Finding Balance

I said in my last post that there were some photo I took that I loved and some that I hated. Some of them just did not come out as I had pictured them in my mind. I see pictures everywhere and I try to capture that but it can be hit or miss. I'm okay with that too. I post the ones I don't like because I am trying to be true to the 365 project. If the only picture I have for a day is a bad one, it goes up.

Then there are the shots that come out exactly like I saw it in my head. Here is Francesco trying to balance on parking concrete barriers. I got down at the end of the run so I like the perspective, I like the concentration on his face and I captured the moment forever in time. I love it!



Finding Balance, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

I can truly say that with all the good and the bad pictures I have learned a ton about my camera, about photography, about using accessory equipment, about the advantage of always having my camera and how much I really love it all!

Now I am trying to convince my husband to get me this Epihanie Bag since he hates that I put it in my pocketbook.

Week 8

Week 8, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

Some I love, some I hate but I am still snapping away.

Why is it?

Why is it that he does not seem to understand when I say:
~Please don't hit your brother.
~Please go to sleep.
~Please eat your breakfast.
~Please don't throw that ball at the lamp.
~Please pick up your toys.
~Please come here.
(I always say please the first time, but as the number of time I say it I usually drop the please.)

But...if you hand him one of these:


Controller, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

~He will beat you at the game your playing.
~He can tell you what button you need to push and in what sequence to do a multitude of complex maneuvers.
~He can push all these button without taking his eyes off the television.
~He will get frustrated with me when we do a 2 player game because I am just not getting it.

Lord, help me!

Team-Up Thursday - Self Portrait

I was really looking forward to today's Team-Up. It will be great to see everyones pictures. I really love Jen's self portrait, it shows her creative fun personality.


Team Up Self Portraits, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.


Jump on over (pun intended) to Megan and Melody's for more self portraits.

Say Cheese

Wow I am on a roll this week, I've posted everyday since Sunday. Woo Hoo!

I was surfing through a bunch of my favorite blogs when I somehow happened upon Simply Modern Mom. Such a cool sight, and she had these neat Polaroid photos that I just loved. Thankfully she did post the link to the Polaroid Site that she used.

Let just say this was really cool. I loved playing with the little camera on my desktop and even shaking the photos. They took a bit of time to develop, just like real Polaroids.



Here is my budding photographer taking my picture. He likes to look through the view finder and not at the screen on the back of the point and shoot. I asked why and he says because that how I do it. I hope he like to take pictures when he older so I can teach him what I know. He is already very creative, he like to spin in circles to take picture to get the blur of motion.

He definitely more of a modern artist!

Baa Woon

Baa Woon; translation = Balloon . Nicolo is going through his language explosion and one of his newest words in balloon. Francesco came home with 2 balloons the other day after an afternoon out with daddy. They played with those balloons for hours. They wanted to take them to bed but with the strings attached I protested and did not allow it.

The next morning the were almost completely deflates and would not "fly". They still wanted them but appeared a little disappointed at the lack of aerial height they maintained. I decided to run out on my "lunch hour" and pick up 2 new balloons from the party store around the corner from my work.




2 balloons = $1.30
2 balloon weights = $.50
Hearing my baby say Baa Woon a million times = priceless!

Best Shot Monday: Laugh

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. ~ Victor Hugo


View Master, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

Stop by Tracey's for more:

Week 7

I've decided to post my 365 project here on this blog. I can barely keep up with the laundry let alone two blogs. I though it would be a good idea to separate them but not now. I usually spend time writing a post here that I posted there. I did move the older Mosaics to a page here on this site. I though about moving them over as posts but this time I thought twice.


Week 7, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

I have a few shot that make me laugh when I see them. The first is the book bag full of spoons. The boy pulled out all the plastic silverware from one of the drawers while I made dinner Monday night. I told them to pick them up and later was surprised that they did. Tuesday morning I went to put their lunches in the backpack and there were all the spoons.

The other is of my kitchen table, I laugh because it's the only picture I took on Saturday. I spent most he day scrubbing said kitchen floor and recovering the kitchen chairs with a PVC/Vinyl (can you say washable). I also covered the floor under Nicolo's chair with 20 gauge clear vinyl, lets just say I had to do some intense scrubbing to clean the floor where he sits. I like the shot because that is how my kitchen table and chairs SHOULD look.

Team Up Thursday : Shadows

Oh my, was this a hard theme for me. I had a lot of ideas but the execution was not there.

First, I thought of taking a lone tree shadow on glistening clean white snow, there are plenty around my work, the issue was the sun never shone during the day this past week.

Second, I took a lamp and tried to do a shadow of me holding Nicolo with my remote, it was dark and the shutter was long. He, who can not stay still, was very blurry. Then I tried to do one of their Buzz Lightyear toy, it looked creepy.

So there I was running out of time, and thought of the projectors in the conference room at work. So at the end of the day I went in and turned one on. I propped my camera on the table with a mouse pad and used the remote. I was afraid of someone finding me playing "Project Runway" in conference room, how funny would that have been to explain.

Jen had a similar idea that I did with the tree and executed it beautifully. I love the way the shadows crosses path.

Shadows, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

BTW: after I went through all that the next day the sun was out in the morning. There I was weighed down with daycare bags (lunches and snow gear) when my boys decided to hold hands while walking and there was their sweet shadow...arghhhh!

I can say that it really has been so much fun doing the Team Up Thursday. Teaming Up keeps me committed and the themes keep me thinking outside the box.

Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

Best Shot Monday: Every Day

Everyday he makes me smile. How could you not with this face?



For more Every Day head over to Tracey's for more:

Six Weeks Down

365 project update:

• In disbelief that I am still going strong.
• I am enjoying the documentation of my day to day.
• I posted new photo over at Moments in Time.
• I am so glad that Jen asked me to be her Team Up Thursday Partner, it's been fun and a real challenge.
• I just signed up for Picture Spring and I am excited to take this workshop that is being taught by Tracey.

Hope you all have a great weekend. For me as long as it doesn't snow or we lose power I will be extremely happy!

Team Up Thursday - Week Three

Jen and I picked time as our theme this week. I had this idea of taking multi-exposure pictures of the moon over time (I have been playing with the tripod a lot lately). Since we have not had a clear night in over a week that never panned out. I was telling Shelly about my idea and she why not take a picture of the herb time. I thought it came out great.

Time is one thing I had a lot of today, and thyme is one of my favorite herbs to cook with.


Thyme_Time, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

We are up to 43.5 inches in 4 days and the power just returned a few hours ago (Thank God!). We had a ton of time to go out in the blizzard and play in the snow. The good thing is we have a gas stove and fireplace and both continued to work during the outage.

Team Up Thursday, Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

More on the way!

So as you all know we got a whopping 28.5 inches of snow on Saturday. We dug out and sledded down a luge we created in the backyard. The boys loved it. I held my breath every time Nicolo went down but he did the best.



Funny (or not so funny) thing is we are slotted to get another storm with a prediction of 8-14 more inches. While others groan, my husband say..."Great we'll have fresh powder on our sled run".
He is definitely a kid at heart...an I love it!

Best Shot Monday: 28.5 Inches

We were expecting 12-16 inches of snow and ended up with 28.5 inches. The boys were going stir crazy just waiting to get out, once they did they loved it! My youngest got right into it! He did not care that it was cold and was out for 2 hours at a time! They slept good last night.

I am calling this my best shot because I love how it all snow in the background.


I have a ton of sledding pictures too. You wouldn't believe Nicolo sledding, he did great. I will post a few tomorrow.

For more Best Shot, sled on by Tracey's at Mother May I.

Playing Around - since it's snowing!

My friend Rose over at A Little White Space turned me onto Big Huge Labs. It's where I have been making the mosaics for my 365 project. I made it another week and posted the photo's over at Moments In Time.

Since it's snowing and snowing and snowing here (last total was 17.5 inches) I've been playing on the computer. I made this photo-booth strip of the boys playing around after bath one night. I thought it came out so cute I wanted to share.

What else is there to do when it snows?

How about bake? Great idea...I am off!

Team Up Thursday - Week Two

I teamed up with Jen for Team Up Thursday and we decide to pick GREEN as our theme. I though it was fitting since she is the New Green Momma.

I like how different the photos are but still relate. You make money out of paper and you make paper out of trees.


Team Up Thursday Week 2, originally uploaded by cgiordan25.

Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

Over the Moon and Tickled Pink

Two months ago I received and (awesome) e-mail from my friend Tracey asking me if I would mind having one of my photos published in a magazine. Would I mine? Of course not.

The magazine is called Artful Blogging and it's full of beautiful images. Tracey has been featured before and this was a short Q&A about her Best Shot Monday that she host on her blog Mother May I.



I went to the books store today and picked up the new edition. I turned to the article about Best Shot Monday and recognized the photo's. One is even her blog button photo for BSM. I turned the page and there it was, my photo, in a magazine.



As you can imagine I was over the moon and tickled pink. I even showed it to the lady as I checked out.

Thanks Tracey for the honor of being part of Best Shot Monday and for making my day!