#photoadayAUGUST: The Conclusion

So here's a quick post for the rest of August's photo-a-day challenges.  I say quick, because I am about to go update our food inventory, which hasn't been updated in months.  It has to be manually updated (I wish I could figure out a way for it to be automatic) so I've kind of neglected it these past few months because, honestly, I just haven't felt like dragging my laptop to the kitchen and examining every inch of our pantry & fridge.

As always, some of these need more explanations to really understand my thought process as to why I took a certain photo for a particular day, so feel free to visit my Photo-A-Day Pinterest board to clear up the confusion.  The good news, though, is that I only missed ONE day this month!  Hoping to make that zero days in September.

Now I'm off to update our inventory!  Expect a new post very soon, as I have some photos to share from a new addition we added to our house almost exactly a month ago!! 

Beyond My Comfort Zone

So... lately, I've had this urge to create an "official" logo for my design and photography portfolio.  I hate what I have now, it no longer seems to fit.  And I want something unique and original.  The problem is, I haven't really ever dabbled too far into designing logos.  The only professional logo that I can say I have designed from scratch is for my father's company.  And even then, he'd given me a pretty specific idea to work with.  This time, I really have no idea, other than that I want it to be original.

So I've started reading about other designers' processes when thinking up a logo and implementing it.  I never knew that Adobe Illustrator was a better program for creating logos either, I've always just used Photoshop (even though I do have Illustrator installed).  I'm going to be spending a majority of my free time studying up on how to effectively use the program... from what I've seen so far, the mechanics and layout of the program don't seem that different from Photoshop's.

Maybe I'm just subconsciously getting tired of Photoshop and this is my way of exploring something different.  Who knows?!  We'll see where this takes me.

The First Seventeen

So August's photo-a-day challenges have been just as fun as July's.  And I actually haven't missed a day yet!  Here's my collage of photos for the first 17 days:

Oh and Day 3's prompt was Coin.  For some reason I didn't notice that that one got covered up during the process of creating this. (And I'm too lazy at the moment to go fix it!)

That's all I have for today. :]

Fair Warning: FUN Ahead

"Take a chance
Take a step out on the ledge
Take a good look down and realize
It's all for you
For the night
I'm putting up a fight
I've opened up my eyes
To see a world I never knew..."
 —12 Stones, For the Night

So Jacques and I were able to catch a day trip up to Sacramento the weekend before last, right in time for the last weekend of the California State Fair.  When I lived in Oklahoma, I loved going to the state fair, I'm not sure exactly why, but it was just something I always did every year, either with friends or with family.  This is my third year in California and I'd never been to the fair yet, even though I'd wanted to go.  What sparked the trip this year was being invited by one of Jacques's friends. (Thank you Bryan & Anh!!)  And I have to say, it wasn't much different, except for all of the palm trees.  It brought back some memories though, good and bad.

Anyway, here are a few random photos that I took while we were there:

Overview of some food booths.

Bumper boats!

Repeating banners in the livestock building... thought it was a neat photo opp!

I noticed this patriotic ribbon wrapped around the post while watching a show on having some fun with baby cows.

Colorful macaw in the Floriculture area.

Closeup of a beautiful peacock in the Floriculture area.

Fountain with banners listing all of the California counties all around it.

Moment of Truth in your Lies

"And I don't want the world to see me
Because I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's meant to be broken
I just want you to know who I am..."
—Goo Goo Dolls, Iris

That song always takes me back about 14 years to when I first heard it.  I can say that for a majority of my music though.  It just never gets old to me.

Anyway, I want to start this post out with the rest of my photo-a-day challenges for the month of July, from the 11th to the 31st.

I ended up only missing 3 days out of the month, simply because I wasn't too fond of the theme for those days.  Or I wasn't able to capture the specific prompt in the right way.  But overall, I had fun with this!  I'm continuing into August as well, and plan on doing the same thing with making a collage of multiple days together, though I will probably break it down into the first 15 days and then the remaining days to make it seem more balanced.

In other news, I've been sick-ish for the past week.  It started with a chest congestion that I caught from Jacques, and eventually moved up into my left ear, resulting in my hearing being incredibly muffled... kind of like when you go swimming and water gets caught in your ear momentarily until you have to give your head a big shake to get it out.  Imagine that feeling constantly and that's what I'm dealing with.  It's highly uncomfortable and I hate having to talk and not being able to clearly hear what I'm saying.  I went to the doctor this past Tuesday morning, only to confirm how much I still really hate doctors.  First off, this was the first time I'd met him, since I haven't had the need to visit a doctor since I moved here.  He seemed to have no idea what I was talking about and I had to keep repeating my symptoms.  It was entirely frustrating, especially since I know my doctor back in Oklahoma (who had been treating me ever since I was little and had these ear problems every six months) would have immediately known what I was going through, simply from me saying "ear."  And he would know exactly what to prescribe to make it better.

But no, this doctor said he couldn't prescribe any antiobiotics, and simply told me to go get Sudafed or Zyrtec.  And I've been taking 1 pill every 4 hours for the past 3 days and it has not gotten any better.  So it's basically turned into a completely wasted trip.  Sometimes I wish I could just teleport myself back to OK temporarily so that I could see my old doctor again.  I hate switching doctors.  But I suppose that's just one of the few downfalls of moving 1,600 miles away.  If I end up having to go back again, I'm definitely changing my doctor beforehand.

I do have some photos to post from our day trip to Sacramento last weekend for the State Fair but I'm going to hold off on those for now.  This post kind of got away from me, what with venting about the frustrations concerning the doctor issue.

We Bought a BOX! + Daily Photo Challenge

Sooo, about three weeks ago we bought a box.  I know that doesn't sound like much of a big deal, but it's not your typical box.  Ha, I'm not sure why I'm trying to be so vague when anyone who reads this can instantly look a few spaces down on this page and realize that I'm talking about a car.  It's the Scion xB, but the car salesmen call it "the xBox."

I'll be honest, I'm really not a huge fan of the shape of the car, it's too square-ish and boxy for me, but it's got the perfect amount of space that we were looking for.  We wanted something slightly bigger, since we have 2 large dogs that like to tag along with us for a ride in the car.  However, I think they still like my car better, seeing as they can't really stand up in the xB and they always fall down at almost every turn.  (It's kinda comical)

But it's been great for us, having two reliable cars once again, and I have kind of even forgotten that I have a car during the day again!  It also means that I can finally get back to work and complete college.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our house, but being stuck in it day after day is getting more than a little old.  And boring!  I have an interview/meeting set up this coming Monday for opportunities and I'm really excited!  Although I am a bit nervous as well, because I'm not the best at selling myself.  Either way, I just can't wait to get back to working and continuing college again.

Life's about to get a lot busier...

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I started this new photo-a-day project for the month of July.  It's something that I've seen a few friends of mine participating in, and I thought it could be fun to try out.  At first, I thought it was only taking a random photo every day and posting it on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook... But when I actually researched it further, there's a list that a volunteer puts together every month, with a theme for each day.  So here are the first 10 photos I've taken from those daily inspirations, collage-style:

Some of the themed photos require further explanation than simply a one-word description, so if you're confused on why I took a particular photo (IE: day 9, which I know doesn't seem to make any sense from the word "big"), feel free to visit my Photo-A-Day Challenges board on Pinterest for more information.

I'll end this post with two photos of Napoleon (Nappy) looking absolutely adorable while he enjoyed some sun and posed for me:

Fourth of July Parade

So I hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July this past Wednesday!  Mine was okay, despite the fact that Jacques was on call the whole week, and of course, the one day he got paged with a problem that he had to report in to work for was on the holiday.  So although our original plan was to go see a fireworks display that night, we ultimately decided against it, since there would be no option for making a fast getaway if we needed to.  We ended up spending our holiday trying out a new recipe for dinner, Blackberry Chicken, and watching a couple movies (Gone and This Means War).

However, the week before, I got a random visit from our realtor, giving out some invitations to a 4th of July BBQ lunch party out in Danville.  They had a parade beforehand and the party started directly afterwards, so we were able to attend that, and we arrived in time to watch the parade as well.  So here are a few photos that I took of the parade.

Distractions before the parade started... I liked how these two trees came together, to an illusion of one tree with different colored leaves.

Closeup of the red leaves, with the sun shining in the background.

I was able to capture the crowd's reaction to a Bell UH-1 "Huey" flying around before the parade started.

People carrying a large United States flag through the parade.

This was the "Huey" that was flying around before the parade and getting lots of attention!

Diablo Valley Flag Brigade.

War veterans on their "float" through the parade.

Distracted again by this lonely leaf in the middle of the walkway.

While it wasn't really the July 4th celebration that I had been planning on, I still had a good time spending it with Jacques ... aaand some random people in the Oakland ER, where I had to wait while Jacques took care of some IT issues with a printer.