Don't you just hate when you visit a blog and the first part is one big old apology for not having posted anything in like forever? Me, too. So this isn't that.
What this IS is that I've been thinking about something I could post that wouldn't take much time, that I could do every day, and might be interesting for both me and you.
One thing that's part of my routine is an early breakfast (with coffee) where I read (foolishly) the news of the day on my iPad, and/or write stuff in my "idea book," or do a crossword puzzle, or whatever.
I try to begin the morning quietly and softly (well, except for all the sighing and eye-rolling that accompanies the news) as I drink my cup of coffee.
So why not take an iPhone shot every day of my coffee/cup either right where I'm sitting (which might be the couch, or at the table, or out on the deck) and see what I come up with.
I process these shots using Snapseed in the camera, put my name on them, frame them, and they're ready to go -- all without having to go downstairs to the desktop computer.
I'm liking the selective focus look, especially when I'm photographing the coffee cup next to my "idea book," where some of my ideas are so stupid I don't want anyone to see them! Using selective focus, I can just blur them out.
Here are my first four images, beginning with July 29, where I was sitting on the couch, using a tray for the coffee, and where I had set down my "avoidance book" just because the more it's handled, the better it feels. So I have it with me a lot.
(It's an "avoidance book" because I was stuck working on my Kyoto book. To fool myself that I wasn't being lazy or procrastinating, I made this little accordion-style book that has pockets where I put tags. It was a fun project and I want to make more. I'm back to the Kyoto book now, so don't need an "avoidance book" to keep me going. For the moment.)
The second photo shows the coffee cup with my little carry-around always Moleskine book (blurred so you can't read my "to-do" lists, quotes that I've found and want to keep, and other trivia). Thought I'd use a page on my iPad showing my work at Fine Art America as a background. The picture looks contrived to me now. And it was. But there you have it.
Third photo is self-explanatory.
This morning's photo was taken at the dining room table, where I set the coffee on top of my "idea book," a larger Moleskine book where I've been keeping ideas for YEARS. None of them are dated; the ideas are stuck in randomly, wherever there's room on a page, and I don't go through the ideas often enough. There are a fair number in there where I read them today and don't know what the hell I was talking about back then. And so I'll update them with a hastily scribbled "what the . . .?"
So there you go. I'm up to date and I'm hoping this project will continue for awhile until I (with my ever-shortening attention span), find something else I think is a great idea . . .
[These are probably also going to appear now and then on Instagram and Facebook, so if you see a coffee cup in your feed, just ignore that post. Go read about the presidency instead . . .]
©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.
