Every Single Day

For the past several years, I've been following a few people's 365 photo projects.  If you're not familiar, a 365 project is one in which you take and post a photo every day for a an entire year.  I've always wanted to do one, but put it off for one reason or another.  Well, not anymore.  I have gone and committed to a huge project (scary!) that can only be tackled one day at a time (thankfully).

For the past two weeks, I have been shooting during the week and uploading on the weekends to make it manageable for myself.  I've also given myself permission to take less than stellar pictures if that's what it takes to get the job done.  This might seems like a no-brainer to you, but as a perfectionist and a trained photographer, this is going to be a chance for me to practice letting go, accepting progress over perfection, and putting it out there!

Some of the more interesting photos that have "stories" will show up here.  All of the images will be posted on Flickr, though you'll need to be a contact of mine to see all them for privacy reasons.  Here are a few from the last two weeks.

006/365, 6 January, 2013-  We were gifted these awesome red Converse shoes nearly a year ago.  Since then, M has been painstakingly waiting for her foot to grow into these kicks.  Last week, she tried them on and we were both pretty overjoyed that they F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. fit!  She wears them proudly and shows them off.  When I was a kid, I loved a red pair, too.


 009/365, 9 January 2013-  On this day, I realized that I had not taken a photo all day.  No bueno.  Luckily, I had to go on a late (meaning after dark, for me) grocery store trip.  I decided to take my camera along and document my least favorite intersection in my city.  It's crazy busy.  The lights suck.  People drive like idiots through it.  There are bus stops every corner.  Pedestrians do not always follow traffic signals, adding more crazy to the bad drivers.  Anyway, I snapped quickly, got this slow-shutter drag and noticed that I recognized the man in the foreground.  He lives in my neighborhood and, during warmer weather, I see him sitting in his yard in 1980s short-shorts with no shirt drinking a beer any time I pass his duplex .  Just a few days before this shot, I'd been wondering if Beer Guy does the same in the Winter.  I theorize that, on this night, he'd run out of beer and had to get some more.  Believe me, I feel somewhat guilty writing about him as he obviously suffers from alcoholism and who-knows-what-else.  The following day, I saw Beer Guy in his yard drinking beer.  However, he was wearing pants, a coat, a hat, and his beer was in one of those insulator type things.  The whole Beer Guy incident was quite serendipitous.

My Two-Year-Old, abridged version

Pros:
-language skills mean there is less frustration and missed-communication
-smarter than ever thought possible
-beautifully observing and engaging in the world around her in ways that I never anticipated possible for a two year old

Cons
-language skills...ability to totally shout exactly why they don't want to do xyz
-ability to go from content to earth-endingly horrible in less than 2 seconds
-recognition that you can "choose" not to go to sleep when it's convenient for me

Re-beginning

In April, I gave birth to a baby girl. I had intended to use a home-like birth center, have a completely natural, drug-free, “perfect” birth, and live happily ever after. However, my water broke on a Sunday night, labor never started on its own, and I ended up being induced at a sterile, uninviting, local hospital. Two days after the water leak, 22 hours of pitocin-laden labor, and one round of stadol and phenergan (no epidural, though), my baby girl was born!

For awhile after her birth, I struggled to accept the way it all went down. I had put all of my intention and hope into having one experience, but got almost the opposite. I found it to be incredibly dismissive when others said things like, “well, it all turned out okay.“ I logically knew this, knew that it could have been much worse. Still, I needed to grieve the experience that I DID NOT have before I could accept the one I did.

Having looked at it through a thousand different lenses, I believe I have come to peace with the experience. Knowing what I do now, I can make more informed choices in the future, if I choose to have another child. And the beautiful bottom line (which I can now accept) is that I have the privilege of being the mother of an amazing little girl and I will do my absolute best to do right by her.

I cannot believe how my life has changed in three short months. Sometimes I find that my head is swimming with thoughts and emotions. Being that I am staying at home to raise our little one (something I am grateful to do), I often find myself with no adult outlet to express this wetness from the sea of motherhood; a sea so new and foreign to me. I have a feeling more and more of it will show up here.

Creative Wish List

I find myself aching to create lately. I'm mostly craving the fix of making paper goods. When I leave my job in April, I hope to give some of the students that I work with handmade, going-away bookmarks. Seems fitting, being a teacher and all. When Baby is born, I have a plan to mail out handmade announcements to family and a few friends. Problem is, I have a limited amount of time in which to acheive all of this!!!

Sometimes I think having certain things in order would help me get more done. I could be making excuses for myself, but here's a creative wish list anyway:

*a work table in a designated work area where I could organize and leave out my supplies (all the better to entice me with, my dear)

Wow- that's all, really. I think it would help me reach more creative goals (art journaling, stuff making). I'm surprised that is all I can list right now. However, I suppose it makes sense. My husband has a drum nook- without it, he would not practice. It seems like somewhere I need to create an art nook. If only I had a closet under the stairs like Harry Potter...

Yes, another blog.

After being inspired by other blogs that I regularly explore and read, I decided to create one of my own. I know, I know. There are already a gazillion other blogs in existence that no one reads. That doesn't really matter, I suppose. In fact, I think it makes me more comfortable putting mine out there because there's less pressure to make it the best thing since Web 2.0. So, hooray for blog saturation!



"No Earthly Idea (NEI)," will most likely be a home for my random thoughts, art projects, and creative exploits. It's call NEI because I really had no clue what to name it. I sense that there is some underlying meaning to it that I also find attractive, but have yet to fully suss out. When/if I get those thoughts organized, I'll let ya know!



Get ready for some imperfect grammar (hanging prepositions everywhere!), possibly interesting crafting/arting projects, and even more word vomit in the internets!



Have a great day!!!