January 2013 Photo a Day – Landscape

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..step back and take a photo of a landscape near you. Or even take a little trip just for the photo. Would be nice to explore your town for a beautiful photo

It was pretty overcast today and there was a grey hue over the entire city. I have lots of landscape pictures in my files but I feel I have used some of them once too often. There’s a large bridge close to my house and I often see photographers at the top of it taking pictures of the city. I always wondered what the attraction was so I drove over and parked the car on the wide shoulder and took some panoramic views. The bridge goes over the rail lines and downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario are off in the distance.

After taking pictures from the Islington Bridge I decided to drive over to one of the bridges that spans over the highway into to city. This bridge was a bit scarier because the railing was lower and the speeding cars below were intimidating.

For more landscape photos check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Stripes

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. look for stripes in your everyday. They could be in the zebra crossing on the road, or in your outfit or somewhere else

I’m a little behind with these challenges and I’m trying to catch up this weekend. As for the theme stripes I seem to have a wardrobe full of them. Apparently teachers wear a lot of stripes. It has something to do with being organized or was it being conservative. Well I don’t really fit into either category but I do like stripes.

For more January 2013 Photo a Day check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Electric

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…… this could be a simple photo of your toaster {but get creative} or something else electric

Our life depends on electricity. We use it to run our appliances, heat and light our homes, cook our food and run our computers and electronic games and devices. Without it we couldn’t write our blogs and post our photos. Funny thing is that in the summer I live without electricity for weeks at a time at my cottage and don’t miss it. Electricity is something we take for granted until we experience a blackout and are forced to adapt.

The challenge is to take interesting photos that highlight the word electric.

In the first picture, you see a bright light coming from a person’s yard where their children were out playing in the freshly fallen snow. The second picture is a light standard next to a local skating rink. I tried to capture the large fluffy snow flakes that were falling in front of the light and this is what I got.

For more photos for the January 2013 Photos a Day check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – What You Do

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. do you go to school? Train elephants at the circus? Write at home? Play mum to your kids? Act as CEO to a big business? Paint in your spare time? Dance when no one is looking? Take a photo of what you do {something that makes you ‘you’} and share

In my professional life I teach library and art in a junior school.

In my personal life I love to read, paint, walk, shop, craft, can and take photographs.

Taking photographs while walking with my husband and dog

For more photographs of what other people do check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Something You Saw

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. go about your day with eyes wide open and take a photo of something you saw.

Yesterday the weather had turned from a balmy six degrees celcius on Saturday to a frigid minus 11. The day hadn’t gone exactly as planned. I had a breakfast meeting at 10:30 that didn’t involve breakfast. The meeting went well and when it was over I drove to the mall to spend the rest of my gift certificate. I bought costume jewellery that I didn’t need but I couldn’t resist the bargains and I do love jewellery. Then I stopped at the Lindt chocolate outlet on the way home and had the first food of the day…. dark chocolate samples.

When I got home I finally had a healthy lunch at about 2:30. K started making a great soup for dinner and while it simmered on the stove he decided to do our daily walk before dinner. His thinking being that when he got back he’d be ready for a hearty warm soup. Remember it was -11 degrees outside. Initially I opted not to do the walk. After my husband left to do the walk on his own I remembered that I hadn’t done the photo challenge for the day.

I bundled up and decided to walk east, the opposite direction that we normally do our walk. Eventually I would meet up with my husband and then I could turn around and walk back with him. I also thought that it would be interesting to see the city from a different point of view. It was already starting to get dark and the clouds over the skyline were reflecting the setting sun in the west.

I tried to get some shots of pussy willows that I saw on the walk but it was too windy and all the shots were blurry. The soup by the way was delicious. I probably should have taken pictures of that.

Check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com for more January 2013 Photo a Day Challenges.

I’m Honoured

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..today I received my first award

Today I received a nomination for a Liebster Award from Lakshmi loves to shop. The nomination came as quite a surprise and I love surprises, so thank you Lakshmi.

The Rules Of This Award Are:

List 11 random facts about yourself

Answer the 11 questions

Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers

Comment on their page to let them know

Tag the person who nominated you in your post

Eleven Random Facts About Me

1. The name on my birth certificate is Karola but my parents always spelled it Carola and most of my life I’ve been Carol.

2. I’m terrified of bears even though I’ve never had an encounter with one.

3. I worked in Germany when I was a teenager during the 1972 Olympics.

4. I was and still am a huge Beatles fan.

5. I hate housework but I hate a messy house worse.

6. I love surprises (good ones).

7. It’s very difficult to surprise me (most people give it away).

8. Except on our wedding day, I’ve always weighed more than my husband. Even when I got down to 132 pounds my husband was at the peak of his marathon running career and weighed 130 pounds. Neither of us have been close to those numbers in a very long time.

9. I didn’t start painting until I was in my late 40s and my style and skills continues to evolve and grow.

10. I could retire from teaching but I haven’t decided what my next career will be.

11. I’m afraid of heights and could never sky dive or go bungie jumping.

Lakshmi’s questions are:

1. If a fairy came and granted you one skill you could have what would it be? 2. Where would you most like to travel to? 3. Where is your favourite travel destination? 4. What is your most memorable hotel stay? 5. And why? 6. Do you keep a diary? 7. If you have a “next life” what do you hope to be? 8. What do you love about yourself? 9. What is your favourite colour? 10. What is your favourite movie? 11. I love cats…do you love animals too?

My Answers:

1. If I could have one skill it would be playing the piano.

2. I would love to travel to Italy.

3. Right now my favourite travel destination is the Netherlands (the fact that my son lives there might have something to do with my answer).

4. and 5. My most memorable hotel stay was at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto on two separate occasions. The first was my wedding night and the second was a spontaneous overnight after the ballet. The second time around we didn’t have a change of clothes and we went to breakfast in our formal wear from the night before.

6. No, I don’t keep a diary. I’ve started diaries many times in my life but never followed through for more than a couple of weeks. This blog is the closest thing I have to a diary and is a lot more fun.

7. In my next life I would be an artist or an entertainer.

8. I love my creative spirit and spontaneity.

9. My favourite colour is red.

10. My favourite movie is The Wizard of Oz.

11. I love animals but I am more of a dog person.

My Eleven Questions:

1. If you could be any famous person from history who would you be?

2. If you could choose anything what would your last meal consist of?

3. Where in the world would you most like to live?

4. What languages do you speak?

5. What is your favourite name for a boy? … a girl?

6. If you could change careers what would you like to do?

7. What is the most dangerous or reckless thing you’ve ever done?

8. What is your go to meal when you get unexpected company?

9. Do you have any regrets in life? or what would you do differently?

10. Who was your favourite teacher and why?

11. What would you like to invent?

Nominating 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers is going to be difficult. I follow many blogs but a lot of them are well established and I have no idea how many followers they have. The list is pretty diverse and I love them all. Some of my favourites have already received this award so I haven’t included them. Here is my list of bloggers that I’d like to nominate for the Liebster Award:

http://annesturetucker.com

http://fingerforkknife.wordpress.com

http://chicenvelopements.wordpress.com

http://afatmansjournal.com

http://garyschollmeier.com

http://kenknieling.wordpress.com

http://conorcullen.com

http://jingsandthings.wordpress.com

http://hannahsartclub.wordpress.com

http://katescreativespace.com

http://aglasshalf-full.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Delicious

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….what’s delicious to you? Is it the chubby cheeks of your toddler, the hunk at the gym or a cake you plan on eating for afternoon tea?

Delicious for me usually involves food but lately the colour of food determines how delicious it is. I no longer crave ‘brown’ foods and I am drawn to green, orange and yellow foods. More and more of our meals involve salads and lots of colourful vegetables.

For more delicious photos go to http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Shadow

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……find a shadow and shoot it. It could be your own, or a shadow of something else.

I don’t know if anyone else is having the same problem but if you are could you tell me if there’s a solution. Lately when I ‘publish’ my posts and preview my work I’ve discovered one of two things. If I edited my post over the course of my writing period I’ve discovered that my ‘published’ piece is not the one I published but an incomplete post that I had saved to draught. The other thing that happens is that after I publish, the post goes back into draught mode. I’ve often wondered why no one was going to my blog, only to discover that it wasn’t published. Very frustrating because I don’t know what I’m doing to finally make the publish function work. Sometimes I’m republishing the same post a half dozen times before it works. HELP!!!!!!

Today’s challenge involved getting photos of shadows. It’s been pretty cloudy the last little while so shadows have been non-existent but just before the New Year I was having some fun on one of our walks after the big snowfall.

For more photos of shadows go to http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Ready

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. Is it a photo of your dinner being ready? Or you ready to catch the bus? Or something else. It’s a toughy – but it will get your mind thinking!

It was snowing tonight and very cold as we went out for our walk. The whole time I kept thinking about what to do for this challenge. I was looking forward to a hot cup of tea and the chicken we had for dinner was waiting to be cut up so that I could use the carcass to make a chicken stock for future meals. Consequently my photos represent getting ready for tomorrow’s lunch, getting ready to make the stock, being ready to dig out if the snow continues throughout the night and ready to enjoy my tea and one of two new books that I picked up from the library after work.

January 2013 Photo a Day – Two Things

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. look for things in pairs today. Is it a lovely old couple that you see from behind? Or the salt and pepper shakers sitting on the bench? Find two things and take a photol