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

Too much of a good thing

Hey there.  Remember that photo cult I got kidnapped by last year?  Y’know, the one where they brandished red hot pokers at my nipples and swore to shove Cheetos up my nose if I didn’t take a picture.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Of.  The.  Year.  Remember that? 


(Ahhhh, good times.) 


Well, I did it.  I survived.  I completed the whole project and then frantically made a hasty, scream-filled escape, and hid, sobbing, in my closet with my sweater pulled over my head as soon the cult looked the other way. 


(Okay, not really.  But it kind of feels like that.)


Now that I’ve been plopped out the back end of the project, I realize what a freaking ridiculous undertaking it was.  Sure, maybe it sounds simple enough to take a measly little picture once a day for a whole year—pffft!—how painless, right?  But it isn’t.  No.  You see, the cult headquarters (aka the official site where you upload your daily 365 pictures) is…. well…. a wee bit more complicated than that. 


Let me explain….


When I first joined their cult, things were all hunky-dory, kumbaya, hakuna matata, and shit like that.  I was learning a lot—I mean, A LOT—about my cameras, Photoshop, Picmonkey, and digital photography in general, and I was enjoying the journey.  I was having fun.  But it didn’t take me long to notice the nasty undercurrent lurking beneath it all. 


Man, people are competitive there.  It’s like Thunderdome!  I mean, if someone posts a picture of…. ohh…. I dunno…. say, a bowl of Skittles, for example, the others on the site would all ohh and ahh at first, but then run off like thieves and post their own pictures of bowls of Skittles too with captions saying ‘Look!  Look at ME!  Look how much awesomer MY Skittles picture is!’ and soon there would be hundreds of near-identical pictures of Skittles floating around, each topped with a heaping helping of attitude. 


And then the bickering and bitch-slapping would erupt.  Over pictures.  Of Skittles. Oy.


I never realized how much fighting a handful of non-Paparazzi produced pictures could whip up.  It really started to get to me.  I stopped interacting with the other cult members months ago and just kind of kept on posting my pictures there late at night once every few weeks, hoping not to be noticed.  In all honesty, I’m glad it’s finished. 


Frankly, there are days you just don’t feel like taking a picture, okay?  There are days you are just too busy to take a picture of anything more than a half-assed snapshot of whatever crap you bump into.  And there are days you just want to take pictures without being judged.  That’s what it all boiled down to for me.  I realized about half-way through it that producing a photograph worthy of judging every (!) single (!) day (!) for (!) a (!) whole (!) year (!) is just unnecessarily stressful.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were times I loved the project and enjoyed the heck out of it…. but, all in all, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew.


But anyway….


The project is now complete—yes, I finished it; I didn’t quit—but I’m waaaayyyyyyyyyyy behind on posting the pictures here.  In fact, it appears the last time I updated you on the project was October. 


(October?)


(Really?)


Well, crap.  I suppose I should really get on that.  Like, now.  Here we go….



Day 288 (2012-10-14) ~  I got this spooky Halloween banner in the mail from my awesome friend, Callista. I hung it up on the wide window above our backdoor for Halloween and I loved it.





Day 289 (2012-10-15) ~  This was one of the local high schools back on October 15th. The walkway was soooooooo gorgeous with the trees all covered in orange and yellow Autumn leaves.





Day 290 (2012-10-16) ~  I saw some Halloween skulls on sticks in the ground while I was out walking on some errands and I thought they might look exceptionally creepy with Picmonkey's Ghostly filter.  Oh, yeah.  Definitely creepy.





Day 291 (2012-10-17) ~  Yeah.  It rained this night.  IN.  THE.  HOUSE.  It even warped the wood trim above our backdoor.  It’s times like these when I wish I was still a renter.  Grrrr.





Day 292 (2012-10-18) ~  And this is how the cacti grow in Chicago.





Day 293 (2012-10-19) ~  I saw this wee, little dude guarding a car in a dark parking garage and he made me giggle.





Day 294 (2012-10-20) ~  Wednesday was busy, busy, busy making clay puppets for another stop-motion movie she had in the works.  This was one of her latest clay buddies.  In fact, this puppet right here earned her $2,000 in a film contest—but you’ll have to wait a couple of posts for the rest of that particular story.  (Sorry!)





Day 295 (2012-10-21) ~  Another retro Strawberry Shortcake doll that I have in our den.  This is Apricot.  I have no idea why she's just named after a fruit when all the others are named after desserts though. (????)  Kind of odd, huh?





Day 296 (2012-10-22) ~  And this is what it looks like from the third floor balcony when some construction crews show up at 8am and dig big holes in the sidewalk and block off the only two exits out of the building (besides the back alley).  No warning.  No notice.  Just—BOOM!—you’ve got no front doors until further notice, suckers.  Grrr.





Day 297 (2012-10-23) ~  Wednesday saw this Jack Skellington fondant cake sculpture in the front window of a local bakery and she about fainted from joy right there on the sidewalk.  Her 16th birthday party was a couple of days after Halloween, so we ordered her a Jack sculpture for her cake.





Day 298 (2012-10-24) ~  Our pumpkins were waiting on the deck, ready to be carved for Halloween night.  (ACK!!  A slight cheat on this picture.  It was taken on the 25th, not the 24th. Whoopsie!)





Day 299 (2012-10-25) ~  Ooooooooooooh!  I love this one!  This is what it looked like on my walk to meet Scope after work on October 25th.  Halloween was definitely in the air!





Day 300 (2012-10-26) ~   Okay, there was a lot of stuff going on this particular week, so I missed a couple of days by accident.  Fortunately, Scope, Wednesday, and I went to an incredible blown glass gallery, so I have lots of pics to make up for it.  Like this one.  (Taken on the 27th, not the 26th.)





Day 301 (2012-10-27) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. This one is called "Scene of Japan #59" by Hiroshi Yamano.  The fish was soooooooooo realistic!  Just amazing.





Day 302 (2012-10-28) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. There was no artist's name on this one, as it was an unlabeled bowl on a desk in the back office.  I love the colors all back-lit in the sunshine like that, all bright and rainbow-y!  (Taken on the 27th, not the 28th. Sorry!)





Day 303 (2012-10-29) ~  Another shot from the back office at the blown glass gallery I visited on the 27th.  This one wasn't labeled either, so I have no idea who the artist is.  I loved the three white apples propped in front of the book like that.  If you look closely, you can see the images of white apple blossoms on the apples.  Wow.  (Taken the 27th, not the 29th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 304 (2012-10-30) ~  We carved our pumpkins on the night of the 29th, but this one of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas really dried out and shriveled up overnight, so we had to light it a day early before it caved in on itself.





(If you want to see all the previous Project 365 posts, click HERE.)  The rest of the project is coming soon!






© Coracabana

It’s all JK Rowling’s fault. (Well, kinda.)

You guys, sometimes blogging is just too hard.  There, I said it.  Sometimes it seems like the only way I could ever possibly get done everything I want and need and have to do is if I had a Time Turner.  AND severe insomnia.  But I don’t have either one.


(Okay, fine.  I do have a Time Turner. Happy?  But that little f*cker has NEVER worked, thankyouverymuch.  *grumble*)


(But I digress….)


The last several months have just simply been batsh*t crazy.  What with the Ohio trip; the Washington trip; all the photo editing and organizing from the zillions of pictures I took on both trips; the court crap; the post-court crap (including a two-inch thick stack of receipts and coordinating papers I am presently getting ready to mail to comply with a post-court order—oy, please don’t ask); my eBay selling and all its required running back and forth to and from the post office; juggling all our various appointments and schedules; my quest to lose the weight I’ve put on since moving to Chicago; trying to help poor Wednesday through a very, VERY difficult emotional time (*sniffle*); and having JK Rowling publish a brand spankin’ new book in the middle of it all—*whew*—well, I guess the blog just kinda got lost in the chaos for awhile.


(There there, poor, neglected blog.  Mama still loves you, I swear.)


To those of you who contacted me and Scope to ask if I am okay, thank you. I really do appreciate it.  Yes, I’m fine.  Frazzled and tired, but fine.  However, the more time that has slipped through my blog-ignoring fingers, the more I started to worry how the hell I would ever catch up on what’s been going on the last few months….


Ummm….


Hmmm….


Nope, no clue….


And then suddenly—*BAM!*—it hit me like a phone in Naomi Campbell’s house: Project 365!  I can tell you the whole whoppin’ tale in bits and pieces as I update my take-a-picture-a-day project!  Yep.  I’m still taking a picture every day, and I am only…. ohhhhhhhhhh…. four freaking months behind on posting it all here.  So, before I get even MORE behind, here is another long, lonnnnnnnngggggggggg overdue update on this year’s Project 365 with little stories of what we have been up to along the way….


Day 161 (2012-06-09) ~  “Hey! That sculpture looks like sh*t!”  Scope and I went for a quick walk along the North Shore Channel Trail on June 9th.  While on the trail we spied this monstrosity, which I'm sure inspires many a poop joke.





Day 162 (2012-06-10) ~  Scope, Wednesday, and I celebrated an early Father's Day before hitting the road for Ohio.  We went to the park for a picnic which was fun and relaxing.... until the evil pigeons showed up.  *shudder*





Day 163 (2012-06-11) ~  I just shot a quickie of a patch of mini daisies I passed while on my way to the train station to meet up with Scope after work.





Day 164 (2012-06-12) ~  Another quickie of flowers.  Oy.  I know. Sorry!  But, look, I posterized it to shake up the flow a little bit.  That was nice of me, huh?





Day 165 (2012-06-13) ~  When Wednesday was little, I used to draw faces on her oranges.  For no reason, really, but she LOVED it.  As she got older, the habit died off, but this particular day I surprised her with one again, which made her giggle.  Hey, even at 15 years old, an orange face is still awesome!





Day 166 (2012-06-14) ~  The 7th (I think….?) shot of my retro Strawberry Shortcake doll series.  This is Lemon Meringue and she still smells incredible!  Mmmmmmm.





Day 167 (2012-06-15) ~  This is a complete throwaway shot.  (Duh.)  We were hurriedly packing up our things for our vacation to Ohio and it dawned on me that I hadn't taken a picture yet that day, so I shot a super-quick snapshot of the messy scene in front of me and went right back to packing.  Just pitiful.  I know, I know.  *hanging my head in shame*






Day 168 (2012-06-16) ~  Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to Ohio we go.  This was the view somewhere in Indiana.





Day 169 (2012-06-17) ~  Our first full day in Ohio, we went to Ghostly Manor Thrill Center's haunted house (which was SPECTACULAR, by the way!!!!)  This dragon was lurking outside the building when we arrived.  CreeEEeeEEeepy.





Day 170 (2012-06-18) ~  Our 3rd day in Ohio, we went to Nickel Plate Beach where we saw this lanky bird slowly creeping through the water.  He crept several yards out into the lake as if he was stealthily stalking something and then inexplicably just turned around and walked right back to the shore.  Bizarre.





Day 171 (2012-06-19) ~  This was from our 4th day in Ohio where we took a boat cruise right past Cedar Point Amusement Park.





Day 172 (2012-06-20) ~  This was from our 5th day in Ohio when we toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and saw this massive moving puppet of the "teacher" in Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" music video looking down on us.





Day 173 (2012-06-21) ~  This was from our 6th day in Ohio when we took a look in an antique store.





Day 174 (2012-06-22) ~  This was from our 7th day in Ohio when we got up close and personal with dinosaurs inside Cedar Point Amusement Park.





Day 175 (2012-06-23) ~  This was from our last day in Ohio as we said goodbye to the beach early in the morning before hitting the road back home.





Day 176 (2012-06-24) ~  Our first morning back home in Chicago, Scope and I took a walk around the park and saw this VERY bored film crew across the street.  *snicker*





Day 177 (2012-06-25) ~  I saw this cutie playing ball at the park and couldn't resist snapping his picture.  :-)  (Okay, okay, I cheated a bit on this picture, which was taken on the 24th, not the 25th.  I was soooooo busy organizing and editing all the pics from our Ohio trip that I forgot to take a picture on the 25th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 178 (2012-06-26) ~  Yeah.  It’s a Lego genie.  And?





Day 179 (2012-06-27) ~  I thought I'd go old school with the picture this day with an old Depeche Mode record.  (And, yep, I cheated a bit on this picture too, which was taken on the 28th, not the 27th.)





Day 180 (2012-06-28) ~  This is a dragon that guards a local shop.  I love (LOVE!!) his flame-like eyebrows.  (Another cheater pic.  What with all the Ohio trip picture editing I was doing, I somehow got my days all jumbled up for a bit.  This was taken on the 29th, not the 28th.  Grrrr!)





Day 181 (2012-06-29) ~  A tornado?!  Nah.  It was just a funky cloud that passed by our deck.  It startled me for a second though, I admit it.  Yeesh.





Day 182 (2012-06-30) ~  My lovely, handsome hubby and I went out to dinner at Isla Pilipina to celebrate our 2nd anniversary a couple of days early.  (I had the teriyaki chicken and it was incredible, by the way!)  Can you believe it’s been TWO YEARS already?!





Day 183 (2012-07-01) ~  Our anniversary cake.  Mm-mm-mmmmm.





Day 184 (2012-07-02) ~  I stumbled upon this sunflower growing on the corner of a city street.  Someone's garden is conveniently in the background, making it look like this pic was taken in a field, not the streets of Chicago.





Day 185 (2012-07-03) ~  Okay, so I *CLEARLY* had the camera on the wrong settings for this shot of the moon, but I dunno, I kind of like it.  It makes the moon look like it's made of cheese.





Okay, that’s it for today.  I’ll be posting more pics soon, including shots of our summer trip to Seattle.






© Coracabana