Snapshot Sunday #8

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

54. Cream

58. Field



59. Two



64. Chase



65. Dream

Snapshot Sunday #7

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here. 

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you



14. Wrong



25. Drops



29. Covered



31. High



49. Dark

Snapshot Sunday #6

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

9.  Colorless


13.  Irony


16. Feel


32. Shadow


41. Wonder

Snapshot Sunday #5

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you


73.  Rust


83.  Release


84.  Gather


89.  Distance


90.  Trapped

Snapshot Sunday #4

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

60. Red

62. Rope

67. Smile

68. Smirk

70. Soul

Snapshot Sunday #3

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

42. Sweet

45. Fall

46. Chair

51. Garbage

53. Teacher

Snapshot Sunday #2

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

To see the Snapshots from the previous weeks, go here.

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

12. Growth

19. Within

23. Scar

33. Concrete

36. Yellow

Snapshot Sunday #1

As part of completing # 91 on my list (Complete the 100 Snapshots Challenge), I thought I'd share with you the snapshots that I've captured so far in a segment I'm gonna call Snapshot Sunday (catchy, huh?).  I shot most of these with my Canon Digital SLR camera.  However some of them were taken early in the challenge on my Kodak Easyshare.  I have done some slight editing using www.picnik.com.  I LOVE Picnik.  It's so cool!

Please do not use these photos without my consent and do not attempt to pass them off as your own work.  Thank you

1. Safety 

5. Open

7. Love

8. Touch

10. Blue

Songfest Saturday #1

I don't know about all of you, but sometimes on the weekends, when I SHOULD have some free time for perusing all of the lovely blogs on my blogroll, I don't seem to have that time.  Instead, my Saturday usually gets filled with laundry, dishes, taking the dog to the park, cleaning up the mess around the house that I made during the week and any and all other projects that haven't been crossed off my to do list.  So instead of bringing you a long-winded post, I thought Saturday afternoon might be the perfect time to share some of my favorite music.

As anyone who knows me can attest, I'm a big fan of rooting for the underdog and that extends to the artists who fill my MP3 player.  I LOVE finding artists that hardly anyone has heard of.  It's a great way to find undiscovered talent when they are in the phase where they truly appreciate their fans.

I had the pleasure of going to see "The Civil Wars" last night with a friend.  They are an amazing duo made up of Joy Williams and John Paul White that is fun and funny.  (Yes, John Paul does look an awful lot like Johnny Depp!)  I'm sure I've share them with you here before.  Here's one of my most recent favorites of theirs.  It's called "I've Got This Friend":



Their opening act was Milo Greene made up of 4 guys and a girl.  They are in their mid-twenties and a real pleasure to listen to.  They have a mini CD consisting of just 4 songs, which feels like an appetizer to a meal I can hardly wait to taste!  It's great to see them in the formative stage.  I just know they are gonna go somewhere!  Give them a listen:

Oprah's Life Class Part 1

Have you all been watching Oprah's Life Class?  It's on OWN TV, which I actually don't get because I don't have digital cable (perhaps Ms. O could do something about the availability of her channel), but I've been tuning in to the webcasts on Friday nights.

I've been a fan of Oprah for a long time and I generally liked the direction her show took.  Over the course of the 25 years that she was on the air with the Oprah Winfrey Show, I feel like she used the platform she had to truly help people become their best version of themselves.

Her Life Class picks up where her show left off and over the last 3 weeks the topics that she's covered have really made an impact on me and the way that I've been looking at myself, my life and the people in it as I live each day.

As this month's NaBloPoMo proceeds, I'll share more about the lessons I've learned as well as an exciting event that took place just a few days ago.  Stay tuned for more....

Ask not what I can do for you....but what you can do for the list!

There are officially just 222 days left for me to complete a LOT of items on my list!  That's not much time and I have a LOT of stuff left to cross off.  Many of you have been very sweet and asking me how you can help.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate this and all of you.

So in order to help you (and mostly me) out, I've been going over the list.

The beauty of the list is that it is my own creation and I get to make things up as I go along!

So here are a few list items I would LOVE your help with:

1)  Donate 1,000,000 grains of rice through http://www.freerice.com/. - Originally my intent was for me to donate all of these all on my own, but time is running short and I am WAAY behind!  So, I'd love your help!  The best part is that it's easy, costs nothing for you to help and takes hardly any time!  It couldn't get any easier.  Simply go to http://www.freerice.com/.  Answer some simple vocabulary (or math or geography) questions.  Each one you get right donates 10 grains of rice.  There are no penalties for wrong answers.  If it takes 10 seconds to answer each question, you can donate more than 300 grains of rice in just 5 minutes!  If I can get 10 friends to donate 500 grains each each day, we can knock this one off of the list in no time.  Simply leave me a comment here or on my Facebook page telling me how many grains you donated that day and I'll add them to the total!  I'll keep you posted on how we're doing.

2)  If you know me IRL (In real life) and see me, give me a hug and then tell me to write it down!  I have 30 hugs so far, so I'm VERY close to finishing the 50 hugs.  Don't worry.  You'll remain anonymous.

3)  Pennies...pennies...pennies.  Once again, if you know me IRL, I need your pennies!  They are just weighing you (and your purse, wallet, pants, etc) down.  They may not be worth a lot to you, but if we can put them all together, we can do amazing things with those little coins!

      For those of you who don't know me IRL, stay tuned for ways that you can help to.

That's all I have for now, but if you see something on the list you'll like to help with (eat sushi, walk a few thousand steps with me, go for a bicycle ride - 1000 miles still needed!, go to a mystery theater dinner, golf a few holes, etc etc etc), please speak up.  I'd love the company and the change to make some new friends.  (Getting to know old friends better is wonderful too!)

Life gets in the way....

This summer I've been completely remiss in posting with any regularity at all.  But that's not all bad, right?  Ok, it's true that there are people who insist that to have a blog, you should post every day.  And that's probably true if you're trying to build a business or a following.  But I'm trying to build a life.

And life has a way of getting in the way.

My blog posts are often random and may seemingly go nowhere.  They range in topic from my motorcycle adventures to what I like to think of as "deep thoughts by Heather."  I've tried to post on topics that I think people want to read about, but trying to mold my content like that doesn't fit who I am anymore.

And life has a way of getting in the way.

Over the past few weeks there are lots of times that I've thought of all of you and wanted to share what I'm thinking or feeling.  When I was struck weak by something tragic (the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair) or left speechless by the beauty of something that I've seemingly passed every day.

But life has a way of getting in the way.

When I started this blog, it was about sharing my 101 in 1001 and all the interesting stories that go with those adventures.  It slowly morphed into a place that I could go and let it all hang out virtually.  I wrote what I wanted.  If it popped into my head, I probably told you all about it.  And I felt like I could do that because nobody was listening anyway, right?  If I write something offensive in the middle of the woods and there is no one to hear it, is anyone offended anyway?

But then people started to read.

And that's a good thing, right?  Don't we all want to be heard?  The problem is when we feel like we can't really speak anymore.  Are we really being heard anymore then?  Putting it all out there is most definitely cathartic and I never intend to hurt anyone's feelings.  But people's feelings have a way of getting hurt anyway.

And people have a way of getting in the way.

So I guess I've held back.

And holding back has a way of getting in the way.

Of creating.
Of sharing.
Of living.
Of knowing.
Of being known.
Of loving.

So I'm going to do the scary thing.  And I'm going to start again.

I'm going to begin creating again.
I'm going to start sharing again.
I'm going to try living again.
I'm going to seek to know again.
I'm going to be open to being known again.

I am going to do the scary thing.

I'm going to try loving again.

NaBloPoMo - August 2011 - Fiction

This month's theme for NaBloPoMo is "Fiction".

So here's my question:  Fact or Fiction?  I will be able to ACTUALLY complete an entire month of blog posts and get that item crossed off of my list?

Stay tuned to find out!

Swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck

Here I am getting my post for NaBloPoMo in at the last second!

So, with just under 1 year left for my second 101 in 1001, I've been checking out my list and trying to figure out what I should tackle next.

On the list is to collect 100,000 pennies and then donate them (or the equivalent $1,000) to a charity.  I was doing pretty well for a while because the people on my bowling league (don't judge!) routinely brought me lots of pennies each week.

However, in the last few months, I've gotten behind the schedule of trying to get 100 pennies per day.  To be exact, I'm about 35,000 pennies behind schedule.  I have already collected well over 30,000 (they are REALLY heavy!), but I am most definitely behind the 70,000 that I should have!

The great thing about pennies is that most people think of them as being virtually useless.  That's great when I'm asking them to give me some.  Try that with quarters or dollar bills and I'm gonna bet people are a lot less willing to just fork them over.  After all, checkout counters don't usually have a Have a Dollar/Take a Dollar cup, do they?

So, here's where I need your help!  I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how I can catch up?  What are some of the ways you think I could get more pennies from people?  Am I missing some obvious plan of attack?

Help!  It's for the children!

It's time to get cracking!

It's time to get cracking!!

Today is day #706 of 1001, so I have just under 300 days to get really moving in terms of crossing some things off of my 101 in 1001 list!!

To date, I have completed just 15 of my 101 items.  Unfortunately I have to remove 2 items from the list (#42.  Attend a taping of the Oprah Show - I TRIED to get tickets every chance they had over the last year, but no luck! and #60.  I had made several reusable plastic grocery bags using plastic grocery bags, but in my urge to purge, I've gotten rid of most of the extra plastic bags that were laying around.  Fabric ones are so much easier to make and last just as long!)

So, if my math is right, that leaves me just about 3 1/2 days PER item to complete the rest of the list!

It's most definitely time to get cracking!

This is where I could really use your help!

I have a few things in the works for the coming months like visiting Rockefeller Center over Christmas this year and planning a trip to stay at the Wigwam Motel.

But if you see an item on the list that you think you can be of help with, give me a shout!  Are you a big fan of golfing and want to take me on one of my 10 golf outings?  Do you have a huge jar full of pennies and you're looking for a good way to donate them?  Do you know of a street fair or a parade that I just shouldn't miss?  Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you or a favorite fruit or vegetable that you think I should try?

Whatever it is, if you want to help, I'm willing to accept your help!

Just a word of warning though.  I take lots of pictures and I'll brag about you and your good deeds all over the place!

It's Memorial Day weekend! Let's all sing!

We're on the cusp of Memorial Day weekend and I'm getting ramped up!  Won't you join me?!?

This holiday weekend I'll be getting out of Dodge while all the crazies get into town for the race.  My brother and his wife are celebrating their birthdays and have a big shindig up at their lake house.  It also happens to be the beginning of my first vacation time of the year!

So, how will I be spending my weekend?

First, I think a little quality time with my puppy.  She LOVES jumping into the canal downtown, so I'm anxious to see if she love the lake too.

There will also be some camping.  It's been AGES since I've been camping and I'm sure it will sound strange to many of you, but I can't wait to break out my gear and use it.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my tent and cot (TOTALLY worth the $217 price tag!!).

I'll most definitely get some baby love!!
 
But most of all, I will be swimming in some new music that I am head-over-heels, knock-my-socks-off, going-gaga-for in LOVE with.  Here's a few of my new favorites (in no particular order):
 

Christina Perri

 

This is the first song of hers that I found.  Shortly after I heard it, they started playing it on the radio.  I'm so ahead of the curve.  I'm so cool like that!

 

 

This is the latest video from her.

 

 

The Civil Wars

 

Ok, if you can watch end of this video and not FEEL the sexual tension, you need to go check your pulse!  NOW!

 

Excuse me while I go take a cold shower....

 



 

Adele



I have SERIOUSLY played this song no less than 100 times in the last week.  If you don't believe me, you can just ask my friend Jenny.  I swear!

 

 

Ok, my job of sharing great music is done for now.  Go enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!