spark

a toy a day

This year isn't even done yet, I've clearly neglected the Word of the Day and it takes me a week or more to take photos off my camera, yet I'm already thinking about committing to another 365 project. Through the previous project I've learned that in order to do a photo a day, I need either no limitations at all, or a very simple and specific limit. While taking the "no swiping" picture, it occurred to me how much I LOVE the silliness of toy photography.  My siblings and I were pretty goofy with puppets and other toys, and that sense has inspired many a shot for me.  In fact, a silly toy tradition inspired my very first WOTD photo. I think a toy shot could be simple and fun to do each day.  I certainly have a lot of material to work with around here.  And posting the images wouldn't require a lot of blogging work - I could simply post the photo, with no text.  

So, I think I'm gonna do it.  365 toy photos in 2011.  I can handle that, right?  It will start off with a challenge almost immediately, since I'll be traveling Dec 31-Jan 8 with very little luggage space.  Maybe the first 8-9 days can feature the same toy.  

Several times during this past year I considered creating a Tumblr or separate blog just for the 365 project.  This seems like a good time to start that.  Which would you choose? And what to name it?  So far nothing fun enough has come to mind...The Toy Box, Batteries Not Included, PhotoPlay, No Swiping (maybe just do a Swiper 365? Or Swiper and an occasional guest?), Out to Play, ToyLand (you can return again).  Nothing is striking me at the moment.  Except perhaps the Swiper idea.  

Got ideas?

moments

Catching up on the family blog (finally up to June...ugh). Looking at forgotten springtime photos is lovely on this chilly autumn day.

*******************************************************************************************

moments...

 

in which you find tiny things left by strangers to brighten your day

 

in which you explore the fun of sticks - as a human or as a puppy

 

in which you discover something new 

 

in which you just plain recover

 

(you can take as many as you need)

 

in which

you feel

free

 

(have a moment)

255/365: bucolic

word of the day 204/365: fool

When it comes to wine, I know virtually nothing about making selections, and I'm a complete sucker for cute labels.  I know what I like while I'm drinking it, but once I'm shopping again, I can almost never remember the names of wines or what I thought of them.  So when deciding which pinot noir to purchase, I'm left with this: which label is the cutest?

This one came from Target.  There's something a tad embarassing about buying wine from a huge retail box store, isn't there?  And perhaps even more shameful that I bought it almost entirely for the little chickie on the label.  These whimsical purchases have abuot a 50% success rate, and this time, I was on the winning side.  The malbec was quite good.  Sometimes being a fool has its benefits, no?

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks. - Francois De La Rochefoucauld

wordless wednesday

word of the day 131/365: animal

I am thinking about how people often don't include humans or insects in their internal schema of "animal."  We are, however, the two most common types of animals under my roof. Cheers, Mr. Spider Cricket.

Griff is thinking about a happy moose in Virginia Beach who is waiting at sunset for fireworks to begin.  Which is, of course, a pretty typical moosey thing.

word of the day 93/365: whim

boiled: 24 white eggs + 4 brown eggs
cracked: 11 white eggs
dyed: 19 whole or only-barely-cracked eggs
we've got a lot of eggs to eat

...and in not-entirely-unrelated news, I only just discovered that the correct lyrics at the end of the Jefferson Airplane song are "feed your head," and not "treacle-head," as I had been singing for, oh, let's say 25-30 years.  In my defense, "feed your head" isn't in the Louis Carrol books to my knowledge, and the dormouse does talk about treacle.  To my detriment, I thought for the first 10 years or so that treacle was related to excrement, perhaps because I couldn't imagine anything but water or sewage in a well, and thought living in a treacle well sounded like a horrible thing, and not appropriate tea party conversation at all.  Back in my defense, it would certainly explain why poor Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie were so very ill.   Living on treacle.  Pity. 

More whimsicle fuckery: I am, or at least was, a Peep purist.  WTF is a Peep purist, you ask? So glad you did.  A Peep purist is a person (I'm the only one I know but I'm sure there are others like me out there) who will only buy the classic yellow chick Peeps during the spring.  No marshmallow snowmen, no out-of-season chicks, no sugar-dusted hearts or jack-o-lanterns, and absolutely, positively, NO bunnies or those horrid neon blue, purple, pink, orange, or green chicks they have nowadays.  A travesty, I tell you.  Classic. Yellow. Chicks.  Or nothing. 

So, it turns out that a Peep purist should not go shopping with three young children if she would like to leave the store with her Easter candy principles intact.  I reached for one package of Peeps (I will not call any of the other imposters by that name), and left with two packages of yellow chicks, one package of purple chicks, one package of pink chicks, and - oh, Peeps, I'm so sorry - one package of green marshmallow bunnies.  I am a traitor to my own values.  What a treacle-head.

word of the day 68/365: regal

Same subject, two different moods.  Are only benign kings regal, or can evil ones be considered kingly as well? Does it take more than a crown to make one fit to be considered royalty?

word of the day 52/365: flight

members only, originally uploaded by theloushe.

A flight of fancy spotted at the Virginia State Capitol today.

♣

Closer to home, a Duplo man takes flight.

what do you see?

whatever you make of it, originally uploaded by theloushe.

Reese saw veins. Xander and I saw a happy face. I think I also see a neuron.