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A year of Diptychs…so far
This year I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do a weekly challenge on Instagram. I figured it would be good for my creativity. For the most part, I’ve shot during the week specifically to make a diptych, but sometimes I’ve pulled from my archives to put the two photos together. I’ve only missed one week of the challenge, and that was due to being at the TSA State Conference. So why a diptych? What the heck is a diptych? A diptych is a set of two photographs used to tell a story. Below are my entries for the year…so far. I’ve posted the first nine weeks below. You’ll notice that I skipped week 8. If you’d like to follow along, follow #ourdiptychyear over on Instagram/
Week 1 Tombolo Books Week 2. Neelam Week 3 Sunrise, Sunset Hutchinson Shores, Florida Week 4 Paradeco Coffee, St. Petersburg, Florida Week 5 Orange Blossom Cafe, Bradenton, Fl Week 6 Emerson Point Preserve, Palmetto, Florida Week 7 Backyard Views, Palmetto, Florida Week 9 Into the Deep, Georgia Aquarium -
Happy New Year I’ve been knitting!
Happy New Year! I know we say this every year, but I can’t believe that the last year flew by. I had lots of personal changes, all good in 2022, which is definitely an improvement from the previous three years. I’ve also picked up my knitting needles again, and knitted this lovely wrap for my mother-in-law. When she was here in May for my master’s graduation, I offered to knit her a wrap. Over the years, I have knit her several things, and the last wrap that I made her, became moth food. She was so upset! I had her pick out some yarn from my stash, and she chose this lovely Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn. I belive that the colorway is Esoteric. The color is more true in the top right photo, but let me tell you, that yarn is a dream to knit with. It’s wonderfully smooshy. The pattern is Anica and I knit 35 repeats instead of 38 as the pattern calls for. My mother-in-law is tiny and this blocked out to be the perfect size for her. I knit this on size 6 needles. I think if I knit this pattern again, I would go up a needle size or two for a looser knit. This is an easy knit, perfect for evening knitting, and great as a first shawl project.
The second thing I started, is a pair of Christmas-y-themed socks. I had wanted to have these knit before Christmas, but I was trying to finish Anica, so I didn’t start these until after I had finished the wrap. The yarn is from Must Stash Yarn in the Reindeer Corn, Michigan’s Favorite colorway.
I love this yarn. It’s self-striping and delightful. I have several other skeins by her waiting to be knitted up. I thought that I’d have time to knit three pairs of Christmas-themed socks…I think I was delusional! These socks are almost finished and are going to my sister when I’m finished with them. I’m hoping to finish them up before I go back to work on Friday. I’ll cast on another pair once these are finished. I have another skein from Must Stash Yarn and then one from Nomadic Yarns. (the sock bag in the photo is also from Nomadic Yarns) I’ve never knit with their yarn, but I’m excited to get those on the needles. I also have the Carrie blanket on the needles that I started in the spring, but as it has been too hot to knit with bulky yarn sitting on my lap, I put it away until now.
Also coming up are two hats. One for Amanda and one for me. We are headed to London and Paris in early March and based on my research, even though it’s early spring, it can be chilly, at least for these Florida girls. When I was in Alpharetta for Christmas, I stopped in a brand new yarn shop called Unwind Knit Studio and picked up two skeins of worsted-weight yarn. I’ll post those skeins when I can get a good photo in the daylight.
I’ve also been picking up my camera more and I will post those next. If you want to follow me on Instagram, you can follow me by clicking HERE.
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Hurricane Ian, the aftermath
I don’t know where to begin. Relief that Ian didn’t hit directly as first thought and despair that it slammed into the coast about an hour and a half south of us as a Category 4 hurricane. I saw someone post that Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers Beach are decimated as is Ft. Myers and towns and communities all up and down southern Sarasota County, Lee, and Collier Counties. This storm has also caused catastrophic damage on the east coast as well, including flooding in Daytona Beach.
We rode out the storm at Southeastern Guide Dogs, my husband’s work. He is the VP of Information Management and Captial Projects, meaning he’s responsible for all the buildings and grounds as well as keeping the network up and running. Throughout the day and into the night we watched the wind and rain get stronger and stronger.
If you want to help South Florida recover, click HERE for an article with links to donation points. I would caution you against donating to anything coming from Gov. DeSantis’ office. His wife is in charge and there has not been any info on how that money is going to be distributed.
We are on day six at this point with no power. We are lucky that we have a generator and that the weather has been beautiful. I documented before, during, and after the hurricane.
This storm really bothered me. Knowing that it was headed right for us and at the last minute, shifted south is a weird feeling. Almost like survivor’s guilt.
About the photos: All shot on my Canon 6D with a Sigma 35mm Art lens. I’m really loving this lens and getting to know it. I’ve had it for about a year and haven’t done much with it but am loving the versatility.
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Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian as seen through lens fog Not going to lie, this one is giving me lots of stress and anxiety.
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Moooooooooo!
As part of my new job with the school district, I get to see all aspects of our Career and Technical education departments. One of the things that I am looking forward to is learning about all of the Career and Technical Student Organizations that our county offers. I got started in CTE through my work with TSA, the Technology Students Association. While I know TSA backward and forwards, I know very little about the others, HOSA, FFA, FCCLA, SkillsUSA, etc.
Imagine how excited I was to be able to get to see many of our FFA students raise animals for the competition and auction at the county fair. The first ‘official’ event of the fair season is the steer weigh-in at the beginning of August and I went out to get some photographs and video. I had a blast! To see these kiddos manhandle these huge steers is impressive. On this day, the steers got vaccinated, had a DNA sample taken, and weighed. I had never seen the beginning process, so this was all fascinating to me. These kids put in a lot of work to raise, feed, groom, show and sell their animals. It was really cool to be able to talk to some of these kids about their animals and see how excited and knowledgeable they were about the process. I can’t wait to follow them until the fair in January. If you have a local fair that showcases local students, please go and support them. They are the future of farming in America.
Off to be weighed Curly-cue I’m pretty Checking ear tags and getting vaccines Waiting their turn. -
Project 365 Month 1
I managed to complete an entire month of my Project 365! Can I make it through month two?!
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Happy New Year!
I hope that your New Year celebrations were fun (if that’s what you are into) and that your 2022 is off to a great start. Today was my first day back at school, it was a Record Day for teachers and tomorrow is our in-service day. Kiddos return on Thursday, which will make this week a very weird one for all involved. I have to say that I am excited about this year. I have some really good things coming up. I graduate from grad school in May for starters! With my master’s in Career and Technical Education, I hope to move mostly out of the classroom, or at least out of the position I am in. I am scheduled to take a new position next school year that would have me teach half-time and oversee a new program the other half. Hopefully, that will happen. I’m excited to pull out my knitting again and to be here on the blog more. I really have missed it and it’s been great to ease my way back into writing on a more consistent basis. I’m also going to sit down and come up with a posting schedule to keep myself consistent.
I’m not really into resolutions, because I think it’s a setup for failure, but I do have a few things that I’d like to accomplish this year on a personal level. I’ve already mentioned knitting and the blog, but I’m looking to start a podcast. I used to work in radio years ago and would love to see if I can pull that knowledge back up. I am also getting into more photography projects. I’ve challenged myself to a Project 365 so let’s see if I can actually ‘intentionally’ take a photo a day. I’m going to try to post them here on a weekly basis, but you can follow along on my Instagram.
I do want to share a couple of photos from a photoshoot I did in December. I’ve been photographing this family for seven years now and Lily wanted to recreate a photo from the first shoot that I did with them. The kids were in 2nd and 3rd grade and now they are in high school. Eli, the youngest, wasn’t born yet. In fact, their mom was pregnant with him in our first shoot. The first photo was shot in 2014 at Emerson Point and the second one was shot last month at Coquina Beach. We are actually going to go back to Emerson Point this year to recreate it exactly with the same point of view. Fun fact about the first photo, I entered it into the Manatee County Fair in 2015 and won the Paul Bartley Award for the photo that best represents Manatee County. Honestly, I had only been shooting a year, and this was such a proud moment for me. The last photo is of all three siblings.
Enjoy the rest of the week, hopefully in the next post, I’ll have a photo of my latest knitting project. It’s just getting started, but at least it’s a start!
Lily and Mason November 2014 Lily and Mason, December 2021 Lily, Eli, and Mason -
Good-bye 2021
In 2021, I lost my father, making my siblings and me, orphans. Adults, yes, but orphans, nonetheless. After my mom died in 2019, I knew that sooner, rather than later, we would be also burying my father. In some ways, I was surprised, but in some ways, not. I was very fortunate that I was able to go home the week before he passed and see him. Something, I didn’t have the chance to do with my mom. For that, I am grateful. Losing my dad in February just made the year all that much harder, and it had just gotten started. It colored everything, and I don’t think I realized at the time how much that it has affected me. I felt untethered and adrift for much of the year. I’m just now feeling like I am maybe emerging from that, but it’s still difficult as many of you are all too aware.
I plodded through three semesters of grad school, hating nearly every second of it and just praying to get through the final semester beginning in January. Teaching has been much more difficult this school year than last, so much so that I will either find a way out of the classroom in 2022 or will leave teaching altogether. It’s just been rough. Bacchus, our Italian greyhound, passed away on Halloween at 12 years old, so that hit us pretty hard. I know that many many more people had it much worse than us, but I will be glad to put 2021 in the rear-view mirror.
While it seems like it has been all doom and gloom, it hasn’t. Sága, one of the puppies we raised and that became a guide dog, retired due to some issues with her handler, and we got to adopt her, bringing us to four yellow labs in the house. It’s never a dull moment. Joel and I took a quick vacation to St. Augustine and had a wonderful time! It was nice to get away and we plan on going back soon. All of us have had our vaccines plus a booster, and Amanda had her textbook published in October! In November, I had a life-changing surgery that maybe I’ll share in a future post. I’m determined to have a better 2022.
So, for 2022, my goals are to get back to regular blogging and I’m adding a podcast! More info on that later. I am also planning to do more things to feed my creativity. I’m going to participate in a 52 weeks photo project and I’ve picked up my knitting. I’ve also cleaned out my craft room and purged it. I’ve kept the things that I want to create with, so I’m excited for that. Knitting is back too! I’ve pulled out some yarn from Must Stash Yarn and started on a shawl. I’ll do a blog post on it in the next couple of days once I can get a good photo of the yarn. I may bring back the Hurricane Sock Party from 14 years ago so if anyone wants to participate, leave a comment, and watch my Instagram for more info.
I wish everyone, a safe, happy, and joyous New Year. Let’s make 2022 a good one!
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Look! A Squirrel! Blogmas Day 4
Today I had to go out to Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island to photograph a very sweet family. I have had the privilege of photographing them for seven years now. (I’ll post sneaks tomorrow) While I was waiting for them, this squirrel decide that he(or she) would be my model. It was a nice way to spend the time. I shot these on my iPhone with minimal editing. I think the only thing I did was crop them a little bit.
Thanks for posing for me Meanwhile, back at home, Amanda is puppy sitting this one, Luna is seventeen weeks old. Our dogs can’t be bothered. Poor thing, she just wants to play, all of the time.
How is your weekend going?
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Blogtober, Crafting, Daily Life, Florida, Knitting, photography, ravelry, socks, Southeastern Guide Dogs, yarn
Weekending
Vintage Bass Drum Southeast High School Last week was Homecoming Week at work,which was a sad state of affairs given all the measures that we have had to use this year in order to be able to even be in school. One thing that has remained constant are the War Drums that are played from 7:30 am until kickoff at 7:30 pm on Friday. With Covid-19 protocols in place, Homecoming Week was a sad state of affairs. With only a third of the students on campus due to e-learning, Hybrid pans and five day a week plans, there just wasn’t the same spark. No face painting, no pep rally, no dance, it was nearly disheartening. We lost, mind you, so that didn’t help. I wanted the game from home via our school’s TV broadcast. It was a fairly relaxing evening with the dogs.
Cricket peeks around my shoulder. Finally! Saturday morning, Amanda had to be back at school to film something for the Florida Wrestling Hall of Fame and after that, we went to our local county’s Democratic HQ and managed to get our yard sign! Amanda has been volunteering for the Biden Harris campaign by texting voters and is working with Vote Forward to write letters to undecided voters. I’m so proud of her!
In pursuit of some relaxation, I pulled out yarn for the first time in forever and found a pattern for a pair of ankle socks. I now remember why I used to love knitting. I instantly relaxed. I have made it a point to try and knit a bit every evening in an effort to try and do a little relaxing. The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock that Rock in Halloween Town–Mediumweight. and the pattern is Rose City Rollers,
BMFA STR Halloween Town And finally to cap of Sunday, I was out at Southeastern Guide Dogs and after the early morning showers, I saw this:
Have a great week everyone and I’ll post something soon!