And that, I guess, is that.

Well, here we are.  This is the conclusion of my 2012 Project 365.  A whole year of taking a picture each and every day….  Or at least it was almost a year.  As you might have already realized, I picked a year with 366 days in it to do Project 365.  D’oh!  But whatever. 


Now that the project is complete, I feel nothing but relief.  Blessed, sigh-worthy, hot fudge covered relief!!!!  People keep asking me if I will do Project 365 again this year.  The answer to that is a big, fat, burly HELL NO.  Nah, I already have another photography project that I want—nay, need—to tackle this year, and that is putting my photo albums together….  because I’m four years behind on it! 


FOUR. 


YEARS. 


The last time I completed a photo album was in 2009, when Scope and I first met!  Yeah.  Wrap your mind around that fact for a minute.  You know all the stuff that has happened (and been photographed) since 2009, right?  Our wedding, our San Francisco honeymoon, our move to Chicago, our cross-country road trip, our week at the lake in Ohio, our trip to Disneyland, and a million other things. 


Oy. 


I can’t believe I’m four years behind on the albums.  Nope, just can’t.  I used to be so religious about it, so structured, so freakin’ awesome.  Anytime someone was like, “hey, how did your Halloween costumes turn out last year?”  I would be like, “well, here’s the photo album of it, containing 200 pictures of everything from all different angles and all in chronological order and wittily captioned and shit.  Enjoy!” 


But now?  Now I spend my days living in mortal terror that someone will come over one day and want to see photos from our wedding, and I’ll either have to admit I don’t have my act together or I’ll have to start talking about how knocked up Kim Kardashian looks in a desperate effort to change the subject.  And talking about Kim Kardashian gives me hives, so clearly, it will just be better for everyone if I spend more time managing the photos I’ve already amassed, and less time generating more photos to throw onto the pile of neglect.  So be it.


Are you ready for the very last pictures of Project 365?  Yeah, me too.  Here they are….


Day 354 (2012-12-19) ~  It was almost Christmas, but on the night of the 19th, the sky definitely looked like it was Halloween!





Day 355 (2012-12-20) ~  It looks kind of like a chalkboard, doesn't it?  But, nope.  It's snow.  This is what the first snowflakes of the season looked like swirling in the wind and trailing across the night sky.





Day 356 (2012-12-21) ~  This is Wednesday and the stop motion clay puppet she made for her "Alice In High School Land" anti-bullying video for Walgreen's Expressions contest.  We found out on the 21st that she won the top prize in her category!  We are SO EXCITED!  I am so proud of her!





Here is the full-length un-cut video Wednesday made for the contest with clay on our dining table. 




Isn’t that AWESOME??????


Day 357 (2012-12-22) ~  For Scope's birthday, we had dinner at Bob Chinn's Crab House. 





Day 358 (2012-12-23) ~  Every year since we got married, Scope sneaks a new ornament onto my Christmas tree without telling me.  I’m wise to his shenanigans now though and, this year, I could tell that he had done it just by the look on his face.  One look at his guilty expression and I blurted out, “did you sneak an ornament onto my tree?!”  He could hardly believe it!  Ha ha!  But anyway….  This year he got me Sully and Boo from Monsters Inc (my favorite Pixar movie).  Awww.  I love it!





Day 359 (2012-12-24) ~  Wednesday and I made gingerbread—okay, fine, graham cracker—houses on Christmas Eve.  This is my gingerbread dog house.  I just couldn't resist when I saw those cute Scottie dog shortbread cookies in the store!





Day 360 (2012-12-25) ~  For Christmas "Santa" got me a remote control for my Sony DSLR.  Ooooooh, what a fun toy!!  This was the first shot I tried with it.





Day 361 (2012-12-26) ~  Cool!  So, it turns out that Guy Fieri and his show Diners, Drive-In's and Dives did a show at one of our favorite local restaurants, Chicago Brahaus.  We haven't seen the episode on Food Network yet, but I can't wait!





Day 362 (2012-12-27) ~  Grrr.  Our internet went out the morning of the 26th and AT&T repeatedly dropped the customer service ball and wouldn't come by to fix it.  (Long story, but we were without internet for five days.)  (Stupid AT&T.)  On the 27th, Wednesday and I went to the bakery next door to siphon off their wi-fi and eat yummy cookies.  As far as I see it, cookies are a fair price to pay for an internet connection.





Day 363 (2012-12-28) ~  Driving in the snow the night of the 28th, on our way to Indiana for a wedding, the snow was zooming past the car in the dark and it looked just like we were going into warp speed.





Day 364 (2012-12-29) ~  At a gorgeous Christmas-themed wedding reception on the 29th, the tables were decorated with red glass balls and ribbons.  The whole thing was lovely!





Day 365 (2012-12-30) ~  So.  I guess this is how Project 365 ended.  This was picture number 365.  I thought I had one more day at the time, but I forgot there were 366 days this year, not 365, so my project ended a day earlier than I was expecting.  I had thought I would end the project in a fitting way—maybe I would take a bow or something, I dunno, but I guess instead it ends with a brick wall and vicious-looking icicles.  And that is that.  Oh well. 





Thanks to everyone who followed along.  I hope you enjoyed the journey!  Up next for the blog, I think I might finally whip out some of those 1970’s pictures I dug up at my mom’s house over the summer which I promised I’d share with you.  Wanna see me as a three year old with a red mini ‘fro?!  You know you do.  It’s coming soon….






© Coracabana

Wait! What? Is…. Is that…. Is that the finish line?

Okay, so I’m still trying to burn through 2012’s Project 365 picture updates so that the dang thing will finally be out of my hair.  I think there will just be one post to go after this one.  Ready?  Me too.  Let’s do it….


Day 336 (2012-12-01) ~  Scope’s mom had a Florida-themed tree set up for Christmas.  This is a shot of one of the sand dollars she has hanging on it.  I love, love, LOVE how to looks in black and white.





Day 337 (2012-12-02) ~  Just a partial shot of a beautiful light-up house Scope’s mom had set up in the guest room we stayed in when we visited for the weekend.   (Sorry, this pic was really taken on the 1st, not the 2nd.)





Day 338 (2012-12-03) ~  A shot of Christmas lights on a fence that I snapped while running to the train station in the dark.  (Eh.  I know, I really felt like I started to lose my motivation on the whole project right about here.)  I wasn't happy with the quality of light in the shot, so I tinted the whole shot green, which I definitely prefer.





Day 339 (2012-12-04) ~  This is a similar shot to the one the night before—lights on a fence, which I dyed green.  However, I was playing around with effects on Picmonkey and kind of liked how this one came out with the red bow immune to the green tint.  It's kind of striking in a way, I think.  (Pic really taken on the 3rd, not the 4th.  Another boo-boo, I know.)





Day 340 (2012-12-05) ~  So, the neighbors started decorating for the holidays and this was the first guy to go all out.  *snicker*





Day 341 (2012-12-06) ~  Oops.  A ball buster.  While decorating my tree, I accidentally dropped a ball which smashed into a million tiny red splinters of glass all over the hardwood floor.  *sigh*  What a pain!  But at least it made good picture-of-the-day material.





Day 342 (2012-12-07) ~  Ummm….  yeah. So, it was, clearly, a very, VERY hot day at one of the local high schools!  *snicker*





Day 343 (2012-12-08) ~  Wednesday had a weekend school assignment which took us to the Art Institute of Chicago.  This was the first wall of paintings she studied.





Day 344 (2012-12-09) ~  Another shot from inside the Art Institute of Chicago.  (Actually taken on the 8th, not the 9th).  I liked the lines and festivity of the staircases there.





Day 345 (2012-12-10) ~  Okay, so this was a shot Wednesday needed for a computer class she’s taking at school.  She needed me to take her picture, then she would use Photoshop in class to transform herself into a superhero.  I haven't seen her Photoshop transformation yet, but I really, REALLY love this photo of her.  My goodness!  When did she grow up????





Day 346 (2012-12-11) ~  Another one of my 80's Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  This is Lime Chiffon. 





Day 347 (2012-12-12) ~  When I went for my morning walk around the park on 12/12/12, there were police cars everywhere and the buses were being re-routed off their usual street.  Very strange.  As I rounded the corner, I found out why.... a motorcyclist had crashed into the back of a parked car so hard that he caved the back of the car in, shattered the car's back window, and actually moved the car off to the side!  It was an unbelievable sight.  No, the motorcyclist did not survive.  And, no, I didn't see the body; I arrived on the scene after he had been taken away.  What I saw though was a demolished car, a fallen bike, a broken helmet and gloves on the ground in all different directions near the front of the car (as if the motorcyclist's helmet and clothes had come flying off at impact and kept moving forward without the body), and a street that sparkled with tiny vehicle fragments as if it were covered in glitter.  I can't fathom how fast the motorcyclist was travelling to make an impact as catastrophic as that, but it must have been an astonishing speed.  Ugh.  Slow down out there, people.  The hurry just isn’t worth it.





Day 348 (2012-12-13) ~  Another 80's Strawberry Shortcake doll that sits in the glass cabinet in our den.  Crepe Suzette.





Day 349 (2012-12-14) ~  Cute, isn't he?  This is one of this year's new ornaments on my Christmas tree.  It's Mickey Mouse dressed up like the cast members in the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland!  I love him!!!!  (Oh, if only they made a Tower of Terror one like this.... Maybe next year.)  (My days were still off a bit, so this pic was actually taken on the 17th, not the 14th.)





Day 350 (2012-12-15) ~  My kiddo told me (for the millionth time) how much she hates mushrooms and will never, never, NEVER eat one.  Then she opened her advent calendar.... and it was a chocolate mushroom.  (Ha ha!)  And, yes, she ate it.  Never say never.





Day 351 (2012-12-16) ~  Another filler picture of an ornament on my tree.  It's a limited edition Harry Potter Golden Snitch from Hallmark.  When they came out, Chicago sold out of them instantly and I couldn't find one anywhere. Scope and I went from store to store, but they were all gone.  *sniffle*  Luckily, I whined about it enough to my mom that she found one back in Seattle and gave it to me for my birthday that year.  Yay! : -)  My favorite part of it is on the front where it says "I open at the close" just like in Deathly Hallows.





Day 352 (2012-12-17) ~  The flag at the local high school was at half staff due to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  At first I was standing there wishing the wind would whip up into a frenzy so I could get a picture of the flag billowing, but then I realized I actually like it better this way some how.  The air was still in the Windy City.  Completely still.  Somehow that just seemed fitting in a way.





Day 353 (2012-12-18) ~  Sometimes Christmas feels JUST.  LIKE.  THIS.





Okidoki, just one more Project 365 post to go and then we’ll be done with them. 






© Coracabana

Don’t stop believing

Yep.  Here’s ANOTHER update on 2012’s Project 365….


Day 323 (2012-11-18) ~   This particular day (Nov 18th) was the 8th anniversary of my beating death and beginning the process of re-learning how to walk again.  (Y’all remember that whole blood clot in the spinal cord mess.)  Somehow this shot seemed fitting for the anniversary of the start of that journey, I think.  :-)





Day 324 (2012-11-19) ~  Another picture I took in the local community garden. I liked how these puff-ball plants looked in black and white.  (Oppsie.  This pic was really taken on the 18th, not the 19th.)





Day 325 (2012-11-20) ~  Ready…. set…. go!  Scope, Wednesday, and I were all packed and ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Disneyland.  This was the night of November 20th and our suitcases were all lined up against the kitchen wall because at 2:30 the next morning we had to get up and bolt out the door to get to the airport in time.





Day 326 (2012-11-21) ~  This was taken our first night in Disneyland.  We had never seen Sleeping Beauty's Castle all decked out for the holidays before.  It was so gorgeous!   This shot also seems fitting because by the point this was taken, we had been awake and on the run almost 24 hours!  *yawn*  Sleeping Beauty, indeed.





Day 327 (2012-11-22) ~  This was taken our second day in Disneyland.  While walking down Main Street USA, Mickey (literally!) ran right by us.  I was SO loving his Christmas sweater!  (Hee hee.)





Day 328 (2012-11-23) ~  This was taken our third day in Disneyland.  It is Jack Skellington laughing down at us from the ceiling inside the Stretching Room in the Haunted Mansion Holiday ride.  This was, by far, Wednesday’s favorite ride!





Day 329 (2012-11-24) ~  This was taken our—*sniffle*—last day in Disneyland.  It’s the outside of the Haunted Mansion Holiday.





Day 330 (2012-11-25) ~  The morning we flew back to Chicago from LAX, it was very, very foggy in LA.  But a minute or so after take off, we burst up through the fog below to find sunny blue skies all around us.  I kind of like this shot because of the shadow of our plane on the carpet of clouds just below us.  That's not something you see every day.





Day 331 (2012-11-26) ~  Okay, so I messed up my days a bit after our DL trip.  In my defense, I took over 3000 pics in DL (yes, really) and I had a LOT of editing to do in a hurry (because Snapfish had a promo where all 4x6 prints were only a penny each!  Ohhhhhh, what simultaneously fortuitous and cruel timing!)  I was so busy editing and deciding which pics were print-worthy, I really wasn't motivated to take my 365 Project seriously (nor to add more pictures onto the pile!) for awhile there.  So, this was taken on the 30th, not the 26th.  It's a Christmas-y park I often walk through near our house.





Day 332 (2012-11-27) ~  Uh-uh.  I know.  I couldn't believe it either.  Sitting in a tree outside a local high school the morning of the 27th, there was an owl, just watching all the arriving students walking by.  (It must have been looking for Harry Potter.)  Only two of the kids (my daughter and her friend) seemed to notice.  All the other kids (Muggles!) there were oblivious to the watchful owl.  It was hard to get a decent shot of the owl because it was high up in the tree, branches were in the way, and I only had my point and shoot camera with me—plus, I was afraid to get too close and risk scaring the owl away.  But, all in all, I don't think the shot ended up too shabby, considering.





Day 333 (2012-11-28) ~  On an early morning walk through a local park, I was struck by how pretty the blue sky was with all the trees in silhouette.  And then I noticed all the squirrel nests perched in the trees.  It's quite a bustling squirrel city we've got going on there!  (Pic really taken on the 30th, not the 28th.  Sorry, I was still recovering from the Disneyland trip!)





Day 334 (2012-11-29) ~  Absolutely no thought nor effort went into this shot.  Clearly.  I just realized I had messed up several days on my Project 365 and just snapped random shots on the run on my way to the train station one night.  Blah.  This was really taken on the 30th, not the 29th.





Day 335 (2012-11-30) ~  Yeah.  It's a fake spider lurking in the corner, mid-way up the wall.  Poor Scope wasn't feeling very well for a few days after we got back from our trip....  But once he pulled this stunt to try to freak out Wednesday and me, well, that's when we knew he was on the mend!





The rest of Project 365 is coming soon!






© Coracabana

Yeah, it’s January and I’m still posting pictures from Halloween. Your point is….?

And now for another update on 2012’s Project 365….


Day 305 (2012-10-31) ~  Halloween night, Wednesday dressed up as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scope was Jack Skellington, and I was Oogie Boogie.  Here's Sally and Jack heading out to go trick-or-treating.





Day 306 (2012-11-01) ~  Our pumpkins, all baked by tea-light candles, the day after Halloween.





Day 307 (2012-11-02) ~  *sigh*  I got an emergency call from Wednesday at school.  She had broken her glasses in PE class.  Somehow I hadn't expected it to be quite THIS bad!  (Oops.  This was taken on the 1st, not the 2nd.  My bad.)





Day 308 (2012-11-03) ~  Wednesday and her friends in a limousine on her 16th birthday party.





Day 309 (2012-11-04) ~  This was Wednesday’s family party for her Sweet 16.  I can't believe I'm the mom of a 16 YEAR OLD.  Seriously, where does the time go?!





Day 310 (2012-11-05) ~  When all else fails, draw a picture of your thick-skulled, non-listening, jackass-y nemesis on a left over birthday balloon…. and then beat the shit out of it!!!!  That’s a valuable coping tool Wednesday picked up this particular week in November, which she found to be extremely satisfying!  :-)





Day 311 (2012-11-06) ~  And the winner is….





Day 312 (2012-11-07) ~  We picked up two new Halloween decorations this year.  I figured they deserved to star as picture of the day once before being shoved away in storage!





Day 313 (2012-11-08) ~  Since changing the clocks, my walk to meet Scope after work is A LOT DIFFERENT.  Soooooooo dark and kind of creepy.





Day 314 (2012-11-09) ~  This is a partial shot of a Harry Potter display item I bought on eBay.  I owned one when I lived in Seattle, but I got rid of it (along with a TON of other stuff) when I moved to Chicago, and I always regretted not keeping it.  *sniffle*  I wanted to replace my long-gone one, but I couldn't find one for sale online anywhere, then suddenly there one was on eBay for MUCH cheaper than my original one!  I bought it and when it arrived I was thrilled—it was in even better condition than the one I originally owned.  Sweet!





Day 315 (2012-11-10) ~  My old skool 1970's Mickey Mouse doll.





Day 316 (2012-11-11) ~  This was the night that Wednesday discovered the joy of Jiffy Pop!





Day 317 (2012-11-12) ~  So, you leave Wednesday alone for a couple of hours in the house with a camera, paint, and some clay, and look what you'll come home to:  A stop-motion/claymation movie in progress!  WOW!





Day 318 (2012-11-13) ~  There was one spot of light snow on the ground at the park this morning.  ONE spot.  There was no snow to be found anywhere else.  Weird.





Day 319 (2012-11-14) ~  Out of time and out of ideas.  This was just a super-quick shot of some red leaves and a street light in the dark as I was running to the train station.





Day 320 (2012-11-15) ~  Blue light special?….  Anyone?…. Anyone?….





Day 321 (2012-11-16) ~  Yep.  We ran to several stores to stock up on Hostess cakes the day we heard they went out of business.  This was what we managed to hoard.  Mmmmmm.





Day 322 (2012-11-17) ~  Just a shot of some flags I saw while taking a walk through the local community garden.  (Taken on the 18th, not 17th.  My mistake.)






That’s it for today, but the rest of the project is on the way soon….






© Coracabana