I’m participating in Louise Gale’s Creative Color Challenge. At the beginning of the month, she posts a color and a palette around that color. The participants then make something based on that color.
January started off with Pantone’s color of the year Tangerine Tango. So while I was out and about this month, I kept my eyes peeled for something in that shade that I could make an image. I found it in Rockwall, Texas while at a photography retreat.
I’ve been busy testing software at work. That means I often come home at the end of the day and the last thing I want to do is get on the computer and type some more. However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had some time for play. I’ve been playing with the Hipstamatic, PictureShow, and Instagram apps on my iTouch. These three apps make shooting with the iTouch so much fun. And it being fun means that I’ve kept up my streak of pictures since December 27th. So that make 17 days straight so far.
Today I got out of work a little early. I had to go down to the George R. Brown Convention Center and pick up my race packet for the El Paso 5K. I won’t be running – I’ll walk the 5K but I’m glad I am participating. I also spent some time making some images downtown. My favorite was finding a Dia del Los Muertes Skull outside of Ben’s Beans.
I love finding bits of street art around Houston and have started a collection of images based on what I find.
The other thing I’ve done fun wise this week is to create a tutorial for a technique I used in my Book of Days. In it I use Gesso and Adirondack color wash sprays to create a background for my art journal.
Gesso and Colorwash technique for backgrounds from Paula P. on Vimeo.
I’m looking forward to the three day weekend. Time for playing in the garden and decluttering. Next week is going to be a short week. I’m going to Dallas for a photography workshop and I’m taking next Friday off as well! I am looking forward to some time devoted to photography and creativity.
Guidance comes from multiple sources in my life. While I do pray for guidance, I’m not always good with the answer I receive and I do struggle with being an obedient servant. My prayers are mostly written, in long hand in a special notebook I keep for that purpose. Sometimes my prayers are answered in a very straightforward manner. Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out that the path I prayed for is a bit more crooked than I expected.
I also take guidance from my main squeeze. R is happy to give his opinion if I ask for it. Sometimes he doesn’t get the situation I’m explaining and it takes a while to give him the overall picture so that he can guide me. But in those situations the response usually is “when I worked in the shop, we’d throw hammers at each other to solve issues like that.” My response to this answer is always, “Sorry Babe, you can’t do that in corporate America.”
R is great about thinking about what I said and giving me guidance.
The final place I try and get guidance, especially when it comes to my career is from my manager. What I like about his guidance is that he gives me a perspective that I might not had thought about before. At one point he mentioned me moving into management and I honestly wasn’t too keen on the idea. But when I talked to him about it later, he said that one of best parts of being a manager is working with someone to bring out their best. Now that is something I would like to do, but I still don’t think I want to do in a management capacity.
Do I take guidance? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. But I always listen to what’s being said and often times it makes me aware of behaviors or patterns that I wasn’t noticing before.
My picture of the year
The final concert for this year was Sting at Verizon Wireless Theatre. One more thing off the life list. Now I need to get some more goals on there!
More pictures to come!
I just about fell out of my car from laughing when I went through this town in Georgia today.
And I’m not sure where these were, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen statues like these.
This summer has been good for music. I’ve seen Arlo Guthrie, Peter Gabriel, Poison, and Motley Crue. I finished this summer up with Night Ranger, Foreigner, and Journey Sunday at the Cynthia Woods-Mitchell Pavilion. Here’s a few shots from the show.
It started with the Night Ranger Meet & Greet:
I laughed when I saw that the meet and greet wrangler had an abominable snowman on her walk talkie.
Me with Night Ranger (L-R Joel Hoekstra, Kelly Keagey, Jack Blades, Me, Brad Gillis, Eric Levy).
Joel Hoekstra, Brad Gillis and Jack Blades rocking.
Jack Blades and Kelly Keagey during “Sister Christian”
Brad Gillis during “You can still Rock in America”
Brad Gillis
Panning Shot of Joel Hoekstra
Kelly Keagey doing his thing at the Drums
Joel Hoekstra, Brad Gillis, and Jack Blades
Foreigner and Journey Pictures to come in the next post.
Although we didn’t get the rain needed in Houston from Tropical Storm Lee, we did get some clouds and some wind and the last two days have been gorgeous around here.
I caught this image on the way home yesterday from visiting my friends at Texas Art Asylum. The clouds make a nice contrast to the sun hitting the glass.
Then, just before I turned down Saturn Lane to head to the house I saw this glorious bit of sunset.
This past week has been really good. I spent time pursuing the things I love (photography and art), I got a few things done that I’ve been putting off, I tried a few new things, and I finished it up with this recipe for French Vanilla Ice Cream and had a lovely bowl of ice cream and strawberries tonight (the strawberries were ones that I froze earlier this spring). All-in-all not a bad way to end a vacation.
The best part of this vacation though is that I’m actually refreshed from it and not road-weary. I love going home to Iowa and seeing my family, but the long drive wears a girl out.
Yesterday was the last major “event” for my vacation. My sweetie and I took a trip down to Galveston to check out the Railroad Museum. It was a good date for both of us. I got to take pictures (well so did he) but he got to indulge in all things mechanical (which he loves). We got some great pictures!
R. took this inside one of the passenger railcars. I love the perspective on this image.
Another picture R took. The business end of a generator on a locomotive.
The kitchen in one of the Pullman cars. R took this one too!
This is probably my most favorite picture that R took yesterday. I love the reflection in the light’s lamp.
One of the lights outside the Museum. The building has some really lovely art deco designs on it’s facade.
The front end of one of the locomotives. I love the art deco lines.
The lines on one of the Stream Locomotives
Gates
Perspective shot down the side of the passenger rail car.
After Memorial Day weekend, I realized I needed a vacation. This is the first vacation that I haven’t gone back to Iowa in the last two years and honestly it feels nice to just stay home and not have to worry about travelling. I’ve managed to get a few things done the past couple of days. And on Monday, I get to go to a visual journal workshop! I’m so psyched because it fits with where I am at right now.
I kicked my vakay off by seeing Peter Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion. Here are just a few of the pictures I took.
This is one of the busiest weekends I’ve had in a while. It started on Friday night with going to a concert featureing New York Dolls, Poison, and Motley Crue. The concert was fun and I had a blast. I even took a small point and shoot camera with me and managed to get some decent shots.
Poison was by far my favorite band at the concert. My battery on my camera died during the Crue part of the show. The best part of the Crue show was when Tommy Lee took a ride on his rollercoaster set. He had the drums bolted to the platform and played during the ride. Here he is at the top of the loop.
Getting ready to sing “Home Sweet Home”
And then yesterday was TEDxHouston. So many great speakers and activities tied to the conference. I’m still digesting all of what I saw, but I will be writing more about what I learned and how my life is changing on here and on the Sustainable in Houston blog.
And now it’s time to get ready and work in the garden and spend some time with my sweetie.
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