You Capture: the letter “L”

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

The latest You Capture assignment was the letter “L”. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take pictures of things that start with “L” or actually of the letter “L” itself. So I did both! Once I got in to it, I had a lot of fun. Believe it or not, there aren’t as many “L” words as you might think just lying around so I really had to keep my eyes open.

We’ll begin with pictures of the actual letter itself that I saw on everyday objects:

“Luck”

One of my co-workers had his last day at work and someone brought in a “good luck” banner. I liked the colors in it and this close crop made it really interesting.

“Luna”

My Luna bar (“Nutz over Chocolate” of course)! Again, I cropped it in tight to put the emphasis on the “L” and on the woman kneeling down. Ended up being a cool image though I wish I’d had better lighting.

“Lysol”

Everybody’s favorite germ killer! I’m glad no one was around the office the day I shot this one. The Lysol can is in the bathroom and it took a few shots to get it right. Had someone walked in, I would have looked really weird…

“Playtex”

I know, I know…that doesn’t start with the letter “L”. But it does have an ‘l’ in it and this particular font, and the way the “l” sits between the “p” and the “a”, was really interesting to me. Cropped in close like this it looks like eyes. Reminds me of an owl.

Now for the photos of “L” words in action.

“Lap”

Isabella sitting on Grandpa-pa’s (CJ’s dad) lap reading a book. She loves her books and she loves her Grandpa-pa!

“Laundry”

Would you believe me if I told you this wasn’t staged? Well it wasn’t. She threw a bunch of toys in the laundry basket, then climbed in herself and curled up with her puppy. I wish all laundry was this fun to pick up!

“Loll”

On our way home from her cousin’s birthday party, Isabella fell asleep in the car. When I opened the door, I found her just like this, with her woobie lolling out of her mouth, ready to fall out. LOL!

“Looking”

Looking out the window with Grandma (my mom), watching some neighbors walk by. She was talking away, naming all the things that she saw. So cute!

There you have it! The abstractionist in me likes the word images because they’re different and edgy. But the sentimentalist in me likes the people shots because, well, they’re of Munchkin, my favorite subject in the whole world!

You know, I was going to try and type this whole post using mostly “L” words but gave up after I couldn’t even get through one sentence. Like I said, “L” words aren’t as common as one might think!

Later!

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You Capture: Warm

You Capture: Cold

You Capture: Red

15Feb2011

You Capture: Warm

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

You Capture is moving to Wednesdays until American Idol is over (Beth’s new rule) so, now you get to see my photos a day early! 😉

I’m beginning to think that Beth from I Should be Folding Laundry can predict the future! Last week the theme for You Capture was “cold. And boy was it cold! This week’s theme was “warm” and guess what – it was warm! Who woulda thunk that it’d reach near 60 degrees in the middle of February. I hope next week’s theme is “millionaire”!

When I originally saw what this week’s theme was, I assumed I’d be shooting photos of things that keep me warm in the winter, like blankets or hot cocoa or a fireplace. But since the weather cooperated, I was able to go outside !

This was the first picture I took. It was last Friday when the heat wave started. I was at Target getting some last minute Valentine’s stuff and the sun was just blinding as I drove around the parking lot. I had to stop and take a pic (and got a few weird looks too)!

I took this one on Saturday, as I was coming out from getting my hair cut. The sun was shining right down on my car, which was parked next to this tree. The heat felt amazing!

Then I climbed in my car, turned it on, and saw this one the dashboard!

Yeah, I would say that’s pretty warm for February!

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You Capture: Cold

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

The You Capture theme for this week was “cold”. Gee, I’m not sure we’ve got enough of that around here…let’s just say the average high over the last week was like 15 degrees. Yeah, I’d say we had our fair share of cold!

Although, the concept of cold isn’t as easy to capture as one might think. I really wanted to get a pic of actual coldness, like that droplets of condensation on a glass of soda or someone’s breath as they’re standing in the frigid air but I didn’t really get the chance (nor do I have the right equipment to do it justice). So, I stuck with “cold” in my everyday life, because there was plenty of that!

This was the ice and snow on our deck Saturday morning as the sun was rising. I must have captured the “cold” of it because I’m getting a chill just looking at this pic!

Samson loves to destroy things. So we give him designated things to destroy, which saves our shoes and pillows from his jaws. Here, CJ stuffed treats and peanut butter inside an old plastic milk jug. Samson didn’t seem to mind the cold as he chewed on it though!

Snow play! This was Isabella’s second time playing out in the snow and she seemed to be enjoying herself. Of course our goal was to keep her from getting cold but let’s face it, snow, by it’s very nature is in fact, cold! I don’t think she minded too much!

Samson came out and played with us too. He definitely channeled his inner puppy as he ran round and round the yard, jumping and leaping through snow drifts!

“Ok, daddy, I’m ready to go inside now!” Actually, ironically enough, she was saying the word “cold” when I snapped this one. I got another one of her smiling but I actually like this picture better because the look on her face is so darn cute!

That’s it for this week! Looking forward to next week’s assignment. I hope it’s something like “tropical” because then I’ll have an excuse to hop a plane and head to an island somewhere away from all this cold!!

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You Capture: Red

You Capture: Happy

A Day in the Life of TTM – Weekend Edition

2Feb2011

You Capture: Red

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

This week’s theme for You Capture was “red”. Sounds easy enough but it was actually quite challenging. I mean, I didn’t want to just shoot every red thing I saw so I had to really keep my eyes open for some interesting and photo worthy “red” moments.

Here’s what I ended up with.

While this may not be an award winner in terms of photographic genius, I like it a lot because it’s my sweet little girl kissing her Elmo slipper. What could be more precious than that?

I could look at this picture all day because it reminds me of summer. Yummers.

I snapped this when playing blocks with Isabella the other day. The surrounding blocks are actually colored but I really liked the focal black and white. I think it really works with this image.

I’m noticing a pattern here – I take lots of pictures of food. Hey, what can I say, I like to eat! These little beauties were sitting around the office on Tuesday and calling out to me. I didn’t even have to use my super power to hear them.

This one was a happy accident. I was putting red lights up in Isabella’s room for Valentine’s and thought the bundle on the floor might make for a cool picture. Turns out, it did! I think this is my new favorite of the bunch!

So there you have it – Red!!

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You Capture: Happy

A Day in the Life of TTM

A Year in Review

30Jan2011

Day in the Life of TTM–Weekend Edition

Posted in Family, Photography by teamtradermom

A couple weeks ago I did the exercise of taking 1 photo every hour during a typical work day, based on the idea from Simply Rebekah. You can view the results here. Well today I decided to do it again, only as a way to document a weekend day! Turns out my weekends are way more fun than my work days. Who knew? Smile

7:30 a.m. – Rise and Shine

7:30 seems so early for a weekend but it actually is pretty typical for me. Isabella wakes up anywhere from 7 – 8 a.m. so I consider myself lucky to make it to 7:30! CJ is a night owl and I’m a morning person so he will stay up later at night when I go to bed early and then I will get up early and let him sleep in. Some mornings it feels unfair when I have to get up early but in the end, it means some extra one-on-one time for me and Munchkin, which is worth it!

8:30 a.m. – Breakfast!

Even though Munchkin wakes up at 7:30, we don’t pull her out of bed right away. Usually, we’ll give her a couple books to read and a few stuffed animals to play with. She is very content to hang out in her room for a little while, giving us time to make coffee/tea, let Samson out, and get breakfast ready. Today, we had waffles, cereal, bananas and milk! Or as Isabella would say, “Waffles, ceweal, nanas and mook!”

[Yes, I know that she’s wearing a Halloween bib at the end of January. You pretty much stop trying to coordinate bibs with holidays/outfits after about the first week.]

9:30 a.m. – Playtime!

The best parts of my weekend are when I get to play with Isabella. She has so much energy and is a lot of fun. Here, we’re playing peek-a-boo with her play house.

10:30 a.m. – Baking

Munchkin went down for her nap at about 10 a.m. so I decided to use that time to bake some treats. I’m trying to use up some stuff from the cupboards so I made chocolate peanut butter rice Krispy treats. They turned out AWESOME! Just ask Samson! Or me…I only at 3 of them at lunch….

11:30 a.m. – Cleaning and decorating

Once the treats were done, I started in on some cleaning. I still had my January snowmen out so it was time to put them away and break out the February décor. Now that Munchkin is old enough to understand some things, it’s even more fun to change the decorations around the house. Since she was napping still, I hid a few bears and other valentine stuffed animals around. When she woke up I let her find them on her own and her face lit up every time she discovered a new one!

12:30 p.m. – Lunch!

We had macaroni and cheese (or “ronis” as Isabella says), a quince, green beans and milk for lunch. And of course, rice Krispy treats!!

[We’ve now quickly advanced in holiday bib world from Halloween to St. Patrick’s day. We like to mix it up around here. That’s how the Trader’s roll.]

1:30 p.m. – Chillin’ with my home girl

We decided to take a break and watch some Sesame Street. Isabella has a bit of a cold so I thought she could use some quiet time. Plus it gave me the chance to snuggle with her, which I always love!

2:30 p.m. – Dinner Prep

Today I’m going to make roast and veggies for dinner. I’ll tell you right now that this is NOT typical of me. I hate cooking and will usually opt for the easiest thing I can whip together. But today I was feeling ambitious so there you go. CJ was at the grocery store so it took me about an hour to peel the potatoes and carrots because I had to stop many times to play with Munchkin, change a diaper, let Samson out or whatever. But it eventually got done and popped in the oven around 3.

3:30 p.m. – Photo editing

I took advantage of Munchkin’s afternoon naptime to edit some of these photos. Her afternoon naps are usually shorter so I was frantically trying to get done as much as possible. Fortunately, CJ came home around this time and played with her when she woke up, so I had a little extra time.

4:30 p.m. – More Play Time

But too much time away from her during the weekend is hard so I couldn’t justify “work” when she wanted to play! Here we were playing peek-a-boo with a Christmas blanket that is out year round because it was CJ’s mom’s favorite. I had it draped over my head and she’d come running up and sneak underneath saying “Peek!”. She gets such a kick out hiding and then being “found”! Cracks me up!

5:30 p.m. – Dinner!

Almost time to eat the roast and veggies! Mmmm….Here I was in the process of finishing up the gravy. Turned out pretty good. Not as awesome as my mom’s but considering it’s only the 2nd time I’ve made a roast, I think I did all right.

6:30 p.m. – Bath time!

Isabella used to hate baths. I mean she would scream bloody murder through the whole thing. It got to the point where we just dreaded bathing her. But eventually she got used to it and now she has fun in there. Here she was putting her toys up on the edge of the tub and then knocking them down. Caught this shot a split second before the fish came flying at me. Bath time ended though when she called her, um, “girl parts” a “pocket” and tried to put her woobie in it.

7:30 p.m. – Puzzles with dad

Samson looking on as CJ and Munchkin work on some puzzles. We usually try to keep the activities low key as it gets closer to bed time. Samson likes to sidle up as close as possible too so that we don’t forget he’s there. Now how could we forget about Samson? When he was a pup we called him the “sidler” because he would come up when you were sitting and lean against the chair but then scurry off if you tried to pet him. He was very conflicted in those early days and I think he wanted love but didn’t know how to accept it. Now he does though. As soon as I took this pic, I gave him lots of kisses and snuggles.

8:30 p.m. – Watching a movie

After Munchkin went to bed, CJ and I decided to watch the “Babies” movie. Our friend Sara lent it to us a while back and we haven’t had a chance to watch it. It was really cute and much more interesting than I thought a movie with no talking that focuses only on 4 babies could be. Samson laid over in the play corner while we watched it. He really wanted up on the couch with us but there wasn’t room so the whole time he laid there, he was eyeing my spot just waiting for his opportunity.

9:30 p.m. – Time for bed

As soon as the movie was done, I headed to bed. All 3 of us are fighting colds and I wanted to get as much sleep as possible. 9:30 is my usual bedtime though some weekends I live on the edge and stay up later. I always pay for it the next day though.

So there you have it! A typical weekend day for TTM! It’s hard to pinpoint a typical weekend for us because they change so much from week to week, but I think yesterday was a pretty good representation. The only thing NOT typical about this day was the fancy dinner. Otherwise, everything else was pretty right on.

On February 1st, I will be linking up with Simply Rebekah and all the other blogs that participated in her challenge. Go check it out to see what a typical day is for other bloggers!!

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Annexed: The Finale (aka, A Day in the Life of TTM)

A Day in the Life of Samson

The Perfect Day