30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 28, 29 & 30

Day 28: Flowers.
Mums the word on these fall flowers that hopefully bring cheer to the mailman everyday as they sit on my front step.

Day 29: Black and white.

McDowell Lawn Service hard at work cleaning up my yard in preparation for winter! 

Day 30: Self-portrait.

That's A Wrap!  My final picture of the challenge.  It's been a fun ride!  Maybe I will make it an annual thing??  Thanks for following along this month.  Be sure to check back in a few days to see the 30 Day Photography Challenge Blooper Reel!

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 26 & 27

Day 26: Close-up.
Can you guess what this is???

Day 27: From a distance.

...you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for. 

Okay, now that I have my Bette Midler fix in there, onto the photo of the day.

Did you guess what Day 26's photo was??  If you look close at Day 27's photo below, you might be able to figure out what Day 26's was.

Day 26 is a close up of the Flatiron building in NYC.  The building is on a framed print in my living room.

Day 27 is the Flatiron print from a distance.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25

Wow, I am behind on my photo posts!  I am sorry!!  I did in fact take a photo a day, I have just been too consumed with other things to dump the pictures off of my camera and blog about them!

Here goes:

Day 20: Bokeh.
Yeah, I had to ask (ok, not ask, but look up) what that word meant too.  I won't bore you with the long description from Wikipedia, but in a nutshell, Bokeh is when you have your main subject in total focus and the background objects are blurry.  Again, this was meant for someone with massive photography skillz and a honkin camera...I won't pretend that I actually knew what I was doing to get this shot--I think I tried 58 times to get the shot below, and even after 58 tries, it's not that great.  You will see some of the other 57 not-so-hot shots when I do my "out-take" reel at the end of the 30 days.

Day 21: Faceless self-portrait.

Probably the most difficult shot to try to pull off.  I don't know if this actually qualifies as "faceless" because you can still see part of my face, but it's my Photography Challenge, I'll use it if I want to.

Plus, this picture makes me think of "Wilson", the neighbor in Home Improvement.  He wore the same kind of hat; although with him, we could only ever see the top of his face, not the bottom like on mine.

I feel like Tim Allen should be popping over the fence any second now to ask for my advice on Jill & the Kids.

Day 22: Hands.

Thanks to my lovely mother and sister-in-law for allowing me to tinker with their hands to get a decent shot.  It would have been pretty tough to take a picture of my own hands.

Day 23: Sunflare.

I was worried about this one--it didn't look too promising on the screen on my camera, but I think it's one of my faves from this Photography Challenge so far!

Day 24: Animal.

My "niece" Ms. Maize Mae.  She hates posing for the camera, so I was very lucky to get this shot.  She prefers sniffing around the yard and barking at the squirrels to having her picture taken.  She sure is cute though, isn't she?  She's Beauty!!

Day 25: Something pink.

I had another "something pink" in mind, but then spotted these golf balls sitting on my shelf and placed them on my pink comforter.  As I was taking the picture, I realized how fitting it was being that the golf balls are for Breast Cancer Awareness and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!  I couldn't have planned it better, myself!  

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 17, 18 & 19

Day 17: Technology.

Day 18: Your shoes.

Day 19: Something orange.

Going Postal (Again!) at the bank

**Warning: Blog Post is shorter than it appears**

I am not going to tell the full story on this post for a few reasons:
A. I've told it a bunch of times already and chances are, if you are reading this, someone you know knows the story and can give you the in depth details and what "profanity" was actually used.
B. It's WAY to long to tell over type.
C. I've wasted two lunch hours, a few emails and several tried-but-no-answer-calls on this subject and I am about to be over it!

Anyway, remember back when I ranted and raved about the line at the drive thru at Wells Fargo?  That problem was MINOR compared to this one.  Now, I don't want to offend anyone who works at Wells.  I know a few of you out there either work, have worked, or know someone who works for the lovely establishment and I know you are great people...this is just me telling my story.  Or, wait, I forgot, I am not actually going to tell my whole story, but you get the gist.

Here goes...

Why do all of my bank problems stem from going to cash a simple check??  And better yet, why am I still going to cash/deposit checks??  I should take the advice from a friend and just download the app to snap a photo and have it directly deposited into my checking account.  Then, if really need the cash that bad, I can go to the ATM (the one without a fee of course).  I am all about customer service and keeping the PEOPLE employed, rather than machines, but after the hell I went through the past 4 or so days, I may have to bow down to a machine for future banking services.

Anyway, here are the cliff-notes from my experience:
- Thursday, October 13th, 2011 -- go to bank to cash check
- get advice from teller to 'quickly come into bank and talk to banker to adjust minor error'
- banker suggests moving a credit card to another account for a lower interest rate (totally unrelated to my inside visit in first place)
- Sunday, October 16th, 2011 -- visit wellsfargo.com to transfer money (also unrelated), see accounts are a MESS (for lack of better, internet-friendly words) and nothing that banker/i talked about is showing up.  A mysterious $102 'transfer fee' has also shown up.  send email to banker, request IMMEDIATE response Monday morning-- leave work phone and email
- Monday, no word from banker.  A few call, but no-answer, calls.  Monday over lunch-- go back into bank, speak to banker.  Banker denies getting email but suddenly sees it in inbox while i sit in bankers cube.  After a few phone calls on bankers end to bankers higher above, the account issues are solved, but fee is not.
- Still Monday over lunch, 35 minutes into visit with Banker --  Banker is on the phone with person XXX higher above, wondering about that fee.  I hear banker ask if it can be waved or if Ms. Wright can split it with us.  Banker gets put on hold.  Leiann goes Postal.  Leiann says "no" probably 6 times to banker, refuses to pay one dime of that transfer fee for an issue she didn't even come to bank for in first place.  Throw in a few very harsh profanities and Leiann is out the door, semi-threatening banker that if she doesn't hear from them by E.O.D, she will come back and continue to hound until it's resolved.
- Monday 3:00, still no word from banker.  Try to call branch, no answer there either; Leiann is really starting to question "customer service" and if it exists anymore.
- Monday 4:00.  Leiann finally gets hold of Banker, "still no word, I am waiting on (insert name here) to adjust it."  Leiann says she would please like an email by tomorrow telling her what the scoop is.
-Tuesday AM: Leiann opens email to see no email from banker.  Leiann emails banker, noting that no email came through telling her what the deal with the transfer fee is.  Banker writes back saying they is still working on it.
- Tuesday about an hour ago -- Leiann must have left quite the impact on the banker, or it's all just an act, she's not sure.  See email below:

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 14, 15 & 16

Day 14: Eyes.
Joyce Rosenow, can you tell who's eyes these are?!?!  :)

Day 15: Silhouette.

Thanks to my lovely sister-in-law, Ashley for posing for the picture!  Luckily the sun was out on Saturday so we didn't have a photo failure like on Day 12!

Day 16: Long exposure.

I don't have a fancy schmancy camera, which I am assuming this Photography Challenge was meant for, so I don't have a lot of control over shutter speed, F-stops, etc., so I kind of winged it on this one!  I suppose I could have told a little white lie and pretended I am a huge bad-a$$ with the camera and knew exactly what I was doing, but I don't like to lie on my blog :)  So, here is my attempt at a long exposure.  Either way, I think the picture turned out pretty cool.  You can decide for yourself.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 11, 12 & 13

Day 11: Something blue.
--Kids, this is called a Pay Phone.  Back before cell phones, when people needed to use a phone while not at home, they had to pull their car over on the side of the road or stop at a gas station and use one of these.  You put a dime or a quarter in and you got to dial a number.  You only got a certain amount of time to use the phone or the Operator would cut you off if you didn't deposit more coins.  You could not text, email or check Facebook from these phones.

Day 12: Sunset.

I must be jinxed when it comes to 'sky' pictures in this photography challenge.  When I had to shoot Clouds on Day 3 there was not a cloud to be found and on Day 12 the sun was hidden behind a dark layer of clouds all day long, which made for a pretty pathetic sunset.  I was able to catch a glimpse of it through some small cloud breakage but otherwise, it's pretty sad.

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things.

I thought for sure I would have 13 chapsitcks/lip glosses laying around the house to shoot, but turns out I was a few short so I had to substitute a couple USB drives because they are roughly the same size.  The tube of Mary Kay is technically night cream, but I do put it on my lips at night.  :)

Oh, and if you look close at the grainy/poor lit (sorry!) picture, you might be able to see that one of the lip glosses is not actually lip gloss, but zit cover-up!  Waa haa haaaa!! 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 8, 9 & 10

Day 8: A bad habit.
Do you think it's necessary for me to keep all of my old plastic cups from the numerous Pub Crawls and random can coolers from my days at SCSU??  I don't think so.  We are having a garage sale in two weeks so I was rummaging through a bunch of old things to get rid of and these jumped out at me.  Also notice the abundance of seashell necklaces in the lower right from my travels to cheap souvenir shops.
If I haven't worn or seen them in 7 years, it's probably safe to get rid of them.

Day 9: Someone you love.

Rizzo of course.

Day 10: Childhood memory.

Whenever my brother Jeff and I would go and sleep over at my Grandma and Grandpa's house, we would rent Adventures in Babysitting EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.  How they sat through that movie with us probably once a month is beyond me, but they did!  I still love that movie to this day, hence the upgrade from VHS to DVD.  The blanket is also a memory because at the same Grandma's house, they had a blanket with that same pattern on it.  When I saw that vintage looking fabric at JoAnn's a few years ago, I had to buy it and make a fleece tie blanket out of it.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5: From a high angle.
The Dust Particles view (before they hit the floor/shelves) of my shelves right by my bed.

Day 6: From a low angle.

The Dust Particles (after they've hit the floor) view of my shelves right by my bed.

Day 7: Fruit.

Bananas and apples are pretty boring, so I threw a tomato in there because technically, they are a fruit.

*side note* the fruit is never sitting in the windowsill, i just put it there for a more 'classy' touch.  It's all about creativity in this project!

What a Job he did...

I wasn't sure if I was going to post about the loss of Apple Great Steve Jobs, but after viewing my blog today, I realized that Steve Jobs has obviously affected my blogging life.  Not only do I post blogs from my Mac computer (minus the few times when I blog via my 'droid phone), but I realized today more than ever, that the background picture of my blog is in fact, one of the first Mac personal computers.  I obviously knew this when I designed the background back in January, but today it really jumped out at me.  It's like Mr. Jobs was welcoming me to my blog and saying "hello" to me.
Farewell, Steve Jobs--your ideas and dreams will live on forever!

Steve Jobs (left) with one of the first Mac personal computers.  *image taken from Google images*

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 4

Day 4: Something green

Money...the symbol of American Happiness; unless of course you lose it or don't have any.

This post resembles two things today-- one being the subject of course; my "something green" in my photography challenge.  It also represents the amount of cash I had to put in the vending machine at work today to purchase a rinky-dink bag of already popped popcorn.  "Wow" you may be saying to yourself... "that's a lot of money for a small bag of popcorn".  The bag was actually 95 cents but of course when I put my money in and pushed the buttons, the silver twirly thing that holds the bags in place got stuck halfway and the bag didn't fall.  I remained calm and casually walked back to my desk and pulled out another dollar.  Back to the machine I go, expecting to put my buck in, press B4, and have the silver thing twirl enough for both bags to fall.  Of course, I expected wrong.  Just the first bag fell and the second bag was hung up on some other non-necessary mechanism in the vending machine.  By this time, I am losing my cool.  I bang the machine a few times and casually turn around to see a table of ladies watching me lose my battle.  I didn't want lose face in front of these women, so I said a couple snide remarks about the machine and they gave me the go-ahead to pound the crap out of it.  I did a few running shoulder shoves into the glass, but that damn bag wouldn't budge.  I finally gave up, but not without final payback... I've always ignored the little friendly reminders on the vending that tell you if you lose money, to fill out a form and "we will get back to you".  When I've lost money in the past, I figured it's not worth filling out the form and bringing it all the way down to Purchasing.  Not this time though, I had had it.  I was down a dollar and had a bruised shoulder--Aramark isn't getting away with my dollar that easy.  I filled out the little form and marched it down to the appropriate person...

I should receive my dollar back next week.  

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 2 & 3

Day 2: What you wore today.
This was one of a few outfits.  I picked this one because I had it on for he majority of the day-- cut off sweat pants and a grungy t-shirt...worn while outside digging up the plants weeds in my garden.
I am pretty sure the stain on the shirt is from an old tomato getting squished on me...I could be wrong though.

Day 3: Clouds.

For those of you reading this who live in Minnesota, there literally were no clouds in the sky at all today.  I searched and searched but could not find a single one!  So, I got a little creative...

this is technically still a real picture because i took it of the tv -- the clouds are just computer generated

Welcome Home, Boys

Remember the sad garden post from a couple weeks ago?  Remember the even sadder pumpkin I had growing?  Well the growing basically came to a halt and I knew it would never turn into the gigantic pumpkin I once dreamed of.  I knew it wouldn't turn into a carriage at the stroke of midnight and I knew Prince Charming wouldn't later sweep me off my feet because the mysterious glass slipper pink Croc fit my foot.  Anyway, I decided to take the little guy out of the embarrassing state he was in...laying in the grass all green and heartbroken, knowing that he'll never get that chance to turn bright orange and sit on the front step with a vanilla scented tea light glowing inside him...and I brought him home.
That's right, I brought him inside and gave him new life.  I dug out the ol' art supplies and gave him the best makeover he could ask for.  I replaced his sad green exterior with a ravishing orange hue, complete with an authentic brown stem and everything.  And instead of him getting his insides gutted out and lit on fire and his face getting sawed into triangles and squares, I painted a nice, yet somewhat creepy, face on him.  Then I glazed him with some Mod Podge to help preserve his skin for as long as possible.
I present to you, the creating of Mr. Pumpkin (pretty original name, huh?):

apple shown for size comparison...Mr. Pumpkin didn't have much to brag about.

A day or two later I saw his friend from across the garden dangling from a separate vine.  I debated on whether or not I should put him out of his misery or keep him dangling and attempt to grow a bit more.  In the end I decided to also put him out of his misery and bring him in.  I didn't give him the ravishing makeover like I gave Mr. Pumpkin, but I did leave part of his vine on his head for that "fresh from the garden" look.  I don't have a name quite as original as Mr. Pumpkin, so I am calling this one "Mr. Pumpkin's Little Friend".  Together they sit on my TV stand, all pumped up for October baseball.  With the look on his face, sometimes I like to think that Mr. Pumpkin is laughing at his little friends perm gone very bad.

Picture (hopefully) Perfect

I found this photography challenge on Pinterest a few months ago:

I've been wanting to put myself up to the challenge but always find a reason not to.  It's a big commitment but I figured with the first of the month being today, it's the perfect day to start my 30 Day Photography Challenge.  It's a simple, yet semi-time consuming task.  Basically it lists a different photo subject or style for every day of the 30 days.  I probably won't post my picture every day, I will  group them into a handful of different posts.  You'll just have to trust me that the picture was actually taken on the day it was supposed to be.  I will be honest if I forget or skip a day...I am not going to turn the Date feature ON on my camera...I don't want that yellow number mucking up the awesome picture project I am about to embark on!  :)

Day 1:  Self-portrait.
*note: it's not really cold out yet...I am just modeling the hand-made hat my aunt gave me today.