Posted on by Anne Sandler · 38 Comments

Lens Artists #256: Inspiration Found in the Kitchen

I’m not one to be inspired in my kitchen. When we moved to this small house, two-thirds of my cook books went to other kitchens and I seldom look at the remaining ones. In fact, I seldom follow a recipe. That doesn’t mean I’m a creative cook. It means I’m too lazy to go to the store! But somehow we eat well without eating out too often.

I think I got a little away from Ritva’s topic on finding inspiration in the kitchen. While I may not be inspired, I do find joy and that’s because I love my Mickey Mouse treasures. Yes, I’m a Mickey lover. Here are some of my kitchen treasures.

The top three were gifts and the planter was the first thing I brought into this house. It’s only be sheer determination that it has lived. I’ve been known to kill a cactus. The mug is my last Mickey mug and my husband is not allowed to use it since he broke the others. The toaster is not in use because it gets hot, but I love it anyway. The Mickey skeleton was given to me by my grandson and his girlfriend. She loves Halloween. I enjoy seeing it move when the morning sun shine on it.

Outside of my kitchen, I have photographed kitchen related items like these at Ikea.

And then there’s always the hardware stores.

Or farmer’s markets.

I photographed this at a still life class given by the Gold Rush Chapter of PSA.

I’ll end with something you’ll never see in my kitchen. Knowing I am in the paper plate time of my life, I gave my good china and silver to my daughter-in-law while I could see her enjoy it. This was taken in the Sacramento Railroad Museum’s dining car.

I think I’ve expounded enough on my kitchen philosophy. Thank you Ritva for letting me have some fun and showing you my kitchen treasures. By the way there are more Mickeys around the house!

And thanks to Patti for encouraging us to tell stories through our pictures last week. Your responses were varied and great. Next week Philo will be challenging us with simplicity. Be sure to look for his post.

By the way, the WordPress Reader tag for Lens-Artists is not working well. I hope that through all of us posting on Ritva’s challenge, more will find it. Remember to link to her post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 16 Comments

Lens-Artist Challenge #111: Everyday objects

Thank you Patti! This challenge made me stretch beyond my normal type of photography. What I finally came up with are a few things around my house that bring me joy.

First are my bamboo wind chimes. I love the sound they make even in a slight breeze. As you can see, they are old and cracking, but they still sound beautiful.

Also outside are my red chairs. I saw two red chairs during a visit to Volcano, a very small town in the gold country, and was instantly drawn to them. When I repainted the house I had to get some. They are a perfect accent for my gray and charcoal color choice.

One thing about me that you may not know: I’m a huge Mickey Mouse fan and love almost everything Disney. So Mickey is in my house big time. One Mickey treasure is my toaster given to me by dear friends. It’s really not good to use since the outside gets hot. So, it sits as a decoration on top of my kitchen cabinet. Who could not enjoy that first cup of coffee after looking at Mickey!

My fondest Mickey treasure is a big puzzle my older grandson, Christopher, made for me. Each piece is a scene from a Disney movie. He framed it and it hangs at the end of my hallway. Here’s the puzzle and a close up so you can see the puzzle pieces. It’s amazing.

And finally, my dog Gem. He’s a Schnoodle and is 10 years. We walk every day, so I guess he’s an everyday thing!

Thanks again Patti! It was fun!!

Posted on by Anne Sandler

California, here I am! Edited photos from Disney World, Florida

I have to admit it–I love California! It’s always great to come home even though it’s overcast. Hopefully we will get some needed rain. We had a great time in Orlando and Disney World, but I brought the cold home with me. So today, I’m resting and working on photographs. I need to get rid of this cold because I have a photo outing tomorrow–weather permitting.

Today I’ll show you some images from our first few days at the resort and in the Magic Kingdom. I kept comparing this park to Disneyland, my favorite park, and I guess I shouldn’t do that any more. The Magic Kingdom has changed since we last visited more than 20 years ago–for the better. However, you do have to go chase down some of the Disneyland attractions in the other three parks. However, the Magic Kingdom is not my favorite of the four parks.

I may have posted some of these images unedited so I hope you don’t mind seeing them again. I also need to get the photos of Olivia playing the Beast in the little Beauty and the Beast play play. Ryan was the cupboard. (Remember, I had left my spare battery at the hotel in my backpack.) Bummer, but it was wicked good to observe it.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Colds and Disney World unedited

What can ruin a vacation? Maybe lost luggage, rainy days, getting sick? Well, we didn’t lose our luggage, but the other two are something we’ve experienced. Even though three of us are down with a cold, we went into the parks anyway. Right now Richard and I are in the timeshare resting while the rest of the family went into Disney Hollywood Studios. When Greg called, he said that they were freezing. Greg also has the cold.

My post today is about Epcot. It was great. I wasn’t that impressed about the various “land exhibits,” but the rest of the rides and shows were wicked wonderful. One nice ride was about how they are growing vegetables in different ways like rice in dirt and tomatoes in trees. There was a lot for the children to enjoy, which they did. Here are some unedited images.

 

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

Some lessons are hard to learn: Disney World unedited

Yes, I did it again. I forgot to check the battery in my camera before we left for the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, and didn’t bring my spare. I got in a few shots before we got too far into the park and then stowed the camera back into the car. Fortunately, my daughter-in-law had her camera along and was the picture taker for the day.

I brought along both my cameras, but decided to use the D3100 since I would be taking mostly snapshots and didn’t want anything to happen to the D7100. We came to Orlando with our son, Greg, daughter-in-law, Jessica, and young grandkids, because our company is involved in a trade show here and thought it would be a great vacation. So, right now it’s day 5 and three of us out of six have colds. Jess is down at the pool with the little ones. This is a good time to do a blog, I thought. But, I have no editing program or computer with me! It’s a good thing Richard brought his laptop.

Our first two days in Disney were at the Magic Kingdom. It was crowded and they have a different system for using fast passes. It took us a while to catch on, but we did. Here are some memorable moments: Olivia was chosen to play the part of the beast in Belle’s castle play and danced with her (I have to get the pictures from Jess).  Ryan wants to be a pirate after going through the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride. We found some characters and took pictures with them. And, I got my highest score ever on the Buzz Lightyear ride!

Here are some images of our experience so far–unedited! I hope to get some study time in on the D7100 today, and tomorrow I will remember my extra battery and SD card!