Hair of the Dog (Project 365: 2/365)

Today was Furminator day for Buddy. Giant, hairy dogs, Furminators and winter time static do not go well together, thus I got a smaller pile of hair off of him than usual. Giant Dawg loves to be brushed, but Giant Dawg doesn't dig static.  (As a heads up, you can expect to see quite a few dog shots during this project.  ;) )

Project 365: 1/365

And Project 365 begins!  Today we took Portia & Celeste out to lunch and bowling before they both head back home tomorrow.  Still recovering from last night's New Year's Eve party, but bowling helped to get me moving.  It's been a while since I've bowled for real (as opposed to Wii bowling).  I won both games - score!

Happy New Year! I hope 2010 is awesome for everyone!

December Monthly Scavenger Hunt - Completed!

In addition to the "All New Scavenger Hunt" I participate in, this month I also joined the "Monthly Scavenger Hunt" group on Flickr as well.  It's a bit different as it is 20 items every month, no challenges, you can use photos from your archives and the hunt items are vague.  This allows  more creativity to go into each hunt item.  For example, the photo of Blue with the Santa hat on was for the hunt item "Grinch, Humbug or Scrooge".  Plus with my time constraints it's more feasible for me to complete (though I do still participate in the ANSH as well).  You can see the full size photos here.

Yay me!  Friday starts Project 365 - wish me luck, I'll need it!

And It's Over...

Almost as quickly as it starts, Christmas is over and done with.  It was a great holiday spent with family and friends.  We had four family gatherings over the last week and several impromptu friend gatherings.  And to top it off, I'm on vacation until January 4th!  New Year's is next on the agenda, which means it's time to start cleaning my house so it's in decent shape for New Year's Eve.  We're having a few friends out and New Year's always ends up being a fantastic time!  This year Jason is making his yummilicious Guinness chili to add to the festivities.  I'm sure lots of photos will come of that night!  But for now, here are some family photos from some of our various gatherings  (sadly there were a few where I took my camera but failed to take any photos).

Buddy's first Christmas present

Lois Lane with her new stuffy (which already has missing appendages)

My niece Taylor all snuggled up

Momma

Jeremy & Amanda (my brother and sis-in-law)

Mama Rosie & Melvin

Cousin Adam, Aunt Cindy & Melvin

Portia

Dad & Mom

Cousin Matt & Abby

Grandma Parson

Abby kicking of the annual Dirty Santa game

Dad & Taylor

Jason & Taylor "wrastling"

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my readers!  I wish you all a fun, safe and healthy holiday!

Two Down, Two to Go

Two Christmas gatherings down, two to go.  One more on Christmas Eve at my mom's for the "big family" party and then we head to Jason's mom's on Christmas morning.  Then on Saturday we move the rest of Portia's items for her room and the evil rabbit to her mom's house and then sweet relaxation until New Year's Eve!  After tomorrow I'm off work until January 4th and I really look forward to the time off. We don't have much of anything planned between the 26th and 31st and I like it that way.

Hardy has a birthday coming up on the 25th as well!  Old fart will be 16 years old (our closest guess).  He doesn't do so well in the cold weather these days so I broke down and bought him a couple of sweaters to wear outside.  He likes them so much I'm just leaving one on him all the time.  He's such an old man - full of wire hair and warts.  I'll try to get a photo of him in his new digs.

Until then, Merry Christmas!

Project 365 in 2010

Today I was thinking about what some of my goals will be for 2010.  There are the usual financials, work improvements, healthier lifestyle type deals, and believe me, there are plenty of those goals...but I also want to make a fun goal in something that I enjoy. In 2008 I completed Project 52 - a photo project that requires the participant to take (at least) one photo a week for one year and post it to some sort of group, in my case Flickr.  I successfully completed this project and you can see my Project 52 results here.

In 2009 I dabbled around with some photography scavenger hunts and have had a really good time with them.  However, with a new year brings a new project.  Project 365.  Project 365 is similar to Project 52 however, you guessed it, it's a photo a DAY for one year.  I wanted to do this in 2009, but work schedules and time restraints told me it wasn't feasible.  That may still be true now, but I think I've become more comfortable with my photography and my photography style that it will be more likely to happen now. Plus I have a drive to learn more about it and what better way than to force myself to take a photo a day and try to make it at least a decent subject matter?  On top of that, I plan to post each daily photo to this blog (among my usual ramblings).  I don't know how far I'll get with it, but I think it's worth a shot!  And I'll continue to keep up my scavenger hunts as well - they are great fun!

So in the new year, prepare to see more posts, more photos and with any luck at all I'll meet my Project 365 goal, even if you do see a lot of future photos of my dogs.  :P