Thing-a-day.com

… and I’ve decided to take a daily picture this month! They’ll be posted at my Flickr-page.

I have really enjoyed Thing-a-day and will definitely be back next year. The challenge of doing something each day, even when uninspired, sick or exhausted and posting both the good and the crappy stuff was very interesting. I found the time limit to be strangely liberating, because it limited my need for perfectionism.

Making stuff when hurried or in unexpected places (gluing scraps of envelopes together in a roadside restaurant, for example) means that creativity can be anywhere, anyplace, anytime. Plus, writing something in English everyday was nice. I’ve even learned new words, such as curb!

Looking at all the other things was inspiring. I don’t know anything about knitting, crochet, origami and the like, and seeing the possibilities was fascinating… I think there may be a set of fridge magnets in my near future!

… well, three of them. I think my toes are my least favourite body part. But, when I saw a picture of a baby’s feet, photographed from below, they seemed so cute… So I wanted to see if my toes looked cute too. It isn’t very visible in the picture, but they’re actually slightly purple-ish. I just got soaked while walking home from work and the purple lining of my boots gave off some colour. I’m off to shower to warm up and give my toes (and feet and calves) their proper colour back…

… making me look like a fish, or a victim of plastic surgery, but not like me… These close ups are pretty annoying! Fortunately, there’s only one left to go…

… while taking a break from studying. I won’t post the twenty-odd pictures I took to get it to show the greenness of my eyes, but I definitely look tired. I took a day off work to complete a paper, so far it’s been productive but exhausting. Am almost looking forward to work again…

… while watching vh1. Was so busy taking the picture I forgot to pay attention to the name of the song. Am wearing my fave pj’s, sipping wine and just relaxing after a rough day at work. The rest of the week will be extremely busy, so this evening is treasured…

…while attending a lecture on whether the Chinese economy is a threat or a challenge to the Western world. I’ve been having a bad hair week, my hair seems to be more curly than usual and sticks out in all directions, so maybe it’s time to make an appointment with my hairdresser. I don’t usually put it behind my ear unless I’m reading, that’s just for the purpose of the picture. I didn’t realize until after uploading the pic that I forgot to put in earrings this morning…

… holding a water bottle while taking a break from hiking. Hiked more than 16 km today (more than 10 miles). My feet are very happy to be home!

Have figured out a theme: body parts…

… while shopping for furniture (I’m lying on a couch). “Loods 5″ is the name of the store, btw. This week will probably be quite busy, so just quick pictures I’m afraid…

I was out all day, so didn’t have a chance to check the new themes before taking a picture, so I’ll just wing it the rest of the week…

This is my car, being reversed out of its spot by my boyfriend, while I was lying on the curb, taking the picture. (driving and picture taking at the same time didn’t seem like a good idea). Apparently there’s lots of “reverse lights” that go on the minute the car starts reversing. Quite interesting to see, since I obviously never stand behind my car while driving…

Just a Photoshop quickie today. Cutout of a picture of a tea light in a holder, copied and flipped it. After pixelating the lot I reversed the colors on the right half…

Usually I take care of our finances, taxes, insurance, etc., while my boyfriend does the laundry, cooks and does the dishes. I can’t even remember when or why this system started, but we both seem to like it and so it has remained the same for the past few years.

This Valentine’s day I gave him “a week off”, or a week of me as the perfect housewife, or as perfect a housewife one can be while working full time. Something that is proving to be quite a challenge for my slightly chaotic nature. Fortunately, we have a cleaning lady who cleans our house top to bottom every week, or I might have gone insane. So far I’ve made grocery lists, gone shopping, made the bed, planned and made our meals and… done the dishes. Taking a picture of me in action while actually doing the dishes turned out to be impossible (and believe me, I’ve tried…), so here’s a close-up of our sink instead…

At the moment I am re-reading the work of Keats. This is a poem I read today and then put in reverse. The longing for Italy definitely rings a bell, although England is quite lovely too, of course… No sensible explanation for the flowers, btw.

Many things can be reversed. Friendships can be mended, passions rekindled, shards glued together. Death however is irreversible. This “thing” is made of a cutout of Google Maps, of the address where I said my final goodbye to my grandfather this morning. The quote is by Mahatma Gandhi.

Inspired by my grandfather’s last words: “It has been an adventure”.

Took a picture of the bridge near my house, from my balcony, cut out a piece and then reversed it and pasted it next to the original. The tree was a nice coincidence…

Didn’t really feel like making anything today, but sat down with a card and some markers anyway. I ended up creating an opposition between the emotions portrayed by the words and those by the shapes and colors. The colorful doodling cheered me up immensely. Because of it I’ve decided to explore the reversal theme this week. Don’t know if I can come up with six other things that would fit in the category though…

Shortly after yesterday’s post I received a call from my dad to inform me that my granddad had passed away. So much for our intended Valentine’s day celebrations. His death still came as a surprise, despite his age (92). Am not in a cheerful mood today, so this morning’s walk to work focused on black and white stuff. Took the afternoon off, will spend it drinking tea and reminiscing…

Made in a bit of a hurry today, between work and Vday dinner prep…

Don’t know why I picked blue today, am feeling anything but. Now I’m off to set the table, etc… (it’s almost 6.30pm over here)

Inspired by the foggy weather this morning…

Today I found out there’s not a lot of orange stuff in my neighborhood…

Overslept this morning, so I was in a hurry and didn’t take any pictures on my walk to work. So, I went for a walk during my lunch break and looked for yellow things…