I’m not even sure what to say about this shot, other than it turned out a hell of a lot better than I thought it would and I love it.

I had done some pictures earlier in the evening but I wasn’t happy with them so I decided to do a shot of this deer skull that my daughter, who was seven at the time, was particularly insistent that we bring home from a trip we had in central Utah. Lora, one my dearest friends, of course wholeheartedly supported the idea of hauling a dried up carcass in the back of my car (not hers) and Hot Pants, my hubby, agreed.

I can’t remember if finding the skull was before Lora shot the rattlesnake or after but it certainly was before one of my most memorable “Ambien” moments around the campfire that evening. Lora later remarked to her son, “Let that be lesson to never get sauced, especially in front of your friends.” Really, the comment was entirely unnecessary. I think my behavior was a fabulous deterrent for any young impressionable twelve year old. Tyler, her son now sixteen, will still to this day shake his head, smile,  and ask, “Remember that time you got high?”

Prescription RX sometimes don’t kick in like you think they will and I think the fact I took another one (it was cold, we were camping, there was a strange man who camped nearby) but still stayed awake added to…let’s just say a fun filled night that fortunately both my children were asleep for. Lora does occasionally remark, “Oh, you’d be such a fun drunk. ” I think my Ambien moments more than compensate for the fact that I don’t drink. Anyway, we brought the deer skull home and for the last four years I’ve been wanting to snap some type of picture of it. So I did last night…before the Ambien.

Here’s what so funny (at least to me).  All I did is one run one of my fancy actions, Powder Puff (named for all those football games just for girls) and wow-ie-wow! Look how freakin’ hot it looks, I LOVE it! Actions like these are designed to run in Elements and Photoshop and are perfect those who do blogging of any type.  Check out my store for more like it!

I’m updating my products and will be releasing new packages soon!

I would really rather skip my birthday. It just seems such a let down after the holidays, growing up it always felt like…”oh yeah, happy b-day”.. not even a full b-day mind you, just a half. I never enter my correct birthday on the internet, don’t have it posted it on Facebook, and always give vague responses when people ask, I mean does it really matter? The main downside to this is that I have 10 Flickr accounts which at this point, I can’t access because I can’t quite remember what birthday I did enter. When my husband asks me what do I want for your birthday this year, I always answer “Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

So when I opened the bright pink Snuggie this year for my birthday and we sat down for tuna casserole , I decided maybe it did matter.  After all, 2009 was positively absolutely the most difficult year on record for our little family and I have no desire to repeat such a year. The 20 pounds I found this year seemed to be sitting more heavily than usual and the smell of the tuna and the yellow color of the macaroni gave me strong memories of my last trip to the city dump. Somehow this is not quite what I’ve envisioned my life to be at age 40.

So how do I stay motivated to make changes? I could write a huge list of goals I most likely would never achieve (for  I found that I truly do already excel in that area). This time around, I’m taking a new tack, as we sailors like to say (I’m not really a sailor, but I truly do have a vivid imagination). What if I had only 365 days to make things matter? So thus the idea for the 365 Project.   One photo everyday for 365 days to document the changes I’d like to make in my life, 365 days to making my life “matter”. I’m the champion of unfinished projects so I give myself about a 5% chance of finishing such a project. But the idea of having to report somewhere (here) to someone (you) may make my list of goals a little less daunting (at least for now).