according.to.kim

Oct 31: Thanksgiving

I'm thankful to be able to use my camera to capture the beauty of the seasons as well as moments like these with my children.

With that, Picture Fall comes to a close. I really enjoyed celebrating fall through photography. As with Picture Spring and Picture Summer, my eyes were opened to many things that typically go unoticed in the hustle and bustle of daily life. And, holy cow, was there ever some bustle in our October! It was pretty tough to follow the photo prompt some days.

P.S. It was a lovely night for trick-or-treating! The girls had a ball going out with three of their friends. Mine were dressed as a Spider Queen (Madeline), Fancy Nancy (Georgia), and Spaghetti & Meatballs (Sophia).

Oct 30: Fantasyland

This is a small part of a local sculpture (with a bit of frost). A more obvious choice for this prompt would be one of my children dressed up in costume, but since they were all dressed up yesterday for school and will dress up again tomorrow, I don't really feel like doing that today!

Oct 29: Sweet relief

My kids didn't get enough of my favourite candy in their bags last year (almost none!), so this year, I took matters into my own hands. We will be handing out most of it, though!

Oct 28: The great pumpkin

Good thing I took this picture of our pumpkin a couple weeks ago because I wasn't home during daylight hours today, and though I had my camera with me all day, I didn't see anything resembling a pumpkin. Boo.

Oct 27: Leafy love

This photo was totally inspired by a couple of photos in the Picture Fall gallery, both of which included snow. After our winter storm, I was very tempted to look into my photo archives for today's prompt, but their snowy pictures made me realize I could take a new photo as well. (And I'm glad I did!)

Oct 26: Open heart, open mind

Today's prompt was to seek out some kind of openness. I just had a few minutes before eating supper and running off to my dance class (which ended up being canceled due to the blustery weather; first snowfall of the season), so I snapped a picture of my bowl -- open and ready for supper. :)

Oct 25: Fall colours

I managed to get a couple nice shots of leaves today (our cotoneaster hedges are quite red now), but decided to go with some crafts my girls brought home from school recently. Madeline made the corn cobs, Sophia the leaf rubbings in the middle, and Georgia the tissue-paper leaf craft. (Also, I included a couple leaf leis that Sophia and Madeline made three years ago in Sparks.)

Oct 24: Family matters

We take most of our family photos just as we are (no planned clothing) using the self-timer (or remote), but today I was able to ask my sister-in-law to snap a photo of us on her doorstep. For fun, I applied the PW Seventies action in PSE.

Oct 23: The rhythm of repetition

I took my children to a Halloween party at a farm today and couldn't resist taking a few photos of the century-old house. Oodles of repetition to be seen on the farm!

Oct 22: Darks and lights

I tried to find something with an interesting silhouette and it was challenging in my neighbourhood. Found this clothesline in my back alley. I adjusted the colour, adding a bit more blue.

Oct 21: Serving up kindness

Thursdays are tough; 12 hours away from home and little opportunity to serve, let alone take a nice picture of it. Oh well. Luckily, Madeline reminded me (between piano and dance this evening) that she needed dessert for the school lunch tomorrow. I did have this task on the calendar but it wasn't top of mind today. I went to get ingredients during Madeline's dance class and then made my specialty, Rice Krispies squares, as soon as we got home. I don't usually add sprinkles, so that was special for today and the girls were delighted. For a touch of kindness, it'll have to do!

Oct 20: Connections

Connections between a dog and his master, and between obedience and reward. Neil has been spending a lot of time this month working with Dash, training him to heel, sit, stay, lay down, shake left, shake right, bow, crawl, and (most importantly) not bark at people.

Oct 19: Scattered

Kids are pro scatterers! I couldn't have scattered anything this well. :) This is exactly how I found our dining room table when I got home from work today. Barely enough light to take a decent photo, but using ISO 1600 and a colour tweak in PSE helped. Georgia has been painting up a storm lately, but I believe all of these are the work of Madeline (concentric circles) and Sophia (all others, I think).

P.S. I have since learned that these paintings were created by Sophia, Madeline, and Georgia (left to right), and the little boy who spends a few days a month at our house (the one with the paintbrush on it).

Oct 18: Muse

Besides my three daughters (whom I had no opportunity to photograph today; not all together, anyway), the beauty of nature is my muse. This interesting plant just showed up in our yard, in mid-October no less, and I've never seen it before! Nature never ceases to amaze me.

Oct 17: Bounty

I took this picture three weeks ago. I would have preferred to take a new photo today with the prompt in mind, but decided to cut myself some slack. A literal interpretation (like this one) was out of the question today since our own garden harvest was finished weeks ago and grocery shopping was not on the agenda. And a more creative interpretation would have taken more time and brain cells than I could devote to it. Could I have used a photo of Sophia playing ringette and called it a bounty (or abundance) of energy? Perhaps. But I'm happy with my choice anyway. After all, it does represent this year's (meagre) bounty and I did take this photo in the fall. Besides, I'll use that photo of Sophia on my October daily layout!

Oct 16: Juxtaposition

Shasta daisy in two stages at the same time. I've had this patch of daisies for several years, but never really noticed how long it keeps producing new flowers.

Oct 15: Mid-month message

A good message for me, in the midst of a hectic month.

Oct 14: Unexpected enchantment

10 p.m. and I've had no opportunity for enchantment all day. Sitting at my computer, I spot this tiara -- recently purchased for my daughter to be Fancy Nancy on Halloween -- sparkling in the light of the desk lamp.

Oct 13: Good day sunshine!

I was trying to get a picture of just the pumpkin, but how could I resist this one?

Oct 12: Take some time out

Some days, reading a book on my bus ride to and from work is the only time I have to myself -- at least until after the kids go to bed. I'm still reading The Happiness Project. It takes me a long time to read a book when I only read for 10 minutes here and there! I don't mind, though; I love this book, so I'm in no rush to finish it. Reading a good book on the bus is definitely something that makes me happy. :)