Final Tally

So, the end of 2009 is here and the "365 in 2009" challenge is practically over. I'm stopping my total at 287. I know that I could go back through many of the photos I've taken over the past year and find other themes, but I think I'm too tired. I started off strong, but the move in June and July really threw me off and I just never caught back up. Although, lacking only 78 themes isn't too bad.

With that said, I'm stopping with my 365 total and moving on to 2010's photo challenge. The format for the upcoming challenge I'm joining is a little different. I'll post more information about it in a day or two. Sunday Six will likely continue as I go into 2010.

Lastly, there will likely be a blog change around here. I will be republishing my entire blog into a more photo oriented blog either here or at Wordpress. I just haven't made up my mind! When I know . . . you'll know, too!

See you soon . . .

Childhood Antics (252 of 365)

I've posted shots of this garden statue a few times. For some reason, the way I shot this one reminded me of a little boy ready to jump straight into the lily pond.

Sunday Six: Week 45

This week is a New Six all from Sunday's visit to one of my favorite spots . . . the Atlanta Botanical Garden. At this point, the location shouldn't surprise any of you! ;)


First up is this little garden gnome. He was one of several hiding out in a little rock cave. He just made me smile!


Bright green bamboo.


I loved all the colors surrounding this simple gazebo.


I have no clue what type of plant this is, but I love its softness. It's not quite sharp, but not quite fuzzy either.

Finally, the last two shots are of the same little pink bud. It almost looks like a little ball of yarn the way the petals are curled around each other. I couldn't decide whether I liked the photo of the tip in focus or the one of the entire bud out of focus.





Until next week . . .

Candy (240 of 365)

Candied apples on sale at Kilwin's. Don't they look yummy? I think the apple covered in gummies is too cute. My friend and I ended up choosing other things. Chocolate-peanut butter fudge for him and chocolate covered marshmallows for me. Yum!

Trash or Treasure (238 of 365)

Hmm . . .

Food Glorious Food! (145 of 365)

My burger selection from Flip Burger Boutique. It's called the rBQ and features a burger topped with beef brisket, smoked mayo, and slaw. It was yummy.

Sunday Six: Week 20

So, this week I have a recap Six, but I had a very difficult time deciding what pictures to post. Mostly this is because I took about 300 photos yesterday. Having lots of photos on hand does not mix well with indecisiveness. As most of my friends know, I'm indecisive. *lol*

So, here we go!


First up we have a sculpture by Henry Moore called "Goslar Warrior". Most of Moore sculptures are bronze, and this one was created in 1973-1974. This sculpture is part of the "Moore in America" exhibition at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.


A nice, pink flower. This was taken just after a fairly heavy rain shower.


Another Moore sculpture, this one is called "Reclining Draped Mother and Baby."


Lily pads floating in the lily pond at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.


Saturday night I found myself at the Braves v. Diamondbacks game. Too bad the Braves lost 12-0. Our starting pitcher, and the bullpen, were throwing horribly! This is the Braves sign which sits in center field.


My weekend ended with a trip to Flip Burger Boutique, a restaurant opened up by former "Top Chef" contestant Richard Blais. These are Nutella and Burnt Marshmallow milkshakes. They were great!

Sort of a mish-mash of photos, but that's okay. At least I finally decided which ones to use! :)

Sunday Six: Week 18

This week is another New Six, all taken today.

My first stop this afternoon was the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. For anyone near Atlanta, this museum is the one sponsoring the King Tut exhibit at the Civic Center. In conjunction with the King Tut exhibit, the Carlos is offering an exhibit entitled "Wonderful Things". The exhibit includes 50 of the photographs Harry Burton took when documenting the discovery and excavation of King Tut's tomb.

I was unable to take photographs while viewing the exhibit. However, you can see them online here. All of them are neat, and some of them are amazingly beautiful!

Okay, onto my pictures from the afternoon.


This is a portion of a Roman relief, carved in carrera marble.


A spiral carving on the side of a Roman relief.


This is an ostrakon made of white limestone. These were used by artists for sketches and layouts for decorations within Egyptian tombs. This is a depiction of Osiris, believed to be a draft of a representation that decorated the tomb of Ramesses IV. (So sayeth the information plaque.)


From the museum, I headed just up the road to the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. The house was the home for the Candler family, specifically the son of Asa Candler. Asa Candler was the founder of the Coca-Cola Company. The estate was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park in New York City.

(You didn't realize there would be history in this Sunday Six, did you?)


Now, we're moving on to flowers. Callanwolde has a beautiful garden, which is just now beginning to bloom. I didn't have a large choice of flowers, and ended up with mostly purple ones!





And, yes, this is actually a Sunday Seven, since I lumped in one too many. :)

Closely Cropped (120 of 365)

This is a statue of a friar (I think) and a bird. I shot a couple of pictures of the full statue, but wasn't really pleased with them. Once I moved in a bit closer and framed the shot a little differently I was happier.

Fences (119 of 365)

I'd been wondering exactly what I was going to do for this theme. Everytime I happened to spot a pretty fence or gate I was not able to take a picture for some reason or another. So, when I spotted this simple, white picket fence at the Atlanta Botanical Garden I snapped it without a second thought and marked it off my list!

Sunday Six: Week 17

This week I have a Recap Six all taken from this weekend.


A bright red maple against the blue sky.


This weekend is the Inman Park Festival. It's the most eclectic and fun festival in Atlanta with all sorts of great artists and one really wacky parade!


This little dude was having lots of fun watching the parade during the Inman Park Festival.


The Vortex is one of my favorite places in Atlanta. They have the best burgers and really yummy fried zucchini. There are two locations in Atlanta and both of them have wonderfully eclectic and fun decorations.


Part of a line of license plates which decorate the bar at The Vortex.


The cloudy sky reflected in one of the buildings in Midtown Atlanta.

That's it for this week's six! See you next week!

Sunday Six: Week 16

Although our fearless leader has decided not to continue Sunday Six, I'd like to try and finish up the remaining 36 weeks. Miss Christin is gathering up everyone's links while Helen's away.

This week I have a "New Six" taken during my afternoon at home. I'm happy to have had a relaxing weekend, as I really needed to decompress.

Up first, I tried out a new recipe from Epicurious, Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa.


This is my first time cooking with quinoa. I found it a bit messy, as it likes to stick to every surface!


Also included, the zest of a lime.


Here's the finished product. It tasted fine, but I think it needs a bit more flavor. Although, once the flavors rest together for a bit, it may turn out okay. Next time I think I'll use more lime juice, zest, and some red pepper flakes for heat.


Little, pink seeds from the Chinese Maple tree outside my door.


A shot of the Chinese Maple. The pink seed caught my eye against all that green!


I worked for quite a while to get this shot. It was inspired by this photo I found today on Flickr. First, I tried getting just one grain against the pink. However, that didn't work so well since I have yet to buy a tripod. Next, I tried shaping the sugar into a heart. Then, I tried using a cookie cutter to just outline a heart shape. I didn't like the way any of them turned out. Finally, I just piled up the sugar and started shifting it around. This one I like!

Sunday Six: Week 13

This week is another Recap Six, all taken yesterday.


A friend and I met up for lunch and margaritas and then wandered into a neat vintage furniture store. They had no problem with the two of us wandering around taking pictures. They had a lot of fun stuff, including this old Pink Panther!


They also had these interesting leaves . . .


and nearly naked mannequins! He's a bit noisy, since I had to increase my ISO to get fairly light shot. So, this one has been put through the CS3 noise reduction filter. :)


I saw this yesterday and immediately thought of Allison. So, a little bit of CU in Atlanta. ;)


Finally, a couple of pictures of a loft that I viewed yesterday. It's a super good deal, but it doesn't have quite as much room as I'd like.


It does, however, have 27' ceilings, a very neat red wall, and is one of only three lofts available in my neighborhood.

And, that's my Six for this week! I have some other photos from the vintage furniture expedition that will be showing up in some 365 themes, too.

Sunday Six: Week 10

Okay, this is a Recap Six from yesterday. Although, I ended up at the Georgia Aquarium rather than the King Tut exhibit. First, I'd really been looking forward to seeing the behind the scenes area all week. Second, I learned you cannot take any photos whatsoever inside the Tut exhibit. No cameras allowed. Period. While this makes sense, it's not a great spot to visit for a photo challenge.

So, today we have six photos from my visit to the aquarium, although only one is actually from my behind the scenes tour. There are a few others that will pop up for the 365 in 2009 challenge.


This is a cuttlefish. This type of cuttlefish (the common cuttlefish) only live one to two years. Cuttlefish are photochromic, having the ability to change their color to camouflage them from predators. Another interesting fact, sepia ink was originally obtained from cuttlefish rather than the artificial dyes currently used. They are hard to photograph, too!


This is part of the lobby area of the Georgia Aquarium. I just liked the lines and colors.


This wall includes the names of many donors to the Georgia Aquarium. It's cased in acrylic, so it provides pretty neat reflections of other parts of the aquarium.


The Georgia Aquarium currently houses four adolescent whale sharks. They have two females, Alice and Trixie, and two males, Taroko and Yushan. The females are a bit older, and larger, than the males, however they don't actually know how old these fish are. Whale sharks can grow to be around 25 to 35 feet long. If I remember correctly, Trixie is the longest one here, at 22 feet. To be so large, they actually have a throat the size of a quarter, which means they're filter feeders.


This is a Largetooth Sawfish. I have visited this aquarium three times and this is the first time I've been able to get a photo of this guy that wasn't blurry!


The whale sharks, largetooth sawfish, and many, many others all live here . . . in the Ocean Voyager tank. It's referred to as the one ocean tank because it houses species that you'd mostly likely not find together, and is meant to represent the fact that our oceans are all one big ocean. The tank itself is enormous and it holds 6.3 million gallons of water. The habitat dimensions are 284’ long x 126’ wide x 30’ deep at its largest points. It is the largest single aquarium habitat in the world. I took this picture standing on a piece of scaffolding that runs across the tank and it captures all but about 1/3 of the tank.

One of the neat things about the aquarium, at least I think, is that all of the species housed here were either rescues or born in a zoo or aquarium. Many animals have been rehabilitated and returned to the sea. Additionally, the aquarium is involved in many different areas of marine research, especially with regard to whale sharks.

Attention! Attention! Your assistance is needed . . .

Most of my friends would agree with me when I say that I tend to be indecisive. I'm simply a mellow girl, that's all! This mellow trait, or okay, indecisiveness, has led me to create my first ever poll! I can feel your excitement from here . . . ha!

Atlanta has lots and lots of things to do and sometimes I have a difficult time deciding just what it is that I want to do. That's where you all come in, at least I hope! I've listed five places that I would happily love to visit this coming Saturday, March 7th. Currently, we're forecast for scattered showers with a high in the upper 60s.

I'll even include links, just in case you're inclined to browse:

Georgia Aquarium
Chateau Elan Winery
Center for Puppetry Arts
King Tut Exhibition
Atlanta History Center

What do you think you'd like to see? Would you please help me decide?


The poll is scheduled to close out Saturday morning at 10:00, that way I will know where I'm headed off to.

Thank you!