Do You Keep a Junk Drawer?

A couple of years ago I was going to photograph junk drawers. It looks like it has already been done on the google search. There are some incredible junk drawers in the image search already.

There’s even an article about Make Over Your Junk Drawer from overwhelmed to organized

My DIL Erika consented that I could blog hers but that was awhile back so hope she is still in agreement.

After all, this is probably the kind of situation that gives a MIL a bad name.

I blogged my own junk on my old Keep or Pitch blog but never proceeded with the project.

I’m thinking about returning to the project, even though there are a lot of photos out there already.

Just read an article about self-assignment for your photography practice and I was thinking about some of the ideas I’ve been considering.

One thing, no two junk drawers would be the same.

So you do keep a junk drawer in your home? Maybe readers could send photos of their own junk drawers and we could have a collection of photos from around the world. Maybe they are only in the USA.

If I came to photograph it, would you keep it “as is” or feel compelled to tidy it up first?

Just thinking about junk drawers. Cleaning up. Being tidy. Wondering how little pieces gather in a spot, collect.

Thanks Erika.

If you followed my Keep or Pitch blog,you’ve seen these already. Seems only fair to post some of my own accumulated junk.

no room for a junk drawer? A little copper dish will do.

Happy Fortieth Wedding Anniversary- Marlene and Donald!

June 2, 1973. Swissvale Pennsylvania. Happy 40th Anniversary Marlene and Donald.

Marlene and Donald’s daughter Erika is married to my son Mark and we share the grandchildren- Anna, Michael, Jack and Maura. Last year I posted the church they were married in , Madonna del Castello, and all of a sudden a whole year has flown by.

Here’s a photo of the family at Laura and James’ wedding November 2011. V’s idea to find a photo of you and the grandchildren, 40 years after your wedding day. Send me a wedding photo and I will add it to the post. I should have taken a photo of one when we visited Memorial Day weekend or taken a new photo of the two of you with the grandchildren.

(I was going to post my friend Donna’s wedding cake topper from the same era but the bride’s hair was brunette in the photo and Marlene is blonde)

Marlene and Donald with their daughter Erika, my son Mark, and the grandchildren. Columbus OH

Popped on the Stovetop

My DIL bought Non-GMO Organic popcorn in the bulk section of Whole Foods for $2 a pound.

The family hasn’t eaten popcorn on family movie night for more than a year. Since my mom hailed from Illinois we had popcorn when I was growing up- apples and milk on Sunday nights. At Christmas my parents gave bags of strawberry popcorn kernels grown in Durand, Illinois and it was so tender and good.

I know popcorn isn’t the snack food of choice for many and isn’t eaten or popular in some places.

My sister missed the popcorn gene and doesn’t care for it and I don’t remember my dad eating it except when my mom coated it with molasses syrup cooked up until it spun a thread. (not very often) I know I don’t care for microwave popcorn. Have to make it on the stovetop.

Tonight while visiting the family, I made the first batch for the grandkids, opening the brown paper bag and finding a variety of colors and sizes of popcorn kernels.

It was so inviting. My phone was handy.

Tried to catch it popping but didn’t get past the second kernel exploding. I used a larger pan than I would at my own home, more like a pasta pot.

A single kernel bursts open

the second kernel burst. then it was get that lid on quick!

Look at the variety of colors. No butter on it to make it that yellow. Just plain.

Maura age 4 1/2 photographed Grandma, using the phone as I took the popcorn off the stove.

What I used to cook the popcorn. A generous tablespoon melted on medium high heat. About 3/4 c of popcorn. I stirred the kernels with a wooden spatula so it wouldn’t burn.

It was a fun time and the house smelled fragrant. Only one out of four grandchildren wanted salt on it! I thought that was interesting.

With what snack do you like to treat yourself??

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

When I went to look in my files for signage, I wasn’t surprised to find a ton of them.

I know I’m attracted to writing and the reading of it.

This week’s challenge arrived in my inbox Friday May 31st and I am wondering how it is going to be June in a few minutes. Last day of school is June 17th.

Little Italy

The Strip District Pittsburgh PA Penguins Hockey

Sign by Ghost Bicycle

Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background

Oops. Between going away for the holiday weekend and my consternation about loyal and regular followers not being able to receive the blog in email, I forgot to do last Friday’s Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background. Tomorrow there will be another challenge so this one is in just under the wire

This challenge was just that- a challenge.

Fishmarket Chinatown NYC

A class trip picture in Central Park

Breadmaking at Eataly NYC

The horse’s eye at Booker T Washington Monument Park Virginia

From the giant Lego store- Prometheus

Eataly

Chicken through the fence

Washington Square Park

(Thanks to everyone who wrote and commented about my ongoing frustration that many friends and followers can’t even subscribe to the email to receive it. What’s up with that , WordPress? I have tried to send the link or forward the post and they don’t get it either. AND from three different types of email- mac, yahoo and a virgin gmail account.)

Big Dreams

It seems from the emails from friends and followers that comcast.net and verizon. net are the largest group not receiving my daily post via my gmail account. There are a few others, too.

Even a new email address and a different provider the next time I sent it, for some reason these addresses think the blog post is the processed meat in a little blue can. (I don’t even want to write the name of it – )

Why after almost four years of daily blog sending it is refusing my emails is something I don’t understand. No bounced back email, no sign of it in spam. People have difficulty subscribing to the blog at wordpress, not receiving a confirmation email. So what changed?

Did someone get in my email? I’ve changed all the passwords and there are no signs of compromise that I can detect. At least a few people wondered what happened to me and others have let me know they are receiving it just fine without a hitch. Did wordpress change something? What is suspicious these days? Who knows. Seems other wordpressers are in good shape but the email situation is exasperating. Thanks for your patience. I did read in an article How To Tell if you are Boring Someone, and one tip was –don’t talk about computer problems. Thanks for your input xxooxx Ruth E.

And the Post Today————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Photographer Martin Weber had a show at Silver Eye Center of Photography called A Map of Latin American Dreams about three and a half years ago. I remembered the faces of the people he photographed and how he documented their dreams and desires on a small chalkboard in every image. He is the inspiration for this project.

We used black construction paper and white chalk. I showed the students his photographs first. Then talked about dreams. I encouraged the students to write specifically.

Today I can’t show you the faces of the students who did this project in my Digital Photography Classes but I wanted to share some of their dreams.

We converted all the dream photos into black and white and then made a display in the classroom. Of course the faces of the students amplify the effectiveness of the composition and evoke emotion but these are just the handwritten dreams of a select few students as we come to the close of the school year (last day for me June 17th)

This could be a good project for many levels of students These are 9-12th graders. I wrote down my dream, too.

Catching Kids on the Fly

Hardy, Virginia (near Roanoke) weekend at the other Grandparents’ home.

Grandkids and their cousin on the move.

Grandma has to be fast with the camera – lens and shutter, barely time to check focus. Everyone growing up before my eyes.

Coal Miner’s Memorial and Heritage Park, Quinwood, West Virginia

On my way home from Hardy VA, I stopped at the Coal Miner’s Memorial and Heritage Park in Quinwood, West Virginia, built where the old company store used to stand according to this site.

The names read like poetry. There are names chiseled on both sides of the stone markers.

The day was overcast and chilly, more like football weather instead of the end of May.

I was thinking about the sign on Bleecker Street, NYC, advertising coal oven pizza and wondered where they get coal for their ovens.

Memorial Day 2013

My son Mark photographed the Marine Corps War Memorial when the family visited Arlington Cemetery a few weeks ago. (The memorial is in Arlington VA, not in the actual cemetery)

When he showed me this photo today, I asked if he’d guest blog it for Memorial Day and he agreed. Mark was in the USMC for six years.

We went for a walk this morning and there’s a little white clapboard church about 1/2 mile up the road. Behind it was a small graveyard.

The third photo I took early Sunday in a rural cemetery by a headstone that had a flag in front of it.

This is the reflection (taken with a 70-200 Canon Lens L Series)

I read a moving article in the Roanoke Times (by Dan Casey) about the last of four brothers who served in WWII who tells the story of the other three who have gone on before.

This post is to remember all the men and women from every branch of the Armed Forces on Memorial Day 2013.

Photographed by Guest Blogger Mark, ( I loved the sun shining through the flag)

The VFW were outside the local Kroger

To read the poem In Flanders Fields written by Lt Col. John McCrae, MD, hailing from Canadian Army WWI click here and see the original copy handwritten in a page of notepaper.

May 26, 1976 Fort Knox Kentucky

Ireland Army Hospital.

The family has gathered in to Erika’s parents to celebrate Mark’s birthday. You were a bicentennial baby and my father’s mother knit you a red ,white and blue afghan.

This afternoon we went to the farm next door to see how the pigs are growing. We were playing with the runt named P.P. and watching her root in the mud. No truffles found, though.

Mark and his sons Michael and Jack were walking back home. Of course I had the fixed lens (50mm) on the camera. I almost missed them though. Erika asked me “Did you get it?” We saw the three of them at the top of the hill at the same time. The next frame they’re in total sunlight and it isn’t as strong.

Happy Birthday Mark. I searched the card racks for the right words but the card writers this year didn’t capture what I wanted to say.

When I see you grown up, loving your own beautiful family, my heart is full.

I love you. Ma