Christmas Tour of Home 2012

I haven't posted in months, but I can't resist the Annual Christmas Tour of Homes!

We got a new tree (to us at least) and I went to town decorating in blues and teals. It was a blast! I also bought a tree skirt this fall and I love how soft and fluffy it is!

I love this Nativity, and I switch around it's location each year. This year, it's on the coffee table :)

I got a second Nativity and it is darling! I also snagged this little tree at Walmart for 75 cents or so.

Last year, the place I had the stockings hanging from was a bit hazardous, and this shelf is much more secure.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out the other lovely homes at Kelly's blog!

Note: Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I will be posting much in the near future....life is still busy, especially since it is Christmas time at work, but things might slow down for me in the remaining winter months. Maybe. Either way...thanks for your patience!

Alaskan Landscapes 2013 Calendar!

 I am offering my first calendar for sale! Featuring landscape images I have taken around Alaska, "Alaskan Landscapes 2013" is available for preorder now! Calendars make excellent Christmas gifts! Photos below of the images and the month they correspond with!

Calendars are $25 each. They are 11" by 8.5" and printed on high quality paper, thicker than many other calendars out there.

I will only be making one bulk order of these, so when they are gone, they are gone! I will have a few extras on hand but if you want one or more, don't wait!

Preorder cutoff is October 20. I will require payment before shipment to you. A flat $5 shipping and handling charge is required if you are out of the Homer area, regardless of how many calendars are ordered. I plan to have the calendars shipped or delivered by mid November.

Payment is not required at time of ordering. I accept cash, check or Paypal. Email me at michelle@michellesimpsonphotos.com to let me know how many you are interested in purchasing, as well as your address if you want them shipped!

Thank you in advance!

 January

 February

 March

 April

 May

 June

 July

 August

 September

 October

 November

December

Back Online and Indefinite Hiatus

I want to apologize again for the upheaval on my website and blog...it's taken me nearly a month to get the website back online. Google was incredibly unhelpful, and I finally got my hosting service to cooperate with me, but I think it is back to the way it should be.

Unfortunately, I am back to Blogger. Less headache, but also less professional. I ended up taking drastic measures...and it looks like all of the photos on this blog are gone. :( I have not decided quite yet what to do on that front. It will be a ton of work to go back and add in the thousands of images back into the posts where they belong. And, at this point, I'm not sure that I care (gasp!) due to being so sick of dealing with the drama.

I changed my homepage around drastically, and for the current time, my site will only be a hub to other locations around the web - Facebook, twitter, etc. I did a lot of thinking while the site was down, and basically came to the conclusion that blogging is really important to the growth of a business, but I don't have the energy or time to devote to it, and I don't see that changing in the future. I have enjoyed blogging, but I am not good at it. I've come to the realization in the past year or so that I am not a writer. I often (several times a day) think, "Oh, I want to blog about that!" and then it never happens right then, and so when it does, I am much more brief that what I envisioned. I've discovered that Twitter is a better outlet for my random thoughts, and it encourages the brevity that I seem to fall back to when I start writing.

What is this all saying? Well...don't delete the blog from your feed readers or your links, but I am going to take an indefinite hiatus at this time. I plan to invest more time in social networking than I have been. My summer schedule is slowing down and easing back into my fall/winter one where I have a bit more time. I might blog from time to time, but at this time, I am removing the pressure on my shoulders to have a post going up consistently. I feel like the quality was rarely where I wanted it to be, and I would rather invest my energy in other media at this time.

I will continue to take photos!!! I will just be sharing them on other places around the web, links on the sidebar to the right!

Thanks for your understanding and support!

Seaweed Scene

Pink Peaks

Lupine on the Spit

It took me a couple days of getting the timing down, but I made it to this location for the optimal sunset light, on the lupine and the mountains a few weeks back, and I'm so glad I did.

Arrow Across the Sky

Patience at sunset sometimes pays off in excellent ways. It's a bit hard to see at this size, but the clouds are pointing directly in a V formation at Augustine Volcano.

Pink Hints of Promise

Whenever I go to Mariner Park off of the Spit, I always glance at this gazebo and smile. I've spent lots of time in it with friends and with C, but the most meaningful time (of course!) was when C proposed to me there. I love to take photos of it now, so long as the background is interesting. It's fun to view and explore, and combined with a vibrant sky...I love it!

Back in Action

I want to apologize to those who attempted to visit my website and blog in the past week. I had an attack of malware, and my hosting company and Google were incredibly unhelpful in helping me fix the problem. I'm still not out of the woods yet, but hopefully getting there. I took down my Wordpress blog and reverted back to old blogger for the moment. Still figuring out what I am going to do next, so thank you for your patience!

One of Many

It's hard to decide on a Buttercup to focus on when there are many, because nearly every one is perfect! Most look very similar, so it really comes down to finding the perfect composition!

Lupine Frame

I love seeing all the elements of the Alaskan landscape lit up in the gorgeous sunset light. I often find myself trying to combine many different elements to see if I can find a satisfactory result, and  sometimes, it comes together like I envision. Here, the lupine is glowing from the late evening sunshine, and framing the mountains off of the Homer Spit.

Field of Buttercups

Buttercups are such cheerful flowers, especially when they are in abundance!

Family In Town

This week, my dad's cousin and her husband drove into town for a visit. They have been on the road for over 30 days (!!) with an RV caravan touring Alaska. Many of my extended family I have met several times, but know little of. These cousins I know a liiiitle more than others. I've stayed at their home a couple times, and seen them a couple more times at reunions. Nice to have them in our territory, finally!

They are at the end of their tour, at the end of the road, haha, and they aren't sure what they will be doing next, whether staying or heading home.

Last night, they drove into town, and C and I met up with them and Mom and Dad for a late dinner of pizza. I didn't take any photos (shocker!) because I was counting on tonight.

They had glorious sunshine today and enjoyed it thoroughly, exploring the area with my parents all day. We met for an even later dinner tonight, at good ole, original Subway. While we were there, my nephew showed up, so we chatted with him (got to love small towns) and we enjoyed another dinner together. We said goodbye for now, but if they stick around town, we'll enjoy some more time with them, hopefully!

Too Much Excitement for Small Town Alaska

Today, it was very hazy outside, I assume from smoke. I stepped outside and was shocked at how warm it felt. It was over 60F, and it felt...muggy. It was an odd weather pattern for Homer. It stayed warm like that all day. When I checked the temperature at 7:30pm, it was almost 70, despite the cloudy skies.

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In other news, I am appalled today, at what has occurred in the past 24 hours. The shooting at the Dark Knight Rises showing is horrible. I feel so bad for the families of the victims and wounded. A thought that continued to cross my mind today was also..compassion for the shooter. I expect that is an uncommon reaction to this situation, but what on earth happened to the guy to convince him that what he did was a good idea? =/

And then, in Alaska this week, last week, we had a local man shot to death in his house, and I assume there are no suspects. On July 10, we had a float plane crash into Beluga Lake killing a woman on board. Then, this past Sunday, a lady drove erratically down the highway, and ended up in a shootout with a trooper, and the highway was closed for several hours. Today, a man kidnapped and carjacked an 18 year old in Anchorage, made the kid drive down the highway, and the kid ended up escaping and driving back to Anchorage, leaving the kidnapper there. The highway was on lockdown for a few hours and the kidnapper is still at large at this point in time.

What the heck is going on down here on my peaceful Peninsula?!

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Many evenings in the past several weeks have been spent watching Mases stream on Twitch. It is fun to watch him stream random old games and interact with the chat, including participants we enjoyed getting to know during our marathon. It's been a fun way to relax after a long day.

We went to the beach two nights ago with the youth group. It was lots of fun, and the weather was lovely down there! I love going to the beach when it is actually warm!

The week previous, I played volleyball for the first time in years, and from my first hit, it was a baaad idea. I hit the ball many times in over an hour and by the end, my arms were very red and they hurt quite badly. By the next morning, the blood rushing down my arms when they were below my heart was quite painful, they were still red and covered in small purple dots..apparently a common occurrence when playing volleyball after your arms are not used to it. Over a week later, the pain is pretty much completely gone, but I bruised pretty good in a few places. It looked bad :P

This past Tuesday was lovely. It was really warm (for here!) and the sun was shining! We ended up going to finally see Brave. It was a matinee showing and we arrived later than we planned, but there was only one family inside the theater with us at first....so we grabbed an open couch (yay!) and settled in. We enjoyed it, laughing throughout and crying at the end. I thought it was a bit much for young viewers. I was impressed that Disney actually had TWO parents for Merida, though the men were stereotypically silly. I'm glad we saw it :)

Welp, that's what's been on my mind lately :)

Ms. Robin

For the past several years, I have not seen many robins at all. Before I moved out, I saw many, but once I moved into my own place, they were few and far between. Last summer, after I moved to this house, I began to notice robins quite often, but I never had time when I saw them. In the meantime, they have been quite plentiful at my work. I often sit outside on my lunch break when the sun is shining, and one or two robins are often hopping along behind me, picking out lunch from the ground. I got lucky the other day and captured this one :)

Chicago 2012: June 13

[caption id="attachment_2880" align="aligncenter" width="433" caption="Making tacos"][/caption]

I believe I woke up around 8am or so Wednesday morning. C had stayed up all night playing his scheduled game, so I settled in to watch it for a while.

I went outside for a few minutes to wander around the garden and take some photos of the flowers. It was so wonderful to see some blooms, as most of the flowers back home were just barely getting started when we left.
C and I went for a Walmart run. I bought a $5 tank top to sleep in that was surprisingly nice, that I will wear again! Bought some cheap candy bars too, since they are way more expensive up here. The main reason for the trip was to buy food. C and I bought taco fixings, as well as ingredients to make a couple other dishes.
That afternoon, C and I made tacos for everyone. While we were upstairs, I heard a funny sound and realized it was the ice cream truck! Turns out the truck never comes down this street and we were lucky. I yelled for everyone and we all poured out of the house to buy ice cream. :) I expected the ice cream man to come back the next night but he didn't =/

[caption id="attachment_2884" align="aligncenter" width="433" caption="Ice cream!!!"][/caption]

So, we made tacos. And they were a big hit. However, one thing that we had not considered was how the food situation would go in general. When we had planned for this, I was thinking that 8 guys would be eating so much food. What we hadn't counted on was that everyone was laying around, not doing physical activity at all. I usually eat 4 - 5 small meals a day, and I was eating an average of 2..... So, it was unfortunate, but no one was eating much food, so we had lots of leftovers. We made another meal later in the week and it was the same way, sadly.
That evening, things became way more lively. We had several events planned for the evening and it just got more and more fun.

[caption id="attachment_2888" align="aligncenter" width="433" caption="Trevor, our fearless camera man!"][/caption]

Most people in the chat who had been watching were having fits about me not playing in any games. Some seemed to be quite vehement about it too, which I thought was strange. Once we met our next donation goal, we were going to play the Zelda board game, but only announced that we would be doing something special. We were waiting and waiting, and finally, I said, "if you donate, I will be play the next game!!" and the donations immediately went crazy - 3 or 4 75 dollar donations in like 2 minutes, and we met the deadline! It was hilarious! I ended up playing two rounds of the game and it was a fun experience, though the game itself was a bit mindless!
I mentioned in a previous post that Mases had a massive afro. He'd been growing it for months, and only right before the marathon did he decide to shave it. When we hit $2500 in donations, he had another guy shave it off on camera, while he was playing a game! The crowd in the chat loved it! It was fun to watch the transformation for sure. I helped finish it off and that's when we started the board game.

[caption id="attachment_2890" align="aligncenter" width="433" caption="Josh's Spongebob ice cream"][/caption]

C went to bed, since he had a lot less sleep than I had and he was out of it. I stayed up, and I'm glad that I did.

I'd been posting photo's to ZD's facebook page throughout the day, and one of the guys brought to our attention that fans had been making memes out of them! There were some really, really good and clever ones, so I shared them on FB and twitter and with everyone in the room. It was a hysterical time. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time and postponed going to bed because it was so fun. I think I went to bed at 2:30, and slept until 9:30.

[caption id="attachment_2892" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Tacos :)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2893" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="C looking a bit tired..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2894" align="aligncenter" width="433" caption="Mases, before the afro was shaved"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2895" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Finishing up the haircut"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2896" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Playing the board game"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2897" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="The board game"][/caption]