This is where I’d put a clever compliment/complement joke if I could think of one

cwheelThis week’s 52frames theme was Complementary Colors, meaning the photo was meant to contain hues that are opposites on the color wheel. I was up to my eyeballs in old wallpaper last week, it was gray and rainy, and Rockford was still out of town. I am not going to pretend that I didn’t phone it in this week.

I noticed that the lilies Rockford had ordered for me had a little bit of burgundy in them that matched perfectly with their green leaves, so I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures and called it a day.

52frames, week 4: complementary colors "Tabletop lily"
52frames, week 4: complementary colors
“Rockford was in Japan and all I got were some lilies. (And chocolates and an Oregon Trail print. He’s a good husband.)”

This week’s theme has me a little stumped. I’m going to have to go outside to find my subject, but it’s supposed to be cold and rainy all this week, too! I may just have to grab an umbrella and — in the immortal words of Tim Gunn — make it work.

In which we wage battle against some old wallpaper

Rockford got home from a 12-day overseas trip late Thursday night, and I greeted him with hugs and a completed house project. We’ve been talking about taking down the wallpaper in both bathrooms and repainting — one of many projects we planned to do when we moved in and have yet to start — and I figured I could get one of them done while he was gone. I told him that I was working on a surprise for him; he thought I was making a scrapbook. I’m not known for my DIY prowess. I spent the better part of five evenings on a ladder, but I got it done. I was pretty pleased with myself.

We started on the second bathroom this weekend, and so far it’s been a lot more work. There’s more wallpaper, for one thing, and from what we can tell it was applied straight to the drywall with no primer so it’s been a bit of a beast to remove. I’m hoping we’ll have it done by the end of the week.

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week!

Monday: BLAs
The good bacon was on sale!

Tuesday: Chicken enchilada casserole
I was going to make this tonight, but I forgot the chicken and it’s cold outside and warm in here and I don’t want to go out.

Wednesday: Meaty macaroni
Pete requested this. It’s a Velveeta boxed thing.

Thursday: Pizza subs
And Poppy requested this!

I’m linking this up with OrgJunkie.com’s weekly Menu Plan Monday thing.

Line ’em up

Last week’s 52 Frames challenge was Lines. At first I thought the goal was just going to be to take a picture of some lines, but then I read the very helpful weekly email and discovered that it was actually more about composing the photo with a “leading line” to guide the viewers eye to something. “How to use leading lines for better compositions” at Digital Photography School and Eric Kim’s “Street Photography Lesson #4: Leading Lines” both offer sound advice, and Mashable’s “16 Perfectly Composed Leading Lines Photos” has, as the title suggests, some strong examples to study.

It was very gray and rainy here all last week, and I only made one attempt to get my Lines picture between Sunday and Wednesday. On Thursday, though, the kids had a couple of classes downtown. It was still cold and gray out, but I used the time to walk about downtown in search of a good photo.

52Frames week 3: Lines. “Arcade"
52Frames week 3: Lines.
“Arcade”

I think it would’ve been stronger if I’d had a model to pose at the end of the photo, but I’m pretty pleased with the result event without a defined focal point.