See You In September...Oh It IS September!

Busy, busy, busy.  Okay so not as busy as most of you out there, but for me this past few weeks have been busy.  This year has been so different than last year was.  It's hard to believe this is the middle of September already and the end of the year is nearing.  Some believe the end of the world?  (Mayan calendar and all that.)  Okay well I am not going to get into talking about that.  

I have resigned from the Scams of the Heart group and since then I have found so much time to be doing things I have been wanting to do.  Don't get me wrong.  I still support the group and believe in what is being done there.  So if anyone reading this needs help because of romance scams or friendship scams, that's the place to go for help.

In the past two weeks I have spent more time with my family than I have in months and that is the best change of all.  Last year my family and I spent a lot of time together.  This year was different in so many ways, but it seems to be back to the normal routine and that makes me very happy.  

Working on my photography and now adding graphic design to it all has kept me pretty busy too.  I've updated, remodeled, changed, and even deleted blogs I had here.  Some needed work, and others just needed to be gone.  All the ones that remain got worked on and hopefully improved.  

In addition to working on the photography and the blogs, I have also been busy at Squidoo updating existing lenses and creating new ones.  In the past few days alone I have created three new lenses.  You can see all my lenses as well as all my blogs in the right-hand sidebar on this blog.  The lenses I created the past few days include one about cookies, one about Star Trek and Stargate television shows and movies, and one about what a pescaterian is.  I used to have a blog about being a pescaterian (spelled pescatarian and pescetarian but not the way I spell it--LOL) but I removed it and decided later to create a lens about the subject instead. I also created a lens about how to use Corel PaintShop Photo ProX3 to change bad, blurry photos into good graphic designs.  So I guess I counted wrong and have actually created four new lenses in the past few days.  I haven't made any money yet with Squidoo but prior to this I haven't really had the time to devote to the project.  Now that my full focus can be on that instead of other things, maybe I will start making some progress, as I know it can be done.  

Tonight will be my first meeting at our local art center's Camera Club which I am excited about.  I've wanted to try this group for a long time and finally got the chance, thanks to my daughter who had them include me on her family membership.  Hopefully I will learn some good tips to make my photography better.

In addition to all this, since the weather has gotten much nicer, Jonah and I have been spending quite a few mornings sitting outside enjoying it all as well as some afternoons too.  It's nice to finally be able to get outside and breathe some fresh air and enjoy some sunshine without roasting.  All I can say about this past summer as it comes to a close is that it has been absolutely brutal.  The birds and squirrels are really hungry right now too, it seems, as they are eating up the bird seed a lot faster than they did the rest of the spring and summer.  I can't keep up with them.

Oh I can't forget this.  I uploaded my first YouTube videos this past weekend.  My grandsons each have a robot-type toy called a Turbo-Fighter and the adults at my one grandson's birthday party went wild letting these two toys battle it out.  Have a look before you leave my page.

Capirani Photography

Summer is almost over and for this Midwest gal, I couldn't be happier.  Don't get me wrong, I've always preferred the warmer months over the cold winters.  This year has made me look forward to seeing snow in ways I haven't wanted to in the past.  Thankfully the past week has been really nice and I've finally gotten to enjoy some time outside in the mornings.

My late summer hours have been filled with creativity with my photography and using my photo editing programs to create some very interesting, and I think very pretty graphic designs.  I've removed the connection from my regular blogs to the photography blog also so that it will be standing on its own in a more professional manner.  To see my photography blog click here click here. I've really had a lot of fun creating my first portfolio of photographs and graphics.  Tomorrow I will be starting on the more difficult task of looking for the markets and making contact with them to try to sell my work.  

My Squidoo lenses have been neglected for awhile but I've been busily updating those this past week as well.  I have to admit that several of them, if not all, need some work.

The county fair is coming up in a few days and I've been offered a ride and someone to push me in my wheelchair on Labor Day.  The problem is, the people are total strangers to me and that bothers me.  Of course they are from my area and could very easily end up being new friends.  It's just that I am a little bit frightened by the thought.  However, if the weather is not suitable, meaning it's raining or it's way too hot for me to be outside, I won't be going anyway.  Also, I really hate bothering people with helping me.  Of course it's my fault as I requested help on a local area Facebook page and if I didn't want help, I should not have asked for help in the first place, right?  Another problem with the whole thing is that I was trying to put aside a little money for the fair and a couple other festivals that are also coming up soon but computer problems got in the way of that and all my extra money went to fixing the computer.  The computer has to be a priority for me if I am to use it to try to improve my life in any way.

Now I'm not sure 100% that I will even make any sales of my art, but I am going to put my best effort into it.  Ever since I was in junior high and high school I have wanted to be a writer/photographer but even though I was published in my local newspaper right after graduating high school, I never really followed through with writing or photography other than as a hobby once I got married and had children.  Now is the time for me to try.  If I don't try, I would have regrets and beat myself up for not trying.  But in no way do I expect to get rich overnight and I have to start slowly enough that I can manage my earnings to balance within the limits of what I can earn legally with my other benefits.  I don't want to get into a political topic here, but when people like me end up stuck in the system for our income and medical benefits, the government makes it very difficult to break free of that or do a whole lot to improve our situation.  There are certain financial areas where earnings conflict with benefits and you end up having to make a hard choice whether to trust the earnings to continue at the same level and give up the benefits or give up the earnings and stick to the guaranteed benefits.  It would not be so difficult a choice if the income limits were higher before they started to reduce the benefits.  It basically keeps us locked into our situations whether we want to be or not.  So any attempts I make to become professional at my writing and photography/graphics will be a risk.  But either way, my computer is a necessary tool for me to take that risk.  When it comes down to whether I have money to go to the fair or festivals or have money to fix my computer, the computer has to come first.

Other events coming up that I am really interested in attending are the local Hot Air Affair which is a hot air balloon festival that our area used to hold every year until for whatever reasons they stopped doing it.  This year it's back and I really want to go.  Years ago I took some really nice photos at previous festivals and really want that opportunity again.  The other event is not until October so I may still be able to save some money for that, however in September I also have another computer expense that has to be dealt with.  Sometimes it feels like the problems are never ending and the solutions are so far out of sight that I don't have a hope of finding them.  The October festival is our local Apple Festival and there will be some wonderful photographic opportunities for me there if I get to go.  I did decide that these generous people who have chosen to take me to the fair will be offered outdoor style portraits taken by me in return for their generosity.  Studio photography is not my style and I don't really do a lot of taking pictures of people except family.  But the right situations can make for some really nice outdoor portraits.  Who knows?  Maybe that will also be a future part of my career as a professional photographer.