zippy do da zippy day

well the last letter in alphabet blog hop.

some have asked what we will d next. I think we are going to do a rainbow challenge with the colors of the rainbow so be looking for that in the upcoming days. until then have a wonderful day.

yucca in the yard

well the alphabet blog hop is almost over the time has gone really fast. And been inspiring. hope you have enjoyed it.

The yucca is a transplant. Last weekend my neighbor got rid of many of her yucca's I had my dad come take about a half dozen for his front yard a section that doesn't grow anything and they are thriving so far. My trouble spots are on my rock wall having trouble with getting to many plants to survive there so trying out a few. one side they are doing ok but the other side not so good. this one just may make it though lets hope. My goal is for a yard with little to no care but still look good.

May in Spokane is the lilac month our city flower and the namesake for our festival and parades. mine are starting to bloom YEAH. I have young ones they still need a few years to grow up but I can wait. it was windy today so this was the best shot of the bunch. happy with the background at least

x marks the spot

x was a tough one but then came home to this today and it hit me. this is our mysterious crop circle as we call it. when we leave home we come home to this mysterious pile of pillows not every time but most times. the pillows normally belong on the window seat one on each end.

One day i had left and my husband was asleep in the other room. the dog thought we were both gone apparently. Shortly after I pulled out of the drive way he had taken one pillow down already and my husband came out of the room catching him in the act of pulling the second one down and putting it on top of the first. they are a good 6 feet away from the window and he has to go around a set of small tables to get them there. it amuses us to no end and always puts a smile on our face when we come home to this

wall street diner

had the day off today so hubby and I had some errands and decided to have a little lunch. This little diner is in a neighborhood near our house and has some great food. Its always packed too.

u is for.......

untied. well that was my original thought but looking at these pictures my shoes aren't very attractive they are rather ugly but they go so well with the pants I wore today.

i did have another shot at my husbands suggestion and he was even my model
which doesn't happen very often either. Uvula

spokane

S is for Spokane, Washington. This is taken in the heart of the downtown area. we have a river that runs through it and through a damn that generates our power. The park is called riverfront park and originally was a train yard the clock tower is all that is left of it. in the 70's we had the worlds fair here and the pavilion in the background is one item left from that. It houses our ice rink in the winter and a mini golf range and a few rides in the summer. In the park we also have a carousel, an Imax theater, and countless areas to sit and enjoy the scenery. we hold many festivals here including pig out in the park on labor day that is full of good eats. Forth of July with the sympathy playing on the floating dock with the opera house in the back ground is always a big hit.

Spokane is located on the eastern side of the state of Washington and is considered a high desert. NO it does not rain all the time here. That would be rain forest near Olympia on the west side of the state. Spokane is about 30 minutes from Idaho. Has tons of lake, mountains, farm lands and just about everything but an ocean.

or stock photo
just to busy of a day to get out and get a shot so used one I had taken a few months ago. Just as well since I don't take my real camera to work due to not really having a place I can safely put it without risk of being stolen.

I think after doing this photo I have found my 2011 project. I think I will blog every day about my fair city to spread the word of what we offer and the beautiful things here and around here. Would love to have some followers for next year to do this with. any takers??? well you have many months to decide on it.

r is for race for a cure

today was a perfect day for the Susan G Komen Race for a cure run/walk. Spokane's 5th annual walk was a success with almost 9000 participating this year.

Took my point and shoot and with an above the head no idea what I am taking a picture of you can see a large portion of the group. we were about in the middle of the sea of pink for our starting point.

with the release of the balloon the race is off (yes I know there are two spots on the lens and have to figure out how to fix them one I believe is a defect in the lens itself as well)

this sign amused me.

the reason for walk is in celebration of the survivors and in remembrance of those we have lost to breast cancer.

a few from our group unfortunately we didn't get a group shot in just to many people. Cha cha for those ta ta's!!!!!!Kari, Amy (our team captain) Laurie, lizzy and myself.

ps lizzy is ready to race she was much happier once we were on the move.

quad queens

Wow I can't believe we are already at Q in the alphabet blog hop. I thought this was going to be a hard letter but it turned out to not be so bad. I thought of quiet (library) then nixed that idea, quail I would have love to do but haven't seen any lately, even tried to do quack but of course no ducks at the area I was at today darn it. so then decided queen.

I was going to experiment with depth of field which is one of my true weak points but after getting the cards set up and reset and reset and reset I was by this point more frustrated then anything so only took a few shots before the cards once again fell down and I quit. hmm there is another q word so that works.

Anyhow out of all the shots I like this one best because the Q's are fading as they go back.

tickled pink

well not really pink. that was going to be my shot for the day. I had it in mind to shoot a pink blossoming tree on my way home but I only had my point and shoot with me. so then I saw a police car pulled over and lights on and thought oh that would be good but then I saw the pizza dude. well that did it. I whipped the car around and got out the old point and shoot and there is my P. PaPa murPhy Pizza dude. this is a cool costume.

origami

o is for origami. My son make a few things with origami and one of them is a dollar bill elephant. Perfect for my alphabet O shot for tonight.

hit the button right on the nose

worked very late tonight so was exhausted when I came home and then hour later realized I need an N for the alphabet blog. Hubby was once again very helpful NOT!!!!! nipple, Neapolitan and nothing were his favorites. shakes head drive crazy some days.


First took horrible shots of noodles and decided I hated them and saw the dog laying on the floor looking all cute so here are my NOSE shots. the shot below is the original shot the other two are cropping from the shot.

poor Duncan he is always my model in the end

I have a mouse!!!!

not the four legged kind but the wireless kind for my laptop. YEAHHHH freedom from the track pad.

Funny story though. we have been meaning to buy one and hubby is the computer geek but we just haven't been able to hook up together to get one. So I sent him a message today that said. Need to get a mouse tonight. well to further the story we have a now almost 20 year boy and throughout his life with us we have had various types of animals and critters. All of which require to eat. go figure. So that said my husband messages me back with NOT ANOTHER SNAKE. He really doesn't like snakes but grew to not complain about the first one we had. Well it never crossed my mind that he would think of a snake and we giggled about it all night.

so M for Mouse worked out to be perfect timing for the alphabet blog hop. I hope you are enjoying the challenge and please check out some of the other talented people on hop. their websites or blogs are listed to the right.

l for lucky me

this book arrived today and was perfect timeing for me. I won this book over at munchkin munchies. I have the first book in this series and when I saw this second one I was so excited. my husband I love to do these together. now to plot out what we will be doing next. yummy.

thanks sue and everyone please check out her website its a good one.

jewelry

bought a few jewelry making supplies today so this is my J . hehe yeah a bit of a stretch but that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Mom and I recently learned how to do kumihimo which is a Japanese type of braiding that you can make necklaces out of. our first attempt was with yarn, floss and threads but we plan to make the jump to adding some beads for the next step. you may remember this post So today we went shopping for supplies

ice ice baby

i was off work today so after all the errands I had a little time to play. Who knew how hard an alphabet challenge really was. I had in mind to do ice and spent about an hour playing with it in different ways. I would really have liked to have a rock surface to do this on but none accessible to the table it was. ice is a good challenge with regards to playing with light and how it reflects off of it. not a perfect image (why is it we always see our own faults big as day) but the one I finally decided was right for me

i know that like the back of my hand

what really is the back of your hand? isn't it more like the top and the bottom?

Couldn't decide which shot to put on here so put both up. I like the coloring in the first shot but it seems boring.

i don't like the coloring in the second shot but I like the texture of it. though it seems a bit out of focus now that I have it up on the screen. It is not an easy thing to take a picture of your own hand while still holding your camera with the other. I tried to blur out the background the best I could with this lens but it was tough. I still have to stop and think I have to turn off the auto focus on the camera and on the lens. newer camera for me so still learning everything.

Sorry H is a day late. took me forever to come up with an idea and my husband was no help. His ideas: hippo, helicopter, home (boring I thought and was the only idea till this morning) so far H was the biggest challenge. I really wanted to do a horse but that wasn't going to happen.

fried foods

continuing with the alphabet blog hop I thought our dinner tonight would be the perfect F. We actually call this heart attack because well its all fried foods and unhealthy. scrambled eggs with cheese of course, fried hash browns, toast (probably the healthiest part of the whole dish minus the butter that went on after this picture was shot) and of course Bacon. everyone loves fried bacon right??

shot with my point and shoot.

Egg art

This is what happens when you have a key to your mothers house and no one is home.

my husband and I were cleaning her carpets for her while she was gone and found a sharpie and decided that something had to be done. So we drew faces on all the eggs and left them back in teh fridge to find later.


we were particually happy with these two.

NOTE: both shots straight out of our point and shoot so not the best but felt they were perfect for the "e" shot. Plus it always shows you to have some sort of camera handy. You never know when the opportunity to take a picture may arise.

Duncan

Regulars to my blog will recognize my dog Duncan. He is a west highland white terrier that is in a bad need of a grooming in this shot. I just hate getting him cut till the weather gets nicer and well he is due now but haven't had the time.

Tried a different angle on this just for fun. Sometimes the regular shot just doesn't give enough interest and I thought this would.

How is everyone enjoying the blog hop? some talent out there that is for sure. Those new to the hop check out the blog and link list to the right for the blogs and sites that are playing along with us.

Computer

continuing on with my alphabet challenge today is C and fitting that I just recently got a new computer. Its a huge learning curve but I am adjusting, this as I sit comfortably on the couch instead of at a desk. This I like.