Today I tried something. I kept myself offline. You know what? It worked! I got a ton of work done today, and because of that I get an almost free day tomorrow to do some much needed work in my darkroom. Seriously, you would think it wouldn’t take me almost 30 years to figure this stuff out, but I guess it does.

So this is my week of work! I am staying off of my chat program and dear old Twitter and Facebook during the day this week (though I may give myself a break on Wednesday since I’ll be working my day job most of the day anyway!) – I am excited to see what I will accomplish! So far I have gotten a lot of photo processing done, as well as finishing up a few jobs for MCBA. It feels so good to finally get a few things off of my plate and be able to do a bit of creative work again! I did catch myself writing snarky little one sentence updates in my notebook today though…I think I missed Twitter a bit much! Ha!

Moving on. My dear Mr. FN is working his way towards a husband-of-the-year award! Really. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post he made me a collapsible light box. I had a chance to try it out today while I was taking photos at MCBA. Woah! That makes such a difference! It is amazing! We are going to work on some finishing touches together (muslin instead of tissue paper, clamps instead of tape, etc.) but it already works like a charm!

– my little set up at MCBA today –

He also thoroughly spoiled me tonight by taking me out and purchasing a new little laptop! The decision was made after figuring out that my little-engine-that-could laptop was at least 5 years old (along with a few odd problems he couldn’t figure out). So off we went to get my new little side kick I’m typing this on! It is so speedy!! I wasn’t going to buy a new laptop until my old one truly kicked the bucket, so this was a shocker today! Now to get it all set up….

And on we go. I miss hanging out with friends online all day (you know who you are!), but I love everything I am accomplishing this week. My experiment has so far been a success! I’ll be back to chatting next week though ;)

Stay tuned! Hopefully tomorrow there will be a darkroom photo update!

Also, film developed! I’m so glad I had a chance to drop this off at West Photo today to be developed. Now to get it scanned in and posted….

Today I am feeling in a much better place with upcoming shows and projects that are due way too soon. I’m trying to keep on top of them all. I don’t want this to turn into another crazy busy summer that disappears before I have a chance to enjoy it. I’m finally off to bed. Good night dear friends! I’ll update more tomorrow evening.

If I could have it my way today I would be walking barefoot through the neighborhood streets in the rain with a camera (probably two or three) being part of the storm.

But instead I am curled up on the couch with my laptop next to a wide open window, listening and working away. Maybe there will be some storm artwork made today anyway. At least the bunny doesn’t seem to mind this set up.

Funny little note on the topic of laptops. Of course Apple has released new laptops, and of course there have been loads of discussions here about getting me a new laptop. The latest decision? To try upgrading my laptop one last time. I love my beat-up kind-of-clunky laptop. Probably most of all because Mr. FN bought it for me and it was delivered one day when I was really sick and I haven’t forgotten how amazing that day felt then. Sometimes sentimentality trumps everything.

Updates on the Flickr stream coming today! Nothing up as of the time of this post, but it will be later, so check back.

I feel like I have been forgetting* everything today. I forgot many little necessary bits during the morning hours of today. Tonight I find myself frustrated because Mr. FN is talking about a book he is reading, that I read myself not terribly long ago, and I don’t remember enough about bits of it to have a good conversation with him about the book. I don’t know why this is. It could be that I’m still tired and recovering from the Northern Spark activities, but it still bothers me a bit. I dislike feeling that forgetful.

Tomorrow will thankfully be a long day of finishing photo jobs, starting on some new artwork (hopefully!), lots of photo posting to Flickr, and maybe even fixing my bike! … I am very grateful that when my bike chain started giving me major issues on my way home from work that I was already at the parking lot to our building! I at least didn’t have far to walk with it!

I’m really hoping to schedule a studio day in the darkroom soon. It makes me sad to say that sometimes, that I have to “schedule” a day like that in. But that is just how it goes sometimes. It is more from an abundance of photo jobs than a lack of being able to be in my darkroom. If only there were an easier way to balance all the jobs! Anyway, yes. More time in darkroom. More time for art. I have been thinking of a new 365 photo project tonight. Something with film this time as well as writing. Vague ideas are vague!

Also, perhaps I should not blog so late. My morning posts are not as incoherant!

Good night!

wires – taken with a Lomo LCA

* The grammar check program I have installed on my blog just suggested I should change “have been forgetting” to “have forgettd”. I am not sure I trust my grammar check program anymore….

Today has been awesome. We went to the Northeast Farmer’s Market where we got strawberries!! (see photo below) I love farmer’s market strawberries! I always buy as many as I can possibly afford and freeze them for smoothies during the long winter months when fruit is soooo expensive here. We also stopped by a friend’s garage sale where I picked up two Nitty Gritty Dirt Band record sets for a grand total of $1! Yeah, it was a nostalgic purchase really. When I was young I would fall asleep almost every night listening to a NGDB cassette tape. I believe I knew all the words to Mr. Bojangles by the age of 5…that’s normal right? (note: no, I do not yet own a record player, but Mr. FN promises me there is one coming for my birthday!)

Really. It is weird going through a day knowing that you aren’t going to sleep at all until sometime the next day. It is constantly on your mind…”I should sleep now because I won’t sleep tonight…I should do this and not that because I won’t sleep tonight…”

Blah!

I honestly haven’t had a super hard time with that today because I did this last year (kind-of) and I know that once the night starts, the adrenaline starts going, and I hardly notice what time it is. Of course last year I did get to go to a few different places instead of staying in one spot all night, and I did go home around 3am…this year I will be at MCBA until at least 6am (probably later with clean up). I’m excited though! It will be so much fun! If you are Instagram, follow me (Moonsweetie) or follow me on Twitter! I’ll try to post updates all night long!

Of course life doesn’t exactly make it easy for you to just stay up all night and get away with it…and of course our awesome real estate agent called to say there is a showing scheduled for tomorrow… This is good news really! It is great that someone else is interested in looking at our place! And thankfully we were given enough notice to do a little last-minute cleaning tonight, and will have enough time to come home in the morning, take a cat nap, and head out with the bunny. Life is never dull around here!

My camera bag is packed, my batteries are charged, and I have a few granola bars and cans of diet coke stashed for tonight. I promise to give you a full report of it soon!

Yay Northern Spark!

Strawberries!!! The awesome first-of-the-season-organic-kind!