February photo challenge: Day 9

Day 9: Happy. The writing on my mirror says ' I am pretty; I am smart; and I am going to kick their asses.' Just a little daily affirmation to keep me going.

I will post days 6&7 in a bit. Plus i have a REAL post upcoming. Yippee!

February Photo Challenge: Days 4, 5, & 6

Day 4: Words








Day 5: Sunset




Day 6: Polka Dots

February Photo Challenge: Day 3 - Breakfast

February Photo Challenge: Day 2 - Up

February Photo Challenge: Listing

February Photo Challenge: Day 1

I decided to give myself a photo challenge for the month.  I cannot promise that I will actually post a picture everyday, however I will try to have a picture FOR every day of this month.  Seeing as the month is short, 28 special pictures seems more than reasonable.  (I will try to do normal posts as well.)  Since it is almost midnight on the first I wanted to get this 1st shot out before the end of the day.  I will post the list of all photos I plan to do in the next post! 

If you want to follow along and do some shots of your own with this 'challenge', let me know.  I won't have a link up, as I am not that well versed in such things; but you can leave me your blog information in the comments and I would love to check out your photos too!

Hope you like the pictures for the month.  I can't promise that they will all be good/normal/interesting, but I want to do some different things.  Today's picture is definitely in that category.  I am not happy with how it came out, as my poor camera just could not get the sharp, quality image that I was hoping for.  However, I tried my best with editing to make it interesting, if not a little creepy.

Enjoy!

Day 1: Eye (Sorry Mom, I know you hate things like this.)

Lake Snowden: Driving Around

Finally! My 300th post.  It is hard to believe that when I started this blog about a year and a half ago that I would still be doing it now and that I would have had so many page views! Thanks to everyone who 'check me out' from time to time. I hope you are all enjoying my photos. I know this 300th post should have come sooner, and I hope that 2013 will bring better pictures, more exciting posts and a larger number of posts! I am so close to being healed (at least that is what I am telling myself) and when I am better I will be walking, hiking, and exploring all over taking as many photos as I can.

My only worry is that my poor little camera is getting old and I hope it is able to keep going! I have had it for 2 years and it is showing signs of wear! I have grand dreams of a fancy DSLR camera, but reality (money) is not on my side for that! Oh well! I will tell myself that it is the true sign of an artist to work with whatever materials you have to create the 'best' work!

Moving on...the photos for the blog today come from a drive that I took around Lake Snowden Park last  week.; There was a little snow on the ground, the sun was setting and the air was bright and crisp! I really love some of these pictures and hope that you do too!

Enjoy these photos and pray with me that in the weeks to come I will be healed enough to get out more in nature (I don't care if it is cold) and to start some new adventures for this new year! Love to all and thanks for your support!

(Oh and this post would have been up sooner if blogger was actually working. I tried multiple times to get my photos on and it didn't work... Okay, I finally am uploading this only because I have added all the edited photos to my phone and now can do the post via my Blogger Ap on my SIII. Not happy but at least the post is up!)

Fear Survey...

I am working on a writing project and am trying to do a very informal survey.  If you could copy and paste the questions below to an email and then send them back to me I would be so grateful!  It should only take a few minutes to fill out and really isn’t too hard. 

Please send the responses to my email at: adbum20@yahoo.com

Thanks so much for your help.

1.       What are you afraid of losing?

2.       What are you afraid of failing at?

3.       Who are you most afraid of?

4.       What (object/thing/animal/etc.) are you most afraid of?

5.      What are you afraid of seeing?

6.      Who do you know that is fearless?  (Your perception.)  Why?

7.      At what time of day do you feel most afraid?

8.      How do you define fear?

Thanks again.  I won’t share your answers with anyone, these are just to help me get a better idea of some things for my writing from other people’s perspectives.  As some of you know, I am rather neurotic and my fears and anxieties are very high!  I thought when writing about fear it would be helpful to have some other people’s thoughts to work with my own.  If you don’t feel like answering a question, just skip it and if you don’t want to be too specific, that is fine!

Have a lovely day!  (Oh and this wasn't supposed to be my 300th post, but Blogger hasn't let me upload photos for the last several days.  So, I have my photos edited, the post written and everything is set; I just can't upload the photos into the post.  I have written feedback comments 2 times now with no fix or response.  My frustration grows...)

Calendar

I am so excited!  I just made myself a calendar on Colorful Images.com.  I've wanted to make one using all of my own photos and was thrilled to finally do one.  I used 12 photos from the past about 18 months and also put on some of my own poetry and sayings.  It may not be the best ever, but I am thrilled to have made it.  My own original piece!  I can't wait to get it and hang it up!  I'm going to put it where I can see it the most. 

Below I am posting a collage that I made to use as the cover.  They are the 12 photos that I used in my calendar.  Hope you like it!

Well, I'm not sure when I will post again as my next post needs to be spectacular.  It will be my 300th post!  December 2012 was my biggest month, viewer wise and I don't want to disappoint!  I hope you are all enjoying my photos and I will try, as I get back to walking more and hopefully at the end of January released to go back to work I will take more photos.  I am thinking about doing some big things this year and if I do it will probably mean some major things for the blog/photos!  Here's hoping!  :) 

 HAPPY, HEALTHY, LOVING, JOYOUS NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

First Snow 2012

We had our first major snow this past week.  I've been wanting to go outside and take some photos, but with my foot/ankle still healing it is difficult.  However, yesterday after we got home from lunch out for my little brother's birthday lunch I decided to walk around the house and take a few pictures.  A little bit of exercise is good for me, as long as I don't do too much.  So, I walked around the house and out back by the historical society buildings to get a few pretty snow shots.  I really love them and was just pleased to be out and taking photos.  I really miss having the opportunity to do that.  I have taken some pictures in the past month of family and such; but nature photography is really my favorite thing to do.  I am fervently praying that in the next month I will be released back to work and able to start walking more and get outside.  (Not just for photography, but to go home, lose weight, etc.  It's been 6 months almost!)

Anyway, here are my photos.  I am in love with them, but I think my eye is a little skewed right now just because I was so desperate to post and take some pictures.  I hope you like them!  Enjoy!

Embroidery Projects

Since I've had so much time on my hand one of my main gifts for Christmas this year was making embroidery pieces.  I made 8 in total for 7 different people.  I feel a little strange today not having something to work on, even though I've been dying to finish all of them.  Strange.

Anyway, I thought I would share the photos of my pieces with you now that they have all been gifted.  I am rather proud of them, even if they aren't perfect.  (And Kayla would gladly point out the part of one of my pieces that has a mistake.  I must remember not to tell her things like that.  She has a wicked memory and loves to share those things.)

Hope you like the photos and my attempts at 'creativity.'  I am putting the links for patterns that I was able to get for free so that you can make them too and to give credit where credit is due!  You can also find all of the free patterns on my Pinterest Sew like the wind: Embroidery Board.  My Pinterest is just listed under my name, April Bumgardner.

This one was made for my sister-in-law Angela.  I found the base balloon pattern here.  I then got creative with my own unique patterns for the balloons.

This one was made for my cousin Charlene.  It was the first one I finished and was a new type of embroidery for me that it was on a VERY heavily patterned fabric.  I found the dress pattern here.

This was made for my Aunt Eileen.  This was also a major experiment for me.  I stitched this onto scrapbook paper.  It was a bit harder than I thought, but the overall effect came out so neat I ended up doing 2 other projects on scrapbook paper.  (One was made for my niece for her birthday.)  I found the pattern for this design here.

Kayla, my niece, helped me pick this pattern out for her mom, my sister-in-law Megan.  The M can be either Megan or Mom.  The original pattern did not have all of the vines, but I felt it was a little lacking and added to it.  The base pattern was found here.

My cousin Michelle loves irises.  So, when I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it.  I really like the way this came out, even if all the satin stitching was a bit painful.  It was so worth the effect!  I found this pattern here.

This was another major experiment.  I made this design on scrapbook paper and added real buttons to the piece.  My Mom is obsessed with button crafts lately, so I thought it was perfect.  I really love the way this came out.  I think it is my favorite.  I found the pattern on this site.

This last design was for my Dad.  It is the only pattern of these that I actually purchased.  I just loved it though and thought it was perfect for him.  I purchased it from Urban Threads along with several other patterns that I will be working on for myself and others in the near future.

I have to say in closing how appreciative I am of all the wonderful people who post great free patterns.  I have no drawing ability and people who make these patterns and post them for use are wonderful.  Thanks so much for making my gift giving easy and affordable!