I’ve been trying to grow vines for 5 years. Morning glories. Clematis (several times). Nothing. Finally – this year, I have Clematis. It has successfully played me all summer, though – made me think it was a spring bloomer and then going nuts now that the weather has cooled.

What the heck does a girl have to do to get a flowering vine to grow on a trellis? Try, and try again. (And again, and again, and again.)

It’s about dang time.

I’ve never seen an Oriole before, but according to BDI, that’s what this is. Woot! New birds in my yard! She’s sweet, and curious. I’ll try to get better pics next time!

My gerbera daisies are still blooming – I even have clematis this year (go me and my 5 year failed vining attempts!), and there are 5 freshly clipped roses on my dining room table.

I am going to miss my flowers.

I turned the heat on lastnight, for the first time, and I mourned the loss of summer. We’re expecting our first frost in the next few days.

I woke up this morning and put on a cozy warm fleece shirt. My nose is cold. My fingers are cold. My toes are cold, and I’ve had socks on for three days in a row. In another month, I’ll be buying bundles of stargazers to keep me from dropping off into a snowy cold depression from what appears to be a long winter coming.

I go through these transitions every season, a few weeks of “icks” and then it passes, after I’ve gotten all the summer clothes packed away, all the winter sweaters, jackets, coats and gloves washed and ready to go. I’ll get over it.

I’m just a spring and summer girl, that’s all. If I lived in a warmer climate, I’m certain I’d be happy all year.

This is what I’m waking up today. Great colors, huh? This is a beautiful sky to see at 6:30 in the morning! It almost makes me want to enjoy fall – a little!

I put together three design mockups over the last day and a half. My eyes were burning lastnight, but I’m up bright and early (thanks, Tucker) and ready to code. One of my girlfriends (ahem.) is one of those theme flip-floppers, you know, the ones that change their design every day? Yes. She’s one of those. She sent me a .psd file to put a stylesheet together for her, so count that as my fourth design to put together. At least things are starting to get checked off my list!

The stuff that triggered my sensitive side on Thursday? Well, I think I’m going to clue in all of the people I attempted to defend on Thursday, I’ll make that announcement at the Hub. I know a lot of people just don’t think anything could happen “behind the scenes” of a meme. It is, after all, just a meme, but really – it’s not. There’s a lot of stuff that happens, a lot of it is piddly little stuff – a lot of it makes me want to throw in the towel. I’m relieved to have co-hostesses to help with some of the little things that, when combined, grow into a nice supersized headache, but I still feel very much responsible for every. little. thing. So with that in mind, I have some spilling of the guts to do to all of the participants.

I am still contemplating the blogging thing. My entries have become more sparse because I’m starting to not feel like I have something important to contribute to society every day. Personal stuff is much more personal, and business is something I can share because it’s not about my family. It’s just me and my creative stuff. I see a lot of business bloggers who try to have a personal blog attached to their business, but blog specific things that are content rich just to get traffic. Well, good for them. This is an honest blog and an honest blogger – I’m not in it to gain every freaking keyword on the web. That’s what my gallery is for. I can’t believe someone would pretend to be emotionally attached to a blog when they’re in it for the keywords. Whatever. I don’t want this blog to become that kind of blog – but I also don’t want to step over those boundaries I set for myself when I decided to remove the family chatter I was so used to – that had to go away to protect our privacy. I should use the dang features I installed here. That’s what I should do.

I’m rambling again. Woops.

Oh and for anyone who felt like you were being served up on that platter, or rather asking for it to be served up on a platter, that’s not what that was about. It was about folks who want it all their way all the time, regardless of guidelines and procedures. And then when they don’t or can’t have it their way, they openly gripe about it, like the guidelines and procedures are all wrong, and the hundreds of people who don’t have a problem with them are wrong – and they’re right. Urgh.

Back to work I go – where things are more colorful than the sunrise – and more peaceful than 6:30 in the morning!

• Kids. First day of school. Today. YAHOO!
• Physical Therapy. Today. Not what I expected. Cool. We’ll see. Pelvic tilts are interesting!
• Project (-2) days until launch. Negative Two. I wanted to launch on Wednesday. I’m working on it!
• Behind on e-mail. Very behind. I need to launch, then get caught up on everything else.
• Totally still reeling from the Peacock.
• Hubby got a promotion & raise. Congratulations, honey!
• Another one of my photos is featured this week: WeAreQC. You can see it a little bigger here on my blog.

TTFN!

Yesterday was the day.Winners were announced.

My fingers jittered and twittered as I dialed the museum. My heart raced and skipped while I waited to be transferred to The One With The List. She answered the phone. I stuttered and stammered, pronouncing my last name like the people who call here with sales pitches in the middle of the afternoon. I asked the question. Needy, like a child begging for acceptance into the “in crowd”. She recognized my name.

That surprised me.

She shuffled and flipped paperwork looking for the list. She laughed when the file was open on her monitor. She looked. She confirmed.

Judge’s Choice – Peacock. 1st Place.People’s Choice – Peacock. Honorable Mention.

I’ll take photos of it with the actual ribbons when I get back over there to pick up my prize, which is a surprise! It (as well as my other entries) will be on display through November 19th at Putnam Museum.

My first exhibition.My first awards.

Both the public and professional judges.

It’s official, I’m a Professional Photographer, too.

This rocks.

Thank you for supporting and encouraging me through this! I would have been a total basketcase without you guys. Hugs. Love. and more Hugs.

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(View all available prints)

The first grouping that I saw were birds of prey. The eagles were all together, you can see mine has a nice spot – and I think my favorite is the one on the bottom right. It’s a beautiful shot. As far as “People’s Choice” voting, the votes are going to the photos that are entertaining. My own daughter voted for a small 4×6 photo of a baby hummingbird in someone’s hands, because that one made her “aww” the most. Well, I know I got at least one vote, if you know what I’m sayin’.

There were a lot of entries, and I didn’t get pics of everything because I wasn’t sure cameras were allowed, so I didn’t want to get into too much trouble, just in case.

Here are my other two photos on display:

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