Tam’s Think Tank

The Gallery, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I donated three photographs to the auction hoping to get them some cash. They ended up going for about $170 total. Not bad. Please ignore the creepy reflection of the woman in picture one, looking from left to right. I don’t know her.

Riles, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Riley looks hilarious in this one. I took it yesterday, or maybe the day before, when I was running around the house snapping photos of the dogs. She gets all wiggly when you try to pet her. She’s so excited she just can’t stay still. It’s cute. Makes it hard to pet her, but you have to try… I mean come on, look at that face.

Drying The Brushes, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

The theme for this week’s Photo Hunt is hands. I looked through the ol’ archives and found this one, taken in December, 2008, with my iPhone camera. We were working on our most recent rental project and this is the clean the paint out of the brush technique that seemed to work best. I used a funky camera setting with the phone to get this shot. I kind of like it.

If you’d like to play along and join the hunt CLICK HERE for details.

Amani Shot, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Well folks, this is the winner. This is the shot, taken by me, and picked by a local child abuse assessment center for the cover of their mock ball invitation. A great concept if you ask me… the whole mock ball thing. Send invites, don’t have a ball, all monies go toward the center. No dressing up, no having to rent a tux, or buy a dress. Just donate to a great cause.  If you’d like more info or to know how to volunteer for this great center or donate CLICK HERE .

Inside 11th, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Another shot pre-dating the remodel.

Hawthorne, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

This week’s hunt is all about bridges. I have taken, recently, to walking along the Eastbank Esplanade, downtown Portland, Oregon. It’s a great place to take the dogs for a walk. One of Portland’s nicknames is bridgetown. 10 bridges cross the Willamette and Columbia Rivers within city limits. Pretty impressive. The Hawthorne, pictured here, is one of my favorites.

I haven’t been in the hunt for awhile now. Too busy with life stuff I guess to be at the computer much more than to just load photos onto flickr, blog a word or two, and then get up to do other things. In the interim I’ve been through the holidays, had three feet of snow at the house, had no power during those times on three separate occasions… the last time it took the power guys 5 days to fix it and that was because they couldn’t get up the road until the snow plows made it out here. I live in the woods, it took them awhile, but actually it was faster than I thought it might be. I’ve also finished work on the rental project we were up to. It’s our second. It was a bear. Much more work than expected. Means that since October I’ve basically had two jobs. My day job, and then the night and weekend job of painting and mudding and taping and hammering and the like. It’s over now. Woo Hoo! And it’s rented. Now, thanks goodness, it’s sort of life returning to normal… LOL Whatever that is.

If you’d like to join in all the fun by posting the weekly photo for the hunt, CLICK HERE for all the details.

Mr. Winter’s Remains, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

We must say a fond farewell to Mr. Winter, the snowman that Martin built while the kids were visiting over the holidays. These few items are all that remain of poor Mr. Winter, who went through so much during his short tenure. Let’s have a moment of silence for him. …. thanks. So long big guy…

The Ring, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks I don’t think I posted a picture of Mary’s engagement ring. So, without further ado… introducing… Mary’s engagement ring. They did well picking it out. It’s beautiful.

It’s a Boy, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Last night we hosted a baby shower for Josh and Lindsay, a guy I work with and his wife, who are expecting their first child. It’s a boy… as you can probably guess. We had a great time with everyone, I hope they did! Nothing better than good food, good company, and presents.

Today’s theme for the hunt is wooden. I was looking through some of my photos and came across this one taken in October 2007 of the bay front in Newport, Oregon. Great wooden benches, railings, and boardwalk there, not to mention the big wooden boat in the background and the huge mural painted on the side of the wooden fish processing plant (or whatever you call it).

If you want to join in the hunt, go to tnchick to get all the info, and start snapping those shots!

Life Jackets, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I’m posting a tad early for the photo hunt. The theme for the week… important. I looked through the ol’ archives and came up with this one I took February 2007 on a cruise ship. Nothing seems more important when you’re on a big big boat than knowing where the life rafts and the life vests can be found. Luckily we didn’t have to use them, but it was important to me to know where they were!

If you want to join the fun, check out the photo hunt site and play along.

As some of you know I have a couple of other websites out there. One is a photo blog, image – ination, where I’m posting a picture a day for a year. Another is my flickr photos page. The moral of the story here, I like to take pictures. Anyway… a couple of days ago I submitted a couple of pictures to the Sierra Club’s Daily Ray of Hope photo pool in the flickr community. It’s the pool they select their photos from for their daily email newsletter, The Daily Ray of Hope. To make a long story longer… I got the email included here from them a couple of days ago… to which I say… WOO HOO! How exciting!! I’m going to be published. Yes! This is not a huge thing, in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it is. It’s a first for me and it feels great.

Sweet Onion and Fontina Chicken

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

Today’s photo hunt theme: delicious.

This is sweet onion and fontina chicken. We’ve been experimenting with cooking new recipes we find. This one was a big success. Very delicious indeed.

IMG_8536

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

Fire Starters

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

Christmas day was pretty grand all in all. A lovely relaxed morning opening our gifts to and from each other, a really nice phone call with Mary and Martin, the advent of snow falling (something that hasn’t happened here for a long long time), and then a great dinner at Mom and Don’s complete with great company provided by mom, Don, Phil, Steph, Maggie, Molly, Shelley, Nate, and Luke. It was a very good day.

This picture, if you’re wondering, is one of Phillip’s presents from Don. They are fire starters. A little lint, a little wax, and some egg carton and I guess you’re good to go. Who knew?

IMG_7516.jpg

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

I’ve been playing around with the Aperture program and, obviously, haven’t quite figured it all out. I will, but even still… I liked how this came out. Strange, yet cool somehow. Or maybe that’s just the color of it that makes it seem cool. Hmmmm…

The End of His Rope

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

So I ran across this site, while I was clicking around on the net today, called PhotoHunt What it’s about is this… there’s a theme every Saturday and if you want to play you post a picture that relates to that theme. There are rules, but not many. If you’re interested, click on the link above and check it, and the rules, out.

This week’s theme (it’s supposed to be tomorrow, but I went ahead and posted today) is long. I went with a long leash on this one.

OK readers… I’ve gone and done something some of you will consider wacky. What is this crazy thing you ask? Simply… I’ve created another blog.

The reason I’ve gone and done this crazy thing is because I wanted to try something. I wanted to see if I could post a new photograph every day for a year, starting January 1, 2008. A sort of photographic record of a year in my life.  I thought, he… this will be interesting to do, fun to look back on, and it will force me to get into the habit of taking my camera everywhere I go.  In order to make it simple, keep it it’s own entity, I decided this little project needed a place of it’s own. Hence the creation of the new blog.

Every day, for a year, I’ll be posting a new picture. I’ve actually started posting already, one yesterday and one today, just using photos I’ve already taken, stuff I really like. There won’t be much commentary, if any, just a photograph. No special subject matter constraints either, so one never knows what one might see there (other than definitely no nudity or anything profane). Go and check it out… the site is called image-ination. Just click the link and you’ll be there. I’ve also put a link to it under the LiFe section on the right of this blog.

As I said… check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll start posting the new pictures January 1.  And remember… there’s a picture waiting to be taken everywhere you look.

November Drive Home

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

The strange picture taking continues. This one done with my phone camera as I was driving home. The white dot in the center is the crescent moon… not exactly clear in this shot and yet, I like it.

truck.jpg

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

I’ve recently been trying to add all the pictures from my laptop to flickr. In doing so I’ve run across some cool and some strange photos. This particular one is a favorite of mine… I took it with the camera on my phone while I was driving over Cornelius Pass (those familiar with the Portland are will know what’s often referred to as Corn Pass). There’s something about it… the light, the sky, the way the truck looks against it. I love this one.

I’ve created a few sets at my flickr site, the newest of which is called Quirky. This shot definitely fits. You can find all my photos at flickr by scrolling down my page and clicking on the flickr strip you’ll see there… or you can just click on any one of the photos on my blog and you’ll be whisked there as well.

I was just perusing my spam comment pages, just to make sure there wasn’t an actual comment I wanted to allow, and what do you know… there was one. Somehow Martin’s comment on my Amazing Photos post got stuck in the spam filter. I’m glad I looked first instead of just deleting as I normally do. In his comment was a link to another fantastic photo page on Flickr called Lost America. The same guy also has a website called Lost America that’s equally amazing. I recommend it highly. The shots there are unique and very cool. Check either or both out by using the links and enjoy! And hey, thanks Martin for finding it and sharing. Cheers!

Creepy Zombie

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

Phillip in costume. He’s hanging with a tough crowd.

Goblin

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

Watch out, this guy moves. I know for a fact, since it’s Nate, and I saw it happen. He also takes a sip of beer once in a while.