Friday, February 25, 2011

Cosmos / Fairy Tale

Kerry . Tara



Kerry:
Cosmos - This is a picture from way back in October, the day that I brought my DSLR and allllll of my lenses to Kurihama Flower World, but left the battery on the charger at home. I took all of my pictures that day with the Hipstamatic app on my phone. Appropriately enough, the reason I've been posting all old pictures this week is also a technology glitch - my Aperture library self-destructed and I have to rebuild it manually, literally one day's worth of pictures at a time. I'm up to mid-October of 2006. So when it comes time to post a picture here, I just kind of randomly open folders until I find a picture I like. Thanks, technology!!

Tara: Fairy Tale - I'm still nursing my sick little girl so this is another old picture. This was taken last summer when my husband went through a Geocaching phase. The kids and I weren't as enthusiastic about it as he was so he sadly let it go. Although, the wasp sting he got on his last Geocach made it a bit easier to stop.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Contradiction / Shadow

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Contradiction - My kids are both in swimming lessons, and this month for the first time, their classes were back-to-back instead of simultaneous. So I've been spending a lot of time at the pool - long enough to finally notice the odd placement of the "no running" sign. (There's a treadmill and a stationary bike along the wall near the diving board - for triathalon training, I would assume.)

Tara: Shadow - This is an older picture that I found on my phone. My daughter has caught whatever fever cold/flu thing I had last week along with a nasty cough that I had the week before. So most of this day was spent with a sick three year old cuddling up next to me. So this picture represents a shadow of her healthier self. Ba-da-bump!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Primary / Frozen Lights

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Primary - Here's a half-frame analogue shot of my son, in his red and blue coat, on a playground that I'm pretty sure was inspired by the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

Tara: Frozen Lights - This was taken right after Christmas when we got a ton of snow. I loved the way the LED lights glowed under the inches of snow.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Kawaii Pastry / Rainbow Foods

Kerry . Tara


Kerry:
Kawaii Pastry - This is also completely normal in Japan. (Kawaii means, approximately, "cute".)

Tara: Rainbow Foods - I made sure ROY G BIV was represented in the table settings and separated three 1lb bags of Skittles by color to make a centerpiece that children couldn't get the concept of. By the end of the party my centerpiece was just two bud vases with green and purple Skittles. I loved the way the fruit platter turned out. Although, if I make this again, I'll either get grapes to represent green or get more than two kiwis and also learn how to correctly cut them so I don't waste so much trying to get the skin off. I would also like to give a public service announcement about that caramel fruit dip. This was my first time ever buying and consuming this product. If you've never bought it, don't. It will forever ruin fruit for you. Never again will fruit be a healthy snack option because you will want to douse it in that delicious, soft caramel. Trust me on this.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Tentacles / Rainbow Cake

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Tentacles - This is completely normal in Japan.

Tara: Rainbow Cake - I promised my daughter, M@ggie, that I would make her a rainbow cake this year for her rainbow themed birthday. I made the cakes the night before her party and put it together in the hour between leaving her Build-a-Bear party and the time guests started arriving at my house. First though, I had to get the food ready and since we've all been sick this past week we didn't really do anything but shop in preparation for the party. So while I cut fruit to make a rainbow fruit platter (tomorrow's pic) and got the other appetizers ready, Josh put up decorations. I used a cake leveler for the first four layers then guests started arriving and started crowding my kitchen. I wanted to start icing it and be done so I quickly eyed the red and orange layers and used a bread knife to level them myself. Apparently, my eyes suck since those two layers are way too big. Oh, well; it tasted good.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Mandala / Rainbow Glass

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Mandala - I got a Mandala coloring kit a couple of months ago and never opened it. I brought it with me to the hospital when my almost-3-year-old had his tonsils out on Thursday. This is how much coloring I got done while he was in surgery. I finished it the next day while we were waiting to be discharged. Incidentally, I think the kit would have been greatly improved by including a pencil sharpener. Those are some teeny-tiny areas to color in.

Tara: Rainbow Glass - I was in an antique store recently and they had this huge display of colored glass right by the window. This was taken in the late afternoon so the setting sun shining through all of it, lit the room up beautifully.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cymbal / Apocalyptic Snowmen

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Cymbal - Every time we go to the music store, my son sits down at every single drumset in turn. They are usually all electronic drumsets, but one day last June (this is an old picture) there was one that was not only a "real" drumset, but a kid-sized one at that. (He actually has a kid-sized drumset, in his room, still in the box. He knows what he has to do to earn it - he just hasn't done it yet.)

Tara: Apocalyptic Snowmen - I made these cookies this past Christmas. They're from Calvin and Hobbes. I thought it was fitting since today, in the middle of February, it was over 70 degrees. I'm still sick so I didn't even get to go out and enjoy it.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Ume / Sick Day

Kerry . Tara

Kerry:
Ume - It is cold. Really, really cold. But the blossoms have already started. I'm pretty sure that these are ume (plum blossoms) - they're the first ones that bloom. Brace yourself, there are going to be a lot of blossom pictures once sakura (cherry blossom) season starts.

Tara: Sick Day - My necessities of the day. Tissue, moisturizer for my sad dry nose, ChapStick because of all the mouth breathing, water in a plastic cup so I don't have to keep picking up our extremely heavy glasses, and of course Jell-O. I'm starving but it's the only thing I can consider eating. Why don't they make Jell-O with medicine inside of it? I'm kind of high on meds right now so I'm not sure if that's a brilliant idea or stupid.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Sake / Portrait of Love

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Sake - I had chosen this picture to upload yesterday, but then it started snowing and I got that nifty heart-shaped snowflakes picture, so I pushed this one back. I had a really hard time picking a picture for the theme - "Love". It's kind of a sore subject for me right now, seeing as how my husband is deployed for Valentine's Day - not only that, it's still that first week when everything sucks and you don't even want to get out of bed. But having said that, I finally settled on this picture, which I took at a shrine in Kamakura last weekend. It's the three loves of my life standing in front of a giant wall of alcohol.

Tara: Portrait of Love - I'm sick today so instead of seeking out things to photograph, my subjects came to me as I planted myself on the couch today while my fever climbed. My son, G@vin, drew a picture of my husband and me holding hands because of Valentine's Day. He made sure to write one of the few sentences he has memorized, "G@vin loves Mama." I love that kid so much. Sidenote: I just noticed he drew high heels on me. Funny, since I rarely wear them.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Love Snow / Sweet Love

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Love Snow - It doesn't snow in the part of Japan where I live, pretty much ever. That was one of the things that was told to me when I first moved here, in a reassuring tone of voice - "Don't worry, it doesn't snow here." Like that's a good thing? I lived for seven years in places where it didn't snow; and yeah, Hawaii's weather was picture perfect every day and I wish I was still there, but geez. It is so much harder to deal with cold weather if you don't get even a little snow now and then. I mean, what's the point?
Well, tonight is the third time it's snowed in the past few weeks; and what's different about tonight is that it is STICKING! I stepped out onto my balcony and took this picture with my trusty Lensbaby Composer w/Creative Aperture Kit. Heart-shaped snowflakes! Happy Valentine's Day!

Tara: Sweet Love - I thought this would be cute for Valentine's Day. I feel the subject has the same qualities as the holiday. Candy is not real food, but generic. A little bit of candy is a treat, but too much of it will make you sick. Candy is bad for your teeth, just like Valentine's Day since it causes excessive candy eating.