View from our window

We live in Centre Pennsylvania and look out at beautiful Mount Nittany.  We have had much more snow this winter so our view is spectacular this day.  Sometimes in the winter, it can be dreary.  I always tease my husband that he bought this house so he could bow down before Mount Nittany each day since he is one of those alums that moved back to Happy Valley so he could be a full time fan to all the PSU sporting events.  This picture doesn't show it but we can see the football stadium, the BJC, and the baseball stadium from our deck.  We can also watch the fireworks from here on the Fourth of July.  We were lucky to find this special home.

Detail of bed knob

I thought I better move in and look at things a bit more closely so I liked the patterns in this bed knob.  This is reminiscent of the pine cone photo I took the other day or is it the shape of a pineapple?  Anyway, most of the wood furniture I pick out for my home is dark mahogany so I enjoy the light shade we have in the bedroom.

Our bed

Above the bed is a painting of a lighthouse that we picked up at an auction at Centreville High School where I used to teach in Virginia.  I love beach scenes and the lighthouse gives me a sense of security and hope.  We also have a dream catcher above our bed that we picked up while traveling out west.  We both are fascinated with the legends of Native Americans and like the idea that nightmares are ensnared in the net so we never have to worry about having any.  My recurring night mare is always about getting lost from a group because this has happened to me so many times in real life.

Favorite Things

Another thing I noticed when I was looking at my room through the lens of a camera is that every available space is filled with presents from special people in my life.  My husband bought me the red Oriental print box that I have filled with perfumes and lotions that he has also bought for me.  Next to that I have an invitation to a photo show of Carolyn Smith's that I kept because I love her photographs, and she has served as a mentor to me with my photography.  Next to that is a mug hand painted by my sister.  She is an amazing artist and instead of using the mug, I just like to look at it every morning.   The next object is a business card holder made by Alpha Delta Kappa sisters.  Also in the photo is my calendar that has listed all my appointments and activities for the day.  The other side of the dresser has two Teddy bears, one from my friend Linda and one from my nephew Brian.  My whole room is like that.  These things make me feel loved and happy when I see them.

My husband's side of the bed

Since the magazine comes weekly, what happens is that I read part of it every week right before going to sleep, but don't always finish it, so I leave it piled up there in case I have a bad case of insomnia which I do have occasionally.  I showed the cover of the issue that covered the leaving of William Peterson from CSI because that is one of my favorite characters from a TV show.  I also put the Best/Worst cover exposed because that is my favorite issue of the year.  I like to compare my opinion of various media to the experts.  Then I took a photo of my husband sleeping and you can compare his side to mine.  He has two books, one on fly fishing and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.  These represent two interests of his, but no clutter involved.  I clutter my bedside and life with many things and he chooses a few things that he likes to do.  I also have many books by my bed that represent some of my other interests.

Reading Material

My class assignment this week was to photograph things in my bedroom.  At first, I wasn't wild about the assignment because I did not think it would be interesting visually.  I was also self conscious about the clutter that I knew was in my bedroom.  But as I took the photographs, I realized that I was revealing who I am.  It turns out that my bedroom says a lot about me.  For instance, check out this pile of magazines that are constantly piled next to my bed.  This is a source of irritation to my husband.  Why do I do it?  There are a few reasons.  I love movies so I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly.

Finding Patterns in Things

I belong to State College Photo Club and use it as a incentive to always go out and photograph the assigned topic of the month.  The club is made up of photographers that like to share their photographs and get some feedback on them.  I have learned so much over the years that I have belonged to the club.  I did not know anything about the rules of composition before attending the meetings.  Each month we are given a special topic like "patterns,"  the topic for January.  We can either go out and photograph for that category or we can submit a photo in the open category.  That is a free choice photo.  I love hearing what the judges have to say about my photos and the photos of the other members of the group.  We have some amazing photographers in the group.  The experience has given me a more critical eye on my own photography.  Of course, every judge is different and the process is very subjective.  This month I was very pleased to get a first place in "patterns."  Here is the photo.  I had been asked by a friend of mine to photograph her house for her website to sell her house.  She was a little late so I started  taking pictures in her yard.  I looked down, and I liked the patterns of the pine cone frozen in the snow.  After I told the story, the judge said, "Artists see things that other people don't see."  That made me very happy.  He disliked one of the other photos, so you never know.

Why am I doing this?

I signed up for the Art Alliance class in the hopes that I could find an easier way to share my photographs with family and friends.  I love to take photographs, but sometimes it gets to be a job to send them out to this person or that person.  It also gets very frustrating when I don't hear back from people and then I wonder why I bothered at all.  I am retired from a teaching job that took the majority of my time.  Since I am a joiner and interested in many things, I fill my retirement days with many activities.  I hope this blog will help me focus on how to manage all the parts of my life.  I don't know about you, but do you have a new camera, phone, IPod, scanner, computer etc that you feel that you need to study and get better at using?  Well, that is me.  Do I want to take on a blog too?  I'm not sure, but I will give it a try.