Day 15: Family Picture

Today, we took family portraits. Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was also the theme of today's art challenge. Yay for photo days! I love how goofy my kids are in this one.

(The camera was at an awful angle for me but not everyone else, so I let it go. No need to be vain. :P

Next time, we'll have it sitting up just a bit higher. )

Day 14: Fave Fairy Tale

I'm not a fan of fairy tales, especially not the modern, cleaned up Disney versions of them. Princesses make me gag, and I want to kick most Princes in the taint. They're filled with women who are either evil witches, twits, or seductive enchantresses. It's hard to find a solid, sensible female character in the lot of them. (In all fairness, it's hard to find a good character in them, period.)

I am however, a fan of modern fairy tales, particularly those written by Neil Gaiman. In my definition, a fairy tale is a story that is over the top and filled with fantasy, but has a lesson hidden at the core. It's usually obtained through a test or trial. Of his fantastical stories, Coraline and Star Dust are my favorites, but I chose Coraline for this challenge. I was disappointed that the movie version was softened and weakened a bit to put in a male filler character. The book version will always be first in my heart.

Day 13: Comic

I'm the mother of an almost-five-year-old boy. I do not make this stuff up. Hello there, life.

Day 12: Most Recent Accomplishment

It's a fairly small accomplishment, but I'm proud of it: I've gone 6 weeks without using a credit card for anything. (Getting out of debt is one of my 30 Before Thirty I'd like to accomplish.)

Day 11: Turning Point In Your Life

Boring, but true. I have never had anything come along that seriously changes my life and is a memorable event. Change has always happened over time for me.

Day 1O: Fave Candy

There are some who may find my love of Easter to be contradictory to my atheism. But honestly, any holiday that provides much chocolate and revolves around abundant fertility is A-OK by me. And with it comes some of my favorite candy ever: Cadbury Mini Eggs. NOM.

Day O9: Fave TV Show

If you are not sick of seeing the words, "I do not really have a favorite _____," yet, then today may not bother you too much. Because yet again, I do not really have a favorite show, so I chose my own criteria. I based today off of the type of show I'll watch no matter what and never seem to tire of: Do-it-yourself TV. I love shows on how to make stuff.

Day O8: Fave animated character

This one was a bit tricky. I love animated films more then just about anything, but I could not pick a single character to declare the one I love most of all. I chose to stick to a favorite character who has been featured in video games and her own campy TV show: Hello Kitty. (Among the hundreds of other things sporting her image, including "personal" massagers. LOVE her.)

Day O7: Favorite Movie

At first, I had a hard time choosing. I'm a movie snob, and I make no apologies for it. I'm very picky about my visual entertainment.

Then, it hit me: Amelie.

Day O6: Favorite Book

Hands down, this is my favorite story and my fascination started with it sometime when memories start to form and stick. Before I could read, I would page through the book and stare at the beautiful watercolors, making up my own story to go along. I own it both in English and the original French.

Day O5: Best Friend

This one was tough for me. Like the topics before, I have no singular answer to this challenge. I'm not the type to have just one bestest of friends; it's constantly changing depending on where I am and what I'm doing at the time.

Overall, The Mister is my best friend and has been for more then a decade--14 years, to be exact; exactly half of my life time. I credit this with the fact that our relationship has weathered some pretty stressful stuff including one deployment to date and trying to find our way through being adults with handling our money. It's hard to keep a relationship together if it didn't have a strong friendship based foundation to begin with.

My longest term best friend is named Katie. (But not the one blogging with me and taking this challenge as well. :] ) We've been friends since we were 5 years old, though in recent years, we've grown apart a bit. She's basically my "other sister."

My sister and I are also quite close and enjoy each other's company. I consider her another best friend of mine.

But at the end of the day? I have to be my own best friend. My life style leads to a lot of solo time (plus many more deployments in the future) and if I do not love me most of all...well, it makes things rough. I have to be able to depend on me because I really have no one else. I have a difficult time making friends and forming bonds with others--when they do form though, they're pretty deep. I'm OK with this for the most part, even if I do get lonely at times.

I have more conversations/correspondence with myself then anyone else. We spend a lot of time together, my mind and I. We're always there for each other and working through things. Perhaps I'm a bit odd. Maybe it's narcissistic, but I chose me.

Day O4: A Favorite Place

I'm a little behind on the challenge, but I'll try to catch up. Today, I was a bit "lazy" and took a photo with the Retro Camera application on my Android. I used the "Little Orange Box" camera.

This is a corner of my bedroom and one of the places I'll retreat to when I need a break from my kids and other things. I often read, journal, and knit/crochet in this corner. I wish I had taken the picture in the morning when the light is coming in the window. In the evening, that corner is rather dark. Someday, I plan to purchase a floor lamp to place behind the chair. This chair is the only piece of furniture in our home that is really to scale for me. Everything else is geared more toward my 6'3" Mister. (I plan to eventually replace this chair with an equally well scaled modern rocker....or maybe this chair. Oooh.)

Day O3: A favorite food

Whenever I get stressed out, my absolute favorite comfort food is plain ground beef, liberally salted. Beef in any form with salt will do, really. NOM.

Day O2: A Favorite Animal

Day O1: Myself

30 Day Art Challenge!

One of the things I've been wanting to do, now that my children are older, is to get back into arting. On Pinterest, I saw a 30 day art challenge going around and my friend Katie and I decided to give it a go. I believe another friend will be joining us.

So here it is:

Wish me luck?