Photo A Day – August Challenge

Ack!  August is a week away.  How did that happen?

I’m a planner.  Well, at least I try to be a planner.  So I went looking for an August Photo A Day challenge.  But I didn’t find any posted yet!  What’s a girl to do?  Create her own!  So if I saw something interesting while driving down the road, sitting at my desk, or watching t.v., I would jot it down.  Thus became the August list.

My goal is to get at least 5 people to take my Photo A Day – August Challenge.  I would love if 50 people would join me.  500 people might get overwhelming, but why not?  Drop me a comment to let me know you’re in!  And then, more importantly, show me your pictures!

If I get enough people who want to share, I’ll create a new PAGE on Between The Shutters and let people link up with you and see your photos too.  But I have full rights to take it down your link if I don’t like your blog.

New to Photo A Day Challenge?

Here’s the deal.  You are given a daily topic, you take a picture of your subject and then you share you photo.  You can share it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Pinterest…where ever.  It’s suppose to be fun, not a chore.  So if you  miss a day, you miss a day.  No big deal.

August’s Challenge List

Do you need a more direction than just a single word?  For a bit more inspiration, here are some ideas:

  1. Street: the street you live on, from the window at a red light, from your office window (because you’re not working)
  2. Book: a book you’re reading, the tickets you just booked (to escape someone), your e-reader
  3. Phone:  someone on the phone, a cell phone store (with a line out the door) , phone lines
  4. Tree: tree branches, a single leaf, shade from a tree (that you want to take a nap under)
  5. Left: somebody who left you, the left side of the room, something left on the counter (because you are so forgetful)
  6. Light: the lamp on the table, sunlight, the light of your life (gag)
  7. Line: people waiting in line, parking lot lines, a line you drew (just to take this picture)
  8. Change: coins from your pocket, something you did/want to change, changing of the guards (that would be awesome to see)
  9. Fence:  fence around the pool,  a squirrel on the fence, something fencing you in (the caged animal you are)
  10. Drink: your adult beverage, a child drinking from their sippy cup, iced tea (I’d go for the adult beverage)
  11. Love: a person/place/think you love, a word that spells love, a heart (like a drawing, not a human heart)
  12. Bag: a purse, a reusable grocery bag, your lunch bag (hopefully you have something yummy to eat)
  13. Mail: junk mail (what a waste of paper), mailbox, a package you received in the mail
  14. Dark: a dark room, a shadow, dark chocolate (mmm…dark chocolate)
  15. Sky: clouds, a bird flying in the sky, sky blue (or Skyy Vodka)
  16. Breakfast: anything you ate for breakfast, an empty cereal bowl, what you should have eaten for breakfast (instead of the cupcake you ate)
  17. Water: a puddle in the parking lot, a water droplet on a plant, your glass of water (if you’re boring like that)
  18. Sweet: a sweet puppy, a sugar packet, sweet cream ice cream (drizzle this with dark chocolate for me)
  19. Radio: a radio antenna, logo of your favorite radio station (don’t stalk the radio personalities), the radio in your car
  20. Wall: a blank wall, art hanging on a wall, your Facebook wall (careful with sharing your names)
  21. Shoe: shoes in your closet, shoe laces, shoe store (just go shoe shopping)
  22. Friend: your furry friend, a stuffed animal , your best friend (you can stalk your friend)
  23. Bowl: a bowl from your cabinet, a bowl of business cards at a restaurant, a souvenir from a bowl game you went to (and your team won, it’s more fun that way)
  24. Car: cars in the parking lot (hopefully not the empty spot where your car was when you went inside), keys to your car, a car seat
  25. Inside: the inside of your empty chip bag (piggy), inside of your refrigerator, a room inside your house
  26. Funny: a funny face, something that makes you laugh, a funny looking anything (no, you may not take my picture for this one)
  27. Hook: Captain Hook (get his autograph too), a coat hook, a trailer hitch hooked to a truck
  28. Top: the top of the stack, a shirt (perhaps on the stack of laundry to do), a spinning top
  29. Pen: something you penned, your favorite pen, someone holding a pen (hopefully not your boss writing your pink slip)
  30. Orange: the sunset with orange clouds, an orange sock, a peach (you know, because its orange too)
  31. Key: your house key, the key word in the crossword puzzle, don’t take a picture of the key to your car for car (save it for this one.)

Now, go snap some pictures and have fun with them!

sam

I’m Not In Charge of That – A Life Rule

In the spirit of the true randomness that will become of this blog, I thought I would post on a random life rule.  Not one of those mush life rules…like “Do unto others as you would have them unto you”.  [That’s the Golden Rule, silly.]  But more of a little life mantra to get you through your day.  Or that one craptastic moment in your day.

Perhaps I will never build a true readership if I can’t pick a topic and go with it.  But I’m just not that kind of gal.  I’m scatterbrained.  Sometimes I can be witty and thoughtful…other times I can be just plain crazy.  Okay, I’m always a little crazy.  But crazy can be entertaining, right?

If you think I should never, ever write something like this again, please let me know.  I don’t have to word dump everything on that comes in and out of my head.  I mean I don’t, because that might scare you off forever.  My goal is to only make you wonder.  [enter winky face here]

So here I go…I’m Not In Charge of That – A Life Rule

After my dad had his “episode”, my parents took a class on how to manage stress.  Wait, that makes it sound like he went crazy.  Rewind–after my dad had a heart attack, my parents took a class on how to manage stress.  [That’s better.]  One of the things that they took away was the saying “I’m not in charge of that.”

As in, I’m not in charge of the fact that BillyBob in cubicle 342B can’t get his work done and shows up in my cubicle to help finish it up at 4:57pm.  I’m sure the point is you shouldn’t take on the stress and worry over things you can’t control anyway.

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I try to remember I’m NOT in charge of THAT.

But it doesn’t always work out so well for me.

Sometimes I take control of things that I wasn’t involved with in the first place.  I’ve been told that I’m an overachiever like that.  I’m sure they really thinking I’m a control-freak and are just too nice to say that to my face. But immediately start bad mouthing me when I walk away.  I get it.  I really am a control-freak.  And an overachiever.  And a perfectionist.  Now try telling me I’m not in charge of that.

Sometimes I go bat-sh!t-crazy over the weather.  No, seriously.  It was when planning one of my daughter’s birthday parties when I realized I might actually be crazy.  My first clue should have been the fact that I invited her entire preschool class to the outdoor party.  All 25 of them!  And then the forecast showed rain.  And it did rain.  And it was cold.  And I freaked out.  It was super craptastic.  [The party was moved to the garage and we all survived.]

But sometimes I am able to step back and say, “I”m not in charge of that.”  And things still work out okay.  Even if it’s not the way I would have done it.  Or it’s not the exact outcome I wanted.

Sometimes it’s worth it to walk away and say I’m Not In Charge of That.

You should try it out.

Photo A Day – July Challenge

It seems fitting to start Between The Shutters with a photo-a-day challenge.  After all, my original intent of this blog was to post a random, single picture.   Of course, I’ve decided I like talking too much, so there will be much more to this blog.  Eventually.

My July challenge comes from Fat Mum Slim.  She even has this post dedicated to how Photo-a-Day can impact you.  I’ve been toying with the idea enough…it’s time to snap the shutter!

Knowing myself, I won’t actually post a photo a day.  I’ll shoot for posting a week at a time.  I might miss a day or two.  Okay, I will miss a day or two.  Life will go on with our without the picture to proof it.  The good news is I tend to take at least one picture everyday with my cell phone.  So it might not be the highest quality, but it will be documentation none the less.

Enjoy.

sam

Between The Shutters

I like to take pictures (a lot of pictures) and write stories.  And I like to share my pictures and stories.   So I created a personal blog over a year ago.  I write for family and friends to show them what our family is doing throughout the year. And it’s been fabulously successful.

Then I got the blogging bug.  I started reading other people’s blogs…blogs that told stories, food blogs, photo blogs, blogs about parenting and life.  Pintrest didn’t help matters either.  I started to attempt some fancier recipes and little craft projects, taking plenty of pictures along the way.  I’ve been having fun.  And my blog posts are stronger for it.  And that’s not just my opinion.  My family and friends told me.  So it must be true.

And all of a sudden, my personal blog became more of a public blog.  Which is…well…I haven’t decided how I feel about this yet.  But this blog was born because of it.

Originally I thought I would start a new blog to just post a picture here and there.  You know, because a picture is worth a thousand words.  But what if I want to write a thousand words?  (Don’t worry.  I won’t write a thousand words.  That’s just too many.)  What if I just want to write a witty caption?  Or what if my family and friends are sick of getting notifications of yet another published post?  They might not care that I made some fabulously decant cake this weekend.  But you might.

The internet is a bloggerific place for people like me to word-dump on unexpecting strangers.  (The opposite of expecting, but spell check doesn’t like it.  It doesn’t like bloggerific either.  I also insisted on using “willn’t” as a kid.  What can I say, I am my own person.)

So here I am…blogging.  For you.  Or is it for me?

Between The Shutters.

Sounds a  little mysterious.  A little unclear.  It’s play on words.  Sounds perfect!

sam