kris mcneil photography

Today I finished my January video for Xanthe Berekely’s Year of Time Capsules project. I’m going to shoot for one video per month. If I get inspired and manage more than that – bonus!!

It was such a cold icky day, getting out to shoot was the only cure. The light was amazing. The wind however, not so much. It was quite a trip trying to hold an umbrella and shoot. I wrapped my camera in a big Ziploc bag to help protect it as well. I’m sure anyone who saw me thought me insane.

winter rain

little bud

That’s the sound of me dusting off this blog. SO many changes coming this year as both my boys will be leaving home. One next week and one in the fall. Mama will have more time to focus – literally and figuratively.

I’m plugged into a few year long projects for 2015, so hopefully I’ll be better about finishing what. One is Kim Klassen’s Studio which is a collaborative place for artists to post. The other is Xanthe Berkeley’s Year of Creating Time Capsules. There will be other little project here and there, so I’ll try to be better about posting them up. My poor Flickr has been sadly neglected as well. Time to clean house and do some updating.

I’ve been struggling to find the right “one word” for 2015. It may have to be “edit”. So much to clean up and process. I so admire moms who can do it all. Alas, I’m not as good at that as I used to be, but at least no one has to worry about my empty nester time!

See you soon. XO

So I went out of town for a few days last week and when I returned I had four new cards waiting for me from Kat Sloma’s postcard swap! Woohoo! That makes the full six for the swap. The first time I did this, only four cards made it to my house. You can read about the cards I sent in to share here and about the first two cards I received here.

My last batch was such a mixed bag of goodies. The first came all the way from Mary Jane in Brisbane, Australia. Since I had just returned from a few days in San Diego, this one of the “Surf Lifesavers” really made me smile. I guess even lifeguards (as we call them in The States) like to enjoy the ocean view as well. At least, I’d like to think they’re enjoying the view and not deciding if someone needs rescuing. Ack. I really love the inclusion of the flag as well.

Another card was from Ariel Sublett who is from Las Vegas. The detail and thought in her art is just lovely. Her card is faith based and she states on the back that she “used the 7th principle of the Unitarian universalism as inspiration: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” The quote from Francis David on the back is so lovely. “We need not think alike to love alike.” Amen to that, Ariel!

Card Three is titled “Ominous” and came from Marcia Hill in Vermont. Her handmade card is a real photo on cardstock. What a treat! Just beautiful. A cool thing about this card was that it was postmarked from the National Postal Museum Station at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Thanks, Kat! That was brilliant of you. And thank you to whomever mailed them all from there. That was no small job, I’m sure.

And lastly, I received the lovely “Layered Autumn” from our most generous host, Kat Sloma.

All six!

Thank you, Kat for your time, talent and organization skills beyond compare. This has been so much fun. Thanks for inspiring us to get our work into a sharable format. Being a photographer, it’s always such a treat to connect with other artists who work in other mediums. I’m always so impressed with the work that people share. Click below to blog hop to other artists who participated. There is a lot more art to see. See you all next year!!