The Mystery Castle

Exactly six months ago today, I woke up with a rash on my left leg.  I thought it was weird, and it was very painful.  I had planned on attending an adventure with my photography group to The Mystery Castle.  There was no way I wasn’t going to go, so I found a pair of white ripped, very comfortable and fitted jeans.  They were tight enough that they didn’t rub my rash too badly.  Of course the next day, I went to the doctor and he confirmed my suspicion… I had shingles.  And so my long, very stressful, and very painful journey with shingles turned post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) began.  I’m still fighting the aftermath.

I’m the kind of person that remembers dates.  I’m not sure why, but I can remember things if they’re connected with a particular date.  Then I relive the experience each year.  Some days I feel odd, and I think, “I wonder what happened on this date?”  If I’m in the mood, I’ll flip through my years and years of journals to see if the date was significant.  So I guess the fact that today is exactly six months ago that my PHN journey began (and on a Sunday to boot), it made me think about The Mystery Castle.  It is the most amazing, beautiful, eclectic, abstract, beautiful old home!

Anyway, that’s why I was a bit pensive when I woke up this morning.  I never processed my photos from The Mystery Castle.  I can still remember feeling shock & horror as everyone there had giant cameras with one-legged tripods and lenses that I knew must have cost thousands of dollars.  I felt like a complete idiot with my inferior Nikon D60.  I shot pictures anyway… and knew with the low light, a lot of my shots indoors wouldn’t work out so well.  I fell in love with the texture, and would love to go back with my Nikon D300s and take new shots.  It would be fun to take my kids, and not have camera envy, lol.   I took a few minutes this morning and flipped through some of my shots, and put them in a side-show for you to check out.  I have so many more, but I’m looking at the cloudy sky outside, debating if I should grab my gear and go on an adventure.  Or climb back in bed, and chill… it’s hard to chase an adventure when all the kids are still asleep, and probably will be until noon.  You know how teenagers are!

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Don’t forget to link back to my GIVEAWAY (click here), and enter for a $10.00 or $5.00 gift certificate to RedBubble!  Happy weekend everyone!  Get out there and do something fun!  Or just be lazy and enjoy your Sunday… my favorite day of the week.  It’s such a relaxing day.

10 Things That Make Me Happy – Vol. 1, Issue 1

I did a bit of a lift from Barb Brookbank’s Keeping up With the Times blog. I thought this would be a beautiful way to try to remember to find something every day that makes me happy, and keep moving along in my 101 in 1001 goals. So, thank you for indulging me and sharing 10 things that made me happy this past week.

Don’t forget to link back to my GIVEAWAY (click here), and enter for a $10.00 or $5.00 gift certificate to RedBubble!  Happy weekend everyone!  Get out there and do something fun!

5 Fact Friday

Well, here we are… TGIF, right?  I’m a big follower  addict of Kim Klassen.  She is a beautiful, inspirational woman.  I love surrounding myself with people like this.  The kind that keep you going… keep you moving.  Help stimulate your creative juices when you’re running dry.  Especially when you’ve committed to writing a blog post every day.  Yikes.  I almost couldn’t do it today.  But, I did… and postponed my release time to noon, just in case I changed my mind about anything I wrote.  I do that quite frequently.  Every day, actually.  Most blog posts are set to delay publishing… but I digress…  On with the post & my 5 facts!

1. I have to drink Coca Cola every single morning.  I literally cannot function until I’ve had a blast of this liquid candy oh so bad for you deliciousness.  It’s a bad, bad habit and will probably be the death of me, but so be it.  It is my comfort.  Is it self-medicating?  I’m not sure.  I could be starting my day with a Jack & Coke… but that would be a little over the top for me.  I stick with my yummy Coca Cola from Circle K in my wonderful styrofoam cup and crushed ice via purified water.  It has to come from the fountain.  Not the can.  When I lived in Smoot, Wyoming (don’t bother looking it up on google… it’s just a vast sea of mountains and lakes), I used to drive 7 miles into town to buy my liquid candy at Gardner’s store.  Yes, the very same family as in Rulon Gardner.  That one Olympic guy who won that one gold medal that one time for wrestling.  No, I never met him.
2. I have a wonderful, low-stress job that I love.  Our offices are totally feng shui and it makes such a difference going to the office every day.  It is a 180* turn from the CPA firm I worked for for five years.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved it there.  I loved the people I worked with, they were awesome.  It was so hard to leave… but the stress had gotten to me.  When I was offered the chance to work for my new company, I had to take the position.  Fortunately, I didn’t burn any bridges, and everyone understood why I needed to make the transition.  I CANNOT WAIT for this Spring when I don’t have to work on Saturdays during tax season.  I have so many adventures planned inside my head!
3. I love photography.  I love that I put so much time into my images.  I love having my own business.  I’ve said before that I love shooting senior portraits.  I’m actually getting ready to do a shoot for a newlywed couple (who just so happen to be my BFF and her new husband).  It’s going to be an early morning shoot… 5:30 actually.  We are hoping to get some of the sunrise.  It’s easier to shoot outdoors early in the morning rather than in the evening.  AZ is so hot… and right now it is very humid since it’s monsoon season.  Everyone is tired & dragging because of it.  We are wimps when it comes to that… we can handle our dry heat, but not the humidity.  But, I digress.  I love capturing emotion through photography.  Every image I take, every image I process, I do with love.  I put it out there hoping others will love & appreciate my work as well.  I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to sell images on RedBubble, and have had some successful senior portrait shoots.  I’m still searching for my perfect niche, and I hope that eventually I will find it.  I love the friendships I’ve made, and the adventures I’ve had.  It is a beautiful industry to be a part of!
4. I want to live in Kauai someday.  Don’t tell my kids this.  They get mad at me every time I bring it up.  My BFF and I discussed where she sees me someday, and she said “I totally see you living in Kauai.”  It was just like BAM!  I love it there.  The ocean, the island, the jungle, the healing powers (no, I’m not all mystical… chill out) the island has.  I don’t know what it is… I’m not a fan of shopping, I could care less about that.  Running a gallery and focusing on my photography would be incredible.  Perhaps I could have a building with two suites… one to do taxes in while I get started, and the other my studio/gallery.  Wouldn’t that be hysterical?  Of course, the tax suite would be on the left, and the photography on the right, as you stand at the entrance facing North with the building behind you.  I’d write, too.  Remembering where I want to wind up helps me remember my goals.  You should never lose sight of what you want from life.  No matter how crazy an idea may sound, the potential is always there for making it come true.  It takes work, though.  Sitting on the couch eating Hot Cheetos watching Breaking Bad while playing Facebook games won’t get you there.  Yes, I’ve been guilty of this for the past week.  I’ve got to break the bad habit before it becomes a permanent one!
5. My favorite colors are pink & black.  Black is my favorite color, but artists will argue that black and white aren’t colors.  I never got that.  So I have to have a “color” that is my favorite.  Which, of course is pink.  Hmmm, I wonder how or why that became my favorite color.  I don’t know… could it be because I was a princess with a pink canopy bed as a little girl?  I’m going to have to say yes on that one.

Don’t forget to enter my GIVEAWAY (CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK). Deadline to enter is August 10th!

Most Followers in One Day & 100 Followers = GIVEAWAY!

I thought I’d continue with this week’s photochallenge: PURPLE, and post my favorite image of mine…  Violet Orchids.  You can click the image below and be taken straight to my portfolio on RedBubble.  This is important, because it is part of the giveaway (albeit a small one, a little gift for two winners).

THE 411

I was pretty excited when I saw my notification the other day that I had 100 followers on WordPress (I’ve surpassed that now). Then I discovered that I’d gained the most followers in one single day than I had on other previous days. I wanted to do a little something for my followers. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s a little something. I’ll be giving away a $10.00, and a $5.00 gift certificate to RedBubble. In order to enter the contest, you need to leave a comment on this post letting me know which one of my images over on RedBubble is your favorite, listing the title in your comment. (Even better, if you left a comment on your favorite image over there as well, but certainly not required). Comments left on other posts will not be considered entries for this giveaway. Only comments left here on this post (I’ll be linking back to it daily for easy access) will be considered official entries for the giveaway. Anywhere you see the word RedBubble, just click on it and a new window to my portfolio over there will open up.

You have between now and 11:59 p.m. (your timezone) August, 10th to leave your comment in this post as mentioned above.  I will be using Random.org to generate two winners, with the #1 and #2 spots winning the $10.00 and $5.00 gift certificates respectively.  I think this is all pretty self- explanatory, so I won’t ramble on and on.  Just check out my RedBubble portfolio, come back to this post, and show me some love in the comment section… and that’s it.  You’re entered in the giveaway.  Winners will be announced by 11:59 p.m. aka 23:59 AZ time on August 12th.  Good luck, and thank you for all of your support, your friendship, and for following my little corner in the Blogosphere!  You guys rock!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

When I read this week’s photo challenge was purple, I about fell out of my chair with enthusiasm!  I have several images with purple in them that I’ve been wanting to process… all three here were taken in Las Vegas (or on my way there)… I have more images I’d like to process and/or take, but this is how far I got.  The first two images were shot in the garden at the Bellagio Hotel.  Sigh.  I love it there.  I could lose myself in that hotel forever.

The third was taken on the way to Las Vegas, and is actually the dividing point between Arizona and Nevada through Lake Mead.  My photography group (the AZ Photographer’s Group) had their daily challenge “paths” the other day; I instantly thought of posting this one for that challenge. I love the purple majestic mountain range with the deep blue path of water flowing through.

Granted, I didn’t go out and shoot the images specifically for these challenges, however, it got me moving to get them processed and posted!  I think this brings me down to 38 more images to load in my RedBubble portfolio.  Perhaps I’ll even get them loaded on my website as well.  The bummer about photography is all of the nitty gritty work that has to be done to get them out there and available for clients.  NOT the most exciting part.  A necessary evil, and honestly it’s really not THAT bad.  I’d just rather be spending my time behind the camera instead of in front of the computer.  I’m sure most photographers say the same thing.

As always, just click directly on any one of the images below to be taken directly to my portfolio.

“Purple Calla Lily”

“Impatiens”

“Path”