A Life Half Lived...

Today is my birthday. I am now 45 years old.

With the life expectancy getting closer and closer to 90 these days, I have only lived half my life so far. I can choose to look at that as half my life is past or that I have half to live yet. Since I am more of a glass half full girl, instead of a glass half empty, I am going to look at all the exciting possibilities ahead.

Last year I made a list of 44 Things that I wanted to accomplish while I was 44 years old. I came up a bit short, but I found some of them weren't that important as the year went along. Some of them the circumstances just didn't work out right. I got 26 out of the 44 Things crossed off my list.

This year I making a smaller but broader range list, some are left over from last year's list and some are new. A Bucket List for the second half of my exciting life.

BUCKET LIST

• Watch a Sunrise
• Continue to improve my photography and writing skills through the platform of my blog(s).
• Visit more National Parks (I have been to nine so far, I will be adding 2 more this summer)
• Finish visiting the other 14 Ottawa County Parks that I haven't been to yet.
• Spend a whole summer on the Leelanau Peninsula
• More wine tasting adventures with Glen, this is one of my favorite things to do together
• Europe - Scotland and Ireland, revisit England and France's Normandy region
• Facetime or Skype or visit in person with more of my blogging friends
• Go away by myself for a couple of days to take pictures and write. This could be a yearly adventure
• Tenting - if this year's trip goes well, I would love for Glen and I to do more of this kind of traveling, with some hotels thrown in for a good sleep and clean up
• Be the Grandma to my future grandchildren that I wished I had been able to have
• Visit Disney World many more times
• Continue working out and keeping my body healthy and strong
• Maybe...learn to play golf
• Dabble more in mixed media art

If I thought about it long enough I am sure that could up with a ton more things.

It is very interesting looking at this list, I see myself becoming exactly who I want to be. This might be the clearest definition of myself that I have ever had: someone who loves to travel, photograph, write, be active and healthy, spend time with her family, learn new things and continue to build wonderful, new friendships. I might finally be able to write that "About Me" page for my blog.

The Girl with the Paisley Rain Boots

I didn't conscientiously set out to become the girl with the Paisley Rain Boots. Yet somehow, thanks to a self-portait class where in the beginning I only had enough confidence to take pictures of my feet, a rainy Spring and colorful rain boots, that is what I have become. I got so many compliments of those boots that I decided to use them as a springboard for a blog. A blog that could be as diverse as I am, where I could photograph and write about anything and everything.

This past week in the blogging class that I am taking, Susannah Conway's Blogging from the Heart, we talked about branding and how it related to us and our blogs. I have to be honest, I have never given  branding and how it related to me a single thought, but as we delved in the topic, what she had to say made a lot of sense.

I guess I have not thought about branding because I am not selling anything and don't have any current plans to sell anything, but who's to say that might not change in the future. 

The definition of brand:  Brand is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's product distinct from those of other sellers"^[1] Initially, Branding was adopted to differentiate one person's cattle from another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp, and was subsequently used in business, marketing and advertising. A modern example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.

Susannah made some very good points about branding your blog and your on-line presence as a whole:

• If there is something that recognizable about you, use it across all your social media platforms.
• Use the same photo of yourself across all your social media platforms. I know that there was at  least three or four different profile pictures of me out there, and only my Facebook one was current. I fixed that this week.
• Think about your color scheme, if you have one that distinguishes you, use it in all social media. For me it would be blues and greens. 
• Be consistent with your bio that you write on your blog and share shorter versions of that in the rest of your social media. 

So these Paisley Rain Boots have become my recognizable identity. I know this is true because of a comment I got on my blog recently from the teacher of one of the classes I was taking, she is not a close and personal on-line friend. She said "And those rain boots are so YOU! I would recognized them anywhere as yours. I hope I don't ever meet someone else with them, or I will have to tell them to return your boots to you".

What people have come to expect when they see those rain boots are some decent photos and a story written from the heart.

Now if only I could get Bogs, the makers of my boots, to recognize me :) I would love to be a rain boot tester for them.

Finding - Citron Green and Turquoise

This summer I have fallen in love with color thanks to Maggie Holmes and the Big Picture Class - Finding Your Photo Style. It is funny when I first looked at the styles of the six photographers teaching this class, Maggie's was the style that I identified with the least. It is a good thing I have an open mind :)

Recently I came across a Summer of Color Blog Party at Twinkle, Twinkle. I knew then that this was meant to be my summer of color and possibly my new photo style.

I had some fun this afternoon playing with Citron Green and Turquoise which was the color pairing for the first week of Summer of Color. I have been on the look out for things with these colors all week.

I am also joining Kim Klassen for Friday Finds. I found the perfect Citron Green pear at the grocery store on Monday. I have been keeping it nice and cold in the refrigerator to help it retain it's color.

The turquoise heart I found in a cute little gift shop this spring. The burlap is actually a bag that use to hold coffee beans. The wooden box in the background is a fruit box that I found at my favorite antique store.

I also had some fun playing with Kim's textures. This one has Sybil and Portrait. I tend to like a heavier texture look, the only thing I masked off is the pear.

**Note to self - next time remember to switch your camera back to RAW mode instead of medium format jpeg.

The Adventure Dogs

Yesterday - Mallory, the dogs and I set out for an Adventure Day

We were going to my little slice of Heaven here on earth, the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Lower Michigan. More specifically we were on a M-22 adventure. M-22 is quite a famous scenic route running through the Leelanau Peninsula and the Sleeping Bear Dunes area. Sleeping Bear Dunes was voted Good Morning America's "Most Beautiful Place in America" in 2011.

I had plans to take oodles of photos to document our adventure, but I knew that could prove to be a challenge with the dogs along. We don't usually take them on these kind of outings, where there will be quaint little towns and shopping involved. They go when we have a day of State Parks and hiking planned.

You see, they are Golden Retrievers and they get VERY excited when they go new places and see lots of people. They think that everyone wants to pet them and they want to be everyone's new best friend.

So I conscientiously put my camera away for the day (I did get a few shots here and there) and made the day as calming and enjoyable as possible for them. You see, Riley will be 11 at the end of month and Scout is 10, so just never know how many summers they have left to enjoy a day like yesterday.

After arriving in Leland, my favorite quaint touristy town, we got their initial excitement worked out of them in a cute little park. After that we were able to browse fairly easily. One of us would stay outside with them while the other went in and looked around. Scout was quite content to sit ON the bench with me, while Riley was a bit more antsy always looking for someone to pet him, but in general he sat or laid down.

We ordered bag lunches from The Village Cheese Shanty and took them to a nearby beach to have a picnic. That went extremely well. I had packed their food and water, and by the time they were done eating they were tired and content to lie under the picnic table while we ate our sandwiches.

After lunch we turned them loose on the beach. This is one of those tucked out of the way beaches that only the locals know about. Great expanses of sand and water, and very few other people around. They ran with the wind lifting their floppy ears, they chased after sticks thrown into the water, and rolled in the sand with great abandon. They lived their lives to the fullest yesterday.

We took two tired, wet and sand saturated Golden Retrievers home last night.

My kitchen floor has a fine coating of sand on it this morning, but that's okay. I have always wanted to have a beach cottage, where two happy Golden Retrievers are always tracking in beach sand after a perfect day of frolicking on the shore. Today I am pretending that I have that beach cottage.

The Summer List

Every summer we make a Summer Bucket List of all the things we want to do during this much too short of a season. Sometimes it is just a mental list we make in our heads, and then sometimes it is an actual written list.

This year it is a physical list.

The list always includes yearly favorites that have become a tradition like a KFC picnic lunch at the beach. Mallory and I use to always do this the last day of school. We can't do this on the last day of school anymore since the last day is in the beginning of May and it is in Upper Peninsula. Generally it is a little chilly for a picnic lunch on the shores of Lake Superior in the beginning of May.

A new favorite of mine that developed a couple of years ago is my mother's day present called the "One More Thing Day". It got that name because it was an additional note added to my presents one year with a description of a whole day planned out and paid for by Mallory.

We have added a few new adventures this year, like a baking afternoon, and a visit to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

I know that not all of these things will get crossed off of our list. Summer is too short, and she will be leaving for Montana at the end of this month.

I also know that this will probably be the last summer of these adventures. Next year as she nears the end of her college life, she will need to focus on getting an internship somewhere and I know that won't be near to home. My heart breaks...yet it is filled with joy. She has a very bright future ahead of her.

So for now I am doing to treasure every one of these adventures with my girl, and take an outrageous number of photographs to document these wonderful moments in time.

Photo - Heart Connection ~ May

The Photo:

My Observations: This photo seems contemplative. I am standing on the edge of something. I like how the top line of the boot toe box lines up with the sand/water line. I used a Lightroom preset to process this, aged photo,  and it perfectly reflected my mood on this overcast day at the beach.

My Heart Connection: Well these boots are obviously the inspiration for my whole blog. I love wearing them and the funny thing is that people now recognize me by the boots. I took this picture for a blog post I did on my other blog Becoming A Finisher. It talks about feeling like I am standing on the edge of something BIG and that I have been having this feeling for a while now. I am not sure what will happen once I step off the edge, or if I am suppose to stay on the edge a while longer. I do know that something exciting is in the works and I am scared but also very excited.

Linking up with Kat's May Photo Heart Connection

Turquoise and Orange

I am taking a new class at Big Picture Classes called Finding Your Photo Style. Each week for six weeks a different instructor shares their photography style, as well as, tip and tricks.

Now I have a fairly decent idea of what my photography style is, it does continue to evolve, but basically I know what I like and what I don't like, as well as, my comfort zone. And that is why I took this class, to step out of my comfort zone and try some new things. I may not like all of them, but I also like the challenge of taking what I am learning and fitting it into my style, so I can continue to improve and evolve my style. I have been feeling very compelled to work on my photography lately. I think the nicer weather and being able to be outside has helped that.

Our instructor the first week of class was Maggie Holmes. Her style is bright and colorful. Definitely not something I am use to doing. I generally shoot nature and things with muted or earth tone colors. Now most of these instructors are portrait photographers who have willing kids to pose for them. I could not find any willing participants in my house so I turned to bright and colorful props. It helped that the color prompt in my Facebook Creative Group this week was turquoise.

I found this turquoise "child's" shovel at my favorite antique mall this week.

Maggie challenged us to shoot bright colors in open shade outside. So these were taken on my north facing front porch in the morning.

This was my entry for our Facebook Creative Group.

I found this Robin's egg shell when I was out by the clothesline one morning, and I found the hunk of bark when the dogs and I were on a walk earlier this week.

In the afternoon I moved to my back corner garden. Good open shade but a bit on the windy side. I was having quite the challenge with the orange flowers.

Three important lessons I took away from this first week of class. 1) I like shooting things with color.

2) I LOVE turquoise and orange together. 3) I need to hunt for MORE colorful props.

Joining Kim Klassen's new FRIDAY FINDS link up party. Such a wonderful idea to stop and really look at the things around you whether purchased or found in the yard.