ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- TINY THINGSThe

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- TINY THINGS

The Challenge this go-round among the Round Robins is to photograph tiny things. This was indeed a challenge to me because my camera sometimes rebels at taking pictures of very small items, but I have done my best here. (To see the following shots larger, click on them to go to my Flickr site, where you can also specify to see them even larger.) The first two are of the tiny cat on the necklace that my son Tony, DIL Kamie, and grandsons Michael and Alex gave me for my birthday, and then the tiny cat next to the cat figurine it came in, to give you an idea of its size. (The figurine is only about 3-inches long at the most.)





The other tiny objects that caught my eye were these three tiny bears. I don't know where they came from, other than that my husband Steve acquired them somewhere (God rest his soul) and he said they represented our three sons. As I was photographing them, Socks became curious and thus I got the second photo of her with her face in the picture. That is fine because, again, it gives you some perspective as to the size of the bears. (And she is not a big cat.)





To find links to other bloggers participating in the Challenge so you can go see the tiny things they have featured, head on over to the Round Robin Photo Challenge site here. Have fun!

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- Variety ShowThis

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- Variety Show

This was a very fun Round Robin Photo Challenge for me, and easier than some, because I had a number of items that I could have used. I have a variety of counted cross-stitched items but a lot of them are put away in a trunk and I didn't know quite how I would display and photograph them. I have a few seashells from the Oregon coast and had intended to buy more while out there earlier this week but I didn't think of it while there, or go to the kinds of gift shops that carried them. My biggest collection of items consists of dolls I bought a number of years ago. They are in my spare room and not easy to access, but I was able to get several pictures of some of the dolls. I call them Emily's (my sole granddaughter's) inheritance. ;-) (But only if she wants them.)

The story of my doll collection is that I was hooked for a while on the Home Shopping Network about 10 years ago and they had a lot of dolls for sale. I had just lost my husband a couple of years before to leukemia and for some reason the pretty little doll faces and clothes appealed to me tremendously. I was told by someone who is qualified to know that I was acting out of grief. Now when I look at them, I kind of wonder why I bought them. I guess I have moved on. Anyway, here are pictures of the dolls. (You may want to click on them to see them bigger at my Flickr site.)







The one poor doll in the background of the last shot seems to be losing her hair.

At the time I bought the dolls, I also thought they might be valuable someday, and certainly that was a selling point on the HSN shows where they were sold. I don't even know if dolls are sold on that channel any more because I am unable to get it. I have kept the boxes the dolls came in, up in the loft in my garage, but I imagine they are homes for mice now. (I had heard that the dolls that retained the most value were those kept in mint condition, in the boxes they came in, but I always wanted to look at the dolls, thinking they were pretty, rather then leave them boxed.)

My attraction to the dolls may go back to my childhood, too, as I was a child who looked at the dolls I was given and admired their lovely features rather than played with them. My grandparents (Mom's parents) gave me a set of beautiful dolls of foreign lands that I kept up on a shelf in my bedroom. While I was outside playing, my sister, Jo, who is 4 years younger than me and preferred to play with dolls, got into all of my dolls, especially the foreign ones, and messed them up. My complaints to my mother fell on deaf ears. (Don't get me wrong; I love my sister dearly, and now that we are a lot older, I would gladly give her any of the dolls she wanted!) Maybe in buying these dolls as an adult, I was making up for that time in my childhood where I was unable to enjoy my pretty dolls in the way I preferred -- by looking at them and admiring them. But this amateur psychoanalysis is all speculation . . . although it does let you get to know me better. ;-)

As for the way this collection fits the theme, the variety of dolls here was fun. There is a Scottish lass, a little school girl with round glasses, plus there are many with varying old-fashioned styles of dresses and hats or head decorations. They all came with their own stands and so are arranged in no particular order on what was once a built-in train table for my husband's train set when he was growing up. Once when my mother was here and stayed in the room, she took one look at the doll set and her single word was, "Pretty!" And that's what they are -- a source of feminine beauty that somehow has brought me joy and satisfaction, and I think that's what I must have ultimately wanted from them.

To find links to the other participants in the Round Robin Photo Challenge and see what these ingenious bloggers have come up with, head on over to the site here.

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- Your One Perfect

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- Your One Perfect Scene Captioned

In thinking about this challenge, I first considered using a land- or seascape picture, but I couldn't think of a landscape shot that I would consider "my" perfect scene. I have seascape photos, as well, and they come closer to what my perfect scene might be. However, partly to be different and express my individuality, and in part because Socks was so cooperative in posing for this picture, not to mention that she and my other two cats are totally unique to me and my house, I decided to use the picture here:

















For those who don't know Socks' story, she and her two brothers were abandoned at my business out here in the country south of Portland, Oregon by her mother when they were 2 to 2 1/2 months old. Not long after we found these kittens, it worked out that Socks came to live with me. She turned out to be very much a rascal of a little girl, and she still has a lot of that mischievousness in her. With lots of love, though, and an attempt to try not to treat her in any way that she considers threatening, she has gentled way down and is a very sweet and loving cat about 95% of the time. Having her presence on this perch in my living room is heart-warming and makes me happy, so it is my one perfect scene. And the caption expresses what I think of her.

You will find links to the other participants in the Round Robin Photo Challenge here. They are always interesting, imaginative, and exceptionally creative! Enjoy!

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- First Signs of

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- First Signs of Spring

Where I live, in northwestern Oregon, the first signs of spring begin with the daffodil leaves and stems coming up, starting in mid-February. By the time I noticed them this year, around the first of March, the daffodils were starting to bloom. They are lovely, as the picture here shows:



The following is a photo of blossoms on a tree to the south of my driveway. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, as it bears fruit that reminds me of what a crabapple ought to look like but many years ago, when my mother- and father-in-law lived here and I lived down the road, I picked some of the fruit from this tree, thinking they WERE crabapples, and tried to make jelly out of them. My father-in-law chuckled royally about that and said that they most definitely were not crabapples. I can't remember what he said they were. But the blossoms are pretty! LOL!



Part of my lawn is covered with brown leaves, and in spots, little violet-like flowers are coming up through them, as below:



Just about my favorite sign of spring, though, is when the camellias planted on the north and south sides of my house come into bloom. It seems that those on the north side are blooming more profusely and earlier than those on the south side. The following pictures are of a group of camellia flowers from the north side of my house, and then a single blossom on the south side. (Regarding the spelling of camellia, I have looked it up and it can also be spelled "camelia", but my spell check seems to favor the spelling with the two "L's" in this post.) It's wonderful when the camellias bloom because I can see them from my kitchen window and that particular plant has grown so tall, reaching the top of the house, that I can see camellia flowers from my upstairs office window as well.





It has been known to snow in March in the past, and I once got a picture of my camellia flowers with snow on them, but I am thinking positive that this year, there will be no snow in March. ;-)

At the Round Robin Photo Challenge site, you will find links to other blogs participating in this challenge. Their entries are always creative and interesting!