My Favorite Photos - November 2022

This month I started a new position with a local museum to do their marketing/PR work. One of my favorite parts of the job is photographing items in the gift shop and the museum's artifacts. Below are Dala horse salt and pepper shakers.

This is a hand-carved tomte and pine tree.

This is one of 150 dolls that were donated to the museum. Each doll has an outfit that represents the clothing typical to a region in Sweden.

When I was taking the photos, my younger daughter was helping me. At the end of the session, I took photos of her. The first one she liked the best. 

These two, though, capture her spirit more - her laugh and mannerisms. 

I took some photos of Cooper on the first day that it snowed in November. This is one of them. He is looking out at the tree and watching the birds.

On the 18th, we celebrated Olivia's anniversary of her adoption day. She found a restaurant near her college that we all enjoyed. Her anniversary is actually on the 17th, but she had a class field trip for her Humanities class that was meeting on the 17th. So, the 18th it was for our annual anniversary dinner.

On the 23rd, Olivia, Sophia, and Nessa (one of Sophia's roommates) came home for Thanksgiving. On the 23rd, we celebrated Nessa's birthday by going to a new arts organization in Wisconsin. She hadn't been to Wisconsin, so that was another bonus "gift." 

The picture above and below were in the gallery.

We continued exploring Osceola, Wisconsin, by going to an antique store. None of us had been there, so it was fun to explore a new place.

For Nessa's birthday, I made lasagna. I made some changes to my mom's recipe - like adding more mushrooms, spices, and fresh mozzarella.

I made a Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie (instead of a birthday cake). Danny (the dog) is hoping the pie is for him. 

On the 24th, we celebrated Thanksgiving. There were 14 people total. We had both a turkey and ham, plus a lot of side dishes. We had three different pies for dessert.

On Thanksgiving, my sister brought slides that my parents took. There were quite a few I had never seen before, so that was nice to see them. My brother, sister, two nephews, and I watched the slides. For some of them, we could share details that the others did not know. 

Below is my sister (on the left) and me (on the right) with my mom and dad. There's a plant to the left in the photo. It's fake. That plant traveled from the house in Minneapolis (pictured below) to the one in Plymouth. They had it for decades.

My sister explained the significance of this photo. For my parents' entire marriage, my mom wanted a real Christmas tree. My dad didn't want one because of the mess that real trees can leave in a home. Well, one year, my parents went out to get a real tree. My mom looks so happy by the tree. Another slide after this one showed my dad using a saw to cut it down. This photo would have been taken after we graduated from high school. New traditions once all the kids leave the home...I know this all too well now that Sophia and Olivia are both at college.

Another photo I never saw was this one of my sister (on the left) and me (on the right) in front of one of our elementary schools. This is the second elementary school I attended in Minneapolis - Hamilton was Kindergarten and first grade, and Loring was second grade. 

Once we moved to Plymouth, I had three more elementary schools: Cedar Island (third and fourth grades), Fair Oaks (fifth grade), and Edgewood (sixth grade). It was insane. There were yearly school border changes because the suburbs were changing and boundaries needed to be changed. 

I loved seeing this photo of (L to R): me holding my brother, my sister, and our dog, Corgi.

My mom used to sew all of our Halloween costumes. This one was my favorite one - a kangaroo. It's not the clearest pictures, so the little joey in my kangaroo pouch isn't as visible as I hoped it would be.

Getting in the holiday spirit, my handmade stocking was made by Grandma Olive (she had made my stocking during the summer of 1966 - either before or shortly after my birth in June. She died in August. So, this was an extra-special stocking). My mom made matching stockings for my sister and brother using the same concept as mine. 

This is a better picture of my stocking. I would have been about four or five years old in this picture.

If this doesn't give kids nightmares, I don't know what would. The Santa that visited us at a friend of my grandma's home wore a mask. I swear that mask doesn't even have openings for the eyes. It would have to, but it sure doesn't look like it.  

Apparently, we are either in shock or fascinated by this masked Santa. Actually, now that I look at the picture, I'm wondering if this was supposed to be St. Nicholas since he is using a cane. 

Fear set into my brother. It's probably St. Nicholas/Santa's lack of eyes in the mask. Apparently, the mask isn't bothering my sister or me. 

This is our first Christmas in our new home in Plymouth in 1974. I'm in the middle with the curlers under my mom's hair bonnet. 

So those are some of the 200+ slides we looked at on Thanksgiving this year. 

On the day after Thanksgiving, Sophia, Nessa, and I went to Feed My Starving Children to pack food. We were at a table with about eight other people. This was a hard-working group of volunteers who ended up packing 26 boxes of food for children in El Salvador. We have packed food on the day after Thanksgiving for three years now and have really enjoyed doing this. It's a meaningful way to share our time and give children who are hungry or starving healthy meals.

After packing food, we went to Momo Sushi - our traditional meal two years in a row now. We had a bento lunch box with a variety of food which we all enjoyed. 

The sunset that night was beautiful. This is the end of the sunset, so the colors are not as vibrant at they were 15-25 minutes earlier that evening.

On November 26th, we celebrated the anniversary of Sophia's adoption day. It's hard to believe that we adopted her 21 years ago. (For Olivia it was 19 years ago on the 17th.)

Photos from Grand Marais

Last week, Olivia and I attended a workshop with Layne Kennedy through North House Folk School. On the last day of class, we shared 11 photos that we took during the trip. Below are my 11 photos. 

Sailboat coming into Grand Marais harbor.

Phyllis.

A father loading a canoe for his family into West Bearskin Lake.

Cascade Falls.

Olivia with one of the Norwegian Fjord Horses at a farm on the Gunflint Trail.

Rose at a photoshoot in a 1980s prom outfit.

High Falls at Grand Portage State Park.

Olivia walking along the Lake Superior shore near the Kadunce River.

Wooden dishes at Grand Portage National Monument.

Steve walking along the cobblestone beach at the Grand Marais Campground.

Girls jumping into Lake Superior on a very hot day.

College Admission Essentials - Book Notes

 As Olivia is getting ready to apply to colleges she would like to attend, I am reading some books about the college admission process called College Admission Essentials by Ethan Sawyer. 

Although we have been through this process already with Sophia, there is always something new to learn. This book had some helpful tips; and I was glad that I read it. Below are some things that are relevant to us and I want to remember:

- Admission officers want to know what matters to you - your values.

- Do the Essence Objects Exercise. Imagine a box. In the box is a set of "essence objects" or things that remind you of important moments, relations, or values in your life. 

What's an object that reminds you of home?

- What object makes you feel safe?

- What's something that inspires you?

What's a food that reminds you of your family?

What's a book that changed your life?

What object represents a challenge you've faced?

What's a dream or goal you have for the future?

What's something about you that sometimes surprises people?

Who are you with and what are you doing when you feel most like yourself?

What makes your heart skip a beat?

What brings you joy?

What's hanging on your bedroom walls?

What are you proud of?

What's the last spontaneous thing you did?

What's your earliest memory?

What's an object that reminds you of something that still feels unresolved in your life?

What's an object that represents something you know now that you didn't know five years ago?

What action or gesture represents love to you?

What do you like to do that does not involve technology?

What will you save for your child someday?

What's the most memorable meal you've ever eaten or made?

Is there a book that you are always lending to people?

What do you like to collect?

What have you kept from a trip?

What reminds you of summer?

What's something that people associate with you?

What's your favorite smell? Your favorite thing to look at? Your favorite thing to touch?

- Do the Values Exercise. You'll select 10 values from a list and whittle that down to the most important values.

- Do the Core Memories Exercise. For each of your top five values, write down either a core memory, an image, or an essence object that you associate with each value. 

- Do the Enneagram test.

- Extracurricular activities that you may not have considered: running a small business, photography, bird watching, and online class certifications.

- Things to do during the summer:

-  Take an online course in something that fascinates you. Google "Free and low-cost online courses from top universities."

- Do one good deed a day for thirty days, then blog about it.  

- Shadow relatives or family friends at work.  

- Create your own internship.

- Do research with a local professor. 

- Do the 21 Details Exercise.

- Do the Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me List. 

- Do the Feelings and Needs Exercise.

- Make a list of the extracurricular activities. Include work and family responsibilities. Refer to this part on the College Essay Guy's website about writing about activities and using a variety of verbs: How to Write a Successful Common App Activities List (collegeessayguy.com)

- List your awards in order of importance. Start with those that mean the most to you personally.

- Include additional details about activities that wouldn't fit in your activities list. See here for more information: How to Use the Common App Additional Information Section: Guide + Examples (collegeessayguy.com)

- In an essay, the focus could be why you're choosing a particular major.  

- Don't use common or obvious adjectives to describe yourself (e.g., adventurous, compassionate, passionate) or adjectives that repeat information that's already clear on your application (e.g., motivated, hardworking, determined).

- Get letters of recommendation from teachers and others who know you. Use this questionnaire to help them write their letters.

- If the college requires an interview, read this section of the College Essay Guy's website.

- All of the special effects people, set dressers, and costume designers in the movie credits are non-famous artists making a living by putting their talents to work.

- The arts are essential to a meaningful life. Sometimes it's obvious like a new musician and sometimes it is subtle like the lighting in a restaurant, a floral arrangement, or a building that makes you want to walk inside. The arts invite us to look at the world differently, to consider other perspectives, and to feel like someone else out there understands you.

- Will the college you are looking at support your creative development? If you like to pour bronze, does the school have a foundry? Ask about research resources - like slide libraries, music archives, and print collections.

- Create a great art portfolio:

- Give yourself time to prepare your portfolio. It can take several months to up to a year to create a portfolio.

- Create more artwork than what the application requires. If it requires 15 artworks, aim to create 30-40.

- Draw from life.

- Include a wide variety of subject matter in your work - figures, self-portraits, still lifes, landscapes, interior spaces, and architectural spaces, character design, abstraction, editorial illustration, typography, urban sketching, poster design, book covers, and more.

- Avoid cliches in your artwork. If you are given a prompt called "time" do not do an image of a watch, clock, or hourglass. Find an uncommon connection.

- Express your own point of view. Express an opinion, narrative, mood, or an emotion. 

- Present your artwork professionally.

- Create using a wide range of media. Drawing with pencil, crayons, conte crayons, markers, soft pastels, oil pastels. Include drawings, photography, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, collages, digial media, animation, printmaking, clay, installation, and more. 

- Use high-quality photographs of your artwork.

- Attend National Portfolio Day. Follow the Facebook page.

- More comprehensive information about pursuing an art major is here.

- Students with learning differences can ask for accommodations including:

- teacher's notes

- note takers

- preferential seating

- use of a calculator

- use of a computer

- breaks as needed

Testing accommodations might include:

- extended time on tests and exams

- test-taking locations with reduced distractions

- use of a calculator or computer

- testing across multiple days

- breaks as needed

- oral examinations

- spell-checker programs

- Develop a self-directed project based on what you care about.

- Connect with what you care about

- Connect your values to a problem that is either local, global, or both. Consider what causes suffering (for you personally, what suffering (by other people) do you react to the strongest, what makes you most afraid for the future, and what you would like to be different in the world.

- Write your vision statement - what your core values are and how you describe the world as you'd like it to be.

- Make your project happen.

- Write about your project in your college application. 

- When comparing financial aid packages, fill out the award letter analyzer.

- Three ways to decide what your heart wants:

- One day - imagine for the next 24 hours you're going to attend School A. Wear a sweatshirt from that school, say to yourself, "I'm going to School A." See how it feels. Repeat with the other schools.

- One hour - create a pro- and con- list. 

- One minute - flip a coin. Heads up you go to one school, tails you to to another. Catch the coin and hide the result. Ask yourself, "Which was I hoping would or wouldn't come up?" Then look at the coin and pay attention to how you feel. 

Websites to Explore

College Essay Guy 

Books to Read

The Brothers Karamazov