Chamomile

Chamomile, originally uploaded by Martha {Dancing Monkey Jewelry}.

Sometimes I get caught up in capturing the perfect image and will reject every photograph that I have taken during a particular outing. Even during a successful photo outing I'd say only about 25% of my photographs turn out. This would be a real problem if I were shooting with film as the cost would be prohibitive with the cost of developing. With digital photography there a certain freedom knowing you can take as many photos as you want and it doesn't cost you thing to "develop" them. I love that.

Sometimes though, I embrace "The Blur" and am taken with a particular image such as this one. I don't know what I was trying to accomplish when I took this photograph - but I like the results.

Vacation Myth #1: They're relaxing

What do you do when everything seems to be going wrong for you? Me? Well, I can't seem to hold back and next thing you know I'm calling my family, texting my friends, posting on my social network sites and writing about it in my blog. For some reason it's very therapeutic for me - let's me work out my angst and get words of encouragement from those who know and love me. The problems don't go away but it's nice to know that other's have similar experiences and have come through relatively unscathed.

I've been on vacation for the last week. We have family visiting from England - Amar's sister and her family. For the most part it's been quite nice getting to spend time with them. Throw in a couple of illnesses, a cranky old dog (as seen on the left) who isn't tolerating small children and the transmission going out in my car in the middle of an outing and I'm telling you I'm seriously considering not taking a vacation for a very long time.

What's even more stressful is that I've got one week left of vacation and I don't think I'll be able to survive week two if it is like week one.What are my plans? Well...I'll be relying on public transit to get to work and home for the new few weeks. Transmissions repairs are quite expensive my web research has told me - so there will be a fair amount of scrimping and saving. And then I'll be trying to generate some sales in my on-line shops (hint, hint). All in all, this hasn't been a banner year for me (along with a lot of other people) so I'll be happy when 2010 rolls around - I just want to be done with 2009.

So...if you want to help out a fellow crafts person/photographer/blogger and make a purchase from one of my shops (or even leave some words of encouragement on my blog) I'd be most appreciative. Right now I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a swamp and I've lost my path to land in front of me and there are alligators snapping behind me. Not the best position to be in but at least I'm still standing.