Happy 4th!!!

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Happy 4th of July, everybody!!  Do you have any big plans today?  I'm going to church and then Velma and I are going to Stitch Lab before we go see Eclipse!  Finally!!!  Tonight my mom and I are going to walk down to the park in Buda and watch the fireworks.  I can't wait to take some pictures!

These are the pictures I took last year.  I didn't have my camera at the time so I had to use my iPhone.  I think they turned out pretty good considering I used my phone.

I had planned to make these really cute fabric placemats from the Craft Academy 4th of July Party Packet to share with you today but I had some questions about the project so I wasn't able to finish.  As soon as I get it done I'll post pictures to show you.  :-)

I know I have been posting a lot of pictures on my blog lately but I thought it would be fun to show you a couple of pictures of some of the cute decorations in downtown Buda.  Not a lot of people decorated this year, but the ones that did were nice!  I had to improvise a little since I didn't finish my project.  I got up extra early so I could take these before there were a bunch of cars downtown...and so I could share them with you before I go to church.  :-)

They're not the best pictures because it was pretty gloomy AGAIN today and the decorations weren't amazing.  I just love the small town feel to it.

I took a bunch more but I think these were the best.  :-)

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And now for something completely different...

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I saw this video a long time ago when I first started learning about stop motion.  I completely forgot about it until Velma sent it to me this week.  Thanks Velma!!

Here's some real fireworks in stop motion!  AWESOME!!!!

Congratulations! from Christoph Schaarschmidt on Vimeo.

I love this freezelight video made with sparklers, too!  Someday I'll be able to afford a super fancy camera and try this out.  I LOVE freezelight...almost as much as stop motion.  :-)

Fireplays from Jon Thomas on Vimeo.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Have fun and be safe!

Accidentally Awesome

This week has been so gloomy and rainy in Austin.  I had a really hard time trying to come up with pictures for my 365 Project.  It was especially hard for me on Friday.  We had early release at work so I was prepared to drive somewhere and get my picture.  Then the rain started!  I had no idea what I was going to do.

My coworker recommended that I take a picture of the little stream at the walking trail by our office.  I was kind of iffy about it because I have taken a lot of pictures over there and I don't want to get into a picture rut.  But it really did look cool.  It was all flooded.  After work I walked down to the trail and stood at the edge where it wasn't flooded. 

I saw a plane go by but didn't have my camera out so I missed it!  I am determined to get a plane picture by the end of this project!  Even if I have to sit there for an entire day.  Good thing I have almost a year to do it.  :-)

As I was standing there trying to find a good angle fire ants attacked me!!!!  Oh my goodness!  It was painful!  I gave up and left...in pain.  I took some pictures but I wasn't really happy with them.

This was the best of those pictures.

As I got closer and closer to home I started to worry more and more.  What was I going to do for my picture??  As I was driving on loop 4 towards my house I made a last minute decision to pull into Stagecoach Park and see if I could find something, ANYTHING to take a picture of.  It was still raining but I had to have a picture so I set out in the rain on my adventure.

They had this century plant at the beginning of the trail.  I have been wanting to get a picture of one for a few weeks now so I thought that could be my picture.  They are so amazing!  Sadly, it was too gloomy.  I'm going to go back when the weather clears up and take pictures of it again for my 365 Project. 

Here is one of the gloomy century plant pictures I took.

I just wasn't happy with the picture.  I saw this old building that was falling apart down the trail a little way and it actually looked pretty cool in the gloominess.  I walked down in the rain and was so excited to see what I saw!!!

This is the picture I used for the project.

Okay, look closely at this picture.  Do you see anything interesting on the roof?

YIKES!!!

Now look inside!

I'm pretty sure these are the same longhorns I took pictures of before. I think it's all the same property.

There's his face!  :-)

I didn't take any individual pictures of  his friend because he was facing the other way and I couldn't really get a good angle.

Remember the picture from my project?  Okay, now look to the left of the building.  Do you see the other longhorn laying in the grass??  I didn't even see him there until I uploaded the pictures onto my computer.  He was so sneaky.  I wish I would have seen him so I could have taken pictures.  Oh well.  I was out there for a while and, like I said, it was RAINING!!!

I know the picture quality isn't the best because of the not so great weather conditions and the fact The I had to use my camera to zoom in pretty far on some of these, but I am so excited about them.  Just think...If I had gotten that airplane picture or not been attacked by ants and gotten the picture of the stream or the weather was prettier and I got a good picture of the century plant, I wouldn't have gotten these awesome pictures!  I think it was all worth it.  Plus, I have until May to get the other pictures again.  :-)

Happy Saturday!

365 Project - Week Nine

This week was kind of a hard picture week for me.  The weather here has been terrible for the past few days.  It's just been raining and raining and raining!  Everytime I went to take a picture it was either too gloomy or too wet.  I tried to figure out fun different ways to show the rain but usually ended taking pictures of the spooky clouds.  Oh well.  Those pictures turned out pretty good so I'm happy with them. 

Enjoy week nine!

Day 57

This hibiscus is in the flower bed in front of my house.  I can't take credit for it.  I don't plant my flowers, but I sure do enjoy them.  Isn't it lovely??

I took pictures of some other hibiscus flowers around the yard, too.  These are a few of my favorites.

Day 58

There really isn't anything too special about this picture.  I needed a picture and I had a lot of stuff to do on Sunday so I went outside and took a picture of the sign at my church.  :-)

Day 59

Austin from another viewpoint.  I took this picture over at Ben White and Riverside.  I had to zoom a lot to get a decent view of the buildings.  I thought it looked kind of cool from a distance.  I'm not a huge fan of all the wires...but then I kind of think it makes the picture look interesting, too.

Day 60

It rained Tuesday!  It rained a lot!!!  I wanted to figure out a way to show the rain in a picture but it was really hard to capture.  Plus, I didn't want to get my camera really wet so I had to improvise.  I took this picture by zooming really close in on a leaf from a fern hanging on my porch.

I tried to get a picture of the ripples in this little puddle but it didn't come out very good.  I needed a bigger puddle but couldn't find one.

I thought the next two pictures could use a little theme music.  ;-)

Day 61

I had to take a picture of the rain clouds.  They look so awesome!  I went outside at work Wednesday and took this picture.  About two minutes after I took this the clouds became a big sheet of grey and it just started pouring down rain!  I got really lucky that I went outside when I did.  I was very close to waiting until I got off work.  I'm glad I didn't because the clouds didn't look nearly as cool then.

Day 62

I know it's another rain cloud picture, but I thought it looked cool how the sun was trying to peek through the dark, gloomy clouds.  I took some other pictures but they just didn't come out as good.  Oh well.  :-)

Day 63

Today I had no idea what I was going to do for my picture.  My coworker suggested I take a picture of the stream at the walking trail at work because it was flooded.  I went down to take the picture, missed a plane while I was walking down and then got attacked by fire ants!  After all that I didn't even get a very good picture!  So, I headed home with nothing.  I had no idea what I would do!  I made a last minute decision to stop at Stagecoach Park in Buda.  I stood in the rain taking tons of pictures of this really cool plant but decided it would be better on a sunny day.  I just walked down the trail and started taking pictures of this building.  There is so much going on in this picture!

Stay tuned for more pictures from today's rainy photo shoot tomorrow.  There were just too many to share here so they get their own post!  :-)

Hooked on Hipstamatic

It's true!  I am addicted to the Hipstamatic app for iPhone!!!  I have been taking random pictures everywhere I go.  People probably think I'm crazy!  Maybe they're right!  ;-)

Anyway, I don't really have much to say.  I just wanted to share some of the cool pictures I took with the app over the past couple of weeks.  I don't really pay a lot of attention to the lens and film setting (I finally figured out how to change them).  I just like to shake the phone to get a random setting and start shooting pictures.

I will probably post my Hipstamatic pictures here periodically...just for fun.  I hope you like them!

Flowers

We have a bunch of hibiscus in in the yard and there were tons of blooms this weekend!!

Sunday

I took a couple of pictures on Sunday at church.

Sky

These two were taken at work before the bad weather came.

I took this one at home when the weather started to turn gloomy.

Trees

I actually took this one through the windshield in my car.  I wanted to see what it looked like with the rain.

What do you think?  Too weird?

I took these two today after work today. 

I thought it looked so cool since the stream was full after all the rain we got yesterday and today.

Crafty Fun

Taffy was helping me with my Craft Academy homework!  I realized after I took the picture that he was actually standing on his head.  He's so silly!

I got this cute little jar to hold my buttons this weekend.

These pretty felt hearts are from my Happy Mail buddy, Laura!  Pretty!

Taffy decided to try and figure out the problem with my sewing machine.  No luck! 
It was nice of him to try.  :-)

Okay, that's all I have for now.  I'm sure I will have a bunch of pictures to share with you again very soon! 
:-)