Random Facts

IndieJanePhotography just posted a list of random facts about herself on her blog. It seemed fun, so I invited myself to the party. 

-I love lists and random facts about things. (Hence, this post.)

-I don’t really watch TV on TV. I do usually have a TV series going on Netflix on my iPad while I’m working. Right now, I’m semi-watching my way through Private Practice.

-I love fingernail polish. Painting my nails is a little thing that I rarely make time for, but whenever I do my freshly painted nails can make me happy for days.

-September is my favorite month. It’s filled with county fairs, Labor Day, and my birthday. It’s also a combination of my two favorite seasons: Summer and Fall.

-My back-up career plan involves opening a vintage store filled with lovely home decor items and furniture.

-My husband is my best friend.

-I think the most despicable chores are folding laundry and grocery shopping. I always put both off as long as possible.

-I accidentally subscribed to Texas Monthly magazine, and it ended up being my favorite magazine.  As the name implies, t’s a local, Texas magazine. I’ve never lived in Texas.

-I love technology, and I use my iPad almost constantly, but I write almost everything down with pen and paper. I only use a paper planner, and I make lists on paper to remember things.

-I’ve been debating with myself about getting a library card (we recently moved) or waiting until I finish reading the books I own.

-Sitting on the balcony is one of my favorite activities.

Post a few random things about yourself on your blog, and leave a link in the comments so I can check it out. Happy Labor Day!

Life Lately –

Life lately has been wonderful.

It was a busy summer. We filled our time with mini road trips, exploring our town, trying new restaurants, and browsing through flea markets. We spent a weekend in Oklahoma City to watch my little sister to compete in the American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Show on her birthday. She did awesome. I launched a new local magazine, while working a job I already had. I said “see you later” to a dear friend who moved to the east coast.I read a lot of magazines and found a few new favorites. (If you’ve never read Texas Monthly, you should find yourself a copy right now.)

But, I’m really excited for fall. 

Our plan for fall is to spend time at home, resting and enjoying the things we have. I’m ready for all the great things that fall brings: county fairs, cooler weather, fall festivals, sweaters, and pumpkin spice lattes. I’m going to plan “free time”. I want to spend time learning, doing things just for fun and finding new inspirations.

What are your plans and goals for fall? 

World Horse Show Time

 

 

 

My sister qualified for a world horse show this summer. She’ll compete against about 160 horse-person teams in Oklahoma City on August 5. Her summer has been filled with a lot of practice time, but she took time for a mini photo shoot in her horse gear. We had fun and wrapped everything up about two minutes before it started raining. And in a few weeks, Dustin and I are going to venture across Oklahoma to watch her compete.

August 5 is also her birthday. Competing in a world horse show is a pretty cool way to celebrate 17 years. It’s an exciting time.

Dinner at the Aviary

My husband and I love trying out local restaurants. A few weeks ago, we went to the Aviary Cafe and Creperie for some couple time. It’s a wonderfully cute bird-themed crepe restaurant in downtown Springfield. I love the decorations – there are umbrellas hanging from the ceilings, bird cages, and a lot of classy vintage things adorning the walls and windows. The food’s pretty great too.

I love that Dustin visits girly restaurants with me without even mentioning they’re girly. He’s wonderful.

Evolving

 

After my last post, I took some time to think about this blog, what I would like for it to become and what’s feasible to fit into my life right now. 

I enjoyed the photo challenge, but as I shared in my last post, it’s not really practicle for my life right now. Living With the Birds is going to be a photo journal. My new goal is to share at least three posts each week with photos from my adventures.

It’s kind of like the photo challenge, but at the same time it’s really different.

Almost the entire time I’ve been blogging here there have been several excellent photos to share one day, and the next two days will be somewhat bland. The new goal of Living With the Birds has taken that into consideration and evolved.

I hope you’ll stay with me for this new journey. I’m excited!

Blogging and Weight Loss: One day at a time

This is a wonderfully busy chapter of my life.

I’m helping launch an online magazine and a print magazine. (Two totally different magazines with two totally different subjects.) It’s fun, exciting work. And it’s exhausting and time consuming. My husband and I just started running. It’s really hot out, so it kind of sucks. But it’s also great bonding time, and we both feel great when we’re done. So mostly it’s wonderful. I also just discovered Grey’s Anatomy, which is substantially slowing down progress on all of the above.

And with all of those projects* blogging and for-fun photography have somewhat fallen by the wayside. I haven’t fogotten about them. I’ve still been thinking of ideas for fun posts, I just haven’t had time to actualize those posts. And, I kind of haven’t been taking a picture every day.

I’ve been thinking of ways that I can make this blog work, with my now-limited free time. I’d thought of abandoning the photo challenge completely. I’d thought of a few replacement series. I’d thought about abandoning Living With the Birds. Everything made me incredibly sad and discouraged.

And then yesterday my husband interviewed a woman who has lost 200 lbs.

The advice she gave him: Take things one day at a time.

We’re human. We make mistakes. Sometimes we don’t follow through on things we plan to. Even with the best of intentions, sometimes we don’t have time, or we’re tired, or we come up with some other excuse.

Sometimes our goal is to run three times a week, and we go a week and a half without lacing up our tennis shoes. But messing up doesn’t mean you have to quit. That doesn’t mean you can’t run your heart out (not literally) the next week.

We need to learn to take life, and our commitments, one day at a time, because no one is perfect and no one is on their A-game every day of the year. And sometimes when things aren’t working out, instead of getting discouraged and quitting, we need to adjust our plans so that we can still acheive our goals.

So I’m following that advice. I’m adjusting my plan to make this blog, and this photo challenge workable for me.

The photo challenge is no longer going to be about taking and sharing one photo every day; that’s not really possible for me right now. I’m not quite sure what the photo challenge is going to evolve in to. I’m in thought about it. Maybe I’ll set a number of photos to take each week, or maybe I’ll come up with something else. I’m open to suggestions.

I’m not quitting. I’m evolving, and I’m taking life one day at a time.

*Yes, watching Grey’s Anatomy is a project. It’s how I watch TV; I’m a very active participant in everything I do.

Mishmash and Uncle Looey

June 18 – Mishmash and Uncle Looey (and the accidental DIY)

I have a thing for old books. They’re fun to read, and they’re fun to decorate with. A few months ago, I read a blog post about making a journal out of an old book. (FYI: This is from one of my favorite blogs, and I’ve not added it to my Internet Favorites list yet, so you should check it out.)

So of course, I went through my apartment, looking at all my old books and picked out the perfect one to journal-ize. A children’s book called Mishmash and Uncle Looey was the winner. I made the journal some time ago, but I kept the pages I cut out for a later project.

Yesterday while Dustin was computer-ing I picked up the stack of pages and cut out our letters. I didn’t have any plans for the letters, but Dustin liked them and suggested framing the letters individually with black frames. So that’s our plan.

And that’s the story of how Mishmash and Uncle Looey became an accidental wall art DIY.

Mixed-matched hodge podge

Dear Blog World, I haven’t forgotten you.

I started the week with a to-do list that I was confident I would never be able to finish.

And then my laptop and I got into an argument mid-week (coincidently, mid-to-do-list). I decided it was time to end our 5-year relationship. I quickly rebounded with a new desktop, finished the to-do list, and ended the week on top.

In the midst of all this computer drama,  I didn’t keep up with blogging and now I don’t know what photos I took when. I tried to keep take a photo every day, but everything is kind of jumbled.

So this is post is kind of a hodge-podge, mixed-match catch up sort of post. I’m kind of sorry. But I’m kind of not, because I think it will be fun and kind of a life lesson in disguise. It’s good to forget plans and live life as it comes every now and then.

Enjoy the carefree, date-less post!

We found a new (to us) local pizza place. It’s wonderful.

I’ve been taking pictures of patterns a lot lately. I told you about my strange photography phase in the last post.

Dustin and I were searching out frozen custard, and in the process of turning around in a store’s parking lot, we discovered the largest flea market/antique store in Missouri. We spent an hour browsing and only looked through a fourth of the store before it closed for the day. I bought this fun blanket, and we went back the next day. The best thing about this store is that there were a lot of really cool things, and very few “who bought this to begin with” things.

Our balcony has an increasing bird population. They like to play in our flowers and hang out on our railing. At first I thought it was some sort of strange fluke, but they’ve been back every day for almost a week.

One night this week I was playing with my camera on the balcony while talking to Dustin who was playing video games just inside the door.

The lighting was wonderful, and I was having fun taking photos of my plants, my dog, my balcony furniture. But let’s be honest, there’s a limited number of things one can take a photo of on a small balcony, so I at one point I was taking pictures of my feet with the grass in the background.

And then the lady who lives on the first floor drove up and asked if I was taking surveillance photos.

And at that point I realized that maybe what I was doing came across as extra-creepy.

I’m not creepy, I’m just weird. And awkward.

It’s really not a creepy photo.

Well, unless you think feet are creepy.

But I quit taking photos for the night, and I’ve been making an effort to be more conscious of my surroundings.

That’s my awkward story for the week. Have you had any sharable awkward moments lately?

Life Lately

Life lately has been busy. And wonderful. And stressful. And fun.

June 6- Patterns

I’ve been photographing patterns a lot lately. It’s a phase.

Some people go through food phases and eat a lot of sandwiches. Some people go through clothing phases and wear jeans and T-shirts almost every day. I go through photo phases and photograph all the patterns I see. It’s a quirk.

June 7 – And then I joined my generation

I downloaded the Instagram app on my iPad a few months ago. I played with it for about five minutes, decided it didn’t live up to the hype and didn’t touch it again.

But then on Thursday I gave it a second try. I’m pretty sure I love it now. If you want to follow me, then you should. I only have 4 followers right now, and that’s kind of lame. My username is mrsktbarton.

June 8 – Good Intentions

Friday consisted of non-stop work, until about 3:15 p.m. And then I decided my weekend was going to start early. I abandoned my responsibilities for a tuna sandwich and a conversation with my husband. It was a good trade.

Of course, around 11 p.m. I realized I still hadn’t taken a photo. So, I searched my house for something photogenic and found my flowers. I thought they looked nice, glowing in the window reflection and back lit by the street lights. But, now that I’m looking at it again, the photo really just seems creepy.

You can’t always be a winner, guys. And really, however creepy my flowers look they’re still 10 times more photogenic than a tuna sandwich. You should be thanking me right now.

June 9 – Do-nothing Saturday

Today was a wonderful do-nothing Saturday. Dustin brought me an iced coffee while I was still in bed, and he ventured out to buy breakfast ingredients. (We aren’t very diligent grocery buyers, so we’re out of normal things like eggs and milk a lot.) After we enjoyed our breakfast on the balcony, we abandoned our plans and goals and just let the day happen. Nothing is more wonderful on a Saturday.

100 percent fun

June 6 – 100 percent fun

I found a fun surprise in my mailbox yesterday afternoon.

Corrie, one of my oldest childhood friends is working on a Disney Cruise Ship right now, traveling the world and having all kinds of fun adventures.

She sent me a moose-themed package from Alaska. I absolutely love everything in it. In case you didn’t know, I absolutely love moose (meese in the plural).

The upper-right corner of the oven mitt label says “100% fun”, which perfectly describes the package.

Aren’t friends wonderful?

And to end this post, here’s a photo of us from an elementary school birthday party.