this day.

2) Catholics wear green, Protestants wear orange.

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/17/11250046/st-patricks-day-google-doodle

3) The shortest parade is 100 yards from one pub to the other.

http://www.livescience.com/27957-st-patricks-day-5-facts.html

Linking up with:

https://artworksfromjeshstg.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/all-seasons-the-color-of-st-patricks-day/

http://macromonday2.blogspot.com/

The Good, The Random, The Fun v. 10

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 16:00:00 +0000

The Good:

We have had a break from 80+ degree temperatures and high humidity. For a week it has been 70, low humidity and breezy. Quite lovely.

The Random:

I have naturally wavy or as one of my friends put it, naturally frizzy hair. She has the same type of hair I do, so we laughed at that comment. over the winter holidays, my cousin treated me to a cut and style by her long time hair cutter. He straightened it with a hair dryer and roller brush, then a flattening iron. I liked it a lot. When I got home I found this and have been using to straighten my hair. I keep my hair wrapped in my twisty turban and let it air dry about 80%, then use this dryer on the low setting. It does a great job and I do not need to use a flat iron afterwards. I have been doing this because straight hair is easier to work with and when I was not feeling so well, easier to get out the door.

The other day a woman I know complimented me on how sleek and sophisticated my hair is and how it shaves years off me. Hmm....so when my hair is in its natural state, I look older and not sophisticated, seems to be the implication. In other words, a back handed compliment, yet I know she was not doing it to be mean. Mostly it means someone who does not understand natural hair. When it gets hotter and more humid, I won't be straightening it as the high humidity will make it wavy anyway especially out at swim practices and meets.

The Fun:

Blessing has started kung fu classes. They have one day where they play games and here they are playing crab soccer:

Here you can see Blessing just kicked the ball and all the kids laugh and smile during this game. It is hard to photograph there (even harder than at the aquatic center !) due not only to a mix of artificial and natural window light, but the mat is red and black and so finding the right white balance is tough.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-good-random-fun-v-10.html

https://artworksfromjeshstg.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/all-seasons-marching-orders/

http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/?utm_source=image-in-ing&utm_campaign=66ea2499d6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adfb5a538b-66ea2499d6-70819493

Little Things Thursday March 2

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 15:15:00 +0000

Right after my last post, I became sick again. Not only was I sick but my eyes were affected too. My eyes and lids were red, and they were sensitive to light, screens, fragrances and pollen. I did not spend much time on the computer or on photography either. And as usual, I am still coughing.

After my eyes improved, we received news that Coach Chris will no longer be coaching the tornadoes swim team. The executive director and aquatics director fired him. I think the executive director should change his name to jack___ - you can fill in the rest. One of the swim team parents found out and sent the rest of us an email to see if we could save Chris. We were not successful.

Chris started hearing reasons why people thought he left and sent us two emails regarding the situation. In the first he told us he did not quit nor leave on bad terms. He told us he would never have left the team and I know this is true. He has said many times how much he liked that pool and coaching there. The second email he included a copy of his termination letter from jack and his personal appeal to stay with the team which was also, sadly, not successful.

The termination letter was very perfunctory. Parents emailed jack about their upset with this decision and we all got the same response-that it was not a reflection on The abilities of Chris, his skill set, his love for the sport and of course the relationships he had with the families, but the tornadoes are going in a different direction and they decided to keep the winter swim coaches so the winter swimmers would have continuity in coaching.

Chris responded by pointing out that in 18 years he has worked with nine different aquatics directors and named them all. He also pointed out that when the people there now leave, as everyone who has worked there eventually does, it will be difficult for the tornadoes to find someone with his experience to fill that gap. He also pointed out that this is his daughters" last year to swim and now in her last season, she will not be competing with the team she has spent her whole life with. He started coaching when she was a newborn.

jack (I refuse to capitalize his nickname) was not moved. Worse, it was obvious to us that this decision had been made a long time ago but they purposely did not tell Chris until it was too late for him to set up his own team for this season. Chris did say there is a strong possibility that will happen in the future.

There really was no call for them to dismiss him in such a manner. Chris has been nothing but gracious to them and even ended his appeal by stating that he would always consider jack a friend. That is more than I could do because to me a friend is someone you can trust and jack cannot be trusted.

This is not the first time something like this has happened and I'm sure won't be the last. Chris did find himself an assistant coach position this summer with a different team in the league. I do know that there are six families who will be following him, and more will follow.

I am not sure what we will do. Before this happened, the aquatics director was telling me that in a couple of years Blessing could start lifeguarding at the pool. A friend of mine's son also had this same conversation and he is 16, so he can start working there this summer. She is not happy with this decision but is concerned that if her son swims elsewhere, his prospects for working at this place may be jeopardized. I can see them doing that too.

Blessing is a couple of years away from that but I wonder too about how this will affect her future. And as she said sadly, "They're breaking up the team", which is true. Right now she is not sure which team she wants to swim on. All I can say is that it is a good thing I did not purchase her a team suit yet since I do not know which color she needs-the tornadoes are blue, but the other team is green. The other team is also a bit further away and the venue is one of the places where I got heat exhaustion last summer. The venue faces west so it is very hot until the sun goes down which in summer is not until 8 p.m.

Winter swim ends next week and we received an email telling us there will be a mini session before summer swim team starts. For the past two years, winter swim has been Tuesday and Thursday, including this last session. The mini session will be Mondays and Wednesdays, which we can not do since we signed up for another commitment, due in part to the fact that there would not be a conflict with swimming. Very irritating.

For Floral Friday Fotos:

Something a bit different as the obvious focus inthis shot are the children with the camellias as a background. Besides blessing, the boys are a friends' and the baby is one she is taking care of while both parents work. This baby is so happy :). My friend asked me to take these and print them out so she could give them to the baby's mom. It was the first time I had printed out my photos and I was very pleased with the way the prints came out.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2017/03/franklin-institute.html

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 114

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 13:07:00 +0000

I am happy to be back to blogging again. I took an extended break because I was dealing with numerous issues that took up my time. Yesterday was about the car. Today is my washing machine saga.

1) We have been here six years and are on our third washing machine. The one we had before moving here needed a transmission replacement which is just as much or more than buying a new one. As long as I was there to turn the barrel when it made noise, I was able to keep it working until we got here and bought a new one.

2) The new one lasted nine months before it stopped working. I don't remember exactly what was wrong with it, but again the repair would have been just as much as or more than replacing it. We hated that one anyway since it never got the clothes quite as clean and it took them longer to dry.

3) It even had knobs, not an electric panel like machine number 2 and we liked that a lot better. The first week of December this one starts acting up and won't fill up with water. Also when it would spin it sounded like a small helicopter was taking off inside the house and it the machine itself moved a bit from side to side.

4) We get a technician to look at it and it turns out, this one also had a transmission problem. Since the washer would not fill with water or fill properly, we could not work with it and again the repair would be the same or more as getting another one.

5) Now the real fun begins. I spent all afternoon one day trying to find any store that had a washing machine in stock that we could get before the 21st. I looked at websites that said they had the machine we wanted available but when I called the store they told me they did not have that machine in the warehouse or in the store.

Having learned my lesson I asked every other store I called if they had the machine physically in the store and none of them did. We were not looking for some fancy, high end machine either. We finally ended up with a used one through Sears that was delivered before we left town. We are now back to an electric panel which is too bad as we would prefer non electrical, but so far so good. It is a Samsung and it plays a cheery little tune when the cycle is done instead of a buzzer. My husband hates it, but I like it. It is taller than the last one so it is very difficult for me to get the clothes out even with a small step stool and I do not like that.

For The Weekend in Black & White:

Blessing has started taking Kung- Fu. This was her second lesson.

Linking up with:

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

Little Things Thursday Jan. 12th

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 15:30:00 +0000

Hello Everyone! I hope the holiday season was enjoyable for all. I had a lot of things that needed my attention before the holidays and thus posting was left behind.

One of the things that needed my attention was the car. It was in the shop every week in December and has to go back in next week as well. This meant that I had a very limited time to shop for gifts and some of the ideas I had I could not do since I had such a small amount of time to do it in. Blessing wants to do some more extra curricular activities and I told my husband that when the car is in the shop every week, adding more activities is impossible.

Co op starts up again tomorrow.

For Floral Friday Fotos - a heart:

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2017/01/let-it-snow.html

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 106

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:14:00 +0000

1) Blessing is sick. Started early this morning.

2) She will not attend co op.

3) She wants me to stay home with her. I wish I could.

4) I can't because my co teacher will not be there today and it is now too late to get someone else in there to teach.

5) Below is a picture of a ceiling vent we put in our kitchen to help better ventilate that area.

Linking up with:

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

Little Things Thursday Nov.10

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 15:35:00 +0000

I am looking forward to getting to bed on time tonight. I know Blessing is too as she wanted to stay up and watch the election results. She liked it and said it was exciting to watch the results come in. It helps that she is taking Civics this year which she likes. Her teacher is one of my friends and I told her how exciting Blessing thought the election was and she was happy too to know Blessing liked it so much.

Blessing said this was the first election of her life. I told her no, since we vote every four years, there have been a few elections in her life but this is the first one she will remember. It is so good to have those moments of littleness with her since she is a teen now and those moments of little girl are few.

Floral Friday Fotos:

I liked the pink striations in this flower as well as the vibrant yellow center. The square format worked well for this shot as there was a yellow leaf on the right that was distracting. By using the square format, it cropped that element out of the frame and showed off the flower and petal shapes well.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2016/11/little-things-cumin-black-beans-and.html

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/

THe Good The Random, The Fun. v.55

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:51:00 +0000

The Good:

The trees and branches that had been in piles in everybody's yard from hurricane Matthew were picked up this week.

The Random:

A curious quote from Apple on why they decided to omit the sd slot: "Because of a couple of things. One, it's a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out." He then goes on to say they couldn't decide what kind of card slot they wanted to use and said that people can use wi fi or wireless transfer.

Again I am baffled by this comment. I have an ASUS laptop that has a built in card reader slot and the slot does not stick out in any way, shape or form. It is recessed into the body of the laptop. Since Apple is all about design, it sounds to me like they simply could not be bothered to streamline the design of the slot, which is still baffling to me.

Then there is their attitude about wireless and wi fi transfer. So all you photographers on assignment to remote places that don't have those things or don't have them reliably have just been told by Apple itself to buy from another company. And remote does not have to be in some third world country. Parts of the Grand Canyon and Mount Rainier don't have those things either.

The Fun:

Blessing dressed as Lady Galadriel for dress up as your favorite book character day. One of the moms dressed up as Mary Poppins but I don't have a picture of that. This is also part of my 30 days of capturing blessing at Life Through The Lens. I have more shots form this week but was running out of time to put them in a collage. So hopefully next week I can do that.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-good-random-fun-v-45.html

ttp://www.lisakerner-slp.com/blog-allposts/

http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 105

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 12:09:00 +0000

1) This past week our humidity increased so it was hot again.

2) Our a/c fan motor needed to be replaced this week. This a/c unit has given us problems the 5+ years we have been here.

3) A plea went out from one of the organizers of the food festival. she had no pictures of any of the musicians or the dancers for the entertainment. I was surprised because I saw someone with a mono pod taking pictures the same time I was.

4) The people she asked to film and video the event ended up dancing themselves and she needs pictures by this weekend.

5) I am hoping that their loss ends up being my gain as I do have pictures of those events. I did join in on one dance but I also was not asked to photograph the event. I did it for fun and am thankful I did. I sent the shots I had off to her earlier this evening but I am thankful I took my shots for fun!

Here is one of them:

Color:

Since I have co op tomorrow, I had to get them done tonight and I did not see the S.O.S. until late this afternoon. I only sent her the color shots as there were so many I needed to go through. If I had more time I would have sent some in black and white but I know she is grateful for anything I can send her and maybe this will open opportunities up for me in the future.

This is the same klezmer band we had at Purim.

Linking up with:

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

Little Things Thursday Nov. 3

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:07:00 +0000

I am participating in Lisa Kerner's 30 Days of Blessing. Each day in November you find a blessing and post a picture if you are on Instagram. I am not, so I still look for blessing's every day and then will post a collage on Monday for her Life Through the Lens meme.

I was taking shots for the 52 Frames weekly challenge this week which is birds eye view. At first I thought I might have to skip this week as I live in a place where we don't have many tall buildings but then learned that birds eye view is any shot taken looking directly down at your subject.

I must say this was more difficult than I thought since I had trouble keeping my feet out of some shots as I was using a wide angle lens to give the idea of looking straight down on something. I was photographing these ginger flowers and then saw this:

This is a ginger flower with a bee on it. I was so excited to see this and I took a lot of shots this bee looking straight down on this flower. It is bending the flower so it looks straight on but I was indeed looking straight down and moving my position slightly to keep looking down. I consider this a blessing as the bee adds more interest to this shot and was an unexpected blessing. I was not expecting to see a bee and this was the only one I saw during the time I was out shooting.

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2016/11/little-things-bish-bash-falls.html

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/

Photo Fridays

Tuesday's Treasures Nov. 1

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:59:00 +0000

These two little girls were treasures I saw at the food festival:

I know technically this is not perfect but look at their adorable outfits and bows. This is also the first day of Lisa Kerner's Capturing Blessing. I am not on Instagram but can play along on my blog and you can too. Click the link to find out more details.

Linking up with:

Tuesday's Treasures

The Good, The Random, the Fun v.44

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 13:09:00 +0000

The Good:

Now that the autumn holidays are over, I can participate in this meme again. The first and last day of Sukkot were Mondays so I did not post. Now I can participate weekly again, I hope.

The Random:

This week the new Macbook Pro was announced and I must say that I found a couple of the decisions made to this laptop baffled me. The first one being that in order to connect any phone, even the newest i7, you have to buy a brand new cable if you want to connect it to the laptop.

The second and even bigger one is the lack of an SD card slot. In order to get images off a card and onto this newest version you have to buy a separate dongle to fit the card. The dongle costs $80.00 separate from any version of he laptop you might buy.

Remember that when the Macbook first came out, it was touted as the laptop for photographers. Now that they have gotten rid of the sd card slot it will be interesting to see how photographers react. I know it is light and thin, but if you have to keep buying dongles and cables, when does carrying around these extra things that can be lost or damaged in a bag outweigh the convenience of light and thin? And some of the models you can get only come with two ports, others come with 4. But one of your slots will be used up some of the time for that dongle you need for your sd cards which all cameras use.

Disclaimer:: I do have an ipad mini, all the home computers run on windows, and my phone and mp3 player are Android.

The Fun:

Today was the annual Shalom Y'All Food Festival, where I met Savannah:

Isn't she beautiful? She is 5 and her coloring is highly unusual for her breed. I even got to pet her :)

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-good-random-fun-v-44.html

http://www.lisakerner-slp.com/blog-allposts/

http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 104

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 03:50:00 +0000

1) Why is it that each photo site you want to submit photos to have different requirements for the size of your images? This means having the same photo saved multiple times in these different sizes in order to submit them to these sites.

2) Still having a few internet issues. Not only were we caught up in the hurricane aftermath, but we were part of that larger hack outage.

3) Been having nice low humidity days, even though temps are still 85.

4) Still have not made pumpkin bars as this week I did not look for pumpkin puree.

5) Have to start thinking about gifts and traveling for the winter holidays.

I have not done this in awhile but here goes:

Color:

Black & White:

Linking up with:

Photo Friday

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

Tuesday's Treasures Oct. 25

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 15:43:00 +0000

I saw these two doors and thought they were a treasure. The brown wood and the detailing of these doors is just beautiful and is a treasure I think to the people who own them.

Linking up with:

Tuesday's Treasures

Wednesday Around the World

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 103

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:25:00 +0000

1) If you saw yesterday's post, you know that last week after I posted to my Friday memes, my internet was having trouble staying connected for any length of time.

2) This week has improved but there is still time every day where I don't have access to it.

3) I will not be making the pumpkin bars I mentioned yesterday. I need pumpkin puree and the store only had pumpkin pie filling.

4) Tomorrow we have co op - after missing the last two weeks.

5) This was my shot for last weeks' 53 Frames weekly challenge. The theme was sound. Since I was having internet trouble I did not get to post it to the challenge page but here it is:

I liked the fact I was able to capture the steam rising from the dish and the bubbles too. I was hoping to capture the sound of meat sizzling.

Linking up with:

Photo Friday

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

Little Things Thursday Oct. 20

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 15:11:00 +0000

We have one more holiday on Monday and then a normal schedule until Thanksgiving. There have been a lot of disruptions between the holidays and the storms. By the time we get back into a normal schedule, the larger holiday season will be upon us and it will be disrupted again.

When I was walking around after the hurricane, I saw knockout roses blooming in a yard that had a big tree fall away from the house. I hope to post some more photos from the hurricane on Sunday for the Seasons meme by Jesh St. Germaine. That would of course require my internet connection to remain steady and me to have time to edit more of those photos and post them before Sunday evening so we shall see if all those things come together to allow me to do so. I also hope to make apple coffee cake and pumpkin bars tomorrow since I have not done anything special for Sukkot because of the hurricane.. Friday is co op and of course Friday night is Shabbat so time can be crunched.

Floral Friday Fotos featuring the aforementioned knock out roses:

Linking up with:

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com/2016/10/little-things-52-frames-into-fall.html

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/

http://anenglishgirlrambles2016.blogspot.com/

Tuesday's Treasures Oct. 18

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 13:47:00 +0000

After my post on Friday, I had hoped to be able to visit your blogs and post to some of my memes. I was unable to do that because right after that my internet was acting up. We would be connected for about two minutes and then it would disconnect us. This scenario repeated itself all weekend long. It does appear to be fixed now so again I say I am coming to visit your blogs and comment, really I am.

My treasures this week:

Skittles is always a treasure as is the popcorn bowl and iron basket in this shot. This is an older picture of her as she has grown since this shot. I hope to post a more recent picture of her soon. This would be after catching up with my comments, email and no more internet difficulties.

Linking up with:

Tuesday's Treasures

Willy Nilly Friday 5 No. 102

noreply@blogger.com (abrianna) — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 03:41:00 +0000

1) Thank you all for your comments. I will be coming around to comment back, but may take a while. I am still cleaning out the fridge and freezer and catching up on laundry.

2) We lost power late Friday night.

3) It returned late Tuesday night in time for Yom Kippur.

4) We had some roof tiles and trim blow off.

5) For some reason, Blessing was sick late last night.early this morning. Feels better today but not 100% yet.

A photo of one of the trees that fell in the neighborhood:

Linking up with:

http://www.piercedwonderings.com/photo-friday-mornings-park/

Willy Nilly Friday 5

http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/