Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - The Dark Side

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ The Dark Side

Chosen by Katney.


I want you to know that I really debated with myself over this week's header.  My first thought, obviously, was Star Wars, and although I could find some related images, my mind wandered just a little to the...dark side.  Yep--my header portrays just one aspect of the "dark side" of my family.  Jacob's 23rd birthday was in January, and we turned off the lights to get a good candles-in-the-dark image.  He decided to have a little fun with it, and the image turned out quite dark and creepy, as you can see below.


Major creepy, huh?  Welcome to my family.  ;)

To get the horizontal aspect of the header, I had to crop a lot out.  But I really felt this image best portrayed the theme.  Sorry, folks!  Now on to some happier dark images.  Here's the actual cake-and-candles image I took at Jacob's birthday:

 
On an evening out for ice cream with friends, we spotted several military helicopters coming in for a landing at our local airport.  I snapped this great image below--the darkness of night, plus the darkness of nighttime military maneuvers.


Winter can be a dark time, and we certainly had an endless one this past season.  Here was the view out of our front living room window early in January.  (You can see the shape of the angel on top of our manger.)


And here was the view out of the same window in April.  Long and dark winter, that was for sure.


There's a lot of light reflected on these evening storm clouds over our neighborhood, but there's a slightly menacing feel to them as well.


I love the below image, even though it was a mistake.  Really.  I think it looks like a dark, misty scene, with fog and shadowy trees, and some weird lights floating around.


Here below is almost the same scene.  I had been setting up a pre-fireworks image, and wanted to test the shutter speed.  I recall I had it at 3-4 seconds, and got a nice image (below).  I then pressed the shutter a few minutes later, and started to move the camera, forgetting that I had it on such a long shutter speed.  The above image resulted, but it actually turned out pretty cool.


After all the darkness and creepiness, I leave you with this cute image:  my friend's daughter, playing hide-and-seek after their house had been emptied for moving, peeked out from the darkness long enough for me to get this cute image.


What dark treasures await me at your blogs today?  I'm off to see!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge -- Signs of Fall

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Signs of Fall

Chosen by Lew.


I love this week's theme.  Then again, that was easy, since I love all things autumn, and I tend to break out my camera and go exploring in a big burst before the really cold weather hits us here in Chicagoland.

Here is the full image of my header:

Red leaves, McDowell Grove, Naperville, Illinois.

Fernando and I went for a walk at a local forest preserve.  I hadn't been there in ages, and although there wasn't a lot of color because most of the scenery is scrub trees and "natural" vegetation, there were pops here and there.

Here are more signs that it's fall.

Brown, crinkly leaves...


More opportunities to warm up the house with baking...


Pops of color along the river...


A harvest moon...


Autumn colors on the prairie...


Ladybugs congregating on our south/west windows...


And my favorite image, which I see every day for just a week or so through my kitchen window.

Jacob's tree.

This is a very special tree.  My dad gave us this little stick of a tree for Arbor Day the year Jacob was born.  We put a little plastic fence around it--actually, there were two trees but one kept getting mown over by the lawnmower!--and it grew two or three feet tall.  Then we moved, and we took the tree with us.  But, we moved to an apartment while we waited for a house to be built (or not--long story), so my parents transplanted the tree into their back yard.

We ultimately moved into our current house, and that autumn had my dad re-transplant the tree into our very own back yard.  It's a small tree for 23 years of age, but it has always been called Jacob's tree, and for a mere handful of days in autumn, it is a beautiful reminder of the glory of autumn, and of God's faithfulness to us in our family's journey together.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - A Few of My Favorite Things

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ A Few of My Favorite Things

Chosen by me.


Julie Andrews' voice is stuck in my head this morning as I compile images depicting some of my favorite things...  Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

Anyway, those were Maria's favorite things.  Here are some of mine.

My goofy family (and my header image)...


A walk in the woods...


Fireworks...


Wildflowers...


The ocean...


Chocolate cake...


The colors of autumn...


Sunsets, anywhere...


My vegetable garden...


Lake Bonaparte...


These are just a few of my favorite things.  Can't wait to see yours!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge - Street Performers

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Street Performers

Chosen by Mac.


Short of finding a circus or possibly visiting downtown Chicago, I didn't think I'd find any street performers here in the typical suburbs of America.  Once again, I found myself traveling back to Paris, where street performers abound, and where I actually took pictures of them.

Here's the full image that produced my header:


Okay, really, this guy was just creepy.  We were waiting in a very, very, very long line to go up the Eiffel Tower, and this guy was apparently there to entertain us.  People didn't really notice him at first; he'd sneak up next to someone, maybe put his arm around her as she walked by.  Then she'd realize it was this creepy dude, and freak out.  The crowd would predictably laugh, and so it went.  I told Fernando he'd better keep this guy away from me.  After awhile, Fernando commented that if the guy got close, Fernando would just "jump" him and give him a huge hug.  And it happened!  The guy was startled, and the crowd loved it.  He hugged Fernando back so I could take his picture.

Here's a much more quintessential street performer we discovered just outside the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens).


And the most French street performer of all was this gentleman on Ile St. Louis, where we stopped five nights in a row to get ice cream from Berthillon.  It was magical!


This interesting character was on the Metro car in front of us, doing back flips and other acrobatics (Fernando saw him and thought we'd be in for a treat when he and his fellow musicians hopped on our car at the next stop).  One gentleman (off to my right) put on some rap-type music, the gentleman with the accordion played (yes--along with rap music!), and the pink-shirted guy started dancing away!  The crazy part was, he practically gave me a lap dance; I leaned around him and half-teasingly hollered at Fernando (seated across from me; you can see his striped shirt and part of his face on the right):  "Help!"

When their performance ended, they passed the hat for donations.  Fernando told him in English (we doubt he understood), "Hey, that was my wife!  I'm not giving you anything!!"  It was definitely good for a laugh later on.


Hope you have some interesting and fun performances to share!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Weekly Header Challenge ~ Forced Perspective

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Forced Perspective

Chosen by Craver.


All the example images that Craver sent to us were so creative!  I had to dig back in my archives, because I just didn't have the mental energy to come up with something new.  Here is my full-size header image.  I had to really crop it since it's vertical!  Plus I hope you'll appreciate the fact that I had to sweet-talk Fernando into doing it.  He loves me.  :)


One of the Forced Perspective classics!  The funny thing is--see the guy on the left side of the image?  His girl got him to do it, too!  I thought that was a nice added bonus.  :)

Can't wait to see the creativity by my other blogger friends!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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