Dancing To Paris - #5

Today I danced in my kitchen

time of day - evening

how long - 15 minutes

mood before - 5.5

mood after - 7

(See mood chart in left column under the clock.)

I spent most of the day with an "okay" mood. Was able to raise it to "pretty happy" this evening by dancing 15 minutes. If I had danced this morning (instead of this evening) would I have been "pretty happy" all day instead of "okay"?

I wonder how dancing late in the evening will effect how I sleep?

Tonight's Go To Song - Mercy by Duffy

Blackberry Jam Cafe is Dancing Around Her Kitchen

Be sure to stop by and give her some encouragement. We would love to get women all over the country - all over the world - up and dancing in their kitchens. How great would that be? So dance alone, dance with your kids, dance with friends and family...just Keep On Dancing!

Today's iPhone Polaroids

I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!

I will be in Nashville next week during my birthday so my Mom took me out for a latte and cinnamon roll at our favorite bakery. I was going to take half of it home...

Mom thought it was pretty funny that I took a picture of the roll before eating it, and then another one of my empty plate for my blog. In my defense Mom is an itty bitty little thing and she ate all of hers too. Thanks Mom - great birthday celebration!

Dancing To Paris - #4

Today I danced around my kitchen

time of day - afternoon

for how long - 20 minutes

mood before 5.5

mood after 7.5

(The mood scale is in the left column under the clock)

Today's Go To Song - Stitched Up - Herbie Hancock and John Mayer

Dancing To Paris -#3

I danced around my kitchen today

time of day - morning
for how long - 30 minutes
mood before - 5.5
mood after - 8
(the mood scale is in the left column, under the clock)

Today's Go To Song - The Ojays - Livin' For The Weekend

Art Journaling Magazine

Latest Issue of Art Journaling Magazine

Today I Danced Around My Kitchen

time of day - morning

for how long - 20 minutes
mood before - 5.5
mood after - 7.5
(mood scale in left column under the clock)

Today's Go To Song - Little Bird, Annie Lennox

Today's iPhone Polaroids

New Apple iPad

I have a bad case of the iPad iWants!

typing on lap

iPad site at apple now up here.
Steve Jobs introducing Apple's latest creation.
Better than a laptop, better than a smartphone... and it's called iPad

.5 inch thin, 1.5 pounds 16GB, 64GB flash storage

runs iPhone apps

New York Times iPad app looks like a newspaper...the future of newspapers is here.

Artists are going to love the Brushed app!

iBooks Store to support #iPad. "Apple standing on Amazon's shoulders!"

iWork apps

syncs over USB like iPod and iPhone

$29.99 unlimited data plan with AT&T no contract pre-paid

#iPad price starts at $499! 32GB $599 64GB $799 3GModels cost and extra $130

Ships in 60 days. 3G models in 90 days.

75 million already know how to use iPad because they use iPhone and iTouch

Today's iPhone Polaroid

I have photographed these favorite Valentine candies many times...never as an iPhone polaroid. And...never have I seen them with the words "tweet me"!

Very Cool Lens Bag

Now this is cool. Just found out about these stylish and practical lens bags. Blah Blah Blahger is giving two away at the Blissdom Conference in Nashville. Pick Me Pick Me

I Won Ice Cream!

I'm heading to the Blissdom Blogger Conference in Nashville and I just won ice cream for coming the farthest via plane. Yipeeee! I never won ice cream before and I luv it. Thank you Blue Bunny.

Looking For Chocolate In Nashville

It's almost time for the Blissdom Conference in Nashville. Before I leave on a trip I always like to find out where the best chocolate is. This is what I've found so far...

The Cocoa Tree How cute does this place look?

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - Yummmmm - handmade fudge

Nashville Toffee Company - also has chocolate. I love toffee almost as much as chocolate.

Do you have a favorite place in Nashville to buy chocolate? Other favorite shops and restaurants?

Win a $20 Starbucks Card

And the winner is....Ingrid from Ingrid 365. Congratulations. Thanks to all for entering. I will do another one soon.

Just leave a comment and your name will be entered for drawing on Saturday January 23rd.

iTunes Benefit Album - Hope For Haiti

I just downloaded the iTunes benefit album for Haiti and it's good - really good!

Jump Start - 510 Ideas For Your Blog

Today's iPhone Polaroid

iPhone ProCamera App Review

I just added the ProCamera app to my iPhone and I liked it so much that I moved the regular camera app to a back page and kept ProCamera on my iPhone home page.

I think it does two things really well. It has image stabilization which has helped me get sharper pictures. It also has a zoom feature that works really well. The top picture was taken with the regular camera app and then made into a polaroid while in iPhone. The second picture was taken with the ProCamera app - zoomed in closer and also turned into a polaroid while in iPhone. I was pretty impressed with how sharp the "zoomed" in picture was.

ProCamera doesn't have fancy filters, bells and whistles. It has more features for the iPhone GS and promises to soon have flash and night photography capabilities. In the mean time I am really happy I can get sharper pictures and zoom in without losing quality.

This Month's Top Ten Tips From My Favorite Magazines - January 2010

From Sunset Magazine

1.Wayne Thiebaud exhibit currently at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and coming to the San Jose Museum of Art

2. Sea Glass Style - color palette for your home. Looks like they are featuring the Elmira stoves and refrigerators as well (see #8).

3. Recipe for toasted turkey, brie and apple sandwiches. Yummmmm

From Real Simple

4. Use the mate to lost earrings as push pins.

5. Turn netflix envelopes into origami art.

From Fresh Home (With so many magazines closing, it's fun to discover a new one.)

6. Instead of having a New Year's Resolution about losing something, make it about gaining something like a new skill.

7. Gild an old chair with metal leaf sheets (gold, copper, silver etc.)

8. Elmira Stove Works has new 50s looking stoves, refrigerators etc. In fun colors too. (This was an ad so I don't know how good the product is, but loved the look.)

From iPhoneLife

9. PhotoForge app. Oh boy a new iPhone photo app to try.

10. ProCamera app. This app has been updated and has lots of features to improve your iPhone Camera.

Keep The Inspiration Flowing

For the cost of a Starbuck's latte, download a fully illustrated,

33 page booklet, with over 500 ideas for your blog, journal,

art and writing. Just $3.55

Today's iPhone Polaroid

Ahead of the Storm

Big big storms coming our way in northern California. I dashed home to the wine country in between them. Thunder, heavy rain and big winds due tonight.

Today's iPhone Polaroid

Wine Tasting at Sones Cellars

There's An App For That - Driving A Car With Your iPhone

Today's iPhone Polaroid - First Tulips of 2010

Resolution - Flowers Every Week - Week Two

Cool! You Can Make A Donation To Haiti Through iTunes

It's as easy as buying a song! Just Click on Donate Now.

Today's iPhone Polaroid

We're Finalists!!!

Watch To See If We Are On American Idol Tonight

A couple of months ago I was one of many bloggers asked to enter the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter - Turn The Tub Around" contest. They mailed me a flip camcorder (which I got to keep and is very cool). My niece Simone sang, my niece Sidnea danced and even my dog Lola got into the act.

This past week we found out that we made the finals. Tonight on American Idol, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is running an ad featuring some of the finalists. We hope to hear Simone, and see Sidnea and Lola in tonight's ad.

The finalists are also featured in their online video contest. Just go here and click on Watch, Vote and you could Win. Then click on get started and the first week's two videos will appear. You can win prizes by voting. If you click on video gallery and next, you will find our video. We are featured week 7 and week 15. Be sure to come back those weeks and vote for us!

Sidnea, Simone and Lola did a great job. My nieces have always been talented singers and dancers and Lola...well Lola is just Lola.

Update

Well....we didn't win tonight, but I had a great time making the video with my nieces, Lola and Richard (who patiently taught me editing 101). It was the first video I ever shot and I love my new flip camera! Thanks to I Can't Believe It's Not Butter for the opportunity!

Today's iPhone Polaroid

Traveling north across the Golden Gate Bridge. I took a picture with my iPhone using the QuadCamera App set for 2 high and 4 across. While still in my iPhone I brought the image into my CameraBag polaroid app.

QuadCamera

CameraBag

Prompt #327

That was the most fun I ever had failing...

I recently ran across this sentence in an old journal entry. A number of years ago my friend Susan and I took a drawing class in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. First of all I knew I was going to have a great time because I was going with Susan. We always have a great time. And San Miguel de Allende? Well what can you say? It is magnificent.

So where was the failing?

It was the drawing on location part. The teacher, Nina Wisniewski was terrific. But there's a reason I am a photographer. It probably is connected to why I broke my mother's heart by giving up piano lessons to take dance lessons. I would look around at the other San Miguel students...sitting so peacefully, drawing. I on the other hand was completely frustrated sitting in one place for so long, trying to capture a scene with my pencil, when all I really wanted to do was capture it with my camera and move on to experience more of San Miguel.

I was undeniably the worst drawing student in the class - maybe the worse student Nina ever had. But even though I felt like a drawing failure I had a terrific time. I fell in love with San Miguel, laughed a lot with Susan and came home with some pretty darn good photographs.

What's the most fun you ever had failing?

510 writing prompts for just $3.55

Today's iPhone Polaroid - Happy Birthday Dan

We celebrated my friend Dan's birthday tonight at Cafe Sparrow in Aptos. Yummy dinner, great friends and terrific conversations! Our friend Nancy brought her family cake music box, that had belonged to her great aunt and played happy birthday. I thought it was so cute. The Restaurant was quite dark so I lit the music box with the candles on the table to take the picture with my iPhone. I of course used the iPhone polaroid app.