My 10 Personal Writing Tips

I am not the grammar police. Half of my writing makes zero sense (see number 2 below). There are probably mistakes in this paragraph. I cannot claim to know it all when it comes to writing tips. I have never taken a writing class, but I have written a lot of papers. Here are a few things I try to personal live by when writing, just like I try to remember certain photography tips when I take photos. I am always trying to improve.

By the way, I was in COLLEGE when I finally realized it's "would have" or "could have" and NOT "would of" and "could of." I must have driven my professors crazy.

1. BIGGEST PET PEEVE: A person is a WHO, not a that! I know someone WHO has a new car. The little girl in the pink jacket, WHO lives next door. My son, who goes to college, play hockey. I don't know why this drives me insane. But seeing a sentence such as "Here is my cousin that is twelve" makes me want to grind my teeth. I see it everyday on Facebook. I am sure I have made the same mistake too though.

2. Do not write when tired. Or sick. Or in a chemotherapy induced fog. Get some sleep and try again later. And make sure to reread what you tried to write earlier. It might be quite hilarious. This is hard for me, because I am tired and groggy 80% of the day, and the other 20% I try to save for Brycen.

3. Limit the use of the words "got" and "get." Even as a child I was told this one. Still, I catch myself all the time overusing them - Charlotte got three inches of snow. Does Charlotte received three inches of snow sound better? Yes. When I taught advanced first grade we made a graveyard for overused words like "get/got" and "good" and "make/made" and "said" and some other overused words. which brings me to number 4 . . .

4. Use a thesaurus. I love the thesaurus tool on most computer programs. Especially since I am not one to know big words. And it is worse lately, with chemo, I have words on the tip of my tongue, or so they say, and cannot quite retrieve it from memory.

5. Limit the use of that. Instead of saying "My car that is going to win the race," try "my car is going to win the race." I find almost 95% of the time, I do not need to use the word that.

6. Know the difference between you/you're, its/it's, they're/their/there and here/hear. I will admit, if I have a typo, it is almost always with the wrong they're/there/their. I know the difference, but if I am typing too fast I get it wrong, which leads me to number 7 . . .

7. REREAD your writing before you hit  the publish or post button. I do this and I still have mistakes. The piece I wrote about Kodiak Island? I must have reread it 9 times, and I am sure someone else could read it and find more errors.

8. For the love of all things sacred, there is NO A in definitely! You are spelling defiantly, and spell check won't catch it.

9. Something I need to work on - a little fourth or firth grade lesson for life - use the 5 senses when writing. What did you smell? What did you taste? Etc.

10. Another thing I am trying to improve on: staying in the same tense throughout a story. I usually write stories in the past tense, then realize I'm suddenly in the present. This has always been an issue with me.

After writing all this I want to take a writing class!

What are your writing tips or pet peeves?

More doodles

I have learned one important thing this summer: the second I try to MAKE myself draw, I begin to hate it. I get bored, I squirm, I simply cannot focus. Within 15 minutes I feel like there is something else I should be doing. When I did complete a drawing, it was while something was playing on Netflix. Do I not know how to relax anymore? I have decided, this summer, that drawing will not be in my scope of interests anytime soon. I am putting the hobby back on the shelf and playing with things that have a little bit more instant gratification, like photography.

Having said that, I did do a few more drawings before throwing in the towel. And I will admit, they were fun:

I am sure there will come a time when I need to do a little art therapy again . . . but that time is NEVER when I have the time. I am too stress free to think about it now!

Summer Bucket List update

I am rocking the summer bucket list! 

1. Make watermelon salsa again (done 6.27, thanks, mom!)

2. Perfect lemonade (how hard can it be?) (done 6.18)

3. Take B to the fire station again (I talked to the captain and it has been scheduled!)

4. Learn to make pizza

5. Complete ONE piece of artwork that could be sold. ONE. (this one is in the works!)

6. Get a seat for my bike for B (done 6.29):

7. Sell a few items . . . perhaps a yard sale? (items have been listed online)

8. At least one trip to the beach (done 6.26, 6.27 and 6.29):

9. Take B to the outdoor orchestra

10. Have a picnic   (done 6.14)

11. Learn Lightroom

12. Organize house

13. Photograph everything (always ongoing!)

I might need to add a camping trip to this list. Here are some more pics from the summer, so far:

Candid Photos/Summer Bucket List

A selfie:

Recharging Superhero:

It was only in the 70s that day:

Needless to say, I lost interest in my daily art challenge. I will finally admit it: drawing bores me after about 30 minutes. Can I put just 30 min a day towards art? Maybe, now that it is summer. Maybe not. We'll see. Here are some summer goals I have:

1. Make watermelon salsa again
2. Perfect lemonade (how hard can it be?)
3. Take B to the fire station again
4. Learn to make pizza
5. Complete ONE piece of artwork that could be sold. ONE.
6. Get a seat for my bike for B
7. Sell a few items . . . perhaps a yard sale?
8. At least one trip to the beach
9. Take B to the outdoor orchestra
10. Have a picnic   (done 6.14)
11. Learn Lightroom
12. Organize house
13. Photograph everything

10 Random Things

1. I have not blogged in nearly 2 months.

2. I have not blogged because like so many others, I have discovered Instagram.

3. My Instagram is a lovely mix of my son, nature and my teaching career. And maybe a drawing or 2. 

4. I wish my blog could be a lovely mix of my son, nature and my teaching career, and a drawing or 2, but is there ever enough time for all that?

5. Actually, my pictures of my teaching career usually involve some kind of countdown. A countdown to spring break, and now to the end of the year.

6. I know Mary,  I said countdown are bad, but so is the year I am having!

7. My pictures of my teaching career are also a showcase of what I do for my Friday afternoon art club. I LOVE the Friday afternoon art club!

8. I also loved my spring break, although it was chilly. My mom came and we enjoyed a week of grandson/granny time. 

9. Only 31 school days until summer.

10. I am hoping to blog more because I want to challenge myself to do 100 days of art, and post here. We'll see how I do! I will start in about 2 weeks, so tune in. 

And some pics (sorry no art club pics):

We are hatching dino eggs in that last pic!!

Some Changes

 I have some exciting changes on the blog (and in life in general) for 2014. First of all, I finally upgraded to a smart phone, which means I am taking a billion more photos than before. Like the one above, which is so . . . us. Please note the laundry on the stairs.

I was thinking of doing a Project Life Album with all these pictures. I don't have time for full blown out  scrapbooking, but I would like to add some journaling to my albums. And maybe a sticker here and there. Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby with my weekly coupon, but then I noticed how BIG those albums are. I was a little overwhelmed, and ended up just getting paper for a different project. I then came home and ordered the mini album from Amazon. I haven't decided on a core kit yet though, but I am really excited about "scrapbooking" and photo journaling 2014.

So this blog might have more of a current feel, where as in 2013 I mostly only posted pictures from the past. And I might still do that here and there. Sometimes I get nostalgic for Alaska!

Meanwhile I have been experimenting with mosaic paper designs. Hence the paper from Hobby Lobby. My first messy one is below. I have so many ideas for this concept, but not a lot of time to play. We will see if I stick with this as 2014 progresses!

3 Weeks Later

3 weeks since I posted here. I was sick, then he was sick, then we both were sick. He had a birthday. The holidays. Even little things, like participating in Secret Santa, were throwing me for a loop. But now everything is perfect. Happy Holidays.

December 1st, 2013
Neighborhood Park

It's September!

Today, I got in my car to drive to the mountains for two purposes: to relax and to take pictures. I love the Blue Ridge Parkway, and usually it loves me back.

 I was 15 minutes away from my home when the skies turned black and the warnings started to come over the radio. I wasn't in the mood for hours of torrential rain, so I turned around and just made it home before we got hit. So here is a picture of a rainbow instead over some very non-mountainous terrain - the Walgreen parking lot.

Since I was unsuccessful in trip number 6 to the mountains for the summer, I will try again in October. I have all sorts of crazy things going on before that: i am hosting a baby shower, I am a bridesmaid in a wedding, I have an out of town family reunion, and I have 20 talkative students and one ornery toddler.  Did I mention I am a single mother? September, I will conquer you!

See you in October. Or late September.

Wrapping up Summer

August 16th, 2013
Emerald Isle, NC

Tomorrow is back to work for me, and back to daycare for my baby. We have had an amazing ten weeks together. We went to a farm in the mountains and played in the waves at the beach. He swam dozens of times, ate snow cones and had picnics. He visited a fire station, the airport, water fountains, many playgrounds, and spent hours throwing rocks and pine cones in a lake. We kept busy, and rarely had a day when we just sat inside.

And on a different note, his vocabulary has exploded this summer. Here are some of his favorite words and phrases:

"Readeeee?? Alright."
"Thank you you're welcome."
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaze?!" He has ear shattering manners.
"UH-Oh."
"Elmo? Elmo? Elmo? Elmo? . . .
"Um yum num num" (Just like Cookie Monster)
"Truck!"
"I do it."
"I not know."



As for me, my focus switched many times this summer. I am worse than a toddler. I started out obsessed with working on my art skills. I got into linocuts, but then started drawing a lot in a sketchbook. That lasted about 3-4 weeks. Then I started to get into hiking and camping again. I also started the summer reading a few books, but then started reading blogs again instead and binge watching TV on Netflix.

These last couple weeks have been about cleaning, organizing and one last hurrah to the coast:

The first 6 weeks of the school year are crazy, so things will be pretty quiet here for awhile! I will be back full swing when my favorite season appears in the South: Autumn. Although it does feel like fall today . . .

Wednesday Morning Excitement

July 3rd, 2013
Baby Boy's House

A garbage truck is about as exciting as it's going to get . . .

I love rain. I also love that it's barely been above 90 this summer. I also love storms, as long as I am not driving in them. I think it's rained nearly every day this summer. You know, the kind of storm that passes through in the afternoon to cool everything down? But these last couple of days, it's been rainy from sunrise to sundown. And that kind of rain does not mix well with a toddler.

Yesterday we tried to go for a walk around the neighborhood. I checked the radar and didn't see any green around my part of the land. We made it to the pond, and we were saying hey to the "doggies"and their owners, who also needed to get out, when without warning the rain came down in buckets. We were lucky to be near a tree, and there we stood, waiting it out (the dogs and the people booked it back to where ever they had come from). My baby and I could only laugh and watch the droplets hit the pond . . . he was actually very patient.

I will take a wet summer over a triple digit summer any year!

A View

June 20th, 2009
Hatcher's Pass, Alaska

I remember the day I arrived in Alaska. Saturday, August 9th, 2008. I had traveled across Canada for three days. North, north, north I went and the weather was so surprisingly warm. I remember staring at the plugs coming out the grills on front of cars. They made the cars look like dead cartoon characters, with their tongues sticking out. Dead from the heat.

It took so long to drive to Alaska that I thought I had traveled to a new planet. Everything looked so different. The sunlight lasted into the "night." The mountains blocked my view in the rear view mirror. Mountains the same color as a thunderstorm. I would look in my mirror and think, there's a storm coming - being use to the flat land of the south as I was. I would drive for hours and not see a town. Rest stops consist of outhouses. Highways were gravel and had two unmarked lanes. I saw my first bear, buffalo, moose and lynx sighting all in one day.

Yes, a far away planet. But imagine how refreshing to find out this far away planet speaks your language, uses your currency and has Taco Bells. That is Alaska.

April - Pictures that tell Stories

March 31st, 2013 (Easter Sunday)
Baby Boy's House

This boy . . . he gives my life purpose. Before him, I wasn't sure what to pursue, and where and when to do it. I held off projects indefinitely, because I could. I haven't picked up many art supplies since becoming a teacher in 2002. I was lazy with my breaks. But now my life is so organized, I know exactly when to do my art. My list of things to draw over the summer is getting longer by the day. He inspires me. And even better, I have some ideas on how he can join me in the process.

Is it summer yet?

This photo was taken with the rented Nikon D90. When I developed these pictures, I noticed I could see every hair, every fuzz, even dry skin!! Wow, D90 - you sure do go in for the details. I will have to learn some editing skills when I get that camera (down the road!). By the way, my D60 has roared back to life - I don't know how much longer it has, but like I said, I am ready to explore other means of art, and I will be sharing on this blog - although I might have to change the title!

March: Rent a Nikon D90 and a 50mm Prime Lens

Every month in 2013 I want to try something to improve my photography.

In January, I took my first photography class.

In February, I went on a mountain trip in very poor weather.

First of all, March flew by for me. It was quite the enjoyable month, although it was very chilly in the southeast. Since I am still debating (and often checking craigslist) my future camera options, I decided to rent a D90 for the weekend to see if I like it. If you will recall, I can't use a prime lens with my D60, but I wanted to see if an upgrade would be worth it. Here is what I learned:

1. I don't like battery grips. The rental came with one, and I wasn't sure if I could take it off. It made the camera body double the size, and it made it awkward. Obviously, it's suppose to make the camera easier to grip, but I don't think I will need one, unless I go professional.

2. I honestly thought that if I had a 50 mm prime lens (meaning it was fixed on 50mm and could not zoom in or zoom out) I would be able to walk up to a flower, stick the camera in it and shoot amazingly detailed closeup photos. Imagine my surprise and frustration when this was not the case. The camera went berserk and refused to shoot anything unless I backed up at least 6 inches.

So I emailed a D90 user, the amazing photographer who posts her lovely shots of snowflakes here and asked her what she used to take those pictures. She commented back almost immediately (thanks Tammie!) that she used a 105 mm lens. So I looked up that lens on amazon . . . wow, photography is not a cheap hobby.

3. So, feeling frustrated, and not really getting what I wanted out of the camera or the lens, I only played with it a little on Saturday. I took it hiking and took some shots similar to what I would take with my D60. Yes, the quality was better, but nothing that made me want to upgrade soon.

4. Then today, Easter Sunday, I broke out the camera and the 50mm again to take 900 pictures of my son. He is 15 months old, and always on the move. He began hunting for Easter eggs in the backyard and I clicked away. We took him to the park, and I clicked away. I even took pictures indoors with the flash.

And I love how ALL the pictures came out. The 50mm lens really freezes him, and the bokeh in the background came out gorgeous shot after shot. Yes, I fell in love with the lens before I fell in love with the camera, but I have to have an updated camera body to have the lens!

Luckily both the D90 and the 50mm lens can be found for excellent prices. As for the 105mm lens . . . well, there's always next year!

p.s. This is my 100th post - and I think it's fitting that a monthly project falls on the 100th!

February: Finding Beauty in Bad Weather

February 23rd, 2013
Mountains of NC

Every month I want to do something photography related to improve my skills. Here is a link to what I did in January.

I have hit some bad luck as far as photography goes lately. My plan for February was to buy a used prime lens from a friend, one that would help improve my portrait AND my macro shots. I had big plans for setting up a studio in baby boy’s room, and to take a macro photography class in March. The possibilities were endless. But, it was too good to be true.

The lens was not compatible with my outdated camera body. If I want a prime lens, I need a new camera.

I research this idea, and emailed a bunch of people who know and love Nikons. If I want to go pro, the D700 runs between $2000 and $3000. I do want to go pro someday, but not while I have a child in daycare.

The next options are the D5000 or D7000, which run between $500 and $800, both are cameras I can do A LOT with, but still, they are expensive. The third choice is to buy a used camera, which I have given some thought to as well. There is the possibility of renting a camera and lens for trips too, and seeing how much I like them. If I rent, I can see if an update in cameras would be worth it for me. All of these decisions, though, are for down the road.

So, with my outdated trusty D60, I decided on a photo expedition to the mountains for February, to practice my skills learned in January and to add to my portfolio. The forecast: rain, clouds and fog. I heavily debated if I even wanted to go to the mountains in that kind of weather. I was not going to find many scenic views . . .

But I did find water droplets. Hundreds of them. Okay, I might have been able to find them in my backyard too, not 2-3 hours away, but the drive was still worth it. I actually wish I had taken more pictures. I would definitely visit the mountains again in conditions like these just to get more pictures of these droplets reflecting trees. 

As far as skills go, I just clicked away on both auto focus and manual focus. I think I still took some nice "macro shots" even if I couldn't get any closer to the drops of water. These pictures were taken at about 4 inches away. I do wonder what pictures would look like with an actual macro lens. Sometimes my camera refused to focus on them, but for the most part I think I have some lovely pictures. I am happy with them. If you are not a fan of water drops or fog, do not visit the blog this upcoming week!

At the Park

January 20th, 2013
Neighborhood Park

I wanted to test out a few things I learned on Saturday, so I took my camera out early on Sunday. I loved the lines this dock and its reflection made, but I couldn't get any closer without falling in the water. I cropped out the sky - I wanted the eye to go to the diagonal lines first. Maybe I should have cropped out the trees too? Just a fun attempt!

January: Basic Photography Class

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5 Shutter Speed: 1/60

A Swing at the Neighborhood Park
July 19th, 2012

Every month this year I want to do one thing to improve my photography. These things will include taking classes, being mentored, purchasing a new lens, photo expeditions, and photo shoots of people.

I had some credit from classes I missed last year, and I finally had a chance to use it by taking an all day "boot camp" on basic photography skills. If you're nervous about taking a photography class, January is a great time to do it because so many people just received cameras for Christmas. The lady next to me had not even taken her Canon out of the box.

Here are a few things I got out of the class. Please remember that I am not a professional and I could be misunderstanding something - again here is what I got out of it:

Aperture:
1.  Aperture (the number after the letter f) has to do with what is in focus. And since focusing out the background (making it blurry) is one of my favorite things to do, I am about to become a student of aperture.

2. The lower the f number, the less of the background is in focus. The higher the f number, the more of the whole picture that is in focus. I think of it like this to remember: lower number, lower background quality. (Although I think a blurry background is actually beautiful quality). My picture above is an f/5. 

3. Putting the camera on A or AV mode will let you choose the f numbers. 

4. The lower the aperature, the higher the shutter speed. 1/4000 is a HIGH speed, and anything with quotation marks after the number is LOW speed. More about that later . . .

Shutter Speed

5. Putting the camera on A or AV mode let's you choose the f numbers AND makes the camera choose the shutter speed! Woo-hoo! Or, you can put it on M (manual) and choose both. 

6. When looking at shutter speed, the “ (quotation mark) after a number means actual seconds. So, if you set it to 15” it’s going to take 15 seconds to take your picture. Low speeds like this are needed for those neat night shots. Again, 1/4000 is a fast, high speed.

7. If you go slower than 1/60, you should be on a tripod. 

ISO

8. Messing with the ISO (light sensitivity) will let you get lower and higher aperture and shutter speed numbers. 

9. The default for ISO is 400, but if you're indoors you can crank that up

10. The better (and newer, and more expensive) the camera model, the more ISO choices it will have. This where my lovely (old) camera is weak, but because I love to shoot with sunlight indoors and out, it's not a big deal.

Composition

11. Vertical shots are often better than horizontal

12. A shutter speed of ½ and lower will get you some silky shots of water moving, but be sure to be on a tripod

13. Macro shots are not an ability of a camera. It is the ability of the lens.

14. A prime or fixed lens (meaning it can’t be zoomed) can take wonderful macro shots. I am looking at getting a fixed lens at 50mm. 

15. BUT, they make different 50mm with lower and lower f numbers. The lower the number it can reach, the more expensive the lens. So, this little guy is under $150 and can go down to f1.8 but this guy is $350 and goes down to f1.4. I have no idea what the difference between f1.8 and f1.4 looks like. 

16. And finally, something ALL teachers tell you: use the rule of thirds. I need to get some technical stuff down before I start thinking about this every time I take a picture. Some rules are: water can take up 2/3 of the frame, and the remaining 1/3 can be sky (or vice versa). Fill the vertical frame with a person, and make sure their eyes are 1/3 of the way down. Basically, think like there is a nine square grid on your frame and use it to your advantage.