Practice, Practice, Practice...52 Week Project - Weeks 1&2

As with anything worth doing, one must practice, practice, practice in order to become proficient. With that idea in mind, I have, over the years, wanted to become a figure skater, a musician, a painter, and a photographer. When I was little I lived in State College, Pennsylvania - a great place to grow up, by the way. My dad worked at Penn State University as a professor of soil fertility. Penn State had a skating rink and I took figure skating lessons there and had lots of fun doing jelly-rolls, skating backward, and in circles...but never, ever was I brave enough to do jumps more than a couple of inches off the ice. My dream of being a figure skater was relegated to my imagination...and over the years that has been O.K.

On to being a musician. I took piano lessons from the time I was in 3rd grade until 7th grade. Miss Margareta Way was a strict disciplinarian and I was, unfortunately, not a strictly disciplined student of the piano. I was terrified of recitals and always played poorly when I had to perform in front of so many pairs of eyes as I knew they watched my fingers tremble and fumble on the piano keys. OK, I'm not the greatest piano player to be sure but I with practice I have improved over the years :) Now I play because I like to make music.

My other musical dream was to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I adore singing, especially with a good choir director!! My grandfather, John David Bowers, sang tenor in the choir during the late 1890's; my mother, Mildred Bowers Hunter sang alto in the choir during the 1930's. I sang in my high school's acappella choir, but my family circumstances and location never afforded me the opportunity to even audition for the MoTab....so that dream died a slow and melancholy death...only to rise again in a different form through our son, Josh, who DID get to audition and now sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir every week.

ART. How I love paintings - Realism, Impressionism, the Old Masters. As I grew up I found that I could draw fairly well and I know that IF I were to practice, practice, practice, I could even become good at drawing with paint. The creation of a painting, for me, takes time, concentration, and a deep thought process. This dream will have to wait...

For now it's...photography...no waiting for film to get developed these days. Digital Photography has opened up a whole new world and a photograph can be as beautiful as an oil painting. It can capture a personality, a feeling, beauty, reality. This is the dream I intend to chase during 2011. Thanks to Brooke Snow's photography class, I understand the technicalities of shooting pictures in manual mode with my Nikon D-50. Just like any other thing worth doing well, it takes practice, practice, practice. So, in order to get myself into practice mode, I'm going to take on a 52 week project - thank you Handbag-Obsessed Blogger for your list!


I'm a few weeks behind so will catch up this week!

Week 1: Black and White

Big sister, Eden, holds her little brother, Hunter

Week 2: Food


My friend, Melissa Grover, makes the most delicious and beautiful gourmet cupcakes. These were served at a Women's Conference to almost 200 very appreciative women!