"Too Close" Tuesday

My brother asked me to tell him when I posted my "Too Close" Tuesday, which I had pretty much forgotten about! So here it is:

Leave a comment with your guess. You don't win anything, except the satisfaction of knowing what things look like super close.

Vote for today's POTD!!

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Please help me choose today's Photo of the Day! Leave a comment here with your choice. (Or find me on facebook or msn or something.) I can't decide which one I like the most for today. So I'm leaving it to you.

Comment with "#1!" if you like this one:

Playing with my backwards lens again. With my magazine "coasters." (read about them in the next photo)

Comment "#2!" if you like this one:

A close-up of these coaster-like things that I've been making. They're magazine ads, folded up and glued together in a spiral. (They take FOREVER to make...I spend a good 5 hours straight on one of them one night. Whew. But they're so cute, too.) If you're interested in seeing more of these little guys, let me know and I'll post pictures of them.

Comment "#3!" if you like this one:

Tonia's boots in the excellent fun yellow light. For some reason, one of the windows in the art studio is yellow (painted or paper? Not sure) and it casts this spectacular glowing light on everything it touches. I've been wanting this shot for a while...finally got it today.

So yes....Please give me your input! If this goes well, (or even if it doesn't) I will do it again sometime. I have trouble deciding quite often. I will leave the voting open until tomorrow afternoon and I'll reveal the winner tomorrow night, along with tomorrow's POTD. Thanks!!

Sweet

Woke up to a "No class today" email from my accounting professor. I love those things.

Time to catch up on my weekend photos.

First, Saturday's photo. We were looking for something easy and fun for dinner, and Brian suggested chicken nuggets. We ended up picking up some stir-fry chicken meat (just chicken breast meat, but the grocery store pre-cuts them into perfect little strips) so we had chicken strips instead of nuggets. Anyway...Let me tell you, this is the EASIEST and most delicious way to eat chicken strips.

I melted some butter in a small bowl (the only butter I had was sweet cream...which I think made them better, because they had a slightly sweet taste. mmmm!) Brian mixed the seasonings...About a cup of plain bread crumbs, lots of pepper, lots of chili powder, some salt, and some garlic powder. (Sadly, I can't tell you the amounts of these...Brian just kinda eyeballs it and mixes it together til he feels it's right.) Dip the strips into the butter, transfer to the breading, coat well, place them all on a baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes. I had the oven set at 400, but I'm sure it can be lowered. I don't know the temperature rules yet. Ha.

ANYWAY....Here's Saturday's photo, inspired by our deeeeeliciously simple supper:

36/365: Done and done. 

 

 

We finished the meal off with mint chocolate ice cream. Best. Meal. Ever. (However, I say that about any meal that includes ice cream.)

And Sunday's photo comes from Sunday morning.

37/365: Sweet

This is how Brian takes his coffee. A 5:1 ratio of Sugar to Coffee. Ha! Notice, it's coming straight out of the sugar bag, not even a spoonful or sugar shaker. Nope. Straight from the bag. This photo also reminds me of why I love love love my camera. =)

Clearly, my weekend consisted of eating and drinking. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to photograph throughout this week.

Chocolate chips + Banana + Brown sugar = Pancakes!

Hooray for Saturday!! I fully enjoy sleeping in on the weekends. Who doesn't??

Brian and I went to the grocery store earlier and picked up some ingredients to make pancakes. He crushed up some Halloween candy (Whoppers) and I mixed them into his pancakes. I didn't taste a difference at all. We'll have to work on that recipe a bit more. For mine, I threw in some mini chocolate chips and sliced bananas and topped it with a bit of brown sugar while it was cooking. It was INCREDIBLE. I didn't put any butter or syrup on mine...Just ate it completely plain and it was perfect. I definitely have a new favorite pancake flavor now.

Last night we watched Elf and had some hot tea. It was pretty excellent. 

Yesterday after classes we took a quick trip to Sioux Falls just to get some food and do a small bit of shopping. Based on the picture below, can you guess where we went?

I love the faces Brian makes when he's concentrating on something.

I'll let you think about that while I post up yesterday's Photo of the Day:

35/365: Mmmmmm, Honey!

I bought a new little sketchbook which I've already started drawing in, as well as some new conte pencils and an eraser. I love love love new art supplies. =D

Oh! And if you're wondering how my accounting test went yesterday.....So am I. Ha! We haven't gotten our scores back yet. However, I'm feeling rather confident about it. I will update on that as soon as we get them back.

Thank you, notes, for being excellent.

And ONE LAST PHOTO and one I'm SO EXCITED ABOUT:

Christmas is on its way! I can't wait to start photographing all the decorations and Christmas spirit.

Oh, and PS - The answer is Cracker Barrel. Yum, yum.

Wing it

I have a ginormous accounting exam tomorrow. Here is what I should NOT be doing right now: a) Writing this. b) Watching a movie. c) With a friend. d) Leaving my book and notes closed throughout the entire thing.

Yup. Looks like I'm gonna wing it. Wish me luck!!

Here's something productive that I AM doing: Drinking tea. White tea. Apparently it can prevent cancer. And I'm ALL about that!

I also have some photos to post up today. I've been sort of creatively challenged the past couple days (I blame accounting and the side of my brain that it exercises.)

34/365

33/365: I helped Brian with a worksheet he had to do. (It was coloring!! How could I NOT help?!)

Again, wish me luck on my exam! I am going to start studying.....NOW!

To learn...

I found out yesterday that my roommate, Traci, is a reader here. Yay!! I love hearing that people are keeping an eye on this little piece of internet. She's been hounding me about updating today so she has a reason to procrastinate on her homework. A procrastinator myself, I am happy to help a fellow time-waster out!

Brian was sick yesterday, which made for an rather boring day for myself. I ended up watching a long movie and eating a pretty sad supper (photo below, as proof.)

Today I was amazed at my new-found ability to learn anything. At least that's what I tell myself as a confidence booster. I'm taking accounting as an elective this year. (Every time I tell people that, they call me crazy...Apparently there are easier and more fun electives out there?? I don't know...Sounds fishy to me.) Anyway...I've never, EVER taken an accounting class. And I have never considered myself someone who is good with numbers. ("I'm an artist," I tell people "the less numbers I know, the better!") But after paying attention in class (confession, for one of the first times in 5 years) and taking excellent notes, I actually KIND OF get what's going on. I cranked out an assignment in no time today and it made me feel incredible. I walked home wondering what else I've missed out on because I didn't think I could learn it. However, we have a quiz and test this week still, so I guess the truth in my comprehension will be revealed. Anyway...Hoping for the best!

I also did a quick professional portrait shoot of one of my friends. It's for our next Studio Processes assignment. Not sure how well it turned out. I learned quite quickly today that I have LOTS to learn about professional portraits and lighting...But I'm glad that I know how to troubleshoot my problems and adjust my settings to make it work. Playing with my camera on a daily basis is paying off. I knew it would.

I took lots of photos today. Mostly of random things, like my lunch of Party Pizza, some paint in the art studio, the bricks on Beadle Hall, and my table full of Brian's homework.

But this one (below) eventually won. After our quick photoshoot in the basement studio tonight, we stepped outside and I was immediately blown away by the sunset, which I could barely see beyond houses and trees. I quickly knew I needed to find higher ground. So I ran back inside Beadle and up the three flights of stairs to the art studio. I was a little sad at first, that the water tower and trees were still in the shot, but I got over it after seeing it full-size. This was actually the first of 14 shots. I forgot to change my settings after the shoot, so I thought it was WAY too dark. After viewing them all full-size, though, I decided this was my favorite. Just the deep oranges and reds against the black make it more intense. I enjoy it.

32/365: Sunset over Madison, SD - 6:30 PM, 11/2/10

31/365: One of the few photos I took yesterday. Should have taken the boring day and turned it into a photographic adventure, but I was enjoying being lazy. This was, sadly, my supper last night. A honey wheat bagel with honey nut cream cheese, and of course my trusty ginger ale. Ha!

This was one very long post, huh? More news tomorrow or the next day or the next day. One of these days I'll have something interesting to write about. Accounting? Come on, Denise...

Change

I bet you're expecting today's photo to be Halloween related. My apologies.

 

30/365

Brian and I spent the day doing laundry. I also edited some photos and he finished up his weekend homework (something I never seem to have anymore. Hmm.)

Since we live in apartments, our laundry is done via coin operated machines. Which means we need LOTS of quarters. I have this huge jar full of coins which I've collected over a few summers of waitressing. I separated the pennies from the jar, so it is mostly just quarters. I hate having to dig into it for laundry money, but I'm glad it's there. I've tried estimating how much money is in there, but it's pointless. After a few months of laundry quarters taken out already, it's a good $20 short of what it was earlier.

I'm actually hoping to continue this tradition into my REAL adult life (you know, the one that includes my OWN washer & dryer....Ohhhh that day can't come soon enough!)...I want to see how much change I can collect someday.