And yet more Treasuries....

More of my work has been featured in Treasuries (sadly, no sales yet, but that gal keeps touching base with me to let me know she's still interested once her house closes, so that's something)....

I actually have two photos in this odd little Treasury. You will find "Sundance Aspens" on the second row, far right and "Warehouse Window" on the bottom row, second from the left.

"Dark Chess" has been featured on this Treasury, and is on the top row, second from the left.

Yesterday I had a confrontation with a very angry man. I will not go into a lot of details, but suffice it to say he stormed over to where I was sitting, leaned in over me and started ranting and raving, hands curled into fists and let me have it with both barrels... apparently someone has big issues with women in any sort of position of authority.

Thankfully, it ended and the confronter stalked off, but it certainly left me shaking, wanting to cry and my stomach seriously considered tossing what little lunch I'd just had. Eating the rest of my lunch was definitely not happening....and, as the hours passed the trembling finally stopped and I found myself getting angrier and angrier with myself for how I had responded to the situation.

It has been quite some time since my last intimidating confrontation with a man, and I had always thought I would be stronger now and could take it. I am no longer that wimp, I had thought....boy was I proved wrong. The only thing that kept me from crying was the fact that I wasn't about to let this jerk know he'd have that power over me. Anger pretty much filled my afternoon....anger towards my aggressor, anger with myself....but at least I got through my day. You can always break down when you go home, I told myself.

I was finally able to go home about 4 hours later, and wound up having a long talk with someone I trust about the situation (by the way, did I thank you for that?). I did not break down. I am no longer angry with myself either, and know that, should the occasion arise again, I will not blame myself for any "weakness" I may feel. I know it is a natural reaction for a girl who has taken the years of crap I have to feel fear in the face of open aggression....I think I would probably feel the same even without my past "history".

It is what I do with that fear that defines me, not that I felt it. I refuse to let any man make me feel inferior and small ever again....I may tremble, but I will not bow my head and think less of myself because some man has his own issues and takes them out on me.

....

My aggressor is here again today (unavoidable really)...

I stood firm and, while I haven't spoken to him more than absolutely necessary, I think it was fairly obvious from the look on my face when he walked in that he was to leave me alone and back the hell off. Thankfully, he did so, and has ignored me as well.

Guess we'll have to see how the days that follow go.....

My head is still spinning....

This will certainly be an odd post, given the type of girl that I am, but I have come to learn that you really can have too much of a good thing.

Two summers ago I bought a gas can....you know the type, red, plastic....boring. I was stocking up on a few "for the car" things and figured it was always good to have a nice gas can on hand.

A few weeks later I ran myself out of gas and had to use the can....see, good purchase, I told myself.

Shortly afterwards my roommate bought a lawn mower and, as she had no gas can, I offered mine as a temporary fix....that wound up being not so temporary. No biggie really since gas cans are cheap...but I always forgot to grab a new one whenever I was at the store.

A few weeks ago I was heading off to work, when I noticed my poor gas can mostly buried in the snow. I pulled it out, wiped if off and decided to just put it in the trunk of my car...there was a little bit of gas in the bottom, but that didn't worry me any. Its not like we have any sort of outdoor storage units to have stuffed it into.

Over the next few days I started noticing a slight whiff of gas....wow, I thought...guess those things aren't as fume-proof as I thought....and kept on driving. (I should probably point out that I really do love the smell of gasoline....)

Well this morning I opened the door and you'd swear fumes were literally streaming out of the car. What the heck? I thought (okay, it may have been a little more strongly phrased than that) I opened the trunk of my car and found the gas can lying on its side...and that no one had screwed the reversible funnel back under the cap....instead it has been left sitting loose, and I had failed to notice when I stuck it in my car.

Luckily I have a bag of cat litter in the trunk of my car, so I opened it and sprinkled it liberally on the affected area. I also have my sunroof open and my windows cracked to help let out some of the smell.....it was a cold ride into work this morning.....lets just say, good things are often better in smaller packages!

Biggest bummer? We haven't seen snow in a few weeks and I just looked out the window to see a serious amount of snow starting to swirl down from the sky.....

Guess I should go roll up the windows....and hope the litter works!

The list keeps growing....

I've been included in a few more Treasuries....here are all the ones I've been in to date (don't feel you have to look!):


"Chess Set" has been added to the following Treasury...third row down, on the right.

"Sorrow" has been added to this Treasury, and is on the top far right.

"Lake Sunset in Orange" can be found here, top row far right.

"Antique Crow can be found in this Treasury, third row down, third from the left.

"Warehouse Window" can be found listed here, third row down, second from left.

"Mirror, Mirror" can be found here, top row, third from left and here, third row down on the left.

"Blue Window" can be seen here, top row, far right.

New Calling

Well, I am being released from my calling as Relief Society Pianist (whew!) The RS President even admitted that while she loved seeing my progress, that she has been prompted a lot that this was not the calling for me.....so they are moving me into a calling that I am excited for, and is one I can really expand from. (I'll go over that more after I am accepted to the call on Sunday).

The nice thing about having been the Pianist though, is that it gave me a chance to revisit a skill I thought I seriously lacked....okay, so I still suck at it, but I am improving. With time, I can even be decent. I won't be performing for Carnegie Hall, but then I never had dreams of concert halls and fame anyway.

I am, however, going to step it up a notch and tackle two songs that I've always loved and wished I could play for myself: Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", and (no laughing) "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart. I certainly have my work cut out for me! I downloaded the sheet music to both tunes yesterday and, as you can see from the sample page below, my favorite little Sonata is certainly a complicated enough piece for a beginner like me.

I have time though....now all I need is a couple copies of each song made, a pen and a whole lot of white-out (I still struggle with reading the notes, so I write down the notes....sadly, I often still screw up what note is which on the lower hand).

Wish me luck everyone!

Another Treasury.....Hooray!

A new print was selected for a new Treasury, endearingly called "Home Home on the Range". You can find the Treasury here. The print is "Purple Fields" and its the third one over on the top row.

Etsy is seriously becoming my new favorite site....it certainly gives a bit of a boost to one's morning!

Words of Wisdom . . .

I've been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. She's been gone for a few years now, but I still feel her very much as a presence in my life. They say that a person never really dies, that a part of them still lives on in everyone's lives that they touched.

I like that...

But the thinking I've been doing lately isn't so much about how she's gone, but about the things that she has taught me....one thing, in particular, has been very much front-and-center in my mind lately.

My grandmother was the type of person who could figure out how she was related to just about anyone she came into contact with. A phone call to an operator in another state turned into an hour plus phone call figuring out this little gal was a second cousin through aunt so-and-so's side of the family.

Seriously.

She loved to sit and "people watch" but, even more, she loved to meet new people. I don't know where that courage came from but that woman would approach pretty much anyone who would hold still long enough for her to strike up a conversation. Complete strangers left her feeling as if they had made a new friend....and they had.

We were out to lunch and getting ready to leave when she stopped to compliment a lady on how lovely her silver hair looked (and it was done up nicely, I admit it, but I wouldn't have stopped to tell her so) They struck up a good fifteen minute conversation over this, that and the other before we finally made our way to the car.

Another time we were walking through a bargain basement store (grandma loved her bargains and "treasure finding" in out-of-the-way spots and yard sales). We passed a young lady walking around through the aisles, singing quietly along with the music piped in through the store speakers. After a few minutes of this, grandma approached this surprised little gal in order to tell her just how beautiful her voice was. Another good 5-10 minutes of conversation continued before we all wandered off again in our own little "treasure hunts"...but I noticed that gal still smiling, even as she paid for her purchases and headed out the door...a smile when she hadn't worn one before grandma's compliment.

It was at this time I asked my grandmother and asked her how was it she always stopped to talk to complete strangers out of the blue....I wasn't upset, just curious....goodness knows I didn't have that kind of courage, and I wanted to know where in the world she mustered hers from.

She told me that once she thought something complimentary about another person that it no longer belonged to her, but rather to the person that she had thought it of.... and she was always sure to give that compliment to its proper owner.

She was the sweetest person I ever knew and always tried to leave the people she met a little happier than how she'd found them.

I don't approach strangers as much as she did....I am still far too self-conscious for that....but I do go out of my way to compliment people whenever I can garner up that courage. Trust me, I still have a long way to go...but then, is it fair for me to grudgingly hold onto someone else's property? At least, that's the argument I use whenever I try to screw up the courage to approach someone when I am hesitant.

I get some funny looks sometimes, but, more often than not, people stop, smile, and thank me for noticing something that maybe they had not.

Its amazing how something that requires no real cost, no ribbons or bows, can still brighten up someones day.

Thank you grandmababy, for being such a wonderful role model for me to try to follow.

Future Camera Withdrawl

Well, luckily my camera is still under warranty because its had some health issues lately.... the shutter button has a tendency to stick and now loves to throw up the message "shutter did not depress....please try pressing button again" and then still refuses to take the shot.

Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry frustrating.

Even more frustrating will be the fact that I have to do without until repairs are completed. All those shots that will be missed for lack of a camera.

Its like in "Twister" when someone asks if they should clear out a jammed camera prior to chasing into the fray....our heroine calmly looks at the idiot and replies "unless you watch to sketch the tornadoes". I'd prefer to catch my images as they truly are, given that doodled sunsets just can't catch the majesty the way images can.....don't believe me?

Which do you prefer?

I just know that some amazing once-in-a-lifetime shot will come along, and I'll be sitting here with nothing to capture it with. Well, that's not entirely accurate.... I do have my old (meaning Jason's old when I bought it from him) Canon camera that is luckily to still be in (mostly) one piece (something in there is rattling around, sounding fairly unhealthy). I don't want to hurt crappy camera's feelings, so it gets hauled along in my camera bag everywhere I go,but really....its 4 mega pixels! 4! C'mon, now that I've gone higher-end, shooting stuff with the Canon feels like I am slumming it....no matter how nice its pictures usually turn out.

There is, however, a silver lining to this dilemma. I begged and pleaded with the Powers-That-Be at Nikon (ie: the poor shlub who works the phones at the Nikon help desk) and found out they do have a licensed repair shop in Salt Lake who can complete the repair, without me having to ship my camera clear to NYC.

Now I just have to see if I can talk Dan into running it into the shop for me (and picking it up) so I don't have to drive up to SLC......and, fingers crossed, it will be an easy (and fast) repair so I can be back taking photos by next week.

Another Treasury...and a treasure hunt

"Mirror Mirror" has been included in another gallery....which is flattering...no point in forcing you to feel like you absolutely HAVE to click on a link, so I am not providing one to you! Okay, fine, you don't have to click on it but here it is.

The gal who wants all those images (we're now up to six) is asking for me to locate yet more windows and doorway images, which is forcing me to go through almost everything I have ever taken. Teachinfourth, you will be happy to know that I finally backed my laptop up again....but I admit it was mostly because I needed to access the external drive for images that were no longer on my lappy!

I am now going through file after file after file of unmarked photography (stuff labelled Pana1, Pana2, Nikon1, Nikon2 and the like) and now have a bunch of file folders on my desktop that say "Trees" or "Flowers" or "Architecture" and am shoving images where they need to be. This way if I ever need floral images somewhere down the line, I will know where to find all of them! Hopefully, this way I can also easily spot duplicates and chuck them. I also need to begin subfiles for all of the low res versions I have for the stuff I've put online.

I really wish I would have started this awhile ago...it is a long, long process....especially when I keep stumbling across images that I had completely forgotten I'd taken and have to stare in awe (or kick myself for not getting some perfect composition in focus...which is the more frequent of the two!)

In the end it will be worth it, and I now have an appreciation for why I should continue to do the filing method every time I unload my memory card....but, until then.......ugh!

Yahoo!

I've been added to yet another Treasury on Etsy (this can get to be pretty addicting!)

I am not on my laptop where I can take a screen print, but you can find the treasury listing here. There are some really good shots in this one..... mine is the third row down, second photo from the left ("Warehouse Window")

Note (hour later): I've been added to yet another treasury....this one can be found here. This one is for all black and white images. Mine is "Mirror Mirror" which is the third row down, first one on the left.

Need. To. Get. A. Grip.

One of the pictures I uploaded to my Etsy store yesterday has been included in a Treasury (a grouping of items that someone pulls together as "suggestions" of the cool things they have found that somehow tie together). These Treasuries randomly pop up on the front page of Etsy, as well as go into a stockpile of lists for people to search through. You can see the listing for yourself here.

(mine is "Blue Window" by fiftytwo, far right, top row)

I feel soooooooo like Sally Field right now ("You like me, you really, really like me!)

Oh, and that gal emailed back this morning and is definitely interested in the 5 warehouse door/window prints I currently have listed in my shop (its a series, one of which is "Blue Window"). She wants to see the couple other shots I have from the same series and then wants me to create a special listing of 8 x 10s for her to purchase.... Hooray!!!!!!

I'd be up dancing a jig if it wasn't for my back, but I am definitely jumping up and down and squealing my head off on the inside!

Me by the sea...

Got another song stuck in my head today. I have been dreaming of the ocean again....I know I'll get to see the Atlantic (for the first time!) next fall, but am wishing I could take a long weekend to zip to the beach....just to walk around and sink my toes in the sand.



Amazing song....its by Edie Brickell when she was with the New Bohemians, and before she married Paul Simon. The song is called "Me By The Sea" and its from one of my favorite albums, "Ghost of a Dog". Definitely worth listening to.

Okay, so I know the header image isn't of the ocean, but rather of Utah Lake, but I wanted to point out that since I am not getting around to putting crafts up on my Etsy account, that I've gone ahead today and posted a bunch of my photography. I am snapping pictures so much lately that I figured I might as well see how well they do. Even if they don't sell, I am still proud to have them on there. You can check them out here. I should redesign my site banner, since I am not currently offering "original designs", but oh well.....

Later note: well the pictures have been up for only a couple of hours and I have a gal who wants a package of all of my door/window images and is interested in seeing any others that I have... so now I need to go through my files tomorrow and see what I have that is sell-able! Hooray! Even if this is the only sale I'll ever get, this is an amazing feeling!