Kate's Team was a Success!!!

The Relay for Life this year was a big success! Although I didn't walk as much as I would have wanted to I made it through the whole night! It had gotten really cold! It was fun to sit and enjoy the DJ's activities.
Kate's team ended up raising over $19,200 by the end of the relay and over all the event pulled in over $132,000!!! Way to go!

Here's our team photo. Unfortunately there is a little sun glare.












Here's the mural I painted in memory of Kate that hangs at the animal hospital and is brought to the walk every year.

























Here's our team lining up for our first lap.









We lit up our Luminaries at 10 pm.
No words can describe this ceremony.

Grayslake Relay for Life

One week left until the Grayslake Relay for Life!!! It starts at 6pm Saturday July 26th and we walk all night long until 6am!!! I'm going to wear a pedometer this year to see how many miles I walk through out the night. Come visit my personal page.
Last year Kate's Team was the Diamond Team raising over $20,000!!! I hope we raise that much this year!
I also have a few awareness jewelry items available at Sparkle n Stone.


Relay for Life 2007

Photo Challenge #2

This weeks challenge is close up photography. This is actually my favorite style. Our subjects this week are nature (also my favorite), water and patriotic. For this I want my subject to be in sharp focus with a blurry background so there are no distractions. A tip is to take as many pictures as possible! Just keep shooting! Especially moving targets. Don't stop to check the pictures. Even though it looks good on the screen doesn't mean it came out sharp!

Nature:

This picture was actually taken out my back window. I noticed the dragonfly so I went and grabbed my camera.

Tip:
Always keep you camera handy!!!







This shot was taken in our tree out in the front yard. We have goldfinches all over! I love taking pictures of them whenever I can!










Patriotic:


My neighbor, who is in the Navy, just put up a beautiful flagpole. I thought it would be perfect for my patriotic shot!





















It is common to plant red, white and blue "purple" petunias to
celebrate the 4th of July!














Water:


This is a geranium right after watering the flower beds.












This shot was just taken the other morning. I still hadn't gotten a second water shot but I woke up and found that the back door had water spots with the storm clouds in the distance so I grabbed the camera. The trick was focusing on just the water droplets! That was a challenge!!





Bonus: Fireworks




This shot was actually taken a couple of years ago. I didn't get a chance to take firework shots this years so I posted this one. It's actually my all time favorite shot.

Tip: I played around with the exposure at the time. Make sure to use a tripod and the delay. I had my camera set on a 2 second delay and I timed it to push the button as soon as I heard the firework deploy. If I remember correctly I think it was a one second exposure.









Here's another one I picked. I have hundreds of firework pics but some just stand out more than others!



Thanks for looking!!!

Forged Silver Wire Rings!

I've just started to use a torch and here are a couple of new rings I've created. They are hand forged using 12 gauge .999 pure silver wire. I've needed to anneal the wire a few times because it hardens as I hammer and work with it. It's a lot of fun using the torch so I've decided to start fusing silver wire rings. It's not as time consuming and has less steps than soldering which is great for me! The less steps the better!


This is my first ring. What's nice about this design is that it's adjustable to a degree!










The second ring was my attempt to make a snake. I think it turned out pretty well. Looks like "Grover" our pet snake!