30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 20-26

The challenge continues...

Day 20: Bokeh. I think "bokeh" means the fuzzy background. Or maybe it means backgrounds with little globes of light. I don't really know, so I got both in the background of this picture of my beloved snap pea plants.

Day 21: Faceless self-portrait.

Day 22: Hands. Michael and I went to the Asian supermarket on Saturday, bought all of these sauces, and cooked up two big pots of Thai soup (brown sauce soup... ask Michael what it's called in Thai) and Vietnamese soup (Pho). Yummy!

Day 23-24: Woops. Didn't do them. Here are my excuses. The prompt for day 23 was "sun flare." I don't really know how to do sun flares, but I do know it requires sunlight and it was cloudy all day. The prompt for day 24 was "animal." I was indoors in downtown Los Angeles the entire day. I guess I could have wandered the city for a bit to try to get a shot of a pigeon, but I didn't.


Rather than falling behind, I decided to just plow on ahead to the next day. Perhaps I will come back to these two photo days at the end.


Day 25: Something pink. In my mind, I was a photographer for a makeup ad. I did a better job than I thought I could!

Day 26: Close-up. Alfalfa sprouts growing in a jar. I need your help. Which is better?
The cool, sharp, blue-ish tinted one?

Or the warmer one?

Please let me know in "comments." Don't be shy, I need all the help I can get!

Winter Garden Tour II

In November, I posted this picture of our winter garden:

Here's the same spot, today:

We did it!


Michael and I have been harvesting about one large handful of snap peas every few days. Store bought lettuce has been replaced with salads of mixed greens from the garden -- everything from beet leaves to Chinese broccoli to kale to spinach to regular old lettuce. We should begin harvesting our purple carrots and beets any day now.


Butter lettuce & purple haze carrots:

Beets:

More carrots and beets growing out of a plastic pretzel jar:

Our Chinese broccoli forest:

We officially LOVE gardening!

Valentine's Day

He bought me flowers, gave me a card, made me truffles, and took me too...

The waiter fastened plastic bibs around our necks and told us to roll up our sleeves. Fifteen minutes later, we were served knotted plastic bags of shrimp drowned in a spicy cajun sauce. (A bit reminiscent of goldfish from the pet store, come to think of it.) We ripped open our bags, obediently rolled up our sleeves, and went to town peeling and feasting on shrimp.

Just have to say that we only brought our point and shoot
and it was blinking "I AM OUT OF BATTERY," so these
pics are rushed, horrid, and pretty fun.

We had been planning on trying out The Boiling Crab for well over a year, but the 40+ minute drive followed by a 40+ minute wait was enough to postpone it. But, then the chain expanded closer to home, so we finally got to go. What a good Valentine's Day.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 15-19

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 16: Long exposure. 30 second exposure, baby!

Day 17: Technology.

Day 18: Your shoes.

I missed day 17, so I combined it with day 18. I hope that's acceptable.

These are my lovely 3.5 year old running shoes with my brand new Nike+iPod run tracker! The sensor for the run tracker is designed to fit snugly into the bottom of Nike+ shoes, but I didn't want Nike telling me what shoes to buy, so I did a little internet research and found a perfectly simple and cheap solution: put it in a ziploc bag, roll up the bag, and slide it between the tongue and the laces. 

If my shoes didn't look raggety before, they sure do now.

Day 19: Something orange.

My Husband's [Legal] Shroom Farm

My husband seems to be developing a side hobby...mycology. For Christmas, after watching him geek out about how amazing the fungi kingdom is (it's pretty incredible), I bought him a "grow your own mushrooms" kit from Back to the Roots.


Growing mushrooms is so fun! Join with us in our fungal geekdom.


Soaking the interior plastic bag in water for 24 hours.

After a few days of spritzing the box twice a day, we saw some white, bubbly growth. Notice how disgusting this kit looks? Growing mushrooms is nasty business. But, what else should we expect from fungi?

Day two of growth.

Day three. Starting to look a bit mushroomy!

Day four. By this point, we stopped to look at the mushrooms a few times a day. Every time we looked, we could see visible change!

Day five.

Day 6. They grow so fast! Is that why they're called "magic"? Just kidding. These are totally legal oyster mushrooms.

Day 7. Beautiful! And all that leftover white stuff in the box just indicates that it's still got mycelia for future mushroom crops.

Day 8. The final harvest.

Pizza! Oops. I overcooked the mushrooms. No problem though, because we've flipped the box to start our second crop on the other side!

Michael saved the very bottoms of the mushrooms that were touching that disgusting material that they grew out of and put them in a clean jar. He then added sterilized coffee grounds (i.e. straight out of the espresso machine after making lattes). About once a day, he checks the moisture levels and unscrews the lid so they can breath. The mushroom butts have started growing mycelia (aka mushroom roots)!

When I said my "I do's," I had no idea that I was committing my life to a future amateur mycologist. Marriage is fun. Mushrooms are fun.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 10-14

So far, I have managed to keep up with this photography challenge. The biggest thing I've learned is that the more time and thought I put into setting up a good shot, the better it comes out. I guess I always knew that, but these pictures really prove it. For instance, the pictures of the apple and the potato below were taken in a rush. Not good at all. But, I actually spent time on the photos of the sunset, the kissing figurines, and me with all my instruments... and I like them! Lesson learned.

Day 10: Childhood memory. Growing up, I ate sliced apples with a homemade peanut butter/yogurt dip. Recipe: mix one part vanilla yogurt with one part peanut butter. It's that easy and it was a hit at the Super Bowl party we went to!

Day 11: Something blue. My in-laws picked these blue, kissing dolls in the Netherlands (though I'm not that sure it was the Netherlands) on their 25th anniversary trip to Europe a couple of years ago.

Should I use these dolls to communicate with my husband? When I'm happy with him I'll put them kissing. When I'm upset, I'll put them with their butts sticking at each other. Probably not the best communication strategy!

Day 12: The sunset.

Day 13: Myself with thirteen things. I have a fun collection of instruments from all over the place courtesy of my dad who travels all over all the time (in fact, he's currently in the Philippines) and picks them up for me! The instruments below are from Mali, Costa Rica, Argentina, Moldova, the Guitar Center, and the Folk Music Center.

Day 14: Eyes.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 6-9

Here are the next few pictures from the 30 day photography challenge!

Day #6: From a low angle.

Day #7: Fruit.

Day #8: A bad habit. I used to never make my bed. I am trying to break that habit!

Day #9: Someone you love. <3

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 2-5

The photography challenge continues!

Day #2: My outfit. Day two fell on Sunday, my day of rest. So, I spent the afternoon in my pajamas and slippers.

Day #3: Clouds. Taken from the top floor of the parking structure at my law school.

Day #4: Something green. A snap pea tendril wrapping itself around a rope.

Day #5: From a high angle. My morning espresso.