PENSIEVE

Finding appeal in the oddest of vignettes...Friday's 40-or-less Photo Challenge

My husband, friends, and, I suppose, readers of the ol' Pensieve often don't understand my choices of subject for photographs.  Neither do I, really...but it's impossible to calculate how often I see something and have to photograph it.  HAVE TO. The strangest thing that comes to mind at the moment is the rotten tomato I saw on an exit off I-285 in Atlanta...a bright red icky blop on an otherwise forgettable stretch of asphalt, completely unexpected and out of place.  In a race to capture the scene before the light turned green, in a single movement I uncapped lens cover, turned and snapped, and ended up with a less-than-spectacular photograph. 

It could've been a cool picture had I been better at my craft.

For this week's Friday's 40 PC, I offer one of "those". 

One morning last week, my daughter and I were sitting on our front porch swing talking.  She had placed her water bottle on the front rail when she noticed steam swirling from condensation (evaporation?  one of those "-ations...).  I tried to capture the misty swirls, but I guess ghosts don't translate well in digital. 

Regardless, I l i k e d the resultant image...pink on white on forested green, our pup--center-porch--guarding our yard, the clouds of ice floating in their own little concealed sea. 

Join us in a round of Friday's 40?  Click here for complete details, but basically you have 40 words (or less) to respond to the weekly image--a caption or title, poem, word association, abstract, concrete--however it hits you.   Write a post, then be sure to come back here on Friday morning to link your permalink, and after, visit the other participants to see their varied perspectives on the same image.

A little crabby...and a little buggy

Kiawah Island, S.C., July 2008

My back yard, July 2008.  Cicada shell, hanging around the rabbit hutch.

Wordless Wednesday
& more pics at 5M4M

Splashes of black

When I began looking for spots of black in our home suited to Anna's photo challenge, I had no idea how many objects I'd find.  If you didn't know better, you'd think my house was something straight out of Gotham City!

Topping off The panels that accompany this topper were featured in Project Green; the curtains hang both in our kitchen and in the sitting room opposite it.

Blacktop

One of the most daring, dramatic and, thankfully, satisfying home improvements undertaken the past year was painting not one, but two, of our ceilings BLACK (our entrance foyer and downstairs bathroom).  Please forgive the dizzifying angle here; it was the best way to give you a peek at the ceilings in context of the room (plus, the walls feature more black themselves!).

My precious I'm addicted, not proud.  Until I sip my morning ritual,
you may not want to run into me.



Night-time sleep aid, may be habit forming Originally bought to use at the beach when late-night revelers threatened my dreams, we liked it so much it's come as constant of a companion as Aussie; whose mid-night barking, incidentally, is drowned out, too.


Big Time

No matter where you sit in our kitchen, you'll always have plenty of time :).

Light shadows

I walked past our dining room one morning and thought the lights were on; I guess they were in a manner of speaking--the sun was peeking in, casting shadows of everything in its path.  This is one of a pair of lamps in the room, black with pineapple gold accents.

 

While I've been partying at BlogHop '08, I've missed a few days of writing and finding subjects for my favorite photographic projects.  I'll be back to normal this week (no snark allowed) and I'm please to announce Pensieve's Poetic License will return.  In the meantime, please visit Anna Carson for more Project Black participants or to post your own.

Shades of black at mi casa

Day Two of Project Black brings you to my home--at least right up to our front door.  I never noticed before how many black accents we have around; funny what you don't see until you actually look for it. 

Swingtime

Isn't this spot inviting?  If pollen and spiders didn't think they were invited guests, we might just use it a whole lot more.  Shame...I can just imagine sipping lemonade and waving to passersby; the only problem?  We live at the end of a cul-de-sac up a steep, long driveway.  In other words, there ARE no passersby!

 

Rockin', not rollin' Can you see the sun hitting the front leg of the left chair?  Our porch faces East and sunshine pours in these windows every morning.  The chairs weren't quite black when I started to photograph them--more like a dusty yellow.  Pollen:  the Scourge of the South.


For the birds...or not

Located on the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga still claims Rock City as a jewel of her own.  You might've seen this painted on a barn's rooftop at some point in your life--according to their website, "Garnet Carter began his famous barn roof advertising campaign to lure vacationers from the highways.  By the 1950's Clark Byers had painted "See Rock City" on 900 barn roofs from Michigan to Texas."  That's a lot of roofs!  I wonder if the owners were compensated for for their "ad space".

Interested in learning more about Project Black?  Please visit Anna Carson for details and links to other participants.

When you REALLY wanna play, there's more than one way to skin the cat!

If I'm being perfectly honest--and why would I be anything else--I miss my camera almost as much as I missed my boys when they were at camp last week.  How many times have I seen something that NEEDED to be captured on film in digital?!  Pictures help me remember the little things (and the big) that I might just forget otherwise :/.

I found our old Olympus point-and-shoot, re-charged the battery, and even though it's hardly in mint condition, at least it's better than nothing. 

Anna concludes Project Blue today, and because I was compelled to, durn it, here are some images from my kitchen this morning.  My apologies in advance for the quality for some of them, no matter how hard I tried to be still, it looks like I'm still a little shakey :).

I have no idea why, but I'm Dawn loyal; add some rubber gloves and I'll wash dishes for days.  Just don't ask me to dust or iron (can I hear an "Amen!"?)

One of these blue bowls is always used for ice cream, the other for cereal (can you guess which is which?); it's an unspoken "rule".  Funny how culinary (dietary?) traditions evolve in a family.

Because I AM a choosy mother, I believe there is no other choice besides Jif!  Two of my kids prefer smooth peanut butter, so there's always a red-lidded jar or Jif in the house, too.  

"Nothin' could be finer than to be in Carolina" ANY mornin'...!  This pillow from cat studio cost a small fortune, but I HAD to have it!  Nearly EVERY landmark embroidered on the cover has significance for us.  We might be livin' in Tennessee, but on the inside?  In our hearts?  South Carolina, baby! :)

Please visit Anna Carson Photography if you'd like to add a Project Blue of your own.  It's never too late to start, even if she IS concluding her series today.

Waxing poetic...about SPRING CLEANING?!!!?

An Ode to Spring Cleaning

I have really been a' meanin'
To begin some fresh Spring cleanin'
But there's always somethin' else I'd rather do.

But, the house, she's just a' callin'
Cause the windows, they're appalling!
Kitchen walls, splattered with a sticky goo!

Name in dust, my fingers tracin'
And my heart is really racin'--
Cobwebs filling all the corners of each room.

Oh, the baseboards are so dirty!
Grimy bathtubs, it's not purty--
Where's the mop?  Grab a rag!  I need the broom!

Counters filled with paper fountains
Stinky socks build laundry mountains
Mile-long list of things to do, I think I'm drowning!

Wash the dog or wash the car?
Who needs it worse?  The dog by far!
Sees the soap and runs away, so know I'm frowning.

Self-cleaning oven, praise the Lord!
A frenzied mother's sweet reward!
Start the vacuum 'cause the carpet is repulsive.

Now it's time to stop my stallin'
Cause the house is still a' calling,
Oh, I wish I were obsessive or compulsive.

Yes, it's time to walk away
From my blog, just for the day.
If I'm ever going to whittle through my list.

When it's done, I'll be so happy.
I'll probably write a post so sappy.
Posting pictures, if it's clean, I can't resist!

~ Robin @ PENSIEVE

Karisma and Kids is hosting a Spring cleaning poetry competition, and I couldn't resist!  Once I started, can you tell how much FUN I had with this?  I might not win her contest, but no worries--this time, it was pure delight to try :).  She's still looking for submissions, why don't YOU give it a go??

A few of my hang-ups

As we say good-bye to Project Green, once again I'd like to invite you into our home.  For Project Yellow, you were ushered into our entrance foyer; directly to the left is our "keeping room", a bright and cheerful room that, although not quite finished, is one of my favorite rooms in our house.  For starters, it's an extension of our kitchen--which IS my favorite room--and secondly, these guys live there:

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the lighting right;
I just don't know enough about it.  The panels look more yellow
than green here, but in person they lean towards lime.

I even tried a floor's eye view....

....which led me to think about how neat it would be for someone to follow you around when you're taking pictures to capture YOU in the strangest of positions!  In the past few weeks I've prostrated myself on mall-parking-lot asphalt, climbed on top of chairs and tables, pulled off the side of the rode, stood on my car seat and looked out the sun roof, squatted in a grassy field--all to take a photograph. 

But I digress...pardon me!

The details in these window treatments (and coordinating fabric-covered table) is what made me squeal with little girl delight when I saw them hanging for the first time--the colorful bell tassels lend an element of playfulness to what could otherwise be just some boring old curtains.
Instead?    They're punctuated with little drops of "happy"...
which always brings an upward curl to my lips :).

Visit Anna Carson Photography for the 4-1-1 on Project Green.

Please click for more Project Green:

#1 - Have a ball!
#2 - Boy toy
#3 - Green "green" tee
#4 - Fame, not fortune

 

 

"I feel the earth...move...under my..." BED???

5:10 am - Phone rings.  Husband's work.  He gets up, showers, goes in earlier than normal.  I'm trying to lasso the dream that is quickly evaporating...something about a Hogwartsian spiral staircase with manually-collapsible stairs...
5:30 am - His alarm sounds.  Wishin' I had turned off the Devil's Handiwork when hubster got up.  Put the pillow over my head cause it's waaay too inconvenient to scooch over and turn off the blasted thing!
5:37 am - My bed starts shaking.
5:37:02 - WTHeck?  MY BED IS SHAKING! (much the same as when Aussie jumps up on the side, hoping for an invitation up)
5:37:12 - I call out to the dog, "Aussie?"
5:37:13 - No answer, so I sit up and say louder "AUSSIE?"
5:37:51 - I KNOW my daggum bed is shaking, but I feel CRAZY.  I think "earthquake???" thoughts.
5:38:24 - Lie back down, snuggle under covers, dream-weavin' again.
6-something - Get up, cut on radio, AND THEY'RE TALKIN' ABOUT A FREAKING 5.4 EARTHQUAKE IN ILLINOIS...and tremors being felt in MIDDLE TENNESSEE! 

I live in middle Tennessee.
I wasn't imagining a vibrating bed.
I'm not crazy.
What was it like closer to the epicenter??
Vindication can be just as unsettling as the tremor itself.

I was recounting the above with my children a bit later, and my daughter said, "I FELT IT, TOO!"  She had set her alarm for 5:30 a.m. to get up early, so she was awake already.  Funny, she thought it was our CAT jumping on her bed, then decided when it continued (and there was no marauding cat), it was her own shivers she was feeling from snuggling deeper under her covers.

Apparently we have Pets of Unusual Strength (PUS) to have imagined our dog or cat shaking the timbers.

Because Pioneer Woman "needs" my "help"

Ree asked for kitchen advice, so instead of a thousand words, I'm posting a few pictures just for her.  If anyone else finds this "hidden" post, can you see me **waving and smiling**?  :)

For perspective--

• Click here for before kitchen renovation.
• Click HERE during (I actually never posted the pictures from the "during"...entirely too discombobulated).
• Click HERE for a kitchen feature that gives me the warm tinglies :).

And below are some shots taken VERY QUICKLY just now, to share with my favorite Ranch Diva, you know, because she "asked" ;).

I included this shot because a) it shows the adjacent keeping room which has buttery walls and a red ceiling; plus, I lurve the red pendant lights separating the rooms.

I took this angle to show our mixed-use countertops--
black granite for the raised bar, the rest solid surface.

Last, here's a closer view of the distressed cabinet doors; our painter provided samples with more sanding/distressing, we opted for the "more is less" option.  And never-you-mind the smudges and fingerprints--I toldja I took these quickly!!(And mercy knows, you gotta keep it r.e.a.l....R I G H T??)

Ree, if you "need" any more decorating advice, you know where to find me (on the other side of Bloglines ;) ).

Wanna see one of my favorite rooms in my house?

Technically, it's not even a room, it's our entrance foyer.  It's a hand-painted diamond design, similar to something I had seen at an area home show.  It took a few sample boards before my painter translated what I was verbalizing to canvas, but finally, we got the result I was seeing in my mind. 

Standing at our front door, to the left, you'll see a yellow "keeping" room with red ceiling, to the right is our dining room, red walls with a yellow ceiling.  The foyer combines both colors with black and white accents. 

No wonder I've been drawn to Project Yellow...it hits close to home!

If you'd like to post your own photos for Project Yellow, be sure to link them at Anna's site.

Project Yellow
Day 1:  Retro-funkiness meets common lamp
Day 2:  Egg cartons are pretty?
Day 3:  Butterflies & Bees (perhaps the best series I've ever captured)
Day 4:  American Icon
Day 5:  A floral canopy and conductor
Day 6:  Invisible rabbits & a ducky-chick
Day 7:  My boys--head, shoulders, no knees, but toes
Day 8:  Liquid gold, Caribbean view :)