30/265

"XOXO Bears"

Cupcake decorations for Mika's Valentine's Day Party... need 20, made 9 so far....

29/365

In my obsession with Neil Gaiman, especially his cartoonistic collaborations... cartoonistic, artistic, elaboristic... okay, back on topic... I have stumbled upon a tinsy treasure of a book written by one Gris Grimly.

This treasure is called "Gris Grimly's Wicked Nursery Rhymes" and it is so refreshingly different (the fact I almost wrote refreshfully should tell you about my state of mind, m'kay?)

Listen to this:
"Join father Grim and his shady cast of characters on an exploration of the dark underbelly of childhood.

Gris Grimly invites you to share these charmless tales with friends and family because the world has sharp edges and life doesn't come with a warning label."

The Grim is brilliant, brilliant I tell you! He took all the very well known childhood rhymes and gave them a bit of a grimly twist, shall we say. The art in the photo is from the Jack & Jill rhyme.
I'm not going to be reading these to Mika at bed time any time soon but hopefully both her and Jack will grow up into people who can appreciate the great art and imagination in these rare turns from the beaten path of children's literature.

go to www.babytattoo.com if you want to find out more

28/365

Brick, bricks, bricks wonderful bricks... yeah, I'm tired

27/365

Witch, witch she's a ...

An image from the Old City Cemetery and the most visited grave in it; an obelisk tomb housing the remains of Elizabeth (Bessie) Graham.

The story goes that Bessie was a "white" witch who cast a spell to ensnare a very rich man into marrying her. Indeed they married and had a child, but after only two years of wedlock Bessie grew ill and died at 23.

This is the first story I heard when I moved here, the story of the witches grave... it is the only grave in the cemetery facing west (all others face east) as she was supposedly buried backwards. Now, I will say I found the story a load of crock. Witches weren't allowed to be buried in consecrated ground for one and I don't see any amount of money would have persuaded the local elders to allow a witch to be buried on "holy ground".

It seems to me one of those stories that grew into an urban legend over the years.
The enigmatic epitaph is not helping matters and it is said that Covens regularly meet at the grave, supposedly for Sabbaths. I don't see how any self- respecting Coven would do this but that's how the story goes.

"Come let the burial rite be read
The funeral song be sung
A dirge for her, the doubly dead
In that she dies so young."

There is a lot of interesting history on this oldest city cemetery and I will certainly return to take more photos. I also want to redo this photo as I'm not terribly pleased.

26/365

...Sun in the tree...

...close up, with the moss more visible...

25/365

...another Tallahassee image...
The David S. Walker Library on Park Avenue in the historic district of Tallahassee , named for the governor D.S. Walker. In 1976 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
I just love the colors: brick red, dirty white and this amazing deep blue green. Love it!

This plaque is on the sidewalk in front of the building. Not sure of its significance except that the President Jackson was chosen to represent "Springtime Tallahassee" because of his service to Florida as the first provisional governor. The figure of Jackson is very controversial though...


I really have to start taking some wider shots, I seem to always come back to this "close up" format.

24/365

Last minute photo before I collapse on the couch.

Jack decided it's time to not do schoolwork again and
David's dad is in town from Alaska so we were spending time with him... all in all, Mika's in bed, Jack is reading and I used my last brain cells thinking what to shoot... and now I'm using my last few lively atoms to post this...

Another "old" childhood game from my collection and currently Mika's favorite toy. Technically, it's underexposed but I like this darker feel especially in sepia photos....
would have preferred a smidgen of a bookeh but it eludes me and I didn't have the energy to play with it.

Ta ta

23/365

No photo for yesterday- was way to tired and PMSy...

Today a photo as demonstration of my labors; had to make two care/ thank you baskets.
One for a friend whose mom just died and another for a friend who supplies us with his farm air free range eggs :)

The chocolate covered muffins are chocolate chip/ blueberry muffins, the other ones are oatmeal apple muffins covered with honey and almonds. Yum!
The cookies are chocolate with coconut.

According to Mika, Jack & David everything is delicious.

22/365

Another image of the Old Capitol, I love the striped shades.

21/365

Today's weather was doomy and gloomy so I present to you:"The Mouse Book" in Mikanese

This is Mika's current favorite, we read it 6 out of 7 nights. The reason it is her favorite is.... you guessed it... the mouse!

No page can be turned until Mika locates the mouse and squees in excitement: "Mouse!"
mama: "Mis!" (Croatian for mouse)
Mika: "Mouse!!"
mama: "Mis, Mika"

Mika [with a very serious look on her face]: "Noooooooo mamaaaaa ... mouse!!!"

and so it goes every night... together with singing "Twinkle twinkle" on certain page and hushing and shushing whenever the old lady comes anywhere near.

It's loads of fun really :D

20/365

THE BLOXHAM BUILDING
(another downtown Tallahassee image)

Today it houses some state government office or another but it was originally built in 1925 as the Caroline Brevard Grammar School.

Designed by William A. Edwards it is the oldest school building in Tallahassee. It was sold to the state of Florida in 1964 and named after Florida governor William Dunnigton Bloxham.

19/365

I didn't bring my camera with me today and didn't really even think
about the photo until half way through dinner.

I made this amazing Chicken Parmigiana for dinner and just as Mika was picking out the last pieces of chicken from her pasta I thought: "I should have taken a pic of it for 365... when it was still nicely served with garnish and stuff...."

More to the point: due to my forgetfulness please enjoy a photo of Mika's leftovers... if you look carefully you will see Mika's fingers in the top left corner...

18/365

First nice day after the chill... it felt so good to be out in fresh air working in the dirt...
the boys wanted to use the day off to play Star wars role playing so they were eager to help in the garden just to get to the playing part faster...

gotta love little boy motivation :)

17/365

We were supposed to do the roof on the house today but with all the rain it had to be postponed, Mika had a blast though....

16/365

I have this thing about "old" games, simple oldies but goodies we used to play as kids... c'mon you know which ones I'm talking about, games forsaken by today's kids in favor of the Wii and other contraptions...

I wouldn't really call myself a collector but I will admit I get all excited when I come across one of these old time favorites presented in a new and different way.

The tiles in the photo above belong to a Memory game. The art on all the tiles is done by Charley Harper, an artist who produced mainly wildlife illustrations.

Honestly, I never heard of Charley Harper before I found this Memory game but the images were very intriguing... I love the whimsy in them. After doing some research it turns out Charley Harper was quite prolific and these little Memory tiles don't do justice to his actual artwork.

Until tomorrow, off to clean the kitchen... ta da

15/365

Another scene from downtown Tallahassee... I was hoping for the color accent tool on the camera to make a stronger contrast between the flags and the rest of the scene...

On the emotional side: this image of state and country flags with politician walking underneath evokes strong emotion in me but I cannot put it in words. In Croatia, displaying of the flag by a regular citizen most often than not invokes negative commentary calling it nationalistic, and somehow inappropriate.

Now, don't get me wrong, many wrong things were done in Croatia in the name of "nationalism" just like many wrong things were done in America in the name of "America". But the act of displaying a flag of your country as a way of showing your pride and love for that country shouldn't be wrong, should it?

Here, a flag just is... many different people wish to associate many different things with it but ultimately a flag is just a flag.... a symbol of country... displayed in yards by mothers of soldiers, displayed on lamp posts for the holidays just as often as it is displayed on state buildings.

At the end of the day this fact makes me feel peaceful.. when you remove all the things people do in the name of the flag... I am calm and grateful that we can display it simply as a symbol of love for our country, as well as obligation...

14/365

I'm not terribly impressed with this one, it doesn't really have the feel I wanted
... it's a mural in a Galley Alley, downtown Tallahassee... interesting little passageway leading into a little courtyard...

13/365

... David and Mika playing Tic Tac Toe ...

12/365

An interesting window we pass by every day on our lunch walk... I love how bright this photo is and I haven't tampered with it at all... that's how bright Florida is...

11/365

My view on our way to work in the morning... I find that orange blue dawn soothing for some reason... it's not the sharpest photo but hey... for being taken through a windshield of a moving car going 60mph I'll take it....

10/365

...This is Simon...
This is his best face... the only time Simon is not napping is when he's scrambling for his life trying to get away from Mika...

9/365

View from my work window... old State Capitol, now a museum...

8/365

Just one week into the 365 project and I am painfully aware just how routine my life is (note I am trying desperately to avoid the word boring :P). My only chance for a photo are on my way to work, my way home from work or in the evening usually after the kids are in bed or getting there. Thankfully, the tree is still up so I can resort to the ornament selection available...

Oh well, at least my creative string will be exercised again...

7/365

Mika's bangs needed shortening, that is as far as we got with "haircuts".
The moment she sees a camera in my hands she starts posing... this was a rare photo where I caught her unaware and I love it... makes me feel all fuzzy inside :)

6/365

I wanted to do a photo of our cat today but he decided not to cooperate... instead, you get a sad little toy that got taken away from Jack because he was playing with it instead of doing homework...

5/365

Mika's house decorated for the holidays, we're taking decorations off next weekend and I'm in mourning already.....

4/365

Jack is home!

3/365

Mika got some new shelves in her room yesterday. Originally, they were supposed to be white but I realized too late that I don't have any more white paint, so I had to mix what I had.

I have this friend.....

... this very quirky, artistic, star chasing friend whos been raving about the 365 project for years now.


http://madziabryll.blogspot.com/2010/01/project-365-2010-dont-forget-to-start.html

It's not January 1 but we'll see how it goes....

Galena