Wiggly Feet: November 2009

Friday, November 6, 2009

Afton State Park

Thursday we went to Afton State Park for a work retreat. I snapped a few pictures over our lunch break. I also played with changing a couple of the pictures into black and white.

River Point

Lovely Fall Trail

Ladybug

River's edge

Frosty Morning

I picked up my sewing area and now I'm ready for the next project. Actually it is a continuation of a project I started 2 years ago... my sister's quilt. So I found a place to rent time on a longarm quilting machine and tomorrow... Katie's quilt is getting quilted! Yay! I have some prep work to do on it yet. I pulled out all my safety pins from when I thought I was going to quilt it myself (ha) and now I need to trim all my threads better this time around. I'm very excited that I'm getting so close to having it done!

Unpinning the Pinned, November 4, 2009

Ready for the next project, November 3, 2009

Monday, November 2, 2009

Wishing to be outside

Wishing to be outside, November 2, 2009

How is it already November? I feel like I just started this photo project with Katie. Today is my 86th day of photo of the day. The sun was shining today! It seemed like a nice, windy autumn day. I didn't make it outside very much, except the drive to and from work. I ended up working from home most of the day due to a cough I just can't quite get rid of, but I really wanted to go play outside! Then I was googling Minnesota Nature Photography and came across some beautiful pictures. I think I have a long way to go to make it up to the caliber of photographers I found. Some people just have an eye for it (right brained people) and have worked in the business for 20 years. I am fairly decidedly a left brained person and have not been taking photos for 20 years... I mean maybe I have I guess but not quality photos for 20 years. I was taking pictures of my cat when I was 7. I guess I still do that today too, but it is different, yes?

Not that I needed a test to tell me this, but...

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (22%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain.
Left Brain (78%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

"Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

"Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively."

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"According to Darwinian theory, optimal evolution takes place with random variation and selective retention. The evolution savvy individual will try many different approaches when faced with a problem and select the best of those approaches. Many historical intellectuals have confessed their advantage was simply considering/exploring/trying more approaches than others. The left brain dominant type suffers from limited approaches, narrow-mindedness. The right brain dominant type suffers from too many approaches, scatterbrained. To maintain balanced hemispheres, you need to exercise both variability and selection. Just as a company will have more chance of finding a great candidate by increasing their applicant pool, an individual who considers a wider set of options is more likely to make quality decisions."

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Weathered

Things you should not do while under the weather (aka so much mucuous making it is disgusting) include staying up til midnight to finish a costume, participating in a 5K on a chilly windy day, and going for a hike in search of some inspiration for some photos (I needed to take a picture of something besides a costume! 7 of the last 8 photos of the day have revolved around costume making) But I would not trade any of it for sitting on my butt and sleeping, although the sleeping sound pretty darn good right now.

I made Erik and I each a costume for this Halloween. Erik was Max from Where the Wild Things Are and I was the Queen of Hearts. I struggled with making my costume, but all in all I think it turned out pretty well. You can't see all of the detail in the picture of us at the 5K, maybe I will have to take one more picture of it. We participated in the Monster Dash 5K for Team Ortho around Lake Harriet. There were so many people there! They also had a half marathon and 10 mile run too. It was a good time. Katie and Erik both ran. Katie ran her best 5k yet. That is so cool! I walked with Erik's Mom. It was nice to have someone to walk with. I wish I could have run, but with this cold walking was plenty. After the race, Katie, Erik and I went to lunch and had cake. Unfortunately, we did not do anything else cool for the rest of the day. We did hand out some candy to some little little kids. That was fun to see them so excited and it was nice to have trick-or-treaters. Erik and I watched Dracula on tv and called it a night.

It has been fairly uneventful around here lately. Between being sick, making costumes, and work, there hasn't been a whole lot of time. I'm hoping once I'm feeling better I can cook some good autumn food and enjoy doing somethings. I missed peak fall colors while being sick. It is pretty much over now and most leaves are off the trees. The oaks and some yellow leaved trees are still hanging on to their leaves. I'm sort of bummed I missed it. I love the bright yellow leaves against the dark branches. The leaves will change again next year. I guess I'll have to wait to enjoy them until then and make sure not to schedule getting sick then!

I ran some errands this morning. I was disgusted at B&N return policy. I even had a receipt! So I've got a book I'm not really interested in reading, but oh well. Maybe I'll donate it... that'd be the smart thing to do. After my errands I ran over to the nature center and tried to find a bit of color yet. I didn't exactly find what I was looking for but I think that is okay, because I liked what I ended up with.