WW: Caption This!

I would love to hear your caption ideas.

Linking up with:
Nanahood's WW
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Mini Vacation

Here is a glimpse at our 4th of July mini vacation in Sioux Falls. Typically when we go on a trip I average at the very least 100 photos a day, but not this trip.

I was so busy catching up with friends and family, my camera spent most of the trip in my purse. After a family BBQ at my oldest son's place, Lissa and I headed to my friend Jillian's house. There was so much to catch up on we talked until wee hours of the morning. Then early Friday we were off to Dawn's where we spent the day playing with the kids and visiting with Dawn. 

Saturday I spent the entire day with my dear friend Maria. We started the day of just visiting at her place. Then we headed down town and my camera finally came out of my purse. First we wandered around Philips avenue window shopping and enjoying all the sculptures. You can see a few of the sculptures Here. Then a short break from the heat at the Philips Dinner to enjoy a late lunch and some delicious malts.   After that we headed to the Falls to walk off our yummy treats. You can check out the photos from the falls Here.

Before we headed home on Sunday we enjoyed a pick nick lunch at Seratoma Park with friends and family.

Just before we left we decided a group shot was in order. Unfortunately one of my granddaughters some how managed to completely hide from the camera and a few friends had to leave earlier so they aren't in the photo either.

 On the way home we ran into a bit of a storm.

 At least in Mr. & Mrs. G's Durango we were nice and dry, unlike the poor folks on motorcycles.

At one point the rain was coming down so thick and hard I thought we were going to have to pull over also.

 Sissy and Bubba who are both afraid of storms found a way to ease their fears.

As mini vacations go this one was very hectic, but then trying to squeeze a year and a half of catching up into four days is no easy task.

FF: Telling it like it is

The business woman in me is telling me to post only the positive and not to over share. The emotional human in me is saying the hell with that, tell it like it is. As you can guess by the title the emotional human has won this round, so I won't blame you if you skip the first four fragments. I just think it is time to get this out there. Should you read my more emotional fragments and decide to offer encouragement, advice or even criticism I will be both delighted and grateful.  

Being an artist is confusing. Grief is confusing. Let's face it life is confusing.

Photographic Art by Nita Davis. Title: Confusion

People who know me will tell you that I am one of the most optimistic people they know.  In reality that is one of the masks I wear. Being optimistic does not come easy. I am not always happy, I don't always know what is the right thing to do or say.  Unlike many artists who channel pain and hardship into their art, most of the time such feelings tend to block my creativity. You see I don't like to create things that to me don't express the positive side of life. 

Grief and confusion

When my husband suddenly passed away last year I expected the transition from wife and caregiver to independent woman to be difficult but I really didn't know just how confusing and hard it would be.  I loved my husband dearly, however being the caregiver of a double above the knee amputee who suffers from Bipolar disorder 24/7 for fourteen years took a major toll. So much so that my first emotions were shock mixed with relief, quickly followed by guilt for having felt relief and sorrow. I've run the gamut of emotions over the last year and a half and in all honesty it has gotten harder in the last few months. All I will say now is that the above quote is so true, grief is filled with so much confusion. I could write an entire post on this subject, but that would be more like a book.

Artistic Confusion: Self Doubt

I know exactly how Elisabeth Shue felt! For years friends and family have been saying how talented I am, either at writing like in this post, or with drawing or photography or my photographic art and I just keep wondering if they are just blowing smoke. We all know that friends and family are not the best judges of talent. I don't really doubt that I have a level of skill but is that skill really good enough to be called talent? More importantly is it enough to actually earn a living?

 Company Confusion

 One last emotional fragment. I sure hope Jack Welch is correct.

Trying to make a living as an artist takes more than just hard work. Although Artisitx Network LLC is a family owned business it is my dream and the weight of it's success or failure falls to me. Val and Ted are both artists like myself only neither have any business training, experience or education so while they do help make decisions the bulk of organizing and promoting the business falls on my shoulders. Which is okay, I mean it is my dream and I am the one that convinced them it was a good idea to start the business. Here we sit nearing our four year mark and while last year we broke even, at this point we are no longer breaking even. We have discussed making major changes in our focus from creating memory photos for individuals using their photographs to focusing on our portrait photography, but even with the change in focus I sincerely doubt we will break even this year unless we can come up with funds for marketing. I made a promise to give the company five years to turn a profit but I am getting discouraged and wonder if I should just write off my losses and go back to creating art just for the pure joy of it. 

Now for some fun fragments:

Friends and Family

This month got off to a joyful start with a much enjoyed trip to Sioux Falls, SD to visit friends and family over the weekend of July 4th. I will try to pull myself together this weekend and get some of the photos posted on my blogs.

If you are wondering what I have been doing since we got home from our weekend away this next picture pretty much sums it up.

Who says video games are just for kids?

In an attempt to pull myself out of this funk, I have decided to go back to taking early morning walks. So far I just walk to the end of our street which is on a hill. We live at the bottom of the hill. This shot was taken half way to the top.

Although I haven't been posting on my blogs I have been taking photos to post. Here is a shot I took last Friday for Weekend Reflections. Better late then never.

Weekend Reflection

This afternoon I sat in the front yard for about 20 minutes trying to capture the lightening from a passing storm. I was happy I got this shot because the lightening strikes were few and I kept missing them. The storm passed just to the south of us so all we got was some wind, a bit cooler air and of course some beautiful stormy skies.

 

Sky Watch Friday

To wrap up my fragments I leave you with my life motto:

Thank you for stopping by, please be sure to hop over to Unknown Mami's to join in this weeks Friday Fragments.

Also linking up with:

Jame's Weekend Reflections

And 

Sky Watch Friday