Capture Your 365

Time for another week of photos!

13_Mar_in the morning_001_edit

ISO 100, 30mm, f/5.0, 1/5 sec

Day 66 – In The Morning: About a year ago, some somewhat local friends and I joined up with the Hello Mornings Challenge. It was very inspiring and motivating to get my mornings started with God’s Word. I am not following the Hello Mornings current Bible study, but I still strive to start my day soaking in Truth. Currently, I am working my way through Romans chapter one. Writing out all the verses, all the cross references, and looking up all the Greek words gives me a better understanding of what Paul is teaching us in this book.

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ISO 400, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/50 sec

Day 67 – A Hobby: part of my sewing area, with a pile of baby blankets and wash cloths that need hand stitching

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ISO 400, 50mm, f/4.5, 1/10 sec

Day 68 – Me: As the photographer, I am usually not in very many pictures. When the daily prompt arrived in my inbox, I loved the photo that was shared. Here I am copying that photo using a cute mirror that Kelsey has in her room. Are you receiving the daily prompts? If not, be sure to sign up for them here!

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ISO 400, 50mm, f/4.0, 1/20 sec

Day 70 – Liquid: While many of my online and blogging friends have been suffering under inches and feet of snow, God has blessed us with an incredible week of beautiful weather here in California! It was time to start brewing some iced coffee for our warm afternoons.

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ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/1000 sec

Day 71 – Shamrock: Here is where creative license comes into play. I don’t have any shamrocks growing in my backyard and my house is not decorated with shamrocks either. But we do have quite a few bulbs in the backyard that are just waiting to burst forth with beautiful spring colors! Can’t wait to see these tulips!

Be sure to join up with the Capture Your 365 challenge! I would love to hear what you photographed this past week!

Capture Your 365

Here are this past week’s photos on my Capture Your 365 adventure!

13_Feb_essential equipment_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/60 sec

Day 58 – Essential Equipment: today I wanted to make some muffins, so I pulled out all the ingredients to make some pumpkin muffins. Yum!

13_Feb_up close and personal_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2,8, 1/5 sec

Day 59 – Up Close and Personal: today’s prompt encouraged you to fill the frame. This little camera was the first camera I ever took pictures with a long time ago at outdoor ed. I found it at my parent’s house on a visit up there and brought it home. I like keeping it up on a shelf with some old books I have been collecting.

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ISO 100, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/800 sec

Day 60 – Sweet Rest: in the busyness of this life, we tend to neglect taking time to just rest. Last week we were blessed with a beautiful afternoon, so Kelsey and I had iced coffees out in the backyard. It was a nice time to enjoy the warmth of the sun and some sweet time with my daughter.

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ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec

Day 61 – Whimsical: last spring, Kelsey and I put these together from an idea I found on Pinterest. They are a great way to add some spring color to our home.

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ISO 100, 32mm, f/25, 1/8 sec

Day 62 – Upside Down: Now I know this photo is not upside down. But what I loved was how filled the sky was with clouds. I was waiting for the sun to move past the clouds, but not quite behind the hills. Kevin and I were on our way home from a date afternoon and I had him stop quite a few times until I got the ‘perfect’ shot. It is all the interpretation of the prompt, right? (insert big smile here!)

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ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec

Day 63 – Two: So I have to admit, I actually took this photo on Day 62. Kevin and I went out on a date afternoon (which I will blog about soon), and we stopped for a treat. One Mocha Frappuccino and one Chai Tea Latte. Two Starbucks drink, but one fun afternoon!

Are you Capturing Your 365? Let me know if you are! I would love to see what you are capturing!

Simple Photo Book

A few weeks ago, I blogged about our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I knew I would want to send some pictures of our day to our Compassion kids. So a couple of weeks ago, I put together a simple photo book for each one of them and today, I am going to show you how simple these are to make.

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Gather your supplies: multiple sets of photos (depending on how many kids you are writing to), cardstock (this holds up better than construction paper), glue stick, stapler, and paper cutter

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Cut the sheets of cardstock in half and glue the photos to the paper. I attach them more to the right side to leave room for stapes on the left side.

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Add a description to your photo. I try not to be too wordy so the translator doesn’t have to spend too much time translating.

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Once you have added a description to each of the photos, stack the sheets of paper on top of each other and staple the sides together.

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On the back of each photo book, be sure to write your name and sponsor number, as well as the name and sponsor number of your Compassion child.

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We like to include stickers and activity booklets with our mailings. You can usually find these in the dollar spot at Target or JoAnn’s

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Be sure to include an encouraging note!

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A while back I bought a box of 6x9 envelopes to use for our mailings to our Compassion kids. We make sure that everything in the envelope has our name and sponsor number, as well as the name and sponsor number for our Compassion child. Then we place everything for that one child in the 6x9 envelope. On the outside of the envelope, we again write our name and sponsor number, and our sponsored child’s name and sponsor number. This way everything is clear and separated for the mailing center in Colorado Springs.

When we send larger items that we don’t want to fold, we have put these items in gallon size ziploc bags and that seems to work pretty well.

What have your sent to your Compassion child lately?

Capture Your 365

Time for another week of photos!

13_Feb_Use Your Senses_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/3.2, 1/30 sec

Day 38: Use Your Senses – homemade granola bars, fresh from the oven

13_Feb_More Than One_001_edit

ISO 400, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/4 sec

Day 39: More Than One – paper hearts hanging from the mantle for Valentine’s Day

13_Feb_Through The Looking Glass_001_edit

ISO 400, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/60 sec

Day 40: Through The Looking Glass – self-portrait day, didn’t really want to take a picture of myself using the mirror in my bathroom, so out came the tri-pod! I used the self-timer on this one and thought it would be fun to capture a little bit of who I am in this one.

13_Feb_Entertain_001_edit

ISO 400, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/25 sec

Day 42: Entertain – winter time is such a great time for a cup of tea!

13_Feb_Celebrate_001_edit

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/2500 sec

Day 43: Celebrate – so thankful that I live in California where we are able to experience an earlier spring. Which means that summer is not too far away! :)

What have you photographed this past week?

Valentine Book Garland

Today was the day to take down the winter decorations!

Our poor church family (including my family) has been hit with all kinds of illnesses over the past month or so. Since there are so many sick right now, our weekly afternoon ladies Bible study was cancelled for today, so I knew I would have some extra time to work on a craft after Kelsey was working independently on her school work.

So I checked my Pinterest craft board to find a Valentine craft and was disappointed when the link was not working. The project didn’t look too difficult, so I pulled out some supplies and got to work.

Supplies: a used book, heart template, pencil, scissors, and thread

Start by tracing the heart template onto some of the book pages. The number of hearts you will need depends on how many you want on your garland.

Take your heart book pages to your sewing machine. You will be sewing down the middle of two hearts at a time. Leave a good length of thread at the top of the first set of hearts. When you are finished sewing through the first set of hearts, do not cut the thread! Pull the thread out some, then begin sewing down the next set of hearts. I decided that 4 sets of hearts would work for my windows. Once you sew the last set of hearts, pull the thread a few inches from the machine, then cut the threads.

Take the garland to a table, now fold the heart pages away from each other to create a 3D effect. I did tie a knot in the thread at the top and the bottom to keep the thread from unraveling later.

I tied a loop in the top of the thread and hung each length of hearts from a hook on a tension rod inside the window frame (which is covered by a valance).

Do you decorate your home for Valentine’s month?