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A love letter to myself

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Naomi

I’m replaying some old posts while I take some time to relax with my family. This one originally ran 10/11/2011 and got 342 views!

Through Karen’s daily prompts for the Path Finders course, I have created:

a Love List — a list of things that I love to do
three Light Words, which represent the activities which light me up
a vision board, visually representing what I hope for myself over the coming year
my Word of the Year
a mind map of ideas to help me actualize my Word of the Year using my Light Words
an extensive Life List Menu, with all kinds of awesome in store for the future
a collection of nightly notes, describing what I’ve been grateful for each day
a collection of countless Morning Pages, doodles, to-do lists, and heaven knows what other ephemera, and finally
some notes on identifying my “oxygen masks”

That is a lot of work. More importantly, that is a lot of work to have completed in just 4 weeks (and may I add, while packing and moving and unpacking and all that mess). To gain a little perspective, we were encouraged to give ourselves some loving advice in the form of a letter, written as if from our best friend. Since I have wanted to do this for a few days now, the timing was perfect.

Posted in Creativity, E-courses | Tagged letter to myself, moving, Path Finder class, time, unpacking | 2 Comments

iPhone macro lens (or, the best $20 ever spent)

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Naomi

iPhone macro lens from Photojojo.com (seen here with wide angle lens attached)

I’m replaying some old posts while I take some time to relax with my family. This one originally ran 2/9/2012 and got 605 views! Don’t you think Photojojo should have an affiliate program? I’d love that!

I finally got a few minutes to pry off the case that I’ve had my iPhone in for years and try out my new iPhone macro lens (New case with bigger lens opening coming soon). I am giddy to share these with you. I can hardly believe the images myself… most of them are SOOC – no sharpening, contrast work, or anything besides a little cropping here and there. I know! I am blown away. Now I just have to figure out how to stabilize the phone more because every tiny wobble makes a huge impact. Do they make iPhone tripods???

Let me know what you think!

Snapdragons backlit by morning sun

Look at those tiny fuzzies!

Backyard rose

Rose detail – SOOC!

Tiny leaves on rose bush

Hybiscus

Hybiscus detail

Hybiscus anthers and pollen sacs (had to look that up!)

Hybiscus bud

Dandelion seed head

Bracts under seed head (aka after a little wind)

If you liked this article, you might like:

Playing with Photojojo iPhone lenses (3/2012)
More iPhone macro lens shots (2/2012)

Posted in Photography | Tagged Camera lens, dandelion, Fisheye lens, hybiscus, iPhone, macro lens attachment, macrophotography, Photojojo, relax, rose, Smartphones, snapdragon, time, Wide-angle lens | 1 Comment

Swimming toward independence

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Naomi

I know, I know. I said you wouldn’t be hearing from me and here I am.

I’m going, I’m going. Sheesh!

I only wanted to share with you that I wrote a little something and it’s published on The Momoir Project’s blog today. Check it out if you would and let me know how you like it. 🙂

Posted in Motherhood, Writing | Tagged growing up, independence, Swim lessons | 6 Comments

You probably won’t believe me…

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Naomi

Friends, I am writing this before I change my mind. Lol. I’ve gone back and forth and back again in my head about whether it’s a good idea… and I’m just going to listen to that tiny voice within that says that some downtime is needed.

You will probably hear from me here and there, but for the most part, I’ll be quiet for a few weeks. I hope you are also resting this summer any way you can. (And I know you know me pretty well by now, and rest is not really in my lexicon. Picture me getting other things done though!) I will be enjoying time with my sweet girl and Mr. B, doing a bit of traveling, continuing my art projects, reading some novels, and working on blog posts for the fall. Besides a new OLW post on August 1, you will see some reruns of my most popular posts while I’m away.

I’ll be back mid-August when my daughter begins preschool again. I already have a handful of posts that I look forward to sharing with you… photographs, book recommendations, a cute cartoon, and (of course) more art.

Peace to you all.

Love, me

Posted in Mindfulness, Writing | Tagged fall, rest, time, writing | 7 Comments

First scrapbook convention (aka pure goodness)

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Naomi

Oh how I’ve been wanting to tell you about this! I got to attend my first ever scrapbook supply extravaganza! I didn’t take any classes… just wanted to look at all the goodies and see what was there.

Having only attended baseball card shows when I was a kid, I was not prepared for the beautiful site that hit me right as I walked into the room. Booths as far as the eye could see. I was shocked and giddy.

How cute is this sign? Lots of booths were doing demonstrations of their products. I don’t have a Sizzix machine, but I love all the things you can do with it.

I’d never seen this many brads in one place! They are so cute for cards.

Here’s what I brought home…

The other thing is a ScrapRack. I know I had never heard of it, but Tiffany Spaulding, shown below, is the inventor and runs the company. It’s an entire system for storing absolutely everything you own to craft with! I am in the process of sorting my stickers, stamps, and papers into categories so they can all be in one place in this system. You KNOW I’ll be telling you all about it soon. 🙂

Posted in Creativity | Tagged scrapbook, site, stamps, stickers, Tiffany Spaulding | 9 Comments

Wild Art Summer: canvas block art

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Naomi

Maybe you saw this on Facebook already. It is my very first watercolor creation. I’m taking Junelle Jacobson’s Wild Art Summer class and it is so very funky and fun. Just what I wanted.