In da hood (aka Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood)

Okay sooooo I don’t live in a hood or the hood or even a neighborhood at all. I live in a house, by the highway, near the woods, beside my grandma. Anyways, these are my phone shots for the weekly challenge. Kittehs and moss count as “neighborhood” right? I hope so.

Let’s step out the back door:

Ooooooo and squat down to get a good shot:

That was cool. Maybe a little less brick this time?? Hmmm. Not as good as the one before.

Now I’m totally distracted by the sunset.

Yep. Sitting here in the sun is nice :D

Now for a glimpse of what I see. Oh and my rockin awesome shoes. Yay purple!!

Distracted again….

It’s my kitteh!!! She’s fat full of babies! Soon there will be lots of little kitties hopping around everywhere. It will be fantastic!

More of what I see. Leaves. A whole lot of leaves. But such is winter.

And this is the kitteh begging for food. She’s extra pitiful, isn’t she? -Meow meow meow- That is kitty for “yes”.

Ta-da!! This is a day outside with my phone. Not really my neighborhood, but then I don’t really live in one. I don’t have a local coffee shop or a daily run. I have a highway and you can follow me on instagram if you really want to see shots of that haha. Seriously though, I post like one sunrise shot a week from that highway. Gorgeous!

Appreciate the small things (aka Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details)

A few years ago I was living on a different continent, away from home, and a few timezones from my family. I missed seeing them, but was never homesick. I think part of it had to do with all the little things that reminded me of home. Like my photo for this week’s photo challenge:This is of a purple hydrangea. I hadn’t seen any outside of my home before. Usually they grow either blue or pink, but it takes a special mix of acidic and base dirt to make one purple. Too much of either and you get the pink extreme or the blue extreme. This little detail is one of many that kept me from being homesick while so far away. I hope you like it (:

Oh yum, icing! (aka Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate)

For today’s challenge post, I captured some tasty gingerbread creations. You might not thing that icing gingerbread cookies is delicate and you are entitled to that opinion, no matter how wrong you may be. The stuff slides, drips, twists, runs, cracks, crunches, and makes a terrible mess if you aren’t super careful. Needless to say, I messed up a few times :)

Here are those tasty cookies:

http://instagram.com/p/TRL5FWqiNM/

http://instagram.com/p/TRGVKlqiG1/

http://instagram.com/p/TRE7ZfKiFT/

http://instagram.com/p/TRGMY2KiGr/

http://instagram.com/p/TR9yOdKiHU/

http://instagram.com/p/TR99RtqiHm/

As tasty as they look, the smell is even more fantastic. You should make some. Ahhhhhhhhh!

Swings of my Life (aka Weekly Writing Challenge: A Few of My Favorite Things)

This week’s writing challenge is about a few of your favorite things. I have a few favorite things… a book, a bear, a paintbrush, an amazing pair of shoes, a family quilt, but after some thought my choice has to be my swing.

I’ve swung on a front porch swing all my life. Actually, I’m a third generation front porch swinger. My papaw grew up in the house I live in and spent countless hours swinging or rocking on the porch. My dad and his siblings did the same thing. Now, my brothers and I have spent our lives thus far swinging on the front porch.

I can remember three swings total in my lifetime (23 years), but I have no idea how many have hung on this porch over the last 80 years. I wish I did and could tell you all about them, but I don’t so you’ll have to settle for the swings of my life.

The first swing was my Papaw’s. I was 4 or 5 years old from my earliest memory. It was winter time and the porch was huge then. I walked with Papaw through the long winding house and the room that always had the door closed to get to the porch. That room was icy feeling on my feet and usually gave the shivers. We would open the big white front door and walk out on the porch. It had screens all around it… a little room all of our own. The paint was peeling and there were lots of treasures my mom called junk, but my favorite was the swing. It smelled like pennies and old pillows. Papaw would sit down on the cushion first, holding the swing steady, then let me climb up next to him. Our cushion was really just an old blanket, but that didn’t matter to me. I would snuggle up next to his chest, resting partly on his left leg and partly on the scratchy orange pillow I loved, and we would watch a little black and white TV. The screen didn’t come in all the time, but it was ours. It always seemed to be showing Andy Griffith or the news. I liked Andy Griffith best.

In the summer time, we would get a bucket of vanilla ice cream off the back porch, fill our glasses with crushed ice and orange juice, grab two spoons and make our way to that swing. So many happy memories.

Jig of the Morning in Music (aka Weekly Writing Challenge: The Sound of Blogging)

This is a poem pulled from a post last year. As soon as I read the challenge, I knew this poem was the PERFECT thing to do for sound. It was originally written to music, so an updated version put to music is exactly what this challenge is about.

To hear the poem, press play on the video and follow along below with the voice. You can also watch the video first. It will recite the poem with music and give you a visual of these flowery dancers.

The lyrics/words are below.