Although we’ve been sick this week, we found some time to play outside. A weekend away had us travelling from snow, to daffodils, to a beautiful sunny day. Fresh air and sunshine, in the company of my favourite little boys, made for a good week.
Today, it felt official. Spring has arrived. I for one, am feeling sun kissed and ready for more.
This was our favourite playground. It used to back onto a forest.
Soon it will be a school. Do children not like the trees?
I am deeply saddened.
I live here in a townhouse. My lot must have looked like this, too.
I am deeply saddened.
What do I say to my son?
Because I forgot to upload my photo from last week for the MCP Project 52 weekly photo challenge, here are a smattering of my favourites.
All of my favourite little guy.
For fans new and old.
This is Dylan.
I recently read The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. The book chronicles one woman’s attempt to increase her own happiness levels over a year. She uses a variety of research and techniques, which are all documented very nicely on her blog, happiness-project.com. Anyone interested in starting their own Happiness Project can use the tools she provides there.
I found the format of her project particularly intriguing, namely the dividing of her year into a series of what I call, mini-challenges. You may be familiar with the mini-challenge. If you have been reading my blog, you’ll know that I have engaged in one myself, writing a novel in a month (check out Nanowrimo). This was one of Gretchen’s mini-challenges. Some might call them resolutions. Others goals. But, mini-challenges are a bit different. They are small (or sometimes large), manageable (and sometimes daunting), accomplishments that people dedicate themselves to doing. They usually have a start and end date, and they usually involve some personal fulfillment or betterment.
In The Happiness Project, Rubin refers to her book as “stunt non-fiction.” A term she borrowers from a reviewer of her book. I like it. Because I like stunt non-fiction. Reading about how someone else had set themselves some fascinating goal, and then gone about accomplishing it. A.J. Jacobs comes to mind immediately, as does Eat, Pray, Love. Mini-challenges are a big part of stunt non-fiction. Whether it be the man who tried a new job every month for a year, or the one who devoted his year to volunteering, it seems everyone wants to challenge themselves.
The blogosphere is littered with mini-challenges. My own novel in a month is one. So is my participation in a weekly photo contest (MCP Action). Wordpress’s PostADay is one. More and more people are attempting a daily photo as well.
I would like to applaud the mini-challenge. It is fun. Engaging. And, I think, it works.
Here are a few of the writing mini-challenges that I have come across:
Post A Day: Self-explainatory WordPress Fun
Script Frenzy: Write a 100 page script in a month (April)
Story a Day: Write a story a day – in May
SmithMagazine’s Six-Word Memoir: Tell your story, in six words
Six Sentences: Write a story in six sentences
What’s your favourite mini-challenge? (Or maybe you hate mini-challenges. Think they are the scourge of society. I’d like to know about that, too).
I like the mini-challenge, and, as long as I’m enjoying them, I’ll keep trying new ones, as the spirit moves me. Maybe you want to join me?
This strawberry pot is my favourite of today’s photos.
That beautiful colour and those rays of sunshine.
I like it. I just do.
One of the most exciting things in my life right now is my new camera! I finally joined the digital photography age, and got my first Digital SLR camera this Christmas. I so missed being able to take photos manually, with a camera that allowed me to set the aperture and other settings. I now feel sorry for my son, Dylan, who only has mediocre photos of himself as a baby. Sylvie, if I can help it, should have some real stunners!
I have dabbled in photography for a long time. My undergraduate degree is in film production and studies, and during that time I studied the elements of framing shots to tell a story and convey meaning. I took photography classes in university, and learned about developing in darkrooms (I process which I love). But, when the digital age hit, I guess I was a step behind. My point and shoot was not cutting it. So, now I feel as though I have finally arrived (well, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I do feel good).
And so, in honour of my new camera, I have made myself a promise to take photos everyday. Partly, to see all that is beautiful in life, and partly for practice, practice, practice. I have dreams of a little home studio, and am excited about reconnecting with the art of photography. I started off wanting to take beautiful photos of my kids, but now that I am on a role who knows how far I might go?
Yesterday, while flitting around the web, I landed on a great site. MCP Actions is a company that sells photoshop presets for your photos – to make them look really pretty. They have a weekly photo challenge, and I thought, “Perfect! A challenge I can handle.” You submit one photo a week, and they even give you handy little themes to follow.
So I have a new banner on my blog and a new commitment. I’ll be posting my weekly photo on my blog, so you can all see how truly lovely it is.
Hi! I’m Kelly Woods, writer, mother & librarian. I write about beauty, creativity, green living and lifestyle design to help others live a life of inspiration, too.